Gaming Final Fantasy Tactics A2 -- Postmortem?

[GeekyGuy]

Kind of a silly term (postmortem) when referring to a video game, but it seems to be en vogue these days. Anyway, A2 has been out for about a week or so now (an English version, anyway). I reviewed it for the Temper Post -- gave it an 8.5 -- but was hoping to hear what folks think of the game now, after playing it.

I didn't go into minute details about certain gameplay options -- I never like to make a review tiresome to read -- but one thing that really stands out for me with A2, which is something I think has finally been perfected within the realm of Final Fantasy games, is the Job system. I really love how they made it a requirement to use various weapons in order to gain certain skills for a particular job; it really makes the collection of loot meaningful, and creating weapons in the bazaar is kind of addictive; you never know exactly what you're going to end up with.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what folks thought about the game. What you really liked about it. What disappointed you...all that.

 

[Curley5959]

I would have liked it to be more like Crystal Chronicles.. A kinda free roam type game.. Not set to grids.. Thats what i find is boring.. But its addictive..

 

[Hiratai]

Am I doing something wrong? All I do is go to pubs and do requests, no story involved. It's liek a RPG trainer.

 

[noodle976]

Am I doing something wrong? All I do is go to pubs and do requests, no story involved. It's liek a RPG trainer.

same here o.O
it bores me

 

[Suspicion]

Am I doing something wrong? All I do is go to pubs and do requests, no story involved. It's liek a RPG trainer.

To progress the story, there will actually be a blue ! on the WORLD map (not like the little country map) that you'll have to go for, or accept the quest with the ---- under "Days."

As for the postmortem, I've really liked the game and thought it was somewhat perfect, the only objections I have carry on from the last game, and that is that jobs are specific to races. I find it down right annoying that my Nu Mou who is superior, magically, in every way to all of my Humes is incapable of learning Blue Magic, or my Humes are incapable of learning Time Magic. And being unable to name my character has gotten even more annoying since MVP, since I 3 times out of 5 I don't know who the Hell is getting it. "Orlud" is now just "Black Mage" to me.

Other than that, I find the game to be perfect as it is, that is, a light hearted SRPG. I could pull up more objections but really I'd just be trying to change what the game is at its core, and the objections would just boil down to "It's not Disgaea."

 

[DeMoN]

The Bazaar system is one of the most annoying things in any video game. You can't ever upgrade your characters because you can't buy new weapons.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Am I doing something wrong? All I do is go to pubs and do requests, no story involved. It's liek a RPG trainer.

same here o.O
it bores me

Hmm...see, now, my take on it was that they were kind of trying to cater to folks who get into the whole "sandbox / open-world" thing. There's definitely a story there. No, it's not like most other FF console RPGs, but it falls comfortably into the same vein that Revenant Wings did -- a sort of FF-lite. But you have to actively progress the story by taking quests -- kind of the GTA of SRPGs, if you will. I initially wasn't all that enthusiastic about this set-up, either, but as things started to unfold, I saw the sense in it. The game really doesn't start getting underfoot for quite a few hours, and if you take your time with all the optional quests, it can be quite a while between main-story elements.

 

[PuyoDead]

So, I played the hell out of FFT and FFTA. So I had a lot of hopes and expectations going into A2.

First off, the quests. For the most part, they're the same as before, but with some nice additions. The whole clan skills thing is new, and really only serves the purpose of determining if you can accept certain quests. But at the same time, there are a lot of unique quests devoted to increasing those skills. And with those, you also gain clan abilities. Overall, I think it's a nice touch to the quest system.

The job system is mostly the same, as well. But having to unlock certain jobs via quests is nice, and a pain. For the most part, unlocking a job happens when you won't even be planning on changing to it yet anyway. Yet, you have to try to do as many quests as you can at a time to ensure you are unlocking the jobs as soon as possible. Kind of a pain if you're not sure how to open a job.

I've seen a lot of talk about the Bazaar. Personally, I see it as another good/bad thing. Before, you would just have to wait for the shop to get new equipment in. And that kind of sucked. But at least now you have a -little- bit of control over it. Since you can now make the new weapons, you have a bit more control over finding new abilities to learn. But at the same time, if you don't have the materials gathered from quests, you're not really going to be getting many new pieces of equipment. Also, I'm scared to sell of ANY bazaar loot until I've created everything. I really don't even like having the option to sell that stuff knowing I could potentially sell off my chances at an ability.

Story wise, it looks like the first FFT wins again. Sure, these "sucked into a book" stories are kind of interesting, but the full fledged story of FFT was amazing. So at this point, I see the quests as a trade off of the story. But I have to admit, I'm liking Luso a lot more than Marche (even though I liked Ramza even more). I'm only about 15 hours into it so I can't get into too much detail about the story, but so far, it's good enough I suppose.

Without going into a full on review, I'll just say that I'm completely enjoying this game. Very good stuff.

 

[Dylan]

Without any prior knowledge of playing it takes a little while to get used to. I still get confused when the judge guy says a certain race can't do anything except basic attacks cause i don't know which guy is which race.

 

[phenixz]

I'll try mine!

