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aray's Final Fantasy Tactics (PS)
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| [January 29, 2007 01:40:58 AM]
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I'm going to use this log to explain why the battle mechanics in Final Fantasy Tactics work so well.
If anything the core element that lends itself to being the best aspect of the battle mechanics is the reward structure. Not only do you acquire experience points from battles but you also acquire job points. These can be used to purchase abilities for the jobs you characters are currently in, as well as level up jobs. The ability to pick and choose abilities for your characters changes the dynamic of the game drastically. For example, saving up job points early in the game and purchasing the expensive ability "steal weapon" in one of your character's theif jobs will allow you to avoid difficulties in certain battles like the Execution Site battle with Gafgarion and his annoying Blood sword.
The ability to mix job classes is a very useful game mechanic as well. I find having the chemist job as a secondary job very helpful, especially if I have a knight or a monk who doesn't have many abilities due to a recent job change. Reaction abilites are a very nifty concept as well. Basically if a character is attacked they they have the ability to react. For example if my samurai gets attacked by a monk and he has the reaction ability "blade grasp" enabled, he will be able to dodge the attack 100 percent of the time. The reaction chances are based on the brave percentage which is a statistic of each character in the game. Support abilities are also great in that they allow you to equip abilites to alter your current job. For example you can allow an archer to equip a sword, granted you learn the ability "equip sword" from the knight job skill set.
As you can see there is a lot to configure in order to make the perfect attack squad for battle, but this leads to why I think the game has a high replay value.
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| [January 29, 2007 01:23:05 AM]
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Final Fantasy Tactics is one of those games that you feel like you could play through a million times and never get tired of, it's that good. Granted the graphics are dated compared to the current crop of games being sported on the next generation video game consoles, the game ages well. I just joined the class before the midterm but luckily I've been playing this game since the beginning of the quarter so I have a lot to discuss.
Firstly, I have to mention the job system as being a well very executed gameplay mechanic. There are 18 jobs that generic characters in your battle party can use, and in addition there are various special characters you can acquire throughout the game with jobs that are unique. The jobs are accessable by progressing through a series of prerequisites to unlock them. Calculator, Bard, and Dancer being some of the most high level jobs in the game. This emergent complexity keeps the player interested in the game, as they get a sense of accomplishment from watching their chracters grow and become more skillful.
Secondly, the story in Final Fantasy Tactics is very compelling, although most people will neither understand it the first play through, nor care to since they will be too busy trying to get through some of the tougher battles in the game. Translation issues with some the plot elements doesn't make things any easier. Now that I've played the game a few times I understand a appreciate the rather complex plot.
Currently I'm in chapter 4 and I have just finished the Dogulas Pass battle. I'll do an indepth review of the battle mechanics in the next log.
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aray's Final Fantasy Tactics (PS)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 29 January, 2007
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