The long-awaited iOS version of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions has finally been released onto the iPhone with an iPad version still in the works.

The first contentious aspect of this iPhone-only release of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions will be its price. At £10.99/$15.99 it’s the most expensive game you could buy on the App Store. While that higher price point will be jarring to everyone used to crapping out a pound for a game, it’s worth noting that War of the Lions has around 30-40 hours of play tucked away in its retro visuals.

It’s also a port of the PSP version which was a remastered experience from the original PlayStation version from 1998. This means that this iOS port should be close to perfect as you could get, right? Well, not really.

While the core experience of Final Fantasy Tactics is the same incredible game released back in 98, it technically doesn’t quite match up.

Controls appear pretty solid at first with no virtual D-pad or analog sticks to ruin the interface like so many remastered classics. What we have is a full touchscreen interface where orders are easy to carry out with a single tap and the manipulation of the camera can be executed with a quick swipe. This aspect of the iOS version is far superior to the originals reliance on a D-pad which always felt clumsy to me.

This is where the intuitive nature of the iPhone ends however and War of the Lions is beset with technical difficulties and clumsy port work.

The menu system, for instance, requires far too many clicks and confirmation to make dialing down into the options worthwhile. Why not use a simple double-tap on an option to confirm rather than popup constant whiny confirmation boxes? It’s like the game is always seeking approval to do something after you’ve already told it what you want.

Likewise, the lack of an option to return to the main menu is missing. Maybe it’s just my own insecurities but quitting out of an epic tactical game by just pressing the home button feels wrong. It also makes restoring a game after a death difficult and unintuitive.

Frame-rate is also an issue – every time you order an attack (and let’s face it you’ll be doing that a lot) the game hiccups, jerking animations off like a horny teenager. For this to happen on an iPhone 4 is pretty unacceptable and I’ve no idea how bad it must be on older hardware. This constant hitching is enough to ruin the experience of the whole game when you

Problems aside, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is still the great game it’s always been with tremendous tactical depth and a gripping story. There’s nothing like it on the App Store that comes close to its epic quality in terms of a core experience, it may not have retina-level graphics but it still looks good on the iPhone 4. However, the technical problems are inexcusable, littering one of the best tactical RPGs in history with unnecessary and irritating problems.

IF you have a PS3 or PSP then the choice should already be clear – grab the superior PSP version on PSN for a few quid less. Hell, go and treat yourself and get the superior Tactics Ogre instead. Otherwise you should wait for Square Enix to update this port or until they release the iPad version.

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