Final Fantasy Tactics/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Algus/Argath comes back from the dead as Death Knight in a special battle in The War of the Lions. While he definitely deserves to be killed at least more than twice in one game, his last words are kind of haunting. He goes (back) to oblivion crying out for his mother... Of course, for many, this just gave people more ammo to use against him.
• 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.
  • Isilud Tengille. 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 Confessor Zalmour Lucianada, 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 prays to God to punish the wicked.
  • And then there's High Confessor Marcel Funerbis. For all the evil he'd done, it's nonetheless pretty upsetting to see a helpless eighty-year-old man get run through with a sword by the Big Bad and his minions.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: The Durai Reports offers one for just about everybody involved in the events surrounding Delita's rise to power: The Church is corrupt, Delita is a Magnificent Bastard who manipulated everyone to get what he wanted, Ramza is a hero who slew demons...
  • Delita may well be the most notorious example in video game history. He's either a tragic Anti-Villain who rises above prejudice and heartache only to find the world hasn't changed for the better and is forced to kill someone he cared deeply for in self-defense to boot or a vaguely repentant Manipulative Bastard whose mistreatment by the nobility leads him to equally evil actions, including the murder of his wife, who suspects he intended all along to kill her to consolidate his power - which, conveniently enough, he does. There's rarely a middle-ground between these views, either.
  • There are a few places in the game where the player can give Ramza different motivations for his actions, for example, choosing to focus on killing the bandits instead of saving Algus or Mustadio. These choices have very little impact on the rest of the plot, but whatever decision you make is commented upon.
  • Also, did Olan/Orran really see Ramza and Alma at the end of the game, or did they perish and all he saw was their ghosts? There is enough evidence to support both their death and their survival.
  • Not to mention St. Ajora Glabados - besides the conflicting sources about his history in-story, there's so much contradictory information about him that what he was actually like is impossible to determine. The character portrait hidden in the game suggests it might have been intended for there to be a flashback into his past, but since we never actually got any such thing... yeah.
• Anticlimax Boss: Altima's final form has only one spell that causes a plethora of negative statuses. However, riding a Chocobo negates everything and all she can do is try and punch you with her mediocre attack rating.
  • Amusingly enough, Altima actually had some attacks programmed in that weren't really used by her default AI. Of course, given that by then, you likely have the game smashed into huge pieces on your living room floor, even if she uses more diverse attacks in the PSP version, she'll have almost no chance to use them.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Why The Byblos helps you out during the battle against Zodiark/Elidibus, and afterwards offers to join your party, is never explained.
• Complete Monster: While most antagonists are ordinary people who are either sympathetic, flawed or simply greedy and power-hungry, the following strongly lean in this direction:
  • Hashmal is an incredibly vile piece of work. Turns out he's the one orchestrating all of the bloodshed to revive the fallen Ultima. It's implied that his host body Folmarv/Vormav was originally bad to begin with, but It Got Worse after he merged with Hashmal. Really, abusing and then murdering his son Isilud? And soon after that, bringing Zalbag back as a possessed Undead and pitting him against his brother Ramza? What a little... And while a lesser on, he also broke Ovelia's spirit by revealing that she's only a commoner brought up as a substitute for the real Princess Ovelia. There was no pragmatic cause for that last one - it was just sadistic, petty and cruel.
  • Dycedarg Beolve, and the worst part about it? He's one even before he obtains a Zodiac Stone. Few others in this game aspire to that level of bastardism.
  • Grand Duke Barrington, for his treatment of Rafa and Malak, deserves this title - especially since, as an ordinary human (unlike the Lucavi), his crimes stand out as really heinous. Hell, his desire to seize the Ivalice throne is arguably the weakest of his crimes.
• Darker and Edgier: Arguably one of the darkest in the entire series.
• Demonic Spiders: Level Grind enough and you might run into the following enemies:
  • A veritable army of Chocobos--the yellow ones heal HP damage, the purple ones heal Standard Status Ailments (and can pelt you with rocks), the red ones have Chocobo Meteor.
  • An enemy party of eleven Monks, some of whom have the ability to revive their fallen allies instantly without using MP and pick you off from afar.
  • Behemoths, who have a one-hit KO ability.
  • Tauroses, who have a buttload of HP and the ability Wave Around, which hits all four squares surrounding it.
  • Mindflayers, who can cause your units to become confused and/or berserked.
