all games are not created equal

I've played both of these games on my PSP on the way to and from work.  I got pretty far in Loco Roco 2, but I ended up really hating it because it wasn't challenging at all.  You're able to pass levels by doing almost nothing.  You can try and collect all the random little things scattered throughout the levels, but I found that to be very frustrating.

On the other end of things is Final Fantasy Tactics: a turn-based RPG.  Each battle can easily take over 10 minutes and, if you're not careful, you might lose and have to do it all over again.  This can get pretty frustrating too, but at least it's a challenge I feel that I can take on as opposed to the ones in Loco Roco 2.

It's like this for these two games.  Buying a game for an 8 year old?  Buy Loco Roco 2, they will probably love it.  Buying a game for a real gamer?  Buy Final Fantasy Tactics.

I had an itch to play through the original Final Fantasy Tactics again, so I thought I'd write up a comparison. Both games are extraordinarily addictive: I sunk about 30 hours into a new game of the original this weekend (with many more in the past), while FFTA2 has claimed over 90 hours of my life since it came out. They both have good music, graphics, and gameplay, but let's compare stories.

FFTA2 is a pretty typical tale of a boy who finds himself in a peculiar world and needs to figure out a way to get home. Along the way, he makes friends and realizes that while he would like to go home, it's more important to him to help those in need, even if that happens to be in Ivalice. Meanwhile, a criminal organization sets itself as the antagonist. The game's final battle is against a big demon Illua summons, and everything is set right in the end.

Final Fantasy Tactics, on the other hand, is a story of a man who just wants to do what's right and ends up caught in the political machinations of just about everyone. The two princes vie for power while the church positions itself to manipulate both of them. Meanwhile, Ramza uncovers the dark truth of the "Holy Stones" and the Lucavi's plot. Ramza saves the day, but not before tons of people die, and the church erases Ramza from history.

FFT's story had much more depth than FFTA2's. A2's most interesting stuff happens in the sidequests, but it's still nothing to be excited about. FFT wins this one without a doubt.

Two strategy games that really hooked me.  One fairly serious, one...not so much.  Final Fantasy Tactics was a game that gradually sucked me in over the hours that I put into it; the story just got more and more complicated up to the epic climax at the end.  Disgaea was a game that I didn't see coming at all.  The wicked sense of humor that I found in the dialogue and story kept me entertained throughout the game to its completion. 

However, One thing that bothered me was whenever you came up against a level that was just too tough, your only alternative was to grind until your characters were tough enough.  This was also true with FFT, but the possibilities that the job classes held was an effective counter to keep me motivatied to grin and bear it.  I wanted to have two ninjas on my team, and I had to work to earn them.  As opposed to Disgaea, where I could have as many fighters as I wanted after I earned them; I just had to work for the mana if I didn't want them all to completely suck.  Sure, there were a few awkward sentences in Tactics, especially when it came to spellcasting, but I always found those to be like unintentional humor.  In the face of all the politcal scheming in the storyline, to see a badly translated sentence was like a reminder that it was still just a game, and not to take it so seriously.  Disgaea started out light-heartedly enough, with quite a few ridiculous episodes that got me to like the characters, but things took a turn for the serious closer and closer to the end, as I suppose that all anime-inspired games tend to do.  It was a little bit of a downer afer all the good laughs that I had beforehand. 

So, while I firmly believe that these are both excellent games, I have to give the win the old-timer, Final Fantasy Tactics.