Is Final Fantasy Tactics Overrated Or One Of The Best Ever?
See Full ImageNo, it isn't a trick question. ;)
Most veteran PSXE readers know my favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy Tactics. Of course, not everyone agrees, and I respect that. However, it'd be interesting to see contrasting viewpoints from those who remember the PlayStation classic very well, and are willing to prove their stance...
Our ongoing So You Think You Can Review Video Games user review contest typically involves readers submitting any review they wish. And technically, this new contest doesn't follow those same rules, as the community won't select the best FFT review. I will do it. The only reason is because I'm definitely an expert and I'll catch the untruths and falsifications at a very quick glance. That begin said, a negative review proving your point that FFT is overrated might actually attract my attention more, because I'd be impressed with a well-written, professional analysis that counters my opinion.
Therefore, don't think just siding with me and going, "yep, FFT is the best" will earn you a victory. It still could, obviously, but I'm really just looking for the very best review. And although it doesn't follow exactly the same rules as the contest, I'll still give away one of our available prizes to the winner; follow the links to see everything we have available. See if you can wow me with your FFT knowledge!
Just submit as a User Review; all of them will go up, of course, but only one can be the best...
Tags: final fantasy tactics, fft, final fantasy tactics review, final fantasy fans
7/8/2012 9:02:05 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (61 posts)
WorldEndsWithMe
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 9:57:45 PM
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I never got into FFT and it was when I decided that strategy JRPGs just aren't for me. The only game to break that trend has been Valkyria Chronicles. I went back and tried to play FFT two more times over the years and it was a no go.
It surprises me that there has been no actual FFT-2 since FF is being squeezed so much lately that it has a rhythm game.
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Temjin001
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:15:31 PM
Though, I don't remember arguments about it being overrated. It holds an 83 percent Metacritic and Gamerankings average. A great standing but not considered "elite" by the critical consensus in terms of overall game offerings. For me Tekken 3 was one of the systems best, along with Gran Turismos, MGS, Castlevania SotN, and the core 3 FF titles.
If aliens abducted me and asked me to produce for them the "best" of PSx I'd pick those ;)
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:51:51 AM
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telly
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 10:44:41 AM
The game was lauded at the time of its release and many love it still. I kind of regret not giving it a little more time, to see if I could get into it. Who knows, I find thinking about PS1-era JRPGs a lot these days, maybe I'll take FFT for a spin.
In fact, I doubt I'll have time to do it in time for THIS, but that would be a really interesting review premise -- how does the game stand up today for someone who essentially didn't play it the first time around? I'm fascinated by the question of how much nostalgia tints our perceptions of our favorite games and gaming memories, and wonder often how much those games would pass muster today.
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Temjin001
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 11:34:05 AM
Last edited by Temjin001 on 7/9/2012 11:36:33 AM
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 11:58:47 AM
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Temjin001
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:19:23 PM
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Drake_RB3
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:43:52 PM
I felt the same way about the series. Wasn't a huge fan of 3 and 4 was pretty bad. But 5 was a return to its roots. Just wish the random battles werent so frequent and the regular battles were a little longer in exchange. Now let's hope 6 comes out soon.
@Temjin
Suikoden II pretty much evolved everything from the first game and made it a lot more fun. You actually have a reason to keep your other members leveled up because you sometimes have 3 parties in certain and in one epic confrontation. I'm just finishing up the first game for the who knows how many times. Do yourself a favor and get access to the second one. Emulate if you have to like what World said. I'm gonna break my disc out in a month or two as I held onto it.
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Drake_RB3
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:05:09 PM
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Remo Williams
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 10:10:50 PM
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Geobaldi
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 10:27:41 PM
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LimitedVertigo
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:08:33 PM
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ZenChichiri
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:22:41 PM
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Looking back, I still give the crown to Xenogears for my favourite PS1 title (and possibly of all time). The ending fell apart in this game too, but the overall package more than made up for it. I always get a tingly feeling looking back on that game.
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Temjin001
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:37:38 PM
Last edited by Temjin001 on 7/8/2012 11:37:57 PM
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Metal Head
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:25:54 PM
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ZenChichiri
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:26:50 PM
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reryan
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:39:07 PM
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I was addicted to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on my GBA. There are more jobs with a lot of variety, and there are 5 races who all have different job combinations. The story of FFTA is cheesier than the original, but the battle mechanics and job system I ultimately found more satisfying.
