Launched in 2007, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of FINAL FANTASY, Distant Worlds features the music of the great video game series FINAL FANTASY and composer Nobuo Uematsu. The concerts are performed by symphony orchestra, choir, and renowned vocal and instrumental soloists, under the direction of GRAMMY Award-winner and acclaimed conductor Arnie Roth. With HD video presentations from the FINAL FANTASY game developers SQUARE ENIX projected onto giant screens throughout the concerts, Distant Worlds performs a diverse and constantly expanding repertoire of classic FINAL FANTASY music from throughout the thirty year history of the game series.  With a dedicated and phenomenal community of FINAL FANTASY music lovers, Distant Worlds is a unique multimedia concert experience that delights audiences all over the globe.

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The post Distant Worlds & A New World Concerts! appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Myself, Joon, and Fanney after the show.

I’ve been itching to attend a Distant Worlds show for a good long while and while this wasn’t my first ever trip to a video game symphony, this was one show that I’ve been looking forward to.  Earlier in the year, I did attend A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy in La Jolla California.  An officially sanctioned show with a smaller orchestra and no video screens to showcase the action from the games.  Even though it was smaller, that show was still amazing to attend and a great date night.  After attending that show with my lovely girlfriend, Fanney, she mentioned how she would love to go to the bigger show, mostly so she could see the game footage and have some idea of what was going on during a piece of music.  As luck would have it, Distant Worlds had a show scheduled in Los Angeles on a night we could both attend.  Tickets were immediately bought and we even convinced our friend Joon to join us as well since he is also a huge Final Fantasy fan.

The general vibe at the concert was relaxing and exciting.  While one would think to dress up in your best when attending a symphony, video game fans have a different approach.  There were people in some amazing outfits and dresses, but there were also some cosplayers walking about and fans wearing the special Uniqlo Final Fantasy shirts.  One minute you would see a couple dressed to the nines, and the next you would see a Tifa cosplayer alongside a group of moogles.  It was fantastic to see and nothing felt out of place.  Even with me in my Final Fantasy I t-shirt, I didn’t feel underdressed.  All the attendees were there to enjoy music from one of our favorite video game franchises and just enjoy the night.  If there was one thing I do regret, it’s that I didn’t get to the theater early enough to buy some merchandise.  We arrived at the Microsoft Theater about half an hour before the show was set to start and the merchandise line was incredibly long.  Refreshments were almost as long as the merchandise and a few items I was hoping to get did sell out.  So pro-tip for anyone wanting to attend a Distant Worlds show if you want the merchandise you need to get there EARLY.  Do not underestimate Final Fantasy fans for they will get the goods.  While I was lucky enough to walk away with a shirt and a music box, I missed out on some other items.

Orchestra playing To Zanarkand

The show started with the Prelude playing and immediately I was giddy and had an uncontrollable smile on my face.  The screens showed off the beautiful logo for the show as well as clips from a myriad of games.  Even if you weren’t familiar with all the games the conductor, Arnie Roth, would get on a microphone and tell the audience the songs and which game they were from.  A beautiful logo of the said game would come up on screen and the orchestra would play about 2 or 3 songs from each game.  They started with the original Final Fantasy and mostly worked their way in numerical order, only going out of order in the second half of the show.  For the first half what struck me as a bit odd but made some commercial sense was that the footage being shown for games I-VI was all from the Pixel Remasters.  No original NES footage, no PSP footage, and no DS footage.  I can only assume this is because Square wants to push the Pixel Remasters and this would be the way to do it, even though the graphics and art style of the PSP games are beautifully detailed.  Aside from the footage, what I did appreciate was how they weren’t afraid to throw in a little joke when the moment arose.  While playing songs from Final Fantasy IV, the infamous “Spoony Bard” line came up on the screen.  Not only that but while playing Phantom Train from Final Fantasy VI, a shot of Sabin throwing the Phantom Train got a huge laugh from the audience.

