Final Fantasy Tactics has some absolutely incredible character design.

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I’m not sure when I actually played Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time. I’m figuring it must have been at some point when I was working in the audio department at Circuit City before the turn of the millennia. At the time, I remember various folks in the computer department anxiously previewing trailers for The Fellowship of the Ring, and that at some point they convinced me that if I like FFT, then I had to try Front Mission IV.

So, that would be roughly 1999, and yet for the life of my I can’t comprehend how I had enough money for either the PS1 I played the game on, or the game itself. Whatever the case, I did indeed play it, and was even gifted a Prima Official Strategy Guide for it by a fellow role-player who took part in my weekly group at the time.

I’ve still got that strategy guide today, as well as the Tactics disc, and I have to say I’m happy I do as the disc is going for insane money on eBay and I’ve really no desire to ever replace it. Plus, it still works just fine on my PS2.

Whatever the case, I was always infatuated by the artwork from this game. It was stellar, and ‘odd’ as the designers decided that characters didn’t need to have noses, and you know what, they somehow pulled it off! I’ve been captivated by the classes in this game ever since, and was super excited when I realized that many of them transferred over to FFXI MMORPG, which I’ve played a couple of times and truly enjoyed the experience.

I certainly need to give high praise to Akihiko Yoshida who was responsible for Square’s character designs and costumes back on 1995. His ability to not only modernize and sexualize characters, but also give them a truly anime appeal really stands out here, especially for a fantasy setting.

I still love chocobos and trying to figure out just the right way to maneuver characters to make a successful board clear in this game. I have to believe it is much like playing with miniatures in D&D, although that’s something I’ve never done in my 30+ years of gaming.

All-in-all, I give FFT as high a rating as I can on this blog.

Artistic Rating: 5 [out of 5]