Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions Hands-On

By Ricardo Torres, GameSpotPosted May 13, 2007 3:53 pm PT

We clock in some time with the import version of Square Enix's makeover of the classic title.

MAKUHARI--One of the games garnering a substantial crowd on the Square Enix Party showfloor, despite having just hit stores late last week, was Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, an update of the 32-bit classic strategy game. To celebrate the title's release Square has gone back to the original game and refreshed it for the PlayStation Portable, adding a host of refinements and new features so that a new generation of gamers can see the classic in a new light. Besides spending some time with the game on the show floor, we headed on out and picked up a retail copy as well. It's safe to say that Square's revamp of the classic appears to be handily living up to the beloved original.

The game stays faithful to the original title and features all of its characters and missions. However, Square has made a number of notable additions to the original experience that promise to make this great game even better. The game features enhanced graphics, 16:9 widescreen presentation, new quests, totally redone cutscenes, two new character classes, the "onion knight" and "dark knight," as well as new playable characters. The new characters hail from FFXII, Balthier, and the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Luso. Finally, the game offers ad hoc multiplayer support for competitive matches against a friend or cooperative play that challenges you to work together to complete missions.

The core gamplay in FF Tactics is true to the original game and offers a deep, turn-based battle system and job system that lets you tweak out your fighting force to perfection. You'll still rely on a bevy of menus for your turn-based battling, but we expect many to be surprised by how well the 10-year-old gameplay holds up. The turn-based nature of the game makes it an easy adaptation for the multiplayer mode. One addition to the deliberate action is a button-mashing contest that comes up in competitive multiplayer matches. Whichever player manages to mash faster and win the minicompetition during a fight is rewarded with extra attack damage.

The presentation in Final Fantasy Tactics has gotten a swank makeover with cleaned-up polygonal visuals and sprites. The most striking addition to the mix is the revamped cinematics, which are beautifully redone with CG that mimics the lush art style of the game's hand-drawn 2D. The audio has been polished up some as well, for consistency's sake. In a session with the game's developers and the assembled press at the show, we were pleased to hear that the US version of the game is due to get some nice perks over the original domestic game. A new localization and full audio for the cinematics are being added to the game for the stateside release.

Based on what we've played and seen so far, Square Enix has done right with its remake of the classic title. The slick update to the game's presentation is terrific. On the content side, the additions to the single-player experience seem to have been done carefully enough to not imbalance the challenging experience. The addition of multiplayer is a welcome cherry on top of the whole package. Fans of the original game owe it to themselves to track the domestic release of the title so they know the exact moment they need to go pick it up. The import is a nice teaser, but it's obviously not the easiest game to buy and play through considering it's all in Japanese. Newcomers who've heard the crazy talk of the game's mythic status but haven't had the chance to try it out will need to snag it, as it's a must-play. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has just released in Japan, with a US release slated for this October. Look for more on the game in the coming months.

48 Comments

  • FadeVermont

    Posted Oct 4, 2007 9:55 am PT

    Ya... all square seems to come up with this days are terrible new games and remakes to hide their suck. However... Tactics mutliplayer? That kicks ass. Can't wait. But I still don't forgive Square for having 1 good remake out of every 10 crappy titles

  • jackrobbo

    Posted Aug 18, 2007 4:39 pm PT

    YES!!!cloud is in it!

  • dryden555

    Posted Aug 15, 2007 1:58 pm PT

    another remake after it was already remade for PS? Why not a new FFT game please

  • MarkB1975

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 8:10 am PT

    I bought a PSone to play Final Fantasy Tactics. I have played the game through at least 5 times from start to finish. I am sure I have logged closed to 1,000 hours playing the original. When the PSP was released, I was excited because surely they would port FFT to it. I had no idea that they were going to update and enhance the game as well. You can bet that I will get this game the day it is released in the U.S.

    Thanks, Squenix

  • kyo_tetsuei

    Posted Jul 6, 2007 2:06 pm PT

    The button mashing I think is going to result in a lot of dropped PSPs... Otherwise, I'm all in!

  • RockHardNuts

    Posted Jun 29, 2007 12:19 am PT

    This game...............(reminisces) Some of my fondest memories on the old PS include me locking myself in what was known as the "dungeon" room and playing All the Final Fantasy series over and over again. I'm now half-blind( a little exaggeration) because of the pitch blackness in that room, but that's not the point. The point is that this game was and still is great and I'll definitely be picking this game up and putting some value back into my PSP. Looks like I'll have to get a new coaster.......

  • TheAeroV

    Posted Jun 19, 2007 11:01 pm PT

    Finally, multiplayer head to head; I've been waiting for a good fight against others.

