Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
Interesting, sounds like they do some really cool things with the battle system, I'll definitely have to do more research on it. I know how highly you though of TA so this must be pretty good for you to call it a vast improvement.
My heart and soul will always belong to FFTactics but I do like TA and I feel it gets push around for some silly reasons.

That being said, I do have my gripes with TA's system. The TA series has always been way too toned down and streamlined for my taste but I'm a crazy stat junkie and TA series just cannot hold up to my needs and wants. TA2 tries its best to make the pain a little less severe but I still find myself wishing there were faster ways to level jobs and gain abilities. As well as a better system to acquire good abilities. Even in TA2, I'm still trying to track down monsters, so I can get the proper loot, so I can actually get the equipment I need to complete certain job classes.

Its not as bad as the original TA (still waiting on those items to make the Alchemist not suck) but the problem is still there and its frustrating when your close to a hundred hours and you are still waiting for certain abilities and equipment to be unlocked (what does the Ivalice team have against White Monks? Its like an act of god to get all their equipment). I still get annoyed cause I find myself advancing on the games terms.

But the sheer variety of missions and the fact that many of them have a real story behind them instead of "Oh, noes! Must stop Goblins" makes the missions far more enjoyable. If you are like me, you may have 10 hours of game time put in between each story mission cause its just so easy to ignore the main plot and just explore Ivalice. The side stories is where everything really shines cause that's where all the drama and depth of the game really lies. Like XII, they went out of their way to make Ivalice feel like a an actual place and I have more fond memories of NPCs than I do of my own party members (except Frimelda). Its like TA in that you shouldn't go into it thinking its like past games in the Tactics series.

Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
Is FFTA2 much better than FFTA? I played a bit of FFTA and while it was good, it just couldn't hold my interest sufficiently to go through it all. If FFTA didn't succeed, would it still be possible for me to really enjoy FFTA2 to make it worth getting?
It really depends on what you disliked about TA. For me, I felt TA2 was very slow in the beginning. Some classes are unlocked through missions so you are more limited in the beginning than previous entries. It does take awhile and few story missions to open up everything and get the most out of the title. If you are here for plot, I might say you should give the game a pass. If you want portable FFT action and FFT:WotL is not an option then I say go for it. The game really tries to lower the repetitiveness of battling and gameplay. Its new races and classes are very fun to me and the new classes bring in a few new ideas and concepts lacking in TA.