Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a top-down strategy based game with few things that make it special, but quite a lot of things that make a play through worthwhile. The story of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance revolves around Marche, a young school student who is timid and looks surprisingly like Ramza from the original Final Fantasy Tactics (go figure). Marche lives in the town of Ivalice in a modern setting, but when his friend brings over a magical tome the world transforms into a completely different Ivalice. One with monsters and Moogles! Your adventure begins with you joining a clan where you start as the leader (because you are just that BA ;]). With 300 missions, a completely custom made team as far as classes and abilities go, as well as several different classes to choose from. While not nearly as in depth as FFT it is much longer and much easier for the casual gamer. If you like strategy games as well as RPG's this game is definitely worth a try. Now it's time to get into my overall outlook on FFTA.
Overall-8 This game is worth a play through if you are at all a fan of the FF series, while there is nothing that makes it particularly spectacular it is a very fun game that has enough depth to keep you playing, it is a game everyone could play and enjoy. If you are a hardcore gamer however and are looking for a game with a lot of depth, it may bore you quickly because the game play is quite a bit repetitious.
Graphics-8 For the Game boy Advance this game has amazing graphics, truly. Everything is smooth and very clear and the sprites are decently detailed. The reason it gets an 8 is because there are only a few different animations, and very little variation in textures. However it is still nice to look at and the few problems I have with it are common in the Advance world.
Sound-9 It's the good ol' FF mixes just like in any other game, meaning clear crisp sound quality and many different sounds. It has Fun battle music as well as familiar story music.
Addictiveness-7 This only gets a 7 because, while this game definitely has a replay value it is very easy to feel the repetition and grow bored if you are a hardcore gamer. Not only that, but if you have a little bit of FFTA knowledge beforehand you can earn all of the worthwhile items, as well as gaining new recruits that you don't really need; one party is all you need to level and it may be all you WANT to level. There are race specific classes, but no class restrictions meaning a white mage can become a black mage and that black mage can become a soldier and that soldier can become a fighter in any order so you wouldn't need new recruits to make things interesting. There are 300 missions (over half are optional and you CAN mess up to where you can't complete certain optional missions in a single play through but it's hard to mess up), a lot of different abilities, different items, as well a unique map system in which you choose the placement of locations in Ivalice and if you do it right you get extra treasure. So this game definitely has mixed replay value.
Story-6 The story is about a few school children who get magically teleported into the FF world, once there they are suddenly fit to fight a bunch of monsters and survive in this harsh world of battling. They hardly question it, and they are fairly immature and whiny at points. That being said the story isn't bad but it is nothing fresh to me.
Depth-8 Plenty of quests, abilities, quite a few differing classes, a clan ranking system, and a map that allows you to shape Ivalice! The main reason I play this game is because of it's depth, while I dislike the fact that your world map is a point and click to location setup, it is still in depth in many other ways. There are secret characters, a monster system that isn't so in depth but you can still capture monsters and trade them as well as use them in battle.
Difficulty-6 For casual gamers FFTA will present quite a challenge to some, but for hardcore gamers, especially ones who like strategy games, this game will be much more relaxed. The most unique thing about this game is it's Law system, Where there are certain rules that you must abide by or you will be flagged either a yellow card or a red card, yellow being a minor offense and red being very serious offense. Both you and your enemies can get flagged, and you can eventually manipulate the Laws (cards) that are in play. The penalty for a red card is jail. If your main dies or gets Jailed, game over man. This game takes some learning but otherwise is not difficult. Now, is it difficult to be an expert? Yes, I'd say its very hard,but is it hard to beat , no not at all.
Final words- This game is unlike other strategy games out there in it's depth and ability system, it is a strategy FF hybrid to the max. If you play it you will most likely finish it, although I'm very doubtful there are any die hard fans out there. P.S. I still need to thoroughly proof read.
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