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Square Enix Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP - UPC: 00662248907116)
Description: In days now long past, the War of the Lions rent the land of Ivalice in two. And it is here that two young men of note first stepped onto history's stage. The first is a man named Delita Heiral, the hero who would draw the curtain on the Wa.... Read More Description: In days now long past, the War of the Lions rent the land of Ivalice in two. And it is here that two young men of note first stepped onto history's stage. The first is a man named Delita Heiral, the hero who would draw the curtain on the War of the Lions, this dark act of Ivalice's history. The other, whose role is now forgotten, is a man by the name of Ramza Beoulve. Peer through the eyes of these two young men, and uncover the secrets that lie hidden within history's darkened folds. Minimize |
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| Date Reviewed: 10/28/2007 |
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Strengths: Animated cut scenes with voice overs, better translation and localization, lot of extras
Weaknesses: Adjusting to the names, still a difficult game
Summary: I've played the original Final Fantasy Tactics several times over the years. Many hail it as the best Final Fantasy game (despite being a spin-off). I, however, always completed the game with the same feeling: frustration. This was my first SRPG which added to the already-difficult game. Even more so, the crappy translation led to me spending most of the game going "Okay, which side is he on again?" However, this enhanced port greatly clears up the frustration of trying to understand the story, even though it is still rather complicated and full of betrayal.
The game has been retranslated from the ground up. The localization is done in the style of Final Fantasy XII, such as "Magick." Many of the name "changes" (such as Algus to Argrath, and Olan to Orran) offend many veterans. Likewise, after years of knowing Ramza's squire skills as "Guts," "Mettle" is kind of hard to adjust to. However, it's we're comparing years to weeks (as of this review) so of course it's going to be hard to adjust.
The battle system is an SRPG, with turns based on character's speed rating. A character's speed is added to get to 100, and once 100 (the CT) is reached, the character can take a turn. Moving and acting sets the CT back to 0, while only one reduces it to 20, and just waiting reduces it to 60. Magick spells require a charge time, so it is always important to see when they will be cast. Many abilities don't distinguish between enemies and allies, so you have to be careful to avoid disaster. Characters have a set number of jobs (classes) in the beginning, but leveling those up unlocks more jobs. Besides EXP, you also gain JP to unlock abilities. You can only equip 2 skill sets (such as Squire and Knights) along with one each of reaction, support, and movement abilities, so these choices make or break your team. Most battles limit you to 5 characters, with one already reserved for Ramza. The game is pretty hard on its own, but if you pretty much don't know what classes you want to get for the rest of the game after the first few battles, you are likely to waste valuable JP in a worthless class and not have the abilities you need when you really need them.
The story is rather complex. You are Ramza, the youngest (and illegitimate) son of House Beoulve, a prominent warrior family. When the king dies, a dispute over the successor launches the land of Ivalice into war. While guarding the Princess Olevia, Ramza spots his thought-dead friend Delita. After reminiscing, Ramza finds himself digging deep into the plot behind the war. There are many characters and keeping them straight can be complicated. However, you can look up profiles and view previous cut scenes.
This is a solid SRPG for any owner. The extras, including voice acting cinematics, new characters, and new jobs, provide more than enough reason to double-dip along with the clearer translation. The only people I would advise to be hesistant are those new the SRPG genre, especially those who don't like to go to the Internet for help. I would suggest something like Jeanne d'Arc before jumping into this game. Besides the simpler battle system, Jeanne d'Arc has a much more relaxed feel to it better suiting newbies.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/26/2007 |
- Ninshadow
- Member Since:
Sep 2007
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Strengths: The best psp port
Weaknesses: SSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW Down
Summary: FFT:TLW doesn't have a great deal of replayability but with a main story lasting 20-40 hours, 2 major side quests, errands, the drive to create the perfect team and if you have a friend with the game an extensive multiplayer mode with some considerably more difficult battles than the main game you won't be putting down the PSP for a while. If you like to challenge yourself a wide array of contrived challenges exist and will continue to be created. They range from beating the game with a single job to a one man army challenge where you can only use Ramza. Improves on the original in many ways, given that it was already a masterpiece this is reason enough for the high score. There is enough new content to tempt veterans and even without these major bonuses the many minor improvements outweigh the addition of a slight technical hiccup. If you are new to the game you won't be disappointed.
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| Date Reviewed: 08/28/2008 |
- jbetancourt
- Member Since:
Aug 2007
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Strengths: Excellent tactical gameplay, characters, deep + rich story
Weaknesses: bit of slowdown on PSP, but for a game like this who cares?
Summary: I remember when the original tactics came out for PS1; it was as if chess had suddenly taken on a full-fledged medieval/magical upgrade that actually made it interesting. The game showed all of the depth and intricacy that only the gurus at square (now square-enix) can give, full of unexpected twists and intrigue, betrayals and dissension. And the battles themselves played out in multi-various way where no two battles would ever play out in the same way twice; it was a welcome change from the somwhat meditatively repetetive battles of the regular FF franchise (not that there's anything wrong with summoning Ifrit for time No. 220,678). We all know this is not the first Tactics-type game (ogre battle Tactics is a precursor as well as others) but this game gave it a deftly produced quality of gaming experience that to my mind has yet to be equaled fully today.
