Every now and then, I'll remember how much fun I once had playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as a kid, pick up a tactics game, fail to enjoy it, and wonder if I'm mistaking nostalgia for one game with a fondness for the genre as a whole. Fae Tactics is one of the rare games that restores my faith that the genre still has something to offer me.

The masterstroke of this game is the care it takes to carefully roll out new abilities and decisions, providing a massive amount of depth without ever feeling overwhelming. A menu-free combat system might seem simplistic at first, but the Disgaea-like care that goes into positioning, sequencing, and elemental matchups adds depth once you're ready to grapple with it. The party build provides an almost endless variety of different strategies, and the level design--while occasionally frustrating, in one case enough that I'm choosing to put the game down for the time being--generally does a good job of encouraging you to experiment on occasion while usually allowing you to maintain a consistent build.