Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is Square's first game for the GBA, and the first sequel in the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise. The game actually does not continue the storyline of the original game, but instead is initially set in "present" Ivalice. A special event turns the world into one filled with swords and sorcery.

The Story

Due to circumstances at home, Marche, a boy, moves to St. Ivalice where the story begins in modern time.

Marche, who was used to living in the countryside, met up with Mute, a weak-spirited boy with a docile personality, and Ritz, an honors student girl with an ambitious personality who keeps away from others.

One day they find a book, the Gran Grimoire, and upon chanting the words "Final Fantasy,” St. Ivalice undergoes a transformation into a world full of swords & sorcery and strange creatures. This world is Final Fantasy, and where Marche and his friends undergo their adventure.

The Characters

Marche Radiuju: the main character. Moved from the country to St. Ivalice because of a complicated family situation (parents' divorce and illness of brother). A kind-hearted boy, he has the ability to understand the pain of others.

Mewt Randel: One of Marche's classmates. He is a very quiet and weak boy, and seems to have the mentality of a child. His father's name is Cid. It is his wish that Ivalice be turned into Final Fantasy.

Ritz Malheur: Heroine of the game, and classmate of Marche and Mewt. She is an honors student, and has a "winning" personality that makes her strive to be the best, but she keeps a distance from others. She has white hair, but secretly dyed it pink.

Game Systems

In addition to typical FFT/Tactics Ogre-style gameplay, where you maintain an army of units and used them in battle, the game has 3 distinct “systems.” The first is the Judge system, which is basically the alignment system from the Ogre Battle games. Your characters will be lawful/neutral/chaotic, and this will affect who you can recruit, what path you take, etc.

The Clan System is simply the ability to accomplish optional commissioned side quests, similar to how it was done in Tactics Ogre Gaiden.

Finally, Region Create System means that the world map will be dynamic and undergo changes depending on your choices.

Jobs

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is different from previous games in that it has tribes in addition to jobs. Tribes are individual races that make up your party. The currently known tribes are: Human, Veira, N'Mou, Banga, and Moogle. Each tribe has their individual strengths and weaknesses. Each tribe has a set number of jobs that they can change into. The known ones are:

Humans -> Soldiers

Veira -> Archer

N'Mou -> White Mage

Banga -> White Monk

Moogle -> Black Mage.

Jobs give characters different abilities and support capabilities.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is set to be released at the end of this year in Japan, so we will have more information and screenshots in the upcoming weeks.