Final Fantasy Tactics



""God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.""

- Princess Ovelia Atkascha

A Gaiden Game entry into the pants-crappingly popular Final Fantasy series. It combined Turn-Based Strategy with a Role-Playing Game, and is the first game in the series to take place in the world of Ivalice (followed by Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and Final Fantasy XII, as well as the non-Final Fantasy game Vagrant Story). Due to the immense resemblance and many developers shared between the two series, particularly Yasumi Matsuno, the game is often seen as a Spiritual Successor to Tactics Ogre.

This game focuses on the exploits of Ramza Beoulve, the second-youngest member of the noble Beoulve family, as he transitions from military-school cadet to mercenary to hero. Behind him is an intricately complex story with twists, turns, and political intrigue (based on the real-life Wars of the Roses); at the center of this maelstrom is Ramza's best friend, Delita Heiral, a commoner who makes a Rags to Riches transformation and eventually becomes king. Of course, in a world where politics, Corrupt Churches and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder are the rule, all is not as it seems...

While not the traditional Final Fantasy fare, it was embraced by Turn-Based Strategy fans for its challenging, satisfying gameplay and the sheer depth of its Job System, which took the similar mechanic in Final Fantasy III and cranked it Up to Eleven. It was also renowned for its Blind Idiot Translation and resulting Engrish, often called "Daravonese" after the tutorial character who spouted most of it. The PSP remake, mercifully, was far better in this regard, having been localized by longtime Square-Enix collaborator Joseph Reeder.

Followed by a Non-Linear Sequel in Vagrant Story. Years later, the atmosphere of Ivalice was re-imagined in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which took place in a dream world centuries before Final Fantasy Tactics. The actual era that this dream world was based on was then first seen in Final Fantasy XII, and again in Revenant Wings, with another prequel in the form of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

It has also been re-released four times. The first was on the PS 1's "Greatest Hits" line, though it remained hard to find. The other three were on the PlayStation Portable: first as the Video Game Remake Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, the second via the PlayStation Store in a straight port (which oddly enough, does not encounter slowdowns in places War of the Lions does), and the last on iOS and Android, based on the PSP version, but without the slowdown.

