Top 50 Video Games: Number 5

#5: Final Fantasy Tactics
System: Sony Playstation
Publisher: Squaresoft
Released: 1998
Players: 1

Turn-based strategy gaming in all it's glory.

Ever since Dragon Warrior, I've been a fan of RPGs. Though it's one of the most popular and longest running RPG franchises around, that love has never extended to the Final Fantasy series. I've played three games in the series (Final Fantasy 1, 7, and 10) and my experience with each has been roughly the same. I play through about 10 hours of the game or so and realize that, while the features are cool and the game is deep, I'm simply not having any fun with it. So when I first saw Final Fantasy Tactics, I was excited but wary. Ever since playng Shining Force I'd been looking for similar games and found none until now. And it looked really good, but it had that Final Fantasy name on it...

Wanna customize your character? The possibilities are nearly endless.

Hoping against hope, I decided to give it a try. Needless to say, it met and exceeded my expectations. It has that terrific chess-style turn based combat I love so much, but that's not the best part. The character development is very deep and highly customizable, which is something at least as important to me as the gameplay itself. It's like buying a cool pair of pants at a yard sale and finding $50 in the pocket. The game offers over a dozen classes for your characters, and they can change classes at any time so long as they've met the requirements for the new class. In addition to the basic classes like Wizard and Thief, there are eccentric and imaginitive ones such as Calculator, Oracle, Chemist and Mime. The best part is that you're allowed to pick and choose a few from all of your known skills regardless of your current class. Wish your Summoner's spells didn't take so long to cast? Make her a Time Mage and learn the Short Charge skill - problem solved. Want your Knight to wield two swords at once? Pick up the Two Swords skill from the Ninja class.

The battle is where you'll spend most of your time in the game, and it is quite good. The challenge is pretty steady, and a few battles will tax even skilled players. The story in the game is very entertaining, though the translation is a bit rough in some spots. It's a tale of corruption in the church and government, betrayal of friends, and how social classes can divide people. This is one of the few games where I was actually very interested in the story. FFT also has plenty of things to collect and find. There are hidden characters to be added to your party (including Cloud Strife for all you FF7 fans out there) and rare items to be found.

The battles in Final Fantasy Tactics take place across a wide variety of environments.

The game did have a sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the Gameboy Advance. It was slightly dumbed down from the original, and the way skills are learned was altered drastically. The story is highly reminiscent of The Neverending Story. It's still a fine game in its own right, though it doesn't quite stand up to the original. Final Fantasy Tactics boasts highly customizable characters, challenging battles, an engaging story and unlockable and hidden characters and items throughout the game. For strategy fans, it doesn't get any better than this.