While I highly enjoyed the first half of the show, you could tell the audience was itching for music from the later games.  Not to say the first half was boring, but you could feel the room’s energy rise when the show’s second half began.  the second half started with Final Fantasy VIII‘s Liberi Fatali and went right into Aerith’s Theme where I will freely admit to getting a tad emotional.  As an added treat Yoko Shimomura (the composer for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV) was in the audience and when it was time to play one of her songs, the audience erupted.  The song they played was Apocalypsis Noctis and talk about hype.  There were times in the show when the game footage didn’t sync up with the music, meaning the action on screen felt out of place, but with Apocalypsis Noctis it did 100%.  Not only was Yoko Shimomura in the audience, but for the Final Fantasy X number they brought out Ritsuki Nakano to sing Suteki da ne (Isn’t It Wonderful).  For those wondering, Suteki da ne is the song sung when Tidus and Yuna share their first kiss in the game and Nakano is the original singer.  This was quite possibly the most beautiful moment in the show.  I was constantly watching her sing and looking up at the screen to see scenes of Tidus and Yuna and I could’ve sworn I heard some people around me crying.  A touching moment to be sure and somehow a fitting place to bring in the main theme of Final Fantasy.  While the orchestra was playing this classic song, the credits were rolling on screen and it just felt right.  Even though I knew the show wasn’t over, there was still the encore, but it felt like I was watching the end credits of a game.  I went on a journey through 35 years of Final Fantasy music and this was the end.

An iconic shot at the end of One Winged Angel.

Of course, it wasn’t the end as my girlfriend was next to me wondering when they would play One Winged Angel.  We were treated not only with one encore song but 2, and the first one they played was To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X.  A true fan favorite and one of the songs I was hoping to hear that night.  Like any great performance, they saved the best for last.  After the applause from Zanarkand was over, the chorus immediately stood up and we all knew what was going to play next.  Video recording and photos were allowed during the performance and while my phone stayed in my pocket for 99% of the show, this was the exception.  The opening notes were met with cheers from the audience and then silence as we all basked in the glory that was One Winged Angel, the most famous song from Final Fantasy.  I’ve heard this song plenty of times, but listening to it live was surreal.  This was also when the footage deviated from showing game footage and instead showed footage from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.  I was thinking they would show footage from the remake but it was nice to see Advent Children get some love.

Once the show was over there were 2 things I wanted to do right when I got home.  Play some Final Fantasy games and look up tickets for the next show.  It was such a fantastic night that I’m eagerly awaiting the next show in Los Angeles.  It’s not just the Final Fantasy show I’ll be looking forward to.  Video game concerts and symphonies have become a more common occurrence so that one doesn’t have to wait too long for the next show.  While you may still have to wait for a bit and do some research for a particular game/franchise to have a concert, going to a show like this live is worth it.  It gave me a deeper appreciation for the games and strengthened my desire to play them and experience the music firsthand.  If you’ve never been to a Distant Worlds show then I’d highly recommend that you go and experience it for yourself.

Three extremely happy fans at the end of the show. Myself, Fanney, and Joon.

