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Mewt: It'd be cool if this really were a magic book. Haven't you ever read a book and thought "What if the world in this book was the real world?"
Ritz: I dunno. Most books are sooo boring. They're all way too predictable.
Marche: Well, what do you like, Ritz? Comic books?
Ritz: Games! You know, fighting monsters and all that.
Marche: OK, if you could make any game real, which would it be?
Ritz: Hmm, that's a good question!
Mewt: I'd pick "Final Fantasy." That's my favorite.

A Gaiden Game in the unfathomably popular Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance in the fall of 2003. While it inherited its RPG-flavored Turn-Based Strategy engine from its predecessor, the original Final Fantasy Tactics, its setting and plot are entirely new. With its good graphics, excellent soundtrack, and staggering depth of gameplay, the game is one of the standouts of the GBA's impressive library.

The game is the first (and only) game in the series to use the Recursive Canon conceit. It begins when four outcast kids discover a mysterious grimoire that whisks them away from their boring town and into the fantastic world of Ivalice: a strange Medieval European Fantasy world populated by creatures from the Final Fantasy franchise of which the children are huge fans.

Furthermore, each of the children has been changed in a way to reflect their inner desires: outcast Marche is now a strong and respected member of a mercenary clan, tomboy Ritz no longer has to dye her hair to avoid the cruel jokes of her schoolmates, Marche's paraplegic brother Doned can now walk again, and Butt-Monkey Mewt is the prince of Ivalice itself.

However, despite enjoying Ivalice at first, Marche soon becomes homesick and looks for a way to return. He discovers that "Ivalice" is actually a dreamworld: the result of the grimoire imposing the childrens' own desires and imaginations upon his new home town and trapping everyone and everything within the illusion. Deciding that this is selfish of them, Marche resolves to shatter the fantasy and return everything to normal... a goal that brings him into conflict with his friends (who prefer life in Ivalice) and the ruling monarchy of Ivalice itself, whose members do not take kindly to the idea of a Dream Apocalypse.

On the gameplay side, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance returns the class system of the previous game, but adds a new twist: races. Unlike in the first game, where characters could theoretically learn almost any skill, given enough time and the right gender, certain abilities and classes are available only to certain species: The brutish, lizard-like (but don't call 'em that while they're nearby) Bangaa; the magical, mild-mannered Nu Mou; the lithe, all-female Viera; Final Fantasy series staple Moogles; and, of course, (all-male) Humans (guess what they are). Additionally, skills are learned by having certain weapons and armour equipped, instead of the Tactics's JP system.

Combat is strictly turn-based, with characters doing what you tell them to when you tell them to, no waiting for spellcasting or anything of that nature. Another new feature is "Laws", restrictions placed on combat by the Judges of Ivalice. Breaking the Law results in soccer-style penalties, with the result that a repeat offender may be hauled off to jail.

Character Development and atmosphere are only side aspects and not quite as deep and immersive as in the first game, but the number of potential missions is simply staggering, and don't underestimate the addictiveness of putting a game of this type on a portable. There's more than 200 hours of gameplay here, if you seek it.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance swung as far to the easy side of the gameplay difficulty scale as the original Final Fantasy Tactics swung to the hard side. There's very little challenge, but the game is still solid and fans of Turn-Based Strategy games may wish to try it out. Although the Lighter and Softer graphics style caught some considerable flak from fans of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, the game's style is actually lifted wholesale from an earlier Yasumi Matsuno title, Tactics Ogre — which Final Fantasy Tactics was the Darker and Edgier Creator-Driven Successor to.

This game was also built an Audio Adaptation, named Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition. It's exclusively in Japan, and since they're probably rare now, try going through this playlist to fulfill your curiosity.

A sequel to this game, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, was released almost half a decade later. While it too is a bit of a Non-Linear Sequel, there are quite a few continuity nods that suggest that the protagonist, Luso Clemens, is from the same world as the characters in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, even if the world he finds himself spirited to is quite different from the one in this game.

The game saw a re-release on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015.

Note: This is for logging tropes, not lecturing on the common Alternate Character Interpretation. Canon is canon.


