Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins
 
For anyone familiar with the Final Fantasy franchise, this is certainly a Virtual Console release to be celebrated for various reasons, not least of all because it's relatively unique. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!    

 
Price: GB £6.29, EU €6.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Square-Enix
Released: 2003
System: GBA 
 
There was a time long ago when the Final Fantasy franchise existed solely on Nintendo platforms, indeed it all started as a relatively unassuming NES game which although comes across as dated now, did well enough at the time to warrant many sequels each with a numbered prefix in Roman numerals only which we gratefully received up until Final Fantasy VI on the SNES all those years ago; alas we all know what happened when it came to the seventh incarnation which resulted in the franchise being entirely absent from Nintendo platforms for the best part of a decade, until 2003 that is. This is when we got a new title in the form of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance which itself is a spin-off from a title on the Playstation - which in turn was a spin-off from the main series - but that does not matter, for it seems we actually ended up with a pretty decent title overall which is ultimately what counts. The game's story centers on four children; Marche, Mewt, Ritz, and Doned, who live in a small town named St. Ivalice, the children are transported to a realm of the same name as their town, "Ivalice", after discovering an ancient magical book; the story then focuses on the exploits of Marche as he attempts to return to the real world while facing opposition from those around him.
 
You might think that because this is a Strategy-based RPG, it's going to be difficult to get to grips with but it really doesn't take that long to absorb the basic principles, viewing everything from an isometric perspective gives you an excellent vantage point at all times, each of your clan members can move a set number of squares just as your enemies can so you'll need to be wary of where you are moving; if you are going in for a direct physical attack then you will need to place yourself adjacent to your target whereas magic attacks can be launched from further away, also depending on which way you are facing relevant to the enemy you might end up dealing more damage or even taking some yourself if the other side takes you by surprise. Something which separates this title from other examples in the genre is the threat of laws which you would do well to heed during each battle - certain attacks might be banned for example - lest you anger the judge who presides over the battlefield so be a law-breaker at your own risk as your characters can get thrown into jail for the rest of the battle, until you opt to bail them out afterwards for a price of course but you will still be without their skills for a time if you fail to adhere to the laws of the land, this aspect certainly keeps things interesting at any rate.

New missions are available from Taverns within towns, after selecting them you merely go to the place on the map as you go into battle, there are plenty of places which will require revisiting a few times during your grand quest, of course you can just push forward if you wish but it is advisable to take part in as many optional battles as possible for the experience points so you can level up and gain Gil to new Armour, Weapons etc so that you'll be more likely to carry on advancing even further with your progress unhindered.  You'll definitely want to have a mixture of different abilities within your team, not only to succeed in general battle but also because you have other missions where you can send off one party member at a time off on a mini-quest which happens in the background - as days pass on the map - much like the "Hunters for Hire" section within recent Monster Hunter games except this idea existed before in this title; also as you get further into the game you'll be able to take part in Clan Wars in which rival clans appear on the map, you can opt to beat them if you want which is useful for levelling up plus you can eventually take on Totemas which will introduce specific cards which take out laws which may be in play on certain missions. There are other things to take into account which are best discovered for yourself, it can get rather in-depth but there's also plenty of information, the game does get more difficult as you progress but if you've played an SRPG before then you shouldn't have too much trouble and I'd even go as far to say that if you are new to the genre this could be the title to get you into it.

There is plenty of detail afforded by the fantastic graphical style, the sprites are spectacular both on the battlefield and close up when you select them to issue commands or confirm statistics, every location has a significant amount of charm across the various lands which are set in places you'd expect such as Forests, Mountainous regions, Towns and places based on tempreature extremes so expect to see some Fire & Ice with the odd spot of Lightning alongside some scattered showers as battles break out across the lands... that's your Fantasy Forecast for this week; but seriously, this is a beautifully presented title though this is to be expected from Square-Enix. All of the music is very listenable indeed, while many purists of the entire series might not rate the music that highly, I definitely feel that each track definitely lends itself well to the genre, always echoing what's going on on the screen which can count for a lot in addition to the rather substantial sound effects.
 
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is most certainly an essential addition to any fan of the series or genre's collection, just the ability to play the game on a big screen is reason enough as though this capability has existed since the game came out thanks to the GBA Player, this option at least opens the game up to an even broader audience plus if you still want to keep it "portable" then using the Gamepad just feels like using a bigger GBA so it's always good to have options even if certain things are missing such as multiplayer - hardly a surprise - and Miiverse screenshots which is a letdown as I have no idea why Square-Enix refuse to support something which is almost considered a basic function of most titles on the Wii U platform. Either way for simply playing the game you can't get much better than this Virtual Console version, there's even the option of Restore Points ever-tempting you as progression is made further into the title but try to resist if you can unless you get really stuck or want to try out some strategies; overall this is a charming title which just goes to show that Final Fantasy can still flourish in some capacity on a Nintendo console, lest we forget that we also got Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube not long after this title came out and I still maintain to this day that it was a great time to own either machine as these were both great titles even if they were spin-offs, their success wasn't really replicated to the same level in the sequels - although to a lesser extent with FFT as the DS game is rather good - but I for one would love to see FFCC if GC Virtual Console titles ever become viable, for now though don't let that detract from how engrossing FFTA can truly be.           
 
Verdict : An excellent SRPG which will cast its spell on you.
 
That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!