Party Roster lets you upgrade and customize your abilities and equipment as well as change job classes. You will be spending HOURS poring over this screen.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -- Lord Acton

With its long-standing reputation for epic adventure and adolescents saving the world, a politically charged 19th-century quote such as Lord Acton’s might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Square’s Final Fantasy. Save for a few chocobos and some other assorted series odds-and-ends, though, Tactics has always seemed like Final Fantasy in name only. Long languished in comparative obscurity over its more commercially attractive namesake, War of the Lions isn’t concerned with JRPG tropes -- instead it’s a labyrinthine design of political drama, familial politics, and intrigue that just happens to have a touch of Square’s marquee role-playing series embedded within.

Note the entirely un-traditional isometric viewpoint during battles.

Just as Lord Acton so questioningly referred to the newly enacted Doctrine of Papal Infallibility in 1870, so is Lions a case study in men’s corruption. Chronicling the untold tale of Ramza Beoulve, a courageous nobleman struggling to find peace against the bloody backdrop of civil war as rival kingdoms vie for power, Lions’ narrative is beautifully wrought and unabashedly Shakespearean, some of its proceedings bearing more than a passing resemblance to the Bard’s historical tragedies. The plot is dense with dialogue and characters, as well -- you could easily get lost in the game’s built-in encyclopedia of figures and history. No doubt about it, this is not your typical iOS game, nor is it for the impatient gamer.

Use the terrain to your tactical advantage.

Of course, original director Yasumi Matsuno has as pronounced a penchant for deep strategic gameplay as he does for tales of sovereign unrest, and Lions is hardly a cakewalk. You have to employ a great deal of strategy within the long turn-based battles. You’ll need to use isometric topography to your advantage (this often affects your hit percentage) and master the various components of the game’s robust job class system. Simply put, Lions will mercilessly chew you up and spit out your bloodied remains if you’re cavalier, and the difference between, say, sending in mages, knights, or archers (not to mention unit positions) can determine the tide of battle.

Certain events in the game are told through gorgeous animated cut-scenes you’ll swear were hand-drawn.

Inexplicably, the PSP version’s slowdown is even less palatable on iOS -- borderline inexcusable for a game that’s over a decade old (knock half a point off our score if you’re using a third-gen iPod touch). Nevertheless, Lions’ addictive play is wholly intact, and its quasi-Elizabethan dialogue lends the script an exhilarating literary aplomb.

War of the Lions’ loquacious quasi-Elizabethan speech will delight literary nerds (like us).

The bottom line. Lions is not without its issues, but this is still one of the finest strategy-RPGs ever made. Lit majors and armchair generals are encouraged.