Gamertell Quick Preview: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire
by at March 5, 2008 5:57 pm
Sections: DS & DSi & DSi XL, Features, Genres, Handhelds, Previews, Role-Playing, Strategy
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Even though it hasn’t been formally announced by Square Enix yet, all Final Fantasy fans are pretty sure that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: The Sealed Grimoire will be heading stateside. The game was released in Japan in October, 2007, so now plenty of information is available on the upcoming strategic RPG. Like the other FFT titles, FFTA2 is set in Ivalice and in so doing is part of the Ivalice Alliance. While it doesn’t look like a DS title in terms of graphics, it does look like FFTA2 makes up for it with character customization options and quests.
If you played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the beginning of FFTA2 will feel familiar to you. Luso Clemens, a kid who lives in the real world, is completing a library cleaning punishment and comes across a book. It turns blank after a few pages and instructs tell him to write his name down to become the hero. He does, and he is instantly transported to Ivalice. He is dropped into a battle and joins the warrior Cid’s Gully Clan. After that he decides to take his time getting home and do some sightseeing around Ivalice first.
This time it isn’t the same imaginary Ivalice as FFTA, which I don’t get. Both games involve real world people reading a mysterious book which transports them, so there shouldn’t be any difference. Luso is transported to the Ivalice of FFT, FFXII and FFXII: Revenant Wings. Of course this means cameos from previous titles – perhaps the reason for the “real” Ivalice setting. Vaan, Penelo, Monteblanc and Al-Cid from FFXII make confirmed appearances. Mewt, from FFTA, shows up in the beginning as the librarian. Surprisingly, even the character Ezel Berbier, from the “dream” FFTA Ivalice, makes an appearance.
As far as gameplay and controls are concerned, its pretty much standard FFT fare. One screen displays actions while the other displays status, and the point is to move your forces around and defeat the opposing forces. There are some downsides. The camera is lacking. It is the same kind used in FFTA, so you can occasionally lose track of characters behind objects in the environment.
There are plenty of customization options though. Returning classes include humes, viera, moogles, bangaa and nu mou. The new classes for them are samurai (hume), devout (hume), green mage (viera), magic fencer (viera), chocobo knight (moogle), magic gunner (moogle), master monk (bangaa), gunner (bangaa), trickster (bangaa), arcane mage (nu mou) and scholar (nu mou). Seeqs and Gria, a dragon winged race which look a lot like the Aegyl, are new to FFTA2, and each have only a few job options. Seeqs can be beserkers, rangers, lanistas and vikings and Gria can be a knight-like class called b*****ds (yes, it is the objectionable word you’re thinking of), geomancers, hunters and raptors.
I was also a little disappointed in the story, especially when you compare FFTA2 to FFT and FFTA. FFT had you going through the events of a war, trying to help save people and make a difference and dealing with divisions between friends. FFTA had a young boy trying to reunite with and save his friends, all while trying to find a way to return home again. FFTA2 has a kid who accidentally gets sucked in and decides to sight-see. It isn’t exactly riveting.
On a personal note, the FFT Ivalice thing just boggles my mind. First there is FFT, but Balthier shows up in there. Then there was FFTA, which is allegedly set in a sort of “dream” Ivalice. However Ezel Berbier, a Nu Mou character from FFTA shows up in FFTA2, a title set in the “real” Ivalice and Monteblanc shows up in FFTA, FFXII, FFXII:RW and FFTA2. Then there are FFXII and FFXII: RW, both of which focus on events in the real Ivalice and are probably the least confusing. FFTA2 comes after that, and it takes place in the real Ivalice even though the main character, Luso, gets there from the real world through an enchanted book, the same method Marshe and his friends do in FFTA. Oddly enough, the Aegyl, the new race in FFXII: RW do not appear in FFTA2, and instead the new Gria race appears. It’s just too much for me.
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