"You're sure a keen observer of the obvious!"
 * Abnormal Ammo: Guns that shoot magic; curiously, the Blaze Gun shoots ice and the Glacier Gun shoots fire in the original, but this is corrected in War Of The Lions.
 * Action Girl: Agrias and Meliadoul, both of whom are Ladies of War as well.
 * Aerith and Bob: Most of the in-universe names sound fairly fantastical except the suspiciously appropriate "Ovelia/Ophelia", but your generics have a much wider range of possible names.
 * After Combat Recovery
 * Alas, Poor Villain: While not too overloaded, in a game with Grey and Grey Morality you can bet there's going to be some of these:
 * Wiegraf Folles. Even though he eventually went too far and lose sight of his noble goals, you've got to feel sympathy for the once honourable man who just wanted his peers to be treated with the dignity they deserved. It's such a waste.
 * His sister, Milleuda, even more so - so sympathetic she was by her second battle that it was a massive Player Punch to learn that you can't save her and need to kill her. Even the game itself was practically screaming at you by this point that the way you were treating these people is wrong.
 * . He wasn't even evil, he was just fighting on the wrong side without knowing it, and his last words are wanting Ramza to know that he's sorry for the trouble he'd caused him.
 * Neither was, who had incomplete information and genuinely believed he was doing the right thing. Ramza expresses great remorse about having to fight him, and as he dies, he.
 * And then there's . For all the evil he'd done, it's nonetheless pretty upsetting to see.
 * All There in the Manual: A whole side story involving the royal family plays out through their in-game character profiles and bar rumours. Events such as, and , and questions over have ripple effects through the plot but are only referenced in passing and are completely missable if you're not constantly checking the Brave Story and every other bar you visit.
 * Almighty Janitor: Ramza saves the world from an Eldritch Abomination and alters the course of history, yet technically (in-story) never rose above the rank of squire.
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: Most obvious with the Archer class, who wears a shoulder guard that magically flips sides depending on which way they're facing and where the camera is.
 * Ambiguous Gender: The game can't decide whether  is a man or a woman. There's also lingering questions over whether or not  . History records   as being a man, yet
 * Gameplay-wise, Ramza and Cloud are this, with good stats for males and females. And the ability to use some items that they shouldn't be able to, like the beret and ribbon accessories. In Cloud's case, it could simply be an over-elaborate Shout-Out to a certain infamous minigame in Final Fantasy VII. (Given that Cloud is able to equip the Ribbon in ALL his appearances outside FFVII, it's probably a Shout-Out.)
 * Subverted in that this is one of the very few class and level based RPG's that restrict two classes (the Dancer and Bard) by gender.
 * Ambition Is Evil: Delita
 * Ancient Conspiracy: The titular War of the Lions is meticulously manipulated by the Lucavi in order to ensure maximum bloodshed, brutality, and carnage in order to pave the way for Ultima's resurrection.
 * Anti-Grinding: If you level up too much early in the game, the gear will eventually outclass gear that you can get in stores. Eventually, however, you will encounter humans in random battles with much more appropriate (and sometimes top-class) equipment that you can then steal from them. Still, this is much more tedious than simply advancing the plot and buying the weapons as they become available.
 * Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain: Which is Delita? Well, depends on your point of view... Also, the Corpse Brigade/Death Corps pretty much fall under Anti-Villain in Chapter One, although Wiegraf gets worse.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only take five members (including Ramza) to form a party, sometimes four in certain story mode battles, and your overworld group can't hold more than sixteen characters total, including Ramza. Capacity is bumped to 24 in the remake.
 * Artificial Brilliance: The game's AI can be scarily good at times. Best of all, you can exploit it by setting your units in autobattle mode. No more spending a whole minute scanning the field to figuring out what to input for your calculator - the computer does it for you in a few seconds!
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: Most story enemies are nobles;.
 * Awesome but Impractical: By making use of the reaction ability Critical Quick and toying with the Brave and Faith values of the playable characters, one can set up a "Quickening Loop" wherein the party can have infinite turns, without the enemy getting a single one in between. While this makes the party nigh-invulnerable, finishing a battle using this trick could take ages, as opposed to just smacking the enemy outright and winning in a matter of minutes.
 * Also, the Iaido or Draw Out ability of the Samurai has lots of power, especially from the rare (One of a kind) Masamune or Chirijiraden katanas. However, it also can easily break them.
 * Summons can be absurdly powerful, as always. The really powerful ones (Bahamut, etc) also take a long time to charge, meaning your target might not even be in the area of effect when it goes off. Zodiark gets special mention for not only being the strongest summon, but being the hardest to get.
 * Back from the Dead:
 * In War of the Lions, . Just so you get the pleasure of killing him again.
 * is immediately revived by.
 * Back Stab: Characters are usually easier to hit from the sides or behind. It doesn't deal any more damage though. The side your character is attacked on determines which of his dodge bonuses apply: Class dodge rate applies only to frontal attacks, shield applies to the front and sides, capes and reaction abilities apply everywhere. This only applies for physical attacks, magic can be defended against equally well in all directions.
 * Badass Grandpa: (Thunder God) Cid is 58 years old. Not that a silly thing like age will keep him from totally destroying anyone who gets in his way.
 * Bait and Switch Boss:
 * Baleful Polymorph: The Frog and Chicken spells.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk: Pretty self-explanatory: Monks fight unarmed and their damage formula involves squaring their strength score (Most classes use strength* weapon to determine damage). This means that every extra point of PA is worth exponentially more. As it's possible to get up to +7 PA (a base score of 13 is standard for high level fighters), the Monk can be capable of one-punching most common enemies and maybe even a few bosses. And that's before you give them Two Weapons, which lets them punch twice (Or better yet, give Ninja Martial Arts).
 * Barehanded Blade Block:
 * The Samurai's reaction skill "Blade Grasp" / "Shirihadori"; a Good Bad Bug interprets the reaction skill to be applicable to all physical attacks, so a character equipped with this can also Arrow Catch and Bullet Catch. The chances of an attack hitting are equal to 100-target's Brave, and Brave can max out at a base of 97. It's almost a Game Breaker.
 * Thieves can also catch anything thrown at them for damage, which (since this is Final Fantasy) includes shuriken, swords, bombs and more esoteric weapons like handbags and bolts of cloth. However, this is an intentional skill.
 * Batman Gambit: While playing everyone else around him coldly and unflinchingly, Delita specifically counted on Ramza's unimpeachable character so he would get rid of the nastier elements threatening Ivalice.
 * Belated Happy Ending: Various item descriptions in Vagrant Story mention the Zodiac Brave Story, naming Agrias, Orlandu and several others as well-known heroes. That means  from Tactics, containing a true account of what happened during the war, was eventually accepted as historical canon.
 * Big Bad: Because there are so many groups working to manipulate each other, it is difficult to tell who the primary villain is until near the end of the game.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Played with: Ramza tries to storm the castle he thinks Princess Ovelia is held in, except he runs into Agrias, who managed to escape by herself; a subsequent rescue attempt turns out to be a trap. Throughout the plot, Ramza pretty much either stumbles into rescue missions by accident or arrives too late to do anything.
 * Ramza's own allies show up to support him after the Duel Boss battle against
 * Big Damn Villains: Delita kicks off the plot by abducting Ovelia from the protagonists
 * Black and White Magic: The "White Mage" and "Black Mage".
 * Blade on a Stick: The entire point of the Lancer class. Well, that and the jumping.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: In the PS 1 version, while the translation is workable for Chapter 1 to Chapter 3 (beyond a few bits in item/ability descriptions), it falls completely apart in chapter 4. The tutorial given by Professor Daravon is also notoriously poor in its translation, which make no sense whatsoever, and fails to teach you anything about the game.
 * Let's not forget the first two tracks of the soundtrack: "Title Back (Bland Logo)" and "Backborn Story". "Opening Title" and "Background Story" would make a lot more sense. Interestingly, these are all among the tracks that don't have names in Japanese characters, just (bad) English. Other tracks show Japanese and English names.
 * Although often considered Good Bad Translation, the term Zodiac Brave is likely an example of this. Yuusha, literally "brave person", but more along the lines of "Hero" or the descriptive title "The Brave" is frequently mistranslated as "Brave", particularly when a native Japanese speaker is trying to translate it to English.
 * Bonus Boss: Zodiark/, the most difficult boss of the game, who resides in...
 * Bonus Dungeon: ...Deep Dungeon, ten excruciating levels of high-level enemies who you have to fight in almost complete darkness. And the kicker? You can't progress to the next level unless you step on a certain randomly (chosen from only five squares, fortunately) placed square on the current level.
 * Boring but Practical: You may spend a lot of time in the first few areas level grinding. Why? Because the amount of exp and skill points you get don't depend on where and what monsters you fight, but almost entirely on the actions you perform. Might as well stick with goblins.
 * Also true of most levelling methods in the game, such as the early skill "accumulate", which lets the character increase their physical attack and gain xp for it, or hurting your own party members and healing them after, only to beat on them more.
 * The Duel Boss against  is quite difficult. Sure, you could open the gate and reunite with your team, but since they have their own problem to deal with, why not just break or steal  's sword, rendering him completely impotent?
 * Breakable Weapons: The Samurai job command Iaido can break the katanas it uses.
 * Knights and Divine Knights (Meliadoul's base class) have the ability to break enemy equipment, as well. So does Orlandu, but, well, he is Orlandu.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ramza may break the Framing Device if you attempt to dismisses him from your party, but avoids breaking the "main" fourth wall.
 * Brown Note: Harps and Books do damage by being played/read from.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Though you only actually see the incantations on-screen 10% of the time or so, every spell in the game and many other abilities have incantations that end in the spell's or move's name. Only the original PlayStation version has this, though, possibly because of the Engrish.
 * The Cameo: Luso and Balthier both show up in the remake, and it's lampshaded by the latter, who still thinks of himself as the "leading man" but concedes this adventure has more the feel of a cameo role.
 * Not to mention Cloud and Aeris/th, who appear in both versions.
 * Can't Catch Up: "Guest" characters in your party don't participate in Random Encounters. If you run into enough random battles, they get outclassed very quickly.
 * Occasionally, Guest characters are vital in a level, and get leveled up as minor gods to help the player complete it.
 * Also applies to the playable characters, due to battles restricting you to 4+Ramza or less. Fortunately, leveling is quite easy and small level differences are usually negligible.
 * Captain Ersatz:
 * Elmdor looks eerily like Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII.
 * Cid, meanwhile, channels Obi Wan Kenobi of Star Wars.
 * Captain Obvious:

