FinalFantasyTactics
Latest
'Final Fantasy Tactics' hits Android
Final Fantasy players, lovers and haters, come together and rejoice: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has finally launched on Android. It hit iOS back in 2013, but now the playing field is leveled. This is a port of the 2007 PSP game War of the Lions, which was in turn based on the 1997 original PlayStation game, Final Fantasy Tactics. It's $14 on Android, so cancel your weekend plans and enjoy.
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions updated, on sale for half price
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions arrived on iOS a little while ago, and it's long been lauded as one of the best tactical strategy games out there. And there are two good reasons you should check it out right now if you haven't yet. First and foremost, the game just got updated. There are now better graphics in the game than ever before, all meant for higher resolution Retina Displays. The update also adds improvements to the game's animations, and iCloud integration has been improved as well. Square Enix says it's not quite working correctly on the iPhone just yet, but it should soon, and the iPad works just fine. And additionally, to celebrate the update, the series is also on sale (which is even more important when you consider how rarely Square Enix drops prices on its games). The iPhone version is down to $7.99, and the iPad version is only $8.99, both still pricey, but both half off of their usual costs. If you've been waiting to play this one, there's your chance to grab one or both.
Daily iPad App: Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics first came out for the original PlayStation in 1997 as a more strategic take on the famous roleplaying game franchise. I didn't get around to playing it until 2001, but when I did, it turned out to be a peerless game that still ranks among my all-time favorites. Between a deep combat and character growth system that satisfied the stat nerd in me and an extremely well-crafted, almost Shakespearean story, the original PlayStation version consumed a solid two months of my free time 11 years ago. In 2007 I was excited to hear it was being re-released with an updated translation and some other tweaks, but I was then disappointed to hear that it would be exclusive to the PSP, a system I never had any interest in owning. Final Fantasy Tactics was announced for iOS not long after the original iPad's debut, and right away I imagined the game fitting the then-new tablet like a glove. But a series of delays meant the port kept getting pushed back, and it wasn't until over a year after its initial announcement that Final Fantasy Tactics came to the iPhone... but not the iPad. Square Enix promised an iPad version within a month of the iPhone version's release, but Square Enix is definitely a company where you have to take release dates with a very large grain of salt. Six months after the iPhone version launched, Final Fantasy Tactics has arrived at long last on the iPad, but at US$17.99 it may well be one of the most expensive games on the App Store. Any review of Final Fantasy Tactics for iPad has to answer two questions at minimum. First, how well does this extremely complex game translate to the iPad's simple, touch-driven interface? Second, is this game worth almost twenty bucks in a market dominated by an overwhelming majority of games that hover between $0.99 and $2.99? First, I'll address the interface. Final Fantasy Tactics is a very deep game, one whose user interface was always fairly obtuse to begin with: menus within menus within menus, like the designers were predicting the film Inception years in advance. That complex and highly layered interface carries over from the earlier versions onto the iPad; in fact, as far as I can tell Square Enix essentially ported the PSP version to iOS while barely revisiting the interface at all. Without having re-optimized the game's controls for a touchscreen (aside from a welcome tweak that lets you rotate battlefields to any angle), Final Fantasy Tactics' interface can often be a chore to wade through. Even at nearly twenty hours into the game, I still find myself struggling to target units on the battlefield correctly on a first attempt. The game's veritable explosion of menus will prove daunting for novice players to navigate on the iPad's screen; this is not a game an eight-year-old is going to enjoy unless his/her I.Q. and patience are both off the charts. None of this should imply that the game is unplayably confusing, but as I navigate through the mostly menu-driven UI I'm silently thankful that Apple didn't simply shove OS X onto the iPad and instead went with a more simplistic approach in iOS. If Final Fantasy Tactics' interface is anything to go by, using a full port of OS X on a touchscreen would be maddening if I had to do it every day. It's worth noting that the iPad port doesn't suffer from the infamous slowdowns that plagued the PSP version of the game and earlier versions of the iPhone port. Final Fantasy Tactics runs extremely smoothly on my iPad 2, and the app fully launches within only a few seconds, much faster than I expected it to. The second big question: Is Final Fantasy Tactics worth eighteen bucks? It depends. Final Fantasy Tactics on iPad is definitely worth $17.99 if: You played the original on PlayStation, but never the PSP remake You played the PSP remake but don't have a PSP anymore You're a fan of tabletop-style or strategic RPGs