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Battles take place on isometric maps made up of squares, and during the battle each of your character gets to move in turn - much like a battle in a turn-based RPG. You control a squad of characters (called a Clan in game parlance) who engage in a range of encounters with groups of enemies. What does remain intact, however, is the sheer polish and addictive game system of FFT - now distilled down into handheld form. Set in an entirely different universe, with a different gameplay system and different characters, this is barely even a spiritual sequel to the PSone title, and you certainly won't be at a disadvantage if you never played the first game. This is no simple port of the original game to the GBA, either - in fact, FFTA completely overhauls every element of the game, and only the basic formula of turn-based tactics remains intact from the original title. Of course, if you were a European gamer with only a PAL machine, you never got a chance to try this out for yourself - so for many players, probably the majority, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is going to be their first encounter with the FFT phenomenon. It was a game that was simultaneously unforgiving - dead characters stayed dead, and despite the huge party you could accumulate in the game, losing a character you had spent hours building up and playing with often prompted wailing, gnashing of teeth and a return to a previous savegame - and hugely rewarding, with the defeat of a tricky encounter through an effective strategy in FFT being one of the finest gaming experiences this medium has ever had to offer. There's no doubt that Final Fantasy Tactics was a very special game indeed, combining as it did the epic storytelling and beautifully formed world of a Final Fantasy title with complex, challenging gameplay that achieved a near-perfect balance between having immense depth and being simple and enjoyable to play, thanks to a well conceived interface and intuitive controls. And, of course, Final Fantasy Tactics, Square's fascinating turn-based strategy RPG which is still rated as one of the best games of all time by its many devotees. Admittedly, Sony, Namco, Bandai et al are seemingly conspiring to make sure that the PS2 repeats this PAL-shunning feat, but current crimes aside, it's hard not to be bitter about the small-minded foolishness that denied European gamers the likes of Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Wild Arms 2 and Parasite Eve.

If we were to compile a list of the greatest gaming injustices ever brought upon European gamers, many of the most heinous offences would date from the PSone's golden era of RPGs - a golden era which we only saw tantalising glimmers of in Europe, being denied almost all of the key releases of the genre.