""Fight for justice...fists of fury! Repeating Fist!""
 * Cast from Hit Points: Worker 8
 * Cast Herd: Ramza's group, the two opposing sides of the Lion War, and the Corrupt Church are the three major players. La Résistance plays a minor role in Chapter One and then pretty much loses all relevance.
 * Charged Attack: Some high level skills, spells, and the Charge ability are useless because your target will simply move out of the way. You can directly target the enemy instead of the area but they might move next to the caster hit them or KO them with their own attack.
 * Time magic can speed up charging and slow down enemies. Also, many quick/instant skills can immobilize a target.
 * "Always check the AT list! It's the shortcut to victory!"
 * Chekhov's Gun: In the PSP version, a short intermission between near the endgame has the latter give the former, should the need arise.
 * The Chessmaster: So, so many. In the later chapters, it takes a very good mind to figure out who's playing whom. Let's give it a try!
 * Prince Larg - Plans on executing or otherwise "disappearing" Princess Ovelia, allowing him to rule through his sister, the Queen, as the regent of his infant nephew.
 * Prince Goltana - Plans on arresting the Queen for having the King killed (Which is as likely as not to be true) and executing her, and disinheriting the prince as a bastard child (Also as likely as not). Will then rule through Princess Ovelia, a cousin of the dead king who was adopted as a daughter when he wasn't producing healthy children.
 * Duke Dycedarg - Ramza's eldest brother, supports Larg.
 * The Glabados Church - Subtly pushes the war and unhappiness amongst the peasantry. Hopes both sides will bleed each other dry so the Church can step in as peacemakers.  Also hopes to use the Temple Knights as new Zodiac Braves, using the old tale to gain popular support amongst the commoners when they take over.
 * The Temple Knights - Functions as The Church's legbreakers, mostly gathering Zodiac Stones and destroying small-time interlopers into the Lion War.
 * The Lucavi -
 * Delita - Seeks to remind everyone that only pawns can be promoted.
 * Church Militant: The Glabados Church has a standing army of its own, in addition to the Knights Templar.
 * Color-Coded Armies (Player Mooks and Mooks will usually be Palette Swaps of each other, with player-controlled units usually having blue accessories and enemy units having red.)
 * Specifically, the Southern Sky has a dark color scheme, the church has a red scheme, the Northern Sky has a blue/white scheme, Ramza officially came from the Northern Sky so that's why your units have a similar scheme, and "brigand" enemies have green schemes, like the thief class.
 * Computers Are Fast: Waste about an hour figuring out the best way to use your calculator to destroy most of the map, or set them to auto-battle and have it done after a small bit of lag. Decisions decisions...
 * Corrupt Church: The Church of Glabados is probably one of the most developed examples in gaming, being far more complex in motivation and method than just "control the world".
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Several. Ramza gets the majority, being The Messiah. Mainly they involve Big Damn Heroes rescues, or just him being noble and selfless.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The church's vibe is heavily based on a kind of theme-park Christianity, chiefly in organization, appearance and backstory (a wandering prophet figure betrayed by a follower for money and executed). For the details given 'Jesus' could be replaced with 'St. Ajora' and 'Judas' with 'Geromonka' and you're done.
 * Cutscene Incompetence: It amusingly bleeds into gameplay. The remake has a cutscene before the battle to  where a Monk attacks Ramza with a sword. Monks are far better with fisticuffs than any other weapon. When the battle begins, it averts Gameplay and Story Segregation by leaving the Monk equipped with a sword.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: Inverted: Beyond the involvement of the Zodiac Braves in the storyline, the superhuman abilities thrown about with reckless abandon in battle are absent from the scripted story sections.
 * Played straight in that everyone can teleport in cutscenes, even if they never display that ability in battle and especially if it makes no sense for them to have that ability.
 * The Dark Side Will Make You Forget:  started out as a  . By his third encounter,
 * Darker and Edgier: Arguably one of the darkest in the entire series.
 * Dark Messiah: Delita, whether he was evil or not.
 * Dark Reprise: "Cry of Pain" of the Recurring Riff found in "Apoplexy" and "Commander in Training", and "And I Ran Away" of Ramza's Theme.
 * Dead Character Walking: If a confused Heaven or Hell knight kills themselves with a spell before finishing to cast it, they will stand up from their KO animation to cast the remaining charges and drop down again afterwards.
 * Dead Little Sister:
 * Department of Redundancy Department: Thanks to the PSX version's Good Bad Translation we have "rebels plotting rebellion", Zalmo ordering Ramza to "appear at a heresy hearing on accusations of murder and heresy!", and Rafa's "Heaven Heaven Thunder!".
 * Destroyable Items: Knights get several equipment breaking moves, as do some bosses. Thankfully preventable by a support ability.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Boco, the Chocobo accompanying Wiegraf during Ramza's first encounter with the Corpse Brigade commander, is flagged "immortal", a special parameter usually reserved for guests that prevents any character's permanent death by any means. This is to prevent a paradox when you later encounter the same Chocobo by itself in chapter 2.
 * Bows are fired at an arc, allowing them to circumvent terrain and other characters on the way to the target only if it was fired at a sufficient height to clear any obstructions. What's more, a bow's range increases with its owner's elevation.
 * Some monster species tower over the human characters. This is pretty handy when they're allies, as they make useful stepping stools for reaching heights a character could not otherwise.
 * There are spirte sheets for all of the NPCs in the game no matter how briefly they may appear in cutscenes; there's even one huge sprite sheet for unique characters and/or animations.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Having previously seen every encounter with a Zodiac Stone end in disaster, . Ramza is forced to reevaluate his opinion of Zodiac Stones yet again. This is right after a Zodiac Monster AND a hellish Escort Mission.
 * To be fair, all the other Zodiac Stone wielders succumbed to Lucavi due to their lust for power. Malak was oblivious to their backstory and how Barinten raped Rafa, but didn't think twice before turning on him once the truth came up. Rafa only meant well to her brother, thus summoning the good power of the Zodiac Stone.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Cloud is listed as an Aquarius in this game, but the official Final Fantasy VII guidebook states his birthday to be August 19th, which would make him a Leo.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Ramza and his team ; Alma, supposedly , manages to.
 * Damsel in Distress: Delita's sister in the first chapter. Ramza's sister Alma, for the majority of the game. Princess Ovelia in Chapter Two. Subverted in that . Also, in a new mission for the PSP version, Reis is kidnapped and has to be rescued.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The entire plot is, essentially,.
 * The War of the Lions can also be seen as a parallel to the War of the Roses.
 * The Dog Bites Back: Ramza spends about half the game being fooled into aiding the antagonists and then being forgotten as an ignorable pawn. Most said antagonists spend the other half of the story being stabbed in the face by Ramza. As the pile of dead soldiers and Eldritch Abominations left in his wake kept rising,  should have figured out Ramza was a tad more dangerous than the average schmuck.
 * Downer Ending:
 * Dual-Wielding: An innate ability of the Ninja class, purchasable as a support ability. (Giving a Bare-Fisted Monk the ability to punch twice? Yes, please and thank you!)
 * Duel Boss: Ramza gets the privilege of not one, but two duels. (Versus, though  , and later against.
 * Dummied Out:
 * Several entries in the Chronicles (or Brave Story, if you're playing the original PS1 version) are technically used, but unable to be seen in normal gameplay, as these entries are only added after crossing the Point of No Return, after which viewing the Chronicles is impossible.
 * The Japanese release contained the Zodiac Brave Story Sound Novels, a collection of four mini-games in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Because of time and budget constraints, they were never translated and left unused in the non-Japanese versions. This in turn leads to some technically used musical tracks to be Dummied Out of non-Japanese versions as well, though unlike the sound novels, the tracks can at least be listened to in the Sound Test of the PSP version, along with several truly Dummied Out tracks.
 * A good chunk of text is left out of the game, mostly battle classes (and their descriptions) of characters who are normally scarcely, if at all, seen in battle. Notable strange cases include Delita's Sis (Tietra), Bishop (Simon) and Phony Saint (Ajora).
 * Dynamic Difficulty: Random encounters scale with Ramza's level. This makes certain areas of the map veritable Beef Gates.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The reward for the penultimate battle in the game (part of a sequence that leads right to the end with no pause) is the Ragnarok knight sword.
 * Emergency Impersonation: In a cutscene, it's revealed that.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Averted. Princess Ovelia's life kind of sucks, and she's treated as nothing more than a living MacGuffin by basically everyone. She spends only a very short period of time in the company of Ramza, the sole person in the game that treats her as a person, rather than as a princess.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai: The game is set in a Medieval England setting, but there are still Samurai (and ninjas). The game explains they came from a foreign land.
 * Everything but the Girl:
 * Evil Costume Switch: Ramza's appearance between chapters becomes steadily more intimidating, culminating in a pitch-black suit of armor with spikes fitted on the shoulders. Thing is, he always remains firmly on the side of good, he's just honing his ideals and growing increasingly focused.
 * Exact Eavesdropping: Ovelia pretends to go to her room, but remains just barely out of sight to eavesdrop on Delita the one time he's discussing something pertinent to his nefarious plans; similarly, Zalbag eavesdrops on  through a crack in the door while he's meeting with one of his co-conspirators. (Vaguely justified in that both were shown to have doubts earlier.)
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Final Fantasy is an RPG series. Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical/strategy RPG.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: In the time between Chapter One and Chapter Two, Ramza loses the ponytail marking him as a Cadet, also symbolizing a significant loss of innocence.
 * Face Heel Turns: And plenty of them.
 * Faking the Dead: A stand-in is executed in 's place so that he can   without fear of being hunted down.
 * There's also questions regarding.
 * Fallen Hero:
 * Final Death: If not resurrected within 3 turns, dead characters are Lost Forever. (Or, if Ramza, Game Over.)
 * Flash Back: The first chapter is a flashback (the tutorial battle at the beginning of the game takes place at least a year after those events, and chapter 2, taking place in the "present", takes place mere moments after Princess Ovelia is abducted); moreover, the entire story is told from a couple hundred years after the fact.
 * Five-Bad Band
 * The Lucavi:
 * The Big Bad: Ultima
 * The Dragon: Hashmal
 * The Evil Genius: Zalera
 * The Brute: Belias/Velius & Adrammelech
 * The Dark Chick: Cúchulainn/Queklain, even though both their forms are fat, bald men.
 * The Sixth Ranger: Zodiark, found at the Bonus Dungeon
 * The Knights Templar:
 * The Big Bad - Folmarv/Vormav
 * The Dragon - Loffrey/Rofel
 * The Brute - Cletienne/Kletian
 * The Evil Genius - Barich/Balk
 * The Dark Chick - Isilud/Izlude
 * The Sixth Ranger - Wiegraf
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero - Ramza
 * The Lancer - Agrias
 * The Smart Guy - Mustadio
 * The Big Guy - Cid
 * The Chick - Alma & Rapha
 * The Sixth Ranger - Meliadoul & Marach
 * Team Pet - Boco
 * For Great Justice: The quote occasionally used before using the Monk's Repeating Fist technique:
 * Team Pet - Boco
 * For Great Justice: The quote occasionally used before using the Monk's Repeating Fist technique:

"Ramza: And you? Do you not use to fulfill your own ambitions?
 * Four Is Death: In addition to the fourth chapter being the final one, one cannot help but think this goes a long way to explaining the Dorter slums.
 * Free Rotating Camera
 * Friendly Fireproof: Averted: most spells are area-effect, meaning they will affect anyone standing within their influence, and shame on you if you accidentally kill an NPC in an Escort Mission by flinging spells on top of them. Played straight by summons and samurai class' releases, whose Damage Discrimination prevents them from hitting the "wrong" targets.
 * One very convenient side effect of this is that it allows you to level up more easily: neutralize the final remaining enemy on the field without killing it, then simply have your party hit and heal each other to gain experience and job points.
 * Gambit Pileup: And HOW!
 * Game Face: Many of the demons drop the Masquerade and attack you in their inhuman forms.
 * Gameplay and Story Integration: Delita will actually go right for Algus/Argath at the end of Chapter 1. Reason being? The latter just.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: No matter how over-leveled you are, cutscenes will still play out exactly as scripted, and no amount of Phoenix Downs will save  or.
 * Averted with Orlandeau, who is described in the backstory as jaw-droppingly powerful and skilled enough to defeat entire armies... and, well, when you get him on your side, he is.
 * Alma notes she wishs she was a man when Ramza tells her to hide before going into a fight. 1: At this point Ramza has at least four One-Man Army units with him that he could leave to protect her rather than holding the Idiot Ball so blatantly 2: The player's army and indeed, a decent number of the generic enemies are always, can be female.
 * The reason that, is because.
 * Geo Effects: How the Geomancers' abilities work. Ice spells also work better in snow-based fields, Lightning spells are more effective in the rain, and fire spells may be better in volcanoes and deserts.
 * Glass Cannon: Ninjas, Calculators, Black Mages and Summoners, at least in their default configuration. The game's flexibility is such that you can modify just about any class to strengthen its shortcomings.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Plays out entirely through the games "Chronicle" and "Rumour" sections: Queen Louveria poisons King Ondoria and instigates a hostile takeover of Ivalice, then starts exiling and/or executing people who piss her off (including the Queen Mother). She's eventually overthrown and tossed in the dungeon at Fort Besselat, and Duke Larg's attempt to storm the fortress and rescue her ignites the War of the Lions.
 * Gotta Catch Them All: The Corrupt Church is trying to collect the Holy Stones, but they keep falling into Ramza's hands.
 * Good Costume Switch: Any generic that gets invited into Ramza's party by a mediator will swap from red clothes to blue clothes.
 * Good Old Fisticuffs: The Monk class; other classes can also fight barehanded at Monk levels with a support ability.
 * Grand Theft Me: Bloody Angel Altima attempts to pull one on.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: The two main armies are called Hokuten and Nanten. Fixed in the PSP version.
 * The Greatest Story Never Told: The Framing Device is that the game's events were covered up and unknown until someone found a recording of these events centuries later.
 * Guide Dang It: Good luck trying to find some of the optional characters and subquests without a walkthrough.
 * And some of the rarer items. And if you're especially unfortunate or frustrated, some of the character job classes--though at least the game provides the prerequisites for a job class once you've unlocked it on at least one character.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Reis, a half-dragon.
 * Healing Shiv: The Cure Staff, Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Dragons of the same element as your weapon get healed instead of taking damage, and you can equip shields or armor that grant you similar benefits.
 * Heel Face Turn:  changes sides when she realizes that 1) your party didn't  ; and 2).
 * also comes around when he realizes that Ramza was right all along.
 * You can also recruit enemies with the Mediator's "Invite" ability or temporarily woo enemies to your side via the Thief's "Steal Heart" ability.
 * Hero Antagonist: Wiegraf is a rare example of one turned evil. Meliadoul is a type 2. Also Izlude.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Wiegraf, who hates the Church at first, and then you kill his sister. Then he's helping the Church so that he'll have the power necessary to kill you.
 * Hot as Hell:
 * An Ice Gun: The Glacier Gun, incorrectly called Blaze Gun in the PSX version due to a bug.
 * Idiot Hair: Ramza, who never quite loses that cowlick even by the end of the game, though it's most obvious before his Expository Hairstyle Change.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Rapha and Malak, who has area of effect spells that randomly hit up to six times, though you can improve the odds of striking an enemy by careful placement. Reis (as a human) also has something similar, except it fires only up to four times over an area of 13 tiles max, which means that it'll be a miracle if it actually hits ANYTHING at all. The Tiamat monster class also has abilities that work this way, which are much better because it's much easier to limit the area of effect of those spells.
 * Impoverished Patrician: Algus/Argath comes from a noble family with its reputation and holdings in ruin after his grandfather was accused of treason during the last war. He says he's not well treated by the other noble children, as his family's honor is in tatters. A short time later, his deeply bigoted attitude toward commoners rears its head and we no longer care.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Characters can use Instruments, Dictionaries, Handbags, and Bolts of Cloth to attack (and the Ninja class can use the Throw command for any equippable weapon).
 * Inconsistent Dub: White Mage and Black Mage are known as "Priest" and "Wizard" in the PS 1 version, but are called White Mage and Black Mage in attract mode. More famously, Altima/Ultima both getting used in the same scene.
 * In the Hood: The White Mage class (though the males don't wear theirs), Orlandu, Meliadoul, Rafa,, Zalmo (but he doesn't wear his, either), Cardinal Draclau, and Rofel.
 * In-Universe Game Clock: See Take Your Time below.
 * Irony:
 * Irony:
 * I cannot say. I am sure only of this."

