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First Impressions: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War (JP ver) Hands-on

Posted May 11, 2007 at 11:55PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Reviews, Titles, Games Tags: GameFAQs, psp game reviews, Square Enix

Ramza FFT - Image 1

A source of ours managed to get us a Japanese retail copy of Square Enix's Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War. The Squeenix heads here at QJ scream all scream "Booyah!" Given that there's a language barrier, and the sheer hours of play-through required sort of hampers us in coming up with a full-blown review for a game of this nature, for now, here are our initial impressions on the much hyped PSP remake.

As of this witting, I have only managed to make it to the first few skirmishes. Okay, I know, that's bad, but I'm playing with a Japanese menu, without a guide, so lighten up okay?

First of, the opening sequence. Great stuff. The faux-cell shaded pencil sketched artwork and the nostalgic music is awesome enough to send chills up the spine of anyone who's played the original. The temptation to wail away and waste a hundred words to explaining how amazing the intro is high, but we'll not go there. Instead, we'll say that what's best about it, from a gameplay-perspective, is that they load fast, almost instantly actually, and more importantly, you can skip it (and all the other animated cutscenes).

Next, the first dialogue sequence. At first I though that the text boxes load a bit slow, and that has caused the more discerning part of me to cry foul. A few button spams later, I found out that the text boxes during dialogue scenes load up as fast as you "cancel" it with the X button. Now this matters because if this wasn't so then the game would probably be more suited to consoles and not "portable gaming," but they made the adjustment, and I am pleased.

Delita Final Fantasy Tactics - Image 1

Then we have the battles. Okay, after a few instances where I managed to attack thin air, skip my character's move for that turn, and even attack my own party member, I got the hang of the Japanese menu. It's basically still the same old menu from the original FF Tactics, so no big difference.

Now for the controls. The nub lets you rotate the camera. The shoulder buttons tilt the camera or zoom them in, x is for cancel and circle is for confirm. No big change really. Moving the cursor along a diagonal hex using the d-pad may be at bit confusing at first, but it isn't really a big deal.

I do have to note that I noticed some slowdowns when the animation sequences for the special attacks load up. There's also some "lag" when a "cure" is cast. I'm not sure if this was due to our own PSP or if this is the case all the time, but it's just worth saying, especially since there are a whole lot of animations for a whole library of special attacks in this game. It may annoy some folks.

As for the transition from TV screen to PSP screen, for some reason, I feel that the small screen really works for this game. The sprites look clearer and crisper despite the smaller screen. While you can still make out the pixels, everything looks like pencil sketched stuff moving around on your PSP. (Maybe I just need glasses or something?) The art style just plain works for the small screen, and what's better is that the text and the battle prompts are still large enough for the game to work. (I won't say readable, again, I'm playing the Japanese version)

That's that for now. This blogger will come up with a more in-depth review of the game after he racks up some decent hours, and manages to find a JP version guide on GameFAQs. Stay tuned.

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Just read the review, if you want to "review" it yourself, dl the game, or order it from overseas. Why would you think QJ downloaded it? And even so, they cant say "Hey, I downloaded this great game" because the big "companies" would be kinda pissed at that remark. So "retail copy" is better...without the quotes. Havent tried this game out, kanji is not one of my strong points.

# AND? — Guest 2007-05-12 07:43

Let's assume for a second that your remark is correct (it isn't).Who made you moral police?

# helpful guide — Guest 2007-05-12 08:05

if you happen to have the original us psx version you can use it as a menu guide... it should still be mostly accurate.

# LAG?! — Guest 2007-05-12 08:37

What the heck, I'm very dissapointed in this remake. Why does the game even lag.

# Why? — Guest 2007-05-12 11:13

I think the people who brought over Valkyrie Profile for the PSP, also did it for FFT. They have an infamous record of lagging in ports.

# omg — Guest 2007-05-12 13:54

STFU noobs. Even in the psx version, lagg was present. However, figure with the "newly released" they would fix it. Oh well...swallow it up like ur mom does at night for me ^_-

# psx eboot fft doesnt lag on psp — Guest 2007-05-12 15:59

they timed it on gamebrink.com

# i want it bad!!! — Guest 2007-05-12 23:35

i want it bad no matter wat!!!

# About the game — Guest 2007-05-22 23:19

I bought the game two weeks ago when I came out and I finished it this last weekend and other than the lag time that you run into in battles the game has been very amazingly redone. Theres added story battled andthe story is more clear, some of the side quests are longer, you learn more about the characters (wont say which ;) ) and the newly added animation is great as well. As well there are a couple of new characters that join your party balthair from ff12 and some hunter kid who may be in another PS game that I am not aware of. If you thought that FFT was even just an ok game I definitely recommend it!

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