If you’ve ever wondered about football management games and what people who like football get out of them, then this is the perfect opportunity to find out. Well, that is if you like RPGs, own a PSP and haven’t played Final Fantasy Tactics before, otherwise there’s going to be little to interest you here.

Subtitled The War Of The Lions, this PSP title serves as an update of the original Tactics game that came out on the PSone back in 1997. However, it was only released in Japan and America, which means this really is your first chance to play the game that introduced the incredibly serious world of Ivalice (also seen in the awesome Vagrant Story and the snooze-fest that is Final Fantasy XII). Sure, you might have played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the GBA, but it was a bit of a silly children’s game. The War Of The Lions is much more serious, with a plot that is brimming with tragedy, shocking moments and plenty of pathos.

Like all plot lines set in Ivalice, there are factions that have been at war for decades, up until the death of one of the rulers. This in turn sparks off another war as the two remaining factions battle for the heirless kingdom. The main protagonist Ramza sets off to discover the truth behind these wars and along the way finds out more than he could ever hope to comprehend.

Actually, there’s more going on here than even you could hope to comprehend too. The many twists and turns made by the large cast of characters can leave you a bit disorientated as to what’s going on. And this is before you even get to the rather complicated battle and levelling-up systems.

Unlike the numbered Final Fantasy games, Tactics uses the grid-based system usually favoured by Nippon Ichi games, such as Disgea and Maki Kingdom. This does mean that the battles are incredibly slow paced as you take each of your warriors and ascribe where they have to move and what they are to do when they get there. Yes, it is as simple as selecting a character, moving them and telling them to fight, but the decisionmaking process beforehand can see battles lasting from around five minutes to even half an hour. Thankfully, the AI controlling the enemies and whatever guest characters (including Final Fantasy XII’s pompous pirate Balthier) is decisive enough to move quickly and attack, so it means that you are never waiting too long before it’s your turn to puzzle over what to do.

There is so much to think about when making an attack. Trying to pick the perfect man for a job is part of it, but then you have to pick which attack will best suit while hoping it doesn’t miss and waste your turn. With so much deliberation going on in your head, you’ll be thankful that you can use the AI commands. They enable you to set your characters to attack certain enemies, defend allies and concentrate on healing. You can even get them to retreat too. It’s this control feature that makes it feel like a management game – just set them up, then sit back and watch as they carve into the enemy ranks and have at them.

Of course, with any management game there’s all the stuff in the background to busy yourself with. There are over 20 job classes to choose from when customising your characters. Well, at the start there are only a few, but even then it’s a tough decision trying to pick a team. As you go on through the game more and more job classes become available, each with their own special attacks, reaction attacks and bonuses. Plus each character can be one job class while using the another classes moves that have previously been learned. For example, you could have a knight that uses a white mage’s healing abilities as well as his own rending status effects. The opportunity for mixing these up is immense.

And that’s one of the elements that makes Final Fantasy Tactics such an engrossing game. With each battle you earn experience and job points, and each battle usually sees you rising a level and gaining enough job points to unlock a new spell or attack. It’s possible to spend flipping ages refining your team and making sure they all complement each other for the next fight.

You do have to do a bit of grinding when confronted by certain bosses that cut through your flimsy armour, though. Still, it’s actually quite fun going back, harvesting money and levelling the hell up, because you know that next time, when you give your black mage the ability to use time magic, that boss is going down.

The War Of The Lions is engrossing. Then even when you’re tired of fiddling with stats and jobs, there is the story and brilliantly animated and voice-acted cut-scenes to fall back on. So, if you don’t like football and really need something to do while everyone else is watching the Euro 2008 qualifiers, this is exactly what you need.

Tim Empey