Final Fantasy Tactics Member Review for the PS

Taste my blade! As soon as I can move again!

Final Fantasy Tactics is THE top of the strategy game genre.  It has revolutionized the way strategy games are made.  Many different games tried their style, such as Suikoden: Tactics for the PS2, but it is pale in comparison to FF Tactics.

Tactics is about a young cadet named Ramza Beoulve who, after a series of events, gets rapped up in a war that will destroy the world.  The typical RPG Storyline.  The only exception is Tactics is not real-time combat, like let's say FFXII, or Random Encounters, like FF I-X2, but a masterfully crafter tactical grid battle system. 

Let's say you get into a fight.  Chocobos, and a bomb.  You are on a 20x15 grid, or 15x20, or something similar to this (it differs), with 5 people.  Whoever starts is based on speed.  Chocobo's move.  Your turn.  You can only move a set amount of squares, and then attack within your set attack perimiter.  Like, a knight can only attack whoever his directly in front, in back of, of to the side of him.  An archer however, can attack 3, 4 square's away.  This requires a balance of melee fighters, and magic users.

Tactics also uses a system called the Job system.  When you start the game, you are a squire or a chemist.  A squire being the base for all melee based characters, the chemist for the magic based characters.  If you get the job points, you can upgrade to a Knight, an Archer, a Black Mage, or a White Mage.  They upgrade, and then they upgrade, and so on.  There are also hidden jobs, which means you require more than a level 2 Squire to become a Knight.  An example is the Dancer, which requires a Level 4 Geomancer and a level 4 Lancer.  In total, there are 20 job classes.

Ramza also befriends many special class characters, such as Agrias a Holy Knight with non-normal type abilities. 

The game itself is extremely long, and wonderfully hard, although not DragonQuest hard.  It requires training, and lots of it, and also holds the best hidden character you can find: Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy is a pioneer in Tactical games, and revolutionized how tactical games are made.  It set a standard, an unprecedented standard, for all other games to follow suit.  So far, none have done so.  Therefore, Final Fantasy tactics deserves an A.