Thanks to a recent sale on the Play store, I took the plunge and bought and finally finished Final Fantasy Tactics on my own--I’d only just “played” the game by watching Let’s Plays on YouTube, and it was nice to finally experience it in the comfort of my PC [via emulator]. It is, without a doubt, one of the deepest and most interesting stories I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, and I actually had to stop and reflect after seeing the scenes above because of how grueling (but satisfying) the journey was.
I don’t even know where to begin. Do I talk about the incredibly deep systems with literally limitless potential of how you can build a party to tackle each challenge? Can I sufficiently explain the labor of love of developing each of your characters until they’re exactly as amazing as you want them to be? How can I give justice to how the combat can be planned, calculated, and utterly dominated down to a science, letting the game truly live up to its name?
There’s the incredibly engaging characters, whether they were complex protagonists of every shade of gray or utterly infuriating antagonists whose every word made you chomp at the bit to engage combat so you could make them taste steel (seriously, fuck you, Argath). And then there’s the plot, where Game of Thrones meets theology, Christian allegories, and all the great tropes of a Final Fantasy game.
There isn’t enough praise, much less words to describe just how good this game is down to its every detail. It’s challenging until you take the time to understand it and immerse yourself in its mechanics. The story, full of twists and turns that keep you guessing at the plot until the very end--and even after, once you start digging through wikis and old GameFAQs boards looking for answers. I still hear the music and sound effects in my sleep. And then there’s the language the characters speak: not quite Old English, not quite Shakespearean, but dripping with atmosphere that fleshes out the world of Ivalice wonderfully. It’s not a Tolkien-esque linguistic masterpiece, but it tickled my fancy all the same. The Devil really is in all the details, like how distinct the Lucavi’s language is while still befitting the setting as a whole.
Now that I’ve written all of that, I find myself trying to stop the urge to start over and play through it again. See you soon Ramza, Agrias, and Cid, and a heartfelt fuck you to Delita. I hope you rot.
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
prguitarman
gummygunk
areudirty
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton