Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
March 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Make Your Own (Easier) Miniatures
- Gaming in the Media: The Cutest Serving of Stereotypes: The NYT on Dating a Gamer
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Victoria Lamb
Articles
- Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Analyzing a LARP
Author: Stephanie Pegg
- Sculpting Player Expectations
Author: Brendan Davis
- Women’s Gaming Group: First Impressions
Author: Robyn Fleming
Stephanie uses a LARP questionnaire to examine the questions "What do LARPers really want?" and "How different are men and women gamers, really?"
Brendan shares tips on how to use Power Point to get players excited and into the campaign they are about to embark on.
Robyn discusses her first impressions of her all-women gaming group.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Capcom, PSP , 2007
As a huge fan of the Playstation title, this reincarnation of Final Fantasy Tactics for PSP instantly jumped to the top of my must-have list. But a subtle fear lurked inside me: Would I throw away $40 for just a duplicate title with a couple new features? I almost dug out the original, prepared to suffer through the sketchy English translation. Almost.
Overview
We follow the story of Ramza, of the noble Beoulve house, and his childhood friend Delita Hyral, a commoner. In an attempt to stop the noble houses from the oppressing the commoners, an unknown party is orchestrating a war over who is to be next in to the throne. With conflicts arising from Ramza’s idealistic nature, Delita’s relationship with Princess Ovelia, and interference from a corrupt Church, Final Fantasy Tactics has an extremely involving, complex plot.
Though several special characters join your party, new recruits can be hired at any time. All characters are fully customizable through the Job system; a set of character classes based on magical and physical attacks as well as support skills. Battles may take quite a while and require patience and planning, as well as an understanding of how to best utilize the characters’ skill sets. The action is turn-based, allowing players to think their moves through while observing the terrain and enemies.
A Classic Reborn
The War of the Lions provides several great new additions to an already fantastic game. Cel-shaded cutscenes, new jobs, characters and additional story elements improve on the original, but the most significant change is an all-new English translation. With such a complex story to tell, the original game’s often borderline-incomprehensible translation really hurt the experience, but now the plot feels completely different, and the actions and motives of the characters are much clearer. For example, the original’s opening narration reads “Many heroes and wizards came out of there. And Gariland was no exception either.”, but the new version is fluid and understandable; “Many were the young adventurer and mage who stepped forward to counter this threat. Of such, the city of Gariland, too, saw its share…”
The translation extends to skill names, place names, and job titles, all of which are now logical and practical. In some cases the differences between texts are staggering: the Chemist’s previously confusing “Move-Find Item” skill is now an easily understandable “Treasure Hunter”. Monster names were also changed, most noticeably the names of the Lucavi demons, which now match the Espers of Final Fantasy XII.
New scenes expand on elements of the plot, covering Delita, Ovelia, as well as other, lesser characters. Animated cutscenes make the game feel more Final Fantasy, though hearing such cultured voices coming from cute anime characters was rather odd. The voice acting is superb, with Phil LaMarr as Ramza and Robin Atkin Downes as Delita.
Gameplay is slower, especially at the beginning of battles and during the execution of flashy skills which have length, non-skippable animations. This was highly irritating, but I eventually became accustomed to it after a couple hours. Despite this, gameplay remains as entertaining, challenging and thought-provoking as the original.
The roster size increased to 24, allowing players to recruit two new characters; Luso, a character from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Balthier, from Final Fantasy XII. Recruiting Luso is actually integrated into the plot, while recruiting Balthier becomes a sidequest. They are a nice addition as a tribute to the other games in the seires, much like the original Final Fantasy Tactics’ inclusion of Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, but I found them useful in only a few situations.
Obtaining the new Dark Knight job requires a lot of effort: master Knight and Black Mage and level eight Geomancer, Dragoon, Ninja, and Samurai. And 20 kills. After some solid leveling hours, I completed the Dark Knight, and am very happy with the results. Dark Knights sacrifice HP for massive damage, and have useful ranged attacks. The other new job, Onion Knight, requires only Squire and Chemist at level six. However, like the Onion Kid class in previous games, the class is incredibly weak until later in the game, when other classes have been mastered. Onion Knights can equip any weapons and armor. Both classes are powerful, but take a long time to obtain, and are not very useful for gamers playing through only the story.
This PSP version also includes a multiplayer mode, in which players can obtain unique items, while battling with or against a friend via LAN connection. This addition rather limited, and when considering the potential for online play, feels like an afterthought, rather than a well-planned feature.
Conclusion
The War of the Lions is far more than just a copy or a re-release. Almost an entirely new game, it manages to stay true to the exciting plot and intense gameplay of the ten-year-old original while still feeling innovative and engaging. With the lack of synchronization and slower gameplay, this is not an entirely perfect remake. However, the addictive gameplay and superior English translation more than make up for this.
