Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a strategy role-playing game for the Game Boy Advance. Contrary to what its name implies, it is not a remake or a direct sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics, although it does share its setting, Ivalice. The gameplay, however, is quite similar with a few exceptions. The player is free to put together their own group of fighters known as a "clan", and control their actions over grid-like battlefields. For the most part, players are free to decide the classes, abilities and statistics of their characters, which grow throughout the game. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance spawned a sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.

Gameplay
The game begins in the "real world," called St. Ivalice, and in the initial stages of the game controls and actions are explained. The main character, Marche, his brother Doned, their friend Ritz, and fellow clasmate Mewt then find a strange book which transports them all to the world of Ivalice, where the game truly begins. The player takes the role of Marche, who is accepted into a clan and takes the role of leader, which means he must organize the members of the clan and take part in various missions to gain experience and status. These missions are offered in pubs scattered around the game's world map, and a fee must be paid in order to take part in each mission that vary in difficulty; they are essential to advancing the game's story and obtaining valuable items and experience points. Some missions require a special item to be in possesion in order to accept the mission, this may mean another mission must be done to get an item that would allow you to perform the later mission. Others require a certain skill or job class in order to take part in them. Competing against an enemy team of characters, which can consist of monsters, boss characters, or members of each of the five different races present in Tactics Advance, the player takes part in turn-based play guiding his character's actions across the three-dimensional battlefield. The four types of missions include regular, encounter, dispatch, and area. Marche's entire party ventures to a particular location to do battle in the regular missions, and many of these are used to advance the story. In encounter missions, Marche's group battles a rival mercenary clan by purchasing a mission or by meeting them while moving about the map. They are represented by a character icon that freely moves about, and sometimes must be pursued in order to engage in combat with them. Dispatch missions which do not involve battle, and the player must temporarily sends away one member from his party for a certain amount of time to complete these. Area missions are usually a dispatch mission where Marche's clan can liberate certain regions to obtain bonuses and discounts at shops.



At the game's start, the world map is entirely empty save for the starting location. The map is customized as the player wins "area tokens" after completing certain missions. These tokens are placed in slots on the world map of the player's choice and represent different terrains and settlements, such as plains, mountains, deserts, forests, and towns. Depending on the placement of the tokens, items are rewarded to the player, but in order to get to them they must travel to the newly placed location and engage in a "treasure hunt." A menu will appear above the location and enable the player to select this option, and the game then automatically scans the area for items, which are then put int the items menu for future use.

In addition to the main plot, there are two side plots: the Redwing Arc and the Judge Arc. The Redwing Arc centers around the Redwings clan, a foreign crime ring, their subordinate clan Borzoi, and their smuggled foreign monsters. The other is the Judge Arc, unlockable after beating the main three hundred missions. This serves as an alternative ending where Marche stays in Ivalice, overthrows corrupt judges, and becomes next in line for Cid's judge sword.

Multiplayer capability is also available for up to two players using a link-cable peripheral, which enables them to battle against each other and also trade items and party members. Additional missions and items are also offered when players link.

Job System
There are 25 job classes in Tactics Advance that govern a character's stats, equipment, and abilities. Most items that can be equipped have various abilities assigned to them, each available for use by characters of a certain job while the item is equipped. When a battle is completed, characters will receive Ability Points (AP) distributed over their currently equipped abilities. Once a target amount of AP has been accumulated for a given ability, the character will master that ability, allowing the character to use them at any time, regardless of items equipped and job chosen. Mastery of abilities in different jobs will eventually allow the character access to more jobs. The ability sub-menu.

Units have a primary job which determines the stat boosts they receive when they level up and the attributes associated with that class. A unit may also have a secondary job, where they can use any abilities of the selected job, but with the stat profile of the primary job. For example, an Assassin with a Sniper secondary job could use abilities from both jobs, but has the stat profile and appearance of an Assassin, its primary job.

The Five Races
In addition to Humans, (called Humes in later renditions), there are four different character races. Moogles, represented most prominently by Marche Radiuju's best friend in Ivalice, Montblanc, are small and friendly. Their jobs inflict status effects and focus on speed. Nu Mou specialize very much at magic, and have one melee job, the Morpher. Bangaa are the most physically tough, specializing in melee. Viera are an entirely female species. They can be ranged, melee or magic, with all their jobs speed-based, and are probably the most versatile race along with Humans. Each race has a certain list of jobs they can be, many of which (though not all) will be unique to them, and each race also has access to its own Totema. Additionally the shops in various towns will have discounts on items for particular races.

Each race is tied to a Totema, which can be called for an attack, providing the user has defeated the Totema and has 10 Judge Points.

The five Totema are:
 * Famfrit, the Totema of the Moogles.
 * Ultima, the Totema of the Nu Mou.
 * Adrammelech, the Totema of the Bangaa.
 * Exodus, the Totema of the Viera.
 * Mateus, the Totema of the Humans.

