Introduction

Full Story (Spoilers)

 -Chapter I
 -Chapter II
 -Chapter III
 -Chapter IV

     Balbanes Beoulve of Igros falls ill and dies and his son Zalbag takes over command of the Hokuten Knights. In the meantime, Ramza Beoulve, the youngest brother of Zalbag and Delita, Ramza’s childhood friend are then sent to Gariland Military Academy. The Death Corps, a rival group in the struggle for power in Ivalice, runs rampant throughout Ivalice and the Hokuten demands to oust them from the land. Ramza and Delita along with the other Hokuten cadets receive orders to oust the Death Corps and along the way, they help out Algus, a Hokuten cadet under the Marquis of Limberry. Ramza and the others learn of the kidnapping of the Marquis by Gustav, the second in command of the Death Corps and demands a ransom. After further instructions from Igros, the Hokuten arrive in Dorter Trade City and they find that the Death Corps have taken the Marquis to Zeklaus Desert. Wiegraf is angry that Gustav went against his orders and then they confront each other. Wiegraf kills Gustav first and the Hokuten later on find Wiegraf and a captive Marquis. Ramza lets Wiegraf go free in exchange for the release of the Marquis and the Hokuten then travel back to Igros Castle. Prince Larg commends Ramza for his valiant effort and work but Ramza’s half-brother, Dycedarg is upset with what Ramza did by letting Wiegraf go free. He then sends the Hokuten to the Thieves Fort to deal with a group of Death Corps soldiers there. After arriving at the Thieves Fort, Ramza confronts Miluda, who is Wiegraf’s sister and after being defeated by the Hokuten, she retreats. Golagros, who is a member of the Death Corps attempts to assassinate Dycedarg but Zalbag foils the attempt but Dycedarg is seriously wounded. Golgaros takes Teta, Delita’s sister as hostage and escapes to a windmill on Fovoham plains. Ramza, Delita and the rest of the Hokuten arrive at Igros to hear the news and Algus makes some negative remarks about commoners and then Ramza dismisses him. Before Algus leaves, he tells Ramza and the others that the Death Corps’ base is in Fort Zeakden. Along the way, at Lenalia Plains, the Hokuten encounter Miluda again and they kill her in battle. At Fovoham Plains, Ramza and the others meet up with Wiegraf but then Ramza defeats him and Delita finds that Golgaros and Teta are at Fort Fovoham. Ramza and Delita reach Fort Fovoham but Algus, Zalbag and the Hokuten are there as well. Algus hits Teta with a crossbow on Zalbag’s orders and then Algus shoots down Golgaros with his crossbow as well. Delita becomes overflowed with rage and he and Ramza fight Algus and they kill him. Golgaros puts explosives in the fort and the fort eventually explodes. Ramza flees and runs, not knowing his place in the world and questions his ability and placement among the famed Beoulve family. Ramza believes that Delita is dead.

