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Now, what was I supposed to do next...?

The original Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a bit of a UFO in the Final Fantasy saga. Yes, it was similar to Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of gameplay, yes, it featured moogles, chocobos and a Cid, but that was where the similarities stopped. The game was set in a modern-day world, for a start, which is already odd for a Final Fantasy. Then, there were the storyline and characters: the latter were mostly uninteresting schoolchildren, and the former broke some kind of fourth wall, as it was trying to prove that retreating to a fantasy world in order to escape your problems was not a solution…Not exactly the best way to sell a fantasy game, as I’m sure you’ll concur. Basically, the one real selling point of the game was its battle system.

For some reason, Square-Enix has since decided to make a sequel to this game, a puzzling decision if there ever was any, as it wasn’t exactly the biggest of hits. Yet, here we are, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift is a true successor to its ancestor, as it keeps the exact same formula that ensured its “success”. The characters are just as unlikeable as before (*slaps Adelle a couple of times*), and include a plethora of cameos from FFXII: Vaan and Penelo (*groan*), Montblanc and his brother Hurdy, and Al-Cid, the only mildly entertaining one. The storyline is, once again, pretty much nonexistent: a boy is grounded at school for being late and sent to tidy up the library. There he finds an old book, and for lack of anything better to do, decides to write his name in it (thus idiotically designating himself for subsequent punishment for defacing school property). This has the effect of whisking him off to another world, where all he has to do to go back home is…explore and have fun. Yep, that’s it. There are some side-storylines interspersed in this morass, but they mostly have no connection to each other. So once again, that just leaves the battle system to save the day.

Luckily, that is what the game does best. For those who are familiar with FFTA, you’ll feel right at home. Your characters are still supremely customizable, the jobs are still race-based, but there are more of them, and 2 more races have been added: Seeq, the ugly pig-people from FFXII, and Gria, dragon-like females, previously not featured in any Ivalice game. You still get super-strong summons that are usable after performing successful actions in battle, but instead of having only 5, you now get the whole set of 13 from FFXII, probably in a bid to make them more familiar—and thus, more likable—to the player base, with variable success. Thus, Ultima and Shemhazai are now officially awesome, due to their new attacks, while Zodiark is for the suicidal.

Laws and judges still exist, but the former are more lenient, and there is a lower penalty for breaking them: no one goes to jail, you just can’t revive your dead for the duration of that battle. Your clan also has its own beneficial laws, which it can unlock by performing Clan Trials of variable difficulty. These Trials also grant you titles. The higher tier titles lower the prices of items, but also make new recruits want to join. The Bazaar system also makes a comeback from FFXII, and works quite well.

The territorial system has been improved, as you no longer have to build your own map and hope that you’ll get some good treasures out of it, a truly TERRIBLE idea from the first FFTA. You also no longer need to constantly defend your turf from the attacks of other clans. Instead, control of a region is auctioned off at a certain time each year. Gain control of one whole region, and you become master for life, which means that, not only can the territory never be taken from you, but also that the auction for that region will now allow you to acquire rare items.

In short, it’s all good fun...until you get bogged down by the sheer number of missions you have to perform. Yes, just like in the original FFTA, you have 300 missions, both mandatory and optional—which you can now fortunately keep track of with a grid—plus some random encounters (monsters or disgruntled clans who are pissed off at you for winning an auction), as well as an optional dungeon called Brightmoon Tor, a tower composed of some 40 floors which contain nasty monsters and nifty rewards. But my point is, this abundance of material is an artificial way to lengthen gameplay. Sure, it’s fun for the first 10-20 hours or so, but when you realize just how *many* more missions you have to go through after you reach the 50 hour mark, a distinct feeling of déja-vu and discouragement sets in. I’m currently finishing up Brightmoon Tor, and my timer has gleefully skipped over the 160 hour mark. And I really wish I were kidding. Don’t be surprised if, after a while, you find yourself wondering “wait...so where was the storyline going already?” Or maybe you won’t. Because, in the wonderful words of 1337-speak: lolstoryline.