  • Dualmask

    Posted Jun 13, 2007 6:26 am PT

    I've been dying to play this game again since the death of my original PSOne and the failure of my PSX emulator. I still have the original black-base disc and I take very good care of it but alas, I can no longer play it... until October. This might be the first game I actually put on reserve since Zelda: OoT...

  • mackattack777

    Posted Jun 11, 2007 8:34 pm PT

    I LOVED The Original i put some where between 50 and 80 hours just killing things... I cannot wait for it to come stateside.

    my original was also the first game i ever got for the PS1(and also one of my favorite RPG's along with Azure dreams) but the CD was damaged (scratched by a friend being dumb)....so.... i bought another 1, i still have the disc but..... the memory card my save was on was lost during one of my moves (yeah that really bites) thank god i will never lose my memory stick (knock on wood)

  • p00phead

    Posted May 29, 2007 9:36 pm PT

    Final Fantasy on any console is great except for xbox-360.

  • Leinaro

    Posted May 29, 2007 4:41 pm PT

    The king of turn-based tactic warfare is back indeed. I agree that PSX FFT was storywise-brilliant, gameplay-addictive and tactically fun. I spent nearly 600 hours on the PSX version of this game. I even still play it on my PS3 (lol).

    If all the new features I've heard of turn out to be true, I'll definitely buy a PSP just to play this one game once again.

  • angkawsw

    Posted May 25, 2007 6:41 pm PT

    simply the best of the best... Tactics didnt get 10/10 in the hall of fame for nothing ^.^

  • brokentrash

    Posted May 25, 2007 2:37 am PT

    Wow, lovermanxxx's comment made me want to play this game more than the hands on. I never even saw a copy of the first game and not having a psp pains me so much more reading. As for my FFTA2 (yes I have a DS) looks like I'm plaing with Aladin T-T

  • lovermanxxx

    Posted May 25, 2007 12:35 am PT

    OK, back in the day, when the PSP was first mentioned, I thought "awesome, Tactics on the go!".
    Then the PSP was released.
    2 years later, I finally get a PSX emu on there. I rip my original FFT (my old PSX is dead but I kept this CD for memories sake) and play it on my PSP. Heaven.
    Then I here about the remake. Remakes scare me, because 9 times out of 10 they trash everything that you treasured about the game. But surely this would be different? It is. This is the 1 time in 10... no 1 time in 50 that the remake takes the original and makes it what you always dreamed it could be. I have been playing the import game for a week now and cannot put it down. I love FFT. If you have spent time with this game... and i mean real TIME, like over 100hrs, nothing prepares you for when you first hear the title sequence tinkling before the main orchestra comes in. This is game is poetry. NOTHING can compare to the storyline. The very best synapsis of this game was right here on GameSpot for the original PSX release, they said "If Shakespeare ever made a videogame, it would be Final Fantasy Tactics". It IS that good. It IS that deep and involving. You WILL love this game and spend hours upon hours upon hours of your life on this game. And that was the original... this one is even better.

  • mikeesco

    Posted May 20, 2007 8:42 pm PT

    This game is gonna be sick. Its hard to find the original Tactics for PS. I would buy a PSP just for this game. The Original was a great game, lots of options, the freedom to make your char. however you want and a story thats good enough for a movie.If they do this game right and keep the gameplay and story but up the graphics ill drop my DS. GBA Tactics was too childish but the screenshots of this game are pimpin.

  • Courtawulf4

    Posted May 19, 2007 7:31 am PT

    between this and D&D tactics I may have to think about buying one of these things eventually. hopefully they take a big drop in price between now and October.

  • FstBrk342

    Posted May 18, 2007 7:46 pm PT

    sadly i missed the OG, but i played the gba game and liked the system, yeah i know its supposed to be crap or watever in comparison but i thought it was pretty fun and very long, although the story was trash the gameplay made up for it

  • BlackBaldwin

    Posted May 18, 2007 6:33 am PT

    Gosh I loved this game back in the day...I remember I was soo poor at the time that when I got my first job the first three games I bought were FF7, FF8, FFT...Three of my still favorite games of all time heck I even admit I like FFT much more then I did with FF7. Oh by the way the person who said FFT advanced was a great game...you need a good wack in the head, FFT compared to FFT advanced was like comparing super mario brothers to Resident Evil...

  • peace-fist

    Posted May 17, 2007 9:37 am PT

    This is the first PSP game that I've been looking forward to as much as a 5-star console game.
    If this game was EXACTLY like the old, I'd still by it. All the extras, especially the dark knight , THE CO-OP, and VS will be awsome.

    (And wasn't there supposed to be a way to unlock the dark knight class in the old version by mastering all classes?)

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