"Agrias: What is to be done with Lady Ovelia? Gaffgarion: I will return her to Gallione, as per my contract. What Duke Larg does with her after that is not my concern. Agrias: and the duke would use her as a pawn in their game of thrones! Just as the two of them now use you! Is a man like you not ashamed to be no more than a pawn in their game? Have you no pride--no honor? Gaffgarion: Such flights of fancy are long since flown from me, my lady."
 * Guess what happens
 * Jerkass: Algus/Argath. SERIOUSLY. He is so reviled that . Also usually named are Dycedarg, Delita, and Gaffgarion. Barrington is possibly even worse, but most don't bother to remember him.
 * Job System: One of the reasons the game has so much depth is that it gives you 20 classes and the ability to mix-and-match skills from them. Every class has at least one useful skill, even mage classes when paired with high MA.
 * Joke Item: The Nagrarock sword.
 * Lethal Joke Item: While not strong in raw power, the Nagrarock's ability to turn enemies into frogs, which take more damage, barely deal any themselves, and can only attack, is very powerful.
 * Can't forget the "Stone Gun", which petrifies the character wielding it at the beginning of a battle. Though they can be cured, starting a battle with five characters wielding it is an auto-game-over.
 * Justice Will Prevail: A very surprising example. In a world that leans very, very heavily on the side of cynicism, Ramza's character seems positively suicidal. After getting over his initial naivety he trades his foolishly good nature for... knowingly suicidal good nature. Any enemy who gets within spitting distance, and even some of his allies, feels the need to point out the world doesn't work like that and that his course of action will just get him ignobly and uselessly killed. While  is left up to interpretation, by the end of the game,.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: A number of characters, particularly Wiegraf, share this trait. And when you fight Gaffgarion in the Golgonda Gallows with Agrias on your team:

"I'm Meliadoul! I'm coming here to avenge my brother!"
 * Lady of War: Several, not counting the player's ability to make female Generics into this: Agrias Oaks, Holy Knight and commander of the Lionsguard (personal bodyguards of the Royal Family.) Meliadoul Tengille, Divine Knight and daughter of.
 * Lazy Backup: If all five members of your party are down (via K.O. or being Taken for Granite), it's Game Over regardless of how many other people you didn't take with you into battle.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Partially. Being good doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a good ending, but if you're evil, some way or another, you will pay. Holy shit, you will pay.
 * Level Grinding: Taken to absolutely obscene extremes with the Deep Dungeon's Degenerator floor panels, which take you DOWN a level. The goal is to "make a profit" with your levels, so you would level up as normal in a job which has superior stat growth and then change jobs to something inferior to step on the Degenerator. Only for the hardest hardcore, because characters are already pretty powerful, especially unique units.
 * Level Scaling: The game bases non-story battles on your party's levels, which can be a problem, because while monsters gain almost all of their stats from leveling up, humans, especially melee fighters, gain most of their stats from equipment.
 * Limited Move Arsenal: Of the first type.
 * Literary Agent Hypothesis: The story is presented as, written by Olan.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Lonely at the Top:
 * Lost Forever: Characters who stay dead too long turn into crystals. Also, if your allies Brave levels are too low or Faith is too high, they'll leave the party.
 * If Mustadio isn't in your party in the last chapter, say goodbye to all of those optional party members
 * Even with Mustadio around, Cloud can be missed if you accidentally pick the wrong conversation option (say, if you're hammering through the dialogue in a hurry), and he takes Worker 8 with him.
 * That awesome custom equipment the enemy is carrying? If you can't steal them from them before the battle ends, kiss them goodbye.
 * Low Fantasy: It's rare for a Final Fantasy game to be not be High Fantasy, but there, it's your job to find out which character is the true Big Bad.
 * Luck-Based Mission: The Roof Of Riovanes Castle battle, where if the dice land wrong, you can get a "game over" before you even get a turn. High speed characters can help.
 * You can also use "luck" to your advantage by using a low health character as a decoy.
 * Any mission that ends if a particular character (Algus, Rafa) dies. Said character can start in the middle of a pack of enemies and you just have to pray the CPU is smart enough to have the character run from danger before they're killed.
 * Magic Dance: The aptly-named "Dance" ability owned by the aptly-named Dancer class. Ironically, the Dancer class is a physical class, not a magical one.
 * Magic Knight: Half the hero characters, and you can even make your own generic ones.
 * Magic Music: The Bards' "Sing" ability.
 * Magikarp Power: The Calculator/Arithmetician class can be deadly if trained properly, as can a Dancer/Ninja combination.
 * Dancers go straight into Game Breaker territory when paired with Mimes, who will automatically mimic all ally actions: they have an all-enemy HP-damaging ability that usually goes off twice before anyone else can have a turn, and every battle starts with the enemy on the other side of the field.
 * To elaborate, Calculators are very slow and weak, but their ability lets them cast spells from other casting classes for free, with no charge time, under certain parameters. After purchasing all of these, as well as all of the usable spells, they are very good characters, but this is very time consuming. The ninja class has a reaction ability that turns them invisible, making the computer unable to see where they are (or at least, preventing the computer from actively targeting them), but this status is broken by any action. Once a dancer starts a dance command, they will continue to perform it until another order is given. In combination, dancer starts a dance, gets hit, triggering the invisibility, which then remains as the dancer only waits each turn even though the dance continues, doing such things as damaging every enemy on the field.
 * Meaningful Echo: When Delita first appears in chapter 2, he identifies himself as "Human, just like you", a nod to Miluda's earlier line "We're not animals! We're human, just like you! There's no difference among us other than our families!".
 * Memento MacGuffin: The grass whistle/reed flute, which binds Ramza and Delita to their younger, happier days (and to each other,) and which Ramza . Eventually, in the PSP version.
 * My Name Is Inigo Montoya:

