More Information
Rating: 
-
This is one of the best FF titles out there. Now at first glance the story may seem childish, but it isn't. The story itself evolves throughout the game, and grows on you just like the characters. It is absolute must for all rpg gamers, and would make a wonderful gift.
It is well worth its money for the countless hours of gameplay, and will keep your kids buisy without asking for anything else. It even has exteneded gameplay for when you finish it.
Rating: -
After playing the original FFT on Playstation, I can say this game lives up to the challenge of recreating the same environment on the Gameboy Advance. Looks incredible....graphics are crisp/well-defined, there are large battlefields to explore, and spells look better than the Playstation. While there is a huge job system, it is not complex to learn or master. With over 300 battles to play, you can rush to the end and miss many items to come back later. In that regard, the replay value is very high. Even if you find every single item, I'd say the length of the game (40-120 hours) can more than make you forget a few places you've been.
Now a gripe I have is with the music. It can wear on you after awhile. I tend to enjoy good battle music, but the in game music drags and very often you might spend 5 minutes before a battle changing your characters' jobs & skills around. Don't want to have bad music there, as it can take away from the skills you'll need for the upcoming battle.
There are many unique attributes to the game, including to effect a battle using an item you previously won (or found) on a Mission. The environments still play a huge outcome in how the battle progresses. I like the whole idea of the recon/item missions. You could send a weak character out to pick up a rare item and their stats will come back improved. Later on, you can only find the rarest items by sending one powerful character out on the recon/item missions.
SquareEnix RPG's are well-known for their epic stories. Does not apply here. The entire game (**spoiler ahead**) is focused on the main character's ability to stop his brother from keeping him trapped inside a fantasy world. So you'll meet up w/ your little brother, have a few words, maybe fight a battle, and then you go about your recon/item missions. There are plenty of epic battles, but the story here lags a bit. I still give FFT high praise for its handling of subjects not often expressed in an RPG.
FFT: Advance has been called a 'kiddie RPG'. Not true. It's not Mortal Kombat...yeah... but it stands up to other RPG's on GBA and many on PS2 & GameCube. You'll find challenge, good music, many hours of play and an overall sense that you enjoyed yourself once you reach the ending (which is a bit predictable in my mind ;)
Pros: Incredible graphics, characters have personalities all their own, somewhat challenging battles, over 300 missions, cool LinkUp play, very good replay value
Cons: In game music gets a bit old after awhile, your characters are too darn powerful (challenge goes way down the more you build them up), music drags (again), not many LinkUp capabilities.
Play this if you liked: Golden Sun 2 or any Square RPG.
On a 10 point scale, I give this game 8/10 overall.
Rating: 
-
I bought this game when I first bought the GBA system, but I'm no newbie ;) I have played gameboy color and most of the other non-handheld systems out there. This game was a great game overall, but there were just a few little things that brought my rating down.
Good things first:
-The graphics were really, really good Taking into account that I'm coming from the world of super mario brothers deluxe on my tiny GBC, I really appreciated the depth and shading.
-The battle system was easy to learn, but left a lot to be mastered
-The battling system and battle field were both really fun and really well designed.
Bad things:
-The game was over too fast! I beat the entire thing in under two months, as in all missions, all submissions and every plot in the thing.
-after you beat the game, there's nothing else to do. There are about three battles you can redo and then a couple of random roaming bands, but apart from that, theres nothing.
-THIS is my top peeve. For some reason, the game wont allow you to save after the very last corrupt judge battle. It shows you the credits, but takes you right back to before the battle when you try to play again. Words cannot describe how much this irritates me.
-There are a couple points in the game where you can get REALLY stuck. It took me around two weeks of constantly training one gunner before i could do any new missions, and thats just one example.
-Dispatch missions are SOOOOO boring! I mean, it would be so much better if you could go along with the person you dispatched and do a one on one fight with them. But NOOO...all you can do it wait for them to get back.
Yeah, there are a few other things, but mostly all along those lines. Great game, well designed, but massively boring at points and just plain annoying at others.
Overall, though, I totally recommend it. I got an amazing kick out of the fighting, and while its going, its really going. Awesome game!
Rating: 
-
After a long absence from Nintendo, Square finally brings Final Fantasy back to Nintendo consoles. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance seems like a promising game, but for those who really enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics on the original Playstation, this is a completely different experience.
