Revier's Chronicles of Ivalice - Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 2

 Alright, it's time to begin!

Heh. Got you excited there, I bet. The tutorial is rather dull and uninteresting, like most tutorials are, but it's also a very in depth look at the game, and how it works. On that note, it's rather peculiar how people often skip the tutorials for strategy games, and then complain when they get walled by something they could've easily figured out in the tutorial. Then again, it's hard to retain information from something perceived as boring. I'm not sure what the best solution to this is, honestly.

One of the things that caught my eye was the brand new inventory system. Instead of the freeform equip system of Tactics Ogre, they went with a more standardized and recognizable RPG equip system. In some ways this is better, but the familiarity also makes it a bit less interesting. Also, where are the consumables?

Ah, I see. We shoved them into an obscure, far off menu, LOL. Well, if they're not equippable anymore, that can only mean one thing - they can likely be brought out of storage at anytime, likely at the cost of a turn or so. Got it lol.

The tutorial also covered what's supposedly the big draw of this game, the ability system. Abilities would, in theory, enable much more customization and allow for some cool tricks. Personally, I've found that many games with purchasable abilities kind of depend heavily on those abilities being both a. interesting and b. at least somewhat balanced for their cost. There's certainly a lot of promise to such a system, but also a lot of potential blunders.

The tutorial also highlights the existence of tooltips. These were of course no surprise, as Tactics Ogre already featured them heavily, but what's curious to me, from my experience. is how few games in adjacent genres, namely RPGs, implement this. Hell, even today many of those games are very stingy with how they provide info, even though tooltips would be perfect for providing enough relevant info without spoiling the player. But I guess we decided that they are too complicated to use outside of strategy games, lol.

The tutorials involving map and unit controls were the most interesting and the most nostalgic to me, because it felt like I was actually controlling a game, and not just listening to a disembodied voice prattle on as if their life depended on it.

This game introduced the idea of units having a grace period after being "killed" before "truly" dying. This was most certainly a reaction to complaints about Tactics Ogre's lethality being too harsh. I have mixed feelings about this, because on one hand, I understand the need and appeal of such safety mechanisms; on the other, it does take away from the high stakes of combat I enjoyed immensely in Tactics Ogre, as it contributed both to the intensity of gameplay as well as the somberness of the narrative. Ah well, we can't have them all, and I'll certainly appreciate the convenience, even as I begrudge the loss of some uncompromising sharpness.

As expected, and as I was delighted to see, the game keeps the character turn system of Tactics Ogre. I think this system makes fights more interesting than simply having teams move at once, making character speed more important and noticeable, and making each unit matter a bit more. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis did a decent compromise by making movement key off unit speed, but most SRPGs in my experience don't even try. 

This game wonderfully expands on this system by having spells and special abilities require additional charging. Normally, I would protest locking high power attacks behind an additional time cost, but within the context of an srpg with a huge emphasis on mobility, and turns controlled by individual timers, it makes a lot of sense. Of course, it's still possible to ruin it by going overboard, but hopefully that won't be the case.

Remember when Squaresoft did ASCIII art? Yep. Lol. This "table" is supposed to depict how well each star interacts with other stars, essentially an immense expansion on Tactics Ogre's elements.

The rest isn't notable, mostly rehashing what the earlier tutorials said, or giving a dry extended explanation on certain specific aspects, such as how Reflect works or what each status means exactly.

And that's the tutorial finished! Next time, we continue with the game proper!