Sooo.... Anybody get FF Tactics Advance?

[Mark E]

Ah, I know, I don't like the core FF series anymore. But I have to say that this title has seriously piqued my interest for two reasons:

 

a) The high regard the original PSOne title is held in.

The premise, which not only does something new with FF but explores some issues I'm sure would arise given such a scenario. It actually makes me interested in the story (shock horror ).

 

So I'm interested to know if anybody has put this into their SP yet, and if they did, what'd they think?

[heavy liquid]

I just picked it up tonight.

 

I've only played about a 1/2 hour so far on the Gameboy Player.

 

Right away there's no mistaking the quality of the graphics/gameplay/character design... you name it, that just oozes from it the moment you turn it on. The story is interesting, and the music is well done. I'm enjoying it very much.

 

I haven't played the first FF Tactics for the PSOne either, so I can't really compare it to that. In fact, the only other Final Fantasy I've played was FFII (or IV, if you prefer) on the SNES. So maybe someone who is familiar with all the Final Fantasys could fill me in on how this one fits into the FF universe.

[Sam P]

heavy liquid,

 

How are things shaping up with regards to FFT?

 

I'm very interested in your opinion because, like you, I haven't played the original FFT for PSOne. I do enjoy a good RPG, however.

[heavy liquid]

Hey Sam,

 

I'm still enjoying FFTA. I've only had a few hours more to devote to it. I think I've only got 3 1/2 hours in. Your saves tell you how much time you've invested in it.

 

If you've played Advance Wars and/or Tactics Ogre, and enjoyed either one, I'd say give this a shot. Since you enjoy RPG's, I'd say give it a shot. For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of Advance Wars, but couldn't get into Ogre Tactics.

 

Expect to put a lot of time into this. There's no predetermined path, and there's a huge amount of customization available. For instance, if you give a weapon to someone, it will give them certain abilities, while given to a different character, they will have different abilities from the same weapon. The game is huge!

 

You control a "clan", and select which allies from your clan that you want to send out to battle. Some battles gain you cash, items or power ups for characters. Other advance the story. There are laws for each battle, and Judges who watch over the battles. You can go to prison if you don't follow certain battle laws. I haven't been to prison yet, but I'm sure it's a matter of time. The judges give you JP points, which can be used for combos in battle. Oh, you can also mix and customize classes and abilities.

 

One feature that I like is the ability to take back your move. For instance, if you move a character, and either change your mind, or realize you can't reach who you want to attack, you can B button back before you moved, and move a different character if you wish.

 

The animation is great with no slowdown. Some of the spells have very cool visuals when cast. I'm sure it'll take a long time to get even half way through the game. Wario Ware this isn't! You have the option to save in the middle of a battle, although when you continue, it erases your save. Plan your attacks well!

[Sam P]

Thanks for the review, heavy liquid!

 

Yes, I do enjoy Advance Wars. Maybe FFT is something to think about...

 

Thanks again!

[The Daisy]

I finally got a chance to play today and I was really enjoying it.

 

My wife was having knee surgery, so I was just sitting in the waiting room and found that I was really starting to get into the game. No traces of story yet, other than the fact that he was "transported" into Final Fantasy.

 

I'm hoping to get some more time in on it tonight, but husbandly duties might take precident.

 

Glen

[blackcalx]

I had $30 in gift certificates with which I was going to purchase FFTA. However, when I got to the store they had yet to release it. They were quoting a street date that was two days later than everybody else.

 

That particular night I was feeling somewhat impatient so I bought Secret Weapons of WWII for Battlefield 1942 instead.

 

Lately I have been consoling myself with Tactics Ogre and the original FFT.

 

I will have it, someday.

[The Daisy]

I have Tactics Ogre, but I'm not sure why I didn't get into it as quickly as I did for this one. I actually like the Judge system. It makes you think more about your battles and gives you more than just the mindless "fight" option.

 

I just completed a mission where I couldn't actually attack anything and had to just use magic. That to me, was pretty entertaining.

 

That and the fact that there appears to be upwards of 100 missions that you can attempt.

 

Glen

[Ryan FB]

That and the fact that there appears to be upwards of 100 missions that you can attempt.

Actually, it appears to me that there's a total of 300 missions in the game. :shock: (go to the Clan menu, and there's a Mission Reports option that has the results of each completed mission, and all non-completed missions grayed out).