Overall: A classic in every sense of the word, worthy of the staus and an excellent gaming experience for anyone.
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| Date Reviewed: 06/12/2008 |
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Strengths: Graphics, gameplay
Weaknesses: None
Summary: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a worthy PSP port of the original Final Fantasy Tactics on the Playstation. First, it's portable. Second, it is much improved with updated graphics, cut scenes and new content. Third, it has some nice extras thrown in such as bonus side quests where you can pick up hidden characters.
FF Tactics PSP is essentially the same turn-based SRPG game with a job system. It is a fantastic update to a masterpiece. Whether you have the original FF Tactics or a new novice to the game, there are enough great contents to engage yourself in hours of fun.
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| Date Reviewed: 06/05/2008 |
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Strengths: Final Fantasy goodness, graphics, challenging
Weaknesses: might be too difficult, needs a lot of level grinding and patience
Summary: Just started in on this title and it seems to be a good follow up to the previous GBA FFT. This PSP version does pretty much everything better: better graphics, better (more difficult) battles/enemies, more weapons, etc. The only thing I’ve found that it’s much more difficult than the GBA version. In this version, you really can’t afford to make many mistakes early on. The enemies are well organized and weaponized so that if you run back to back battles and forget to heal your characters, they’re toast. If the difficulty is offputting to you, I’d recommend going a step down and trying the Fire Emblem series. Similar gameplay and you can choose your difficulty levels once you go through the game once.
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| Date Reviewed: 04/14/2008 |
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Strengths: New and improved tactical game
Weaknesses: None
Summary: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a new and improved port of the original Final Fantasy Tactics (for Playstation), now on the PSP system. It is a strategy turn-based RPG with a great job system. The main story lasts about 40 hours, and in additions there are side quests and challenges.
Also improved is the more accurate translation of the game and new animated cut scenes.
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best Final Fantasy games so far. It is entertaining and rewarding with the job system, and adds a lot of replay value.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/28/2008 |
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Strengths: Portable form, better translation this time, extras.
Weaknesses: Might be hard to understand the game for newcomers.
Summary: If you've played the original PS1 version, then you know what you're getting; one of the best Final Fantasy games produced thus far. If you're new to the series however, you may be wondering what the fuss is about. It's really hard to explain it in words in a mini-review, but you really should give it a shot if you have a PSP. The battle system might be a little complicated at first, but give it a little time and you'll have all the basics down before you know it!
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| Date Reviewed: 02/24/2008 |
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 This game is pretty. And hard. Strengths: Lots of customization. Nice cutscene graphics.
Weaknesses: Can be overwhelming. In-game graphics sometimes confusing.
Summary: If you've never played a Strategy RPG, don't start with this one. The learning curve is pretty high and even the tutorials can be overwhelming. At the beginning, I had a hard time telling my characters apart from the enemy characters or even each other, and it took a bit to get used to all the different options.
The cutscenes are really nicely done, although I had some trouble at the beginning telling the characters (or even the genders) apart.
If you like Strategy RPGs with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of customization, then give War of the Lions a shot.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/07/2008 |
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Strengths: Deep and rewarding job system.
Weaknesses: Time-consuming!
Summary: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is a worthy update to the classic strategy RPG. The translation has been improved substantially, there are new missions and jobs, and there are fantastic new animated cut-scenes. The game itself is as good as ever.
Highly recommended for strategy RPG fans.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/07/2008 |
- henwy
- Member Since:
Jul 2007
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Strengths: Better than the original
Weaknesses: Lots of level grinding
Summary: If you played final fantasy tactics on the PSX, than there aren't going to be many surprises for you in this game. It's a port of the original with a few extras tossed in. A couple extra classes have been added along with some bonus side quests which allow you to pick up additional hidden characters. Other than that, it's pretty much the same game it was on the PSX, a strategic turn-based RPG with a job system.
There's plenty of replayability as you will need to level grind quite a bit in order to accumilate job points to reach some of the more difficult ones. In fact, that's the only real downside of the game, the liklihood of getting bogged down in the need to continually engage in random battles in order to gain skills and job levels. It's not absolutely necessary to do so, but the game is going to be a hell of a lot harder without cherry picking skills from many varied jobs.
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| Date Reviewed: 12/21/2007 |
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Strengths: It's FFT, but portable and better.
Weaknesses: None.
Summary: FFT is one of the great games in the history of the Playstationa dn this adaptation to the PSP is even better. First, you have the original game, with better translations, a couple new jobs, new cutscenes, and much much more. Then you add a multiplayer and co-op mode. It's really a must own game for the PSP. My only question is, when are wegoping to see FF7 get such a cool treatment!!!
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| Date Reviewed: 10/31/2007 |
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Strengths: Unbeatable storyline, interesting characters, updated and engrossing dialogue, wonderful music, and great gameplay. The updated translation is a warm welcome.
Weaknesses: I don't favor some of the battle controls or the limited camera angles, and the cursor movement schemes are a bit unsatisfactory. It can be hard to get the cursor where you want it to go at times.
Summary: Coming up with weaknesses is difficult because the game is overall excellent. Having played the first installment on the PS1, it is easy to compare this. The original game was, itself, a fantastic experience, but the new presentation, plus convenience of portability, makes this really desirable. I had been wanting to replay FFT for a while, and this remake gave me the perfect excuse to do it.
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