This is a game that you wouldn't believe to be one of the best on a game series, let alone Final Fantasy, to be one of the best games of all time and maybe the best entry in the Final Fantasy series yet.

Though the game relies in simple graphics and cutesy characters, it hides within itself a mature political driven story along some very well developed characters, some of which you can't help but relate and really like in the process of playing the game.

The game stars Ramza belouve, Young son of one great hero of a great war which background you'll begin to learn throughout the game. The story unfolds between in game battles dialogues and hidden documents you can encounter hidden in the game. The game sports a very clever system of storytelling. There are places where you can go and ask several questions about the war and events involving the characters along some side quests plots which help to keep events not related to the main story interesting. It also sports various dialogues that develop between battles, some of which involve decision making that may decide the outcome of said battles. The dialogues though poorly localized for the English version of the game, are never too intrusive and help the player understand and relate to the characters immediately.

The battle system involves classic Final Fantasy turn based action with a strategy twist. up to five of your characters can engage in a single battle depending on the conditions of the battle. Conditions that range from disposing of all enemies or saving a character that may prove valuable or crucial for the game's development. Some conditions are decisive for winning the battle and not complying with them means game over Some of these conditions are optional though, although fulfilling them may rewards players with an item or valuable information.


The game plays from an over the top perspective with a rotating camera. Although the angles are sometimes unpleasant, you'll most likely never use this feature because it doesn't matter how you rotate the camera, it almost always ends up being the same thing for better or worse in other angles, which will make you most likely just leave the default angle as it is.

The graphics are for the most part simplistic. Cutesy little characters sprite move in a 3d world that's fairly devoid of a lot of detail. While the art is sometimes pleasant to the eye, there's just not much that can be talked about FFT's graphics. There are some magic effects and summons that look pretty the first few times you use them. After a while they can become tiresome though.

Luckly the game doesn't have to rely on its graphics much, thanks to the superb gameplay mechanics that although simple, may have you coming back for more over and over.

Said mechanics consist on a clever job system you can give to each of your party members, or "army" if you'd like to call it so.

Said jobs are upgrade able and consist on jobs points and experience you can acquire with battles. Depending on your experience with some of those jobs, you can switch to others as they become available or just keep your current job. Of course just keeping one job isn't desirable since you want your characters to be as varied as possible.

The classes include various disciplines like Bowmen, Ninjas, humble squirrels, knights and so on. Achieving the maximum levels of these disciplines will transform your character into a very powerful one on its own right, as far as its job strength it's related.

Once you learn how to use these skills and jobs you're set for a very enjoyable experience with the game. Simplicity and a very complex story, coupled with charming characters along very good plots, is what makes this game a real masterpiece worth of your time.

Even if you haven't played this game before or if you like engaging in heavy graphical games like Gears of War, there's just no excuse as to why you'd keep yourself off playing this game. It's that fun, even by today's standards.

It's my recommendation that you get this game as you must and just play it. It's not everyday you play a game that just begs the question of, "Why does it have to end?" a question that's just a testament of its quality.

Learning Curve: Takes a while

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