Another one of these so soon? Yeah, because this game was way better than how it got treated.
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| Let's indeed go. |
Endless Fantasy Tactics is one of those games that I stumbled upon by chance when it launched on Kickstarter back in 2012-2013. And when it first came out, it hit a very specific spot in my heart and scratched an itch with a sandblaster.
It's no secret, or surprise, that the folks at On The Lamb Games sought to emulate the glory of the best Final Fantasy series to ever exist: Final Fantasy Tactics. Hell, the name alone gives that away. But the art style, gameplay and lore all felt very familiar to fans of FFT who were being left behind as Square Enix jerked off to whatever the fuck Final Fantasy was becoming back in those days (although I guess 14 is still chugging?). But that's also part of the draw. The whole point was to give us a tabletop version of FFT, and Endless delivered pretty flawlessly on that part.
The rules were pretty straight forward, with some neat touches to mix things up. Characters could select an assortment of special abilities based on their cost in crystals, with one crystal models being able to select two abilities, two crystal models getting four, and three crystal models just getting all the abilities on their cards. This was a fun way to add some variety to the game, even with a small pool of models at your disposal. Some abilities certainly seemed like auto-includes like the Dragoon's "On the Bounce" passive ability that let them make an extra move after a basic attack, but it never really felt broken or "only ever run this one build."
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| God damn bards. |
Combat was easy enough, too. The attacker rolled as many d6's as their attack or magic stat depending on the type of attack, needing 4+ to hit. The defender rolled a number of d6's equal to their defense of magic stat needing 5+ to block. Each hit that got through did one damage. It got interesting when status effects got added to the mix, and some attack abilities would let characters combine their attack and magic stats together for big attacks. Many of these abilities required the use of mana points, though, which added some resource management to the game as well.
It kept things streamlined without feeling too simple, or like it had zero depth. Setting up combos, lining up attacks that could hit multiple enemies, picking the right abilities to suit the purpose you wanted a model to fill that game all added to a fun and varied experience. Not to mention all the shenanigans that were unlocked by adding item cards to the mix.
Another thing it did well was the activation mechanic. You laid out the cards of your warband in front of you in the order you wanted them to activate, left to right. Then at the start of each new turn you could shift one card up or down the activation order, so you could change things up but still had to be careful how you set things up to start with. Add in alternating activations and you had a great system on your hands.
The models, admittedly, were a bit hit or miss. I loved most of them, really echoing that FFT homage and having quite a bit of charm to them. Some, though, were absolutely weak. Their Dwarfs were like some nightmare creature, looking like if Kirby inhaled Gimli and gained beard powers.
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| It feeds on your discomfort. |
I especially liked that a fair number of the classes had both a male and female model to add a little diversity, even if they played exactly the same. And some of the monsters, like the Deep Troll and the Behemoth, are just absolutely sick.
Yeah they aren't as "detailed" as most models from someone like GW, but this was also a small team with limited resources emulating an art style that doesn't always translate well to 3D. The fact they pulled it off with any degree of success is a win in my book.
So what happened to Endless Fantasy Tactics? It put out one expansion, the Miasma War, which added a bunch of new characters and a single player system, and a handful of smaller "DLC" packs before dying off. On The Lamb disbanded and a great game died.
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| Yes, there were slime versions of a handful of classes and it was brilliant. |
But did it deserve to? No, not at all. Obviously the dissolution of On The Lamb Games was the final nail in the coffin, but I was always bugged that this game didn't get talked about enough. New models came out, a whole second Kickstarter was done for Miasma War, new stuff was being released and it got zero coverage by the websites that proport to be gaming news. This disappointing, and fucking obnoxious, trend continues to this day with games putting out new releases or news and these outlets ignoring them in favor of "what 40K army won at this random ass tournament?" But Endless Fantasy Tactics, like so many others, got ignored and ultimately never got the exposure it needed to survive.
All is not lost, however, as there's a small glimmer of hope. While no new material is coming out for the game, it's still playable. The rules and cards are all on DriveThruRPG and Wargames Vault, and the models are available through the glory of 3D printing. Yes, it seems someone out there is still making the models for the game as STLs over at Isekai Heavy Industries.
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| Hallelujah! |
I don't know if the people being Isekai were involved in On The Lamb Games, or if they just got their hands on the greens and went to town, but it doesn't matter because it means that you can still play this amazing little game (if you or someone you know has a 3D printer, at least).
So while Endless Fantasy Tactics got the shaft from the gaming "journalists" out there, it lives on and that makes me happy. I mean, it still qualifies for this post because the game proper is out of production, but it's not beyond reach like some other dead games where scalpers demand absurd prices for the models on eBay (seriously, fuck you people).
And so we reach the end. Endless Fantasy Tactics proved to ironically be fairly short lived, but it was a damn fun game with tons of heart and charm and was made with love. If you can, grab a pdf of the rules and give it a look. Especially if you're a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics.
So let's pour one out for the pixel inspired brilliance that was Endless Fantasy Tactics.
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