Final Fantasy Tactics A2

[quote name='lilboo']So what's a green mage? Is it like some earth friendly fighter?

PLANTS TREEGA X ALL[/quote]

I like how the website says they 'cripple foes'. Is that what happened to Doned? :lol:
 
Where are your guys getting your copies. I'm thinking during TRU's b2g1 but their inventory is usually crappy during those sales
 
I probably won't be picking this up on Day 1, (playing Revenant Wings and Phoenix Wright 3 right now), but I'll definitely be getting it eventually. FFTA ruled my life for months (largely because it was on the GBA and I could play it while watching TV, going places, etc. without pissing off the Mrs.). I seriously logged something like 1,000 hours in the game (though a lot of that time was leaving it paused, or just not paying attention in between turns and doing something else).

Hope the player's guide is good. I used that thing a ton with FFTA to get the classes I wanted.

[quote name='StinkyCheese']I like how the website says they 'cripple foes'. Is that what happened to Doned? :lol:[/quote]

It makes me sad that I got that. :cry:
 
Hmmm I don't know, maybe I'm a little alienated and burnt out after playing Luminous Arc. This is a good game, but I don't know if I'm enjoying it yet.
 
[quote name='Moxio']You assholes better be playing this: it's better than FFTA.[/QUOTE]

Could you give specifics? What makes it better? I popped my FFTA into my GBMicro and damn if it didn't hook me again.
 
[quote name='keithp']Could you give specifics? What makes it better? I popped my FFTA into my GBMicro and damn if it didn't hook me again.[/QUOTE]

Here's a mini review for you guys. I've invested about ~15 hours so far.

--

Graphics: The sprites look fairly similar to FFTA (no surprise there), but the backgrounds and magic animations look beautiful. Seriously, they're so detailed I actually take notice in each new environment to look at every part strictly for eye candy.

Gameplay: The big one, obviously. While some moves/attacks have changed and there are new jobs, the game plays virtually the same.

In regards to the job system, something new is that you actually need to "unlock" some classes by doing specific quests. For example, you have to unlock Fighter and Beastmaster, to name a couple. It's a bit of an inconvenience, but certainly not big enough to ruin the game. I'm enjoying unlocking new classes through A-skills still.

On the battlefield, I've noticed a couple of differences from FFTA. The first is that attacks seem to hit much more often; gone are the days where a front attack had but a 43% change to hit, now it's ~88% or so. This applies to both you and your enemy, but missing less for me certainly helps my blood pressure. :lol: Second, the game seems to be harder and slower. The harder part definitely makes the game more exciting, but the game seems to have slowed down a bit. If you don't mind setting aside ~20 minutes for each quest, then you'll be fine.

You'll immediately notice that the game's art and style is completely FFXII: the music, the renamed spells (Magic is now Magick). The biggest, probably, FFXII change is that now you have a Bazaar in the shop. What about it? Well, instead of earning weapons from your quests, you earn Loot (sound familiar?). Then, you use the Loot in certain combinations in the Bazaar to unlock new weapons/armor in the Shop. It's kind of a weird process, but it works. One downside is that you seemingly unlock different weapons/armors randomly because you don't really know what combos unlock what, so you end up after every quest going to the Bazaar in hopes of unlocking something.

A couple other changes are the overworld maps (which are now pieces), the less-stricts Laws, etc.

Music: Not much to say here. If you liked FFXII's music, you'll like it here too.

Controls: While there's still no rotating ability, it's not too necessary; usually you can see everything fine.




Overall, my impression with the game is positive. I'd definitely say it's better than FFTA; it's a lot more mature (outside of the main character Luso) and just as addictive. The Bazaar system is, well, bizarre, and there are a couple of changes that make me scratch my head, but all in all this is a great game and the upped difficulty definitely makes it more fun.
 
Thanks for that moxio! i should pick this up as soon as it releases over here - on june 27th

I'm so glad that this game had such a close release dates to the americans, because you know whats also coming out in the Uk this week? Brawl.

I'm not even going to buy it to fuck with nintendo >: ]
 
I'm glad to hear this one is more mature, but the I also read somewhere the story is still somewhat juvenile. I still dislike weapons-based skill learning.

