Another big change to Final Fantasy Tactics is the ad-hoc multiplayer, which requires two copies of the game, two PSP's within the general vicinity of each other and two bodies willing to play co-op or PvP.

The two multiplayer modes (Melee and Rendezvous) are accessed by entering a town and then the tavern. Melee is a player vs. player battle that pits squad against squad for a valuable prize, while Rendezvous is a cooperative battle that lets you team up with a friend to take on the AI for a prize.

If your characters die within either these modes, they are simply KO'D and returned to your group after the battle is completed. Poached monsters will be removed from the battlefield, but will return to the party after the battle as well. There are a number of other rules that make tackling multiplayer a safe bet like not losing any weapons, items or armor consumed or stolen during battle. Multiplayer is one of those elements of the game that is a no-brainer for the PSP.

The multiplayer is fun and adds some extra playtime as well as some extra loot to the game, but I can't help but feel that it would have been better if infrastructure play was available. While we had two copies of the game to test out the multiplayer, I can see why it could be difficult to find someone else to play even in a big city - let alone out in the wilds of America. Nevertheless, Tactics' multiplayer is a pretty sweet edition to an already excellent game.

At the end of the day I feel that Square Enix has created -- or recreated as the case may be -- one of the greatest Playstation games of all time. The difficulty is still high, the grinding it takes to survive is still an arduous task but the fun and magic of the original still remains intact. Tactical role-playing game players owe it to themselves to buy this game and play it.