A great tactical RPG.
A turn-based, tactical RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and Disgaea. Micromanage a large group of characters and send them out in a series of battles against a variety of enemies. No dungeon or town exploration is involved... you pick your battles from a pub "missions" menu and then move there on a map icon. There are no random battles, you choose when to fight. Each battle in the game is usually 4 on 4 or 6 on 6, and typically takes about 20 minutes to complete.
Tactical RPGs work really well on the GBA, in my opinion. You play a few turns, and save. Since everything is turn-based, you can always put the game down when real-life calls.
FF:TA consists of 24 story battles that you have to beat to resolve the plot and see the ending credits, but you end up spending most of your time doing the optional side battles which get you XP, AP (ability points) and the equipment to make your party capable of taking on the harder battles that come at the end of the game. I ended up beating the final boss battle with my party at an average level of 25, after about 60 hours of gameplay. In retrospect, the game could have been much shorter... you only need to level up 6 characters to win the game, and I experimented with so many classes that I was levelling 20 characters midway through the game. I ended up completing about 150 missions, many of which were against wandering clans or to defend territory that I had claimed in the game.
After you beat the final boss battle, you can continue play to get more of the side missions (there are 300 missions in the game, not including the wandering clan battles and territory defense battles). I was pretty satisfied with the ending, so I haven't gone farther into the optional missions.
Pros:
Excellent graphics, some of the best on the GBA. A wide variety of hand-drawn portraits, good sprite graphics, and "mode 7" effects for spells. Tons of jobs, abilities, and items... plenty of ways to build your party, which, is of course, what tactical RPGS are all about. A decent plot that will pull you along, and a decent ending. Excellent boss fights, though there probably aren't enough of them.
Cons:
The law system is really is nothing but a big hassle that doesn't add to gameplay in any way. The laws (which eventually increase to three per battle) just seem like random penalties. Some law combinations are simply awful... for example, you can get a law that prevents you from offensive actions against monsters when the mission is to kill a group of monsters. The law system plays an important part in the plot of the game, but the game would have been much better without it, in my opinion. There are areas on the map that are lawless, and even though KO'd characters at the end of the battle are permanently dead, I really preferred to fight there, given the chance.
Too many fights are just you against another, weaker clan. Some of the battles can become monotonous... but at least you don't have to train against your own party members like in Tactics Ogre: A Knight of Lodis.
FF:TA is also a bit too easy. Once you've got a good party together, the wandering clan battles and defense missions are pretty much a joke. Luckily, some of boss missions pick up in difficulty torwards the end of the game, but it's nothing that good planning and strategy won't defeat.
Conclusion:
A very worthwhile game if you like tactical RPGs. I thought it was a bit better than Tactics Ogre: A Knight of Lodis, despite the law system. Plenty of bang for the buck for a $30 game.
P.S I ended up playing this game before playing the PS version of Final Fantasy Tactics... and though Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is still a good game, it doesn't even come close to the greatness of the original.