     Prince Larg and Prince Goltana both are locked in a deadly power struggle to reunite the regions of Ivalice together in peace. Ramza, who is now unsure of his place in life joins up with Gafgarion’s mercenary group whose job is to protect Princess Ovalia. Delita manages to escape from Fort Zeakden thanks to Teta, meets with members of the Murond Glabados Church and convinces them that he wants to join their cause. However, Delita begins to betray and double-cross many groups from this point, eventually rising from a Squire to become second in command of the Nanten Knights. Later on, he joins the ranks of the Hokuten, becoming a Holy Knight. After the defeat and demise of the Death Corps, Wiegraf joins the Temple Knights’ in which their main purpose is to retrieve the famed Zodiac Stones and resurrect the Zodiac Braves. Gafgarion and his mercenary group are hired by the Hokuten to attend to Agrias, the bodyguard of Princess Ovalia. They find her at Orbonne Monastery and the Monastery is given the Holy stone Virgo for proof of Agrias’ status. Prince Larg wants Ovalia dead and one of his aides suggests kidnapping her and executing her. They send the kidnappers to disguise as Nanten Knights to frame Goltana. Delita hands out the actual kidnapping and the disguised Hotuken keep Ramza and Gafgarion’s mercenary force busy. After they defeat the Hokuten, Delita kidnaps the Princess and takes her away by a Chocobo. Ramza sees Delita and decides to ask him why he is in Goltana’s army. Ramza follows Gafgarion and Agrias on the way to Bethla but then on the way at Zirekile Falls, the Hokuten command Gafgarion to kill the Princess and he agrees as it’s part of his contract. Ramza and Agrias defeat Gafgarion and the Hokuten and they retreat. Delita then agrees to let Ramza and Agrias travel with Princess Ovalia to protect her. Delita leaves for an unknown place Both Ramza and Agrias agree to head over to Lionel Castle to seek protection from Cardinal Draclau. He orders Rudvich of Bart’s Trading Company to find the sacred stone Taurus and then Rudvich captures Besrodio Bunanza, who found the stone and tries to find Mustadio, who he knows will do anything to save his father’s life. On the way to Lionel Castle, Ramza and Agrias meet up with Mustadio, who is being chased by agents from Bart Company. The rescue him and Mustadio still fails to tell them why Bart Company is chasing him and joins Ramza’s cause. Dycedarg orders Gafgarion to capture Ovalia at any cost, even if he has to kill Ramza as a result. Dycedarg proclaims that Ramza is a disgrace to the Beoulve family. Ramza and the others reach Lionel Castle and Mustadio is captured by Rudvich. However, Mustadio is forced to tell the location of the Zodiac Stone in exchange for his father’s safety and then Rudvich hints that Cardinal Draclau was behind the search for the Taurus Stone. After Rudvich leaves, Mustadio shows the real Zodiac Stone to Ramza and he gave Rudvich the fake one. Draclau then holds a meeting with Gafgarion and Rudvich to discuss about plans concerning Ramza and what to do with the Princess. Draclau kills Rudvich for failing him. At Bariaus valley, Ramza and Mustadio rescue Agrias, who was fleeing from some Lionel Knights and she tells them that Draclau and his cronies are planning to execute the Princess at the Golgorand Execution site. After reaching the Execution site, Ramza and the others fall into a trap as Gafgarion and some troops ambush Ramza and the others. Gafgarion fails to defeat Ramza’s party and retreats in humiliation and Ramza heads to Lionel Castle to save the Princess. Delita tries to explain his intentions to Ovalia but then Vormav, the leader of the Temple Knights and Draclau enter the cell before Delita can finish what he plans on saying. After a quick sequence, they all leave the cell. While Ramza and the others reach the gate of Lionel Castle, they are ambushed again by Gafgarion and some Lionel Knights. Ramza defeats Gafgarion and he gets killed in the battle and then Ramza and the others rush into Lionel Castle. Ramza confronts Cardinal Draclau, who tries to persuade him from not rescuing the Princess, trying to convince Ramza to follow the ways of his brothers. Ramza valiantly refuses and demands to see Princess Ovalia. Draclau tells Ramza that the Princess is held in Zeltennia Castle and then uses the power of the Holy Stone and turns into one of the demons from the legendary Zodiac Brave Story, Queklain. Ramza and his party manage to defeat Queklain and then leaves the Scorpio stone behind. Goltana holds a meeting with his aides, Orlandu of the Nanten Knights, Olan (Orlandu’s son-in-law) and Delita. During this sequence, Delita exposes Minister Gelwan and kills him on the spot. Delita suggests that Goltana sends his army to storm Lesalia Capital and depose Ruvelia and Orinas who were considered main candidates for the throne of Ivalice and suggests to make Ovalia as Queen of Ivalice. Goltana reaches Lesalia and imprisons Queen Ruvelia for the crime of the kidnapping of Ovalia. Larg declares Orinas as the rightful ruler of Ivalice and Goltana disagrees and proclaims Ovalia as the real ruler of Ivalice. The struggle between Goltana and Larg over the ruler of the throne of Ivalice leads to the “Lion War”. Heavy casualties occur to both sides and a drought begins, causing severe food shortages to the soldiers fighting in the war. Goltana decides to raise taxes to pay for the war effort but Orlandu strongly disagrees with this idea and wants to negotiate a peace treaty with Larg to end the war. Goltana is furious at Orlandu and declares that the next opposition that Orlandu makes will cost his life.

