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Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Published: Tue 22 Jul, 2008 | On:

Several reviews have been written about this game already so I won’t go into too much detail about what FFT:WOL is about. I will say however that despite the insane difficulty of the first battle you are literally thrown into, the game does get better and proves to be a worthy tactics game in your collection.

The aspect that drew me in initially was the story. I had heard good things about it from my friends overseas and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, after I completed the game I was a wee bit sad that it was all over.

I’ve always been one to like hearing the bad news first so I’ll start with the cons. I need only mention two words here – RED CHOCOBOS. No I kid you not!! Because if you ever thought those chocobos were cuddly and fluffy and oh so cute, you’ll never feel the same again when you play this game. Red chocobos are insanely difficult enemies in this game, more so than some of the bosses you’ll encounter. They are fast, have a massive movement range and can cane on all your characters with just one spout of choco meteor. Just one of these attacks could essentially wipe out your entire party, tempting you to throw your PSP towards the farthest wall or perhaps even stomp on it as you visualise gutting those pesky red birds.

The other annoying thing about this game is that when a character or ally is KOed in battle, they remain on the field for about three turns before materialising into crystals or treasure chests. While its great to have enemies turn into delicious treasure chests, it becomes problematic when an essential levelled-up character literally “dies” forever. These party members cannot be revived and you will either need to restart your game or replace them with a recruitable member. Recruitable characters, by the way, always start at Level 1, no matter what your current level is. This also applies to the optional character Cloud, whom you can recruit in the last chapter.

Apart from that, the game is quite enjoyable. As with previous FF tactics games, you have classes that you can develop and once you master several skills, you can change class and equip at least one of those class abilities. You can also equip class-specific abilities to boost aspects such as your attack rate, counter rate, evasion etc. With carefully manipulation of these abilities and attributes, you can be almost invincible towards the end of the game (does not apply to battles against Red Chocobos).

As mentioned earlier, the story is fantastic and takes on a political conspiracy theme similar to that of FFXII. This is supported by some interesting twists and an array of interesting supporting/optional characters to choose from. Balthier is recruitable and in my opinion, a better character to employ than Cloud.

Other pros include the fact that random enemies level up when you do so you will always be challenged in your quest to reach the fabled Level 99 (if you so wish). Furthermore, experience and JP (which is used to increase your job level) are easily attainable unlike the GBA tactics game where you would struggle to get at least 2 exp per battle.

I could go on and on about the other interesting features of FFTactics:WOL but suffice to say you must give this game a go even if the first battle makes you want to give up and even if those red chocobos tempt you to send your PSP to console heaven. It’s a great game and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys FF and/or tactics strategy games.