Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Features
Enter a time where the land Ivalice has been divided by the War of Lions. Play as either Delital Heiral, the hero who stopped the war, or Ramza Beoulve, whose role remains a mystery. These two characters help you to unlock and discover the history of the war and Ivalice.

Witness the origin of the Ivalice Alliance, a series of titles that take place in the same world as Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.

Animated sequences combine hand-drawn style visuals with computer graphics.

Enhanced widescreen presentation, new jobs and new characters.

Challenge friends in head-to-head battles with the mulitplayer function or team up in the co-operative mode and try to outwit the game's computer opponents.

Indroductions of the Onion Knight and Dark Knight class.

Unlockables:
Unlockables and Secrets

Review By: Browncoat Rating:

So this last Christmas rolls around. I wake up before anyone else in my family, and not wanting to wake anyone up I grab my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 and grumble as my scratched copy takes about 7 times to read. Well rounding up the story, I got a PSP and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for gifts. Portable Tactics? Dude, I’m there! Here’s the real question though, can a game that was originally made and released 11 years ago hold it’s own against all the recent games? Answer, you bet! It’s the same game you remember with a few added touches, and no those extra touches don’t ruin the game, they are just a few multiplayer options. If you haven’t played either version allow me to recommend it. On the strategy side it’s a very nicely laid out game. Each character takes turns acting, and faster characters get more turns. Each character can change class numerous times through out the game. (For the uninitiated jobs are classes in the game.) The really big powers take longer to pull off too, so you have decide if you want faster smaller effects or the slower bigger bangs. On the story side it is surprisingly in depth for a “tactics” style game. The main character is a young noble trying to live up to the ideals of his father, and out from under the shadows of your half brothers. He is joined by several other characters along the way as the story unfolds. It really is an incredible game, laid out with interesting combat inset with a great story. Here is the main difference though from the previous rendition of the game. I believe this game was translated form Japanese to olde English. There are some parts where you just stop and look at the game and blink while your brain works out the translation. This is a two edged sword. On one side it’s a new way to tell the same story for those us familiar with the story. The other side is that sometimes you skip part of the story because of the difficulty of reading, something that shouldn’t be done. This however is the only hiccup in an otherwise perfect game.

High Points
An Aged game that still is just as much fun as it was ten years ago.
Versatility unexpected from a tactics game.

Low Points
Language hard to understand sometimes.
AI for "Guest" charcters sometimes infuriating.