 

I've spent about 6 hours tooling around so far, and have 13 missions completed. This is gonna be a loooong game, and I get the feeling that I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

 

My only gripe so far is trying to pick out equipment for my party to use...is there any easy way to tell without buying (the educated guess/trial & error method I'm using now results in a few unusable items) who can equip what? Am I just missing something obvious? :oops:

[secretvampire]

My only gripe so far is trying to pick out equipment for my party to use...is there any easy way to tell without buying (the educated guess/trial & error method I'm using now results in a few unusable items) who can equip what? Am I just missing something obvious?

 

I was going to ask the same thing! It is a total pain trying to figure out what items are useable by what classes. I probably need to do some searching around and just get part of a FAQ or something.

[heavy liquid]

Here's how I view the effects of equipment, and sort them. I hope I can explain this okay:

 

Press Start to view status changes; positive=blue, and negative=red. Press R button to view the abilities of the equipment. To sort items, go to the World Map Menu, select Formation, then select start to open the Item List. Now you can sort each of the lists by going to them and then pressing start to Item Sort. It'll ask if you want to do this, so press Yes.

[The Daisy]

Regarding the equipment, I was wondering that as well Ryan.

 

Let me know what you find out.

 

Glen

[Ryan FB]

Okay, I spent about four more hours playing this (yeah, I had a little free time ), and I think I might have figured it out.

 

On the item selection screens (i.e. in a store when you're buying or selling, etc.), you can highlight an item and do the following:

Press R - Tells you any special abilities this item gives, and for what jobs/classes

Press Select - Gives you a short description. Pressing A gives you one more field of description. Pressing A again gives you a screen telling you to press select to see a list of jobs. Press Select here, and an overview of what jobs can use this item is shown, with those that can use it highlighted and those that can't grayed out.

 

Also, I've found all sorts of more depth/coolness now that I understand how the Item Special abilities work. Use an item with a special ability in battle enough, and you can "master" the ability such that you can switch to another item and still retain the ability. For example, I equipped a rod that allowed my Black Mage to cast Fira. Once I used it enough that I mastered the Fira ability, I switched out to a rod that let him cast Thundara. He can still cast Fira even without the Fira rod.

 

You can check your special abilities status, info, etc. as follows:

Go to the Party menu, select a character, go down one to select "Pick Abilities". Under the abilities menu, press R to bring up all special abilities you've used or are using. There will be a little bar graph or a "*Master!" next to each ability name. You can press "Select" with any ability highlighted for a short description of it. The bar to the right of the name is the AP you've gotten for that ability so far, different abilities take different amounts of AP to Master (i.e. it might take 200 AP, 300 AP, etc.). If you switch off an item while learning the special ability, your AP progress for that ability will be retained (i.e. if I'm learning Cura with a weapon and get 80 AP out of 200 for it, then switch to another weapon to learn Shell, I can switch back to the Cura weapon and pick back up at 80 AP out of 200). Very, very cool. Now that I know how to systematically switch through what weapons I'm using to master the most amount of abilities, my party has special abilities out the wazoo. Okay yeah, so this is probably in the manual or something, but who reads those things?

 

Basically, the R button seems to be treated as the "Info" button, and the Select button is the "Help/Description" button. When in doubt, smack them. :green:

[PoisonJam]

...casting "Reraise" on this topic...

 

Well I finished the main campaign over the weekend, although I still have some 160 side missions to finish. The original FFT was one of my very favorite games, and I found this to be a worthy successor, but I wish it had been a little bit harder. I remember pulling my hair out over some battles in the first one. Heck, I had a two-hour commute to work each morning and I would spend most of it plotting out battle strategies and scribbling them down ("hmm, if I equip my summoner with a ribbon and have him cast Golem, then have my black mage cast Silence, then move my dragoon up and attack the main guy..."). This game didn't have any terribly challenging battles; in fact the only time I lost a battle was when I forgot there was a Blades ban in effect and I had Marche kill a guy with his swords. Even the final three battles were a breeze with a party between levels 24-28, and with color magic banned (so not only was my black mage useless, I couldn't even heal anyone). A few Totemas and Marche's twin-sword attack and I was done.

 

Still, I have about fifty hours into the game and I enjoyed every one of them. How did you guys make out? Anyone still playing it?

[Darius]

I'm about 30 hrs into it with 102 missions completed I believe. Its fun I play it mostly when I have a few minutes here and there between other things. I would agree that the battles are too easy and it seems that after the first 20 or so missions you don't see any new equipment which I found dissapointing. I think the interface for equipping equipment and such could have been more informative.

 

I never played the first FFT but it was money well spent on this game. Asside from those previously mentioned complaints I like it a lot.