Final Fantasy Tactics Advance provides examples of:

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    Tropes for the Video Game 
  • Action Bomb: Explode is known by most bombs and can be learned by Blue Mages. Bangaa Defenders have a variant, called 'Meltdown,' that does damage equal to their remaining health.
  • Action Girl: Ritz and Shara. Most Viera, in fact.
  • Aerith and Bob: You'll encounter procedurally generated names such as Dave, Lester, Cassidy, Stanz, Ramses, Benkman, Shumakyr, Anry, and many more spanning the mundane-unusual gap.
  • All Just a Dream: It's quickly established that the Ivalice the main characters go to is a fantasy world that doesn't exist. Once everyone decides to go home, they return to reality.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Except for the Viera, all generic allies and enemies qualify. They're randomly assigned male or female names, or often surname-type names.
  • Anti-Escapism Aesop: The protagonists learn that escaping into a fantasy world won't solve all their problems.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You are never allowed more than about 6-8 characters (out of a potential 24) on the field at any one time. Often you're limited to as few as four for "small-scale" missions.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: An image of Mewt asks Marche if his dad will come home.
  • Back That Light Up: Several settings were designed to compensate for the lighting quirks of various hardware. Not just for light and no light, but also one optimized for TV using the Game Boy Player.
  • Beast Man: Bangaa are reptilian, Viera are rabbit-like kemonomimi, Nu Mou resemble a cross between a dog and a kangaroo, and... and then there are Moogles who appear like a mash up between a bunny stuffed animal and a bat.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Viera Assassins are portrayed as having these in the concept art.
  • Bonus Feature Failure: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a two-in-one combo. It has several unlockable characters; Some of these are unique characters that cannot change classes or learn new abilities, while others are merely normal units with special sprites.
    • Ezel in particular gets the worst of this trope; he has high magic power but only has two abilities and neither of them inflict damage. He can't switch jobs either.
  • Boss Rush: Part of the climax; Copies of Famfrit and Adrammelech attack in the first phase, while two copies of Mateus attack in the second.
  • Bowdlerise: Cid in the real world is portrayed in the Japanese version as a drunk that can't hold a steady job. The localized versions has Cid acting like a cringy self loathing loser.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: After completing all 300 missions, you are allowed to recruit the Judgemaster Cid, who is a decent character, but nothing special. At this point, the only thing left in the game to do is a bonus quest of another ten missions after that.
  • Can't Drop the Hero: He is not required for random battles or side missions, but Marche is required to be present in every storyline mission.
  • Catch and Return: The Return Fire reaction ability, which has the character catch an arrow shot at them and hurl it back at the attacker.
  • Central Theme: Confidence. Pretty much all the main characters lack it due their own personal problems and it's only when they learn to overcome said problems that they return to their lives with more confidence and assertion.
  • Changing Gameplay Priorities: Incredibly so. In the early game, conventional statistics like strength and defense are very useful. Late in the game, speed is the absolute only thing that matters, because you're going to be killing everything in one shot one way or another.
  • Combat Medic: The Bishop class has Cura in addition to its offensive spells, though any character can be one if they use items.
  • Combat Referee: The Judges.
  • Combination Attack: Combo Skills which are learned from rare randomly dropping Mythril Weapons, which when equipped allow a character with Judge Points to launch an attack with 100% accuracy that bypasses reaction abilities, and if other nearby party members have their own Combo Skill equipped and are in range, they can join in on the attack to add a multiplier to the damage dealt.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Certain bosses can change the Law at will. The enemy characters also seem to have better evasion than their statistics would indicate — attacking from the front is pretty much a guaranteed miss, no matter what the hit percentage is, unless you've got Concentrate. In addition, both team leaders, marked with a blue ribbon on their status window, and some bosses can rack up an infinite number of penalties from breaking the Law without being sent to prison. One of the pub rumors handwaves the latter by implying that the bosses are an "elite" class of people who are immune to the law.
