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I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because, while I honestly cannot stand RPGs, I confess the "turn-based war strategy" genre is my favorite niche. I haven't played a really good one ever since Sierra's "Missionforce: Cyberstorm." So, while I'm not used to fantasy-strategy, and though I haven't played the Playstation version, I thought I'd give FFTA a chance.

It took me a long time to get fully into FFTA, and I'm only (ONLY?) ten hours into the game, but this has quickly become my favorite game for the Game Boy Advance. In spite of their clunkiness, the menus are intuitive and navigable; the character art is outstanding; the game is absolutely adorable (maybe a little TOO adorable...). The missions can become tedious, but when my nerves begin to wear, I simply set the GBA aside, and I usually find that my interest is re-whetted by the next day.

This game is so dense and immersive, and there is so much to keep track of. Characters are able to learn the skills that come with wielding a particular weapon, but they frequently need to be of a certain "race" (so what do I need to do to make Safra into a ninja, I often ask myself), certain laws of battle require you to rethink the way you fight and which of your characters you're going to send into a fray, and when one of your characters is away on a "mission," you're also going to need to think about whether you have someone who can pick up that missing character's slack.

Playing this game gives me such a great sense of satisfaction. It's incredible. Long, sure, and sometimes tedious, but in the end, an outstanding game.

Seriously, this game has taken my life away. I play during lunch break, I play during work and sometimes even at night. This is easily one of the most addictive and all around best games I have ever played.

There are 5 races you can play as: Human, Verran ( a human-like species but with long ears like a rabbit), Nu Mou ( a great magic using race), Baanga ( a lizard-like race, just don't call them lizards!) & Moogle ( a standard species in nearly all Final Fantasy games ).

To level and gain new abilities for your Clan( party of group members in the game, a maxium of 23 at one time ), your Clan must study abilities from weapons, armor, magical items, etc. Each ability is put into a class for each character which is called a Job. After mastering 1,2, or even 5 kinds of spelles, techniques, skills you can move on to another Job and use combo of two classes and become even more powerful.

The battle system is turn based, which means you move your character, attack, use a spell, etc, then face a direction to end your move. It may seem easy enough so far, but The Judging System can mean the victory or defeat of your clan. Every battle has certian rules, for example, lets say Missle attack are banned from the fight, you will be penilized for using a missle( arrow attack ) but if you use the opposite of missle ( which is swords ) you will be rewarded with a Judge Point (JP). JP's can be used for Combo moves which deal masssive damage & with other characters which could lead into the hundreads of damage points, maybe even thousands... JP's can also be used for Totema, massive summoned creatures you get for progressing through the game, but I won't spoil any more than that.

Overall this game is one of the best RPG/Strategy games EVER!! It's addictive as hell & fun as hell. For only $35 its worth any penny, every Game Boy Advance (or SP) owner should pick this up. You won't regret it.

Actually I give this a 4 1/2 star score, but it wasn't there. This game has a pretty good, emotion driven storyline, a few twists, and a very impressive battle system. My only complaint about this game is that you don't control the characters directly throughout the story, only the battle. Other than that, this is a purely good RPG for anybody with a GBA and over 100 hours to spend on a game.