Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Story

Marche is the new kid in the snowy town of St. Ivalice. After a snowball fight at school, he and his classmates Mewt and Ritz find an old book. That night, the town wakes up as Ivalice, a world of magic, clans and laws. Each of them gets something they wished for. Marche wants to go home.

MarcheThe new kid in St. Ivalice, and the hero

MewtA shy classmate who finds the book

RitzA classmate who speaks her mind

Mr. LeslaieThe teacher who starts the snowball fight

Principal characters ROM

• Marche
• Mewt
• Ritz
• Doned
• Montblanc
• Remedi
• Cid
• Babus
• Ezel
• Llednar

Races

A unit's race fixes which jobs it can take and which totema it can summon. The game's help text puts it plainly:

Monsters form a sixth group. They can't change jobs, but they can be captured into the Monster Bank, controlled by beastmasters, and morphed into by morphers.

Jobs

Every race starts with a few basic jobs. Mastering abilities in those jobs unlocks expert jobs:

A unit uses its current job's command set, plus one secondary command set from any other job it has learned abilities in. Its job also shapes how its stats grow at each level.

Every job in battle ROM

The standing sprite for each of the 42 race and job pairs, decoded from the game's own sprite data and palettes. The same job looks different on each race.

Human

Bangaa

Nu Mou

Viera

Moogle

Ability names are as they appear in the game. The selection per job is a representative one, not a complete list.

Abilities

FFTA has four kinds of ability. In the game's words:

Learning abilities: AP

An ability tied to a piece of equipment can be used only while it's equipped, and only if the unit's job has that ability. Each completed engagement adds AP toward it. When the AP total reaches the ability's mastery value, the ability is learned permanently and the equipment can go.

Combos and JP

Judges award Judge Points (JP) for knocking out enemies. JP pays for combos and totema summons.

All 29 combo abilities ROM

Totema

A totema is earned by defeating it in the story. A unit of its race with enough JP can then summon it.

Morphing

Engagements

A battle is an engagement. Units act in an order set by their speed, shown on the Turn Order screen. On its turn a unit can Move and take an Action in either order, then Wait and pick a facing direction. Facing matters: attacks to the side and back hit more often. Status shows a unit's details, and Mission shows the win condition.

Battle menu ROM

• Move
• Action
• Wait
• Status
• Turn Order
• Mission
• Laws
• Law Cards
• Totema
• Combo
• Flee
• Save Now

Knocked out, not dead

With a judge present, a unit at 0 HP is knocked out and comes back after the battle. In the three jagds (Jagd Dorsa, Jagd Helje and Jagd Ahli), lawless zones with no judges, a unit left knocked out at the end of the battle is lost for good. With no judge, there's also no JP and no laws.

Engage or negotiate

Laws and judges

Laws change as the days pass. At any time, one or two are in force, each forbidding something. A judge on a chocobo watches every engagement outside the jagds. A unit that breaks a law is penalized on the spot:

“Whichever penalty card you get, it'll go down on your record — and the more cards on your record, the steeper your penalty becomes, so watch out!”

Prison

Prison menu options in the game: Release, Pardon, Bail, Sentence. Some units carry Prison Exemption: “a special law that turns all their red cards yellow! You can tell one by the ribbon they wear… the lucky bums.”

Law ranks and cards

Laws are ranked by strictness: “[R7] laws are easy,” and each rank above is harsher. Collected law cards change the rules:

• White cards add a law.
• Black cards, or antilaws, cancel a law: “and the judges can't do a darn thing about it!” Antilaw cards come in ranks matching the laws they can cancel.
• Blank cards appear later, and the news blames them for laws springing up everywhere.

Cards are bought, won and traded at the Card Keeper. Some abilities also act on laws: Lawshift, Judgement, Advanced Law.

What laws can forbid ROM

The game's law table names everything a law can forbid:

Missions built around odd laws show the idea: No Arms Rule · Kissing Rule · Immunity Pass · No Full HP · No Literacy · Favoritism · No Answers · No Jumping.

Status effects and elements

Elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Holy, Wind, Earth, Water and Dark. Monsters and equipment can be weak to, resist or absorb each one, and laws can forbid them. Spells come in tiers (Fire, Fira, Firaga) and elemental attacks are everywhere: Elementalist spirit magic, Gladiator spellblades (Fire Sword, Bolt Sword, Ice Sword), Gunner shots (Fireshot, Boltshot, Iceshot) and dragon breaths.

Clans

Your clan is your party, your reputation and your business.

