#21

Final Fantasy Tactics (Originally released in 1998 on the PS1.)

This game copies much of what made Tactics Ogre successful and then slapped the Final Fantasy name on it. It worked. It made so much more money then TO could have dreamed to make, when TO is probably the better product, just less polished. But I digress.

FFT is a great game regardless and it has something TO does not have, Delita Hyral. there is something about manipulative characters that I enjoy to witness. Delita was one of the more entertaining characters to watch evolve as the game progressed. Delita starts the game as a peasant boy, significant to the story only because he was adopted by the Beoulve family. He is Ramza's best friend and Delita is granted to attend a military academy because of his ties with the Beoulve family. The Beoulve's are a wealthy family who serves the crown. Conflict occurs and it ends with the death of Delita's sister by the command of Ramza's brothers. Ramza was not privy to these actions, but Delita swears to change the world while holding his dead sister in his arms. An explosion separates the two friends, and Ramza doesn't see Delita until much later in his life.

Delita reemerges only to kidnap the current princess, Ovelia. Ramza just so happened to be acting as one of her bodyguards at the time. He thought his friend to be dead, so seeing him stirs up old memories.

At this point forward everyone Delita makes contact with is just a puppet in his eyes. He uses everyone to his advantage and manipulates his supposed masters to bend to his will. It is impressive to watch him at work. He went from peasant nobody all the way to King of Ivalice during the games story. He bloodies his sword many times during this process and even persuades a couple of ladies he loves them. The corrupt see swift retribution by Delita's schemes and he lives happily ever after.

Or not. His end is a bitter one as he gets knifed at the final scene of the game by the princess he played throughout the game.

Still, history has his name as the person who united the land, not Ramza the true hero of the story. It's funny how the history books got that information wrong.

Final Fantasy Tactics has plenty of other interesting characters as well. Its just that Delita is by far my favorite of the bunch. Go out and play the game if you are interested. It's a fun game with great mechanics and an engaging job class system that is full of customization options.