Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Nintendo DS)

Overall Rating: 78%

Strategy RPGs, you would think, would be a natural fit for the DS given the touch screen, portability and wifi capabilities. Although FFTA2 does a good job of making a fun and addicting game, it would have been just as good had it been made on the GBA - and I think that's what lets it down. It hardly uses the DS's features - in fact, I find it easier to play with the buttons than the touch screen, the graphics are ...
...and the GBA outing actually had more in the way of multiplayer than this one does… so, you might be wondering, why does it get a good score? Because at the heart of it, it is a good game and it does its job as a game; it is fun.

The gameplay of the game is more or less standard fare for a strategy RPG. For what it does, it does it well - there is very little in the way of basic game mechanics that make it hard to play, or get in the ... more

Overall Rating: 78%

Strategy RPGs, you would think, would be a natural fit for the DS given the touch screen, portability and wifi capabilities. Although FFTA2 does a good job of making a fun and addicting game, it would have been just as good had it been made on the GBA - and I think that's what lets it down. It hardly uses the DS's features - in fact, I find it easier to play with the buttons than the touch screen, the graphics are about the same as the original FFTA on the GBA, and the GBA outing actually had more in the way of multiplayer than this one does… so, you might be wondering, why does it get a good score? Because at the heart of it, it is a good game and it does its job as a game; it is fun.

The gameplay of the game is more or less standard fare for a strategy RPG. For what it does, it does it well - there is very little in the way of basic game mechanics that make it hard to play, or get in the way of the fun. It's smooth, it runs well, the interface is clear, and the input is well done on a basic level. The more interesting features tend to complicate this, however - some of the ideas in the game are very good, and others not so good. The whole game is based on taking quests (which involve battles, finding items in battles, more battles, and occasionally a delivery quest). The fact that most of these are battle-based is not a problem though, because the battles are very good fun, and very well balanced. It never feels as though the game is too easy or too hard, and it does a great job of being challenging but not frustrating. This is where things start to get a bit annoying - the laws system.

In the first game, the laws were both annoying and punishing. In this version, it's not so bad - the laws are indeed annoying, and to a perfectionist like me, they can really get under your nose and get in the way. They have made the punishments for breaking the laws far less severe, but at the same time made the laws themselves… somewhat ridiculous. Examples of some of the most annoying are those that are beyond your control - one is that you are not allowed to miss, another being that you are not allowed to get a critical hit and knock an enemy back a square. Since it is entirely through chance that these situations arise, it really adds frustration into what is otherwise a good way of adding interest and colour to the battle system.

The game also suffers from another problem from FFTA, and that is the lack of much storyline - generally when I play an RPG, I expect it to have some kind of good story to keep me going. FFTA surprised me when the storyline was fairly minimal - it felt, at times, like I was playing just for the sake of playing - and I get the same feeling from this game. The game does somehow manage to still be addictive though, because it has that charm about it, but I can't help but feel it would've been better with a real storyline, other than the old "boy gets sucked into a book and lands in another world, has to escape" routine.

The graphics of the game are stylistically very nice. I like the character illustrations, and the pixel art is excellent. It does look very good - and while it doesn't necessarily use the DS to its full potential, I feel the graphics suit the game well, and just… work. The audio side of things is fairly average, with the music fitting but not really being very memorable, and the sound effects being the usual stuff, with nothing that really stands out.

FFTA2 is a very fun game, but reflecting on it, it is hard to put across exactly what it is that makes it a good game. Everything is fairly average, and it certainly doesn't make great of the DS's features, but it has a certain charm about it that will keep you coming back for more (provided strategy RPGs are the kind of games you like to play). It also has a wealth of missions to do, and it's a game suited to the mobile gaming platform as it's very easy to pick up, play a quest then put down again. I'd say buy it if you liked the first FFTA, don't buy it if you didn't because not enough has changed, and give it shot if you haven't played FFTA but like strategy RPGs.

Disclaimer; I post all my reviews on multiple reviewing sites under the username "Ultima2876", where applicable. 

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