Tough... Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God.
Beaten: Once, in 2008-ish
Version played: Playstation Portable (War of the Lions)
It's surprising how much I love this game when I've only played it once.
Then again, maybe it isn't. Tactics Advance was my very first FF game, and I loved every minute of it. It only stands to reason that I'd love the original for the gameplay alone — I was turned on to tactical RPGs at a young age, and to this day it's one of my favorite battle systems in any game.
And while the gameplay is incredible, and has fantastic depth and replay value, what's really stuck with me is the story. FFT is a realistic, dark tale of fantasy politics, with some of the series's best characters. Ramza and Delita go through very different experiences over the course of the game, each fighting for his ideals no matter the cost.
That said, as much as I have incredible fondness for the game... I don't remember it very well! It's been at least 15 years since I played it. I am long overdue a replay, and while I've been putting it off in hopes that Square will remaster and rerelease it, I might have to dig out my PSP again and play it that way.
(Somewhat strangely, my most recent experience with FFT is playing the raids based on it in FFXIV...)
Favorite character
Ramza and Delita are tied for this. I think they're both absolutely fascinating, and the way their story unfolds had me surprised at every turn. The ending is still etched onto my memory. It's sublime.
I really liked a lot of the characters in the game, though! Agrias and Ovelia are particular standouts, as is Mustadio. And Thunder God Cid, of course.
Favorite music
This isn't a soundtrack I listen to all that often, but it's not from lack of affection... it's actually because I hear a bunch of the songs all the time in FFXIV. Most of which are my favorites, granted, but since I haven't played FFT in years, I remember the FFXIV fights more than the FFT ones! I need to replay FFT and fix this.
Anyway, some favorite tracks:
Favorite location
This section is tough because FFT is such a different game from the others in the series — it's hard to like a place that much when it's just a map you use for a single fight. (Also, I haven't played the game in a long time.)
Can I cheat and just say Ivalice as a whole? Ivalice is my favorite setting in all of Final Fantasy, and watching it change over the different Ivalice games is one of my favorite things about the subseries.
Gameplay thoughts
I love everything about the gameplay — but again, of course I do, I started with Tactics Advance. This is a job class game, where the joy of it really comes from learning abilities on various jobs and mixing and matching them with other jobs.
Since it's been so long since I played the game, I really don't remember the great, broken combos I used to make. I do remember that Balthier was broken good — he had an ability that let him hit four times in one turn. Thunder God Cid, likewise, is an incredible powerhouse.
My favorite job of all, however, is Arithmetician. It takes a lot of precision to use well, but it's something you can absolutely destroy with, because all of the numbers it uses in its calculations are freely available for you to see on the screen. It's an absolute blast.