FFTA2 First Impressions?

[Yar]

It's here! What's everyone's first impressions of "Ehh-tsu?"

I'm still getting into it. I've played an hour, and completed three missions. It's quite different from FFTA. The gaining EXP after battle bothers me, and the new law system seems "meh..."

The Bazaar system still confuses me, but that's probably just because I haven't use it yet!

[Skyblade]

Just got it, so no first impressions yet. Looking forward to seeing how it goes, though.

[Kenshin IV]

Better than FFTA, nowhere near the level of the original.

As the title would suggest, it's definitely Tactics Advance's sequel. So if you didn't like that one at all, you don't need to bother.

[ljkkjlcm9]

I like it...
the bazaar is better than FFXII because it actually tells you when you have the stuff to make an item, rather then guess work.

The exp after battle is weird, but it's a nice way to make sure people don't power level and make the game way too easy.

It's definitely the sequel, and pretty much good improvements all around. Law no longer really can hurt you, it really only rewards you if you abide by it.

THE JACKEL

[Dragonsoul]

Great! People are already posting about it! I got it today, the day of it's release. It's a great game! I'm also still playing Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, another great game, right now. I haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I beat Final Fantasy Tactics for PS 1 and PSP and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for DS, so I'm familiar with this type of game. Overall the game is great, but there are some small errors, not sure how big they are yet though. I played an hour through the game already, I love it! The strategy guide isn't out yet for some reason, I'll get it when it's out.

I will play an hour or two more of this game tonight, I've been waiting months and months for Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and it's finally here! I'll be posting more about this later today!

[ljkkjlcm9]

Let me just say 1 thing about the laws... yeah they're still annoying. Such as, no using attacks/spells/skills that attack an area. No using anything that requires MP. I've gotten these at bad times. Now, you can break the law, and the punishment is that the "Judge" leaves your clan for that battle. That means if someone dies, you can't revive them with a phoenix down for that battle. Also, if you abide by the law, you get a few reward items at the end of battle, so breaking the law loses these items.

Overall it's not too bad, but can still be pretty annoying. I'm playing through on hard, and I entered a "Tournament" quest, which was 3 battles in a row, and the law was, No MP. This sucked majorly as it was quite early in the game and my only area attacks are magic, and my only decent healing is the cure spell. Suffice it to say, I didn't complete the quest.

THE JACKEL

[Dragonsoul]

I haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA, I wonder how I'll react to the laws in this sequel. I have played an hour and a half of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift so far. Here are my first impressions...

Graphics:
I haven't seen any full motion videos yet, so I can't comment on that part, but they should have had one or two already! The characters and the backgrounds are pretty good so far, although not necessarily breathtaking, we'll see how it goes in the future. I prefer the graphics of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings a bit more than this so far. I haven't seen a ton of various attacks yet, so I can't comment too much about the special effects. But the Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder spells weren't as exciting as I want though, we'll see how the next spells look like. The menus are kinda good but nothing super exciting either.

Music/Sound:
The music is kinda good or good, but nothing too memorable from most of the songs I've heard so far, except for The Ozmone Plain song they used from Final Fantasy XII. Sound Effects I don't focus too much on, they are probably good enough though.

Controls:
The camera system in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is better. In Final Fantasy Tactics A2 you can't rotate the map, zoom in or out, or tilt the map. The rest of the controls seem good so far.

Battle System:
So far the battle system seems great, but I don't know a ton of information about it yet after the first 90 minutes. It looks to be great, but I'm not sure yet how it will compare to it's primary competitor, which is Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Also, I don't remember seeing a way to access a "turn order" listing in the battles.

Story:
So far the story is kinda good, but nothing really interesting. There needs to be more characters added and I usually prefer something more dramatic also. I'm 90 minutes into the game and the goals for the story aren't as concrete and laid out as I seem to prefer.

Characters:
So far we only have two characters introduced, main ones I mean. I want more information about these characters, I don't think we got enough yet. They seem good so far, but they aren't super special so far.

Length/Side quests:
I'm early in the game, but I'm told that the game has over 300 missions/errands you can run, which is great! I hope that they don't take forever and that they give you great rewards and are truly fun enough to be worth the effort. I also hope that there are other side quests to do also, and that the side quests aren't so long that it detracts from playing the game. I'm not sure what the length is but I hope that it's at least 30 hours.

That's my short first impression after playing the first 90 minutes of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. In short, the game is pretty good so far, but nothing super special yet along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions(10/10) and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings(9.5/10). My rating for the first 90 minutes of the game is a 8/10, which means that the final rating for the game probably will be around there as well. We'll see how it goes! Oh and this game is right about as good as Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I'm playing that game right now and it's on track for a 8/10 rating. It's Square Enix's other big game in the first half of 2008. The main competitors to Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift are: Disgaea 2, Jeanne D'Arc, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The general consensus among the gaming community is probably going to be that this game isn't as good as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions but that this game ranks right up there and competes with all the other top recent tactical rpg's I listed. I'm really excited about Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift! I hope it turns out to be great! !!!

[Krelian]

I'm still not sure if I should give it a try or not. I hated the laws in FFTA and they're still there. Oh well, I'll think about it.

[Arc_Master_14]

that is lie the laws are completley different now. if u dont break it you get a proze if u break it it makes the battle a bit more difficult because you cant revive dead peoples

[Roto13]

The music is kinda good or good, but nothing too memorable from most of the songs I've heard so far, except for The Ozmone Plain song they used from Final Fantasy XII.

That song was used in FFTA before it was used in FF XII.

I got it today and I've played it for about an hour and a half. So far it seems like FFTA only better, which works for me. I loved FFTA. Next step, looking up a list of jobs online. :P

[Yar]

I got it today and I've played it for about an hour and a half. So far it seems like FFTA only better, which works for me. I loved FFTA. Next step, looking up a list of jobs online. :P

Amen to that. It seems I am the only one who prefers TA to Tactics. Maybe that is now false?

[Roto13]

I prefer FFTA to FFT. xP

[ljkkjlcm9]

I also prefer TA to tactics... as for a list of jobs online...
ffta2 wiki / JobRequirement

job requirements... if you go back to the main page there, there's some other useful info. It's relatively new, so still growing, but the requirements for each job is complete.

THE JACKEL

[Dragonsoul]

Cool! Three people here prefer Final Fantasy Tactics Advance to Final Fantasy Tactics, but are you referencing the PS 1 or PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics? Also, you're talking about Final Fantasy Tactics Advance not Final Fantasy Tactics A2 right?

I've been looking forward to this game for months, it's great so far, but it's not as legendary as I hoped(as FF XII(9/10), FF XII: RW(9.5/10), and Alundra 1(9/10) were for me). I hope that I enjoy this game a lot. I am playing more of FF VII: CC right now though.

[Roto13]

The PS1 and PSP versions of FFT really aren't different enough to e talked about like they're different games. :P

I played it some more. I'm kind of amazed at how fast time flies when I'm playing this game. I start playing for a little while and before I know it it's an hour later. xD