  • Dragons, whose Breath Weapon can hit from two squares away.
  • Tiamats, who can pelt you with repeated dosages of fire or lightning.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Averted by Argath/Algus. It seems that no one likes him because he's a bigoted, stuck-up Jerkass.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Wiegraf and Zalbaag are both rather popular with fans, who would've loved for either one (or even better, both) to join the player party permanently.
  • Agrias Oaks for the main party. Helped by being one of the more developed characters who joins the party.
  • Despite having no personalities or even individual portraits to speak of, Lavian and Alicia - Agrias's two knights - often get developed roles in fanfiction. It's especially telling since Rad - who is in a similar position - rarely gets this much acknowledgement, as when he does he's usually just Gafgarion's lackey who gets unceremoniously killed in the first fight against Gafgarion.
• Fan Nickname: ROFL the Templar Knight: how else do you pronounce "Rofel?"
  • Also, "Garfgarog" (or possibly "Gafgarog"), which is often paired with Memetic Molestation.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Ramza and Agrias are a very popular couple in fanfictions and doujins.
• Fridge Brilliance: It's little wonder, when you think about it, why Rapha charges right at Elmdore, Celia, and Lettie at the start of That One Battle on the roof of Riovanes Castle. She just watched her brother get shot for trying to protect her, by the man who spent much of her upbringing brainwashing and raping her, who in turn was just tossed off the roof to his death by Elmdore's assassins thereby robbing her of any chance for revenge, so she decides to end it all running head-long at the trio and it's up to you to stop her before they gladly take her up on it.
• Game Breaker: Final Fantasy Tactics might as well be called "please break this game into itty bitty pieces":
  • Orlandu, a.k.a. "Thunder God Cid". Every single Jedi Holy Knight skill in the game, the Excalibur which strengthens and absorbs Holy and gives permanent Haste status, the heaviest armor available, and the only thing you have to do to get him is play the game through as normal? Sign me up.
    • Meliadoul and Agrias are also game breakers, since Orlandu doesn't actually come with any unique abilities; he just gets Meliadoul, Agrias, and Gafgarion's techniques. They are a bit weaker than Orlandu, but they are still utterly devastating when equipped as well as Orlandu.
  • The problem doesn't lie in skillset and equipment. The problem lies in the fact that Orlandu's exclusive starting class stats is the second best in the game, higher than even the class that have Infinity+1 Sword like requirements.
    • His actual stats are high, but not quite the advantage they are made out to be. The only thing really exceptional about him is high HP (which is kind of a minor issue given that equipment still contributes a lot of your HP) and MP (which you aren't using). Meliadoul actually does have slightly better physical attack growth and the system is manipulatable so anyone could have max stats if sufficiently motivated. Even so, with the same weaponry, it usually takes just as many hits for Meliadoul and Agrias to kill enemies as Orlandu with the same skill, so the fact Orlandu technically does slightly more damage is a bit irrelevant. Meliadoul, even with the lower multipliers from Temple Knight is still almost as good as Orlandu stat wise outside HP, MP, and a slight drop in physical attack. If you change classes, Reis has the best stat growth in her unique class, Meliadoul is the second best from a purely physical standpoint, and Beowulf, Cloud, and Orlandu are about the same in both physical and magic growth. Even then, they are only slightly above the standard unique NPC growth.
    • Orlandu's advantages over Meliadoul and Agrias are his gender and his equipment choices. Males have a higher innate Physical Attack (which Sword abilities use to calculate damage) and Orlandu can equip clothes and hats while other Knight-types can't (the Twist Headband and Power Sleeve boost PA by 2 each). The other two can't compete with Orlandu since they can't come close to matching his PA, nonetheless his other stats.
      • Orlandu's stat growth is actually mediocre. His high stats are mostly from his class. If you change classes, his stats drop significantly. Males generally have better physical growth, but the special characters have unique stat growth. Meliadoul has the second best physical stat growth in the game behind Reis, while Orlandu is only mediocre among unique characters.
    • He also has a Weaksauce Weakness in that he's very susceptible to Standard Status Effects--either that or just a really popular target for them. If he can't One-Hit Kill them, they'll drop something irritating on him and turn him into The Load. Or an enemy.
  • In the PSP version, FF12 cameo Balthier, who comes with superb equipment and upgraded Thief abilities. For fun, try this: Sky Pirate Balthier with an Ultimate Javelin using Barrage with equipment optimizing PA.