and looking for a challenge You don't already own the iPhone version For me, Final Fantasy Tactics on iPad was a guaranteed launch-day purchase regardless of the price, and the relatively high cost of the iPhone version actually makes the iPad version look like a bargain by comparison. Final Fantasy Tactics costs just two dollars more on the iPad than on the iPhone, and the game's interface is unquestionably better-suited to the iPad's much larger screen. The game has an epic play length, too, especially compared to the more disposable "pick up and play" titles that litter the App Store's $0.99 price tier. Though $17.99 sounds like a big outlay in the App Store economy, by the time you've played all the way through Final Fantasy Tactics that may well turn out to be fifty cents or less for every hour of gameplay. I don't remember exactly how much time I spent on the original PlayStation version, but it was probably in excess of a hundred hours. Whether that $18 is well spent is harder to answer if you're new to the game or the genre. Final Fantasy Tactics is difficult to master; the game's difficulty is punishing, especially in the earliest chapters of the game. If you're more used to the "press X to not die" gameplay that Final Fantasy XIII offered, you may find Final Fantasy Tactics' learning curve unforgivably harsh. On the other hand, if you're looking for a game that has one of the most well-crafted stories ever written for a video game combined with gameplay that has almost limitless options, that may well be worth the $18 all by itself.
Daily iPhone App: Squids
Squids is an interesting way of bringing tactical strategy to a very casual kind of game. The game has a nice RPG layer, with turn-based combat and classes of units that you can train and level up while playing. But the "combat" itself is super casual. During fights you essentially pull back and fling your squids around. In a way it feels like the game combines casual gameplay with more tactical thinking. Unfortunately, in practice the game never really succeeds at either. Merely seeing how the two styles mix is fun. The game's only 99 cents for the launch sale right now, with full Game Center integration and plenty of content to explore. I'd say look at Squids if you're more looking for something more casual, but if you are really into tactical RPGs, it's likely you'll need a little more than this. On the other hand, if you've heard good things about games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Shining Force but tend to play more casual titles, Squids might be a great entry point. Final Fantasy Tactics is on iOS as well, but it ratchets up the complexity quite a few notches from Squids, even if the gameplay is similar.
Final Fantasy Tactics: First look
The much anticipated Final Fantasy Tactics has finally hit the App Store. Retailing at a somewhat steep US$15.99, Square Enix brings The War of the Lions to the iPhone. An iPad version is due for release this Fall. I haven't had as much time to spend playing this as I might like, so this write-up represents only first impressions. Compared to App Store norms, Tactics may seem pricey. But when you look at some of the prices Final Fantasy cartridges go for on Amazon and eBay, $16 isn't entirely out of the ballpark. We've been buying FF on Gameboy Advance, and the demand remains high for these games. The game is a huge download -- nearly half a gigabyte -- and like other members of the Final Fantasy family, Tactics is primarily a port rather than a re-envisioning. There's no Retina Display support, although visuals have been "adapted for optimal performance on iPhone/iPod touch screens." For the most part, you're buying into nostalgia. It's a way to return to one of your favorite games, bringing it to a more convenient platform. If you're already familiar with the gameplay, well, you're already familiar with the app. If you're not, expect extensive how-to tutorials and hours and hours of playtime once you've mastered the basics. And, as my daughter points out, it totally beats the graphics on the GBA. The menu system was a bit disappointing. I found that once you leave the tutorial session, it lost track of which items were complete. That's a pain since you can't tell at a glance which tutorials were finished and which were not. I also found glitches in menu interaction, where my daughter occasionally could not select items at all. I found some of the menu interaction confusing, as if menus were designed for button-based systems rather than touch. This was despite the supposedly "intuitive" touch screen controls, but I'm probably being overly fussy here. Early reviews on the App Store complain about a few other flaws, although the overall response to the new app is far more favorable than negative. Expect some updates soon from Square Enix to iron out the rough edges. But all in all, it seems to be a hit. Unlike the other Final Fantasy titles on App Store, Tactics is a more strategy-based game than a simple RPG. Compared to those, I found the overall GUI easier to use than the FF I and II offerings. The overwhelming number of tutorials (23 by my daughter's count) can be a bit daunting for new players, but they won't be an issue for those familiar with game play. Although it's just been released and I haven't finished playing through it yet, I feel comfortable giving it a modest thumbs up. If you loved the old game, this will be like coming home. If you haven't played before, it's a very well-loved tactical battle game.
