Play Testing: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

                              Gameplay Footage of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance,From Square Enix

Hey! This is a "Play Test" where I talk about a specific game like in this case: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance from Square Enix.

Marche (FFTA) ,Square Enix

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a Tactical Turn Based Role Playing Game for the GBA in 2003. Its the spiritual successor to the PS1 Game Final Fantasy Tactics. Which itself is similar to another Square Enix Creation: Tactics Ogre. The Story takes place in the town of Ivalice, a snow covered town where the main character , (who can be renamed but we shall call him by his default name) , Marche  just moved to. 

Snowball Fight Tutorial

The Game's Tutorial is a snowball fight which teaches players the controls which essentially is this : 

Players Move one character at a time on a square grid. The Character with the Highest Speed will go first like most rpgs, The  Players are able to move, attack or use skills, when the player moves or finish using a skill/attack the players have to set which direction the character will face as this will affect the accuracy of the attack recieved or dealt.  For example, two characters facing each other will have less accuracy than a character attacking a character facing the opposite direction then the attacker. 

Cid, A Judge, From Final Fantasy Wikia ,Square Enix 

Eventually, Laws are introduced in the second battle of the game.Laws are rules placed by Judges before each battles starts, If any character breaks any Laws they will get a card depending on the Level of the Law and the worst card to get is a Red Card which will remove the character from the battle and  for an X future battles.

The Game has a variety of Classes to choose from depending on what race the character is ranging from a bowman to a thief. 

Ritz(FFTA), Square Enix

The Story is about Marche's and his gang's Journey to discover themselves as they get cast into the world of Ivalice the Country after his friend Mewt and Rtiz find a mysterious Tome with Weird Text.The Story is not a normal one as the main Character is in a sense the Antagonist of the story as Marche wants to return to Ivalice the town but his friends object to it and want to live a new life. 

Shiva(FFTA), A summon, Square Enix

Part 2: My Play testing Experience 

I am a fan of the Tactics Genre as Its fun to create strategies to outwit your opponents and win the battle. So Naturally I am a Fan of this game too! What I love about it is the Job system, each races has a variety of jobs to choose from. In my various sessions with the game, I always go for certain classes as they suite my play styles which are Ninja,Assassin/Sniper,Dragoon/Templar,Morpher/Illusionist,Hunter/Summoner and Time Mage. 

This Jobs will always be in my party at all times, Ninjas are useful as they can learn dual wield which allows them to learn 2 skills at one time which also allows them to deal more damage. Assassins and Snipers are my damage dealers as Assassins are one of the most deadliest job in the game as they can instantly kill any opponent if used correctly and snipers can cause status alignments from afar, Dragoon/Templar are my tanks which means they absorb damage and deal them back to the enemy but not so much in a tactical game  so they are sort of my back up damage dealers. Illusionist and Summoner are my AOE specialist as the Illusionist is one of the 2 jobs in the game which are able to AOE the entire enemy party which comes in handy sometimes and the summoner can summon..well summons? and they have alot of mp to use when healing. and  time mage is my support character. In this game , you can use another class skils while being another class which comes in handy two so you can switch roles when needed to. 

The most usual strategy is this: Placing all the non-squishy party members around/in front of the squishy members or i.e the tanks and damage dealers defend the mages and healers and archers.

I would  Cast support skills on my party before going after the enemy, The most effective way to do more damage is to get behind an enemy and attack or face the back of the enemy if attacking from long distance. 

I also love this game because of the satisfying skill : COMBO 

In battle, each KO gives the character 1 judge point which allows the character to do 2 things: Summon the Race Totema( Affects the entire enemy/player Party) or do a Combo. In this game, if a character is nearby any friendly characters who are able to combos will join the combo if initiated. The Epic animation of several characters beating up a enemy unit is satisfying. 

The Only negative thing about this game is that the you cant skip the tutorial and its a little slow into opening the world to you as you have to scroll through a wall of text to get to the job system in the opening hour of the game. Also the Laws sometimes can cause frustration in battle when you get several laws that work against you if your unprepared. 

But Overall I still Love this game as I Played it Several Times over the years and still play it till this day occasionally. It Spawned a Sequel called Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 which further refined the gameplay and expands the game even further. So Please go Play this game or Play the sequels and the other games mentioned in this post!  BYE! <3 Zaky!

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance,2003, Square Enix