Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Outside of Atlus’ wheelhouse of titles, Square Enix’s seminal classic Final Fantasy Tactics: The War Of The Lions is shockingly reminiscent of Metaphor. A high fantasy world? Check. A story seeped in political drama? Check. An involved class system that lets you mix and match abilities to create your own custom power houses? Big check. Admittedly, Final Fantasy Tactics is a strategy RPG, so you’ll focus mostly on tactical battles instead of exploring beautiful cities and deadly dungeons. But if you’re willing to give a different kind of RPG a try, Final Fantasy Tactics is an all-time classic and one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made.

Unfortunately, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War Of The Lions is a bit hard to get your hands on. It’s easiest to purchase on mobile devices, though the port is admittedly a little old nowadays. Otherwise, Final Fantasy Tactics is only available on the PlayStation Portable (where it has some notable slowdown) or the original PlayStation (which lacks the extra features of the War Of The Lions edition). Hopefully those rumors about a Final Fantasy Tactics remake come true sooner than later.

Square Enix’s Tactics Ogre Reborn shares enough similarities to Final Fantasy Tactics that it’s worth a shout here as well. Honestly, it probably deserves a slot on this list, I just never played enough of the game to make a confident recommendation. Use the hashtag #TimNeverFinishedTacticsOgre to protest this list.