    • His barrage skill is akin to attacking twice with any weapon, it's unblockable, undodgeable and if he uses it with his default gun he can easily kill any unit withing 2 rounds from across the stage. He also has all the thief skills and all of Mustadio's skills and is extremely fast and versatile.
  • The Samurai ability Blade Grasp. Grants a percentage chance equal to your brave of blocking a physical attack, including arrows and bullets, despite its description. A high brave/low faith character with this skill is practically immortal.
  • Set the Monk's Martial Arm ability to a Ninja (rather than giving Dual Wield to a Monk). The Ninja has better mobility, stat multipliers and equipment options.
  • The Calculator/Arithmetician's skill set can make a spell caster nearly unstoppable, by allowing instant, free casting of most of the game's spells (including Flare and Holy) with unlimited range. Give the skill to a job with high magic power, and you've practically got a Person of Mass Destruction. If only this job was able to be scroll-glitched, it would easily become the most exploitable class in the game.
    • There's also armor that absorbs Holy elemental spells, so you could just nuke everybody on the field, hurting the enemy and healing yourself at the same time.
  • The Remake adds Dark Knight as a job class. Give one with Darkness, Iaido, Shirahadori, Safeguard, and Move+3 as abilities, then equip with Excalibur, Aegis Shield, Crystal Helm, Mirror Mail, and Featherweave Cloak. Especially deadly in the endgame, as Brave increases are permanent in a 4:1 or so ratio, meaning give him 20 brave in one encounter and he keeps five after the fight. You could easily have a character untouchable by magic with an 8% chance of being hit from behind. The only weaknesses are summons and non-reflectable magics, which can be avoided by virtue of the shield and cloak, and characters with holy blade abilities, like Weigraf and Loffrey-the latter of which is foiled by Safeguard. Ramza? With Shout? Hoo-lee-crap. Strategically position a mime? Ow.
  • In the PSX version at least, any unit participating in battle with other unit types would gain a quarter of any JP those units gained, meaning a Level 2 Ramza could leach enough JP from others' actions to actually progress to other jobs and eventually master them all, without taking an Action. This way, random encounters' levels are still low, but Ramza still has ludicrous skill sets and the option to level up in whatever job the player wants (or spams the stat growth, as mentioned later herein with the Degenerator).
  • Give units the Dance/Sing ability with Sunken State as a reaction ability, making a barricade of invisible dancers/singers, and choosing Wait whenever a turn comes up. Also, bring a book; doing this took as much time to read a Tom Clancy novel or two.
  • Anyone with instant-cast abilities breaks the game. Around chapter two, you get Agrias who doesn't do so as much but still really helps and is likely a crucial part of the battle team. However, by chapter four, it seems the devs decided "Ah screw it" and gave you the most powerful character of all time.
  • Cloud usually gets overlooked because of the countless other Game Breakers, his low starting level, and his slow Limit skills. However, even Orlandu doesn't have Finishing Touch: as fast as a level-one White/Black spell, costs no MP, and does three things to enemies: makes them dead, makes them as-good-as-dead, and makes them soon-to-be-dead.
• Good Bad Bug: There is a way to cheat the Job Point system in the PS 1 version. Going to buy a skill, get to the point where it asks you if you want to buy this skill. Then hold down the square button and press the up or down arrow to switch placement of skills. This may cause you to buy a skill you already own or you couldn't possibly afford. After backing out you will find that this has caused the game to glitch and you either have 9999JP, 0000JP which acts as an infinite, or that it has stolen away all your JP or given you a marginal amount more. The exact effects have been mapped out on other websites. Not all jobs can be glitched in this way, but you may be happy to note that most of the more expensive and time-consuming jobs can. Have fun smiting people with Bahamut the minute you gain the Summoner class.
  • Also, the PSX version has an item duplication bug. You know that awesome Infinity-1 Sword Cid carries? Try giving one to your entire party!
• Ho Yay: Ramza and Delita have this even after they split, and especially to those wearing their Shipping Goggles.
  • If not them, then Agrias and Ovelia, since Agrias does seem to have some sort of obsession over Ovelia; but that's technically Les Yay.
• Magnificent Bastard: Delita Heiral, full stop, and, considering his motives (stopping the Lion War and basically offing every corrupt figure ever), a somewhat heroic version.
• Memetic Mutation: L...i...t...t...l...e... m...o...n...e...y.