I'll probably pick it up eventually, but I definitely want a price drop first. It ended up being pretty easy to pick the first one up for 15 bucks.
 
I thought the story was fine in FFTA, if more than a little bit derivative of The Neverending Story and similar tales. But I never played the original FFT.

Ugh...Bradygames is doing the guide? It makes me sad that Nintendo Power doesn't do guides anymore.
 
Thanks Moxio!

What about the clunky inventory screen, did they fix it so it's easier to see how different items affect stats?
 
[quote name='DQT']I'm glad to hear this one is more mature, but the I also read somewhere the story is still somewhat juvenile. I still dislike weapons-based skill learning.

I'll probably pick it up eventually, but I definitely want a price drop first. It ended up being pretty easy to pick the first one up for 15 bucks.[/QUOTE]

Don't expect anything too deep, of course. Maturity is in the eye of the beholder; I'm saying in comparison to FFTA, this is more mature. I mean, one of the characters actually gets
shot in the street
.
 
[quote name='keithp']Thanks Moxio!

What about the clunky inventory screen, did they fix it so it's easier to see how different items affect stats?[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind there are two screens, so yes. For example, when shopping, you can go in a Fitting Room and try on all the weapons/armors and you can simultaneously see the stats they affect, abilities, etc at the same time.
 
I'll definitely be picking this up as soon as I can find it for $20, just like the rest of the SE DS games I own.

It doesnt matter how good it is, $40 standalone games should flop, no exceptions.
 
Damn, I'm a FFT fanatic, it's the only way SE gets my money these days, but I'll wait for at least $30 before I pick it up. I recall The World Ends With You being on sale for $30 like, a week or two after release at Circuit City, so I imagine they'll do the same for this. Though I'm tempted to just get it at TRU this week for the B2G1 since I'll be picking up two copies anyway, just gotta find a 3rd game I'd want.

Thanks for the impressions Moxio, glad to hear it's a good game. I imagine they aren't, but are the stylus controls any good?
 
Im enjoying it more then the first so far. DOnt want to say much else at the moment because im only a few quests into the game.
 
So far, I'm enjoying this game. The new improvements are pretty nice such as notification when a character master a skill, experience distribution among party members(similar to jeanne d arc), new jobs, more quests, make good use of dual screen by display statical data on top screen and better strategic placement system, attacking from behind or rear actually affects the damage or avoid percentage.

My biggest beef with his game is it's incredibly slow pace. You have to watch every freaking attack, movement/ item confirmation or movement animation. I wish they used the Fire Emblem skip animation option because this kinda of thing drives me nuts. Also, I prefer the old method of unlock skills through job points instead of new method of unlocking skills by equipment.
 
[quote name='fatbeer']Also, I prefer the old method of unlock skills through job points instead of new method of unlocking skills by equipment.[/quote]

Who doesn't? I've played FF9 and FFTA for tons and tons of hours. Weapons based learning is very stupid. The original FFT nailed it.

I managed to get some entertainment from these games despite that. A2 probably won't be any different.
 
[quote name='DQT']Who doesn't? I've played FF9 and FFTA for tons and tons of hours. Weapons based learning is very stupid. The original FFT nailed it.

I managed to get some entertainment from these games despite that. A2 probably won't be any different.[/QUOTE]

While I think the first FFT nailed it I think FFIX was great too. I mean im ok with weapon based learning but it was sweeeet being able to equip as many skills as you could in IX!
 
I put 65h into FFTA and about that into Tactics Orge. I couldnt wait for this title and so far I am liking it. Back when the DS came out I thought of all the cool things they could do to make FFTA better on the DS with the stylus. I see they have not done much along those lines and that sucks. One of my biggest gripes thus far is the fact that in FFTA if you were casting an AOE spell you saw right off what areas it would hit and on here you have to go one click in to see that. Also I cant find a way to rotate the camera which sucks because you could do that on FFT on PSP at least. But I like it none the less. Oh and after seeing what the DS could do graphicaly I cant believe they didnt raise the bar higher on this title.
 