  • Continuity Nod: Lots of 'em, but most notably the Totema (tribal gods) — they're based off final bosses from the games in the main series.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The crystals that Marche have to destroy. Double Subverted in that they actually do very little to maintain Ivalice, though breaking them does affect the world. It's actually Mewt's desire for an escape from his life that created Ivalice and the spirit of the grimoire, the Li-Grim, that maintains it. Even after Marche convinces Mewt to give up on it and go home, the Li-Grim still has to be defeated before the real world can be restored.
  • Court Mage: Babus Swain, though he also does field research on the royal family's behalf.
  • Crapsaccharine World: While most of this is dropped in the localization, the Japanese version makes it pretty clear that most of the people in Ivalice are suffering under a combination of Mewt's tyranny and the clans' complete indifference to whether innocents get hurt in their turf wars.
  • Draconic Humanoid: Ordinarily the Bangaa are described as Lizard Folk, but their Dragoon job plays on their tangential relationship to dragons, giving them Breath Weapon abilities.
  • The Dragon: Llednar Twem is this to Mewt and Remedi.
  • Dream Apocalypse: Once Marche decides to set out to destroy the crystals and return to the real world, part of the conflict is the question of what happens to the characters who aren't from the real world and what would happen to them.
  • Duel Boss: Babus and Llednar Twem. The latter is also a Hopeless Boss Fight. Subverted in the former case, as the target is not the Duel Boss himself but instead the nonmoving NPC fruits strewn around the stage.
    • Both prime targets to steal all of the equipment off.
  • Dub Text: Characterization was mostly lost rather than gained in the English translation, but the removal of Cid's alcohol problem changed him from cheerily drunk to "crying in the gutters," in addition to adding a bit of self-hatred.
  • Elite Tweak: Blue Magi, Morphers, etc.
  • Enemy Without: Llednar Twem. As his Sdrawkcab Name indicates, he is in fact Mewt's anger and hatred given physical form.
  • Escort Mission: Several; if the NPC is KOed, you lose.
  • Everything Fades: Averted. Part of the duties of the Judges is to teleport corpses around so they don't get in the way, though their AI has a rather poor idea of what does and does not constitute "in the way".
  • Expy: The Nu Mou are the most mystical of the races and look suspiciously like the urRu.
  • Fetch Quest: Nearly all the non-plot missions are Fetch Quests of one kind or another... as are half the plot missions.
  • Fragile Speedster: Some of the Viera classes focus on speed and evasion in exchange for low defense. Thieves and Ninjas also fall into the same category.
  • Freudian Excuse: Played With. All four main characters have one of these as a justification for wanting to stay in fantasy!Ivalice: Marche is athletic, popular, respected, and receives lots of positive attention as clan leader. Ritz's white hair, which she's ashamed of, is now naturally red. Doned is in perfect health and can walk freely. Mewt probably has the biggest one: his mother is alive and the queen of Ivalice, his father is the high judge instead of a broken widower, and Mewt himself is a prince, meaning no one can bully him anymore and everyone has to do what he says. Despite all of these apparent upgrades to their former lives, Marche realizes that avoiding your problems isn't healthy, and forgoes his excuse in order to change the world back to normal.
  • Furry Ear Dissonance: All of the non-Human playable races have floppy rabbit-like ears, even extending to the reptilian Bangaa.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: In the tutorial snowball fight, all three boys on the opposing side will only target Mewt since they're bullying him. Likewise, Mewt's stats before the game begins proper shows him having a few points in Magic Attack, implying that book smarts are linked to magic power.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: When you bring the "lugaborg" to the palace, Montblanc refers to his younger brother Nono, saying that he is good with his hands.
  • The Game Come to Life: The plot starts and ends in the real world, but most of the plot takes place in a magically created replica of the in-universe Final Fantasy game.
  • Genre Relaunch: Receives co-credit with Disgaea for saving the SRPG genre.
  • Glass Cannon: The Viera race are this by having high speed and attack power, but their defenses and HP are very poor. The Ninja class used by humans also falls into the trope.
  • Grail in the Garbage: Mewt finds the Gran Grimoire - which it is soon discovered has reality warping power - at an ordinary used bookstore.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: Marche's friends point out that he may not have thought his plan through, and that his actions are stripping them of things they desperately want. Marche points out that countless OTHER people didn't get it so good, and that they are essentially using Ivalice as an emotional crutch to avoid dealing with their issues in a healthy way.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: In all of Llednar Twem's appearances except his last, he's protected by a special Law which nullifies all damage to him.
  • Hypocrite: The "Scouring Time" mission.
    In Muscadet, a moogle is being arrested by a judge.
    Moogle: What have I done, kupo!?
