FFTA is nothing short of spectacular. It's a well-rounded RPG that deserves much more praise than it received.
As you jump into the game, it rolls to a slow start. But of course every game needs a tutorial, though the tutorial in this game can run a bit long. But once it's out of the way, the gameplay flows in and doesn't take a break. You'll find yourself immersed in tons of missions before long.
To start the main part of the story mode, you give your main character a name, as well as name your clan. This allows you to let your creativity pour into the feel of this brilliant world of clan battles. You are accompanied by Montblanc, a helpful Black Mage moogle. You will find that Montblanc is increasingly helpful throughout the game.
The turn-based gameplay really opens the door for tons of strategies. Each individual clan member can learn a variety of abilities that would help you through Story Mode. As you obtain more items, you will see that each character is perfect for one thing, but can be bulked up on what your clan lacks.
There are a few different kinds of missions. There are battle missions and there are also dispatch missions. In dispatch missions, you set out one of your characters and depending on how well they do, they will return either victorious or as a failure.
For a GBA game, I personally found the graphics quite good. The characters look like tiny action figures, but it's much easier this way instead of keeping track of a bunch of huge warriors all over your map. The fight animations vary from quite simple to an exravegent explosion of light from one character's wand/rod/weapon.
You'll always find yourself immersed in the world no matter when you pick the game up and begin playing it again. In my opinion, it's the perfect Game Boy Advance Role-Playing Game and quite possibly always will be.