Final Fantasy Tactics Review: I Prefer Brimstone

What is there to say? This is a classic of epic proportions with something here for almost everyone. It isn't an action-packed thrill ride of an adventure, but it isn't supposed to be. This is a complex story about many, many moving parts operating to form a concise whole. That whole is called Ivalice and the factions and politics and even relationships of this time period are explored. Now onto my Big 4.

Gameplay is usually the most important part of my reviews, but let's face it, the gameplay of FFT is complex chess. There is a bit more to it than that, but the simple fact is that this game is a fairly straight-forward stat-based RPG. If you have high faith and magick power scores, your troops will be better mages and if your troops have better bravery and physical scores, they will be a better warrior. With a few exceptions here and there like the Samurai and the Monk, fairly straightforward. The most interesting gameplay feature to my mind, is the Zodiac compatibility of each character. I never got into to it, so I won't be talking about it. Otherwise, not an easy game but it is simple. Warriors soak up damage and can be used as light support units, as well as distractions or diversions in battle. Mages are supposed to be the main damage-issuing units, crowd control, and buffing/support characters... they aren't. The way to go, and it is best to figure this out early, is to create warriors that cast cast a few spells, Spellswords if you will. I wanted to explore both the warrior path and the magick path during this playthrough to show it off, but seriously, a posse full of powerful warriors that can cast a few spells is the way to go. The end of the game was a cakewalk during this playthrough because of that. Nearly every job is fun to play as once a few key abilities are learned and every class has a purpose, although, some of the early-on jobs become useless because more advanced jobs are better in every conceivable way that some early jobs. The Squire, for example, loses favor quickly when the Archer, Monk, and Wizard classes become available.

The story or plot of FFT is excellent, superb even. A group of demons disguised as war heroes playing both sides of a worldwide war to open a doorway to hell through a church? What's not to love? This game is a period piece, taking place in the equivalent of the times of the Spanish Inquisition in Europe. With all of the parallels of places, people, and groups in real world history. There is no such thing as magick, obviously, I'm not trying to sell you on that. My point is this, you have a bunch of Japanese writers from Japan that are more than likely not Catholic or even Christian. These writers are more than likely are from a family that doesn't take too kindly to Christians, who then write a plot and a storyline outlining inner workings of Medieval Catholic Church better than I think I have ever seen. I have been a devout Catholic my entire life and even I learned a thing or two from this story. Here are some things I noticed that was just clever writing. There are 7 enemies that become demons: Cúchulainn, Belias, Zalera, Adrammelech, Elidibus, Hashmal, and 2 forms of Ultima. Seven is a very important number in Biblical terms. There are seven deadly sins, the universe was created in seven days, and seven seals in the Book of Revelation, just to name a few. Each Lucavi demon could represent a deadly sin I suppose, but they are all just kind of assholes. Every group in the game is destroyed from within, the Order of the Northern and Southern Knights, the Glabados church (the Catholic Church equivalent) itself, the Templar Knights, and even the Monarchy is all brought down because of infighting or betrayal. The overarching theme here is that integrity and loyalty are more powerful than power for its own sake.

The art style is pretty, but simplistic. These are decent-ish graphics are far as fidelity for it's time. You must remember, this is a B-team of developers from a great studio, but a B-team of developers nonetheless. There are 3-dimentional models in-game that are combined with 2D sprites for quite the unique aesthetic. The art itself for the backgrounds, locations, and units is not bad, but everything seems a little "generic" or "bland" and I was not able to shake that feeling for the entire playthrough of the game. Although, I must say I love how colorful and vibrant this game can be when it needs that. The Necrohol Of Mullonde (Mullonde Death City in the original FFT) should not be that colorful, but magick spells and vibrant forests should be, and they are, and I like that. I gotta be honest, the entire game might have looked better and run smoother if everything was sprites. Overall, the visual presentation is adequate and gets the job done. Nothing here that groundbreaking, even for its time.

Soundtrack/Audio design. Finally, what I really want to talk about! Nobuo-san (the composer) is nothing short of a genius. Nearly every piece here is a masterpiece, and I say that without hyperbole. I am aware these are MIDI tracks of orchestral pieces, but they sound great, don't they? Even some of the weirder sound effects that sound a little off still sound cool. When I bought the original game for the PS1 in, like, the year 2000, I could not believe the quality and passion and just the level of talent on display in this title. This soundtrack may have single-handedly gotten me to start on my musical journey because I started music classes and started playing music after buying this game in the same year. If that doesn't sell the soundtrack, nothing will.