Chronicling the completion of the backlog, one game at a time.

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This is Coffee from Games with Coffee, and welcome to Backlog Busting! As the tagline above says, I’m writing about the games in my backlog that I’ve completed. I’ll share what I enjoyed, what I didn’t, and whether or not it was worth my time and investment. At the end, I’ll share a Busting Grade – an aggregate rating made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. Scoring explanations will be found at the end of the post for reference.

The eleventh game I’m covering is Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation. I finished this game around July 2024. Let’s dig into the report.

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War Never Changes

Final Fantasy Tactics is a Strategy RPG game developed by Squaresoft and released in 1997. The story revolves around the fictional land of Ivalice, which is embroiled in civil war between two factions vying for the throne – the titular War of the Lions. You play as Ramza, a squire in training whose actions greatly influenced Ivalice’s history during this war. However, he was all but forgotten in history compared to his best friend, Deltita. Deltita was known as the hero who unified the kingdom and ushered in peace. The game, therefore, attempts to tell the true history of that time.

Final Fantasy Tactics has been on my backlog for well over two decades. I chanced upon an advertisement of it in the July 1997 issue of Electronic Games Monthly, but I only got a chance to play it two years afterwards in a Blockbuster near my house. I had never played an SRPG before then, but it has ‘Final Fantasy’ in it, so it must be a good game, so the thought went. And during the briefest of times when I did play it, I thought it was an interesting game. It certainly started off differently than Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII. Sadly, I didn’t rent it or pick it up in my younger years, having been more focused on other Final Fantasy titles and the Mega Man X series.

About 10 years and two consoles later, I picked up a copy of Tactics on my PS3 via the PlayStation Classics. My initial impressions were revised once I realized just how deep this game was – not just through its narrative and storytelling, but by its vast job system. The latter was very intimidating. Every time I went to play this game, I would either give up at around Chapter 2 or get stuck somewhere that required a inordinate amount of grinding. Speaking of, grinding in Tactics was tough back then. You only get a small number of XP and JP per turn, and that’s only if you perform a valid action other than Wait. The furthest I got was the back-to-back fight against Wiergraf at the end of Chapter 3. For those in the know, that’s a notoriously difficult set of battles. And if you save in between, then good luck if you want to grind for more levels or abilities, because there is no going back. The game surreptitiously encourages you to make multiple save files in case you need to go back and rethink your strategy.

In the end, I used a guide to complete this game. It’s something I try to avoid where possible, but I just wanted to get this off my backlog once and for all. What I didn’t expect was for the rest of the story to be so mature and captivating – more so than most of Square Enix’s recent outings. Final Fantasy Tactics surprised me with its many twists. It’s also a lesson in history, specifically, what events, skirmishes or even atrocities have been covered up, ignored or retold in a different light. It’s a stark reminder that our own history has many hidden depths to it that are just waiting to be uncovered. But I digress.

I truly believe that the PS1 era represented Squaresoft’s golden age, where the games released were a perfect trifecta of story, visuals and gameplay elegantly crafted for our enjoyment. While not as well-known as the three, mainline Final Fantasy titles on the PS1, Final Fantasy Tactics nonetheless stands alongside them. It’s a title that will keep me thinking for a very long time and one that I’ll definitely revisit it, even though SRPG’s aren’t really in my wheelhouse.

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Busting Report

Pros:

• Fantastic story and world-building. I spoke about how well Final Fantasy XVI executed its world building in the previous Busting Report, but I really enjoyed how Ivalice was built in Final Fantasy Tactics. It felt as real as the historic events in Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages, what with the plotting, the skullduggery and the rumblings of revolution.
• Job system really shines through. III introduced it, IV perfected it, but Tactics’ interpretation melded the system really well with the strategy aspect of the game. Plus, you can meld certain aspects of jobs together to make an incredibly versatile unit.
• Thunder God Cid is probably the most broken character in all of Final Fantasy. Seriously, he’s that amazing. It’s almost a reward for surviving through the hell that is the finale of Chapter 3.
• Speaking of guest characters, there are a lot of great non-generic units to use (Agrias!). And you can even recruit Cloud – everyone’s favourite spiky-haired swordsman!
• Lots of sidequests, including an option to send unused units out on adventures to gain money and rare items
• You can even recruit monsters! Though not as great as regular units, they do have their uses.

Cons:

• Lots of difficulty spikes, especially around mid-Chapter 2 and throughout most of Chapter 3. Particularly the end gauntlet of Chapter 3. If you go into it unprepared and you don’t make a backup save, you’re essentially screwed.
• Unless you know what you’re doing (AKA: attacking your allies and abusing the heck out of Accumulate and other zero-MP-cost abilities), grinding can be a major pain in the rear.
• While flexible, the job system can be very daunting to newcomers. There are certain jobs that are better than others. Plus you have to account for Brave/Faith stats and focus your job efforts on units that specialize in either stat.
• Thunder God Cid makes this game completely trivial once you recruit him. Again, he’s that godly.
• While his inclusion is awesome, Cloud starts off terribly. You get him at Level 1 and most of his techniques are locked behind a specific weapon that you have to use the Move-Find passive ability to find. Essentially, he’s useless unless you put in a lot of time to level him up.

Interesting Notes:

• There’s a JP Glitch in the PS1 version that you can abuse to make learning abilities for certain jobs much easier. I admittedly used it myself. Too bad you can’t abuse it with the Calculator job…
• Ivalice is used many times over in future Final Fantasy Titles, specifically the Tactics Advanced series, Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood.
• Final Fantasy Tactics marks the return to a more medieval setting versus the steampunk/technopunk settings of Final Fantasy VII and VIII. The series would once again take its medieval routes three years later in Final Fantasy IX.
• Oddly enough, the lowly Squire job is the best job for the main character, Ramza. He gets access to some amazing abilities, like Yell and Scream. They’re terribly titled, but absolutely useful from both a grinding and a utilization standpoint.

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Backlog Busting Grade

Length: 3/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Replay Value: 5/5

Fun Factor: 5/5

Busting Grade: B+

The Backlog Busting Grade is an aggregate letter grade made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. A high grade means that the game in review is an excellent addition to the backlog. On the other hand, a low grade means that you can choose to pass up on this title if you wish. Honestly though, the grades aren’t meant to be taken seriously – this is just me having fun with clearing my backlog. Your mileage may vary depending on preferences, time commitments, etc.

Each category is given a score out of five. Length measures how long a game took for me to complete. 5 being extremely short (30 minutes – 1 hour) and 1 being extremely long (40+ hours). Difficulty is self-explanatory – 5 for being very easy and 1 for being very hard. Replay Value scores how likely I’ll return to play again. 5 for most likely and 1 for never touching it again. And Fun Factor measures how much fun I had with the title. 5 for lots of fun and 1 for no fun at all.

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