[The Daisy]

I played this a ton a few weeks ago when I was doing alot of traveling for work.

 

I'm hoping to get back into it this week, as I have another trip to get ready for. Nothing better in the Airport than a bit of GBA playing.

 

Glen

[foogledricks]

I truly enjoyin this game. I have some questions for you all. But first I'd lke to agree that the inventory system is difficult to decipher. There is so much involved, I seem to figure out a interface convention every week, which re-ignites my interest in the game ("I didn't know I could use 'select' to get info on just about any menu item").

 

The Ninja isn't so great. I thought it would be really cool, but I am kind of disappointed. I hear there is a double-swords ability you can eventually get which make using the Ninja worth it, but I have not found it. How do you get this?

 

I don't know when or where I am supposed to "steal" anything. I never liked the thief, so I immediately started using other classes. Now I am thinking I should make everyone a thief so they can get the "counter" ability. I am finding that I can never steal armor or shields from anyone.

 

I have yet to capture a monster. I am at level 13 for most characters, and this monster capture has not become a part of my game at all.

 

I haven't yet developed any combos to use except the one they give your soldier for free at the beginning... so I don't even know what they really are, and to be honest, I only learned the JP was used for combos after reading a strategy guide. Many things in this game are not obvious.

 

Every once in a while, my moogle character gets a weird menu item that I choose to use that kicks ass! This giant animal shoots a later which damages everyone severely. It is awesome but I don't know what makes it available. Any ideas.

[PoisonJam]

Hey, Keith. Answers to some of your questions:

 

Ninjas are pretty disappointing, I agree. Especially since they were so cool in the original FFT. But the double-sword ability is fantastic, and it's really the only reason to play as a Ninja at all. To learn it, you have to equip the Nosada blade and then earn 999 ability points (AP). You won't get that blade until quite a bit further in the game, though.

 

Stealing is actually pretty useful in this game. I had the main character (Marche) as a thief for a lot of the early battles, and I also recruited a moogle thief as well. You can get some really nice weapons this way, but you have to be behind the person you are trying to steal from, or else have your target be asleep. If you steal from a sleeping target, you have a 100% success rate. Best thing I can say is when the battle begins, check out all of the items that the opposition is wearing, decide which ones you want to steal, have one character put your victim to sleep, and then pilfer away.

 

Capturing monsters I never got into, sorry. Late in the game (after I had completed the main quest) I recruited a hunter and he has captured a few low-level monsters, but capturing never played a big part in my game.

 

Combos I found to be pretty useless as well. Early on I used them once in a while, but they didn't do significantly more damage than a regular attack. Plus they use all of your judge points (JP), and without those you can't summon totemas.

 

Which leads to your final question...that super attack is a totema, and each race can summon a different one once that character has accumulated 10 JP. Well actually, you gain the ability to summon each race's totema at different parts in the game. So at first you can't summon any, then you beat some boss and gain the ability to summon the Moogle totema, then the Viera, Nu Mou, Bangaa, and so on as you progress further and further in the game and beat the sub-bosses. They are really powerful attacks (although you have to pay attention because some of them--like the Nu Mou totema--do damage to MP, not HP) and they will play a big part in your big battles.

 

Your character has to have 10 JP to summon, though. JP is earned by delivering the death blow to a character or by using a "recommended" attack in a battle, if you didn't know that already.

 

Hope that helps,

Dave

[foogledricks]

Much appreciated. I didn't know that using the "recommended" attacks got you JP. One question though, how often do you come across characters that you can actually steal useful things from. I imagine, that if I put to sleep every character and steal from them, I will get a bunch of bronze armors, green berets, and other things that aren't useful. I just don't have a lot of confidence that stealing is a turn well spent.

[PoisonJam]

NP, man. As far as stealing goes, usually the best stuff is in a story battle (as opposed to a random clan encounter). A good thing to do is before you even select which people you are going to deploy, hit either the "R" or "L" button (I forget which) to go into "look" mode, and then move the cursor over to each enemy and hit "A" on them to see what they are carrying. If you see someone with something you want, just target that item with your thief. It is true that most enemies aren't carrying anything better than what your team already has, but every once in a while you run into something rare like a ribbon or Minerva plate or something, so it's worth checking out before you kill everyone.

 

Also, later in the game you will get a blade that allows you to steal abilities, so you no longer have to wait to master them through battles. My moogle thief almost completely mastered the "gunner" job by stealing all of the abilities of another gunner in one battle. Of course, I never used those abilities because he was more valuable as a juggler/thief, but still...