Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 47
 This remake makes me sad. July 16, 2008
Louis Crites (Imperial, MO United States)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Imagine if everything you wanted to do took 4 times longer than it should take. That's what playing this game is like. All of the special animations slow down to a crawl, and you're left wondering why you paid $40 for a game that came out 8 years ago, but has LESS SPEED. The new dialogue is repulsive, the slow-down is unreal and unbearable, and the new classes are positively worthless in single-player mode (the dark knight requires mastering 2 jobs and getting job level 8 in 4 others! you'd finish the game before you got half of that done).
This is by far the worst remake of a Final Fantasy game I've ever played in my life, and that's saying a lot, because Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my all-time favorite games. So good, in fact, that I can't even bear to give this remake 1 star. If you want to play this game, find the original. Avoid this remake at all costs.
 A lot of excitement with a little disappointment January 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When first hearing and reading about Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions I was ecstatic. I purchased it as soon as I could for my PSP and was slightly disappointed when I realized it was exactly the same as my Playstation game, Final Fantasy Tactics. The only difference this game has is the change in names of some characters, the dialogue is all new and worded differently as if it were out of Medieval England or some such depiction of the Medieval era, and the new cut scenes are great with an incredible animation style but alas the lines are a little cheesy.
If you love Final Fantasy Tactics this is a great way to make it portable. Just note, there are differences in names, what classes are called, and how they speak. Took a little getting used to but the game is still a lot of fun.
 Classic Final Fantasy With a Strategic Twist August 14, 2008
fries_with_that (California, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Summary:If you've liked the GBA or DS Versions of Final Fantasy Tactics, you won't be disappointed by War of the Lions. It's an almost direct port from the PSX version, but it doesn't disappoint. It can be a bit slow paced at times, but a complex and deep storyline filled with beautiful hand drawn cutscenes makes this a pretty emotional game.
Gameplay- Five Stars
Confusing at first, after the first hour, things will quickly sort themselves out. Every time you successfully perform an action, your characters will get both EXP (experience) and JP (Job Points, not Judge Points). EXP is obviously used for leveling up, while JP are used for advancing classes. Classes are the set of abilities that a character can use, i.e. the "White Mage" class allows a character to use White Mage JP to access stronger and stronger White Mage spells, such as Curaja or Holy. You can change the camera angles to get a better look at the battlefield or to plan your next move. I'll admit, sometimes waiting for the CPU to move was a bit boring, but you have to pay attention or else you'll find yourself losing people left and right. Gameplay can be frustrating when you lose a character. When someone in your party loses all of their hit points, then a three turn timer is activated; when it reaches 0, your character is lost forever, and a jewel or chest takes its place.
Story- Five Stars
The story is rather complex. I won't reveal it, but it's a classic theme: save the world. Hand drawn cutscenes add to the story. It's a deeply emotional game, and there is no happy ending. You follow Ramza in dark times as he defeats revived legendary monsters, kept in stones known only as the Zodiac Stones.
Online Play - Two Stars
You can play with a buddy if they happen to own a copy of the game, and go on cooperative missions together, or battle each other. There is no infrastructure mode included, but there is a means of obtaining it is you really want to play other people. You don't honestly expect an infrastructure mode for a decade old game, do you?
Final Verdict- Five Stars
This game really is epic, and is a perfect port from the Playstation One. If I could only own five games for the PSP, this would be one of them. There is almost unlimited replay value.
A classic revisited October 11, 2007
Campy/TARDIS_Knight
So, right off the bat, I must say, that Final Fantasy Tactics for PSX is my favorite game of all times. So I hope you understand that this review is quite biased, but, with good measure, I should hope.
First off, the bad news: It's true, theres a significant slowdown during battles only, when casting spells (protect takes forever, for example) and special attacks. The sounds and the actions might be out of synch at times as well. Also, there's new content, so far, most of it has had to do with Delita's own story. These scenes feel weird: they do explain thoroughly several plot points that weren't explained in the game's first iteration, but they feel a little bit tacked on to me....still, they serve their purpose, to further Delita and Ovelia's relationship, which is an important plot point that was glossed over the first time. Also, some sounds have been changed, most noticeably, the echo in the death rattles was taken out, and, it's not that it sounds cheap...but it doesn't sound as cool anymore. Some sounds HAVE been downgraded, like some higher level magic spells. All in all, I don't understand that tradeoff in particular.
The good - very interesting re-write of all the dialogue in the game. It was given the Ivalice-treatment, and characters now have a Shakesperian depth...just by reading them, you know what their station in life is, whether it be noble or not so. Also, the re-write made some of the plot points way clearer than the first time around. The incredibly intricate plot got a new lease on life, really. It makes me wonder what if they re-made Vagrant Story... I digress. So, the animated cut-scenes are beautiful, and the voice acting is great (not superb, but very good). And some people have complained about the fuzzy graphics. Honestly, I see the same pixelated isometric 2 1/2 D graphics I saw back in '98.
The neutral- so, the gameplay is the same: if you've never played it, it might take a while to get a hang of it. The gameplay is quite daunting for even regular gamers, and some people haven't even played it because they could never get a hang of it. Moreover, once you do get the hang of it, it takes a while to truly master it. Theres two new classes: Onion Knight and Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is a pain to get and is totally worth it; the Onion Knight might be worth it later on...there's also a multi-player feature which I haven't tried out yet, sadly.
Odd observation, this time around, the odds favor enemies a lot more often...for example, I once cast Haste on myself, with a 97% chance of success. Good as done right? Wrong. The spell missed. And that's just one example. I've been missing enemies with sure shots all the time, like 85% success rate. And yet, long shots, like 35% hits, happen more often this time around as well. The AI, I feel, is way more goal oriented this time around: enemies will try flanking you or will prefer causing status changes instead of hitting you directly. The archer, which sucked the first time around, is quite useful now, on both sides.
All in all, this is a great game, perhaps a bit pricey, considering that Jeanne d'Arc, another great SRPG is out for 10 dollars less. Obviously, two very different games, and, honestly, get both. If you can only get one, get this one. I'm gonna be playing this one for a while. Again.
 FFT, For the handheld generation. November 3, 2007
J. L. Foster (Whiteman AFB, MO USA)
I've only played through the first few battles so far, but having beaten the PS1 game countless times, I've seen enough to notice a few differences. Overall, game play is exactly how i remember it, enjoyable, easy to understand, and just plain fun.
One thing about the abilities though: i did notice a slight slowdown in animation while some spells took effect, not enough to deter me from playing, but maybe 1 fps, so no big deal there. Some sounds have been taken off the ends of spells too, (ie. no *shing* with the spellsword abilities when the sword rises from the ground) but as far as i can tell, both sound and visuals are in sync. I'm playing on a psp 2001 model, so maybe the other reviews were on the psp 1000?
The translation is also slightly different, in a good way though. Much more 'accurate' to how one would expect people from an era of castles and knights to speak. Its a nice touch.
I only gave it a 4/5 because of the minor animation slowdown and the fact that since I'm used to the normal screen presentation, the wide presentation does look a slight bit fuzzy. Other than that, I can't wait to get into the core story. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the FF series or strategy type games.
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