Mobile gaming is slowly staking its own authentic claim in the gaming industry amidst the seemingly eternal debate concerning whether or not it constitutes “real gaming,” with several major franchises having jumped in with widely loved and celebrated titles. Gamers and non-gamers alike would be familiar with landmark achievements like Pokémon Go, for example.
Final Fantasy in particular has taken several shots at getting a foothold on the platform, having amassed a relatively healthy catalog of mobile games, both spin-offs and unique titles. As one of gaming’s most recognized and most successful franchises, this shouldn’t come as a shocker. But among these titles is an underappreciated gem known as Final Fantasy Tactics S, a game for which information is more than a little difficult to come by — until today. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
8 Japan Only Release
Many fans outside of Japan have not heard of this title, and for good reason. Tactics S never received a release outside of the country. This left fans in the United States and other regions with only screenshots and trailers to look at, not to mention the endless speculation.
7 New & Unique Jobs
Jobs, such as the monk from Final Fantasy Tactics (featured above), have been a staple of many Final Fantasy titles. The flexibility of this system allows players more freedom in playstyle choice by providing them an easy escape from the all too common RPG trope of a rigorous class system. Final Fantasy Tactics S chose to take this in full stride and offered over 30 jobs for players to utilize.
Alongside classic job offerings like Red Mage, Dragoon, or Alchemist, there were some particularly unique classes rarely, if ever seen in other games beyond this obscure mobile title. These included imaginative takes such as the Air Samurai, Judgemaster, Piscodemon, and many more besides.
6 A Unique, Standalone Title
While the mobile gaming trend has had an influence on many major franchises, many developers simply opt for a simple port of their popular titles. Square Enix did not want to take this path, instead choosing to add a completely new story, gameplay elements, and so on. The intention was to provide even mobile players with a fully fleshed out FF experience.
As one might infer from the title, it was based on one of Final Fantasy’s most beloved and well-received spin-offs — Final Fantasy Tactics, which holds a Metacritic score of 83%. Regarded by many to be the best tactical JRPG ever made, some believe it even surpasses Nintendo’s legendary Fire Emblem series. Despite this, Square Enix was heavily set on making this mobile title different and unique. It contained its own very unique mechanics, all around different gameplay, and as mentioned, unique job titles. It certainly was its own unique item.
5 The Battle System
Interestingly, combat in Final Fantasy Tactics S seems as if it was largely hands-off. In fact, it was very much automated. While players could assemble their party and so forth outside of battle, the battles themselves were carried out independent of player agency, and they were actually afforded the option to skip to the conclusion.
4 Online Based Gameplay
At the time of the game’s release, Square Enix had been experiencing a significant degree of success with their online-based titles (and obviously command their own considerable corner of the MMO market today). It comes as no surprise then that Final Fantasy Tactics S had a significant multiplayer component as a selling point. The gameplay featured a pretty heavy emphasis on its multiplayer aspect, with players joining clans and competing against other clans in online tactical combat.
3 Pre-Registry Bonus Involving A Familiar Face
Fans that pre-registered for Final Fantasy Tactics S received the special character Agrias Oaks. For fans of the mainline Tactics title they will recognize Agrias as a fan favorite, a Lionsguard to the royal family. This character not only has good personal development but also provides players with excellent gameplay options.
2 Character Design By Ryoma Ito
The character design for Final Fantasy Tactics S was led by the legendary Ryoma Ito. Ito is known for leading the character designs for Final Fantasy IX, X, and Heroes of Mana. Ito’s designs are regarded as being much more lighthearted and upbeat than the typical Final Fantasy fare. For this reason Tactics S had a more whimsical and cartoonish flair to it.
1 Did Not Last Long
Final Fantasy Tactics S only had server support for about a year, lasting from 2013 to 2014. It seems that players were none too enthusiastic about this release and did not want to invest their precious time into it. This is unfortunate as the game had an excellent concept and a great team working on it. Square Enix seemed to recognize this quite early on in the game’s life cycle and elected to pull the plug. While they’ve managed to turn around such disasters as they did somewhat recently with Final Fantasy XIV, there would be no Realm Reborn to follow this one, and the game would fall into relative obscurity.
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