4 + 3 = Tactics.
Why Final Fantasy Tactics remains the best in the franchise after all these years.
Ah, Tactics. I still remember when I purchased a copy back in Miami when the game was released in the US, back in 1997. It was my first time visiting the country, I was obsessed with everything Final Fantasy since I played VII and I knew nothing about the game itself, only that it was a Final Fantasy game and that I needed to play it.
It wasn't my surprise when I got home and fired the game up to realise it was a completely different experience than the turn based RPG games I was used to. Final Fantasy Tactics was hard, deep and, at least at the time for me, adult. It had a vastly complex political plot involving the aftermath of a long, harsh war and a divided continent trying to get back to its feet — only to plunder itself into another war between two noble factions fighting for power over the rightful heir to the throne of Ivalice.
Back in the day, I found the game to be so difficult that I actually couldn't finish it during my first play throughs. I remember not getting into terms with the complex job system and deciding to go with an all-knight army, only to have most of my characters massacred during the second act of the game, at the gates of Lionel Castle.
After a while without touching the game, I decided to give it a try again in 1999. I was 15, had just got to this new school and made a lot of metalheads and nerdy friends and one of them told me his secret: make Ramza a monk and equip him with heavy, plate armour.
I did just that, decided to go on a more delicate, slow paced strategy and instead on focusing on raw, brute force, I decided to study the classes, the special characters and then — boom — that's when the game hit me. And hard it did.
After finishing the game for the first time, I was baffled by how perfect everything just seemed to click. You know the feeling; it's when everything in a game feels deliberate, a sense of cohesion and thoughtfulness that permeates every single design decision in the experience. The plot was interesting, deep and involved conflicted, lifelike characters you could relate to in an emotional way; the gameplay needed you to be involved, to learn the systems and explore the classes, rewarding you with a challenge and a deeply satisfying feeling once you mastered it all; the art direction was spot on, mixing the excellent artwork of Akihiko Yoshida with a sense of style never seen before in the series; the score, oh man, the score was fantastic, setting the mood brilliantly in every single battle in the game, from militaristic tunes to despair driven ones, enhancing the drama lived by the characters; and the graphics, which had a nice mix of 2D sprites with 3D environments and fit perfectly with the battle systems.
However, like most masterpieces, the game was not a huge success at the time. Even though some critics hailed the game as "the most impressive strategy RPG yet", others failed to see the game in such light, and labeled it "uneven" or even that the game's plot was confusing at times and that the item systems became repetitive. The game also had a terrible localization, marred with engrish and, from time to time, unintelligible lines — however, this was later remedied in the PSP remake.
I remember reading those articles back then and being mesmerised: how could they not see the masterpiece Final Fantasy Tactics was? Eventually, though, the game creeped up to become a cult classic, a highly sought after title in the aftermarket and used games session in most videogame stores.
I like to think that Final Fantasy Tactics was, like most games developed by the Ivalice Alliance (which also include the espectacular Vagrant Story and the now-understood-and-revered Final Fantasy XII), ahead of its time. It was a groundbreaking game which showed how inspired Square was at the end of the 90’s.
So, just like the meme, 4 + 3 is not 7. Is so much more than 7. 4 + 3 is Tactics.
