[Raguna]

Well yeah,i was talking with mao and poe today at the shoutbox about this game and they didnt seem to even know it existed xD,so i tought talking about it would be nice

Comprising a Tactics game on PSP, the excellent Revenant Wings on DS and now this top-notch reworking of what, we suspect, was intended to be a GBA game, the Ivalice Alliance trilogy has proved to be a tremendously impressive departure from the main Final Fantasy titles.

The Sealed Grimoire is another tactical RPG with more than a little Ogre Battle about it, but it stands on its own by virtue of its genuinely high-quality execution. Polished almost to perfection, it's hard to see how the Tactics series can make any significant improvement on this, at least from a pure gameplay perspective.

When the game begins, you're warped into a strange world where a gang of men are contemplating the best way to attack a huge mutant budgie. You quickly sort them out with a battle strategy and the budgie is felled, with the aid of a mysterious stranger who insists on fighting independently of the team.
The story isn't going to win any prizes, particularly if you can't read Japanese and, like us, have to make up your own. But in Final Fantasy Tactics, actions speak louder than words.

The future's all mapped out
It's all about fighting on a grid-based 3D map. Unseen stats determine the order in which units can attack, and each turn consists of a movement phase, an action phase and a defensive reorientation in preparation for enemy retaliation.

Before the battle begins, you select a clan from among the various individuals you've managed to recruit. You'll have to take the terrain into account, as well as the strength of the opposition - for example, an area with high ground lends itself to units with long range weapons, such as bows or magic attacks. Keeping the enemy pressed into a central kill zone, then peppering them from the edges of the map is the definition of cheap satisfaction.

However, it's rarely so easy. Each fight comes with a pre-defined Law attached, which can often hamper your natural fighting style. If you favour the long-range approach, you'll be ruined if the Law happens to forbid long-range weapons. On a more subtle level, there are rarer Laws that prevent you attacking opponents with a lower level than yours, Laws against hurting particular character classes, and many, many more.

Meet your "in" laws
There's no way you'll prosper in these sorts of battles unless you know the Law, so having an online English FAQ to hand is absolutely essential. Certain Laws can be obscure, to say the least, and the penalty for not following them is a very low score at the end of the round, which makes life more difficult as the game goes on.


As a sort of counter-balance to the punitive Law system, you can select a positive benefit that applies to the entire clan. To make the battle a little easier, you can go for effects such as increased range, increased speed or extra damage. If you're more confident in your abilities, you can opt to defer the freebie until the end of the fight, when you'll receive it in the form of a hefty EXP boost.

On top of all that, there's a job system that will affect the specialist skill set available to your clan members, and a rock-paper-scissors arrangement of super-effective attacks and immunities. Beneath what seems like a fairly simple battle RPG, there's a huge amount of unseen data.

The amazing look of the game makes it something worth persevering with, even in Japanese. The diorama-style levels are just gorgeous pieces of art, and they make perfect sense, from a tactical point of view, as battle locations. If you've played a previous Tactics or Ogre Battle then you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out what's going on.

The control scheme is the one thing we weren't so happy with. The game can't have been shifted from GBA to DS that late in its development cycle, so there's no reason why it couldn't have had a stylus control system of some sort. As it is, we were left prodding at the screen to no avail - you have to use the D-pad for absolutely everything, from menu selections to movement. Even if stylus control might have led to the odd error with the pseudo-3D viewpoint, it wouldn't have mattered as there's an undo function for taking back misplaced moves. It's a bit lazy, and we hope they upgrade it for the UK release, whenever that may be.

In all, it's top stuff for Tactics fans who don't mind the odd (thousand) Japanese menus - a long-lasting, extremely challenging adventure that's as deep as you could wish for without being unduly inaccessible.

review taken from computerandvideogames.com,all credits belong to them :P

this game is very good,seriously only bad things i found out were 2,first...the main character clothes...i mean...WHAT THE HELL,did clowns get those for him or is his starting class a juggler(no it isnt btw,its the average soldier),and second,for a game so good,why keep it stained with the lame "advance" on its name xD,it cant even compare to its predecessor..

oh btw...vaan,penelo,montblanc and maybe even other characters from other ffs make their appearances,and vaan clothes,suprinsingly arent lame like the ff12 one xD




actually i think he stole some of balthier clothes

also the judges...Loki would love them...they can be so cruel sometimes...like,my team in entirely male,and the law is...you cant hurt the opposite sex...or...you can't be robbed(steal --- or mug or w/e) and im against a team of thieves or soldiers with mug,or even worse,"No Missing"...wtf,if u miss u are found somewhat guilty xD,man im happy that missing is hard leaving aside some skills ^^"

[kpoeira]

great game, and turns out better when you got all the jobs available (codes)
though the new races suck, i just play with the original´s cuz those are the strongest...