     Ramza travels to Lesalia Captial to tell his older brother, Zalbag that someone is manipulating the Lion War. Along the way, Ramza saves Olan from a group of thieves and Olan thanks Ramza for his effort. At Lesalia, Ramza tries to tell Zalbag that Dycedarg was the one who planned out Ovalia’s capture but Zalbag refuses to believe Ramza’s story. A Hokuten Knight enters the scene and proclaims that Orlandu and the Nanten Knights have broken through Doguola Pass and Zalbag leaves. Alma, who is Ramza’s younger sister, meets up with Ramza at the gate and Ramza tells her about Dycedarg and Delita and she bets Ramza to take her along with him. Ramza refuses, since he believes that the journey is too dangerous for her and Zalmo, who is a pagan examiner for the Church, proclaims that Ramza is a “heretic” for the murder of Cardinal Draclau. Ramza defeats Zalmo and then Alma tells her brother that she saw one of the Holy Stones back at Orbonne Monastery. Since Ramza realizes that he is branded as a “heretic”, he is forced to bring Alma along with him. Once Ramza reaches Orbonne, he finds a clergyman wounded and the clergyman tells Ramza that the Temple Knights have entered the monastery, looking for the Virgo Stone. It is revealed that Izlude is leading the Temple Knights and is looking at an underground library to find the stone. Ramza tells Alma to stay with the clergyman and gives her the Scorpio and Taurus stones. Ramza goes after Izlude but then Izlude grabs Alma and walks away from the scene. Ramza chases the Temple Knights and finds Wiegraf again and defeats him. Wiegraf teleports out of the monastery and then he uses his despair and hate to react with the Aries stone to summon Velius, another Lucavi demon. Velius agrees to give Wiegraf his power and body and then Velius/Wiegraf disappear. The clergyman crawls out and gives Ramza a book called the Germonik Scriptures and then he dies from his wounds. The Scriptures tell the true story of St. Ajora and counter the Church’s claims that Ajora is the son of god. Along the way to travelling back to Dorter, Ramza encounters Malak, who is a Hell Knight and he tells Ramza to bring the Germonik Scriptures to Riovanes Castle in exchange for Alma. Later on, Delita finds Ovalia crying in the ruins of Zeltennia Church and he tells her that she is a fake and worth nothing in life. She wonders what all her suffering in her life was for and then Delita comforts her and assures her that she can trust him. News spreads that the Marquis has died in a battle on the Fuse plains against the forces of Prince Larg. Ramza and his party decide to head to Riovanes Castle and along the way, they encounter a bunch of deserters who don’t want to fight any more. One of the soldiers recognizes that Ramza is wanted as a heretic and they try to kill him in hopes of going home finally. Ramza and the others defeat them and they are visited by Olan and a group of Nanten Knights. Ramza then asks Olan if he knows Orlandu and Olan proclaims that he is Orlandu’s son-in-law. They leave for their own destinations and Ramza stops in Yardow Fort City. There, he finds Malak and his sister, Rafa arguing over something and then Ramza saves Rafa from Malak. Rafa then tells Ramza about how the Grand Duke Barinten raised both Rafa and Malak and his plan to gain the Heaven and Hell skills from them and burned their village to get them. Rafa believed the truth about the burned village and ran away shortly afterwards but Malak refuses to believe her. A frog using Malak’s voice shows up and tells Ramza to bring both the Scriptures and Rafa to Riovanes Castle. Grand Duke Barinten then gets a visit by Vormav and Barinten tells him that he wants to work with the Temple Knights who have the Holy Stones in an effort to bring him to the throne. Barinten calls Malak, who brings in Izlude and then Wiegraf follows him as well and Barinten tells Vormav that he has both the Taurus and the Scopio stones as well as the Scriptures, although he technically doesn’t have them just yet. A Nanten Knight informs them of Ramza’s arrival and then Malak goes and deals with him. At the gate of Riovanes Castle, Ramza and his party fight Malak and his troops and after Malak is wounded and teleports away and Rafa decides to teleport to follow him as well. Ramza makes his way into Riovanes Castle. Inside Alma’s cell, a badly wounded Knight opens the cell door and the Knight tells her to run away, as a dangerous monster is on a rampage. Alma hesitates and then runs away from her cell. Ramza finds many dead Nanten Knights inside of Riovanes Castle and confronts Wiegraf and they fight in a duel. After Ramza defeats his, Wiegraf uses the Aries stone to transform into Velius. Ramza and the others defeat Velius and the Aries stone is left behind. Alma enters a hallway and finds Izlude lying down on the floor and Izlude tries to warn her about Vormav but Alma doesn’t understand the point. Izlude gives Alma the Pisces stone and dies. Vormav enters the hallway and attempts to kill Alma but then his Leo stone reacts with her and he realizes that she would be a good body host for the resurrection of St. Ajora. Alma drops the Pisces stone behind her as a result. Rafa manages to confront Barinten on the roof of Riovanes Castle and she draws out a sword in an attempt to kill him. Barinten takes out his gun and taunts her and says that Rafa can’t handle the terror that he caused to her in the past. Malak decides to intervene and demands if this is true and Barinten fires a bullet at Rafa. Malak pushes Rafa away and takes the bullet for himself and Barinten demands that Rafa take the Taurus stone from Malak and give it to him. An assassin enters and throws Barinten off the roof and a resurrected Marquis Elmdor appears on the scene. He is resurrected as a Zodiac Brave and demands the stone for himself. Ramza and Rafa fight the Marquis and the two assassins and they defeat them in battle and teleport away. Marquis Elmdor tells Ramza before he teleports away to go to Limberry Castle to get the Elmdor’s stone. Rafa cries over Malak’s sacrifice and Malak’s Taurus stone reacts with his dead body and revives him again. Ramza then enters the main hall and finds the Pisces stone.