The Law System
The most prominent difference between Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is the Law System. In a battle, a judge is present on the map. The Judge will not fight for either side, but will merely move about, keeping himself as out of the way as possible. At times, he will also move the unconscious bodies, of enemies and allies alike, from one space to another. Laws are set by Judges, invincible arbiters present at each battle, with some exceptions. Laws may forbid the use of certain weapons, items, elemental spells, or status changes. Breaking a law results in punishment by Carding, the receipt of a red or yellow card. Imprisonment happens if a character infringes a law twice or knocks out another unit with a forbidden ability or weapon. However, Jagds have no Judges or laws; units knocked out in the Jagds will die and permanently leave the clan if they are not revived by the end of the battle.

To offset the difficulty of having things forbidden for use, there are certain things that are recommended by the Judges, and therefore grant Judge Points. Judge Points (JP) are used to carry out combos with nearby allies or to summon a Totema. JP are also received upon killing an opponent. Later in the game, the player gains the ability to add new Laws and cast "Anti-Laws," which can nullify laws that are already in effect.

Law and Antilaw Cards
After Marche rescues Ezel Berbier, he will have access to Law and Antilaw Cards. These can be used to change the laws in effect on any battlefield. Law Cards (white) impose new laws, though the maximum number of Laws can never be exceeded. Antilaw Cards (black) nullify laws that are already in effect. These can be used to grant a tactical advantage during battle, as enemies must also obey the law or they will suffer the same penalties the heroes do (assuming they are not wearing Hero Medals). On two occasions, cutscenes will show characters using special antilaws to help Marche out: Ezel uses one to avoid capture by Cid, and Cid uses one to nullify Llednar Twem's protective Fortune Law, rendering him vulnerable.

Jagds
Although Laws govern the majority of Ivalice, there are three lawless locations called Jagds, which judges avoid. Thus, no actions are forbidden, nor can judge points be earned. However, a character that is KO'ed in these locations will, unless revived before the end of the battle, permanently leave the party (and in the case of Marche, a game over will occur). This applies to Montblanc and any other "storyline characters", including Ritz.

Main Characters

 * Marche Radiuju
 * Montblanc
 * Mewt Randell
 * Ritz Malheur
 * '''Shara
 * Ezel Berbier
 * Babus Swain
 * Judgemaster Cid Randell
 * Llednar Twem
 * Queen Remedi

Story
Marche Radiuju and his brother Doned are new in the town of St. Ivalice, and on Marche's first day of school he meets fellow classmate Ritz Malheur and the shy Mewt Randell, who is constantly picked on in school. Mewt comes across a dusty old tome in a local used bookstore after school and eagerly wishes to show it to his friends. Unaware that the book is the legendary Gran Grimoire, Mewt brings the book over to Marche's house along with Ritz. The old book is written in a language none of them have ever seen before, and a single inscription reads: "Alta oron, Sondus kameela". The next morning, Marche wakes up in the world of Ivalice. The fantasy Ivalice is supposedly a reincarnation of Mewt's memories from a Final Fantasy game, and once there, Marche joins the clan of Montblanc the Moogle after an incident with a Bangaa, and the two set out to find Marche a way home. Marche soon discovers that Mewt is the Prince in this world and that he does not wish to return the world to normal. Ritz and Doned also wish for the world to stay in its new state. Marche soon discovers that in order to revert the world to normal he must find and defeat the five Totema that are protecting the crystals which are keeping the world intact.

As he battles his way across the world searching for the Totema, Marche gains many allies as well as many enemies. He also faces an internal struggle, for part of him wishes that the world remain in its new form. But yet another problem exists for Marche: Mewt's dead mother Remedi is inexplicably alive in the fantasy world, and is working to protect Mewt from Marche's efforts to restore the real world. She also conceals a secret, one that Marche will have to discover to have any chance of successfully reverting the world to normal.

Eventually Marche succeeds in his quest to return Ivalice to normal, teaching the other children in the process that they cannot live in fantasy but must learn to live with their misfortunes in reality.

Development
Rumors of the game's development began when Square announced its publishing agreement with Nintendo, and it was later confirmed by the producer Matsuno. The development team of Tactics Advance was constructed from employees of Quest Corporation, and work began in February 2002. This comes after Quest announced the handover of its software development team to Square, of which the former is famed for its Tactics Ogre series.Initially thought of as a port of Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is developed with an entirely new storyline and setting, and received significant changes to make it more user-friendly for the GBA handheld console; e.g. a quick-save function.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance uses the gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics, but introduced certain changes such as a customizable map for the world of Ivalice. While built for the Game Boy Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's graphics are vibrantly colored and extensively detailed, and though environments and characters are wholly sprite-based, facial expressions are easily identifiable and many motion frames have been given to create a smooth animation. The game also introduced an option to switch between three display modes. Two of the modes are optimized for gameplay on Game Boy Advance and the new Game Boy Advance SP, and one mode may display the game into a television screen using certain peripherals.

In Japan, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's story was expanded and broadcast in Japanese radio stations. The radio drama entitled Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition was broadcast in four radio stations within Japan from early January 2003 to late March 2003.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
There is a special feature in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 that only occurs when a Tactics Advance game card is in the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS while the Tactics A2 game card is in the DS slot. This setup unlocks the Clan Privilege Libra in the Tactics A2 game.

Trivia

 * "Jagd" is a german word which means "the hunt".
 * The game was released in Japan at Valentine's Day, which might explain the pink calendar that appears at Marche's house.