Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
ESRB Rating: E 10+
Players: 1
Hours Played: 120
Progress: Finished main story line (250+ quests completed)
Final Fantasy being one of the most popular Role Playing Game franchises of all time has created many a spin-off. One of the most revered is the Final Fantasy Tactics series, which began all the way back in 1998 with its US release on the PlayStation One. Since then a remake was created in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance), with a further enhanced version appearing on the PSP in 2007 (Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions). Now turn-based strategy fans can lose more nights of sleep, as the GBA sequel receives a much anticipated follow-up with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the Nintendo DS.
The game, as its predecessor, is set in the world of Ivalice, which players might recognize as the surroundings of Final Fantasy XII, or indeed those of the original Final Fantasy Tactics. As with the GBA version, the story focuses on a boy who is transported from our world to the lands of Ivalice by way of a magic book. The game?s protagonist: Luso ends up joining a clan; a group of warriors hired through job postings at pubs to perform all kinds of combat-related missions. He quickly realizes that the only way back to his world is to fill up the blank pages of this magical book by triggering certain events which will be based on the outcome of the many missions the player will undertake.
The story is a bit deeper and more intense than Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFT Advance), in large part due to the well written side quests, which comprise approximately 90% of the game?s content. The side quests often have multi-tiered plot elements that weave in and out of the main story and focus on everything from inter-clan wars to the history of the special characters that will eventually end up joining your clan.
Although the game will look and feel very familiar to anyone who played the prequel on the GBA, various game play enhancements have been made. The turn-based combat and movement-grid-covered environments are back along with all the races, job classes and combat techniques from FFT Advance. Obvious additions are the new job classes (56 in total now!), races, abilities and quests, with 400 quests available to sink your teeth into.
Many of the gameplay enhancements are subtle, yet very welcome. The store at which you can outfit your clan now has a ?fitting room? option which allows you to equip your warriors with the various weapons and armor available prior to purchasing so that you can measure the status effects of the new apparel. It?s also easier to gauge the requirements for upgrading to a new job class (a major frustration in the GBA game) and when a new skill will be mastered. This makes it much easier to plan a character?s job class progression and what items to equip. There?s also much more incentive to progress to the different job classes as your characters are able to keep the skill set of one of their previous job classes in addition to the ones associated with the newly chosen class. Thanks to the dual screens, players are now able to determine the order of the characters? upcoming turns, which helps in figuring out your strategy and what moves to take.
One of the most frustrating elements of the game in the previous version, were the laws laid down by the judges and the resulting loss of the battle after breaking them. In many cases the laws were very easy to break (such as don?t use bladed weapons), which is still true with this new release, especially in its later parts, however the penalties aren?t as strict. Break a law and you won?t be able to revive your fallen warriors during that battle, nor will you receive any of the items or gil for upholding the law. That?s a shame, but certainly not as much as getting to the end of a 30-minute battle, only to see it end in defeat because you forgot to move your Paladin exactly 3 squares. Among the many game play tweaks there?s one I?m not a big fan off, and it?s the addition of traps. Most maps are dotted with traps which, when landed on by of the combatants, usually have adverse health or status effects. The dumb thing is that these traps are invisible (unless you have one particular job class with one particular ability) so hitting them is completely random, non-tactical and frustrating.
The game is absolutely massive, and is composed of 400 quests plus another two dozen or so clan challenges. Add to that the occasional random battle (don?t worry they are not as annoying or frequent as in the previous game) and it?s no surprise it took me almost a 100 hours just to get through half of all the available quests. Boredom is always a factor with this many similarly-themed battles but fans of the genre will appreciate the different lead-ins to each quest and become engrossed in the countless character customization and combat options available. On the downside, I found that once I worked my way through the first 200 ? 250 quests the availability of the remaining ones dropped quite a bit as more and more parameters had to be met for those remaining quests to become available.
Graphically the game has been improved as well. The stages are much more detailed and pretty, which is what we needed to see considering they?re pre-rendered. The majority of the visual flair comes from the effects however. Magic spells and combat abilities are all unleashed with flashy lighting and particle effects, reflecting of both characters and environments. Unfortunately the characters themselves are still the same bitmapped sprites as found in the GBA game and could?ve done with a lot more detail and animation.
The great audio, which has always been a staple of the Final Fantasy franchise, is very much part of the FFT A2; the music is grand and sweeping and sound effects are varied and high quality. It?s unfortunate that for the combat, which really comprises the vast majority of playing time, the same sound track is constantly being used, with reprieve only being provided during boss- and special event battles.
Summary:
Graphics
+ Good-looking and detailed environments
+ Gorgeous and flashy effects
– Still the same crude-looking character models
Audio
+ Great tunes and effects
– Repetitive combat music
Gameplay
+ Countless gameplay tweaks and improvements
– Traps and constrictive laws are minor annoyances
Lasting Appeal
+ 400 quests can take you anywhere from 100 ? 200 hours to complete!
– Quest availability drops dramatically later on in the game
Overall:
9.2
A2 improves in many ways on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and is a must-own title for any strategy-game-fan or Final Fantasy aficionado. For anyone else: if you have the patience for turn-based combat, this is a great game regardless of genre.