Disgaea is another one that I have on my PSP, but the possibilities are almost endless when it comes to levelling and it overwhelms me. For instance, you can level to 9999 (!) and then you can revert back to level 1 with the option of increased base statistics. You can make your characters unstoppable gods, but it gets very tedious for me very fast.
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homura
Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 11:58:12 PM
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homura
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:26:20 AM
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LimitedVertigo
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:33:49 AM
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homura
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:47:46 AM
Last edited by homura on 7/9/2012 12:49:37 AM
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 9:32:25 AM
With all the outsourcing SE has been talking about, maybe they'll give FFXV to Level-5! Then your dream can become a reality!
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:55:10 AM
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homura
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:27:00 AM
Last edited by homura on 7/9/2012 1:34:05 AM
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LimitedVertigo
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:37:09 AM
I spent countless hours just mixing up my party and roaming around hunting. Fun stuff!
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xenris
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 8:09:24 AM
I can't remember the weapons exactly but I had swords that could cause death in 1 hit i think? Then for most battles I just hasted and bererked balthier and basch while I healed with Vaan. I beat everything that game threw at me that way, and most of the optional fights in fact all the optional fights that I fought.
I still remember getting the Zodiac spear for Basch...it was such a dangerous trek but man was it worth it.
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 9:47:24 AM
Decoy is the most useful thing in the whole game. I always made Vaan the tank, and the first gambit was self: decoy then that spell that turns healing magic into damage and attacks into healing. He had whatever weapon and shield combo gave him the best evade, and all the protection spells imaginable cast by Fern. Big bosses would focus all their energy on him while the others pummel it down from behind. All the while, and as long as you're fast enough to keep his guard up, he wouldn't come close to dying.
There was a lot more to the strategy than that, but that's the meat and potatoes. I found the gambit system far more complex than auto battle. And honestly, if FFXIII had incorporated gambits so that, for example, my sabateurs would cast the spells I WANT them to cast, they would do it, then I would have liked FFXIII's battle system MUCH much more.
Auto-battle in FFXIII gave you no control over the other characters, and paradigm shifting turned complex battles into a game of picking between 6 paradigms. Any moron could beat anything in that game. It should have been harder and more complex.
Another thing FFXII did well was allow you to travel with your entire party...
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 10:58:05 AM
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kraygen
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 11:33:33 AM
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:03:09 PM
Yeah, there's definitely a number of different approaches you can take, too. I like the fact that you can create a number of different strategies. Some of my friends didn't really do much, though, and it showed. Some would just basically make everyone sort of average at everything with no distinct roles and no time spent on organizing gambits. They tended to struggle often. Especially with bosses.
I didn't like how XIII basically gave each character 6 possible individual strategies. The worst was the time it took to shift that initial shift... >.<
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dmiitrie
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:21:17 AM
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Ultimadream
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 2:31:05 AM
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I also hated the visuals too, that high up angle at a slant. Does the game have any exploration? when I played it you just go across this paper map with icons on and go into another battle.
I personally don't even consider it an FF title. But then it was never released here in the UK at the time... No that's not it, I have played games like Xenogears and Parasite Eve only recently and love them, so it's not just about playing it at a later date.
I personally wish all these Ivalice titles wouldn't bare the name Final Fantasy, they all stick out like a saw thumb. They feel more closer to the Tactics Orge games or Dragon Age.
Last edited by Ultimadream on 7/9/2012 2:35:05 AM
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homura
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 3:11:18 AM
Last edited by homura on 7/9/2012 3:13:19 AM
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Ultimadream
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 7:27:29 AM
I can respect him, but I just don't think it suits to Final Fantasy.
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xenris
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 8:13:04 AM
I do agree though most of the characters weren't really interesting like the characters from the PSX era were.
I do love a good love story, but the japanese tend to make them unbearable to watch.
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Ultimadream
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 8:31:22 AM
I liked XIII's cast, I while they lacked depth, they're we're very charismatic. The part where Hope confronts Snow in Palumpolum had me balling in tears it was very sweet. Most FF games have elements of war within the object, FFX has the battle to overcome sin, FFVIII the war between the Gardens (Utterly epic btw!) & even political aspects, just take the greedy Shinra corp. for an example.
