Final Fantasy Tactics – (1998 game)

2006-03-27
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Final Fantasy Tactics cover

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(on Wikipedia)
was us.playstation.com/PSone/Games/Final_Fantasy_Tactics/OGS
was square-enix-usa.com/games/fft/fft-index2.html

Simple graphics, decent gameplay, very long, very good.

As good as it is, this game is pathetic compared to Tactics Ogre – (1998 game) on the Game Boy Advance SP because of some significant flaws in gameplay. It gets better though.. and it’s MUCH MUCH MUCH longer. Holy crap it’s a long game.



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Table of Contents [hide]

~2006-03-27 ∞

  • Cannot speed up the text of the opening sequence. This same problem happens when transitioning to new acts. It’s really annoying.
  • The 3d view guarantees frustration when trying to look at things. Play with the L1, L2, R1, R2 buttons. Trees and buildings get in the way sometimes, but it gets easier as you play.
  • The action and cancel buttons are backwards.
  • Cannot undo a move after it has been executed. This makes it extremely annoying to figure out where one can move and attack from. Cannot undo a teleport-move.
  • Being higher up doesn’t extend range. But I suppose I’m “too high up”?
  • There is no counter-attacking.. at least I don’t get it. =/ It’s a monk skill I’d have to learn later.
  • The first major battle (the thieves) is amazingly difficult.. always charming. And since when could thieves charm? =/

  • For some unknown reason, I stopped being able to learn more skills. .. umm.. so the game is unplayable.

    • No wait, that status screen won’t let me learn anything.. I have to go into that stupid ability setting screen to then ‘learn’.
  • Make sure you don’t accidentally go into the wrong tutorial.. they’re bloody long, and cannot be aborted!
  • When cast, the summoner ‘Lich’ spell is typoed as ‘Rich’.
  • Undead which are turned to stone still float.
  • The ability ‘Restore MP’ has help text that says it restores HP.
  • When cast, the summoner spell ‘cyclops’ is spelled ‘clops’
  • Cannot turn off the spell animations. Sigh.

  • It would be nice to just go into a battle and have it all go automatically. Even without seeing the animations – just tell me that I win. =)

This game is pathetic compared to Tactics Ogre – (1997 game)[doesn’t exist] on the Game Boy Advance SP because of some significant flaws in gameplay. It gets better though.. and it’s MUCH MUCH MUCH longer. Holy crap it’s a long game.

Tips ∞

Misc ∞

  • Go to bars and take on their jobs. Give them your useless guys to level them up without risking them in battles. It doesn’t work very well, but you sometimes get decent rewards. =/ Waste your time by going back and forth between safe points.

  • You can use guns to shoot things which are too near. Simply aim past them, and it’ll give you the 00% but you can shoot anyways and hit things which are in the way.

Monsters ∞

  • There are Illithid who will confuse/berserk the hell out of you. Be careful! They happen most frequently on this level which has a bridge.
  • The Red Chokobo may seem strange, buts its meteor attack hits 100% of the time and gets strong. It’s a frightening unit to use for hit-and-run tactics. Keep a chokobo around and it’ll lay eggs. WAIT until the egg hatches to see what colour it gives. I think that red eggs give purple chokobo, and purple eggs give red chokobo.
  • Compared to a monk’s healing, the yellow chokobo’s healing is basically useless. I wouldn’t bother with these units unless I got desperate.

  • I don’t know anything about the monster hunting – the thief ability to take furs back to the central city. According to some documents I’ve read, it will “skin” a dead monster (not just animals) and you can trade them in for an item.

degenerators ∞

Use it to lower your level so you can raise your job levels without leveling up and getting harder fights. =)

  • Use characters without a counterattack type skill.
  • You can also leave one of your units at a higher level, so as to force higher level enemies. Then when you attack them with your lower level characters you’ll get more rewards.

  • When you have the engineer as one of your own units, then you can use his “don’t act” snipe ability to force a unit to stay in a corner. You can stack it multiple times. Even if you miss twice in a row, and the monster comes at you, you still have another shot as it tries to get to you. This tactic works very very well.

Be careful. If you overdo this, you’ll get your butt kicked by bosses! I was level 20 or so and I had to fight a pair of über level 28 bosses in a row. Ouch.

degenerator at Fovoham ∞

Go to Fovoham to the degenerator trap. There is a set of “steps” leading from the middle-bottom by the water, which goes up the side of the mountain. It’s on the landing between the two stairwells.

Fovoham is surprisingly easy, giving me a minimum of 3 units to play with. You can get the bull demon to retreat, and just walk back and forth to lower your levels.

You can even use the sleep trap on the island at the bottom middle (left-ish) to force a unit to put itself to sleep every so often.

degenerator at Zeklaus Desert ∞

If your party is at the top-left part of the map, then the degenerator trap is at the bottom side, on the enemy-side of the canyon at the bottom of the canyon. This is available at the lower levels (level 10 or less) so it’s easy to get to and use. Very handy.

