Author: Zac
Title: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Posted: Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I’m almost positive that all of you have heard of the Final Fantasy Tactics series. It is one of the fathers of modern Strategy RPGs. The sequel to this game, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, came out in 2003. The game had punishing laws that you had to follow during battles but was still a blast. The sequel loosens up on the laws, but does it still provide a good time? The answer to that is yes. But should you buy it? Not necessarily.
This game is definitely for the hardcore SRPG audience rather than people new to the genre. It has a lot of elements that will definitely be a turn off to some people (the laws for one thing) so if you’re a hardcore SRPG fan, buy it. If not, just rent it.
The games story is basic storybook affair here. I mean that quite literally too. You are Luso, the class clown. At the beginning of the game, instead of detention, Luso gets to go and clean up the library. While there, he finds an extremely old book. He opens it up, and the pages are empty, so he decides to write his name in it. He soon realizes that what he just did was a very bad decision because he got sucked into a completely different world...inside of the book. It’s not much but it gives you the motivation to keep going through.
This is the Grimoire
FFTA2 definitely has a slower pace than a lot of other strategy games out nowadays. If you’re used to Disgaea (like I was) be prepared for a change of pace. Some of the battles take up to an hour which bugged me quite a bit at times.
The law system is one of the main contributors to the slower pace. If I was trying to obey the law so that I would get the law bonus (the law bonus is a bonus you get after each battle if you obey the law, it can be gold, weapons, etc.) and so that I could revive my characters if they died (you can’t revive if you break the law). Some of them are pretty easy like don’t use ranged weapons, or don’t use magic attacks. But others are tough like no harming males (or females at times), no attacks that knock back the enemy (which is generally completely random because critical hits happen once in a while which knocks back the enemy), or even don’t attack the enemy. It was one of my least favorite elements of the game.
The battles usually consist of 6 characters on each side (sometimes you only get to pick 3 or 4 because of guest characters or if it’s a speed battle against 4 others). You can pick any of the characters in your clan (although some laws forbid ranged weapons, bludgeoning weapons, etc.). If you attack from the front of the enemy, you do minimal damage, if you attack from the side you do average damage, but attacking from the back of the enemy is your best option because it provides maximum damage to the enemy. From there on it’s standard SRPG affairs (which is quite fun).
One of the things I loved about the game was the job system. There is an incredible amount of jobs you can get. Some of them have pretty hefty pre-requisites but are definitely worth it. All of them have numerous abilities that afflict status effects on enemies as well as some that do hefty amounts of damage.
Soundtracks of Final Fantasy games are almost always the highlight for me and it’s no exception in FFTA2. It has a great selection of tracks that all sound very nice (as always with DS games, headphones are recommended).
The game looks OK at times and at other times it looks great. It looks just OK when you are on the overworld map. It’s just a map of where you are with Luso’s sprite moving along on it. But when it looks great, it really shines. Later in the game when you get some of the stronger attacks, they have fantastic special effects and they really look great.
For a handheld game, it’s a beast in terms of longevity. Playing through story mode took me around 45 hours and I’m still playing it to pass by time on occasion. I’ve played completed around 120 missions and I’m at about 45 hours. Completing all of the 300-plus quests will take you well over one hundred hours.
Overall, FFTA2 is a great SRPG. I would recommend it to anyone who is a strategy enthusiast. If you don’t particularly enjoy SRPGs, I’d say go for a rent.
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Overall: 8/10
Product link:
Buy Final Fantasy Tactics A2 from Amazon here!