[quote name='BREVITY']I put 65h into FFTA and about that into Tactics Orge. I couldnt wait for this title and so far I am liking it. Back when the DS came out I thought of all the cool things they could do to make FFTA better on the DS with the stylus. I see they have not done much along those lines and that sucks. One of my biggest gripes thus far is the fact that in FFTA if you were casting an AOE spell you saw right off what areas it would hit and on here you have to go one click in to see that. Also I cant find a way to rotate the camera which sucks because you could do that on FFT on PSP at least. But I like it none the less. Oh and after seeing what the DS could do graphicaly I cant believe they didnt raise the bar higher on this title.[/QUOTE]

Agreed on all points. While its a fun titles the graphics should have been a lot better, it should have had a rotating camera and you should be able to see your AoE spells.
 
[quote name='fatbeer']So far, I'm enjoying this game. The new improvements are pretty nice such as notification when a character master a skill, experience distribution among party members(similar to jeanne d arc), new jobs, more quests, make good use of dual screen by display statical data on top screen and better strategic placement system, attacking from behind or rear actually affects the damage or avoid percentage.

My biggest beef with his game is it's incredibly slow pace. You have to watch every freaking attack, movement/ item confirmation or movement animation. I wish they used the Fire Emblem skip animation option because this kinda of thing drives me nuts. Also, I prefer the old method of unlock skills through job points instead of new method of unlocking skills by equipment.[/quote]

I agree with this 100%. But, this is still in my DS and probably will be for a decently long while. :)

/tk
 
FFTA2 is a great game. But I too agree there should be some CPU turn skip or at least some sort of animation speed up. I tend to doze off 5 minutes into the game, literally.

To tell the truth, I'm not very far into it, but is there a certain point in the game where I can hire recruits? I'm a little racist, especially against moogles and nu mou (sp?).
 
[quote name='option.iv']FFTA2 is a great game. But I too agree there should be some CPU turn skip or at least some sort of animation speed up. I tend to doze off 5 minutes into the game, literally.

To tell the truth, I'm not very far into it, but is there a certain point in the game where I can hire recruits? I'm a little racist, especially against moogles and nu mou (sp?).[/QUOTE]

What wrong with moogles and nu mous? There so cute. Anyway, back on topic, you can't hire recruits. You can get recruits on random appearance in maps with question symbol or do a quest called "clan mates". The problem is you don't know what species you might get, it's random. I know that sucks, but at least your new recruits will be the same level as you. No need to grind under leveled characters.


Yeah, the game is so really slow. To bypass animation time I'm browse the internet while playing the game at same time. I finished over 100+ quest. I feel like dispatching most quests so I don't have to deal with slowness, but I lose all battle benefits- item drop enemies, experience, judge item bonus and loot steals.
 
My complaint about Nu Mous is that I was stuck with one that could only be either a White Mage or a Black Mage for the first four hours of the game (until I unlocked Beastmaster). That was frustrating because I didn't have any way for him to learn more skills.
 
Saw the review on X-Play today. Positive review. Definitely going to get this game (later used with a coupon). It's fine...gives me time to play the GBA version (bought it a long time ago and have not played it yet...)
 
If I might add:

MASTER MONKS ARE INSANELY AWESOME. Seriously, they kick the shit out of almost everyone.

Cross-counter = :drool:
 
[quote name='fatbeer']What wrong with moogles and nu mous? There so cute. Anyway, back on topic, you can't hire recruits. You can get recruits on random appearance in maps with question symbol or do a quest called "clan mates". The problem is you don't know what species you might get, it's random. I know that sucks, but at least your new recruits will be the same level as you. No need to grind under leveled characters.


Yeah, the game is so really slow. To bypass animation time I'm browse the internet while playing the game at same time. I finished over 100+ quest. I feel like dispatching most quests so I don't have to deal with slowness, but I lose all battle benefits- item drop enemies, experience, judge item bonus and loot steals.[/QUOTE]

This part of the game really did piss me off. I mean it wouldn't matter if the races had statistical differences but they all could be the same classes. However they stupidly made it so certain races could only be certain classes. Thats probably my second biggest complaint with this game(the first being how difficult it can be to find weapons for classes, iv not found a new one in my 15 hours or so of playing for my damn mage or thief yet).

