THE FIRST TIME through Final Fantasy Tactics, when you're trying hard to keep up with the plot and before you fall in love with the gameplay, is a pretty confusing experience. The game opens with a confusing series of nested flashbacks and goes on to overwhelm you with the depths of the political machinations and the sheer number of characters involved, all with different motivations and relationships. After all, that's why the Brave Story menu exists: to help you keep track of some fifty important and unimportant people, some of whom die before the game begins, and some of whom die within three minutes of first appearing onscreen. MORE >>>

Editor's Comments

   I'm proud to present our first Featured Reader Award of the year to Uteki, who has crafted an incredibly in-depth and studied editorial. It's not every week that an editorial of this caliber gets posted, so thank you, Uteki, for a job well done. The article is a detailed account of one of the main characters from Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita's progression through the story and how his actions relate to Algus, another prominent figure in the game.

   We also have a classic editorial by Howard Kleinman from several years ago discussing the different roles characters play in and outside of battle from one RPG to another.

   Be sure to send your articles to Cortney this week.