OneWord: Skills

I bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance a month or so ago for the GameBoy Advance, and have played it about 25 hours so far. I thought I was getting pretty good at it until I skimmed over a game guide online, and realized that I haven’t even begun to understand all the strategy in this game. It truly does take some skill, or maybe time/experience is a more correct term. I’m beginning to find that I just don’t have time/interest to spend dozens and dozens of hours playing an RPG anymore. I really like RPGs, but most of them today require 50 – 100 hours to complete, which is just way too long for me. I’m starting to like simpler games like Super Monkey Ball and Pikmin which you can just pick up and play for a few minutes, then get back to work or whatever else you need to be doing. I think Nintendo is doing the right thing by trying to simplify their games. Most people seem to think they are doing it for kids, but as a 21 year old game player, I appreciate them doing it as well! I still enjoy playing games, I just don’t have the time to invest weeks of my life into mastering the controls of a game. I just want a quick break to do something fun to relax, or goof off with a friend for a while, and Nintendo provides this every time.

Oh yeah, the original point of this was to talk about the Skills/Jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics and what a complex system it is to learn, but I guess I got a little off track. :)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2003 at 4:07 pm and is filed under OneWord. You can feed this entry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses

  1. Been a while since I’ve posted a comment (2nd comment? It’s always fun to read your stuff :P). Skill, well I don’t know about Final Fantasy Tactics on the GBA, but on the Playstation, the job and skill system were easy to learn. It’s more about the battle system that takes time to get used to, like how height, speed, turn number, and position all play a part on how much damage you do and/or how fast you do it. Most RPGs follow the same Attack/Magic/Item routine for their battle system, with little to no room for a real strategy. Most FPSs are built on the principle on how fast you can detect, aim and react. I guess it all depends on how you define skill, if you think skill is where one can net the most frags in a given time, then so be it. Just my two pennies. :]

    I think the most time I’ve accumulated in an RPG was 88 hours for Final Fantasy IV, then 70+ hours for Final Fantasy Tactics, 55 hours for Eternal Arcadia, 30 hours for Final Fantasy VII and Breath of Fire IV and 20 hours for Grandia 2. All great games, just takes a while to beat. :] Enjoy FFT, it’s a great game (hopefully on the GBA as well).

    mo0chan - November 12th, 2003 at 7:35 pm

  2. I will be all over this game once I beat Advanced Wars 1 and Golden Sun 1. Of course I may get the sequels to both and beat those before I touch FFT. Too many games not enough time.

    Scrivs - November 13th, 2003 at 12:01 am

  3. Moochan, I guess I didn’t word that very well… The job/skill system isn’t really that hard, but it takes a lot of time to grasp the overall strategy, teamwork stuff. There is a lot to keep track of and master in that game. And my point was that I’m starting to enjoy shorter games that you can just pickup and play like Super Monkey Ball and stuff like that. But of course I still buy almost every RPG that comes out, play it for about 20 hours, then stop. :)

    Scrivs… I had Advance Wars, got pretty far then got stuck so I sold it. I have Golden Sun also, but got to one boss that I can’t get past, and I don’t wanna go back and level up my characters just to beat him, so I stopped playing. :) I also had Advance Wars II, which I almost beat.

    Derek - November 13th, 2003 at 12:07 am