The game's story centers on four children; Marche, Mewt, Ritz, and Doned, who live in a small town named St. Ivalice.

The children are transported to a realm of the same name as their town, "Ivalice", after discovering an ancient magical book.

The story then focuses on the exploits of Marche as he attempts to return to the real world while facing opposition from those around him.

Tactics Advance was re-released for the Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console in 2016; on January 28 in Europe, Australia, and North America and on March 30 in Japan.

[2] The player competes against the computer's team in turn-based play, although unlike Final Fantasy Tactics characters execute their actions instantly.

These tokens represent different terrains and settlements, such as plains, mountains, deserts, forests, and towns, that can be placed in slots on the world map.

Jagds are the only places in the game in which a character can die; everywhere else, they are protected from death by the Judges and are simply knocked out.

When a battle is completed, characters will receive Ability Points (AP) distributed over their currently equipped weapons or items (such as armor).

[6] Units have a primary job which determines the stat boosts they receive when they level up and the attributes associated with that class.

In the previous example, any abilities that require the possession of a great bow, will not be allowed for use if the character has a Katana equipped.

[6] Tactics Advance also introduces five playable races: Humans, the small rodentlike Moogles, the strong lizard-like Bangaa, the agile rabbit-like Viera, and the magically skilled Nu Mou.

There are other characters who antagonize Marche, including Babus Swain, a Nu Mou Royal mage in Mewt's service; Llednar Twem, a mysterious enforcer who replaces the Judges when they become independent of the Palace; and Queen Remedi, who is the ruler of Ivalice and was in the Gran Grimoire itself in a form modeled after Mewt's deceased mother.

The old book is written in a language none of them have ever seen before, and a single inscription reads: "Alta oron, Sondus kameela".

[11] The other children, and Mewt's father Cid, slowly realize through Marche's efforts that the world has been shaped according to their wishes.

He achieves this by destroying the crystals, or world threads, of Ivalice, defeating Llednar Twem (the manifestation of Mewt's negative emotions), and killing the Li-Grim, the physical manifestation of the book's wish-based magic that had been masquerading as Mewt's mother, Queen Remedi.

[14] Rumors of the game's development began when Square announced its publishing agreement with Nintendo, and was later confirmed by the producer Matsuno.

[1][15] This comes after Quest announced the handover of its software development team to Square, of which the former is famed for its Tactics Ogre series.

While built for the Game Boy Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's graphics are vibrantly colored and extensively detailed, and though environments and characters are wholly sprite-based, facial expressions are easily identifiable and many motion frames have been given to create a smooth animation.

[18] In Japan, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's story was expanded and broadcast in Japanese radio stations.

[24] The Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original Soundtrack album was released by DigiCube on February 19, 2003.

[25] A new age arrangement album entitled White: Melodies of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a selection of musical tracks from the game arranged by Yo Yamazaki, Akira Sasaki, and Satoshi Henmi, was released by SME Visual Works on February 26, 2003.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance won Handheld Game of the Year at the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2004.

[45] Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was also nominated for NAVGTR Award for Strategy Game of The Year Category, but lost to Command & Conquer: Generals for Windows 9x compatible-PC.

[3] The gameplay is also lauded for retaining the elements of Tactics Ogre yet offers freedom to players to develop characters as they wish.

[37] Criticism was directed at the game's menu, which was cluttered with complicated options in organizing the clan members, and did not detail out statistics for characters and equipment.