Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift - Square Enix - NDS

[schild]

The latest in the FFT series delivers on the familiar SRPG formula that FFT practically invented. Grid based combat, job classes, and all the hideous interesting races from FFTA are back; the most godawful system system from FFTA also returns: Judges and Laws. However, rather than sending your character to jail (read: Game Over) for breaking a law, its only a slight cockblock: you lose your group buff, can't revive and miss out on some bonus loot. Also unlike FFTA's Law system which as the game advanced added more and more restrictions to each fight, there is only one law in effect* at a time. All in all, the Law system still blows, but it's not enough to stop playing.

The story ranges from childish to nonexistant; consider the following analogy: FFT : Song of Ice and Fire :: FFTA2 : Harry Potter. There are a ton of classes in game (more than 50, but some are virtually identical with a different name for each race: Soldier, Warrior, Moogle Knight etc.), and unlike in FFT where you unlocked a job by grinding certain other jobs to a certain level, in FFTA2 you unlock jobs by completing quests THEN grinding other jobs... Other new features include Clan Trials to improve group wide buffs, and Auctions to give your clan control over an area (granting price discounts).

Despite my nitpicks, FFTA2 captures most of the magic of the FFT series, and is a solid offering for SRPG fans.

-

Buy it.

Sent in by Rendakor.

[Yegolev]

Doesn't sound like a reason to get over my dislike of FFTA and try it.  Or to stop playing Disgaea.

[Mrbloodworth]

I wish they would stop putting FFT on the DS.

[Kail]

Just going to vent about this game a bit...

First of all, the laws seem way more annoying than in the original FFTA.  There's only one at a time, but it's preset per mission, you can't wander around and wait for it to change like you could in TA.  So you have to deal with this stupid shit.  And it's way stupider than I remember TA being.  There were times when I got hit with laws prohibiting "being stolen from" or "being debuffed" or something like that.  Turn one, enemy moves first, hits me with a debuff.  FUCK.  Or when there was a law prohibiting knockback attacks, which basically translated to "no critical strikes" since that's the only time I even knock anyone back, and it's not like I can choose not to crit.

Laws are often vague and imprecise, too.  Law against dealing fire damage, for example.  No fire spells, okay, sure.  But also, no weapons which deal fire damage.  Which weapons are those?  I have no fucking idea, the game doesn't say anywhere that I can see.  No spells targeting an area are allowed, but it doesn't mention that spells targeting every unit on the map are exempt from this.  One map prohibited me from "harming members of the opposite gender".  Okay, but what gender is everyone?  It doesn't say anywhere.  I assume the Viera are all women, but this being Final Fantasy, everyone else looks like a woman, too.  Even the Bangaa on that map had a portrait that had eyeshadow and lipstick on it.

A lot of laws are just fiddly and fucking annoying, too.  There's the law against "solitude," or ending your unit's turn without a unit in an adjacent square.  There was one law where I was required to move three steps every round; not two, not four, but exactly three steps every turn.  Laws against "reaction commands" which require you to go through your roster and de-equip everyone before the fight, and then re-equip them after the fight.  Oh, and also, this time around, the computer doesn't even pretend to care about the laws.  They just ignore them completely. 

On another note, the "dispatch the right person for the job" quests can go straight to hell.  When someone asks for an artillery using unit, there are only a few options, so there's no problem there, but when it's for crap like "help decorate for the party" or "look after my sick grandma" I have no damn clue who I'm supposed to be sending, and the game doesn't give any hints.  That stupid grandma quest I've failed like twenty times by itself.  "Please ensure that my grandma gets some rest for the next six days as she recovers."  Who the hell am I supposed to send?  White mage failed it.  Green mage (who knows sleep) failed it.  Time mage (maybe they can make time pass quicker, I have no fucking idea) failed it.  Sending cannoneers and assassins and gladiators and bishops and everyone I can and none of them can handle this old broad.  I'm level 40, how the hell am I failing a level 16 quest?

Aside from that, though, having fun.  Dual wield is still ludicrously overpowered.  It's harder to cheese the XP system in this game, which makes me sad, but since I'm still way overlevelled against my enemies, I guess I can't complain too much.  Does anyone know how to catch Chocobos?  I keep getting rumors and notices about where to find them and so on, but I don't know what to do when I get there.

[Slyfeind]

I have the same complaints, especially about laws. When I get laws like "No area effect" I just ignore it because the enemy's going to nuke me into oblivion. Come to think of it, I ignore just about all the laws anyway. If I don't break any then yay, but it's not a conscious decision.

What I love most about this game is they didn't change too much. It's just more missions for FFTA. I was worried they would change systems just for the sake of change, which is always a risk with sequels, and it's rarely for the better.

I don't know about chocobos, but then I haven't figured out how to get any new party members yet. I just haven't tried very much.