Since Tactics take place in the same timeline as XII....

[Marlowe Serpentarius]

I apologize in advance if I'm bumping a dead topic, but...

The only real problem (aside from the butchery of the main story, and, seriously, why did they do that when the rest of the game is as awesome as it is?) is that it attempts to directly tie FFTA to the rest of Ivalice, which can't be done.

How exactly is FFTA tied to FFTA2, again? The game's developers explicitly made it crystal clear in this interview that the world of TA2 isn't the same as its predecessor, making a clear differentiation between the illusion-based Ivalice and the real Ivalice; the Gran Grimoire created a fabrication for Mewt in the first game, but transported Luso to an actual world in the second. I'd say the most probable reason Tactics Advance isn't included in Ivalice Alliance is merely for the fact that it never was meant to occur in the timeline because it was readily acknowledged as a different world to begin with. The only real plot element tying the two games together is the St. Ivalice portion.

I don't see what recurring characters prove, either. The fact that they are recurring doesn't exclude one incarnation of a certain character as being a dream-based illusion in the first installment and the genuine article in the next.