The post A Night In Distant Worlds appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Now if you’re thinking, “But Ben, backwards compatibility on the Game Boy isn’t anything new.  Why does that make the GBA the best?”  Well let me explain.  Myself and possibly a few others may fancy ourselves retro video game collectors but have a bit of an issue with our bank accounts.  We may not be able to go out and buy older Game Boys like the original 1989 ‘brick’ or the classic teal GBC.  As much as we want these old systems for collecting sakes we need to pick and choose what to get.  Even if we were to get a modded Game Boy that IS backlit it’s still an original Game Boy only with a few bells and whistles.  It will take 4 double A batteries to use and good luck if you happen to snag a GBC only game because those aren’t going to work on that modded Game Boy.  You’ll need the GBC for certain games to work properly.  Luckily those games can be pointed out thanks to the shape of the carts but if you only have the one Game Boy, you’re going to need the other one which may drain more money out of your wallet.  That’s where the GBA comes in because it can play every single Game Boy and GBC game that’s out there.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the original version or the SP, a GBA will play any Game Boy game.  For those like me who want to grow their game libraries and not worry about if it can play on my system the GBA is the way to go.  Sure the older carts will be sticking out quite a bit if you have the GBA or the SP version, but that little eyesore is a small price to pay when being able to play your copy of Link’s Awakening DX or Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Besides the GBA being the retro collector’s best friend, the games that came out on the system are quite good and highly sought after.  Sure Nintendo’s personal line of Mario games were all ports of older games, but for someone who didn’t own a SNES until much later in his life the Super Mario Advance series was a great way to play classic games.  Until my brother got Super Mario World (Mario Advance 2) we haven’t played this classic game in over 10 plus years.  Besides Mario you had the gems like Metroid Fusion, Golden Sun, Advance Wars, Zelda: The Minish Cap and Fire Emblem.  It was because of the GBA that North Americans were finally able to experience Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.  These titles stayed over in Japan until Nintendo finally brought them over and now these titles are adored all over the world.  Third party titles also made a splash on the system.  Konami made an amazing Castlevania game while Capcom had a slew of different Mega Man titles to choose from.  Square Enix revived the  Final Fantasy Tactics series on the system as well as re-released classic Final Fantasy games.  Granted they went up to VI while skipping III but they updated the graphics for I and II and put both games on a single cart.  THQ developed some of the best Sonic games at the time with Sonic Advance 1-3 whereas all SEGA really did for Sonic on the GBA was help make a really bad port of Sonic 1.  The GBA did have a ton of ports of older NES and SNES games but I can look past that since now classics like A Link To The Past and Super Mario World were now portable and in some cases made better.  Metroid Zero Mission and Kirby Nightmare In Dreamland are remakes of the original Metroid and Kirby’s Adventure which were on the NES.  Both games were remade from the ground up and are now considered the definitive way to play these classics.  Nintendo did release original versions of NES games for the GBA but made them cheap and easy to get.  The games for the system are top notch and I find myself hunting down GBA games more than I do any other system I own.

Now as much as I love the GBA, that doesn’t mean I don’t like the versions that came before it.  I still have my original Game Boy Pocket and would LOVE a modded brick Game Boy and a modded teal GBC in my collection, however I just don’t have the money for those right now.  The GBA takes out the need to get the older systems at all so if you want a Game Boy system I would shoot for the GBA first and save up for the other versions later.  Modded versions of the GBA do exist so if the original model feels the best in your hands but you really want a backlit screen you can find one.  It may be a bit more expensive but they are out there and are completely worth it.  The Game Boys are truly a testament to handheld and portable gaming, and the GBA perfected it with style and substance.  Sure the handhelds Nintendo put out after are great and the Switch is a phenomenal machine, but the GBA got it right the second you opened the box.

The post Game Boy Advance: Handheld Gaming Perfected. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

One of the biggest things this show does that I find different isn’t what the show has, but what the show doesn’t have.  It does begin with the early 70’s but not with Pong or with the Magnavox Odyssey, but with Space Invaders and E.T.  There actually isn’t any mention of the Magnavox at all, the only thing with a Magnavox logo on it is a computer monitor we see later on in the show.  Truth be told, the Magnavox Odyssey isn’t truly the first video game console, the Fairchild Channel F is.  The reason being is because the Channel F had interchangeable cartridges which meant more games than the ones the Odyssey had.  Thats one of the best things about this documentary is that it tells you things that could have been lost to history forever, like the Channel F and the man who created game cartridges, Jerry Lawson.  I knew about the Channel F thanks to Evan Amos’ book The Game Console but to have Netflix bring to light a system that hardly anyone knows about is great.  It also give credit where credit is due to Jerry Lawson, because without him we wouldn’t have game cartridges and the video game  scene could be so different today than it is now.  His children speak for him in the show and they say once the Atari 2600 came out it eclipsed the Channel F and their father’s work was almost completely lost to history.  Almost.  However, it was awesome to learn more about the game Space Invaders, and how the creator Tomo Nishikado drew inspiration from H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

