This game came out when I was 8 years old, I don't remember if I got it by mistake after hearing about how good Final Fantasy on the PlayStation was (obviously meaning FF7 lol) or just happened to pick it up randomly, but I'm glad I did.
It's highly political fantasy story may have gone way over my head at the time, but I remember still being drawn into its depth. At that age I was still probably mostly engaged in very simple "the hero is the good guy who saves the day and gets the girl at the end" stories. To play a game where you reject your family noble blood, fight for the commoners in a war involving rightful heir to the monarchy, making friends along the way only to be backstab by them, finding long lost friends only to find they've grown to value things much different than you shared as younger soldiers was incredibly compelling.
The gameplay was unlike anything I'd played before. Moving your characters around a board as if you were playing a game of chess with environmental advantages/disadvantages and RPG elements was so beyond my skill at that age. The class and weapon system allowed so much customization. Mixing and matching abilities and weapons from certain classes could literally break the game in the same way using cheats would. It felt like such an overwhelming sandbox of potential.
The rereleased version sub titled "The War of the Lions" has basically replaced this original version of the game on all store fronts. But I feel it's voiced 3D animated cutscenes removed a lot of the charm the in game graphics and text boxes had even though the gameplay is exactly the same. I'd recommend this version over that one any day.
It's highly political fantasy story may have gone way over my head at the time, but I remember still being drawn into its depth. At that age I was still probably mostly engaged in very simple "the hero is the good guy who saves the day and gets the girl at the end" stories. To play a game where you reject your family noble blood, fight for the commoners in a war involving rightful heir to the monarchy, making friends along the way only to be backstab by them, finding long lost friends only to find they've grown to value things much different than you shared as younger soldiers was incredibly compelling.
The gameplay was unlike anything I'd played before. Moving your characters around a board as if you were playing a game of chess with environmental advantages/disadvantages and RPG elements was so beyond my skill at that age. The class and weapon system allowed so much customization. Mixing and matching abilities and weapons from certain classes could literally break the game in the same way using cheats would. It felt like such an overwhelming sandbox of potential.
The rereleased version sub titled "The War of the Lions" has basically replaced this original version of the game on all store fronts. But I feel it's voiced 3D animated cutscenes removed a lot of the charm the in game graphics and text boxes had even though the gameplay is exactly the same. I'd recommend this version over that one any day.