Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 3 - Faithless

Chapter 2 begins now. It's a bit more serious than everything up to this point. Not from a story perspective, because the story got depressing/serious a while ago; from a gameplay perspective. This is where things get difficult.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

At this point your force gets a substantial shot in the arm, as a trio of new characters (a Squire and two Knights) are acquired.

They're all at decent levels, well-equipped, and well-statted. In other words, they're much better than your usual recruitable generics. I finally have a real party! You also get Gaffgarion and Agrias here, but they're uncontrollable guest characters for now.

In the original PSX version this guy was the aptly-named Rad. He's actually a great Squire at this point. He was part of Gaffgarion's squad along with Ramza, so now that the groups have merged...

Also, Squires are pretty underrated in this game, and can be tough lategame.

Another of the primary villains, Vormav, makes his first appearance here. He's the leader of the New World Order / Illuminati of Ivalice.

THEM'S SALARIED MERC LIVIN', SON

In the next battle, our heroes find a chocobo under attack in the woods. Wait a minute...that's Boco, the notorious chocobo mascot of Final Fantasy V!

Our heroes talk mad smack about Boco for rolling too deep. What does Boco think about this?

"Boco rolls balls-deep! Wark!"

Win the battle, and Boco joins the party, becoming OUR notorious chocobo mascot as "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G. begins to play. 

I'll allow it, but only if he doesn't throw any parties or have any women over.

....and right away I can't even use him in the next battle thanks to the obnoxious party size limits.

"These party limits can kiss my yellow arse! Wark!"

Gaffgarion turns on our heroes in the next battle, joining up with a force of soldiers to accost Delita. That's right, we've caught up with Delita and the princess. Time for the debut of yet another great battle theme:

This one is very high-energy.

Looks like Delita was doing pretty well for himself already, but he'll need our help to get out of this jam.

The joke's on Gaffgarion, because I was wise to his betrayal and unequipped him before the battle. This is like if Seth Rollins went to swing the chair during the Shield breakup and it vanished out of his hands mid-swing.

Gaffgarion interrogates Delita, the man who knows too much. Because Delita knows what's really going on, he scooped up the princess before she could come to any harm at the hands of the nobles who want her out of the way. But does Delita have alterior motives himself?

I love when enemies line up, allowing Ramza to dish out a Shockwave through all of them for tons of damage. There's a similar line-based attack for users of Holy Sword abilities like Agrias.

Speaking of which... Delita is WAY more formidable than he was in Chapter 1, and now sports Holy Sword abilities that appear to be even stronger than Agrias'. Too bad he isn't a party member NOW...

"Quit playing games with my heart" warbles Ramza while searching for his lost nose.

Whoa, there's the shot. Some of these new cutscenes really do add a lot to the game. They're atmospheric and give the characters more... character.

We now have Princess Ovelia, since Delita trusts Ramza to protect her. The only problem is...we don't have any allies or safe haven anymore. It's like the cliffhanger ending of every season of Walking Dead.

Now...we must walk around for a while.

Fort Besselat (which I believe was called Bethla Garrison in the PSX version) seems to be unreachable. Before you can get to it on the map, our heroes change route and head south instead. I wonder if there's any way to get there. It's almost like a lost area. Instead, the next area we head to is Zaland Fort City...home of THE sweetest battle theme in the game.

This is a memorable battle because you have to protect Mustadio while he runs back and forth on top of a wall. Most missions that require protecting an NPC tend to be difficult, since NPCs often act like complete morons and charge into enemy fire.

Whereas you typically have a three count of turns before a knocked-out character expires, you auto-lose if Mustadio so much as gets knocked-out to begin with.

The first of many.

The second time, I resort to the nuclear option: SEND IN THE BOCO.

"When you jonesing for that Choco Heal, I'm your dealer, bitches! Wark!"

After that victory, Mustadio alludes to underground caverns filled with relics of a lost civilization; their militaries had airship and machine technology far beyond modern Ivalice. This "ancient civilization that collapsed to war" idea is found in many Squaresoft games, from Secret of Mana to Final Fantasy VI.

Mustadio wields relics of the lost age. Guns in this game are a little bit OP; their damage isn't too high, but it isn't low either, and they have massive range.

Ovelia and Agrias have a moment of respite before we continue. All of these little Ovelia scenes throughout the game always made an impression on me.

Now back to the fighting! These gentlemen are no fans of Mustadio. Apparently the mafia is after him because he has one of the legendary Zodiac Stones, which is akin to holding the One Ring. They turn you into horrific hell-spawn after a while.

