Final Fantasy Tactics series discussion

I thought it would be nice to have a separate topic for talking about the Tactics series. I've played all three, although I've had very different reactions to each. My first was Advance, which I got bored of pretty quickly. My second was the original Tactics, which I enjoyed but I thought it was too grindy and too lengthy. My favorite is probably A2, although I found the amount of jobs and quests a bit overwhelming.

The other day I got War of the Lions. It's still fun, but I'm not much of a fan of the over-the-top Purple Prose. Unfortunately, I've never actually finished one of the Tactics games, though...

Heh, I just found out that the War of the Lions was on PSN for $10. GET!

Anyway, A2 is also my favorite. The translation, massive amount of jobs, and generally awesome fights make it one of my favorite FF titles.

Never played the original Tactics nor Wot L, so I'm pretty pumped to do so.

The main fun of the Tactics games for me to is eventually end up with what's pretty much a team made of demigods. I've finished Tactics Advance, got through a large chunk of the original Tactics, but never actually got around to playing A2. Never the less, having a Paladin teleport around the map, killing everything in a single blow and deflecting all attacks just makes me all fuzzy on the inside.

I'm playing the original FF Tactics right now. Translation issues aside, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I might play through the rest of the Tactics series after I'm done with it.

Honestly, there were so many changes between Advance and A2 that I didn't like. I loved FFTA to bits, and still do, but A2 just doesn't match up to it for me.

"This was the darkened items won't appear!" and the like? I've heard the original PS 1 FFT has a legendarily bad translation.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:16:30 PM by AweStriker

For anyone who's played the original Tactics...am I playing it right? I feel like I'm missing something here. Should I be be changing jobs frequently, keeping a character down to a couple of jobs, or just keep each character at one job until it's mastered, then change?

I love A2 so much. So many cool jobs, Gria are sweet, and putting weapon-range skills on gun-and-longbow units is fun as hell.

Oh, and in my current playthrough, I made Luso into a Figher/Sage with Dual Wield. The magic offense isn't too great, but I've basically turned his dual-wield attack into a ranged burst attack with Magick Frenzy. So much fun.

That's what I love about thse games, and FFV. The job combos, man!

The original FFT is my favorite in terms of story (one of/the best I've seen in the genre/medium), but I wasn't too keen on the gameplay.

FFA 2's main story wasn't very interesting to me, but bazaar system aside I liked the gameplay a lot more, and it had sidequests throughout.

Haven't played FFTA, but I've heard the gameplay is outclassed by its sequel and all I know about the story is from cleaning up after people whining about it on the wiki several months ago. Is it that controversial?

edited 15th Aug '11 7:23:21 PM by SpellBlade

Do you have a PSP? You should definitely try the War of the Lions.

...Okay, a little because you seem incredibly knowledgeable on Tactics stuff and could probably help me figure stuff out.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:21:41 PM by Beorc

The story? Yes. I try to just ignore the debates and enjoy the narrative. It's a good story; I'll leave debating what it was about to people that actually care.

I'd actually forgotten about that completely. There's one more reason for me to get a PSP (on top of Dissidia 012, Persona 3, and Department Heaven).

edited 15th Aug '11 7:23:20 PM by AweStriker

A2's main story wasn't very interesting interesting, but the storlines in its side-quests could have easily filled an entire game on their own.

Who else would've liked to see Duelhorn or Frimelda or the Gifted as the focus of an entire game's plot?

edited 15th Aug '11 7:22:59 PM by Enlong

Frimelda, please!

I heard Cloud and Aerith showed up in the first one.

@Beorc: I've been switching through jobs fairly often, just to get the abilities I want. The only job I've mastered so far is Monk on one of my units. (I'm at the beginning of chapter three.)

Now that I think about it, the story is my main complaint with A2. The subplots had all the interesting characters and could very well have been the focus of their own games (and I would like to see that).

On the other hand, there's also how stupid some of the laws are (not that this wasn't a problem in the first Advance, but it felt worse in A2 because you couldn't change them).

edited 15th Aug '11 7:25:50 PM by AweStriker

I didn't really like the original Tactics plot. Too much politics, too overly complex, and too depressing for me. So basically I didn't like it because I'm dumb, but still.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:25:57 PM by Beorc

What I liked was how the side-plots all intersected. Zombie Powder touched the Frimelda and Duelhorn plots, Ghi Yelegi kept showing up...

At least in A2, failing the laws didn't eject members from your clan. Just made it harder to win, since you couldn't resurrect.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:27:01 PM by Enlong

That, too. I think this is kind of why people don't like Vaan very much - the plot of FFXII isn't strictly about him. If you took out Luso and his whole Trapped in Another World business, you'd still have a very solid game with just the subplots. (*cough* also it's spelled Yelghi...*cough*)

Where on earth did you get that idea? The only way any of your units can leave the clan is if you make them - being jailed just makes them unable to do things temporarily. Plus A1-style laws never affect R-Abilities, so if all else fails...

edited 15th Aug '11 7:30:38 PM by AweStriker

x9 What do you think you're doing wrong?

edited 15th Aug '11 7:29:45 PM by Hashil

Oh wait, I just remembered, you've played Duodecim, so you must have a PSP, Enlong. :P

You really should check out War of the Lions. It only costs $10 on PSN, and it has an even more complex version of the job system than A2. I think you'd really enjoy it.

I'll take a look at it.

And no, I didn't really mean that losing the laws made you disband a party member, but having them banned from battle for an abitrary amount of time sucked.

And yeah, I loved my Generics more than I ever did the canon characters. Vaan was pretty cool too, though I found more use for Penelo's Dancer class (protip, make her an Assassin and Swords Dance with katanas) than I did for the Sky Pirate class.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:32:05 PM by Enlong

Laws were mostly harmless in FFTA 2 except for a few annoying Clan Trials.

Losing ressurrection privileges and the clan bonus was a pain, though, as was losing out on bonus loot.

Especially when I chose "More AP" as my privilege.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:33:07 PM by Enlong

On the A2 mission I'm currently stuck on, the law is that you can't use the action your last unit used, which is really annoying.

>Don't get stolen from

>fighting a team full of theives

> :/