In most RPG's, you spend most of the game traveling from location to
location to uncover pieces of information, participating in minigames, and
fighting boss battles that further the game's story line. Occasionally,
your party is drawn into random battles as it moves between towns, but the
real focus is on the character interaction.
Final Fantasy Tactics, however, focuses on the
game's tactical aspects. You still build up your characters and learn
new skills and actions, but the real emphasis is on the battle strategies
themselves.
The greatest distinction between this game and its FInal Fantasy
predecessors is the game's 3-D battle system. You wage the game's battles
on isometric-view 3-D maps (as large as 16 x 16 tiles) where terrain, height,
and other elements become factors in the battles.
Some may consider these battlefields small, but with the added element
of height, they don't feel particularly cramped. You can rotate the
3-D maps in 90-degree increments to survey the entire battlefield, see enemies
lurking behind buildings, and locate obstacles. The two-level zoom
feature
lets you zoom out, the camera angle feature allows you to tilt the viewing
angle, and there's a bird's eye map view, as well.
Welcome to the world of Final Fantasy Tactics!