What I Know & Predictions
-It’s set in the world of Ivalice, the same world as FFXII.
-It’s a remake of the original Final Fantasy Tactics.
-It’s a “different kind” of FF game. Not sure how this will manifest. I’m playing it on my iPhone, so I’m not expecting it to be a genre that requires fast reflexes like an RTS or shooter. Maybe a… hm, not sure of the terminology, but an FF version of dating sims?
Like, I’m not expecting it to literally be a dating sim, but maybe a similar decision-making thing applied to the FF-verse.
-Not sure where this fits relative to FFXII. Three possibilities jump out at me:
1) Prequel. Something in the reign of the Dynast-King.
2) Sequel, dealing with the aftermath of XII and the reigns of Emperor Larsa and Queen Ashe.
3) During FFXII, but in Rozarria. More focused on the machinations of Al-Cid maybe.
The third option seems the least likely, given that Tactics came out before XII and that third idea just fills in the gaps.
Enough guessing. Let’s go!
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Starting Up
-I love the art style! It’s like a moving collage, similar to the Dragon Age: Origins intro.
-The logo art is like that of FFXI/XIV. Most logos focus on a single character, like how the IV logo shows Kain and X logo shows Yuna. This is a party. A dragoon, white mage, black mage, chocobo... is this a multiplayer game?
-The game offers me a tutorial. I’ll hold off for now since I can access it at any time. [Later edit: I REGRET THIS.]
[Even later edit: Well… maybe not. There’s so much tutorial info available that I think I needed the context of actually seeing how different this would be before going into the tutorial.]
-The intro is told in a similar style as Ondore’s intro to XII. This time, it’s from the perspective of Arazlam, a student of Ivalice’s Middle Age. “You are familiar with the War of the Lions, no?”
-Delita Heiral was the hero of the war.
-I like how this is set as a story of the past, not something immediately happening. Also gives the sense that Delita Heiral is a myth, and the real person was different.
-Arazlam introduces another young man from House Beoulve. Apparently he’s the real hero to some, but the Church (I don’t remember a church in XII) calls him a heretic. Ramza.
-I give him my birthday. He’s a Leo.
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Kidnapped!
-Opening animation. “The Zodiac Brave Story.”
-Chocobo riders move across a hillside. If FFXII looked like an oil painting, this looks like a colored pencil sketch.
-The riders push through a ruin, a stormy hill, they wind up in a village.
-Scene change to the inside of a chuch. Lady Ovelia, prays. Her knight Agrias and some other dude stand behind her. Ovelia is a princess.
-A swordsman, Gaffgarion, busts in. He’s all business.
-Gaffgarion is a mercenary working for the Order of the Northern Sky.
-A wounded knight busts in and the music turns serious. The “enemy” is coming. Duke Goltanna’s people.
-Ramza is a mercenary and former knight serving with Gaffgarion.
-We head outside to fight off Duke Goltanna’s soldiers. They have the crest of the Black Lion. I wonder if the good guys use the crest of the Blue Lion or something. First battle.
-OH GOD SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!! It’s an isometric battlefield. Everything is on auto, and there’s a ton of different units moving and making action choices automatically with blinding speed. I can’t keep up.
-Ramza is listed as a squire. His stats are bravery and faith.
-I can move, wait, or act. I can attack or “mettle.”
-The battlefield seems like it’s split up into tiles, and I now get how this is “different.” It reminds me of the Heroes of Might & Magic games.
-I really wish I could slow this down. I have no idea what’s happening to the point of frustration. The game is tearing through actions and menus and sub-menus and I just can’t process it. I’ve given up trying to make sense of it.
-We win the fight, but the chocobo rider from before kidnaps the princess. “Forgive me. Tis your birth and faith that wrong you, not I.”
-Ramza watches him flee on chocobo. He recognizes the kidnapper as… Delita? Huh. The future “hero.” Now he’s fighting under Duke Goltanna’s banner.
-Records of Delita appeared a year before the war broke out. With the loss of the “Fifty Years War,” nobles and knights and stuff abandoned their honor.
-The text is scrolling really quickly. Something about Gariland? Idk. I gotta find a way to slow down message speed. [Non-rhetorical question: is there a way to pause?]