    Judge: Don't play innocent with me, moogle!
    Moogle: But isn't the one with the bounty on his head a human? I'm a moogle! You said it yourself, kupo!
    Judge: We have witnesses that saw the human with a moogle.
    Moogle: Kupo! That's no reason to send me to prison!
    Judge: It's enough reason for me. Now come along quietly!
    Marche (watching from the sidelines): That's horrible! That judge isn't even listening! He's no better than a schoolyard bully!
    Montblanc: I guess they're beyond worrying about appearances...
    Marche: That's it! I'm not standing for this anymore! (runs into the street)
    Montblanc: Marche!
    Marche: Here I am! It's me, Marche! I'm the one Prince Mewt is looking for! (the moogle runs off)
    Judge: Eh? Is it really you? You're turning yourself in?
    Marche: Yes! And I want you to release all the innocents!
    Judge: Not going to happen. Not until we know you're really him!
  • I Am Not Weasel: Never, ever call a bangaa a lizard, kupo! Apparently also a Fantastic Slur.
  • Impossible Thief: You can steal just about anything in this game. Weapons while they're holding them, clothes while they're wearing them, experience, abilities... and that's not even half of it. You can't steal boots, though.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Musical instruments (Beastmasters and Animists) and souls (Morphers).
  • Infinity +1 Sword: Plus one, plus one, plus one... the Sequence sword increases in strength the more times the player wins a certain mission. Excalibur2 and Masamune100 are more pedestrian examples.
  • Injured Vulnerability: Hunters can capture monsters that are low on HP.
  • Instrument of Murder: Animists and Beastmasters can whack enemies with trumpets and other instruments.
  • Jack of All Trades: The generic human recruits have the most job classes out of all the playable races in the game, making them quite flexible in any team.
  • Justified Tutorial: Marche's first day at his new school; the other characters teach him how to have a snowball fight, which mirrors the combat system in the rest of the game.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Good LORD, the classmates at the beginning of the game. The boy who hit Mewt in the head with a rock didn't even feel bad enough to apologize. The whole lot of them are just a bunch of rude and mean-spirited little shits.
  • Lawful Stupid: A major theme in the game. The Judges enforce Ivalice's completely arbitrary and pointless laws with extreme strictness no matter what the situation. Furthermore, actual crimes such as murder, theft, arson, etc... are not considered as important as these laws. For example—a clan goes out to capture a group of criminals. If the clan breaks one of Ivalice's laws during the capture, the Judges will arrest the clan and take them to prison... while doing absolutely nothing about the actual criminals. The same applies to most other good works—break a law while trying to stop a fire, and you will be arrested... while the fire is allowed to burn the city to the ground.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the missions in the corrupt judges subplot has the poster complaining about a law that requires people to not be at full HP.
  • Lethal Joke Character:
    • Gadgeteers are units that have a 50% chance of inflicting a boost or status ailment to either team. Their unreliability makes them near-useless... unless you equip the right status protection, removing the risk of receiving bad ailments yourself while sustaining your chances of inflicting them. Or, if you use an emulator, you can just reload if you're on the receiving end...
    • A more traditional example is the Morpher: a Nu Mou job that requires you to capture a monster with a Hunter, in order to gain a "soul" and be able to "turn" into that monster (which just looks like the Morpher is high). They are hard to get, take a turn to set up, and useless without lots of grinding. The catch is, the Morpher gets the exact stats of the captured monster... which can be quickly raised by feeding the monster items. This means that, with enough money (which comes aplenty), you can have a Nu Mou with 999 in EVERY stat right after their first morph!
  • Level Scaling: The enemy levels in Random Encounters are based on your clan members' average level.
  • Light Is Not Good: The Li-Grim, Llednar Twem.
  • Lighter and Softer: The game is a heavy contrast compared to its ancestor, Final Fantasy Tactics, by having brighter colors and a softer storyline. The game does dip back into the dark and grim territory at times with the side stories and the battles in the Jagds are reminiscent of how most battlefields in the first game looked like.
  • Loads and Loads of Sidequests: Out of 300 missions, only 24 are mandatory to complete the game. The Clan Borzoi sidequests are especially noteworthy. It lasts for 20 missions (Almost as long as the main story itself!) and starts with you fighting a chicken thief and builds up continuously until the finale, where you fight the leader, Gukko/Gutskor, who's been (somehow) transformed into a Lucavi.