The documentary doesn’t just dive into how games became the juggernaut but it also highlights the people who played in video game tournaments as well.  Becky Heineman who was the 1980 Space Invaders Champion (the first video game tournament ever held so she’s also the first champion).  Jeff Hanson was the 1990 Nintendo World Champion in the 11 and Under category.  Chris Tang, who won the MTV Rock the Rock SEGA Tournament, and finally Tadahiro Nakano who was the Japanese Street Fighter II champion.  Out of all these winners, Nakano would eventually help create a eSports team that would become one of the best in the country.  The show doesn’t shy away from eSports, in fact its the most modern thing mentioned throughout the show minus some screen shots of modern games.  Thanks to home video and old broadcast footage we’re also able to see Hanson and Tang play in their perspective tournaments which is very cool to see.  Listening to Heineman talk about her experiences playing in the first every video game tournament in the United States was great.  I was too young when these tournaments were taking place so seeing how people played in them really makes me want to play in one.  Also on a side note the champions all got really sweet jackets and I would love to see those make a comeback.

Like with other video game documentaries you get to see interviews and hear behind the scenes stories from the people who were there.  Mostly it’s the people directly responsible for the gamed the producers but what High Score does a little differently is who they talk to.  Of course you get to see Howard Scott Warshaw talk about E.T., but you also meet Hirokazu Tanaka, who created some of the most iconic video game sounds ever for Nintendo.  Or one of my personal favorite artists Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer for Final Fantasy.  The show goes into their experiences in a way that we don’t really get to see and I really enjoy that. The show also dives deep into a game that I feel is a bit overlooked when discussing the creation of the ESRB, Night Trap.  Of course Mortal Kombat is heavily featured but that wasn’t the only game Congress had their sights on during the hearings.  It’s a game that gets overshadowed a bit in other circles but here it gets to share the spotlight.  Even if that spotlight was for a poor reason.

Now without giving too much away the show does end at a very peculiar point for me.  It effectively ends right when the Super Nintendo is released and how the Super FX chip helped make Star Fox what it is.  Now thats around 1993 and there’s still so much more gaming history to cover.  For a limited series the show already packs a ton of content but just ending it with the SNES?  It’s not a bad thing but I really hope there’s more in the works because there are so many things that came out right after Star Fox that changed the course of gaming, both games and hardware.  Effectively the show does cover a good 25 years of video game history however this is billed as a limited series so who knows if there will be more?  If they do decide to keep it a 1 and done I would be bummed but I also get it.  This show covers the early years of gaming and if that was the point then they nailed it.

As a whole I love this show, the things I knew about I was happy to see, like the episode on the SEGA/Nintendo war, the creation of E.T., and the rise of Nintendo.  I was also loving the bits I didn’t know, such as the story of Jerry Lawson, Gordon Bellamy, and how John Romero helped create DOOM.  There are some giant omissions from the show, like the Magnavox Odyssey and even some big games like how Tetris came to the market, but what is there is nice.  The omissions don’t bother me too much, probably because I’ve known about them for years, but people who are just diving into the subject may feel a little cheated.  The way people talk about the games you could feel the passion and the little pixel art scenes that play during certain sections of the show are fun to watch.  I particularly loved the pixel recreation of Wharshaw’s pitch of E.T. to Steven Spielberg.  Is this perfect?  No, its not, but it certainly is worth your time if you love video game history and want to learn something new about video games.

