I got a good feeling! This is the way!
So, with everyone cooped up, presumably for the foreseeable future, I figured maybe I’d highlight some old games. Maybe you slept on them. Maybe you weren’t alive or old enough when they released; whatever. The point is, I’m going to make a suggestion for something to occupy your time.
And since this is my thing, and I’m a jackass, I’m going to start with a game that’s near and dear to my heart: Final Fantasy Tactics.
Final Fantasy Tactics is and oft imitated, but rarely replicated, tactical RPG. As a matter of fact, should you not already be aware, it’s pretty much considered the gold standard for the genre. Mostly, (IMO) this is due to the balance offered by it’s job system and the charge time battle system; it’s notable that both of its sequels did away with the latter and are, in my opinion, vastly inferior due to it.
The job system gives your character their current job’s battle skill set, plus one other from a known job, as well as customizeable action, support, and movement abilities learned from all known jobs for a level of tweaking not seen in the series since Final Fantasy V. Or Maybe FFVII, with that materia; it was the most recent game (hell, you can recruit Cloud in FFT).
The charge time battle system offered a level of tension to your moves and planning. Magic didn’t execute immediately, and friendly fire with most of it was a thing, so you had to plan where and when you would cast spells appropriately. This was also true of some abilities (notably Jump, which you couldn’t check the execution time on the AT for). It’s telling that most games in the genre lack it, and are the worse for that fact, including its own sequels. If a tactical RPG has a battle system that allows you to move all your units on your turn, they typically throw in some sort of gimmick, like turn limits or breakable weapons, to make up for the loss of tension. This is not only a problem with the FFT sequels, but also the one sequel Tactics Ogre got. those three all have the same braindead, yet valid, strategy of “lure single enemy to your group, move into every square around them, and gang beat them to death”. Not like Final Fantasy Tactics has the smartest enemy AI to begin with (once you know it, it’s fairly exploitable), but it at least makes that particular tactic leagues harder to execute.
As for story, let me ask you this: did you like Game of Thrones? Or, at least, did you like Game of Thrones before it started sucking ass and ended in one of the worst final seasons I’d ever seen for any show, ever? Then you’ll like the story in Final Fantasy Tactics (especially if you play the War of the Lions version). Both FFT and GoT use the same historical war as the basis for the backdrop for their more fantastical elements. That’s about all I can say without really spoiling things, and I want you to enjoy it.
As for how to play it? Well, you have options; they’re not great, but you have them. Unless you have an original PlayStation or PlayStation 2 (and anywhere from $15 to $200+ to buy the game), you really only have two options. The first, track down a functioning PSP and a copy of the War of the Lions version of the game; I recommend this, personally. The War of the Lions version offers up a full retranslation (necessary in my opinion, since the original translation was… not great) by Alexander O. Smith, two new job classes, two new special characters, a number of animated cutscenes with voice acting, a versus mode, some extra battles, and a handful of bug fixes. Granted, it’s not without its own problems (the slowdown caused by some attacks, the lack of spell quotes), but it’s the best version out there.
Your other option is to get the War of the Lions version on Android or iOS, which I don’t recommend. It’s exactly the same as the PSP version, but it has no controller support, leaving you stuck with horrible, imprecise touchscreen controls. That said, this is probably the easiest way to get the game, because for some fucking insane reason, Square Enix refuses to port the game to PC.
You do have one other option, if you want to play the game and also understand the story. If you own the PS1 original, you can rip the game and apply a patch that drops the War of the Lions version’s script into the original. Granted, you would have to play the resulting patched rip on some form of emulator (via raspberry pi, hacked PlayStation Classic, emulator on PC, etc.), but doing so, provided it was ripped from your legally owned copy of the game, would be legal.
And if, after finishing Final Fantasy Tactics, you want more like it, well, your options are limited. I personally don’t consider the sequels worth successors, and if I had a nickel for every time I heard “it’s just like Final Fantasy Tactics” and found that statement to be untrue, I’d be rich (well, more like I’d have enough for a McDonald’s value meal, but you get the point). Really, your only option would be Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together; hell, Final Fantasy Tactics is actually the spiritual successor to that game, featuring much of the same staff. Tactics Ogre did have a PSP remake, but didn’t have luck of being ported anywhere else. So, aside from tracking down a PSP and a copy of the game, you’re only choices to play it in English are the PS1 version (which is a translation typical of the time), or patching the Super Famicom version (which is pretty much the PS1 version translation).
But, hey, this is just the first of (hopefully) many Quarantine Gaming articles. And, in the future, I’ll probably go for less mainline stuff. So keep an eye out for the next one.
Images: Square Enix
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