I'm in the camp of being overly critical of this game because the original Tactics is one of my favorite games of all time. I played quite a bit of this when it was first released but never finished it. This was my 2nd attempt that I dropped after about 12 hours of gameplay time.
The changes that the game sets forward are interesting but feel like more of a lateral move. The biggest change is the removal of the charge system. Magic and abilities are now fired off instantly, and this is by far the biggest change the game makes over the original. It's a huge detriment to the game for me as it eliminates a major tactical consideration in the battles. I would appreciate that it speeds up the pace of the fights, however I feel like they futzed with the hit percentages to compensate. I found battles drawing out way too long simply because I struggled to get my hit chances above 70% even when attacking from the sides. This also applied for the opponents as well and often what should have been tense exchanges turned into drawn out slogs.
The next big change was the law system - which this game really pivots itself on. Things get a little interesting once you start getting law and anti-law cards, but I couldn't find any reason to engage in its confusing card economy mechanic when just moving around on the world map to change the laws was quicker and easier.
The third and most disappointing change to me is the inclusion of races. I felt like they could have done way more with this. I didn't feel any major difference stat wise, and there's usually shared skills and equivalent classes between the different races outside of some exclusive ones. In my playtime I didn't find my game changing that much when I tried skewing with the balance of races in my party.
The plot is also whatever which would be forgivable, but the music is awful. This is the most glaring downgrade from the original Tactics game (one of my favorite OSTs). Now, the Game Boy has been my preferred RPG platform for a while and there's some amazing soundtracks on the system, but this just sounds like garbage.
Also the UI is inexcusable. I had to look up a post on the Gamefaqs message board just to find out how to know what skills my characters had learned. It doesn't display if the equipment you're buying is better than what you currently have, nor does it allow you to equip right from the shop menu like in the original.
The changes that the game sets forward are interesting but feel like more of a lateral move. The biggest change is the removal of the charge system. Magic and abilities are now fired off instantly, and this is by far the biggest change the game makes over the original. It's a huge detriment to the game for me as it eliminates a major tactical consideration in the battles. I would appreciate that it speeds up the pace of the fights, however I feel like they futzed with the hit percentages to compensate. I found battles drawing out way too long simply because I struggled to get my hit chances above 70% even when attacking from the sides. This also applied for the opponents as well and often what should have been tense exchanges turned into drawn out slogs.
The next big change was the law system - which this game really pivots itself on. Things get a little interesting once you start getting law and anti-law cards, but I couldn't find any reason to engage in its confusing card economy mechanic when just moving around on the world map to change the laws was quicker and easier.
The third and most disappointing change to me is the inclusion of races. I felt like they could have done way more with this. I didn't feel any major difference stat wise, and there's usually shared skills and equivalent classes between the different races outside of some exclusive ones. In my playtime I didn't find my game changing that much when I tried skewing with the balance of races in my party.
The plot is also whatever which would be forgivable, but the music is awful. This is the most glaring downgrade from the original Tactics game (one of my favorite OSTs). Now, the Game Boy has been my preferred RPG platform for a while and there's some amazing soundtracks on the system, but this just sounds like garbage.
Also the UI is inexcusable. I had to look up a post on the Gamefaqs message board just to find out how to know what skills my characters had learned. It doesn't display if the equipment you're buying is better than what you currently have, nor does it allow you to equip right from the shop menu like in the original.