The post High Score: A Really Neat Netflix Documentary. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

THE CARTRIDGE ERA

It’s common knowledge that the ‘Final’ in Final Fantasy was because this game could have been Square’s last as a developer.  Luckily that wouldn’t become the case as the Final Fantasy series became the juggernaut of JRPG’s.  Unfortunately I did not start playing Final Fantasy’s cartridge games until much later in life after I knew the series was for me and I started collecting the games.  My goal is to own and play all the Final Fantasy main titles (that I still can) before I die.  This is also the era where a bunch of Final Fantasies didn’t make it to the US until much later.  The reason for that is because the series didn’t get a strong foot hold in North America until VII.  The titles we did get were I, IV, and VI but IV was marketed as II and VI was called III which made a whole bunch of people confused when VII came out.  Of course another reason for that is the partial joke/truth that Square thought American audiences wouldn’t like the games because they were too hard and wouldn’t understand them.  Lucky for us that turned out to be false because we seriously loved those games.  Sadly I didn’t start getting into the cartridge era games until much later in life and the versions of the games I do have are either the PlayStation copies (VI, V, and VI) or on my NES/SNES mini (I and VI but it’s called III keeping with when it came out).  I did own the DS version of III but got rid of it and have been looking for a new copy ever since.  Now the cartridge era games should be my cup of tea since I’m a huge fantasy nerd and I-VI are as fantasy as you can get.  Some of these games are definitely people’s favorites like IV and VI and even V has been getting some praise lately.  III is a bit of an odd ball but the job system in that game set the stage for a fan favorite yet to come, and people love to hate on II for some reason.  Either way with the new consoles coming out and after 6 games of (mostly) greatness, Square wanted to push the envelope and it showed in the next era.

THE PLAYSTATION ERA

In 1997 one of the biggest video games of all time came out on the original PlayStation and took the world by storm.  Final Fantasy VII was, is, and probably always will be Square’s most recognizable Final Fantasy game.  Its the one with the most spinoffs, people know the characters even if they haven’t really played the game, and it arguably has the most memorable final boss music ever composed.  There’s a lot of hype around VII and wether or not you think the game is overrated you still have to admit it put the series on the map in a big way.  It was the first Final Fantasy to not be on a cartridge which meant the game was able to do more and show off those snazzy new 3-D graphics.  VII was the second game I played when I got into Final Fantasy.  I knew about the game thanks to Kingdom Hearts and when I saw it at Kmart for $5 I knew I had to get it.  Even though VII was older when I got it, I loved that game.  The story, the characters and (spoiler alert) I knew Aerith died in the game, I just didn’t know when so when she does die at the end of Disc 1 I was heartbroken.  She was my white mage and main healer and now she was gone so it hurt.  VII was also when Square started getting experimental with their Final Fantasy games.  Usually the setting is a traditional fantasy world but VII broke it by being set in a modern/steampunk style world.  VIII would follow suit but with different gameplay mechanics and leveling up and grinding was now a thing of the past.  Thats something the fans didn’t like so when IX came out they went back to the turn based ATB (Active Time Battle) system which started in IV.  VIII does have its fans and it recently got a remaster and rerelease for modern consoles, but it pales in comparison to the popularity of VII.  IX was received well and it also got a rerelease on modern consoles as well.  Sadly I haven’t played either VIII or IX at all.  I do own a physical copy of VIII but haven’t plugged in my PlayStation to sit down and play it.  IX I’ll be OK with getting it digitally but a physical copy would be nice in my collection.