     Ramza goes and tells Malak and Rafa that Vormav is behind the plan of the Zodiac Stones and he tells them that he intends on going to Zeltennia Castle to meet Delita to tell him that he’s been used by the Church. Ramza also plans on meeting Count Orlandu to show him the Scriptures and to convince him to join Ramza’s cause. Prince Larg’s Hokuten army takes the offensive to the war and storms Bethla Garrison as the war heats up. Balmafula Lanando, who is a magician working for the Church is sent to spy on Delita to see if he is double-crossing the Church or not. If Delita was found to be using the Church, Lanando is ordered to kill him. Olan returns to Zeltennia Castle to see Orlandu and tells him that there is nothing to report on the Taurus and Scorpio stones. Orlandu takes out his Libra Stone and tells Olan that the real war will start when the truth comes out. Ramza heads to Zeltennia Castle to find Orlandu and along the way, at Bervenia Free City, Ramza encounters Meliadoul, who is Vormav’s daughter and refuses to listen to Ramza about her father and disappears after Ramza defeats her. In Zeltennia Church, Ramza and Delita meet and Delita tells Ramza about the Church’s real intentions to stir revolt among anti-noblists and they plan on assassinate the leaders of all the armies and with the leaders gone, Ivalice will be stable and embrace the Church’s ways. Delita admits to be using Ovalia but also tells Ramza that he has fallen in love with her. Zalmo confronts Ramza and Delita and he gets killed by them. Delita introduces Balmafula, who is a helpful assassin soldier to Ramza and she tells him that Orlandu is headed to Bethla Garrison to deal with the revolts stirred up by the Church. Along the way, Ramza encounters Balk, another Temple Knight at Bed Desert and he tells Ramza of the Temple Knights’ plan to kill Goltana, Orlandu and Larg. Balk gets killed by Ramza in this battle and Ramza and his party move on. Orlandu is accused by Prince Goltana of being part of a Church conspiracy to overthrow him and is taken prisoner in Bethla and is to be executed the following day. Goltana then appoints Delita as commander of the Nanten Knights in Orlandu’s place and tells him to get an edict from the Church, which approves Goltana’s position as King. Zalbag then finds Larg on a hill outside of Bethla surrounded by some dead Hokuten Knights. Larg and Dycedarg have been poisoned by Mosfungus but not badly enough to die from the poison. Dycedarg then stabs and kills Larg in an evil scheme to take over the throne and Larg then tells Zalbag that Dycedarg killed his father too. Zalbag complies with Dycedarg’s orders but then wonders if what Larg said was true. Ramza and the others reach Bethla and rescue Orlandu in prison and he sends Olan back to Zeltennia to protect the Princess and he proclaims that she should be the rightful ruler of Ivalice. Delita confronts Prince Goltana and stabs him to death and a member of the Church named Grenados, disguises himself as Orlandu and then Delita kills him too as part of his plan. With the leaders of the Hokuten and Nanten Knights dead, the High Priest suggests that a mediator be put into play to negotiate an end to the war but both Delita and Dycedarg refuse this idea. Ramza then heads off to Limberry Castle to confront Marquis Elmdor and rescue Alma. Rofel, who is a Temple Knight, meets up with Dycedarg at Igros Castle. Rofel gives Dycedarg the Capricorn stone and hints that the Church knows that Dycedarg poisoned his father. Rofel tells Dycedarg to listen to the Church but Zalbag listens to the entire conversation. Vormav and Elmdor meet together at Limberry Castle and they plan on resurrecting a demon called the “Bloody Angel” and if successful, all Lucavi demons can enter the real world without needing host bodies to do so. Alma is the proposed host body of the resurrection of “Bloody Angel” but that can only be done at a place known as the dead city. Vormav goes on ahead to look for it while leaving Elmdor and his assassin helpers to fight off Ramza. However, Ramza defeats the Marquis and his assassins and then Elmdor moves underground to use his Gemini stone to turn into the demon Zarela. Meliadoul, who is Vormav’s daughter enters the room and is surprised of the power of the Zodiac stones and what Ramza told her was true. After helping Ramza defeat Zarela, Meliadoul gives him the sacred stone