• Moral Event Horizon: if Gerrith Barrington didn't cross the line when he razed Rapha and Malak's village he definitely crosses it when he forces himself onto a young Rapha.
  • Algus/Argath's killing of Delita's sister at Fort Ziekden - even though it rather brutally resolved the kidnapping standoff, it earned him the eternal loathing of fans who might otherwise have sympathised with him and his Freudian Excuse - few other characters have ever crossed the line like he did, even with similar personalities. In a world with people like Duke Larg, Folmarv Tengille, Ultima, Dycedarg, andDelita seeking power, it speaks to his character that Argath is the one most despised by fans.
  • Speaking of Folmarv, he might have crossed it when he murdered his son Isilud and massacred an entire castle, but if not then, he most definitely did when he raised Zalbaag as a zombie and forced him to fight his younger brother Ramza.
  • Belias the Gigas crosses the line when he possesses Wiegraf Folles and gradually turns him into a murderous fanatic.
• Player Punch: Teta/Tietra's death at the end of Chapter One.
• 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
• The Scrappy: Argath Thadalfus is easily the most reviled character in FFT, and may also be the most hated FF character period - but damn if it isn't goddamn fun to kick his pretentious little arse when you get the chance to do so.
  • Take That Scrappy: The PSP remake adds two more missions where he comes back as a Hell Knight. Then, as ten Hell Knights. You can still kick his ass. Not to mention you have the sweet, sweet knowledge that once you kill Argath in those battles, he's going straight to Hell.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Rapha and Marach's innate skill would assign them a random number of hits to random squares within the 5-square-cross targeting zone you give them. The Random Number God being the Jerkass he is, actually hitting anything wih this ability is less likely than winning the lottery.
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The game constantly throws anvil-sized sledgehammers onto you about how very wrong it is to treat people differently just because of your birthright, and that it's your actions that determine the kind of person you are. But with all the racism and classism that still goes around the Real World even to this very day, such anvils need to be dropped with all the unsubtlety that can be managed.
• Tear Jerker: So, so many. Each Wham! Episode usually comes with a Tear Jerker, if not more than one.
  • Of particular note is Rapha mourning Marach's death. The guy may have been a Jerkass up to that point, but you really feel for his sister.

Rapha: Look, Marach! A new dawn is risen. Can... can you see it? So often we sat together talking, waiting for the coming of first light. We'd talk of the journeys we wanted to make together, wouldn't we? How when the war ended, we would go back and visit our old village. You remember, Marah, don't you? Don't you? Tell me you do! Tell... tll me you'll still go!

• • This then leads to one of the few times a Zodiac Stone does something genuinely good in the game.
• That One Boss: Wiegraf Folles, in the 4-part raid of Riovanes Castle, may be the most infamous example in FFT. The first part is actually pretty standard but if you save afterwards, you cannot back out and Level Grind to toughen up Ramza. This may render your game Unwinnable. Not to mention that Wiegraf, in the second part, knows several long-range sword techniques, while the battlefield itself is a small, closed arena with difficult terrain. You must fight him alone.
  • Not to mention that after you defeat Wiegraf, you must fight Belias - who also has long-range attacks - on the same map. The good news is that the remaining party members will arrive to back you up. The bad news is that he summons two demons to even the odds. But if you do defeat him, congratulations, the worst is over. Now you simply have to pray you can protect Rafa!
• That One Level: Several:
  • The Golgorand Execution Site. You have five people, no guests. That's the Arbitrary Headcount Limit. The enemy doesn't abide by this rule...and throws eight units on you. This is considered the hardest level in the game.
  • ALL of Riovanes Castle. ALL OF IT.
  • Many of the levels involving Wiegraf, Elmdore and/or Elmdore's two BridgeBunny assassins, Celia and Lettie, who have 100%-accurate Instant Death skills, reducing any fight against them to a Luck-Based Mission. The other problem is their very rarely-used charm spells, which can temporarily turn one of your strongest fighters against you. Once finally killed, they transform into demon spawn from hell: compared to their human forms, said demons are a joke.
  • The Dorter Slums, the fourth battle in the game. Between Archers on the rooftops peppering you with arrows and Black Mages pelting you with rain-boosted Bolt spells, you can end up with a good chunk of your party incapacitated or dead before they even get near. And if your party members try to get near them, the Knight guarding them can easily dispatch them. This battle is basically the game's way of telling you it won't be pulling any punches, and that you'd better shape up if you want to survive.
