Tactics Vs War of the Lions?

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DaHeckIzDat
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Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Tactics Vs War of the Lions?

Postby DaHeckIzDat » April 7th, 2018, 11:04 pm

I really want to play this, but I'm not sure how I should go about it. I know that Final Fantasy Tactics and War of the Lions are both the same game, but WotL is supposed to be an upgraded version. But WotL is a PSP exclusive, which I don't have. So is it worth it to hunt down a working PSP for this game, or should I just download the original from the PSN?

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Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Tactics Vs War of the Lions?

Postby Retro STrife » April 8th, 2018, 1:38 am

First of all, great choice! Final Fantasy Tactics is somewhere in my personal Top 3 games, and on any given day I might tell you that it's my all time favorite game. After loving FF7, I was basically willing to play any game with the Final Fantasy name on it. I played FFT on a whim in the late 90s, but as it turned out, I liked it even more than FF7. While the battling and job system are amazing, it's the story that really stood out for me -- at the time, I considered it the best video game story I had ever experienced. While storytelling in games has improved since then, it still holds up today as an amazing story. It reminds me a bit of Game of Thrones, with its many twists and turns. Then, I played War of the Lions several years ago to re-experience the game.. I wondered if the years had skewed my perception of FFT; if perhaps I had given it too much credit. But playing the PSP game left no doubt - my memory of the game was right, and it cemented FFT in my top 3.

[Also, the FFT series had two sequels - one on GBA and one on DS - that have no relation to the story of the original. The original is better than the sequels, particularly due to the better story and more mature themes. Stick to FFT first, over its GBA and DS sequels.]

As for your question... naturally the War of the Lions is a superior version overall, but I think you'll be just fine if you play the PS1 original. For me, the biggest upgrade to the PSP version is the completely re-translated text and dialogue. The PS1 version was known for having a lot of translation quirks, and the PSP version fixed that with an excellent translation. Still, considering how much I liked the story in the PS1 version, my guess is that you'd be fine sticking with that. Most of the other PSP upgrades are less noticeable. They're very nice, but you can live without them if you have to. Here's a good list of the main differences:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Fina ... ifferences

The PSP is a decent handheld though, which also got several other upgraded ports of PS1 RPGs. So the system is worth a look, if enough games interest you. But I wouldn't do it just for War of the Lions.

Either way, I see a future RPG Review with DaHeck's name written all over it...

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Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Tactics Vs War of the Lions?

Postby Retro STrife » April 8th, 2018, 1:53 am

Here's a good comparative review, which even puts one scene side-by-side so that you can see the difference of the translation. Since the translation is the biggest difference, watching that scene should help you decide whether you care about going for the PSP version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONm0OEoE3c


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