"Grand Duke Barrington: *chuckle* You cannot [kill me]. Do you know why? The flesh remembers, Rapha. It remembers fear, cold and trembling. But it will not always be so. In time, your fear will blossom into another flower - and I shall have that one as well."
 * Narrator All Along: A variation. We know the narrator's identity from the beginning, but his relation to the cast is only revealed at the end.
 * Nemean Skinning: You can instantly skin a monster upon killing them with the right support ability equipped.
 * Nice Hat: Just about all of the caster classes: The Black Mages get the classical Robe and Wizard Hat, the Time Mages a pointy pope-esque hat, the Mediators' look like a pillow (complete with tassles), and the Summoners' headbands are positively Freudian. Lancers also get pretty nice helmets.
 * Bonus points to the Male Ninja, who wears a turtle-shell-esque hat.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ramza is conned quite a few times into making things worse for himself. Example:
 * No Arc in Archery: Averted. See The Dev Team Thinks of Everything above.
 * No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: One of the major themes in this game as Ramza learns the hard way. He eventually gets vindicated centuries after his death.
 * Non-Lethal KO: Your guest party members can never die and will just remain knocked out unless the battle conditions state otherwise.
 * Non-Linear Sequel: Vagrant Story and, later, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: It is technically possible to fail the first battle It is very difficult and requires a lot of luck to pull off (as the odds are overwhelmingly against you), but the designers of the game did not plan for this. It causes a game lock up that cannot be recovered. You can also simply lose the first battle to a lucky string of bad rolls and since none of the characters except yours are controllable, the AI can shaft you (very rarely, but its technically possible).
 * The Noseless: A facet of Akihiko Yoshida's Ivalice characters is that they lack visible noses. This carries over into the CG sequences in The War of the Lions which were done in Yoshida's style. Also of note, the character portraits in Final Fantasy XII (also done by Yoshida) also lack noses.
 * The Not Love Interest: Alma. Really if you weren't told that she and Ramza were brother and sister, you'd never know.
 * Not the Intended Use: Using Throw Stone and similar abilities to gain job points.
 * Offstage Villainy: Queen Louveria's rise and fall can be completely missed if you're not paying attention to the Brave Story.
 * One-Winged Angel: All of the Lucavi are this to their human hosts.
 * Onmyodo: A possible job class (called the Oracle in the original English version and Mystic in the remake).
 * The Ophelia
 * Optional Party Member: You can refuse to let any story member join your party; furthermore, you gain  via optional sidequests..
 * You can also kick out any member of the party (except Ramza and Guest Star Party Members) at any point and for any reason.
 * Overrated and Underleveled: Most of the unique characters that join after Chapter 3 end up being this, especially if you engaged in a buttload of Level Grinding, except for good old T.G. Cid.
 * Petal Power: One of Cloud's limit breaks; some of the Geomancer's abilities also have petal/leaf-like visual effects.
 * Pillar of Light: Holy Explosion.
 * Punch Clock Villain: - he expresses mild distaste for what his employers are doing, but he doesn't care about anything except his contract.
 * Purple Prose: The dialogue in the remake.
 * Purposefully Overpowered:
 * Orlandu, to match up to the story that seems to imply him as someone who is extremely powerful. When you get him, hes possibly the best character you can have assuming your playing in normal pace and comes with ridiculously powerful equips that can last you to the end of the game.
 * Some Guest Star Party Member is an interesting example. While all of them dont have particularly high stats that makes them completely broken in combat, they have some of the most overpowered ability in the game. Amongst them, Alma and Ovelia has a Status Buff spell that puts Protect, Shell, Haste, Regen, AND Reraise on another character, with casting speed as fast as the the first tier of Fire. Orran has a global skill on every enemy that inflicts Stop, Disable, and Immobilize instantly. Safe to say that had any one of them(or even better all three of them) is allowed to join your team, their going to be a complete Game Breaker in one way or another
 * Rags to Royalty: Both Delita and  in different ways.
 * Rape as Backstory: Heavily implied with Rafa.
 * Made more blatant in the PSP remake.

