Oh my god, I can't believe this thread actually exists.

First of all, FFT is often touted as the one game that everyone will like. Even people who despise Final Fantasy seem to love FFT.

Second, as BG said, giving it an hour is not giving it a fair chance. If it's your first time through the game, an hour is probably only one or two battles, and pushing Circle really fast through all the dialogue. You'd like the game more if you played it.

Third, I love Vandal Hearts, but mostly because of its similarities to FFT.

First, you can only have five people per battle. WTHUX is up with that?
One thing I hated about VH was making sure that all 10 of my guys had gone. I'd go to "Turn Over" and then realize I forgot to use Dolan that turn, and that sucks. And now that guy I might've killed just killed Ash and BOOM, game over. FFT regulates who goes when by combining a lot of factors, including their speed and the last move you had them do.

Second you can spend forever building someone up, only for them to die and you lose it all.
This only happens if you're really lousy at the game. They die, and then you have four turns to resurrect them before they're gone for good. You can even finish the battle with them laying on the ground and you'll still have them. You can even finish with RAMZA, the main guy, laying face down, and still win the battle. I've only lost one person and I've been playing FFT A LOT for almost 10 years.

God I couldn't stand an hour of tactics. The game is literally unplayable. How do people eat this crap up?
Okay, you need to chillax on this. Going into a message board full of FFT wackos and posting something like this is a bad idea. Fortunately, most of these people are fairly civilized (except that crazy Despotus guy) and you weren't completely railed, but I'll bet if you posted a two line post in the FFX-2 board about how FFX-2 was terrible, you'd get aced pretty quick.

Furthermore, when I first played FFT (within the first hour), I was very confused. I had never really played a Strat RPG and I had no idea what was going on. I loved FF1-7, and I rented FFT one night, and I kept dying on the Gariland Magic City fight because I didn't know I was supposed to bring other guys into the fight, so I kept entering the fight with only Ramza and the AI Delita. I was so frustrated, until I accidently pushed R1 and place a squire.

Then I figured out the basics of battling. I noticed that along with gaining exp, we also gained "JP" and I eventually learned how sweet that is, too. I learned that with this JP, I could buy new moves for my characters and unlock new job classes that were previously unavailable for use.

Then I stumbled upon Igros Castle, where I went to the shop (because I didn't ever click on Gariland) and bought some awesome equipment, and then learned that my Squires couldn't use heavy armor! So I tried turning one into a knight, and I freaked out when I heard the little song play as that beam of light transformed him into a knight.

You see where I'm going? I never played the tutorial or looked up any online guides or any books or anything. I learned by pushing select on stuff and all that, I guess.

I could've been disappointed with the game because of how frustrated I was. But I gave it a chance, and it is now my absolute, unquestioned favorite game ever.

In fact, I'm going to go play it right now. And I'm going to start a new game and change Ramza's name to "BG-57". I may even hire a soldier and name it Despotus. Who knows?

P.S. on the subject of wacky names, try naming Ramza "Dycedarg" and play through the game. You'll see some super confusing conversations.