Well, sometimes you get a game and then you kinda lose tract of existence. I seem to find a lot of these games. This one took my Christmas and made it go away. Final Fantasy has been a series near and dear to me for a long time...except that stupid Mystic Quest game. Mystic Quest sucked. Tactics Advance does what Mystic Quest could not do. FFTA manages to not suck. Let's all give it a round of applause for not sucking.
...
Very good, but you people in Florida could have done better.
Let's get it on!
The Story
The story of FFTA is that you know it's all a game this time. The game starts out with you as the new kid in a town called St. Ivalice. You learn your battle skills in the middle of a snowball fight, which is good since you can't die. Here you meet two more characters, Ritz and Mewt. Ritz is a chick who's hair is shock white and has to dye her hair every day to make it red. You have to imagine how horrible her hair dye has to be. I hope she didn't pay much for it. Mewt is that kid in every school that everyone screws with. Apparently though, you are a dork like the other two and make friends with them. Soon you find yourself going home while Mewt gets this book. On the way, you meet Mewt's dad and guess what? He's a loser. You meet your brother, Doned, at your home. Poor guy, not only does he have a stupid name but his legs don't work either!
Long story short, you and the rest of the Dork Squad start talking about how great it would be if you all were in the Final Fantasy universe. Aww, isn't that cute?
Guess what?
Yeah, it happens. Overnight, the world changes from the snow town of St. Ivalice into the country of Ivalice! Whoo, eh? You meet your sidekick, the moogle Montblanc and off to adventure you go... Your goal? Get yourself home.
Starfly's Story Rank: 6.0
Graphics
The graphics in this are stuff you'd expect from one of the old Final Fantasy games back on the SNES. They're not bad but they're not groundbreaking. I guess you can't expect much, it is a Game Boy Advance after all.
The good points are that each action is animated well. The "totema" (Special summons for each race) look pretty well done and the artwork side of the game is good.
For a portable game, I will admit the graphics are quiet decent.
Starfly's Graphics Rank: 6.0
Sound
The sound in this is your usual Final Fantasy stuff. You got the background music going and the action sounds. There is no voice work in the game and it really doesn't need it if you are literate. And if you're not literate you suck! (Hey, it's not like anyone reading this is illiterate. If you're reading this to an illiterate person, go teach them to read instead of complaining to me!).
The action sounds are decently done. Nothing spectacular, but it isn't annoying thankfully. Except the sound when you miss, but that's annoying just because it's almost like a digital laugh in your face.
The background music is much the same, nothing spectacular but decent.
Starfly's Sound Rank: 6.0
Gameplay
Now we're at the reason to buy this game. And play the groove out of it.
FFTA is a game you play and play hard. I've clocked in over 60 hours on the game and I've still not beat it. I've run through about six battery changes and almost onto my fourth pair of batteries. And I've not changed batteries until the game literally shuts off for lack of power (Remember, kids, save often!).
You play this game for basically the same reason you play Pokemon or other Role-playing video games. You just want to make your characters powerful and to unlock all their is to unlock. That's why I play this game at least. You're always on the look-out for different items that will help your characters master each of the 20+ job classes for each of the 5 races.
The sheer amount of time you can play this game is insane. As I said, I've done 60 hours. I still haven't mastered ANY job classes in this game. The closest I've come is the Soldier class so far. And that's just one class for one race.
The only problem is the Judge System. At least, it's a problem part of the time. The Judge System is a game rule where the rules of a match change for each battle. And sometimes they have rules that include being unable to damage monsters or being unable to use a certain type of ability. I can attest that this feature sometimes SUCKS. Especially when you can't attack monsters or forget what the law is. Other times, it really does help.
I will tell you this, this game is fun for hours and hours and hours until the battery companies personally send you a thank you card and your thumbs are worn down to nubs.
Starfly's Gameplay Rank: 8.8
Starfly's Final Rankings
Story: 6.0
Graphics: 6.0
Sound: 6.0
Gameplay: 8.8
Author's Opinion: 9.0
FINAL SCORE: 7.2
Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance is owned by Square-Enix