When the PS2 came out this was a true game changer for the Final Fantasy franchise and it showed with X.  Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy game I’ve ever played and it still holds up to this day.  This game was a mash up of Final Fantasy greatest hits.  The traditional turn based combat returned, you could customize your characters the way you wanted to play even when they had obvious jobs, and the story is one that fans agree is fantastic.  Final Fantasy X truly was a great game and I have very fond memories of it.  From figuring out the sphere grid, advancing the story and watching Tidus and Yuna fall in love together, and finding out who the true villain of the game is.  It’s full of twists and turns that kept me wanting to keep playing.  Even though it’s the first Final Fantasy I played it’s not my favorite.  As much as I loved X and VII I wanted to play a more traditional Final Fantasy in the sense of the fantasy setting.  I wanted knights, kings, empires, all that stuff.  My prayers would be answered with XII.  I know I’m skipping XI but I never got to play it.  I thought XI was going to be cool since it was the first Final Fantasy MMORPG and the base package came with a modem for the PS2, but this was the early years of MMO’s and my parents were not about to dive into something they didn’t know about.  XII had everything I was looking for.  Knights, princesses, the works.  The combat system was different from past Final Fantasies.  Since this was hot off the heels of XI, they went with a more MMO style combat system than the traditional turn based games.  I was OK with that but something that made me scratch my head a bit was the license board.  You had to have certain licenses to use certain weapons and armor but in the original PS2 game it was a free for all.  Everyone in your party could have anything which gave the player a great amount of customization but also the annoying bit of constant grinding to get the one thing you actually wanted.  Luckily this was made easier in the Zodiac Age version of the game.

THE MODERN ERA

XII is still considered a good game and after the launch of the PS3 and Xbox 360, so many people, myself included, were stoked for Final Fantasy XIII since it was going to be the first true HD Final Fantasy.  Boy were we in for a surprise.  You don’t have to look hard online to find people blasting XIII and calling it the “worst” one ever made.  I’ve only got to play it for two hours and never touched it again.  I was in college when the game came out and was home for a weekend when one of my brother’s friends brought it over and let me play it for a few hours.  I was enjoying it for  the most part even though I mostly didn’t have any idea what I was doing for the battle system.  After that day I never got to play it again and people were starting to say how bad the game was.  Things went from bad to worse for Square because XIV did not get off to a great start.  This was their second attempt at a MMO and things went from bad to worse for the players.  There were bugs everywhere, quests made absolutely no sense, and the interface was horrible.  Not to mention fans were scratching their heads because a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII was coming out soon as well.  This could have been the death bell for the franchise since fans were going elsewhere.  Luckily all was not lost because Square got their act together and came out with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and did everything right.  The staff even apologized to their fans on how bad the original XIV was and vowed to make things right.  Luckily they have, XIV is one of the most popular MMO’s to date and they keep adding to the game to make it even better.  Once I get enough money to get a gaming PC, Final Fantasy XIV is going to be the first ones I put on it.  Even though the modern era for Final Fantasy started off very badly, Square was able to lift themselves up again.  First was with A Realm Reborn and the second was with Final Fantasy XV.  Even though the game was originally called Versus XIII and had a development cycle of 10 years, it’s easily one of my favorite Final Fantasy games.  Once again Square switched up the combat to make it real time and even though the story isn’t the best, the characters are you stay for as well as exploring the world.  This is an open world game and you get to start exploring about 20 minutes into the game.  I fell in love with this game thanks to the combat and the open world exploration, as well as the many side quests you could to that I was doing those more than the main game.  The banter between the characters is great as well the different moments throughout the game.  There’s even great postgame dungeons to do that add to the challenge and this will definitely be a Final Fantasy game I’ll come back and play again over and over.  Sure it’s not the BEST Final Fantasy, but I sure love it and was just happy the game came out to a positive reception.

SPINOFFS AND REMAKES

Now I’ve talked about the mainline titles but the one title that truly got me into the Final Fantasy series wasn’t a mainline game, it was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GBA.  I’ve already written about this title so I won’t go too much into it but the Tactics series is awesome and there need to me more games involving it.  I currently own all three titles (minus the PSP remake of Tactics)  and keep the vain hope that a new Tactics title will be released whenever Square has a press conference for E3.  Of course there are other spin off games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Type-0, and World of Final Fantasy, and they are good in their own right, I just haven’t had the time to play them.  The remakes and rereleases for older Final Fantasies also make me smile because more often than not, instead of just porting the game and giving them a graphical upgrade, they also change some mechanics a bit here and there to make things easier to understand.  Like with XII they changed the license board so that each character would have 2 different job types so you could keep your party members duties more streamlined.  With X they also threw in X-2 so you could experience the whole story.  Of course we can’t forget that VII got a full on remake that’s taking the world by storm as well speak.