  • Loony Laws: Insofar that it was a game mechanic. Judges oversee every battle to ensure that you don't break some arbitrary law that changes every other battle.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: In short, the crux of the plot revolves around the idea that Marche's friends are using Ivalice as a form of escapism to avoid having to deal with their real-life problems. Furthermore, the citizens of St. Ivalice are dragged into this as well, living alternate lives to fulfill the desires of the children.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Some of the EscortMissions.
  • Mad Scientist: Ezel. Several Nu Mou side characters are Mad Mages.
  • Magikarp Power: Many classes get poor equipment choices early on, and as equipment teaches skills, end up nigh useless until more items are found; in turn, some of these classes can become quite overpowered.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Ritz and Marche; the former is a tomboy who stands up to bullies while the latter starts out unable to introduce himself without prompting. The distinction is less apparent after Marche takes levels in badass, and Ritz notes how much he has changed after he defeats her and her clan.
  • Meaningful Name: Mewt, whose name sounds like "mute", is quiet and shy (before becoming prince of Ivalice).
  • Mighty Glacier:
    • The Bangaa race are this in most of their job classes, having great strength but poor evasion and speed.
    • Queen Remedi is also this during her first form in the final battle. She has no abilities, is quite slow, and has low evasion, but when she hits you, it hurts.
  • Mineral MacGuffin: The Totema and the "world threads" they protect are housed in these.
  • Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: The game does support a second player, but the multiplayer mode only has co-op (work together to defeat the boss) and competition (race to see who can beat the boss first). The gameplay is quite sluggish due to the game needed to constantly send and check data between both players, which can result in either frame rate drops or delayed inputs. Because friendly fire isn't turned off, nothing stops a player from griefing the other player by attacking their team. Completing the multiplayer missions only gets you some nice equipment to use for single player, but you won't miss out if you skip multiplayer.
  • Missing Mom: Mewt's mother died, so he recreates her in Ivalice. None of the other main characters seems to have kept their parents in the transfer.
  • Money for Nothing: Money is critically important in the beginning, but around a third of the way through the game you'll have bought everything you need that can be bought, at which point it just starts to pile up.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Babus is loyal to Mewt no matter how irrational he seems, but eventually questions whether Mewt is better off staying.
  • Mythology Gag: The Four Falgabirds - Lich, Marilith, Kraken, and Tiamat, are based and named after the Four Fiends from the very first Final Fantasy game. Another possible reference is Gerland the Magewyrm, most probably named after Final Fantasy I's Garland.
  • New Transfer Student: Marche.
  • Non-Lethal K.O.: The Judges keep anyone from dying in battle, except in Jagds.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Montblanc, Shara and Babus, to Marche, Ritz and Mewt, respectively.
  • Non-Linear Sequel: Shares a setting and game engine with Final Fantasy Tactics, but the games' plots have nothing to do with each other. Of course, this probably wasn't even intended to be a sequel.
  • Not Disabled in VR: Doned is a sickly boy who uses a wheelchair because of his unspecified illness. In the dream Ivalice, he's perfectly healthy and able to walk, and very much does not want to return to the real world. When his older brother Marche (the protagonist) starts working to dismantle Ivalice, Doned sabotages him in various ways.
  • Oddball in the Series: This game is vastly different from the first game in several ways and even the sequel doesn't retain too many elements from this game:
    • The law system sticks out like a sore thumb. Laws act like rules that must be followed in battle and both sides have to follow them or risk fines and/or jail time. The intent was to limit what the player could do and have them come up with strategies to work around the rules. The game eventually gives the player the ability to manipulate the laws in their favor to cripple the enemy team. Bosses are naturally immune from the law. The sequel simplified the law system heavily where there's only one rule to follow, completing a battle with the law obeyed giving extra rewards, and breaking the law only disables the player's ability to revive fallen teammates.
    • The Ivalice that the main cast are sent to is a fictional version. Ivalice in the other games are real places.
    • The game has a combo system where units who are near each other when the combo is imitated allows them to all join in to do massive damage to the target. Combos aren't used in the other games.
    • Locales on the world map can be placed by the player, mostly for the benefit of scoring certain items if they place certain location types in specific patterns. You can't alter the map in the other Tactics games.
