FFTA2 Story lacking?

[CimminyCricket]

I'm probably 74 hours into FFTA2 and I haven't done too much more than 146 quests most of them not being story I've just had the magicite stolen from me and I've been comparing this story to the first FFTA and even the original FFT. I'm hoping that I'm not too far into the story at all because so far I'm not enjoying the story at all. I love doing the quests and the missions and what have you, but I don't enjoy playing the story missions for anything other than the ability points. Does the story get better than what I'm experiencing or am I shit out of luck?

[Roto13]

It's not a great story. But then, neither are the other FFT stories. Ivalice is a great setting but there aren't many great stories told about it.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sadly the main plot of FFTA2 is severely lacking compared to FFTA and the original FFTactics. The side missions are where the really cool story missions are. The main plot just kind of ends with a boss from out of nowhere and a bunch of villains with ambiguous motives at best. It's really the glaring flaw in an otherwise good game I'm afraid.

[Roogle]

I find that Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 have much weaker stories in comparison to its predecessor. I think that the main goal with those portable titles is that you enjoy the style of gameplay that it offers.

[CimminyCricket]

I agree, but A2 definitely has the least intriguing story. Part of the allure of the first Advance title was that I wanted to see how and where the characters from the real world were going to show up. So far what I've gathered from A2 is OH LOOK A CHARACTER WITH A DARK PAST! OH LOOK A CHARACTER WITH A SECRET PAST! OH LOOK A RANDOM ASS MOOGLE WHO MUST BE STORY RELATED! And then the thing with the journal is so strange, I feel like the first one dealt with the magic book in a much more interesting fashion.

[Skyblade]

Sadly the main plot of FFTA2 is severely lacking compared to FFTA and the original FFTactics. The side missions are where the really cool story missions are. The main plot just kind of ends with a boss from out of nowhere and a bunch of villains with ambiguous motives at best. It's really the glaring flaw in an otherwise good game I'm afraid.

Yeah, I have to say, as much as I love FFTA2, the story is pretty dang bad. Nowhere nearly as well written as the rest of the missions in the game, and horribly executed on top of that.

Considering the main story is only twenty quests long, it really should get off its butt sooner and get to the main story. You spend the first half of the game on things that are completely unrelated to the story, just investigating the world and the new mechanics. By the time the story actually settles down to begin, there is no space left to tell it.

The villains get no development in the main story at all. You learn more about Khamja through sidequests (The Carm Mercantile connection is great, but for insight into the main villains, should have been part of the main story) than you do through the main story. You get basically nothing on the individual characters because they are only around for like 5 missions, if that. Putting Vaan, Penelo, and Al Cid in the main story was a horrible idea as well, because they can't be developed any more than the rest of the characters there, and they are taking up time that could be spent working on other characters.

The handling of the exposition is also really, really bad. Shortly after the magicite theft, you receive a cutscene that explains away a ton of plot points that almost all should have been dealt with through missions. The assault on Baron Beltorey's manse alone should have been at least two (preferably more) missions that would let us develop Khamja, pay of the White Magicite, develop Vaan and Penelo a bit, use Al Cid's information network, and basically just show instead of tell.

The game's main plot is really, really weak. But nearly every side story is purely awesome, including the existence of the single best secret character in FF history.

[TrollHunter]

I have two huge problems with A2, as much as I love it to pieces.
The games AI is so broken I have to severely handicap myself to maintain a challenge.
Annnd the main story/characters never appealed to me (not to mention most of them have awful character design, especially luso and cid)
Hell, if I remember correctly certain side-quest chains are longer (and FARRRRR more awesome) than the actual main-story-line itself.
I adored the side-quest. Heck, this is one of the few games I got really close to doing everything, but the story-line to me is just an obstacle to get to the next batch of side-quests.