Level-comments ∞

When underground, level 2 – looking for the virgo stone, there are archways which presumably support the ceiling. Except you can walk on them. =)

Before fighting Velius, it’s an insane fight. I can’t wear rubber shoes to avoid the damned lightning sword strikes. I have to have x-potions or I can’t live. Good thing I could move-hp-up. So what I had to do is go knight-mode and nuke his power, then speed, etc. And constantly heal and move and etc.

Then the next fight was insane. I had to use one of my uber-summoners to kill the damned thing with my “Rich”. Even after these two insane fights in a row, I wasn’t able to save. I had to watch another fucking cutscene.

Then the fight after that was stupid. I have to protect some chick. Except I don’t get a single move before she gets killed.

Classes ∞

The two base classes, with no requirements, are:

  • Squire

  • Chemist

–

  • Squire 2 -> Knight
  • Squire 2 -> Knight 2 -> Monk

  • Squire 2 -> Knight 2 -> Monk 3 -> Geomancer

–

  • Squire 2 -> Archer
  • Squire 2 -> Archer 2 -> Thief

  • Squire 2 -> Archer 2 -> Thief 3 -> Lancer

–

  • Squire 2

    • -> Archer 2 -> Thief 3 -> Lancer 4
    • -> Knight 2 -> Monk 3 -> Geomancer 4
    • -> Dancer

  • x

–

  • Chemist 2 -> Priest
  • Chemist 2 -> Priest 2 -> Oracle

  • Chemist 2 -> Priest 2 -> Oracle 2 -> Mediator

–

  • Chemist 2 -> Wizard
  • Chemist 2 -> Wizard 2 -> Time Mage

  • Chemist 2 -> Wizard 2 -> Time Mage 2 -> Summoner

–

  • Chemist 2

    • -> Wizard 2 -> Time Mage 2 -> Summoner 4
    • -> Priest 2 -> Oracle 2 -> Mediator 4
    • -> Bard

–

  • Squire 2

    • -> Knight 3 -> Monk 4
    • -> Archer 2 -> Thief 3 -> Lancer 2
    • -> Samurai

–

  • Squire 2

    • -> Archer 3 -> Thief 4
    • -> Knight 2 -> Monk 3 -> Geomancer 2
    • -> Ninja

–

  • Chemist 2

    • -> Priest 2 -> Oracle 3
    • -> Chemist 2 -> Wizard 4 -> Time Mage 3
    • -> Calculator

–

  • …

    • Chemist 8
    • -> Wizard 2 -> Time Mage 2 -> Summoner 4
    • -> Priest 2 -> Oracle 2 -> Mediator 4
    • Squire 8
    • -> Archer 2 -> Thief 3 -> Lancer 4
    • -> Knight 2 -> Monk 3 -> Geomancer 4
    • -> Mime (Note: Possibly male-only)
table
props to https://chaos2.org/ff/fft/jobs.shtml

Squire
No requirements		 Chemist
No requirements
Knight
Lv.2 Squire		 Archer
Lv.2 Squire		 Priest
Lv.2 Chemist		 Wizard
Lv.2 Chemist
Monk
Lv.2 Knight		 Thief
Lv.2 Archer		 Oracle
Lv.2 Priest		 Time Mage
Lv.2 Wizard
Geomancer
Lv.3 Monk		 Lancer
Lv.3 Thief		 Mediator
Lv.2 Oracle		 Summoner
Lv.2 Time Mage
Dancer
Lv.4 Geomancer, Lv.4 Lancer		 Bard
Lv.4 Mediator, Lv.4 Summoner
Samurai

Lv.3 Knight, Lv.4 Monk, Lv.2 Lancer
Ninja

Lv.3 Archer, Lv.4 Thief, Lv.2 Geomancer
Calculator

Lv.4 Priest, Lv.4 Wizard, Lv.3 Oracle, Lv.3 Time Mage

Mime

Lv.8 Squire, Lv.8 Chemist, Lv.4 Geomancer, Lv.4 Lancer, Lv.4 Mediator, Lv.4 Summoner

  • Geomancer – attack up, lancer with jump and a spear, and maybe even done as a knight with two swords and jump. The time mage teleport can be extremely handy.
  • Convert your knights into chemists, then take the gun off that kid, or buy more when you can. Your chemists can use the guns and use the battle skills. Well, at least they can do a bit of damage and always hit, and they’re chemists. =/
  • The archer ‘concentrate’ is good for anyone, especially a monk with counterattack.
  • Clerics are useless compared to people with items and ‘throw item’, especially once you get summoners. Even when mastered, I see no purpose whatsoever for a cleric. I was hoping to get holy night out of a cleric, but that seems to be a guest-only thing.

  • Bards are largely worthless. But you could give them a gun. The harp needs line of sight and exactly three spaces. Which is frelling hard. 4 levels of mediator, 4 levels of summoner and .. males only. Sigh. Singing is interesting, but it’s usually useful to do anything else other than sing. The ‘ultimate song’ might have its use. Maybe bards and mimes and summoners could go together.