When you mix those 2 things together this makes FFTA2 a very fun game.....but at times a practice in patience and frustration. Its so annoying being stuck with only 2 or 3 classes for so much of the game. I mean seriously 15 hours in and my damn mage and theif are still stuck in the same classes.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']This part of the game really did piss me off. I mean it wouldn't matter if the races had statistical differences but they all could be the same classes. However they stupidly made it so certain races could only be certain classes. Thats probably my second biggest complaint with this game(the first being how difficult it can be to find weapons for classes, iv not found a new one in my 15 hours or so of playing for my damn mage or thief yet).

When you mix those 2 things together this makes FFTA2 a very fun game.....but at times a practice in patience and frustration. Its so annoying being stuck with only 2 or 3 classes for so much of the game. I mean seriously 15 hours in and my damn mage and theif are still stuck in the same classes.[/QUOTE]

I have neither of those problems(earning new job class or weapons) since majority of my time is focus around the side quests. I have more then enough ingredients to craft a variety of weapons. If your focusing on main mission rather then side quests, your losing out on a lot of stuff. Which kinda stupid, they place so many restrictions on some basic necessity, it forces you to do those sidequests.
 
[quote name='fatbeer']I have neither of those problems(earning new job class or weapons) since majority of my time is focus around the side quests. I have more then enough ingredients to craft a variety of weapons. If your focusing on main mission rather then side quests, your losing out on a lot of stuff. Which kinda stupid, they place so many restrictions on some basic necessity, it forces you to do those sidequests.[/QUOTE]

Iv only done like 4 or 5 story missions. Seriously, iv done almost every last side mission, messed with the auction house and raised my clan levels.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Iv only done like 4 or 5 story missions. Seriously, iv done almost every last side mission, messed with the auction house and raised my clan levels.[/QUOTE]

Hmm.. you either level up too fast with your jobs or not doing enough story missions to unlock new quests. Maybe you should do a few story quest first. If not, go check your quest roster and look at tab named "other". Make sure most of them have a check mark on them. If there isn't a check mark, click on quest to view how many days for that quest to reappear. You can sleep at house at Aldanna Range to skip time.
 
Even though I said I would not buy it because it has the Judges still, they have been changed enough for me to dive in. I just picked it up with some GS credit along with Etrian Odyssey II.
 
Cant believe you guys are having problems getting jobs and weapons. I'm 14 hours in using AP+1 every fight, about 30 quests completed and I can't seem to keep up with the amount of skills i still have to learn.

As for recruiting eventually recruits start randomly showing up, but you can tell what race you will get from the month they show up. More info at gamefaqs, as i haven't quite gotten to the recruitment stage yet.

i love the bazaar so far, and the randomness of getting loot/stealing from enemies. Knowing that one or 2 different loot items could completely change the way in which a person unlocks/uses classes.
 
[quote name='hohez']Cant believe you guys are having problems getting jobs and weapons. I'm 14 hours in using AP+1 every fight, about 30 quests completed and I can't seem to keep up with the amount of skills i still have to learn.

As for recruiting eventually recruits start randomly showing up, but you can tell what race you will get from the month they show up. More info at gamefaqs, as i haven't quite gotten to the recruitment stage yet.

i love the bazaar so far, and the randomness of getting loot/stealing from enemies. Knowing that one or 2 different loot items could completely change the way in which a person unlocks/uses classes.[/QUOTE]

See and for a few classes thats been the case for me....others its drought. So like at first I couldnt find any swords for fighters......then bam I was flooded with swords. Flooded with stuff for green mage and more then anything flooded with bow after bow after bow after bow. Meanwhile cant find a dagger or mage staff at all(litterally have not found a single mage staff).
 
I'm not liking the bazaar idea. I'll get the classes I want like Ninja or gunner and find out I can't even get any halfway decent weapons because I don't have anything to sell to the bazaar.
 
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