How long will I play Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Grimoire of the Rift?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Hundreds of quests, rich battle system, multiple races and job types

Cons: Fewer races and jobs than some other Nintendo DS releases.

The Bottom Line: 
Loads of quests, character races and jobs but the lack of random battle gameplay leaves me feeling less than thrilled to replay this game over and over again.

Author's Review
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the Nintendo DSi delivers the long lasting, customizable challenge that I have grown used to since Final Fantasy Legends was released for the Gameboy.  Many other portable video games found on the market today require you to learn complicated routines or even draw on the screen with a stylus for hours at a time.  Final Fantasy Tactics A2 uses a widely accepted battle system and instead only asks you to spend your time completing hundreds of quests.

What makes Final Fantasy Tactics A2 different and better than the competition?

Why does it take some people over 100 hours to complete the game?

Read On To Find Out!

The Story
Luso, the hero of the game, is about to begin summer vacation when he is unexpectedly assigned to the library to do some chores.  His curiosity gets the better of him and he opens a book off the shelf.  Inside he finds that the first few pages are filled out but as soon as he finds the blank pages he is drawn into the world of Ivalice.  The only way out is complete the pages of his own story which is now your task to help him complete.

The Instruction Manual
Your key to succeeding in this complicated role playing game is going to be the instruction manual.  Make no mistake, without the manual you will never achieve all of the goals in the game without it.  Square Enix understands this and created a 68 page manual to suit this important purpose.  All of the key elements like:  quests, races, jobs and wireless communications are covered in the manual.  Included is a section about getting a bonus clan privilege for your game.  If you place the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance game at the same time as you load this game you will get the new bonus feature.

If you, like me, were lost at the start of this game, I recommend buying the official strategy guide as well.  The Bradygames strategy guide for this game provides in-depth coverage of each job type as well as a tip page for each quest in the game.

Customizable Gameplay Of Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Many people are playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2 all the way through with a full party to get a sense of how the game feels.  Then, the fun begins by starting the game over again and playing with a focus on just one character. 

Experience
Gaining experience and levels in this game is dependent on how strong your foes are.  Weaker foes will mean minimal experience but this also a good strategy for the gamer wanting to maximize the power of a character.  Rather than constantly leveling up a character, you can instead choose to collect ability points which help them learn new skills.  Skills then lead to mastering new classes.  The stronger the class the more your player’s abilities increase at the time of leveling up.  As a result, a base fighter at level 20 will have much less hit points and strength than a Paladin of same level.

Upholding The Law
You will quickly learn that the law system is both your friend and enemy in this game.  A judge rules over each mission in the game and issues a law that must be followed to both get a reward and most importantly retain the ability to revive dead characters.  For example, a law may state that humes are not allowed to move more than one space per turn.  I find this feature gives the game another bit of challenge and keeps your interest.

Quests
The ability points discussed earlier are gained through completing quests and the scattered battles that occur throughout the game.  The game if filled with quests that act as your main gameplay interaction.  Gone are the days of random encounters and instead you must visit a pub and pay for the right to enter battle.  I do not like this because I am an old school random battle, experience grinder but that is the card I was dealt here.  You can trigger some random battles by winning an auction for regions of the world map.  Rival clans will likely try to wage battle against you out of anger and these are great times to gain extra experience or abilities outside the normal flow of the game.

Weapons, Armor And Items
In a rather strange twist to the role playing game genre, you cannot upgrade your weapons and even get most items through a bazaar market.  You must trade three items for every unique weapon that you wish to equip.  The judges to do offer items in reward for completing a mission without breaking the stated law but this is not a dependable way of scoring big items since many missions can only be played once.
 
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has the following races:  Hume, Viera, Moogle, Nu Mou, Bangaa, Seeq, Gria.  While this may sound like a lot, do not forget that the game Disgaea: Afternoon Of Darkness has over a dozen races and classes to pick from.

Another key limitation you should know about is that you can only bring six party members to each battle.  You still gain ability points for all clan members but the limitation affects the amount of experience that your clan can gain at once.


Graphics
Typical of all games designed with the tactics concept, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 uses a tiled 2D layout.  Sorry but this is not a 3D game like others in the Final Fantasy franchise.  Still, the graphics are good for the platform and you can expect little features like character animations to thrill you while you play this game.  The goal in games like this is to provide depth of character rather than wow you with Fira spells.

Sound
Unlike Hero's Saga Laevatein Tactics for DS, much more time was spent creating great in-battle music.  Multi-instrument sound tracks and different sound effects for almost all player actions makes this a fun game to crank up the sound on.  The game does not have any character voices but expect to find sound effects played during many of the dialogue sequences to help keep your attention.

Cheats And Tricks For Final Fantasy Tactics A2
You can get the clan ability Libra if you insert your Final Fantasy Tactics Advance game before loading this game.

Many clan abilities and classes are only unlockable by performing certain actions or completing quests in the game.  If you want to have the most powerful character, then you owe it to yourself to master unlocking these classes as early as possible in the game. 

Some of the seemingly impossible battles in the game can be won through random luck.  If you think you do not have a chance to beat a mission, try saving your game before the mission begins and choose the Luck 1 ability once the battle begins.  I have often made it through with only one party member left standing but at least I won!

Summary
For the Nintendo DSi this game is only rivaled in total possible gameplay time by Pokemon Platinum Version.  Yet in some respects your freedom to just grind up experience points is severely limited by the quest system in this game.  I really want to keep playing this game but do not see any advantage to playing it without the ability to powerup my weapons or create immensely powerful characters.  As a result, I have decided to leave this game on my shelf and move on to Pokemon Platinum Version.

In all I would give Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Grimoire Of The Rift two thumbs up but not five stars.