Summoner ∞

A really REALLY good unit to have around. Their healing is faster and wider than a cleric’s, and their attacks are wider and stronger than a wizard. PLUS you don’t heal your enemies or hurt your own units. Very nice all around.

The summoner spell ‘golem’ is amazing because it protects you from physical attacks. I’m not sure how much it protects, but it’ll make a few of your characters invulnerable to one shot. A pair of summoners can really help, especially if there are archers around. This only works against weapons, and not monster attacks (and maybe not bard harp attacks)

Monk ∞

  • ‘Hamado’ is amazing because it stops their attack cold *and* it does damage (if it hits). It even works verses ranged attacks. It doesn’t tend to work all that frequently though.
  • Keep a female monk around, because they can wear the nice hairpin you get off of one of the chicky guests.
  • It’s actually pretty cool to use the knight ‘wear armor’ with a monk, to give you a great kit.

  • ‘Chakra’ is really cool because it also does AOE mana restoration in the nearby squares. It’s too bad that a tiny level change will block it.

    • Around level 10 it’ll heal 50 health 25 mana.

Lancer ∞

  • The jump ability is bloody hard to time. But it’s an interesting way to dodge being the target of a delayed spell or attack. It does horrific damage if you’ve got two weapons. It’s really nice if you really soup up your guy and then set it on auto-battle. It’s great with the geomancer attack up ability.

A lancer with an item skill, wearing heavy armor is a great unit to have. Having a set of them is scary to use, if you’re up against a mixed group of units. When they jump, they make your other units targets though, so be careful.

Ninja ∞

Hard to get, and not that useful once you have it. Throwing horribly expensive items isn’t a very good idea. But wielding two weapons is a nice skill to give a real warrior class.

Mime ∞

Can’t hold equipment, has no abilities and exactly mimics the actions of others just after they do their action. Will shoot a gun in the same direction and for the same distance, possibly hitting an ally. Will also cast spells the same way, with no mana cost. Can (rarely) fail to mimic. It’s really neat, because you can walk around like a vulnerable pseudo-monk and attack stuff, and then get freebies as your other characters act. Kindof neat, and would be particularly cool with a summoner-centric group.

Notes ∞

Defeating Wiegraf ∞

https://chaos2.org/ff/fft/wiegraf.shtml

The battle with Wiegraf/Velius in Riovanes Castle is one of the hardest battles in Final Fantasy Tactics, because Ramza must fight Wiegraf alone. One strategy for completing this battle is to set Ramza’s job class to Squire, and have the Yell and Accumulate squire skills, as well as a mechanism to heal (you’ll need it for the repeated Earth Slash attacks). Auto Potion (chemist) or Regenerator (priest) work well here. As long as Ramza can survive Wiegraf’s initial attack (usually a Lightning Stab), this battle can be completed.

The trick is to exploit a bug in the AI that permits a cycle; Ramza’s first move should be to the tile directly SOUTH the steps to the southeast (where north is the top of the room). Wiegraf will move to a position northeast of the torch, into the water; Ramza’s next move should be one tile WEST; Wiegraf will move in lock-step, attacking with Earth Slash each time. In this manner, Ramza can cycle back and forth as much as necessary to Yell up to SP 50 and Accumulate up to AT 40 or so; from that point on, the battle is trivial, since at AT 40 and 6.5 turns to his one, you can kill Wiegraf in one attack and kill Velius in at most 3…

Wiegraf will attack during this cycle with Earth Slash, so make sure to heal periodically unless you have Auto Potion or Regenerator… it is possible to complete this battle when Ramza is under level 30…

faith and brave ∞

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/197339-final-fantasy-tactics/41387999#msg_7 [ 2 ]

-----Brave Altering-----
Praise (Talk Skill) +4 Brave
Threaten (Talk Skill) -20 Brave
Foxbird (Yin Yang Magic) -30 Brave
Cheer Up (Guts) +5 Brave [100% hit rate]
Scream (Guts) +10 Brave [Self-only, 100% hit rate]
Chicken (Magic Sword) -50 Brave
Look of Fright (Ahriman skillset) -10 Brave
Brave Up (Dancer Reaction Ability) +3 Brave when hit with a physical attack
------Faith Altering-----
Preach (Talk Skill) +4 Faith
Solution (Talk Skill) -20 Faith
Face Up (Bard reaction ability) +3 Faith when hit with a magic attack
  • See the Brave/Faith FAQ

  • If a character gets over 94 permanent faith or under 6 permanent brave at the end of a battle, that character will leave your party permanently.

To check out ∞

Footnotes


  1. was https://web.archive.org/web/20161121034518/http://www.gamefaqs.com:80/ps/197339-final-fantasy-tactics[ ↩ ]
  2. My original notes were from www.gamespot.com/ps/strategy/finalfantasytactics/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-43489001&pid=197339 (not archived) [ ↩ ]
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