The story line ... If you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one. If you don't know the first one and aren't annoyed by title mission like : Kill the angry tomatoes, that should be fine also.

The game play : it's a good 'traditional' tactical. you got nearly everything you hope from that kind of game and add one or two things more. For example, the hated/loved law. They're less pain it the ass than before and now, could really be a nice challenge if you try to follow them and not that annoying if you don't. And the way that you get the new weapon seems more due to you cause you've to find the materials (One thing that bother me is, it's you that do all the searching and when you got one, you still have to buy it !:-

 

[Dedale]

I totally agree with you, irpacynot.

In fact, I enjoyed your review and your note is quite reasonable.
Yes it's a tactical and it's a very long one so, you may be bored if you played every mission in a short time because there's too much to do.

Ok it's not the same with a fire emblem thing where the story is very good and more addictive than here.

I play this game lightly. I enjoy it like I enjoy a SMB or a party of Still Alive (

). I love the FFTA2 world, the grahics and the chara-design, the rules and combat. The story is a classic one but It's still ok.
In resume, I think people had to wait too long and had too big hopes with this US / EU release. I played it in Jap and also with the Deufeufeu's translation so I knew what was really the game. Maybe you guys wanted something more FF as something FFT nop ?

And a last thing, I think it's a must have for DS for someone who like T-RPG.

Thanks for the review irpacynot

 

[Tenkaichi]

I haven't had as much time to delve deeper into this game as much as I want to, but I can pretty much tell that I enjoy it, even if the storyline has great potential to suck. PuyoDead calls it as soon as the "sucked into a book" storyline is mentioned, and I can only think of something: Couldn't they think of a story deeper or more... involving, I guess? Just because the characters are all mini and cute and whatnot on a DS doesn't mean the story has to kind of match. I'm not completely hating on FFTA and FFTA2 (because I played FFTA pretty throughly and I'm enjoying FFTA2 currently), but they could do better on the storyline... especially on these handhelds. Are the main characters kids on the DS on purpose, or what...?

Gameplay: I think that despite the Laws, they can be overlooked in A2 compared to how I originally felt about them in FFTA. Everything seems more balanced overall, and there is a huge job list and stuff to get... although one thing; there isn't a way to rotate the screen around like in FFT is there?

 

[papyrus]

Im playing it right now, and guess im loving it, its addictive.

 

[MyauChanDesu]

I still like Final Fantasy Tactics better.~

 

[Killermech]

Im finding it highly addictive and fun to play.
Although I find some of the 'laws' to be extreme.
Don't do damage over 50? I just said f*ck it when I got that the first time. Even my healer was capable of doing higher damage than that with melee

 

[PuyoDead]

Im finding it highly addictive and fun to play.
Although I find some of the 'laws' to be extreme.
Don't do damage over 50? I just said f*ck it when I got that the first time. Even my healer was capable of doing higher damage than that with melee

Even worse is "No targeting of adjacent units". I ignore that one completely every time. I don't have enough good mages/arches/etc for that just yet. But overall, the law system is a million times better than FFTA.

 

[Youkai]

I like the game,
Tactics Advance and A2 are both WAY better than the original FF Tactics (don't know how anyone could like the original ... played it like one hour and it sucked so bad ... especially the camera moving all the time

V)

But like some others already sayed the Bazar system is the worst thing ever

... i have several characters that just cannot do anything because i have no equip that lets them train any new skills.
Whats the use of running around like an idiot without any chance of learning new skills and nothing ...

And somehow i have problems to level my charas ... i have two level 20 charas and 4 level 12 ... "-_-" charas which i allways use, and even the level 12 have some MVP titles (and i have no clue what they mean) so stupid, but i had similiar problem with the advance title as well ...

still one of the better games.


P.S. anyone else that thinks the new worldmap system sucks ? i had not a single random fight like before and not a single character encounter, only other charas i got were from those "quests" from that guy who asks you some questions and than gives you someone for your party

 

[Trolly]

No-one else seems to have the same problem as me. Every time I start the Tomato mission, it freezes roughly a minute in. I've tried it 6 times on different occasions to no avail. I'll try and re-transfer the ROM or something.

So far though, it's just as good as the last FFTA. That's all that can be said really, it's practically the same as its former. It's still an awesome game though! I'll play from start to finish, even if it takes me a year!

 

[PuyoDead]

Youkai, wait until after the auction house stuff. That's when random encounters kick in. Also, if you're not getting enough equipment for skills, you may be skipping too many quests. Try to do as many as possible when you can. You'll get more materials for items earlier. The problem is, you'll hit the point where you just don't have enough money for all the equipment you're making.

Also, in getting new equipment, you'll be able to change jobs more frequently, thus helping out in leveling your characters. As for MVP, the more levels up the tower you get, the better that character will be for deployment missions.

 

[Tikker]

I like the game,
Tactics Advance and A2 are both WAY better than the original FF Tactics (don't know how anyone could like the original ... played it like one hour and it sucked so bad ... especially the camera moving all the time

V)

there's something wrong with your brain

the original is a billion times better than the latest ones