So it all boils down to this: if you want a game with no strings attached (no caring about characters or what happens next), something you can pick up whenever you want a bit of fun tactical fighting, FFTA2 is pretty much perfect. If, however, you like to have some storyline meat on the bones of your gameplay and don’t fancy getting lost in oodles of mindless missions...you might want to reconsider.

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Lo, thy skull shall I smash forthwith!

As my second playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions draws to a close, I can’t help thinking again just how right this game has got its stuff. Perhaps it’s because I’ve only played the original PSX version once, and thus don’t have any particular fondness for the old, botched translation (“this is the way!”), but this is one remake that I must definitely recommend over the original. As well as being a great success in its own right.

The murky depths of the heavily politicized and very dark storyline (parricide, fratricide, child abuse, demonic possession, etc.), the compellingly ambiguous hero-villain, Delita, the excellent, well-oiled job system, the thorough medieval feel of both language and atmosphere, the tragic ending…It all forms a cohesive whole of the highest quality, and shows a willingness to take risks. You could poke at weaknesses in the edifice, of course. Characters who join the team usually forfeit further development, due to the casualty system (if you don’t revive a fallen comrade during a given lapse of time, they’re gone forever), the in-game graphics are simplistic, the learning curve is steep, and there is quite a bit of grinding involved. But all of this ceases to matter after a while, as you strive to figure out who will be the next in line to get backstabbed (if it’s your first time through), or shake your head as the familiar threads of betrayal and ambition unravel in front of your eyes.


Despite the casualty problem, the cast is still a great one. Every generic soldier has something to say (usually a funny comment to the effect of “I hate toads!” or “A Piscodaemon ate my fiancé”), and trying to kick them off the team will often result in a heartwrenching plea to let them stay. As for the actual characters, the lineup includes two monuments of girl power that would give FFX-2 Yuna a run for her money, despite their lack of hotpants—Agrias, the stern Lady knight, and Meliadoul, the vengeful daughter—, a Cid that puts all other Cids in the series to shame on the battlefield, star-crossed lovers Beowulf and Reis, Mustadio, a lovable and easygoing descendant of FFXII’s Balthier, and even an ancient robot who can bust-a-groove. And if that wasn’t enough, the PSP version develops some of their backstories with additional sidequests. I must commend both Agrias’ birthday quest, which shows a lighter side to an otherwise strict character, and the sizeable chunk added to the Beowulf-Reis storyline, which was already one of my favourite parts of the game.

The only character-related peeve I have is the cameo overload. Cloud of FFVII fame made an appearance in the original game, which already didn’t make much sense, but the remake throws in both Balthier and Luso (from FFTA2) as well, with no more explanation than Cloud. At least both of them belong in Ivalice, which Cloud doesn’t. I understand that it’s a nudge to the fanbase, but it still feels somewhat awkward. The short fetch quests you perform as bar propositions are also chock-full of winks at previous FF games that also make no sense in the context of Ivalice, but somehow, it’s not as invasive as actual characters. Still, it’s more of a nitpick than a bad flaw.


Another aspect which deserves praise is the game’s resistance to the sirens of shiny CG cutscenes. The original artwork was markedly different from the rest of the FF series, and the developers made the bold choice of keeping it. The cutscenes are not very frequent, but each is introduced with a lovely effect of colour appearing on a sepia drawing. It doesn’t matter that the characters have no noses and bulky limbs, it all works perfectly, and is beautifully drawn. My only regret would be that the final scene didn’t get one of those sequences.


As a final point, I must commend the pet system, even though it flavours suspiciously of Pokemon. Considering that the main storyline is so dark, the humorous moments that intersperse the game are very welcome. The pet system is just one of them. The Orator job allows you to invite monsters to your team. Those then become regular, deployable units, and even supply their own heartwrenching reactions if you should ever kick them out (eg. “Its eyes are full of sadness”). They’ll also lay eggs every once in a while…Yes, even the ones that look like they should be mammals. And it only takes one monster of a species to lay an egg, independently of gender. But I digress. The newborn monsters can be better than their parents, and can be poached for rare equipment. I have a particular fondness for Pigs—of which I usually keep one and call Snuffles—and the Tiamat (the strongest version of a three-headed dragon) which I never fail to recruit: I call him Muffin, and I can’t help but go “aww” at watching him tear up the battlefield.

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