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The Past?
Now we’re somewhere else. The Corpse Brigade is doing thigns – I recognize that name from FFXIV, the name of a FATE in Thanalan.
-Ah, this must be a memory! Ramza is here with Delita, probably during the 50 Years War, whatever that was.
-The Order of the Northern Sky recruited Delita and Ramza among others to help fight rising crime in Gallionne, led by the Corpse Brigade. We’re about to head out and fight.
-But before that, I need to watch the battle tutorial.
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Tutorial – Battle
-I skipped this initially and the first battle was like a firehose of new stuff.
-There are three main tutorial categories: Party Roster, Battle, and Miscellany. Starting with battle.
-The battlefield has elevation – that’s so cool! I’ll bet there will be abilities that only work when firing from a height advantage, or that get bonuses/penalties based on whether they’re going up or down.
-I’d assumed the number in the top right (e.g. 8h, 2h) had something to do with time, hours. It refers to the cursor’s height. hours.
-AT = active turn, CT = charge time. Charge time seems like the ATB gauge.
-There’s an “AI” command if I ever want to let the computer do its thing. That must be why the sample combat I faced went so fast. The non-Ramza characters must have all been set to AI.
-lol I like the name of the AI strategies. Especially the “coward.”
-Okay, I can use “cancel” to force the status screen if I want to change an AI setting.
-Death in combat draws on FFV’s Atomos fight and FFVIII’s Ultimecia. If you don’t revive the unit soon, the body will disappear. That holds true both for my units and enemy units.
-Unit movement range is determined by Move and Jump attributes. If Move = 4, it can move 4 tiles.
-JUMP?? THAT’S FUCKING AWESOME! I don’t know why, but somehow seeing that a unit has a jump stat is just… really really cool. It shows me the game is making the most out of this 3D battlefield.
-Attack range is determined by weapon. So I’ll bet a lance has a long attack range compared with, like, daggers.
-Bits of Chrono Trigger here, with how positioning may matter impact abilities.
-Bravery affects bare-handed Attack attribute and the chance that its “reaction ability” (e.g. parry) will trigger.
-Faith affects damage and success rate of magick attacks.
“For example, a unit with high Faith… is more like to successfully cast Raise.” WOW. So it’s possible to fail a Raise cast. That’s huge.
-If the unit and unit’s target have compatible zodiac signs, attacks will do more damage and heals will be more effective. The reverse if they’re incompatible. I wonder what compatibility means. Will watch for this.
I really, REALLY hope that non-humanoids get zodiac signs. I want to know if I’m compatible with malboros. *kissy face*
-Neat! Successful attacks grants experience and job points.
-The direction you face is an interesting mechanic. If an enemy is facing me, seems like I’ll want to try flanking it. I wonder if the game will include flat enemies that can’t be attacked from the side.
-“Wait” boosts the CT gauge. To 20 if waiting instead of either moving or acting, to 40 if instead of both moving and acting.
-Oh god. Friendly fire is a thing. The chances of me accidentally roasting a party member are like 10000%.
-I can target either the unit or the tile beneath the unit! Risks with each. If I target the unit, it could move and cause splash damage on an ally. If I target the tile, it could move and leave me hitting nothing.
-I’ve barely started on the tutorial. Can’t believe how much shit there is to learn. This game is basically gonna be FF chess, isn’t it?
-I’m trying to decide what this combat system most reminds me of, and two things jump to mind:
1) Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission
2) Heroes of Might and Magic 2 or 3. (the only ones I’ve played)
-Wait. Wait wait wait. Am I seeing correctly that your own party members can die permanently? FFT must involve an NPC squadron system.
-In some cases, it seems like your own party members might leave behind abilities or jobs for yoru other party members to pick up? I don’t really get this yet.
-The in-game help system seems really good. I don’t understand though what “Arithmeticks” means in regards to a spell’s help information.
-One of the settings is called “Optimize on Job Change,” perhaps heralding a fluid, FFV-style job system.
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Next time. Gariland mission with Ramza and Delita. I’ll try staggering in tutorials as I go, as I encounter the mechanics.