The game begins with a turtorial (actually a snowball fight) to help you get adjusted. You play as Marche, a young boy who has just moved to the town of St. Ivalice. He engages in a snowball fight at school where he becomes friends with Mewt and Ritz, two fellow classmates that are constantly picked on. After school, Mewt goes to the library and checks out a book with a title too hard to read but over time, the tome has been referred to as "Final Fantasy." Marche and his friends soon talk about how great it would be to be in a game. When the three go to sleep the world around them suddenly changes and they awaken in the Final Fantasy universe. Marche now decides he wants to go home but neither of his friends want to.
The story, for Final Fantasy, is weak. Compared to the series (and its big brother on Playstation) this story lacks creativity and insight. The story is too simple and predictable and there aren't really any breathtaking twist that the FF series is known for. In all essence, its childish.
The gameplay in FFTA isn't all that bad. The cutscenes before each engagement are a little long and can't be skipped (and if you lose the first battle you'll have to sit through the tutorial AND long intro all over again). But battling is simple and easy to get used to. Much like most tactical games you move a certain number of spaces and then act.
FFTA puts a twist on battling, and its not one to be too fond of. Each battle now has laws and a judge to moniter the battle. If a character breaks the law (friend or foe) they're issued a card. A yellow card is given for a minor offense and a red card for a major offense. At first this seems creative but as the game goes on you have to deal with more and more laws. Soon they get annoying. They change each time you go to a new location but soon the game incorporates three laws per battle. Laws that soon they enemy never seems to break. Some laws don't let you use items, some even restrict the fight command! Then there are some of the more stupid laws such as preventing you to heal your characters or even to do damage to a monster! Soon, the laws become downright annoying.
Along battling, there are lots of subquests that go along with the normal missions. There are 300 missions in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. That means you'll be able to fight lots of battles and raise your characters to the fullest right? Unfortunately, only 1/3 of these missions allow you to do any interaction. The other 200 are simply "dispatch" missions where you'll send a character out for a certain period of time (either after a certain number of days, certain number of battles or certain number of enemies killed) and they'll either return with a success or failure.
Then there are the abilities. In the original Final Fantasy Tactics after each attack you got Job Points and Experience points. You could spend your Job Points to learn more abilities. This would've been good to bring back but instead FFTA makes you learn abilities by what weapons you equip and earning AP. Most weapons require 200 or 300 AP. Every now and then you'll find one that needs more. From each encounter with either a wandering clan or after a mission you'll get anywhere from 40-80 AP. It won't take you much time to figure out that you'll learn abilities quite slowly. Especially since, once you get further into the game battles begin to pace even slower. ONLY characters who participate in the battle get AP and if you send on on a dispatch mission only the dispatch gains AP.
The visual look of FFTA is astonishing and it runs quite well. The graphics aren't 3D but 2D only isometric, so it looks 3D. This is nice but sometimes characters become to crowded amongst each other and the judge will also get in the way. Since its isometric, the camera is at a fixed angle so you can't move it around. The game is VERY vibrant and colorful and showers some nice eye-candy. A GBA game has never looked this good before.
I wish I could say the music is as good as the graphics. FFTA doesn't really have "Bad" tunes. Mostly the game suffers from not having enough tunes. The soundtrack doesn't have a variety. It doesn't sound as good as the original on PSX and even for GBA it sounds lackluster when compared to other games such as "Golden Sun" or "Castlevania: Circle of the Moon". The soundtrack is also very limited. So limited that I got very tired of hearing some tunes and turned the volume down ever once and a while. The sound effects are very nice though and when you KO a character they give a little scream that sounds very realistic.
The last problem with FFTA is how easy the game is. The original Final Fantasy Tactics... well... actually required you to use tactics. This one doesn't require nearly as much strategy. In fact, as long as you have a character who is equipped with a good weapon you'll be able to win everytime (you won't even have to worry about healing unless the laws are totally against you). There are more varieties of job classes in this one but you really won't find yourself switching to learn abilities all that much.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is by no means a bad game. Its a little too easy and too childish for the FFT veteran but it can be enjoyable if you make the most of it.
OVERALL:
On the positive side
+Beautiful Graphics!
+A few good tunes
+Good voices
+A variety of job classes
+Judge system makes the game unique but...
+Easy and simple to play
But of course with all the good stuff there are the bad things
-You can't rotate the camera in battle, when characters get bunched up its hard to place them when you can't see!
-The soundtrack isn't big enough, and the music isn't as good
-Abilities take too long to learn
-The Judge System is downright annoying
-The game is TOO easy
Rating: -
I found this an amazing game. I don't own it, but was introduced to it by a friend. It is aewsome, but it can be really hard at times. I am serosiually thinking about buying it.
More Information
HOMEFree Ajax Scripts - Mortgages - Wester Union - Loans - Loans 