But as I said before, XII took the politics and pushed it too far forward. The characters motives seemed flat, most of them just seemed to be along for the ride with no real purpose. Ashe was the only character with a real objective, Vaan failed as a lead character, I always used Balthier because he was the only one who was fun and actually had an interesting backstory.
I also dislike the MMO sytled gameplay, What really bugged me was how you select your attack, then you have to wait for the bar to attack it just left me impatient, whilst in other FF games you wait first then you select then you attack, the old battles just seemed to flow better (So did XIII's IMO.)
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berserk
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 9:05:04 AM
I completed it 3-4 time and i will play it 1-2 more time for sure .Still need to play it using only beast master ( not sure of the class name ) and monsters . I also nee to play it using only only standard troops ( non story character ).
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 10:07:23 AM
(although, nothing explicit. The section(s) about Vanille and Sazh could be considered spoiler in nature)
I thought Lightning's plethora of one word answers removed any depth she might have had. There wasn't even an internal dialogue like there was with Squall to combat that. Hope wasn't charismatic. He was a whiny b!t@h. The writing was horrible. They went out of their way to SPOON FEED the reason he hates Snow. There was so much potential to develop the character silently, but they had to take the cookie cutter cut-out on a silver platter approach that basically assumes the audience is incapable of perceiving any level of depth.
Snow was a charismatic character at his core, but again, his dialogue forced unnatural conversations because the writers again didn't feel we were smart enough to see his hurt unless they explicitly told us about it. Vanille had the same problem. They were way too obvious that she was hiding something. And it took almost no time to figure out what it was... and you figured it out WELL before we should have.
Sazh had one excellent moment in the story. And I actually appreciated it, -BUT- it's overshadowed by how non-serious you take him throughout the rest of the game. He's basically a stereotypical character who's a bit of a bumbling idiot before that point, and that trend continues well after the point as well (see anything with the chicabo and the cactaur).
Fang is the -ONLY- character that was actually well done. Her dialogue does not give in-your-face predictions about her character. She speaks strongly and has moments of weakness that feel genuine. They don't forcast her story to anyone on a silver platter and throughout the story, she is a character we must put -EFFORT- into getting to know. She was truly well done.
The main story is good at it's core, and if you look through the archives, they put a ton of thought into it. BUT... the archived information did not make anything clearer (I read it all) or matter much to the main story. You got the impression the world is probably ginormous, but you never experience it's depth. The whole thing is just poorly executed and the concept of it's scale is completely lost.
So we're left with what is basically a children's story minus Fang: the only bright spot.
FFXIII was a huge pile of potential that was basically just flung at the wall and spelled out as basically as possible... and that applies to both it's battle system and story. It had the pieces to be a wonderful and -PERFECT- experience, but it was fu**** up. Something as simple as increasing the game's difficulty and incorporating gambits (so Vanille doesn't spend so much time casting every spell in the book before getting to the poison spell I WANT her to cast, or waste time not knowing an enemy's elemental weakness despite already figuring it out 30 times already) would have made the battle system much better.
FFXIII is the worst in the series for what I'm pretty sure amounts to basic developer laziness. I'm sure of it.
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xenris
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:20:25 PM
I think the characters in FF12 were great. Penelope was the only one I thought didn't really have a place. Everyone else seemed to fit nice I thought.
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LimitedVertigo
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 2:44:24 PM
3 up, 0 down
xenris
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 5:37:10 PM
I fell in love with Zidane and actually the whole cast of FF9. It is bar none my favourite FF game of all time. I felt like FF8 was a bit of a let down, still good but with FF9 they redeemed themselves in my eyes. Loved the world they created with all the races and stuff, man I need to play it again.
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Ludicrous_Liam
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 3:53:17 AM
So...wanna hide under this rock with me, too?
There's enough room. It's really snuggly too. If you wanna snuggle, that is. :P
2 up, 1 down
Rogueagent01
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 4:22:01 AM
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Rogueagent01
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 4:24:52 AM
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JohnnyGold
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 6:03:57 AM
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Fane1024
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 6:09:15 AM
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FFTA and Jeanne D'Arc did a lot of technical things better, but I didn't like their core elements as well.
