Final Fantasy tactics: WTF?

[Zerodash]

I just beat FFT, and I am quite miffed.

Don't get me wrong here, I thoroughly enjoyed the combat system and the job class implementation in FFT. The "retro" SD hand-drawn art stlye and the SNES-esque sound and music also pleased me no no end.

I had heard that the story (possibly due to poor translation) was lacking, but what I am truly unhappy with is the length, direction, and ease of the game's story.

My little army (made up of monks, samurai, and ninja) blew through the majority of the game with no real difficulty. The only problem I encountered is the battle with the Vampire version of Ramza's brother. The final boss battle came way too early in the story, and the boss was an utter pushover. I was expecting the story to take a major new 9and shocking) route once St. Sjora was beaten. But when I saw the "Congratulations, this game is completed" message, I was utterly flabberghasted.

The biggest gaming letdown in recent memory...

And could someone please tell me what the hell the Zodiac stones and St. Ajora had to do with the outcome of the Lion War?

[Kinopio]

Final Fantasy Tactics is overated, I'm sorry no one informed you of this before.

[Lordmrw]

I agree that once you learn certain skills (hamedo, blade grasp, move hp up) the game becomes a cake walk. That's part of the reason I've lost interest; because I blow through the battles easily. There were only a few that gave me trouble, like that damn Riovanes Castle.

[Kidnemo]

Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games of all times.

That is all.

***bzzzt end communication bzzzt***

[Freeter]

Originally posted by Kinopio
Final Fantasy Tactics is overated, I'm sorry no one informed you of this before.

The hell it is. No other strategy game on the PS is as good as this one.

[RedTerrier]

FFT's greatness lies not in its story (boooooring and confusing) or its actual "game" section; it's in the challenge of finding everything and the excellent mini-quests you can send your team on.

The story portion of the game is ridiculously easy, with only 2-3 really tough bosses and some tricky manuevers. Otherwise, it's cake...but try to get 100% on the hidden items, job quests, and secret characters. That's gonna make you a man...

I actually spent over 130 hours on that game, and I got 100% completion on it. I had to replay alot of boards just to get hidden items and weapons, and even though they were cool, the satisfaction of finding them is greater than their necessity. You don't need to find everything to beat it, but it makes it more satisfying when you do. I have to admit, the ending blows, hard; but the game was great when i had a free summer. Go into the dark dungeon quest, your life will never be the same....

[FuryFox]

Strangely enough, I just haven't been able to bring myself to beat the last battle yet. I was having too much fun leveling my characters and filling out their skill sets. However, after a certain point, the game does get extremely easy, although it can still be challenging if you like to mix your team up. T.G. Cid is way overpowered, IMO, and makes many of the later battles too easy (you could of course, not use him, but, what are the chances of that). I still found it fun, since I wanted to get Cloud up there with the big-boys, and he starts so sucky. I suppose I might try the deep dungeon, but with only one battle left, the incentive for finding equip and leveling is sort-of diminished. Oh well...it was fun while it lasted, and the battle system was certainly more intriguing than any other console RPG (IMO).

[Zerodash]

Side quests? What side quests? Tell me more- i really want to salvage my experience with this game...

[burgundy]

There is a huge side quest (perhaps the biggest easter egg I've ever heard of, aside from SotN's second castle) that will have you finding and recruiting a robot, a holy dragon, and even Cloud, all before you fight your way through a 10-level dungeon against overpowered random enemies in complete darkness, searching for hidden exits, treasures and the ultimate Zodiac Demon and his learnable Summon.

As far as the story goes, it ended right where it should - a rarity among story-driven games. After the climactic battle, all your friends are recruited and all the major enemies and NPCs are dead - except for Delita and Ovelia, and they were shown after the credits in what I feel is the most poignant scene I've ever seen in a game. A final battle with Delita (like in Suikoden 2) would have been cool, but the introduction already established that he had a long reign as King. Any major extension of the story would have come off as a inane, unprecedented deus ex machina plot twist (think MGS2).

Unless you carefully managed your troops, you would have ran into difficulty with many of the battles in the first three chapters. The battles at Riovanes are widely regarded as the toughest in the game - tough enough to lower scores in many reviews. After those battles, your group was likely too powerful for anything you found in the endgame. Throw in Orlandu - possibly the most unbalancing element found in any game, ever, who is recruited without any extra effort - and you have one ridiculously overpowered party. Relying on monks and ninjas didn't help in that regard, either.

If the endgame felt anticlimactic, it's because it wasn't meant to be the climax. FFT takes many cues from Shakespeare, including setting, names (like Ovelia and many others in Vagrant Story, by the FFT team) and the generally tragic undertones. One more subtle reference is in the plot structure, as the climax occurs in the middle of the story, with the battles at Riovanes and the revelation of Vormav's true nature. Everything afterwards is just resolution.

[RedTerrier]

The Deep Dungeon is the big side quest; it's a pitch black dungeon that houses the most rare items in the game, but you have to use that sucky "move-find" skill in order to find them. My advice: Get the strategy guide or down load the maps for this quest; it's a real chore since it's, well, dark, and you can't see the board. The treasures you find, including some of the strongest swords and regenerative items, are nice to have. Not necessary, but you will be the nastiest mo-fo on the block.

The other "side" quests you don't actually fight; you send up to 3 of your party off to fight some creature or solve some problem, and they go off by themselves and report back when they're done. you go to bars/taverns and look for work, and the bartender can hook you up on some quests that give you job points and cash for successful missions. Sometimes you even get items...you don't actually fight thest battles, you just set your team up for them.

Hope that helps, there's a bunch of little things, like the Cloud sidequest (make sure you get the materia blade on top of that hill) and some others, I'm sure gamefaq's can help.