Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics is a great game on its own, but when compared to its predecessor, it comes nowhere close. The original for the PSX was superior in graphics, gameplay, story, classes, and overall everything. But thats not to say FFT-A doesn't have something to offer.

First, this portable treasure is based entirely on missions (for the uninformed, missions in the original FFT were completely optional and sometimes pointless). This in itself creates limits, i.e. all of the missions have to be somewhat interrelated, whereas in the first one they were all basically odd jobs for your party.

Secondly, this missions system means that the whole storyline must be told through missions. I found (possibly ruining it for some) that the storyline was very shallow and obviously targeted towards a younger audience. What Square-Enix should have done is made an adult plot, with more conspiracy and dark dealings. It should have been made for the original fans, which now is late teens and college students. Part of what made FFT so good was that important characters get killed by a evil person, and they actually show them dying in the cinematic. In FFT-A, there are almost no killings except ones that they don't show in cinematics.

A final bad point with FFT-A, is that the ability system is completely untrue to the original. What is is now, is a little bit of FF9 and FFT mixed together. Obviously, this creates limits which are actually quite annoying. You learn abilities by having certain weapons equipped and getting experience wearing them. And further, the game gives you progressively better items, ensuring that you only get the useful skills just before you get bored to death with the game. (Another sidenote: In FFT, it was fun because you would fight random battles and get Job Points, which could be spent on abilities for that particular class you earned them in. This way, if you saved up enough or did a ton of battles, you could land some of the awesome abilities/spells early on in the game, allowing for more fun.)

So in conclusion, FFT-A is a great game if you are new to the series, but if you are a veteran like me, expect dissapointment.