Final Fantasy Hacktics

Souls of Destiny is one of the few story mods we have available currently, but is more than just that. This AU take on the Zodiac Brave Story makes you take on the mantle of Connor and his family, that is somehow tied to the Zodiac Stones. Some of the machinations of the church still remains, as well as the starting sparks of The Lion War, but as you progress through the story, many paths branch, and heroes became villains and villains became allies and you by the end of your journey you may face the challenging choice of embracing your destiny or fighting against it to uphold what you believe.

But SoD offers you more than a rich and interesting story: you will have access to a new cast of heroes with new skills and unique jobs, new sprites and new animations, a new itemization and access to abilities you would never thought you could access in a FFT mod, and unique feature to this mod, new soundtrack with songs from several different titles of the FF franchise and more (like Chrono Trigger!) that plays very well in-game.

There is a small detail that did felt a bit off especially in the early chapters, and that was the fanservice. You may recognize enemies and monsters from other settings like Marvel comics, and while their stories are written to made fit the narrative written on the mod, it still feels a bit too much sometimes. It may turn some players off, but it is definitely worth it by the end of it. 

It is also quite noticeable the improvement on script and main narrative as the chapters move forward, with Chapter 1 feeling the weakest of them all, and Chapter 4 reaching to the highest peaks and exploring more how the already existing characters of the original game are in this AU. 

The gameplay is pretty great, but most jobs remains similar to vanilla, which helps the players already well familiarize with FFT, but felt it could been improved by adding new jobs on top of the unique jobs of the main cast.

Personally, I didn't liked some fights against enemies with huge pools of HP, because I feel FFT shines best when the combat is fast paced and straight to the point.

Game difficulty is pretty close to vanilla, especially since you get access to very powerful uniques and their skillsets.

There are a couple of branching points (and even alternative endings!) which may incentivize the player to replay it at least once more, so overall replayability is slightly better than vanilla tactics.

There are also unique sidequests,unlocked by exploring Rumors on taverns and moving to certain places, and some are really cool and offer new unique recruits you may add to your team.

Overall, I found it very fun and satisfying mod to play, and can't wait to see the many improvements the author may bring in the following updates. Definitely recommend this for those who want to play more FFT but want a new experience in narrative, instead of just playing another balance patch. And for those who try, I especially recommend trying at least until Chapter 3 since the story gets significantly better and will be worth your time.

I'm not someone who is in fanmade stories, and I always avoided JoT5 thinking it was a well developed mod but still akin to fanfic. Boy how I was wrong. The team behind this mod not only have amazing writing skills, they understand well the characters  that the dialogue feels natural and it really sounds like a sequel to the original release. The other members of the five are all written very close to their original characters. The new  characters made specific to the mod are also very well done, and I can't wait to see how their story will shape up in the next chapters.

Gameplay wise, this mod is incredible. The new skills and mechanics are fantastic, even small details like Regen and Poison affecting MP was an incredible idea that I miss everytime I play other mods. The unique jobs from the Five are all amazing and it is pretty interesting on how none of them are completely broken, mostly requiring some other secondaries to complement their kit. The new basic jobs are incredible and their skills are so awesome that makes you wish they were available to be played in vanilla as well.

While I feel that the mod is balanced internally, it is a very difficult mod, especially if you come straight from vanilla or vanilla like mods. It is quite possible to fall in player traps and lock yourself in bad builds, characters focused only in their main jobs with access to very few other resources or spread too deep in too many jobs without any useful skills and equipment. That can prove to be a very frustrating situation especially for new players which may force some to drop the mod.

The mod is not outside of its flaws imo, so you may face annoying RNG, and random battles that will feel pratically impossible to beat (fuck those turtles). Your first grind spot available can be so difficult at first that may take many by surprise. As it is, the mod difficulty starts high and it actually gets a bit higher by the end of it, with a real boss fight, much different than anything you faced in vanilla, which may take some luck and a lot of tries.

But for those who push through you will be presented with one of the best experiences you can have with a mod from this community.

Even though it has been almost 9 years since the release of its first chapter, it still is one of the best mods this community ever produced and I fully recommend it to any one interested into the game. Even if you are not into crossovers, give it a chance, and you will eventually fall in love with this cast.