I just got Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions from PS Plus, which is great, because I've had the PS1 version for a few years and always wanted to give it a shot. I love the art, the soundtrack, and the writing, but I've never been able to penetrate tactical RPGs. I'm willing to dive into this just for the presentation, but the systems are way over my head, and I can't parse out what stuff is even necessary to understand. Do I need to dig too deep into the zodiac stuff? How many of the systems are crucial to simply pushing my way through the story without getting my ass handed to me?

I've only played the original on PS1, but it isn't too hard to understand at all. If you can play the latest XCOM, then you can certainly play FFT. There are some systems that are obscure and complicated, but you can basically ignore them if you want. For instance, in the original, each character has two stats called "Brave" and "Faith", but the game never really explains what they do, and you can finish the game just fine by going "Ok, so characters with high Brave should be physical characters, and those with high Faith should be casters". You can dig in deep to what those stats actually do (for instance, most counter skills activate Brave percent of the time, so if you have Brave 70, your character's counter skill have a 70% chance of activating), but it is absolutely not necessary.

But the basic gameplay isn't complicated at all. You play on an isometric 2D map, each turn you can walk and either do a physical attack or activate a skill. Magic is usually more powerful than physical attacks and has AOE effect, but takes a couple of turns to activate (this is true of some of the physical skills as well), and can also hit your own characters. Your skills are determined based on what job your character has, and you can also use skills from one other job (so for instance, if you have a Black Mage, you can choose to also equip Time Magic on him/her, so you can cast both powerful attack spells, as well as things like Haste and Slow). You gain both experience points (which levels you up, like in every other RPG) and Job Points, which you use to unlock skills in your current job. There are also Counter, Support and Move skills which you can equip on your character, and as soon as you unlock them you can equip them regardless of your job. The only systems that are really crucial is understanding the job system and what your abilities do in combat.

You learn pretty quickly how these systems work, don't worry if it seems complicated, it's simpler than it looks at first glance. That said, when playing the original game, I found the GameFAQs page incredibly useful, especially the job tree. There are some later fights which can be extremely tough, and you will need to grind some. If you find yourself facing a fight and thinking "What. The. Fuck. How is this even possible to beat?" (it will happen), go back and grind a bit, and check out a FAQ to see how other people were able to do it. It's challenging, but rarely unfair.

By the way, I haven't played the new version, but the original is a GREAT game, one of my all-time favorites. It really deserves to be given a shot.

@gkhan said:

I've only played the original on PS1, but it isn't too hard to understand at all. If you can play the latest XCOM, then you can certainly play FFT. .

Funny you should say that, I tried playing FFT on my PSP and the sheer difference in quality and the limitation of camera control (obviously due to the almost-isometric nature; however the button arrangement to compensate is quite lacklustre) and am actually planning on playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown just to get a good enough understanding of the mechanics and thought-process behind those types of games to allow me to skip past the aging-graphics/mechanics-barrier. I can see how it is basically quite easy to get into with the right mindset but walking into untread waters of gameplay-style (and I have played very few Strategy games at all) makes the added barrier of aesthetic one step too far. Glad to know that if I do get into XCOM then it should help me try again at FFT.