Sagittarius. She then joins Ramza’s quest in hopes of finding out more about her father and whether or not he is actually human. Zalbag takes a Chemist along to see the grave of Balbanes, his father and the Chemist tells him that Mosfungus corpses are bad luck, they signify the end of that family’s dynasty. Zalbag stands shocked by his father’s grave. Ramza and Meliadoul encounter Dycedarg and Zalbag at Igros Castle and Zalbag realizes that Dycedarg killed his father. Dycedarg calls for some Hokuten Knights and then Ramza saves Zalbag and then Zalbag kills Dycedarg. However, the Capricorn stone reacts with Dycedarg and he transforms into the demon Adramelk. He kills Zalbag and then Ramza vanquishes Adramelk and then decides to head to Murond Holy Place, headquarters of the Church to find Alma. Once Ramza reaches Murond Holy Place, he finds the High Priest Funeral being surrounded by 3 Temple Knights: Vormav, Rofel and Kletian. Vormav stabs Funeral but then demands the location of Murond Death City for his life. Funeral tells the location of the Death City and Rofel stabs Funeral in the back and kills him. Ramza encounters the 3 Temple Knights at Murond and they demand that Ramza give up all of his stones and the Scriptures in return for Alma. Ramza gives them the Scriptures but not the stones unless he sees Alma safe again. Rofel reads the Scriptures and opens up Murond Death City and doesn’t give the Scriptures back and then Ramza defeats him. Further inside Murond, Vormav summons 3 demons and revives Zalbag from the dead to fight Ramza. The Lucavi demons are controlling Zalbag’s body and he convinces Ramza to kill him off. Ramza reluctantly does so and then Zalbag disappears for good. Funeral tells Ramza one more thing before he dies off and tells him to go to Orbonne to find Alma. Ramza fights some Temple Knights at Orbonne and Ramza defeats Rofel again. Rofel opens the game to Murond Death City and sucks Ramza and his party inside. The entrance is destroyed and they are all trapped there. Ramza then defeats Balk who is resurrected again and Kletian and reaches the Graveyard of airships. Vormav attempts to use Alma’s body to resurrect St. Ajora and the Virgo stone still fails to respond. He decides that he needs more deaths to successfully revive Ajora again the transforms into the demon Hashmalum and Ramza defeats him. Hashmalum sacrifices himself and dies while resurrecting Ajora. St. Ajora takes over Alma’s body and somehow Alma’s body separates from Ajora. Angered, Ajora then turns into Altima, the “Bloody Angel” and Ramza valiantly defeats him. Altima dies and destroys the entire airship. In the name of St. Ajora, a funeral service is held for Alma and since Ramza is branded as a heretic, no funeral was given to him and this event signifies the end of the Beoulve dynasty. Olan and Balmafula arrive late to the funeral and they lay flowers at Alma’s grave but then Olan sees Ramza and Alma riding on Chocobos and Olan tries to chase after them but they disappear out of his sight. Alma and Ramza are never to be seen again and it is still unsure whether or not they truly perished at the airship graveyard or not. The Lion War ends as Delita marries Ovalia and they become the King and Queen of Ivalice. The apparent death of Alma and Ramza Beoulve appear to have a profound affect on Ovalia and several years later, on her birthday she attempts to stab Delita with a dagger and accuses Delita of killing Ramza and believes that he plans on killing her as well. Delita, shocked at this event, takes out his own dagger and stabs Ovalia and kills her as a result. Delita is weak with pain and then wonders if he is beginning to act like the nobles he so despised years ago. Olan completes a set of documents, known as the Durai Writings which shows the truth behind the Church, the Temple Knights and the actions of Ramza. He plans on presenting them to Prince Clemence on his coronation ceremony. Before Olan can present them, the Church proclaims him a heretic and burns him at the stake. The Durai Writings are confiscated and never found again until 400 years later. Alazlam Durai, a descendant of Olan, discovers the Durai Writings and pieces together the truth about the Lion War and thus, while most people believe that Delita was the true hero of the war, the writings depict that Ramza was the “true” hero of the legend and this ends the game off.