Even though things seemed rough for the franchise at the start of the Modern era, they have indeed gotten better. People are excited for Final Fantasy again and not just because they’re remaking VII.  The games are now accessible to so many people and the original cartridges are becoming collector’s items.  Personally I’m hoping for a sooner release date for Final Fantasy XVI and that older games get the treatment VII is getting right now.  Having a VI or IV get the remake treatment would be awesome.

The post A Final Fantasy Retrospective. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The game was released in North America in September of 2003 and came out to positive reviews.  It was like the 1997 PlayStation game though not a direct sequel, but the big difference in combat was the Law System.  See when you start a fight (Or ‘Engagement’ as the game calls it) there is a Judge that oversees the battle and has a set of laws for the fight.  These laws could be “No Swords”, “No Potions”, etc.  The trade off is you can earn Judge Points for using the recommended way of fighting, say you can’t use swords but you can use black magic all you want, the Judges will award you these points and once a character gains 10 they can summon a powerful ally.  These laws can range from the obvious to the “Wait I can’t use what?”  As the game goes on, more and more laws are added to the battle and can really mess up your play style and they get more and more obscure.  I can’t tell you how many times I wold be in a fight, commit to an action to win, then find out it’s against the law and have my character thrown into jail (yes there is a jail in this game and you can get your characters sent there.  It’s quite funny).  Besides from the Laws system the game has your standard Final Fantasy classes and jobs.  You got knights, black/white mages, dragoons and all sorts of jobs your characters can take.  Each unit has a name and you can change their jobs based on their stats and what weapons they are attuned for.  Unlike some games (Fire Emblem I’m looking at you) when a unit falls in battle they won’t stay dead.  However!  There are some areas in FFTA where there are no Judges, laws, and if one of your characters DOESN’T get revived with a Phoenix Down then they STAY dead.  Besides those areas there’s no fear in losing a unit.

The story is something we’ve heard before but it’s still fun to watch play out.  4 friends find an enchanted book, get sent to a great fantasy world, main character wants to go home but his best friend doesn’t, fights break out and hijinks ensue.  The best part of the story are the character moments throughout the game.  Especially when Marche (the main character) meets up with his classmates who don’t want to go back home.  He desperately does, but his best friend is not only a prince but his mom is also alive and well and his dad is a respected knight.  With motivation like that, you can’t help but feel a tad bit like the bad guy for taking your best friend’s dream come true away.

Yes I know, the name on the right is a little funny but I was going through a HUGE Final Fantasy VII binge at the time.

I remember playing FFTA for hours on end when I got it.  My characters were so overpowered and I loved playing the game. My biggest gripe however, is that I reached a certain part of the game, where I was in a constant loop of missions that required certain items, and the only way to GET these items was through other missions.  It was a constant loop of trying to get that one item to do a certain mission and I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me.  I checked Wiki’s, online strategy guides, but couldn’t figure out where exactly in the game I was and what I needed to do.  It was so frustrating that I spent over 120 hours playing the game, only to get fed up and starting over.  Erasing the save file where I had so many super strong characters, but no progress to show for it.  I know I must’ve missed something in my initial play through and definitely plan to go back and play it again.  Even with the frustration of not knowing how to progress late game, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a great tactics game to start out with and play.

The post Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: A Really Great Tactics Game appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

This book, while short; gives a personal retelling of what Final Fantasy V is to the author while also getting a design perspective from Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy V’s director. As someone who didn’t know what Final Fantasy V was until I fired up a ROM of it in the early days of SNES emulation; this book helps paint the picture of what was going on in the minds of other RPG hungry fans at the time.

This book was my 3rd purchase of the Boss Fight Books series and the first that I really couldn’t put down. Chris keeps things interesting and exciting, while not getting too off topic. I hope Chris continues to release a few more books in this series.

Link to purchase: Amazon

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