There was a sequel, which wasnвЂ™t much more of a re-read of the original game, released on the Nintendo DS, and then nothing since. To this day, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance looks delightful - you can grab it on the Nintendo Wii U as a virtual console game if youвЂ™re so inclined to check for yourself. Each job would look different on each character, too, so your own forces would quickly develop into a rich tapestry of ultra-cute costumes and design. There were dozens of different maps to battle over, and a huge variety in enemies. The art was also quite beautiful, being both colourful and charming. While the bulk of the game was all about the traditional grid-based, turn-based action, there was a management element outside of the combat that helped layer the experience. There were rival factions to battle over turf. YouвЂ™d need to send characters out on away missions, and theyвЂ™d be unavailable to you for combat for a period of time. ItвЂ™s also one of those rare games about вЂњrunning a mercenary companyвЂќ where you really felt that you were managing one. While this might sound dull, managing the skills development of 20 - or more - characters was a hugely entertaining process, and was every bit as deep as it sounded. In each of those jobs there were what felt like an endless stream of skills to learn, and because learning skills was tied to using specific items in combat, IвЂ™d find myself often grinding away using weaker equipment in order to try and acquire a skills for my characters (once вЂmasteredвЂ™ after a set number of battles, a different piece of equipment could be put on the character and theyвЂ™d still have access to the skill). As someone who likes quirky stuff I loved the idea of little Moogle knights and Moogle summoners andвЂ¦ Moogles in general, really. There were a half dozen different races to build your mercenary band with, and those races were all adept at different jobs within the dozens of options. It was the sheer variety that first got me hooked on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. For the rest of the game your goal is to recruit up a band of mercenaries and tackle a wide range of missions, while also fighting with other bands of mercenaries, while working towards, ultimately, escaping back home. A group of kids read a book together, and magically get transported into a world of magic and fantasy, and one of them decides he likes it there so much that he doesnвЂ™t want to return to the real world.

The game was structured a little like the classic film, The Neverending Story. First released in 2003, it also was set in the same world as Final Fantasy XII, and gave us all a good taste of the kind of aesthetics and world to expect in the lead up to the release of the big game itself (and the occasional little reference back to the game in FFXII was most welcome then, too). As the first handheld console that could do really complex JRPGs that aren't Pokemon, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a 100+ hour game that really did kill my productivity for a couple of weeks after first playing it. On the Nintendo Switch there was the excellent port of the excellent Disgaea 5, the 3DS got a remake of one of the early Fire Emblems in Fire Emblem Echoes, and then on the PlayStation 4 there was the beautifully classical God Wars and the beautiful visual novel/ tactics JRPG mix in Utawarerumono.ДЇor a genre that many consider to be in decline, itвЂ™s been a pretty good couple of months, and it got to me thinkingвЂ¦ where the heck is a new Final Fantasy Tactics?ДЇinal Fantasy Tactics on the PlayStation was the game often credited with establishing the tactics JRPG formula, but the one I played with a burning obsession was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance. The last couple of months has brought us a pretty substantial influx of tactics RPGs.

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