This battle is the debut of the Summoner class on the enemy side. They only have the basic summons, like Moogle (seen here) which heals all allied units in an area. It's pretty good, with a short cast time.

There's also Shiva, an ice bomb on an area. Summons are quite potent in this game, but they annihilate your MP. The best summon is Golem, which blocks physical damage on your allies temporarily. I need to get to work on making a Summoner...

"Make silent her song"...what a line. Ramza's brother gives the order to basically kill off his entire band if necessary to get to the princess.

Next thing we know, some other chocobo has shown up. I TOLD Boco no guests! What does he think this is, a frat?

Our heroes arrive at a safe haven, finally. Lionel Castle is the seat of power for the church in this area, and thus a neutral ground. However, like I said, if you've seen the cliffhanger ending of every season of The Walking Dead, you know this sanctuary won't last long.

Archbishop Roshi promises to protect Princess Ovelia from the bastardly nobles. And he's a guy we can depend on!

He basically gives our heroes everything they could want, while pretending to be the most benevolent guy ever. Ovelia is thus relieved, as are the rest of the squad, that we've finally found a place to rest. However, if you've ever seen The Walking Dead, you know we can't trust this guy.

The next battle transpires in an undead-filled marsh. The dreaded Marlboro can be seen here too. Fun Fact: Another FF-series stalwart, the Tonberry, was supposed to be in this game and got cut at the last minute. There are still Tonberry-related assets out there that went unused in the game.

Undead are damaged by heals, which means Boco's Choco Heal is now an offensive move.

Oh, Jesus. Now there's an egg sitting here. It looks like Boco and his "friend" engaged in some red-hot choco-sex while everyone else was busy dealing with politics.

Goug Machine City sells some distance-oriented weapons. The Knightslayer bow here was used by Argath in the first chapter (to kill Tietra). Which isn't really a fun fact.

Also, the merchant in this game has a lot of "My wife and kids left me on Tuesday" energy about him.

Ludovich is the leader of the local mafia, and he manages to kidnap Mustadio and his dad in an effort to get the Zodiac Stone. Our turtleneck-sporting hero won't stand for this.

Had to restart this battle because Ladd got knocked out and it wouldn't let me revive him. The Monk ability Revive only works if the target is on the EXACT same plane as the caster, it turns out.

At this point our heroes figure out that the Archbishop sent the mafia after our heroes because he wants the Zodiac Stone for himself. But to what ends?

Ludovich, having failed the Archbishop, returns and gets murdered by His Eminence. This guy isn't such a man of the cloth after all.

Next up is one of the hardest battles in the game; maybe top five. Golgorand Execution Site is a rematch with Gaffgarion, and this time I can't unequip him beforehand.

He isn't wrong. Physical power (and war) is the power from which all authority is derived.

Gaffgarion has the Blood Sword here, which absorbs HP when you attack. It's a great thing to steal if you have a Thief (which I don't). It's one of the unique weapons I mentioned. However, defeating Gaffgarion is just phase one.

I tried bringing a Time Mage into the fight and the enemies knocked her down before she even got a turn. Okay, so no mages for this one.

I'm not a fan of how the enemies always seem to get a full turn before any of my units get a chance to move. That, along with the small party size, are the two things that annoy me about FFT and contribute to me likely ranking it below Tactics Ogre (if we're comparing the remakes of both, that is... FFT wins if we're comparing the PS1 versions).

 Once Gaffgarion is taken out (which hopefully happens on the first turn if you focus all offense on him), there's still the matter of dealing with all of his goons. They're a nasty lot, and outnumber you 7-to-5 even without their boss. The three Knights are very hard to kill, and the two Archers spend the whole fight annihilating you from a distance.

By the end of the fight it's a total bloodbath, with Ramza running around using Revive on my fallen Monks while they fire Aurablasts with their rare living turns. This fight...was a complete mess. I'm in dire need of some party-building, but I'm stuck in this part of the overworld and can't do any. That locking-in that the game does around this fight is what makes it a pretty big threat. It's one of the toughest fights in the game, no doubt.

Elsewhere...Ovelia has been taken captive by the church, since we left her in their "protection". Delita, allied with the church, shows up to be a dick. So...he let our heroes bring her to his bosses for him.

The rest of the New World Order shows up, as Hollywood Vormav air-guitars his way in.

They drop a bomb on Ovelia: She was adopted as a stand-in for the real princess, who died very young.

Another member of the NWO, some hooded guy, tracks down Wiegraf and offers him the black and white shirt. The NWO just appeared and they're already swelling in numbers. I think this scene is unique to War of the Lions.

Next up: I attack Lionel Castle.

Other Final Fantasy Tactics Posts


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Oh what the fu-