Er, do I even really need to talk about this game? No. This game is super goodness and I have written a great deal about it already. However, Jeremy Signor has a few things to say about it still, so you should soak up his comments and be edified.
16 thoughts on “GSQ8: Yourself or god”
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So that makes how many FF Tactics articles to grace toastyfrog so far? It is interesting to think what kind of impact it would have had without the final fantasy tag, though.
None whatsoever. Not that it made much of an impact. It got two sequels, supposedly popularized a genre that’s not really popular, and didn’t really directly influence any games to my knowledge.
SRPGs might not be popular because of FFT, but they were made viable by such, it could be argued. That, and every game in the genre thereafter is – for better or worse – inevitably compared to FFT.
FFT is certainly the gold standard of SRPGs. Honestly, while it is possible that it made SRPGs viable, I can’t really think of a single SRPG that came over here because of FFT.
Disgaea.
Two articles in total, I think? Oh no! Someone better call the new games journalism police!
I wish we could see some more Tactics games. I really liked the more lighthearted flavor of the two Tactics Advance games. Sure, some people didn’t like the shift, but I always felt the story (even in War of the Lions) was the first game’s biggest problem anyway.
That… is kinda puzzling. I see the story as its greatest strength. The FFTA games had decent story, but nowhere near as intricate and entertaining. Though it took some leaps because of the poor translation the first time around.
I agree (with you and most people) that the story in the first is best, but honestly, I see the stories in all three games to be pretty superfluous. If I want to read a good and deep story, I’ll read a book. When I’m playing a game, it’s about the gameplay and the story that emerges from that gameplay rather than from the cutscenes in between.
Turn-based tactical games are my favorite genre, so it’s kind of annoying to me that so much effort in the genre is devoted to the telling of bad, poorly told stories.
For the record, FFTA2 is my favorite. :)
It’s not that I can’t enjoy a superfluous story – like most RPGs – but FFT lacked compelling characters for me personally. That, and I got pretty tired of the plot ‘twists,’ which were usually just the discovery that someone else – maybe not even seen yet – was pulling the strings all along. Everyone in the game is a puppet and a puppetmaster, and it all becomes pretty deafening after a while.
That said, I really did enjoy the translation from War of the Lions, and the cut-scenes were really nice.
It is pretty pathetic how many resources devs throw at story, and how little they have to show for it. Could be said for any genre, really.
“the story (even in War of the Lions) was the first game’s biggest problem anyway.”
Really? I loved the story in the original FFT. I think it blows away all the other Final Fantasies in terms of depth, complexity, and intrigue. The translation butchers it, but it still shines through if you research a bit.
This reminds me just how badly I need to make time to play the Tactics Ogre remake.
While FFT is one of my all-time favorite games (and I feel that only Valkyria Chronicles has meaningfully improved the strategy genre since it), it makes me sad that Square went to so much trouble to set the later games in the series in less serious and interesting worlds.
Agreed, S. I am really interested in Tactics Ogre because I *assume* its story doesn’t take a sudden turn into the metaphysical realm like FFT’s did in chapter 4. The political story of rich Vs. poor, church Vs. state, friends Vs. family was more than enough to keep me happy without having to go all supernatural.
Also agree about Valkyria Chronicles. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see something like it set in Ivalice or some other incarnation of the FF universe?
I’ll echo the article’s sentiment of FFT’s accessibility in terms of system. I played a little Tactics Ogre on the Playstation, but it wasn’t until the PSP version that I really dug into it. Though they’re similar to the point of identical most of the time, the difference in skill trees is night and day. I can’t think of a recent game with character progression more unfriendly than Tactics Ogre’s, with a bevy of skills that seem pointless and skills that rely on a bizarre combination of other skills to eke anything close to respectable damage. Sometimes my fire spell did six damage, sometimes it did a hundred and sixty. Why? I never really found out.
The article touches on Vagrant Story too, but doesn’t mention that it shares the same overcomplexity. I guess it just skips a generation, as FFT and FFXII are mostly spared. The difference between Vagrant Story and Tactics Ogre is that Vagrant Story’s mechanics aren’t impenetrable, just annoying. I couldn’t truck with keeping a stable of four or six or eight weapons to deal with humans and lizards and ghosts and beasts all separately. If there’s one thing I hate in games it’s delving through menus and that seemed to be about 90% of Vagrant Story’s combat. I keep trying to convince myself that I’ll get back to it whenever it ends up on PSN, but the visions of pinging 0 and 1 damage off of that first dragon boss still make me shudder.
The naming conventions in FFT also take after those of Tactics Ogre.
Also, where did that picture come from? I’m assuming WotL, but I never saw that cutscene (or forget about it).