Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Finally a worthy sequel

Seconded, its superb, but so are the other Ivalice games - FFXII and Vagrant Story.

I would get this for my new DS, but why is it $39.99? That’s pretty damn expensive for a DS game.

I couldn’t tell you the last SquareEnix game that wasn’t $40.

But to be fair, they also have much larger development budgets than most of the other DS fare, and can keep you entertained for far longer as well.

1st-party casual fare like CrossworDS being $20 and SE’s games being $40 makes sense to me. I know TWEWY was well worth the $40.

This an encouraging thread to see. I’m distracted by DQM:Joker, at the moment, but FFTA2 is next on the pile.

Oh hey, I just remembered one other change in FFTA that I hated. The cast times on spells were one of my favorite elements in the original, because they greatly affected strategy. Having spells fire off immediately removed an entire tactical dimension from the game. Do spells work more like the original or Advance in the new one?

I’m still relatively early (~15-20 quests completed) but so far they’re all instantaneous.

Agreed that delay times were an interesting tactic in FFT- whether it be spells, focus for archer shots, dragoon jumps, etc. It’s a shame this mechanic isn’t in FFTA2 since the second screen’s use as turn order indicator would make the tactic more user friendly.

You don’t set up the map this time, but it IS divided into these zone things that your clan can gain influence in through a kind of weird auction-game thing. If you become the dominant clan in the zone through these auctions, you get special loot as prizes. You can also be challenged by the dominant clan of the zone if it isn’t yours. (I think)

Also, spells are instantaneous, but the mp system is slightly different in that you start with 0 mp and generate mp each turn, although there are abilities that can get around that.

Eesh. I wasn’t super-fond of FFT’s “grind jobs by using job abilities” system, but the only time I’ve ever liked the “learn abilities from gear” system wasn’t in a Final Fantasy game (it sucked hard in FFIX. I haven’t played much FFTA for multiple reasons, but its use of that system is one.) That exception being a fairly obscure PC action-RPG called Kult: Heretic Kingdoms (or Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition in the US, I assume because they wanted to kill their US sales dead.). As a way to build a skillset in a Diablo-like game with a single character, it was unexpectedly awesome. Particularly since there was no class system and spirit enemies would drop pickups that’d help you learn the abilities based on what you had equipped when you took the pickup…not what you had equipped when you killed 'em. (Using them also progressed it, of course.)

Yeah, so far every skill I’ve seen (including spells, jumps, “Focus”, etc) works instantaneously. And so far, it’s my biggest disappointment. As you say, some of the coolest moments in FFT were when you timed a spell just right – you could cast a spell on a tile, move a melee guy in to draw a bunch of monsters into the area, and then move the melee guy out right at the last moment, and feel like a total bad-ass.

A minor plus, though: the top screen always shows the turn order of the battle, so it’s easier and you’re more encouraged to think about timing than it was in FFT. You can’t do anything cool amazingly cool with it, but at least it’s there.

Edit: Der. Kevin Grey already said all that.

My interest is certainly piqued, but I gotta say that I hate the ever-changing and illogical mechanics that JRPGs seem to introduce with every new game. I hated the law system in FFTA, but I especially hated that skills were attached to weapons and not the characters. It makes me feel less attached to the characters, and it just doesn’t make any thematic sense.

At least in A2 it makes sense to me. You equip an item, earn enough job points to master it, then you can use it without the weapon/armour/whatever equipped.

Is the job system balanced pretty well in this? My biggest problem with FFTA, even bigger than the absolutely inane story, was that the jobs were so horribly imbalanced that if you could luck into recruiting enough lizardmen, you could just make the ultimate party in the game: five fighters and a white mage.

So is there actually a point to playing around with different classes in this? Please say yes I want this game to be good so bad. I need to find my DS I guess.

Well, skill learning through items isn’t exactly a new mechanic. FF9 used it among others and I’m sure it was probably used even before that.

This may seem like a strange question, but can this game be played one-handed, with just the stylus? I played most of my favorite DS games (the Phoenix Wrights, Puzzle Quest, Picross DS) on my side, in bed, late at night. I suspect the answer is “no” given the complexity of the original. Is it possible, though?

Not really- FFTA2 has very, very minimal stylus control and even that’s totally optional.

What makes you say this? I just tried it out, everything seems to work. Instead of pushing Y for unit info you just touch the button that told you to hit Y for info. Everything else seems to work the same. I think it’s faster to use the buttons and directional pad but you can use the stylus with out much difficulty it seems.

Yeah, you can play it one-handed though the stylus control is inferior to normal control. Everything is accessible as far as I can tell, just not as convenient.

As for the job system, it’s approximately a billion times better-balanced than in FFTA or FFT. Assassins are still awesome, but not the end-all be-all of everything. Air Render/Far Fist is still too good when you first get it, but it’s balanced later on by some better melee-only abilities.

My only real complaints are the overly obtuse bazaar system (though it’s not that bad, just kind of annoying) and the retarded AI. Other’n that, it’s the best SRPG in quite a while and easily the best one on DS.

Still playing the crap out of this game. 25+ hours in and I still don’t have half the cool things everybody else seems to get. The Bazaar system is totally fucking over my thieves but like any abusive relationship I keep thanking it and asking for more.

How is the bazaar screwing up your thieves?

By not giving them any more skills than three. Wouldn’t mind making a ninja either.

oh I see, the general bazaar screw. I only have three thief weapons available too, now that I look at it. It’s never really bothered me because I hate thieves and I’m seriously glad that stealing weapons and armor from enemies has been removed from the game. It keeps me from OCD obsessing over maps and retrying them again and again until I can steal all the good equipment :)