Final Fantasy Challenge: Final Fantasy Tactics Part 1. “Tolerate No Injustice. Stray Not From the True Path”

You know, I actually bounced off of Final Fantasy Tactics twice in my life. First, back on the original Playstation (although I played it on the PS2) I got to about the fourth map and couldn’t do it. I died face down in the dirt over and over again because of those goddamn archers. The second time, I tried it again on the PSP, the War of the Lions edition, and I got farther, but I can’t remember how far I got. Part of me thinks I got to chapter 2, because I remember the conversation with Mustadio about the ancient world, but I don’t remember the end of chapter 1 at all, so I don’t know. Either way, no matter how far I got on the PSP, I’m officially further than I’ve ever been now that I’ve completed the second chapter and got Agrias on my team. I don’t think I’m going to bounce off of it, even though I do feel like a lot of the issues I have with the game are still here.

Now, the game is definitely top-notch, I’m not coming into this as a negative. I’ve just played a lot of Strategy RPGs, especially Strategy JRPGs, and it’s rare that I bounce off. Especially one with as compelling a narrative as Final Fantasy Tactics, but I’ve done it twice, and I can see why, as even with the slightly eased accessibility options of the Ivalice Chronicles, it’s still got some issues. I do feel like I spend three-quarters of the game in the character menu. I demoed it to some friends, one of which had never seen it but I think it’s up his alley, and my best friend who has beaten this game more than once said that Final Fantasy Tactics is like American football. You spend a lot of time going over your strategies and tactics, getting ready for the fight, then there’s the fight. I am spending less time in the actual battles, which is something I don’t like as much. I don’t mind the customization, I do like it, but because you’re almost always outnumbered, outflanked or in a bad situation (or all of the above, really), it does mean that I’m spending more time double checking my optimization than anything else.

Honestly, some of that wouldn’t be too bad if the game wasn’t so slow. It’s not just the speed of the game, going from unit to unit, but the fact that they talk. A lot. I mean, Ramza will often have big, long speeches with his enemies, allies and many others as the level progresses. I did the fight at the gallows just about an hour before I wrote this, it took me a few tries, and the conversation between Ramza and Gaffgarion, and Agrias when she decides to chime in, is a lot. I’m glad, at least, I get to fast forward through it now. Also, I don’t have to wait until I’m dead to restart the fight. So, you know, it’s a bit slow, it’s a bit clunky, I think mechanically, the Tactics Advance games are better (although part of that is because they’re faster and don’t have the camera issues), but in the end, none of that matters, because none of them are as good or as compelling as this game.

I don’t know if I’m going to rank Final Fantasy Tactics on the list, but if I do, it will be S-tier with XII, XIV and VI. This game is amazing. Like, there’s a lot of shit here I find to be incredibly frustrating, but I’ve learned some patience from Dark Souls (and now I can fast forward through the dialogue, so I don’t have to sit through it a half dozen times) and I’ve found that even when I find a map to be frustrating, I know I just need to figure out the trick. The game is about optimization and problem solving, not about fighting a battle (which is cool, we’ll talk about those themes in a bit), and so the idea is to figure out the solution rather than execute combat. That’s pretty cool. Once I nail a battle I’ve been struggling with all day, there is a sweet sense of satisfaction that I don’t get in other Strategy RPGs, except maybe the first time I beat the Kraken fight in Shining Force II.

Each battle is interesting, and that’s important. Now, do I wish it was easier to grind out my characters, sure. Do I wish the battles went faster, of course. However, again, that doesn’t matter because each (canon) battle is an interesting puzzle that is important to the character’s journey. There’s nothing wasted here. Even bullshit fights where they’re just dropping summoners out of the blue on your is about teaching you the importance of Faith and Bravery. The fights where you’re out gunned and split up is about understanding how to maneuver yourself and to check that you’ve built your characters properly.

Beyond that, however, it’s not just about combat, this story is amazing. The writing in this game is so good, and it’s interesting to compare it to Tactics Ogre, and how much better it is there. How similar, too, and while it’s cool you can get a different game if you massacre the village or not, I’m actually kind of glad that there aren’t choices, because it allows for a tight, singular story with lots of character development, and I prefer that to a bunch of smaller, less developed stories. Not that Tactics Ogre’s stories are bad in any way, but they don’t match up to what’s here. This game focuses on Ramza and Delita’s journeys, and even halfway through, Ramza changing from a wide-eyed idealist to a reluctant revolutionary is great, and it parallels Delita’s journey to becoming a real piece of shit. I mean, they were drawing parallels between Delita and Argath immediately (and it was great to see him die face down in the snow). Ramza having to understand the nature of the world, and still deciding to stand against it is a great story, and great character development.

The politics, too, are very well done. They’re a bit complicated, what with the queen’s children getting assassinated and the princess being adopted by her brother (which is not ahistorical, but it’s a bit weird for a European-inspired fantasy game, but it did happen), but the conflict between Larg and Goltanna is simple enough to understand. The War of the Lions being a game to control the regency over an impressionable young king is very good, and I do think that it’s an interesting backdrop for Ramza’s story, which is about saving the world from Ultima (yeah, I know a bit of story, which is why I can’t actually remember how far I got before). I do kind of understand how it got a weird translation back in 1997, though, because this shit is complicated.

Thematically, the game is very well done. It’s a story about how nobles abuse their position, and how those with power need to swim against the current to make a better world, even if it brands you heretic or outlaw. It’s a very anti-authoritarian kind of game, and very Final Fantasy. I think that’s why it does a better job at the similar things Tactics Ogre does, because it has a stronger, direct thematic tie. It knows what it wants to say. Ramza isn’t going to massacre any villagers, after all. Hell, Denim really shouldn’t, either, but whatever, that’s the choice in Tactics Ogre. Either way, this game is very strong about it’s themes, as it comes to even the canon fights. The reason you’re always outgunned and on the run, the reason why each fight is more about solving the puzzle than fighting, is because first, Ramza is against the world. That’s not easy, and it shouldn’t be. Second, though, it’s because war isn’t good. Sure, Ramza’s company is mostly a commando unit who avoids real battles (although I did besiege a castle today, but it was more D&D than anything else, since I broke in during the dead of night, then killed a demon), but it’s still a game of death. Ramza is a good person, and while being a knight is about protecting people, it’s also about killing people. These fights aren’t about executing combat, but a plan, because the game is about how people who use violence to overcome everything begin to use it for everything. Violence corrupts them and it becomes their only answer. The opening to Chapter 3 spells this out, with Orlandeau straight up saying “everything is shit, we have refugees all over the kingdom and we have no money and hundreds of thousands have died, we need to negotiate for peace” and Goltanna is like “mother fucker, we ain’t stopping, there is no peace.” Ramza wins because he’s smart.

After all, Gaffgarion was right, I couldn’t beat him in a fight. So I had a black mage fry him.