Final Fantasy Tactics: The Weird Ups and Downs of It's Ports Up Till Now 

Clarifications and Corrections: -Menu lag is randomly very prevalent on the Modern version, typivally having the right sound, but playing the animation with weird delays and speed ups. On the other hand, the PSP release was generally correct, but had moments in battles where it could slow down. Original was crisp at all times unless I'm forgetting some edge cases. -WotL also added a New Meliodoul and that other guy ambush. It also fixed the JP Scroll glitch and oddly rebalanced JP costs for a few skills. Also, missing Bow guy forgets his Hat instead. -It's not just attacks with fancy effects that lag in PSP and the earlier pre update mobile versions, it seemed to be random. Like a chocobo peck took 3-4 times as long. -Several events got added in WotL that seem odd. Like it seems Delita has Late Season Game of Thrones syndrome, and just kinda appears at new places. The new Balthier scene was pretty legit, and actually made use of a weird movie oversight build in game with that Sword Monk. New ending seemed kinda...just a bummer for the sake of being a bummer to me. If you have doubts over wherher cinematic timing was a happy accident or intentional, see follow up video on the 3 sequels, including the one with the insanely impressive movie tech shots.

I hope you know that even if I don't click on a video, I'm always entertained by your thumbnails

FFT is something special. I didn't know i was living in the golden age of gaming.

The original PS1 version has a rougher translation, but better sound, smoother animations, responsive inputs, and fast loading times. The PSP remake (WotL) softened the translation, added cutscenes, a few bonus characters, and fights, but at the cost of sound, animations, inputs, and loading. It seems like the mobile versions tried a quick fix for some of their slow animations, but by manually speeding them up, they have also sped up the associated audio, making some of it sound too high pitched. A few other small notes: It's funny that you mention Game of Thrones, because both GoT and FFT are based off of the same thing: The War of the Roses. When you said that the WotL versions "oddly rebalanced" JP costs, they are the original Japanese PS1 version JP costs. They reduced job unlock requirements and JP costs for the North American PS1 release, to make it easier for the west. There is a fur shop glitch that only works on the JP PS1 version of the game (and therefore not WotL). The item duplication glitch works on both PS1 versions but not any WotL version. The PSP version slowdown fix is only for the North American version of the game. JP WotL has no slowdown fix (as far as I know!)

I never actually realised that the number of units in the PS1 intro FMV matched the number you fight. I always thought the guy leading was Delita, and found it odd that he was in front of the monastery. I'm not sure if I agree with the menus feeling smoother with the PSP version. When I was recently doing a hacking project for both versions, I felt that the menus had input lag with the PSP one which I didn't notice with the PS1 version.

I thought Ramza drinking milk was in the original room unless they added another scene

I own all three. They didn’t quite vibe the same. Definitely not the same story quality and some weird mechanics.

I think the changes I'd like to see in level design are fairly simple. Enemy human builds were, though sometimes funny, not great. I'm not looking for the most ridiculous map-nuking calculating black mages or critical quick abuse, but I do want to see things in the later part of the game like knights 2-handing knight swords or ninjas using martial arts. Intuitive stuff that we very rarely see enemies do in the original game. That should be easy to do and I'll be disappointed if it's not there. A more complicated change might have to do with the spell charge system. I like the idea of magic being strong but taking extra time to cast, adding a vulnerability for that power. I don't like how speed progression makes charged skills less and less viable as the game goes on. Even Fast Charge eventually falls behind if you want to climb to very high stat levels. The only way I can think of to fix this without making speed even more of a god stat would be to remove speed growth entirely and have it be static based on class. Probably an unpopular move but it would make balancing many things MUCH easier. And...I beg the designers to do something with archers. If they're going to have a direct counter skill in Arrow Guard, make them scary enough that we'd actually consider using it. Please. Edit: Forgot to mention that I didn't fully appreciate the sound design and visual presentation of the PS1 version when I first played it. I was all about the numbers. Was really fun seeing you get all enthusiastic for that stuff as the gameplay happened.

I actually played ffta 1 and 2 and tried to get everything when i was a kid. Really fun game with some really cool fights. Three kings was super fun and that tower when i first found it was a good lil challenge.

38:43 it said avilable instead of available, typo.

PS1 version 🧐

Commenting before finishing the video, but technically FF12 is in the same universe as the original FF Tactics, just a completely different era. PS1 version all the way. Same with Tactics Ogre up until the release of Reborn. I really hope FFT gets the same amount of love from SE that Reborn got when it comes to a remake. FFT doesn't have the same lore around tarot cards as the OB series, so I think we'd be more likely to get a massive rebalance such as ... characters and equipment actually having stats instead of an extraordinarily exploitable scaling system where "MY 97BRAVE 3FAITH DUAL-FISTED NINJA RAMZA HAMEDOS AND THEN SAITAMA PUNCHES FOR 82984 DAMAGE! GET SKILL-GAPPED, NERD!"

Yeah I did feel the opening cinematic was not quite as good as the original PS1, and not only for the Blame yourself or god line.

Honestly besides the slow down and the horrible lag, what ruins the war of the lions for me is the retranslation and renaming of moves. The original translation added to realism of this game. I understand the typos but cmon, nothings gonna be written in perfect dialogue. On top of that, I hate that i use the wrong ability. For example i think im using yell but it ends up being wish only because of square renaming the abilities lol. It's a pain in the ass, especially them constantly using words out of my vocabulary. In particular words that are no longer in use. I'm all over the place but those just my gripes between the ps1 and psp version. Ps1 all day

the sequals are basically 20% of the original game, the story was childlike, graphics were made for handheld, character customization was more limited. I did like placing my own map tiles and the quest boards.

Yea it has sequels but the OG tactics is superior.

So while I disagree with almost everything your thoughts between wotl vs the original the mobile version is trash. I'd rather emulate it on mobile then use the official version because of how badly optomized it is