Just like the original, the main role is devoted to Ramza, a young Knight in training that is out to prove himself to both his dead father and siblings, and the rivalry he holds with one time friend Delita. There's a lot of conflict explored within the game, a lot of it revolving around social classes, and the storyline gets pretty deep without being entirely convoluted. The reworked translation helps to explain things immensely, and that alone is worth checking out for players who have already finished the original release many times.

If you've never played the original Final Fantasy Tactics that released back on the PS1, you're in for a treat. The game is a standard SRPG on the surface, with the ability to control a certain number of units on a small playing field set up as a grid, with each block being occupied by a character or monster. Each character has a limited amount of moves they can make in one turn, and can usually perform one function outside of movement, such as magic, basic attacks, special attacks, or the use of items. You're not restricted to a certain amount of turns in each battle, and you continue to fight until you've either wiped out all opposing forces or taken down a specific target.

The real depth in War of the Lions comes from the job system, which is a carryover from previous Final Fantasy games. You'll start off with some pretty standard stuff, such as Squire, Knight, White Mage, Black Mage, etc., but it quickly spirals into some really random classes that you most likely won't be familiar with, such as Calculator. Part of the fun is in unlocking the new job classes and figuring out exactly what the hell they do, but for newcomers it can be a bit frustrating to not feel quite on board with everything the game has to offer. There's a large tutorial guide in game that does its best to explain everything you'll encounter, but reading huge chunks of text might not be for everyone.

The translation from the PS1 to the PSP has been a pretty smooth one, with the sprites carrying over their same animations and style. I've heard some complaints about the sprites looking a bit squashed on the PSP screen, similar to how the Valkyrie Profile port looked, but if they were it didn't bother me enough to notice. There is a bit of slowdown that occurs, usually when a fight begins or ends, but even that is barely noticeable.

The musical score is fantastic, and while the sound doesn't quite come thru as strongly on the PSP's speakers, it fares well enough. Plug in a set of decent headphones for a slightly better experience, or if you're an owner of the newer slim PSP's, feel free to hook this up via component to a TV for a really nice experience. The additional voice work done on the new cut scenes is incredibly well done, and I'd go so far as to say it exceeds the work done on Final Fantasy 12.

The difficulty of Tactics seems to be the same as the original PS1 version. For those of you who hate grinding you might encounter some serious issues with the game early on, as just jumping from story battle to story battle can quickly become problematic without some leveling in between. Keep in mind that when you lose a character in battle that you'll lose them for good, outside of the AI teammates you occasionally gain. Later on in the game this can become a big problem, and you're usually better off resetting your game and trying again than you are investing the time into leveling up a replacement.

This version also makes use of the PSP for an Ad Hoc VS and Co-Op mode, which you can access by visiting locations on the map in game. Co-Op features specific missions, and you can net a variety of items by completing them. Also, the game features a couple of new playable characters that can be easily unlocked.

Overall, the port from PS1 to PSP has been handled exceptionally well. The redone translation adds a new layer of detail to an already deep experience, and it's definitely enough to bring the old school players back into the fold one last time. If you've never played Tactics before, than this is definitely the version to check out.