Post by RAND_AL'THOR on Sept 6, 2008 18:16:11 GMT
Game: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rfit
Console: Nintendo DS
Genre: Strategy/Tactical RPG
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift is the latest entry on the Tactics series of Final Fantasy titles. Taking place in the same world as the GBA title Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and the PS2 title Final Fantasy XII, this game presents a new character adventuring in Ivalice.
FFTA2 plays out pretty much the same way as FFTA, and has a very similar story. You play as Luso Clemens, a school student about to start his summer vacation. He gets in trouble on the last day of school, and is sent to clean the library. While there, he discovers an ancient tome that, when opened, transports him to the fantastical world of Ivalice. Luso soon joins a clan, and quickly become involves in the troubles of that world.
From there, the story does go a different direction than FFTA. In the GBA title, you ended up destroying crystals as Marche attempted to return home, and take his friends back with him. In this game, Luso arrives on his own, so doesn't have anyone else from his own world to worry about. But FFTA2 does not send you on crystal-destroying missions.
If you've played FFTA, you'll be familiar with how this game plays. You move around the world map, visiting towns and reading quest details at the local pubs. Travel to that position on the map starts a battle scenario. You'll choose a number of characters in your clan to fight in the battle, and move each unit individually around the area.
One difference in battles this time around is the absence of a judge. In FFTA, a judge unit moved around the map, observing the battle. In battles, you would usually have three laws you would have to abide by, which would limit the actions you could take. As soon as you break the law, the judge would run over and issue a warning card, either yellow or red. Yellow card would be a first warning, whereas a red card would result in the offending unit being immediately whisked off to jail. To free imprisoned units you had to either pay a fee or fight a small number of battles. In FFTA, this more often than not slowed the game's pace down severely, as you would have to spend a lot of time fighting battles just to free imprisoned units. FFTA2 solves this problem by reworking the law system. You still have laws restricting your possible actions in battles, but you only have one law per battle to worry about. Beyond that, the judge unit has been completely removed from the battlefield. You are only penalized for the first offense, and when that happens, you lose the bonus ability you had chosen at the start of a battle (more on that in a bit) and lose the ability to revive fallen units (more on that in a bit, also).
The core of FFTA2 is the battle system, and it works well enough. When you start a battle, you are presented with the mission objective, as well as the law you must obey. Possible laws range from not using elemental magic, to not copying the previous units action, to not allowing certain races to perform actions. Once you place your units (usually six) on the field, you are given the option to choose a bonus ability. This bonus ability will hold effect until you break the law. Bonus abilities range from boosts to various stats (attack, evasion, luck), to making certain races more powerful, to gaining bonus ability points at the conclusion of a battle. Then the battle starts.
Returning from FFTA is the job system. Each unit starts off with a specific race-specific job. In order to unlock additional jobs, that unit has to learn a number of abilities specific to other jobs More jobs are unlocked as a unit learns more abilities. As it was in FFTA, a unit learns new abilities by equipping different weapons. Until that unit earns enough ability points to master the ability, that ability can only be used if the weapon/armor that teaches it is equipped. This does make character-building a bit tedious, but it's a lot faster of a process now than it was in FFTA.
New to FFTA2 is the bazaar feature in the shops. Whenever you defeat an enemy unit, you earn a loot item. In the bazaar, you can combine loot items to create new weapons, armor, shields, etc.. Once the item is made, you can purchase it from the shop. This adds a lot of incentive to fighting additional battles, and is a welcome new feature to the game.
A problem that returns from FFTA has to do with the number of clan members you can accumulate over the duration of the game. FFTA2 allows you to have a maximum of 24 clan members. However, you'll really only use six clan members, and that will become your primary attack force when you enter battle. Only the characters active in battle earn experience points, leaving the rest to remain stagnant at the level they were when they joined your party. Fortunately, ability points are given to all clan members after a battle, but this doesn't change the fact that you'll have characters that stay at lower levels and, therefore, never be used in actual combat. This doesn't become a huge problem in gameplay, but it seems a bit odd to have so many characters in your clan if you never actually use them.
Graphically, FFTA2 remains faithful to its GBA precursor. The graphics do take some advantage of the DS hardware, but much more could have been achieved. It is very obvious that development of this game began not long after FFTA was released, and FFTA2 was planned to be a GBA title. There doesn't seem to be much going on in FFTA2 that wasn't achievable graphically on the GBA.
FFTA2 makes good use of both screens. The touch screen is used for moving characters around, be it the world map or in battle. While on the world map, the top screen shows clan data, such as how many missions you've cleared, how many clan members you have, clan titles, and the such. During battles, the top screen displays unit data, and upcoming turn order. You can use either the stylus or normal button control, but the latter method of control seems more natural.
Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto delivers an excellent orchestrated soundtrack. While a lot of the tracks are familiar to those who played FFTA, there are a number of new tracks as well. Sakimoto's soundtrack does a great job in establishing the atmosphere in the game, but the tracks are a bit repetitive. The sound effects complement the soundtrack wonderfully. Anywhere from the attack-specific sound effects to the sounds of each character talking, there's always something new to hear, it seems.
There is a lot of game to play here. FFTA2 offers more than 300 missions, which means it'll take a long while to actually complete the game. However, while there are a lot of missions to clear, FFTA2's actual core story isn't nearly as deep as its precursor. It doesn't mean the story isn't entertaining, though. This is a game that you'll keep coming back to, in an effort to finish another mission, find more loot, claim more items, learn new abilities, and unlock new jobs.
FFTA2 introduces two new races, Seeq and Gria. Seeq are bulkier units that mainly serve as tanks, with jobs such as Ranger and Viking. Gria are winged females who have such jobs as Geomancer, Ravager, and Hunter. These two new races mesh well with the existing list of character types.
Overall, FFTA2 delivers a solid, enjoyable experience on the DS. This game might be overshadowed by FFIV, but this game definitely deserves a play. The only thing FFTA2 lacks that it should have is a multiplayer mode, similar to that which FFTA had. But that's only nitpicking.
I give Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift a 4...out of 5.[/i]