     This game uses partially 3-D environments along with polygonal modeled enemies and characters. While the character sprites seem similar in style to Mario RPG, the graphics set a new standard in strategy RPGs during it’s time period. This time around however, most of the people under the art direction of this game aren’t Japanese and the artwork in this game takes on a more medieval and Eastern Orthodox approach. Hence, the difference in art styles and character portraits in comparison to other FF games. The graphics are very good for it’s time period and while the camera angles occasionally need some work, the spell effects are hi-res sprites and takes advantage of an overhead camera angle. The actual places in the game, while rather small as they only consist of a couple of rooms here and there, are pretty well created with interesting weather effects here and there. Rain pours down every then and now and the variety of map environments affect the strategy and course of battles in Tactics. As for the FMVs, well they don’t look entirely that great and are easily outdated by today’s standards but they are of FFVII-quality and perhaps slightly a step above that. Tactics seems to rely more on text and storyline rather than FMVs though. While the graphics aren’t perfect or anything, they are certainly good for it’s time period and still holds their own today. The camera angles add a nice touch of interest and drama within battles and it makes it easier to track down enemy moves as well as your own actions.

     FF Tactics offers something different in terms of gameplay from past FF games and it’s completely different from the standard Active-Time battle system that many people are so used to nowadays. First of all, battles occur on a grid and it’s reminiscent of a chess board for that matter. Because of this, you will need to plan out your battle strategy well and there is more logic and thinking involved in them. The real interesting concept of gameplay is the fact that Square has revamped and improved the Job System from Final Fantasy V. This allows a number of possible combinations and customizations to your characters in the game and Tactics offers a nice variety of Jobs and some new ones that weren’t found in FFV. Like always, you can equip armor and weapons to boost your defense and attack power as well as accessories, etc. However, equipping armor this time not only boosts your defense but it increases your max HP as well. This means that upgrading equipment is quite important as it raises your max HP and HP in Tactics is much lower than what you would expect in other RPGs. Other features in the game that prove interesting are that you can view previous scenes that you’ve completed as well as read information about the storyline and characters. The game has quite a helpful, if not very long Tutorial but it’s worth reading if you are playing Tactics for the first time. The gameplay is overall quite good and it’s what you would expect from a strategy RPG game as it mixes strategy elements in battle with abilities and EXP that are present in RPG games.

