FINAL FANTASY TACTICS 9+

Get this game! No doubt one of the greatest FF stories.

I love Final Fantasy. I love RPGs. I love strategy. And rumor had it this was among the very best in its genre. But honestly, this game... It makes me want to stake myself in the heart with a roller pen. Twice. Why?

1. The game crashes often and for no apparent reason.

2. The game will constantly fill your party with ally NPCs that you do not control. This means you do not get to use and train very many of your own characters. Most NPCs will leave you eventually, and their progression will mean nothing.

3. The AI of your "friendly" NPCs is poor. The final drop for me was when a gunman trying to help me ran up, loaded his rifle, and shot my Chocobo in the back of the head. I would also have been happy if this kind of frienly fire had been optional. For me, the line of fire realism thwarts enjoyment.

4. The game features skill and item rewards that drop some time after each enemy has been defeated, but to obtain them, you must stall the battle heavily when it nears its end. Your NPCs, however, will often agressively attack the remaining enemies so that the battle ends before you can pick them up.

5. I thought I liked complex game mechanics, but the game takes certain aspects too far. Basically, your characters have zodiac signs that behave differently depending on the sign of who you are attacking, and to master this fully, you must keep track of a lot of information and always check the zodiac signs of your enemies when a new battle starts. Feels like work, not play.

6. Camera angles are tiresome even though you can set them yourself. Often, I find myself moving incorrectly because of this so that my characters are out of range of their most optimal attacks.

7. This is the most expensive iPad game I have bought, and I bought it out of pure faith in Square Enix. I am just so disappointed.

I've played all versions of this game since it's original release.

What makes it better than the original PS1 version is:

-The translation is clearer and thus the story is more easily followed.
-The added addition of another gunman makes the playability much more enjoyable no matter what your playing style is.
-The camera angles are better in that you have more than four diagonal angles to choose from.

What makes it better than the PSP version:

-It's much faster and has no frame rate issues.
-Obviously the screen is larger.

What makes it better than the iPhone version:

-Again the larger screen helps with the sometimes confusing menu options.
-The catastrophic lag problems are solved. The game runs completely smoothly (iPad 2 version tested).

The bottom line:

If you want a very immersive game with a rich story and are willing to deal with what some consider to be a difficult learning curve, then this game will keep you busy for 60+ hours. Downloading the PDF strategy guide is recommended. A common gripe is that the menus can be overly complicated but that can be minimized and should not be enough to completely dissuade the non casual gamer from a fabulous and complex FF title.