Tuesday 10 August, 2004

Been playing this for a couple of days. The first impression I got is that this game is HARD. I've played both of the Tactics Ogres, Disgaea, La Pucelle, virtually the entire Front Mission series, Sakura Taisen 1, 2 and 3, Fire Emblem (GBA), and FFT (GBA), so I'm not exactly a newcomer to the genre...

...And FFT is possibly the hardest TRPG I have encountered thus far.

First I have to mention the way in which the developers threw out some genre conventions. For instance, in the majority of the TRPGs preceding AND succeeding FFT, one could move a unit, then (if nothing else has been done with that unit) withdraw it back to its original position. Not so here; once your unit goes from Point A to Point B, that's it. This "feature" has exasperated me no end. In theory it's supposed to prevent "cheating", but in actual fact it simply amounts to withholding information from the player - information which is crucial for making proper tactical decisions.
Say I'm deploying an Archer to attack. I want to get her into range to fire upon a particular enemy, but the height system in the game means that some panels which SHOULD be within range of a longbow shot... aren't. Fine and good - but I can't tell whether any given firing position is valid until I move my Archer - and by the time I move her, it's too late to take the move back. I expected much, much better from the team behind the seminal Tactics Ogre.

Next are the added systems. What works and what doesn't?

Well, right off the bat I must say that I consider the Zodiac system a good idea with a pretty darn awful implementation. The interface for the system requires you to dig through about 3 levels of selection for EACH unit, in order to find out which units are "compatible" (compatible units deal higher damage to each other, which can seriously influence your decision-making). Why can't I select an option to instantly view which targets a particular unit will be more or less effective against? (I'll be making a little chart to let me check that "at a glance", but should any game really require players to go to that extent?)

The death system in FFT is pretty nasty. If one of your units falls in battle, you have 3 turns to bring him/her back to life, or they'll be gone forever. The worst part is that the Revive white magic spell (which is "supposed" to work as advertised)... has a chance of FAILURE! I have no idea what influences this, nor why in the world the developers chose to make this spell capable of fizzling, but it's incredibly frustrating and NOT fun to rush a mage to the spot ("Mediiiic!"), only to have their Revive spell fizzle and your unit bite the big one. (Thankfully, there IS a "soft reset" button combo in FFT.)

The Job system is interesting, but the "cross-learning" aspect is a little tricky. It appears that if one of your units gains JP (Job Points, used for learning abilities), the other units in your party also gain JP in that class. Which is fine, except that now I have a white mage with tons of JP in the Archer class... do I really have to shuffle the jobs around every battle just to maximise abilities? Sounds counter-intuitive at best.

Now on to what FFT does RIGHT - the timing system. I really like this - it's a logical extension of the system in the first Tactics Ogre, and works well.
In essence, the turn order takes place in pseudo-"real time", so that (for example) a unit which does absolutely nothing during its turn will take its next turn more quickly, and units with a better Speed rating get more frequent turns.
This is nothing new; what FFT adds to the mix is the idea of "delayed actions". Many actions in the game - mostly magic spells and Archer abilities - operate on a delayed timer - that is to say, they will go off a short while AFTER the unit's turn ends. This allows for some rather interesting situations - say an enemy mage is about to bomb your units with a massive spell; if the conditions are right, you can rush the mage and finish him off before he has time to cast it (VERY satisfying!). Alternatively, you could have the targeted unit charge into the midst of the enemy, and when the spell goes off it'll hit them as well as your unit. Archers are the epitome of the timing system; you can choose how long you want your archer's shot to be delayed (there's an option to shoot instantly too), and the longer it's delayed, the more powerful it will become. (Sadly, if the enemy moves, the shot will miss.)

There's a mix of good and bad in this game, but I'd say there's enough good to at least counterbalance the bad, so it looks like I'll be playing it for awhile.

That's why I really like Disgaea. You can basically "undo" a lot of your moves, swap out your characters, etc. It feels like a game in which the designers wanted you to have fun and experiment as opposed to, say, a game where you have to "solve" the puzzle a certain level implies.

It's funny but, I don't remember not having the ability to undo a movement. Are you sure you're not missing a button?
Anyway, I finished it eons ago, so my memory can be rotten. Or I have so much fun with the game that I forgot about the bad points.

The Zodiac system was so hidden in the interface that I never, ever, used it. You can forget it and play the game just right.

About the death system, I really loved it. Each time one of your units was taken down you have just three turns to revive him, or loosing it *for good*. That fact give the game a huge amount of stress in battle that I really miss in other games. Blocking the enemies so they can't revive their units in time was a lot of fun too.

The chance of failure of spells came from the Spirit indicator of each character. With a high Spirit, you can cast powerfull spells, but are more open to spell effects. Without spoiling anithing, I can tell you that there is a character in the game with Zero Spirit, so he cannot cast spells, but is absolutely inmune to spells too. That includes Revive and Cure spells.

Along with the Spirit indicator is the Brave indicator (or something like that). Fighters should be very brave, but a low Brave indicator can help you to find secret tresure chests in the field. Be careful, because a low Brave will turn you into a Chicken (and NO, I'm not kidding, and Yes, you will have spells to lower Brave levels ;).

Another very classical Final Fantasy part of the game is the Job System. If my memory is not wrong, you get extra job points in Jobs that you have not trained only when you send unit in missions. Let's say, you go to an Inn and accept a mission to send an Archer, if the mission is succesfull all your units will receive some Archer Job Points. That doesn't happen with normal missions.

I agree with you in the excelent timing system. Nothing like beating the hell out of an enemy caster while he is (doh!) casting.

*Please* play at least until you have Calculators in your party. You will not regret it ;)

JP spillover: If a character in a class does an action, everyone else on your team gains 1/4 of earned JP in that character's class. It's a good way to grab some reaction/support/movement abilities out of a class you don't plan to move people into. There is absolutely no need to "move characters around" to maximize points, unless you're trying to unlock certain classes, which require levels in other classes.

The death system is easy. Would you rather have Fire Emblem? Even Disgaea doesn't let you raise units on the battlefield. If you keep missing with Raise, raise the casters and target's Faith, which you can do with Mediators. This will greatly improve chances of it hitting. Or just keep Item as a secondary skill. With sensible playing, there's no need to ever lose a unit.

The Zodiac system is ignorable unless you're doing some crazy challenge game, in which case you should know FFT backwards and forwards before trying one anyway.

There's a guide on GameFAQs that details every single battle mechanic in FFT. It's called the "Battle Mechanices Guide". Reference it.

I'll agree with you on the Move thing, but honestly as long as you think things through and pay some attention to height tolerance it's not too bad. But by no means if FFT hard. It's actually really easy to break in half and just steamroll over everything. I'll give you a hint...Math Skill and ninja with Martial Arts. (also: archers suck. Don't use them.)