"Delita: We have ears in many places..."
 * Razor Wind: The Kamaitachi geomancer ability.
 * The Red Mage: Pick a mage class and then another school of magic. Or just go Calculator and have them all!
 * As summoning is the sole magic class that Calculator doesn't cover, a Summoner with Calculator as a sub-class is the epitome of magic.
 * Required Party Member: You're forced to play most of Chapter One denied of one slot of your five member party limit; in two instances, one of these slots is occupied by a dead NPC who can't be revived at all ( in the final battle of Chapter One and   in the Riovanes rooftop battle, and in a third, Boco the Chocobo takes up the slot as a Guest for the enemy.
 * Retcon: Parts of the story have been edited in the PSP version to fit in better with the The Ivalice Alliance that spawned from it.
 * Revive Kills Zombie: This IS a Final Fantasy game, after all--but note that only the Phoenix Down and Life 2 spells are instant kills (regular flavored Revive only does the same damage that it would have granted as healing magic).
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: Standard gear for all of the magician classes, most obviously the Black Mage.
 * Rush Boss: Most Lucavi, especially Velius, can be killed relatively quickly, but can, on the other hand, very quickly obliterate you.
 * Scream Discretion Shot: Played straight except when
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The demons seem to be inhabiting the Zodiac Stones but, after  by one, Ramza wonders if it's just a portal to either Heaven or Hell.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: The Straight Character Challenge, which involves picking one class. You then play through the game using only the Action, Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities of a single job-class. And in a strange move, the FAQ for the challenge specifically calls anyone who whines about people who bend the rules for tough fights an arse. Better than it sounds, as it breathes completely new life into the game.
 * Not to mention Solo Straight Character Challenges, with all the constraints of the SCC with the additional difficulty of only using Ramza, Level 1 challenges, and a variety of other suggested challenges pioneered at the GameFAQs board. The depth of the job system and the AI quirks of the enemies make it possible to beat the game with almost any set of characters given adequate preparation and lots of free time.
 * Similarly, only playing required battles without grinding, or only playing with Auto-battle for an entire game are fun challenges.
 * Self-Made Man: Delita claws his way up from an orphaned stableboy to the King of Ivalice
 * Shoot the Dog: Moments after  realizes that , he is.
 * Shoot the Hostage: After Algus/Argath's defection to Zalbag's knights, he  at Zeakden Fortress. This was set up earlier in the chapter, as Algus is of noble birth and has grown to hate all commoners, including Ramza's Unlucky Childhood Friend, Delita.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
 * Shout-Out:
 * The treasures and lands you unlock in the bar are mostly callbacks to previous Final Fantasy titles. There's also a Shout-Out to Breath of Fire with the Zenny Sword, described as 'a sword made of foreign coins'.
 * Extremely subtle, and maybe not even intentional, but one secret battle in the Yuguo Woods pits you against Seven Samurai.
 * As mentioned in a quote in an early example, the updated script of The War of the Lions contains a shout out to A Game of Thrones.
 * In the remake, when Ramza lands the killing blow on  the latter's last words are "I feel... cold."
 * The Vampire Cape/Dracula Mantle, which has a black outside and a crimson red inside, seems to be modelled after Alucard's cape from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
 * Cloud can wear ribbons, as mentioned above, and a new bonus boss, the Dark Dragon, has a specific line of dialogue after his defeat--"ungaah!"
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Most of the boss battles will consist of the enemy taunting you every few turns until you defeat them. If you let the dialogue keep running, though, sooner or later Ramza gets subjected to Shut Up, Kirk because his enemies find his idealism so irritating.
 * Sixth Column: Done twice!
 * Smug Snake: Dycedarg, who's not aware that he himself is an Unwitting Pawn while he attempts to manipulate events in his favor (including ) and not smart enough to.
 * So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: When Face Heel Turns in Chapter Two, he fights you with whatever equipment you bought for him. Snatching his sword will prevent him from using his sword-based techniques against you, making the fight much easier.
 * You can also change his character's class just prior to the battle. This can result in some hilarious situations such as fighting, the naked White Mage.
 * Not to mention that he is using equipment one step better than you can buy. Taking all of his equipment saves you a lot of money and turns him from a pain in the butt to a slaughter-in-waiting.
 * In the PS 1 version, the same character also causes a reverse Wutai theft - when you beat him, you get whatever he was equipped with at the beginning of the battle. If you stole everything during the fight, it magically doubles.
 * And, as mentioned below, you can recruit new Player Mooks just to strip them of their gear and kick them out of the party naked.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Ultima/Altima, among other things. In the original, names are sometimes spelled differently in the same conversation. The remake confuses things even further, with some names correcting obvious translation errors and others seemingly changed just for the sake of changing them.
 * Rarely mentioned is that Ivalice begins with a Y.
 * Sprite Polygon Mix: Characters are sprites, the playing field 3D.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Delita. Not to love, but to protect. Does one honestly think he met with Ramza in Warjillas by chance? He said in text that he was basically stalking him, and, in an indirect way, trying to protect him as well. Afterall:

"Ramza: But...this isn't right! Gaffgarion: What of it? You are still a child...a child who does not see the world for what it is. A man does not turn his back on truth. A man accepts it, and walks the path he must."
 * Standard Status Ailments - In addition to the classic Final Fantasy ailments (Poison, Slow, Stop, Blind, Berserk, Frog, etc.), there's also Paralyze/Don't Act, Don't Move, and Chicken.
 * Stealth Mentor: Gafgarion to Ramza to some extent, particularly in the battle at the waterfall. When Ramza disagrees with the, Gaffgarion tells him to suck it up, as this is what sellswords are paid to do:

"I'm Meliadoul! I'm coming here to avenge my brother!"
 * And in the following cutscene, Ramza understands his actions will result in the Northern Sky knights hunting him down, saying "This is the path I've chosen."
 * Stone Wall: So easy that you can set up a veritable Great Wall of Characters.
 * Stripperific: In a very strange variation, Altima's penultimate form ("Nice Body") features a very thoroughly clothed torso and arms, but from the waist down, it's nothing but a thong and knee-high boots. Which is hardly surprising, as she looks exactly like Morrigan Aensland.
 * Averted with most of the Job outfits, which are usually sensible across both genders. The only outfits that show a lot of skin are the male Monk, who wears a loose vest with no shirt, and the male Geomancer and the female-only Dancer, who Bare Their Midriffs.
 * Succession Crisis: The titular War of the Lions is kicked off over this. Being a thinly veiled version of the War of the Roses, this shouldn't be a suprise.
 * Superpower Meltdown: The Lucavi explode when they die leaving behind only their (supposedly benign) Zodiac Stone.
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Seemingly played straight and then horribly subverted. After completing the battle in front of Riovanes Castle, the game benignly offers to let you save your progress. If you're playing the game for the first time, you have no idea that you're about to be immediately thrust into Ramza's duel with Wiegraf, and once you save you can't go back. If Ramza's level/skill/equipment set isn't up to snuff, and you don't have another save to fall back on, you are screwed.
 * Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Some monsters take more damage against varying elemental spells, and Zodiac compatibilities follow a fairly complicated chart of affinities and weaknesses. (At least the game is nice enough to show you how much potential damage you can do at what success rate before you commit to doing anything - if you could actively tag the target with whatever you're doing, that is.)
 * Take That Us: The mediator ability "Mimic Daravon" puts targets to sleep. Daravon is the name of the instructor in the tutorials.
 * Take Your Time: Despite an In-Universe Game Clock that advances one day for each location you pass through, and has an effect on your characters depending on what Zodiac sign they are, your characters can literally spend years before finishing the game. (Additionally, regardless of how long it takes to finish a battle, the game always considers you to have spent a full day in that location.)
 * Not to mention that the game explicitly jumps one full year between all of the chapters but the last. At the start of Chapter 1, Ramza's 16. By the time Chapter 3 rolls around, Ramza's 18... If not older, thanks to the aforementioned one day per location. This can lead to very strange ages in the game's encyclopedia section if a person plays enough: My perfect file lists Ramza as being a healthy young man of 43 years.
 * Taking the Bullet:
 * Talking the Monster to Death: The Mediator job class has "Death Sentence", an ability that can cause the enemy to die in three turns if successful; it also has the ability "Mimic Daravon", which causes the "Sleep" status ailment if successful.
 * Technicolor Death
 * Those Two Girls: Alicia and Lavian, Agrias's two female knight followers. They're rather popular among the fandom despite being generics.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: All weapons can be used as projectiles via the Ninja's "Throw" command.
 * Throw the Book At Them: Books (equipped as a Brown Note type weapon in a few classes) can be thrown via the Ninja class.
 * Time Skip: One year passes between Chapters 1 and 2, and three months pass between Chapters 2 and 3. Averted for the final chapter, which occurs immediately after Chapter 3.
 * Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Characters whose permanent Faith levels are above 95 will leave the party to go Walking the Earth either as The Atoner or just to ponder the mysteries of the universe.
 * Transformation Sequence: The Lucavi follow the Monstrous Transformation type to fully bond with their hosts. You see usually the same one every time you fight them
 * Transformation Trinket: The Zodiac Stones. Luckily you only fight six demons instead of all 12.
 * Transhuman Treachery: The Lucavi appear to merge with their hosts into an unholy Lich King-like amalgamation of man and demon. While the original personality of the host remains intact, they immediately cast off their humanity.
 * Tutorial Failure: As a result of its horrible translation, the tutorial fails to teach anything.
 * The Unfought: Gustav appears to be built as a Disc One Final Boss.
 * Unwinnable: Go into the duel with Wiegraf without the proper equipment and abilities, and you'll wish you had a back-up save.
 * Unwitting Pawn: The Corrupt Church plays the politicians, Delita plays everybody, and Ramza is played by everybody.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Several times, even to enemies who are sympathetic like Miluda.
 * Characters will die permanently after three rounds of KO status; people have been known to restart a battle just to avoid losing one of their generics.
 * For many, this was just because dead units take their experience with them; losing a party member meant either a) turning to a much weaker party member you haven't played with for a while and is thus less useful, or b) recruiting and training a new member from level 1. It simply wasn't worth it.
 * There was also c) mentioned below, wherein you deliberately train units to be killed and have their skills absorbed by a level 1 character. Also, thanks to the idea that generics can represent several players seated on a couch and shouting instructions at each other while waiting for the controller to be passed around when their turn is up, this would be equivalent to a tabletop RPG session suffering the loss of a player until a new one is rolled. Said multiplayer method allows for each person to control a generic each and play like an online game.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Using Rock Throw on your own allies in the early parts of the game to gain JP; you can also go for total enemy kill in the "Kill X" missions, which makes for a bit of Gameplay and Story Segregation in the first battle against Miluda when Ramza will say: "Surrender and we'll spare you" even if you've wiped out her entire party. You can also kill your own monsters (with a certain supporting ability equipped) to sell their pelts or absorb your own allies' soul crystals to pick up the abilities they learned, or Invite enemy characters just to strip them of their equipment and kick them out of the party immediately afterward. Furthermore, you can Level Grind your party to ridiculous amounts, making any story-based battle massively one-sided.
 * Weaksauce Weakness -
 * Every boss is weak to that spell however, due to its damage being equal to 1/4 of an enemies life, while still having a success rate averaging 60%-70%. Technically  is resistant to the spell, as max damage is 999 and thus is taking only about 1/6th of its life per casting.
 * The bosses are also just as susceptible to the stat break skills as anything else. Bring in a team of knights and you can reduce pretty much any boss to a pile of hit points that almost never gets a turn and does absolutely pathetic damage with its attacks.
 * Weapons Grade Vocabulary: Mediators usually talk the monster to death or manipulate their stats with speech skills, but they can also equip dictionaries which they read from; reading from them (somehow) hurts enemies.
 * The in-game animation shows them simply opening the book to inflict pain, so it could be a case of literally weapons-grade words.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You: The game ends if Ramza dies and turns into a crystal. The trope fits very well with the rooftop mission with the assassins as mentioned before; if one of your guest party members die in that battle, Game Over. A few other battles also end the game prematurely if a key character is killed.
 * Western Zodiac: The holy stones are all named after the constellations, and a Bonus Boss is the "thirteenth", Serpentarius. Each Zodiac has a specific set of affinities and weaknesses as well.
 * Wham! Episode: So, so many. In Chapter 2 alone, each third battle or so sends the plot moving in a completely different direction.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Ramza starting out, then Delita
 * Characters of sufficiently high Faith will also complain at the end of every battle about the necessity of slaughtering everyone and everything you come across.
 * What You Are in the Dark: Ramza again. He doesn't care that he's sacrificing himself for nothing and that history will remember him as a villain (until the Brave Story is revealed). He'll know, and the world will be saved.
 * White Mage: As a job class.
 * Whoring: Any character can be pimped out with the right set of abilities and equipment to make them more or less untouchable.
 * For instance, Blade Grasp can give a player a 97% BASE chance to block an attack. Arithmetic, the job ability of the Calculator allows them to cast all spells (Except summon spells, and few other extremely powerful, basically overkill, spells) instantly, for no MP, and at enemies (And allies) all over the board. A particularly fun trick is to cast Holy at every person on the stage, enemy and ally alike. While your whole party wears equipment that absorbs holy damage.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:  might've become this later on, especially when  . Also, this is essentially what Millieuda is trying to be. Ramza and Delita respond to this and beg her for a truce, desperately trying to invoke the "Not So Different" trope. She refuses, and is slain at your hands.
 * Written by the Winners - History turned Delita into the hero and Ramza a murderous heretic;..
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Regardless of who won the War of the Lions, the Church would come out on top. . The same applies for the Lucavi.
 * You Are Too Late: Ramza Beoulve is the patron saint of this trope.
 * Perhaps they anticipated the Level Grinding?
 * You Bastard: The entire point of Chapter 1 is getting you to hate the system Ivalice runs on and question why you (Ramza) are even a part of it, in order to prepare you for when it starts to put the screws to you.
 * You Killed My Father:


 * Youngest Child Wins: Ramza is the most noble and like Balbanes of the Beoulve family despite being only half brother to Zalbag and Dycedarg; Alma, the true youngest, is the Damsel in Distress for most of the plot but still gets to shrug off a Grand Theft Me from the local Eldritch Abomination.