     Besides a few minor inconsistencies, the actual storyline in Tactics is very deep and there are a lot of characters involved in the events throughout the game. Tactics has a very impressive prologue and back story in relation to the events that transpired in the game and many themes that are present in all RPGs are present in this game such as: Ambition, honour, manipulation, pride and betrayal. However, while most characters don’t seem to play a very significant or important role in the game, the storyline mainly centres around only a few characters. Since the game is set in a medieval setting, middle age values come into play in which struggles occur between common folks and the noble class. Family name is quite important and religion plays a big role in the game in the form of the Church. The actual Zodiac Brave Story is well-written and can easily pass for a real medieval legend, even though it’s not real in reality. Unfortunately, the few minor inconsistencies in the storyline prevent Tactics from getting a higher score as far as the storyline goes but besides that, it’s clearly a deep and compelling storyline from the get go.

     Tactics offers an excellent musical score of almost epic proportions. Brilliantly composed and Tactics offers a good variety of battle music and some other tracks in the game. Considering that you will end up fighting a lot of battles in Tactics, the music doesn’t tend to get repetitive and boring and the tunes all fit the mood and setting quite well if you ask me. The sound effects are crisp and sharp as well but some of the actual attack sound effects could use a little bit of work. Besides this minor flaw, the actual musical score in Tactics is some of the best seen in any FF game and even rivals FFVI as far as music goes. The ending credits shows off some amazing orchestrated music and the character themes are dramatic and there are very few mediocre tracks, if any at all within the entire game. Clearly one of Tactics’ most dominating categories and the sound is one of the best aspects of the game. There is nothing much wrong with the music in Tactics.

     It kind of varies in whether or not you will like this game enough to play it again and again. Although the game can get frustrating in the beginning, once you get used to the battles, they can be quite fun at times and if you beat Tactics through without levelling up your jobs very much or do any sidequests, the game takes about 30-40 hours to beat. However, by doing the sidequests along with trying to master the jobs in the game, Tactics can easily last over 60 hours of your time doing so. Thus, the replay value is pretty solid in Tactics but then again, it’s not a game that you would probably replay more than a few times at best. The game doesn’t get old but it doesn’t offer enough to keep gamers interested for more than 200 hours or anything. The sidequests are interesting and there are even a few FFVII cameo appearances and related stuff in the Cloud and Aeris sidequest, pretty cool if you ask me. Tactics is a pretty fun game as long as you can bear the long battles and the Job System interests you.

     In my opinion, Tactics managed to exceed my initial expectations since this was my first strategy RPG game that I’ve ever played. While the battle system takes a little while to get used to, they are well done and the gameplay is truly customizable and solid if you ask me. What is really impressive about Tactics is that the storyline happens to be quite deep and compelling in my view and the character development for the main characters are generally quite good. There are plenty of important themes that are present in the game like betrayal, manipulation and ambition and they further enhance the storyline. The graphics, while sometimes not the greatest in a few areas, are clear and crisp and the game has some awesome summon animations and spell effects which make good use of the game’s camera angles. The overall musical score is very good and has some brilliantly composed music that many gamers would be proud of. The dramatic battle tunes don’t get old fast, which is a nice plus and there is a good variety of musical tracks within the game. Tactics is a long game and can perhaps take over 60 hours to complete if you want to build up the various Jobs in the game and complete most of the sidequests too. While it was pretty easy to miss out on a lot of items and secrets, Tactics is hidden with a ton of extra items and treasures. If you can bear with the long battles at times, Tactics is a really fun game which can take up over 100 hours of your time if you decide to master everything. Overall, I believe that Tactics is an excellent strategy RPG game which combines the best elements found in RPGs along with the tactical strategy involved in battles for these kinds of games. Easily one of the best Square games ever made for those who had played and experienced the game.

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