I dream of a version of FFT with all the small details "fixed"; WotL had a number of improvements, but it was only half-done: more quick port than remake. I'd love a FFT2, but it would never live up to my expectations.
In other words, I vote "not overrated".
Last edited by Fane1024 on 7/9/2012 6:20:53 AM
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xenris
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 8:16:14 AM
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Believe it or not I liked watching my friend play Tactics on his gameboy whichever version that was, but I couldn't play them. I think when I was younger the battles just took to long for me or something.
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TheOldOne
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 8:44:55 AM
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 10:16:31 AM
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What I appreciated was the depth and scope in the writing (especially with the PSP version). I felt of all the PS1 FF's, it was the best planned out story. They didn't write with a typical "and then" approach. Everything had a purpose that affected various points . It would have taken either planning and foresight, or an awful lot of backtracking and re-writing to fine tune everything.
It also has an excellent cast. And it's a HUGE cast almost all of which impact the world and the story very profoundly. It tackled real world issues and most conversations weren't simply "good guys versus bad guys", but rather, differing views on the world where either party could be right, or at the very least, prove that compromise is necessary to find the proper middle ground. I was impressed.
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kraygen
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 11:34:48 AM
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ethird1
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 11:39:25 AM
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I kid. I kid. It is still a great game. My favorite of it's kind of strategy game. But it does reguire TONS OF TIME and this battle system is extremely slow. I could not go back and find the time to play it now.
My favorite strategy games now are from the Fire Emblem series. Too bad Sony doesnt have these type of games. BUt then again I have so many rpgs for my Vita ...sheesh.
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Warrior Poet
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 12:23:16 PM
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It's also a game that trusts the player to figure things out and explore the mechanics. There's just as much strategy in the role-playing as the combat. In this game, the player matters, and no two games of FFT will ever be the same.
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Underdog15
Monday, July 09, 2012 @ 1:05:39 PM
Of course, FFT gets overly easy once you get Cid, too.
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Ultima
Friday, July 13, 2012 @ 9:39:22 AM
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I didn't play FFT back in 1997 when it was new even though I had friends who swore up and down by its greatness. I finally played it in late 2010 when I bought War of the Lions for PSP. I could see why it was hot stuff back in 1997, but in 2010 it seemed old and archaic.
First of all, I've been spoiled by the Disgaea games. FFT does a lot of things that make "sense" in the strategy context but just end up slowing the game down and irritating the hell out of, things which Disgaea streamlined. This would include little things like not having to pick what direction your character was facing after executing a turn, and bows whiffing if an enemy was too close. And of course, the PSP version ran slooooow.
Second and probably the aspect of FFT that makes it not age that well: The uneven difficulty. The very beginning of the game is really hard when you have crappy weapons and no abilities. Not to mention that you can lose units permanently which I find incredibly irritating. However, it's *very* easy to abuse the game and get abilities early (pick map with weak enemies, kill all but one enemy, surround him, slow him down so that you get 100 turns to his one, then Focus x N for free JP), which you practically have to do just to survive. But once you do that, the difficulty takes a nose-dive, as there's nothing to stop you abusing things until you get all the abilities and jobs you want. Worse, the best way to obtain JP at the beginning of the game is the same at the end of the game, so you're doing the same boring abuse process over and over cause there's no reason *not* to.
Once you get your hands on some Ninja-Monks or Monk-Ninjas, there's not much that can hurt you. And when you get to the end and the hilariously overpowered Knight swords, a dual-wielding Knight makes the game a total joke. The optional dungeon is also really quite tame unless you're trying to pick it clean, in which case it becomes a save and reload nightmare. The boss at the end sucks too, as is the special summon he grants.
I guess the two player extra modes with the level 99 enemies would make use of such overpowered characters warranted/necessary, but I didn't get to play them. Meh.
The best part of FFT is the story. Definitely one of the best. My only problem with it: The amount of backstabbing and betrayal that occurs is almost cartoonish. It's easier to assume that any character you meet WILL betray you rather than the other way around. The characters are really strong too, ESPECIALLY Delita, who is one of the most interesting, complex and unpredictable characters in any game. There needs to be more characters like him.
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stgclawson
Friday, July 13, 2012 @ 8:22:36 PM
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Oyashiro
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Sunday, July 08, 2012 @ 9:38:54 PM