    • At the time, it was the only game in the Tactics series that offered a multiplayer mode. The PSP version of the first Tactics game years later would add multiplayer mode.
  • One-Gender Race: The Viera are explicitly all-female... sort of. All depicted Viera are explicitly female, just as every member of every other race looks identical, leading to the impression that Bangaa are all male. Ritz, the only human female in the game, has Viera classes rather than Human ones.
  • One Stat to Rule Them All: Speed determines how fast you act, and more importantly how often you act. Low-speed characters like Paladins and Defenders will usually act once for every three actions taken by a Ninja or Assassin. Needless to say, lack of speed kills.
  • Optional Party Member: Everyone but Marche and Montblanc is optional and can be dismissed. There is also the hidden characters.
  • Palette Swap: Many abilities, such as the Soldier and Warrior's "-break" abilities, are palette-swaps of each other.
    • Opposition clans which include playable races get swapped, resulting in weird contradictions like Blue Mages in red outfits and Red Mages in blue. Nono's sprite is also the Palette Swap of the Gadgeteer sprite.
    • Since there are no enemy Morphers, the light brown "enemy" Morpher sprite and profile picture are used for the keeper of the Monster Bank.
    • Monster variants within the same type (such as dragons or antlions) are recolors of the same designs. A Morpher's abilities are shown as a silver version of the corresponding monster sprite descending onto him.
  • Permadeath: Any unit left KO'd in a Jagd after the battle is over will be killed off as their bodies fade away. If Marche dies this way, it's game over. There is even special tailored dialogue when each non-generic character like Ritz or Montblanc is killed.
  • Permanently Missable Content:
    • By the boatload. Two monsters, the blue-clothed Goblins and the Thunder Drakes, only appear in certain unrepeatable storyline missions, which means that Blue Mages need to learn the abilities from them and Hunters then need to capture them for the Morphers to use. Most of the Ultima skill teaching weapons are only stealable from certain enemies in some USMs - and only if you've got a certain skill to find it on them. And then there's the items uniquely available through the Treasure Hunt map layout thing. Yet further are the optional party members, many of which can only be gotten in certain unrepeatable missions and may not ask to join you.
    • Even more annoying are the quest items. There are certain missions that require quest items to complete. Add in the fact that you can only carry 64 of those items, which means you might accidentally delete a necessary one, which makes a mission uncompletable. Rule of thumb, Chocobo Eggs, Adamantites and Materites are good to dump away, given their missions' constant availability.
  • The Pin Is Mightier Than the Sword: Some characters can wear military badges that make them exempt from laws. Naturally, the player will never get access to these.
  • Portal Book: Doned's book transports the main characters to Dream Ivalice, triggering the plot.
  • Power Copying:
    • As usual, Blue Mages learn their spells by being hit with the corresponding monster attacks.
    • There are also Morphers, whose weapons, called Souls, are acquired when a Hunter captures monsters. The Morpher can then use the ability he learns from a given Soul to "equip" the ability sets of all monsters of that type currently in the Monster Bank. Each monster's abilities even calculate damage from that monster's stats.
  • Prank Date: "Moogle Bride".
  • A Quest Giver Is You: There are missions that you can only send out your clanmates to complete. Their level, class, and items determine their success rate.
  • Random Effect Spell: The Moogle Animist's "Friend" ability acts as a random Summoner spell. It's rather useless, as animists tend to have a weak magic stat, and you can't predict whether it will be an attack summon or a healing/buff one.
  • The Red Mage: The Red Mage class, for Vieras only, which can use both white and black magic. Its spell inventory is pretty weak as it only has access to the first-tier spells of each type, but it does have access to spells neither White nor Black Mages can use, including the very useful Doublecast.
  • Required Party Member: In the final secret mission, "Decision Time", Cid, if you recruited him, is required to be in the battle.
  • Revive Kills Zombie: More so as usual as Zombies will revive 3 turns after they are killed unless prevented by a revive spell /Phoenix Down or one of several class skills that specifically counter this. The former method is never mentioned in-game.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Llednar Twem.
  • Snowball Fight: One serves as a Justified Tutorial... as well as a way for the bullies to pick on Mewt.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Spy Speak: Ezel seems rather fond of Cryptic Conversation, even going so far as to mention himself to Marche without actually introducing himself as the Ezel, and will talk in code if you want the latest info on law card prices.
  • Squishy Wizard: The Nu Mou race is this in all of their job classes except for Beastmasters and Morphers. Magic based job classes in general also fit into the trope.
