Battles in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions are challenging. The advantage in battles swing one way and then the other, and I’m rarely certain of victory at the outset.

This is partly because I’m not very good at assessing the threat levels of foes at the moment but it’s mainly because the AI in the game is very good. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever played a turn-based CRPG with AI this impressive. Foes retreat when seriously injured, heal themselves and then rejoin the battle. It’s remarkable to see.

In my most memorable battle in the game so far, I confronted a sextet of foes on the rooftops of the Clockwork City of Goug. They didn’t seem a tough bunch: a pair of Thieves, a pair of Archers and a pair of Summoners. We felled four of them, leaving a badly injured Archer and a Thief. The advantage was definitely ours but not for long.

The surviving Thief made use of his Steal Heart skill and charmed my Thief who in turn charmed my Chemist who subsequently revived one of the fallen foes. From 5 to 2 in my favour, it changed to 3 to 5 in theirs.

I did eventually win the day when my charmed units regained their senses but for a moment there, it looked as if I would be reloading a previously saved game yet again.

(Image source: Square Enix.)

Having completed Disgaea, I’ve started Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Like Disgaea, FFT is an excellent turn-based strategy game for the PSP. Unlike Disgaea, FFT takes itself very seriously indeed, thank you very much.

I haven’t progressed very far into the storyline but initial impressions are very favourable. This is the best written game I’ve played in a while. The game was first released for the Playstation in 1997 but the game script was apparently written during the Middle Ages. If you can’t differentiate between aught and naught, fain and wain, you will have trouble parsing the dialogue. I’m by no means complaining. The last game I played had dialogue about a horse wiener so any attempts to add class is welcome.