Final Fantasy Tactics released for iPhone at last
It's been over a year since Square Enix announced it was porting Final Fantasy Tactics to the iPhone. Following a series of delays (that Square Enix tried to say weren't really delays), the app has finally been released for the iPhone. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite video games of all time, but I haven't played it in about ten years. Seeing it come to iOS at last means I can finally revisit this game, with a translation much improved over the original. No more random "I had a good feeling!" Engrish-y translation errors? Yes please. The game is a fairly large download at 457 MB, and at US$16 it's probably one of the most expensive games on the App Store. If you already have a copy of the original PlayStation version or the remake for the PSP, the iOS version may not be worth the asking price for you. If you're like me and remember this game fondly but don't already have a copy, or if you've never played it before at all, $16 isn't a terribly high price for this game. Final Fantasy Tactics has an epic gameplay length -- I got well over 50 hours of playtime from the original -- so while the price tag may seem high, Square Enix is right to price it at a "premium" over the typical $0.99 - $2.99 prices we see on the App Store. Having said all that, however, I'm going to wait for the iPad version of Final Fantasy Tactics, which Square Enix says will be released this fall. In the meantime, many of Square Enix's games are on sale to celebrate FFT's launch -- some are discounted by 50 percent or more -- so check out the App Store if there's a game you've been waiting for the price to drop on. We'll have a hands-on review of Final Fantasy Tactics for the iPhone soon.
Square Enix releases new Chaos Rings 2 trailer, promises Final Fantasy Tactics soon
Square Enix has released a new set of "trailers" for the upcoming Chaos Rings 2, but you'll need to know Japanese to get anything out of them, unfortunately. They're all about the voice actors for the game, and don't really show any gameplay footage -- it's just the actors talking about the new title and how it works for them. There are some screenshots over at Famitsu, though, and if nothing else, we can at least take these as a sign that the game is closer to release than before. In other Square Enix news, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is still coming to iOS, but Square says on Facebook that it obviously couldn't get the game out this Spring as planned. Instead, they're now targeting a release for later this month, and the date written on the wall (in dry-erase marker, not stone, of course) looks to me like July 27. That would be next Wednesday, so stay tuned. Final Fantasy Tactics is pretty much considered the best tactical strategy RPG around, so it'll be great to have a game like that on iOS.
Final Fantasy Tactics supposedly coming to iOS this summer
It's been nearly a year since Square Enix announced at E3 that it would port the venerable Final Fantasy Tactics to iOS. The original release date was supposedly September 15 last year, but Square Enix later backtracked on that and claimed "the wrong information about the FFT release date is spreading around somehow" -- the chief source of that information being Square Enix itself. The company initially didn't offer a time frame for release, then said "Spring 2011," which is now almost over with still no release. According to the company's official Facebook page, Final Fantasy Tactics is (finally) due for release on the iPhone in either June or July. Square Enix also says an "HD" iPad version is in the works, and it offers as proof a couple of re-drawn graphics lacking the "jagginess" originally present in the game. Whether the release date for the iPhone version will slip yet again is anyone's guess. As for the iPad version, we can probably expect that to come out a couple months later and be priced at around a 150 percent markup over whatever the iPhone version's price turns out to be. I haven't played the original Final Fantasy Tactics in about ten years or so; I don't own a PSP, so I've never played the updated "War of the Lions" iteration. I've played all the way through both titles in the Final Fantasy Advance series, though, and all three titles number among my favorite games of all time. I hope Square Enix finally gets the lead out and releases this game for iOS so that I can play through and enjoy it again.
Square Enix release dates: RoF due next spring?!
Square Enix spent the morning revealing its lineup of "fresh new faces and timeless classics" that the company plans to exhibit this week at E3, attaching US release dates to its upcoming titles: Heroes of Mana - August 14 Front Mission - October 23 Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - November 6 Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - November 20 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates - Spring 2008 We're jumping on our beds with glee over the fact that we'll be receiving Front Mission so early after the localization was announced, but several disappointing details failed to escape our attention -- Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire, It's a Wonderful World, FFIV DS, and Dragon Quest IX's absence; and Ring of Fates' distant date. The multiplayer ARPG and its DS Lite bundle are scheduled to hit Japan this August 23rd. [Via NeoGAF]