  • Status Effects: Poison, Darkness, Silence etc.
  • Status Buff: Protect, Shell, Haste etc.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When you have a bunch of pre to young teenagers that are transported to a world where all their problems no longer exist (can walk again, dead mother is brought back to life, etc), it's only natural that they will greatly resist and not listen when they're told that staying in a fantasy world is bad and how they need to face and deal with their problems. They aren't mature enough to fully understand the implications of running away from their problems.
  • Sweet and Sour Grapes: According to Marche; Ivalice is not real. According to Marche; there will be a different Ivalice that will continue to exist. If it's not real, why justify that there's a real one that will continue existing?
  • Symmetric Effect: The Law system restricts the use of certain actions on the battlefield, such as casting healing spells, using the Attack command, or very specific actions like stealing from other characters or casting ice spells. A repeat violation of the rule will result in a red card that removes that unit from combat for the rest of the stage. Corrupt judges will intentionally stack the rules against you while the enemy can get away with it, while others can change the rules mid-battle and catch you off guard.
  • That One Attack: Llednar's Omega is this, in-universe.
  • Trapped in Another World: Marche, Ritz, Mewt, Cid and Donet are trapped in the Dream Ivalice. However, only the former has a problem with it at first.
  • Unbreakable Weapons: Unbreakable in normal combat, certainly, but the Sniper ability Aim:Weapon will happily destroy your only Zeus Mace if you're not careful.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable: Downplayed. Late-game laws can be very unforgiving. For example, the law that forbibs attacking animals can pop up in a battle where all the enemies are monsters. If you don't have the correct Anti-Laws, expect to reset the game.
  • Up the Real Rabbit Hole: The argument over the reality of Ivalice is integral to the plot; regardless of who is right.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Averted. Status ailments are actually quite useful in this game given that a lot of trash mobs don't have debuff immunity. So make your moogle a gunner and that's perhaps one of the best things you can do. You don't even need Ultima from a Mog Knight; you can just have them use stopshot to slow down your enemies or stopshot.
    • The Guide actually mentions that the Animist ability "Count Sheep" is one of the most useful abilities in the game. The guide actually didn't lie there - it's perhaps one of the most useful ways to shut down enemies, especially since it comes very early in the game compared to say, stopshot or charmshot.
    • Normally bosses are immune/highly resistant to status ailments; but you can actually inflict blind on the final boss.
    • Buffs are also useful. One of the most useful is Auto-Life.
  • Videogame Cruelty Potential:
    • If you decline a member from joining the clan, the game really makes you feel like an asshole "*insert name here* runs off crying"
    • The "Mythril Rush" mission gives two choices, buying the Sivril and "Just Take It". The latter leads to a battle with the miners, who react in shock to such an aggressive decision. Even the winning quotes show the characters feel kinda bad about it. And the mission is repeatable.
    • Clan engagements, and any mission that can be fought in multiple locations, can be fought in Jagds, meaning your clan could have the blood of hundreds of people on their hands if you choose.
    • Montblanc can't be dropped from the party normally, but he can die in a Jagd. People that want to get rid of him will kill him off to free up a slot for a more useful party member. For extra cruelty, you can get him killed in Marche's presence and have the poor boy watch the moogle live his final moments before fading away.
    • The tutorial snowball fight ends when Mewt's HP reaches a low threshold. Players that want to speed up the fight can opt to have their party pelt Mewt with snowballs to bring his HP down even faster. As if the kid wasn't bullied enough!
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: If Marche is left in jail to work off penalties, the entire clan can't act until his sentence is up. If he's KO'd in a Jagd, or red-carded in a battle, it's game over.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Marche is frequently questioned on the virtue of his actions, often by people with a vested interest in keeping the current Ivalice intact.
    • This got such a backlash that the Audio Adaptation had to address this much more; for tropes for that, see below.
  • Worthy Opponent: Cid.
  • Zero-Effort Boss: One of the Totema bosses becomes this if you defeat Babus first—the destruction of the other Crystals has left it too weakened to defend itself, so when the boss goes down you've won—but the battle doesn't end until you've smashed every single crystal one at a time. Alternatively, if you equip an item that lets you absorb Fire, he can't harm you.

