FFT Advance (gripes inside!)

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12.22.2012 12:00am

Thread Creator (Edited on 12.22.2012 at 12:06am)

Nelfichu
I've been there, hombre.

I know this game is almost ten (!) years old, but I can still vividly remember buying a GBA from a Kmart (wow, that also dates me) just to play it . I only played it once, and I vaguely remember it not being as good as FFT and the judge system sucking balls, but that's it.

Work was a little slow this week, so I loaded it up on my phone and later my computer and sunk four hours into it. Damn do I hate this game. Since no one asked for it, here's my list of reasons why:

The characters are aware they're in an FF game. It's already cheesy that they found a magic book that transports them to another world, does that world have to be a video game? That a character name-checks as his favorite? More than that, they get sucked into a FF game that isn't even a traditional FF game? I'd feel ripped off if I were those kids.
Skills. I love how you learn skills and abilities from your equipment in this game (and FF9). What I don't love is how there's no easy way to see if you've learned a skill from a weapon already, short of exiting the Equip menu, opening the Ability menu, and scrolling down to see if it's there. In FF9, you just had to hover over a weapon's name, and it would show you a progress bar of abilities on that weapon. In this game, it just shows you the ability name, without telling you if you've learned it or not, or how far along in learning it you are.
Judges and laws. Probably the worst thing about this game. At first it seems to add extra challenge (no bows), but then it gets frustrating. I just got in a battle where you couldn't use the Fight command. I'm early enough in the game that the only non-Fight commands I have are black magic spells and one monk spell. This fight took 25 minutes, in which one of my Soldiers was beserked and sent to jail for Fighting, plus the enemy White Mage kept reviving other dead enemies until I finally managed to kill him. Why not kill the White Mage first? That segues nicely into...
MISS! MISS! Oh you want to attack/cast magic/fire an arrow/do some monk shit? MISS! I swear to god, this game has the fucking worst hit ratio. My characters are missing probably every 3rd move. And I'm no newb-- I'm attacking from behind and from the sides, and still I keep getting goddamn MISS! Actually, forget the laws and judges, this is my least favorite thing about this game at the moment.
Random map placement of cities/woods/mountains just seems pointless. Is the occasional item worth looking up the best, most ideal map placement online? Not to me. I loved original FFT where clearing a battle opened a new path, or you had to work your way back across a certain trail to get to a new goal.

And because I don't want to be completely unfair:

Likes:

Umm..... oh, okay! I like that, at least initially, jobs are based on race. Viera can be archers and hunters, moogles are black mages and animal mages, humans are soldiers, etc. Definitely an improvement compared to FFT, where everyone starts as one of the same four classes (Chemist, Squire).

What really frustrates me is I have a friend who LOVES this game, but never played original FFT. He did every mission in FFTA, but when I insisted he download and try out FFT on the PS3, he played ten minutes and gave up.

I may angrily update this as I continue playing. In the meantime, anyone else have thoughts on FFTA? Did anyone ever bother with FFTA2?

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12.22.2012 12:18am

Spidey
So Sigh Ety

The random maps TOTALLY killed it for me. I also didn't like the overly whimsical light hearted setting, or how few abilities you can put on a character..........strategies just were way too simplified. Miss pissed me off so much too. I'm a person who believes if something has a 68% hit rate, if I were to do it 100 times in the game, the game would be programed so I'd hit 68 times out of 100 exactly, not one less and not one more, so that was the worst.

Rest was bad too but these were the parts that were it for me.

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12.22.2012 2:58am

Fincher
Deep Water Horizon

I didn't play very much of it, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Currently playing: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Picross DS
Last played: Time Hollow (good)
Last watched: Agent Carter (very good)
Me on Favslist

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12.22.2012 3:54am

Clowd Cole
Dangerous Zombie

Marche, greatest villian ever.

Buggle Up! Danger! Danger! (Genocide!) Death the Crisis! Dangerous Zombie!

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12.22.2012 7:44pm

(Edited on 12.23.2012 at 12:25am)

Vyers
Dark Adonis

I think I have the same opinion of the Tactics Advance games that I do of FFVIII: Cool mechanics and gameplay; with characters/story I didn't really care for. In all these games I probably get the most enjoyment from figuring out different ways to "Break" the game and find some crazy overpowered tactics to win the day.

It's funny but it seems like the people who dislike FFTA the most are fans of the original Tactics.

I think the plot in FFTA was a lot darker than the game itself emphasised, with the whole Marche the villain thing. It might have been a lot more interesting if presented in this way.

FFTA2 I probably enjoyed more, but only because they pretty straight up said "Story? LOL, no story here, just enjoy the gameplay" and that was fair enough. I actually really liked some of the tertiary character you meet through the fairly sizable side quests, but Luso the main character is so devoid of personality he might as well be Gordon Freeman.

Nelfichu's frustrations are understandable, but the laws in FFTA never bothered me, since they change every day, you can just walk around the map until you find a law-set that really complements your preferred style. Or in a pinch play an anti-law to change it to your liking.

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12.22.2012 8:28pm

Fincher
Deep Water Horizon

Vyers said:
FFTA2 I probably enjoyed more, but only because they pretty straight up said "Story? LOL, no story here, just enjoy the gameplay" and that was fair enough.

Advance might not have said that, but that was still my basic reaction to it. I actually found it kind of advantageous that I didn't care about the plot, because strategy RPGs are such time sinks, and I could play at my convenience without trying to find out what happens next.

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