  • There's also the random encounter with the eleventy billion monks on Grog Hill. The Monk class not only comes with a resurrection spell, but with a strong, long-range hits-everyone-on-a-line Earth-elemental attack. They're all wearing armor that absorbs Earth-elemental damage. There are Bonus Bosses in some games that are easier than this.
  • Any level involving Gafgarion, the old man who does nothing but stay JUST out of range and spam Night Sword, giving him all the damage he deals back as health. Your choices involve ignoring him while you take out his allies, or focus fire him down, letting his allies beat you up. Or Steal/Break his sword.
  • The Level Grind ball-kick that is Finath River. Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards, except in this case it's the Chocobos playing the part of the Wizards. Fortunately the combine the best vulnerabilities of Glass Cannon and Fragile Speedster. Unfortunately, they have the strengths as well, and there is no set team of enemies for this fight, meaning you could end up with a massive army of Chocobos waiting to kick your ass. Fortunately, you can keep resetting until you get an enemy team of the weaker Chocobos, monsters you have been slaughtering in random battles since the game began.
• Tier-Induced Scrappy: Rafa/Rapha and Malak/Malak/Marach, whose abilities were all but ineffectual in combat, and all they were good for (aside from cannon fodder) was Rafa's ability to find treasure in the Deep Dungeon. Slightly improved in the PSP version, where Rapha's Skyseer skills are much more powerful and accurate, though her brother is even worse than before.
  • With proper planning both Rafa and Malak can actually become incredibly (Read: Cid-level) deadly, Malak more than Rafa though. However, the sheer amount of strategy involved to achieve this result is often far more trouble than it's worth.
  • Cloud becomes Awesome but Impractical since by the time you get him, he's massively Overshadowed by Awesome and his abilities have a charge time. By then, you have a lot of characters who get instant-use abilities that really really break the game.
  • And Mustadio, sadly, can also suffer this in a number of circles, depending on whether a person likes the way gun-users work in this game. The introduction of Balthier into the PSP port hasn't helped matters.
  • Past a certain point, the entire magic-using half of the Class and Level System can become this as well, due to an inversion of the Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards trope. While a mage is chanting their incantation, their more sword-minded opponents can: 1) close and slaughter them before the spell fires; 2) block the spell with their shields, an item wizards themselves cannot use; 3) just shrug it off, particularly if he (or the wizard!) has a low Faith stat; and 4) move in and take them with], since units in this game are not Friendly Fireproof and a spell that can kill a fighter is practically guaranteed to kill the mage that cast it. Add in swordspell users like Agrias, who combine ranged attacks, mobility and high damage output, and wizards are basically obsolete.
• The Woobie: Rafa/Rapha, Ovelia, Teta/Tietra, Wiegraf...
  • Iron Woobie: Ramza. He knows that No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. He doesn't care.
    • Tietra has shades of this, despite her nature. In her first scene, she's telling Delita she's settled into classes well and everybody's kind to her. Then Alma discreetly tells Ramza that Tietra's been putting on a brave face to reassure her brother, and the other girls have been remorselessly teasing her.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Delita. Malak/Marach is a more definite example as despite his attitude, he has been manipulated by Barrington to quite extensive effect and still shows love and concern for his sister.
  • Stoic Woobie: Zalbaag, given the difficult decisions he's had to make in his noble position and asking Ramza to kill him, after Hashmal brought him back as a zombie.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Wiegraf might've become this later on, especially when he's defeated by Ramza and is tricked by Belias, thereby becoming a Lucavi host and having his humanity cut off from him. If you don't complete hate him for this, then surely you pity him and want to put him out of his misery by this point.
    • 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.
• Woolseyism: The PSP re-localization. See below for details.
  • The entire script of the PSP version was rewritten to get rid of the cheesy script in the original, and to fit better with the rest of the Ivalice-verse. They even added a Spoony Bard bit that didn't appear in the original:

Ramza: My brothers do not want this fight! Set down your sword, Wiegraf, and my brothers will treat with you! Wiegraf: Ha! No spoony bard could spin a sweeter tale! You say your brothers do not want this fight? Tears then, for the world you see is one beyond my weary sight. (The original (mis)translated version remains highly popular, though.)

• • Blind Idiot Translation: Defeat Dycedarg's Elder Brother!