[darkdopple]

O.o OMG! Vaan has a shirt...anyways I might get this. I have a few DS games I want to get so this has now reached the list. it has been a while since I played a tactical rpg....even though I suck at them, I still like them

[Raguna]

kpoeira...using codes sucks and btw...seeks may suck,but grias are pretty good if u take a bit of time to train them,moogles and nu mous are worthless,moogles are even more weaker than before,the best three races are humes,vieras and bangaas,vieras are debuffs whores,bangaas damage,and humes can do anything :P

[GatoNegro]

well, i started playing recently and i have like 50 missions complete, and so far the game is pretty good!

[Raguna]

gato note that you can get some special characters at certain points(vaan penelo and a playboy guy that is always surrounded with viera chicks :P)

[GatoNegro]

thats what i have hear, but i have only talked with vaan and penelo in their quest, but i haven't encounter with them, and whos your best teammate? mines is Adel(don't know if the same name is in the US version) with Ninja abbilities at level 25 with soo far the best abbilities double swords!

[BaltazarDZ]

I'm so going to get this one =w=. Might have wait for a bit though as I just got my Ring of Fates. Anyways the Tactics series are always interesting as they have such a huge variety to character/team development. That's waht I like in it the best.

[kpoeira]

Quote: Originally Posted by Raguna

kpoeira...using codes sucks and btw...seeks may suck,but grias are pretty good if u take a bit of time to train them,moogles and nu mous are worthless,moogles are even more weaker than before,the best three races are humes,vieras and bangaas,vieras are debuffs whores,bangaas damage,and humes can do anything :P

nop i dont think so, after playing ff tactics, ff tactics advance, and disgaea's games i have learned that it's not worthy of your time to get all the job's, and codes make things easier for those who are a busy ppl, also this game hasn't changed that much, the ideal team would be a human which first job is thief (for the speed and counter), getting him into a ninja (to learn double sword) and then make him a paladin, for the viera: first a white mage (for the great mp), then a red mage (for double cast) and then a summoner to be able to summon two creatures in one turn, as for the bangaa id make him learn dragonheart (dragoon) and then make him a gladiator, and for the nu mou id go with sage....
and btw nu mous dont suck.... if you train them properly in magic ^^

[Raguna]

regardless i dont like magic wielding users,i am a debuff players,i just love making enemies disabled or immobilized...also,one really broken ability is the seek's ranger mirror item ability,it makes an effect of an item u use be reversed...example,u used it with a x-potion,deals 200 damage instead of recovering,or..u used it with a maiden's kiss,100% chance of charming,a good human would have parivir with dual wield and fighter sub,why? parivir already hurts like hell,dual wield would make hurt even more,and some fighter skills can really help(besides parivir skills can deal some status ailments,so also useful)

[kpoeira]

i see... im realy into magic, i cant stand a battle without having ye good and ol' black and white magic, also i didn't know about pavirir, maybe cuz im not that advance in the game lol (lvl 10), though it's really cool to have adell's hidden job while you are still a noob, then again cool advice there, ill keep that in mind

[Raguna]

parivir u just gotta make sure to give him either good defense equips,good speed equips or lvl up a job that has a good defense growth rate...cause his defense sucks..but his damage owns,he has pratically all deadly status ailments with him(berserk,doom,immobilize and so on,berserk can really screw any mages)

also additional tip...vaan is just like a normal hume,his special class(sky pirate) has the best skills for looting,and one nice passive skill called vigilante which he starts with,makes he doesnt take any additional damage from behing or from the sides but when it comes to fight it sucks...so yeah..just treat him like luso with neat steal skills