The eight skill levels ROM

• Combat
• Magic
• Smithing
• Craft
• Appraise
• Gather
• Negotiate
• Track

Completing a mission raises the skills it uses, and many missions require a minimum level in one of them.

Turf

Holding turf brings discounts and special deals at that area's shops and pubs. The news describes the clan wars over it as “never fiercer.” Rival clans show up on the map; you can engage them or negotiate. Clan Borzoi is the first big rival.

Linking

Over a link cable two players can “fight together, trade items, and even trade clan members!” Some trade items only appear at the shop if you link often.

Missions

Pubs in each town post requests. The game's mission table has about 380 titles: the roughly 300 numbered missions, plus area-defense requests, wanted posters and race-specific recruitment calls. They come in a few kinds:

• Engagements: battles, story or side quest, against monsters, clans or bounties.
• Dispatch missions: send one member away for a set number of days. Success depends on their job, level and the clan's skill levels.
• Area defense: “Help Giza!”, “Help Kudik!” and the rest, when a monster or clan threatens an area on your map.
• Encounters: rival clans and roaming monsters met while traveling.
• Link missions: played together over the link cable.

Mission items

Rewards are gil, equipment, AP, mission items, and new location symbols for the world map. Pubs also share rumors and the news; see Lore.

World map

The map starts nearly empty. After certain missions you receive a location symbol and place it on any open square. Where you put towns and areas changes travel times and which treasures appear:

Each area is one of seven terrain types (plains, forest, desert, marsh, mountain, cave or town), and the jagds are a type of their own. Towns have a shop, a pub, a prison, a card keeper, and the Monster Bank.

Places ROM

Time passes as you travel: each step on the map takes a day, and dispatched members come back after a set number of days. The months have names; the ones in the game's text include Kingmoon, Madmoon, Sagemoon, Huntmoon and Bardmoon.

Equipment and items

Each unit has slots for weapons, a shield, headgear, body armor and accessories. Which gear a job can equip decides which abilities it can learn. Weapon type matters for laws too: a day that forbids Swords empties a lot of hands.

Weapon types ROM: Swords, Blades, Sabers, Knightswords (paladins), Greatswords, Broadswords, Knives, Rapiers (fencers), Katanas, Bows and Greatbows, Spears, Instruments (animists), Knuckles (white monks), Souls (morphers), Guns (gunners), Staves, Rods and Maces. Many weapons have a Mythril version, and famous names appear across types: Excalibur, Ragnarok, Masamune and Masamune 100, Zanmato, Kikuichimonji, Onion Sword, Max's Oathbow.

Consumables

Beyond those, the item list holds over a hundred trophies, medals, ores, hides, foods, books and keepsakes. They're used as mission items, sold, or turned into new equipment. Examples: Magic Trophy, Elda's Cup, Rainbowite, Zodiac Ore, Adaman Alloy, Chocobo Egg, Gysahl Greens, Malboro Wine, Monster Guide, Stuffed Bear, Stradivari, the four Sigils, Helje Key.

Classes and monsters

The game's unit-class table lists every playable job together with every monster family and special enemy. Monster families share a sprite and differ by palette: the Goblin and Red Cap, the Bomb and Grenade, the three drakes. Their battle sprites ROM:

Special and boss classes include Judge, Judgemaster, Totema, Li-grim, Battle Queen, Dark Knight, Ark Knight, World Wyrm, Rune Knight, Dread Lord, Swordmaster, the Borzoi Capo and Boss, and clan bosses such as the Hel, Gelm, Kagle and Fes bosses. A few school classes from the opening survive in the table: New Kid, Librarian, Class Head, PE Head, Nurse, Custodian.

The Monster Bank in town keeps the monsters you capture; you can give them items or release them. Blue mages learn abilities by being hit by monsters, and morphers borrow them through souls.

Lore from the news

Pubs carry a running newspaper. These articles are quoted from the game:

Searchable index

Every ability, mission and piece of equipment named in the game's tables.

Sources

The battle sprites are decoded directly from the cartridge's sprite and palette tables. The other pictures are screenshots of the game running from the same cartridge, taken in the decompilation's native port, with the portraits cropped from dialogue scenes.

Everything marked ROM, and every quotation, comes from the US cartridge of the game (game code AFXE). It was decoded directly from the game's text and name tables, so the spellings are the game's own, including run-together names such as “SaveTheQueen”. The explanations of mechanics combine the game's help text with how the game is widely known to play. Character relationships, the totema for each race, status-effect details and the per-job ability selections come from that knowledge rather than from a table in the game.