|
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
|
|
|
|
|
Publisher Region Released Square Enix NA 06/24/2008 |
|
Your Account Options
You currently have no privileges related to this game profile because you are not signed into an HonestGamers account. Please log in, or click to register for a free user account.
|
More Reviews by timrod
|
|
 |
Live A Live (Super Nintendo)
It’s rare these days to see the Square-Enix name within a mile of anything original. “Rehashing sells” has been their motto for the past few years, to the detri... |
 |
|
 |
The Longest Journey (PC)
About a week ago, I got introduced to The Longest (-winded) Journey, which people told me was the best point-and-click adventure game ever made, and that I wou... |
 |
3x3 Eyes: Juuma Houkan (Super Nintendo)
There comes a time in every man’s life when for the sake of a seemingly pointless competition he is required to review a game whose name is a number because he ... |
 |
World of Goo (PC)
In this day and age, marking a game as “casual” is usually a kiss of death, forever putting it into the same genre as non-games like Brain Age, Wii Fit, and Wii... |
|
Best DS Games
|
|
|
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
Average Rating: 9.5; Reviews: 2 |
|
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Average Rating: 9.3; Reviews: 3 |
|
Elite Beat Agents
Average Rating: 9.3; Reviews: 3 |
|
Space Invaders Extreme
Average Rating: 9.3; Reviews: 2 |
|
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Average Rating: 9.3; Reviews: 3 |
|
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Average Rating: 9.3; Reviews: 4 |
|
Mario Kart DS
Average Rating: 9.2; Reviews: 5 |
|
Pokemon Pearl
Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 4 |
|
Ossu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 4 |
|
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 2 |
|
Looking for a good read?
Check out a selection from our database of more than 8000 reviews! honestgamer has weighed in on Toy Shop for the DS and figures it rates 3 out of 10. What do you think? Read the review, then be sure to leave feedback or chime in with one of your own! |
Systems > DS > F > Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift > User Review
Sign up for a free user account and you can leave feedback for this review or even submit a game review of your own!
Review by timrod
July 02, 2008
Final Fantasy Tactics A(dvance)2 is the ultimate example of another Square-Enix abortion, the same uninspired math simulator they release ten times a year. What’s puzzling is why they would even attempt to release it, seeing as how Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was considered by many to be one of the worst JRPGs ever made. FFTA had the worst of everything – a bad plot, the Judge system, the same belt-and-zipper character designs as every other Final Fantasy game.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is essentially the same as FFT Advance, except with a different main character and those gimmick races from Final Fantasy XI added in. The plot goes something like this: You play as Luso, a generic Tetusya Nomura gayboy who gets sucked into the magical land of Ivalice. After finding an outfit that would be called too flambouyant in a San Francisco gay bar, complete with a giant pizza cutter sword and plenty of belts and zippers (also tights), Luso goes on a quest to save the world or something, the same as every other Final Fantasy game ever released.
The actual gameplay is the same horrid crap as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. There’s a world map split up into nodes. Certain areas have cities, which contain pubs that allow you to purchase the rights to various quests for large amounts of generic currency. The battle system is exactly the same as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Each warzone is split up into grid squares. Your characters can move a certain amount of squares every turn, and then attack if they’re within range. What makes this damn near impossible is the return of the unwanted and utterly retarded Judge system. Under the Judge system, you are forbidden from doing various actions on the battlefield, at the penalty of not being able to ressurect dead characters or use your “clan privilege”, which gives a small boost to certain stats. The key problem here is that the laws you are forced to follow are in most cases not even something you can control. Take for instance a law like “No being robbed” on a map full of thieves, or “No missing”, or “No critical hits”. Following the law gives you a mere pittance of randomized items that may or may not be worthwhile.
You’d think that the battle system would be bad enough with just the Judges, but it gets worse. The controls for fighting get in the way even more than the Judges do. The entire game is in an isometric view, and you usually will wind up pressing the D-Pad at random to try to figure out what direction is what every time you enter battle. On top of that is the completely retarded idea of everything other than physical attacks having an area-of-effect. Healing spells, for instance, will heal not only your target, but everything in a one-square radius of your target. This makes for extremely annoying battles when, say, your Paladin tank is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and you want to heal him, only you can’t because if you do, you’ll heal all the enemies as well. Damage spells work the same way.
The final nail in this game’s coffin is the needlessly convoluted class system. While the intention of the developers was clearly to attempt to “balance” the classes from FFT Advance (where Assassins were gods and everything else was crap), they only wound up remaking the same unbalanced system they had to begin with. Certain classes have been split up to nullify their usefulness. Most notable is the split between white and green mages. White mages can no longer buff or debuff, but can heal and ressurect. Green mages can buff and debuff but have no heals. Then you have the three generic melee classes – Soldier, Warrior, and Fighter. The three classes are exactly the same for all intents and purposes except that they learn their abilities differently.
The main problem with the class system is the way your characters learn abilities. The only way to do so is by equipping them with new gear that has an ability attached to it until your character “masters” it and can use it without having the item equipped and switch to new equipment to learn a new move. The problem is that the only way to get new equipment is to win loot items from battles, take them to a shop, and have them put on the bazaar in order to get the capability to buy new items. Most of the items early on are for classes you will not even have until the end of the game, leaving your poor saps with the basic moves they started with until you can grind out new gear.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and other games like it are the reason Square-Enix is dying. Until the company learns that rehashing the same game does not mean sales, the company will continue to die. FFTA2 is utterly unlikeable unless you’re one of those retarded mouthbreathing three hundred pound preteen yaoi fangirls who think that Final Fantasy 7 was the best game ever made and that Square-Enix invented video games. For normal people, this game sucks. FFTA2 deserves the four that it gets.
Rating: 4/10
|
|
|
|
You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!
|
|
|
Info |
Help |
Privacy Policy |
Contact |
Advertise
|
© 1998-2012 HonestGamers None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. |
