Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

 
 I am not exactly a big Final Fantasy fan, but I do have played my share of titles that I have finished, largely owed to Gameboy Advance. Amongst the Final Fantasy games I played on GBA there is one single FF series that stood out the most for me and it was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. 

Final Fantasy Tactics was a highly acclaimed JRPG in PSX and it was due to Yasumi Matsuno's briliant talent as Director. FFT stood out among JRPG peaks not only due to its gameplay but also immersiveness of Ivalice, which Matsuno had a personal hand in its creation whom he infused the richness of Gray morality storyline just like Tactics Ogre series. Returning on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as producer, Matsuno lent his briliant talent once again in this game and made one of the best JRPG in GBA when it comes to gameplay.

Compared to FFT Wars of the Lion, FFTA is overall more child friendly version. The story features an adventure of group of young teens who somehow got isekai'd into Ivalice and try to find their way to return into their world while interacting with the colorful fantasy settings world.

FFTA storyline might pale in comparison with the OG FFT due to the target audience, but when it comes to JRPG gameplay, this is one of the best that Gameboy Advance had to offer. Compared to FFT Job Classes, FFTA does not come as much in terms of the offers selection. But it does make up with playable Race Diversity. In FFTA you get to play the race of Human, Moogle, Viera, Baanga and Numou which got their own selections of unique Job class. My personal favorite race was Baanga who reigns supreme in Physical department which I always start out from monk class for speed bonus due to their inherent slow speed.

Apart from rich customizations in playable character, FFTA is one of the few games that allows you to design your own maps by placing landmarks across the Map grids. Certain placements will let you obtain rare weapons that cast Ultima skills which are not obtainable unless you play multiplayer. FFTA itself got 300 Quests to choose from that last through postgame and this sort of immersion is relatively unheard of in GBA games.

Overall I did have quite fond memory with FFTA since I managed to complete the game with 100% completion during my teenage years. Given the quality of FFTA, I am rather surprised that Square Enix haven't release a new port for this game despite War of the Lions have been recipient of several ports. Perhaps some of the execs still bear grudges toward Yasumi Matsuno or something. Nevertheless I still look forward to FFTA and FFT A2 re-release someday which likely will happen since these games are way too good to be sitting forever collecting dust.