    Tropes for the Radio Drama 
Its Audio Adaptation, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition, has the same tropes as the game (excluding the tropes relating to gameplay) on top of these addition ones:
  • Adaptation Distillation: In its audio adaptation, they changed the progress that the town St. Ivalice was changed into Ivalice to the same way how Luso was sent to Ivalice.
    • Ritz's issues and conversations with Shara are dealt with early - about the same timeframe as the Exodus battle, instead of in the endgame. This makes sense, considering there was no special reason for Shara to refrain from questioning Ritz about her hair obsession for so long.
  • Adaptation Expansion: In its audio adaptation, they added Nono fixing his airship, new characters ("Moogle Knight" and "Madam Kiri"), the arrival of Ritz, Mewt, and Doned, and Montblanc's voice at the very ending of the Radio Drama as a The End... Or Is It?.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Llednar Twem was originally just the Evil Counterpart to Mewt (hence the name), but in the radio show he's the manifestation of all the children's dreams, including Marche's.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The show greatly plays up Marche's resentment of Doned, desire to see his father, desire for more attention from his mother, and uncertainty if he really wants to change the world back.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • While she understood and accepted his motivations, game Ritz opposed Marche's attempts to restore the world until the very end, but radio Ritz performs a Heel–Face Turn and joins him about halfway through the show.
    • Cid refused to honor Marche turning himself in to spare his clanmates in the game, but he lets them go in the radio show despite having his friends out numbered.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Game Llednar wasn't really any worse than any other antagonist, but radio Llednar is a full-blown villain. He's looking to kill Marche, and nearly murders Babus just for saying they should try capturing Marche instead.
  • Anger Montage: Happens to Mewt starting from Vol. 2. Its result could also be seen in the game.
  • Anywhere but Their Lips: Madam Kiri kissed Marche's cheek for good luck.
  • Ascended Extra: Nono goes from a simple quest giver in the game to a member of Marche and Montblanc's Power Trio.
  • Canon Foreigner: Madam Kiri, the Moogle Knight.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Ivalice is made up of the characters wishes, after all. Montblanc and Nono believe they'll survive the world being restored if Marche just believes they will. Montblanc's finally message implies they did.
  • Cool Airship: At least in this adaptation, where Nono's airship brought Marche and co. to the Bervenia Palace (and possibly Ambervale). It also saved Marche after he defeated Exodus.
  • Crossdressing Voices: Marche was voiced by Yuka Imai, Mewt was voiced by Asami Sanada, Montblanc by Kumiko Yokote, Nono by Masako Jo, and Babus by Kumi Sakuma.
  • For Science!: Ezel pointed Marche towards the crystals mostly because he wanted to know what would happen if someone smashed them.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Marche learns Paladin skills and Montblanc learns Time Magic despite the two never changing from their respective Soldier and Black Mage classes.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: At least from this information, Doned says that Marche is Ritz's boyfriend, but she denies.)
  • I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Marche is called a goody two shoes for wanting to return the world back to normal, something he always awkwardly deflects. That's because he has a ton of his own doubts.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: Finally confronting both Llednar and his own selfish wishes let's Marche summon the Sword of Truth, also known as the Judge Sword.
  • Or Was It a Dream?: After the supposed ending in the game ends, the music stops, and a voice from Montblanc says towards Marche that he wanted to meet again in the dream. May it be that the dream Ivalice is still there or that it was Montblanc's Final Speech is still a mystery.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Marche, Montblanc, and Nono figure out who Ezel is practically immediately.
  • Screaming Warrior: Marche does this when he was about to attack Llednar Twem.
    • A lot of characters do this.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Happens a lot of times, especially the part where Nono was trying to fix his airship, but failed.
  • Title: The Adaptation: The Audio Adaptation is titled Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Mewt and Marche exchange this trope to one and other. Marche says it to Mewt whenever Mewt tried to stop him from bringing the world back to normal. While Mewt does it to Marche for trying to bring the world back to normal.
  • With Friends Like These...: Montblanc and Nono.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Llednar Twem finds Doned's contempt for Marche fascinating. Doned immediately tries to distance himself from his actions.

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