Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)

Ten years old and back for more!
1/29/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a remake -- a port in a way, and not a port of a recent game on another platform. It's a port of a game from 1998 (called simply: Final Fantasy Tactics). But given that the genre is strategy/RPG, you wouldn't know it unless you were told (or had played the original release on the Sony PlayStation) because the graphics and effects are enhanced for the PSP. As it stands, despite the intervening years, The War of the Lions stands alongside Jeanne d'Arc in terms of quality, offering a deep, rich (and typically long-winded) Final Fantasy-quality tale, meaningful tactical and strategic options, endless customization and long-term replay value.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions isn't a straight port; there are a few tweaks and additions that make it feel like a modern game. New playable characters and new classes are offered. The Dark Knight is a straightforward tough guy, while the Onion Knight tastes better on a burger -- um -- no, the Onion Knight is more subtle. He needs the care and feeding of experience points (and job points, described below) to grow into a powerhouse. Both new classes are only available to players who've mastered a bunch of the old classes, and the process is confusing enough to ensure that these new classes are only available to experienced tactical wizards.

Better still is the much-improved localization -- the poor dubbing and terrible translations from 1998 are replaced with much clearer, much more talented voice acting and much better writing/translation. This should be of interest to fans because the story has been celebrated -- I found it melodramatic, often eye-rollingly so, but I soon started caring about the winningly baroque tale, like seeing Renaissance Europe through the eyes of the East. New cinematic and cel-shaded cut scenes make the game feel more like a modern Final Fantasy title.

They've retained the squat and noseless look from the previous game -- this game takes place in a Shakespearian kingdom populated entirely by lily-white, blond-haired dwarfs (or children). The battlefields and maps are clear, and it's easy to figure out elevation differences and other modifiers on combat. However the camera is problematic, despite the fact that you have almost total control of it: somehow, sometimes, it can't be moved to a position to see the action clearly.

Tactical game developers like to use the term RPG to tout the way your characters evolve and grow over the course of the game. This game is an overachiever, offering countless ways to customize your characters. Throw in tons of weapons, weapon upgrades, spells, items and skills and you not only get a deep and rich tactical game, you get a game where figuring out how and with what to upgrade your characters is half the challenge. Characters also have jobs and can change their job on a whim -- well, kind of on a whim. How it actually works is that each character accrues "job points" in all jobs. Meaning, if a knight starts firing arrows, he'll accrue archer points. In this way mages may become knights or knights can become archers and more. After gaining enough levels, new jobs emerge, like the aforementioned Onion Knight, or the cool-sounding Time Mage, or even Ninja. In this way you can customize your party for any encounter.