Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift – Your first impressions?

I got it today, the day of it’s release. It’s a great game! I’m also still playing Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, another great game, right now. I haven’t played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I beat Final Fantasy Tactics for PS 1 and PSP and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for DS, so I’m familiar with this type of game. Overall the game is great, but there are some small errors, not sure how big they are yet though. I played an hour through the game already, I love it! The strategy guide isn’t out yet for some reason, I’ll get it when it’s out.

I will play an hour or two more of this game tonight, I’ve been waiting months and months for Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and it’s finally here! I’ll be posting more about this later today! 🙂

Just so you know, putting "Final Fantasy" on a game doesn’t make it great.

I have played an hour and a half of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift so far. Here are my first impressions…

Graphics:
I haven’t seen any full motion videos yet, so I can’t comment on that part, but they should have had one or two already! The characters and the backgrounds are pretty good so far, although not necessarily breathtaking, we’ll see how it goes in the future. I prefer the graphics of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings a bit more than this so far. I haven’t seen a ton of various attacks yet, so I can’t comment too much about the special effects. But the Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder spells weren’t as exciting as I want though, we’ll see how the next spells look like. The menus are kinda good but nothing super exciting either.

Music/Sound:
The music is kinda good or good, but nothing too memorable from most of the songs I’ve heard so far, except for The Ozmone Plain song they used from Final Fantasy XII. Sound Effects I don’t focus too much on, they are probably good enough though.

Controls:
The camera system in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is better. In Final Fantasy Tactics A2 you can’t rotate the map, zoom in or out, or tilt the map. The rest of the controls seem good so far.

Battle System:
So far the battle system seems great, but I don’t know a ton of information about it yet after the first 90 minutes. It looks to be great, but I’m not sure yet how it will compare to it’s primary competitor, which is Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Also, I don’t remember seeing a way to access a "turn order" listing in the battles.

Story:
So far the story is kinda good, but nothing really interesting. There needs to be more characters added and I usually prefer something more dramatic also. I’m 90 minutes into the game and the goals for the story aren’t as concrete and laid out as I seem to prefer.

Characters:
So far we only have two characters introduced, main ones I mean. I want more information about these characters, I don’t think we got enough yet. They seem good so far, but they aren’t super special so far.

Length/Side quests:
I’m early in the game, but I’m told that the game has over 300 missions/errands you can run, which is great! I hope that they don’t take forever and that they give you great rewards and are truly fun enough to be worth the effort. I also hope that there are other side quests to do also, and that the side quests aren’t so long that it detracts from playing the game. I’m not sure what the length is but I hope that it’s at least 30 hours.

That’s my short first impression after playing the first 90 minutes of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. In short, the game is pretty good so far, but nothing super special yet along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions(10/10) and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings(9.5/10). My rating for the first 90 minutes of the game is a 8/10, which means that the final rating for the game probably will be around there as well. We’ll see how it goes! Oh and this game is right about as good as Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I’m playing that game right now and it’s on track for a 8/10 rating. It’s Square Enix’s other big game in the first half of 2008. The main competitors to Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift are: Disgaea 2, Jeanne D’Arc, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The general consensus among the gaming community is probably going to be that this game isn’t as good as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions but that this game ranks right up there and competes with all the other top recent tactical rpg’s I listed. I’m really excited about Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift! I hope it turns out to be great! :)!!!

i just got it, but i haven’t played it yet. it looks awesome.

its a pretty good game.

Hi everyone! I’m a new member and happy to be part of the FF community. I just started playing FFTA2 and I’m loving it. I played the FFT adv, so I was expecting much of the same for this game. I can see that there will be hundreds of quests to occupy the gamer for days. The graphics are not groundbreaking, but still pleasing. I like the menu designs and the ability to trade in "loot" for new items and weapons. I haven’t played it long enough to really start getting into the advanced jobs, but so far it’s been hard to put down. Anyone that loves FFT should have fun with this game.

Great Moogle Mage! Welcome Bitty Bat! I believe that Final Fantasy Tactics A2 was developed for GBA and then ported over to DS. If that’s true then I’m not sure why they were developing for GBA since the DS came out close enough after the release of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. There are over 300 hundred quests! I need to get the strategy guide, it’s not out yet, but I think it’s released on Saturday. You should try Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions also! I gave that game a 10/10 score!!! 🙂

Just so you know, putting "Final Fantasy" on a game doesn’t make it great.

AMEN.

Thanks for the welcome Dragonsoul. I didn’t know that FFTA2 was originally developed for GBA, but I’m not surprised. The touch screen doesn’t come into play and the graphics aren’t much different than FFTA. For people that aren’t into long battles, this may not be the game for them. I’ve been playing for a couple of days and the progression is pretty slow in terms of changing jobs and major storyline developments. Also, the storyline is not as rich as some FF fans might hope. I happen to like tactical games, so I don’t mind long battles. The major difference that I’ve noted is in the laws for the battle. Previously, a character would be sent to prison when a law was broken, but now the clan privilege is removed and I think you lose some loot. You also can’t revive any characters in a battle that you’ve broken a law on. I know that the "laws" aspect of the game has annoyed some people.
Yes, I’m thinking of trying FF:war of the Lions. Thanks for the recommendation!

cos’im in australia, everything comes out really late, so i have to waste my time ordering it from the US or over ebay

In Usa we haven’t gotten the strategy guide yet for some reason, hopefully in Australia you get it on time. Anyways, I’m focusing on Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core right now. 🙂

EDIT:
I played a bit more tonight. I got to see the introduction of Adelle, the main female character. The reception on the forums for this game is pretty good. Anybody know why the strategy guide isn’t out yet? What do you think of the music for this game?

EDIT:
I’m starting to like this game more as I play it, although I am not super impressed by it still. I’m 8 hours and about 17 missions into this. It’s annoying sometimes because in order to continue the story you have to accept a quest and complete it, but you don’t know exactly which quest to accept. Adelle mentioned some quest for me to do in order to continue but I don’t remember which it was, so I’ll have to accept a few. Something like this happened before, I need some type of hint, I’ll find out soon though. The strategy guide isn’t available on Amazon.com now but I found one copy on Ebay and ordered it. Is there any drawback to selling loot? Should I sell everything or is there any reason to keep certain loot items for possible uses in another situation? The fitting rooms in the shops should have an optimize option.

How many hours do you think the game will take if I don’t do too much quests and mastering of jobs? I want to finish this game within six weeks, so I can get started on Final Fantasy I(PSP). How many hours does the game take if I did all the missions(400 exactly right?) and did most of the mastering of the jobs and all the sidequests?

I should be able to finish Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core on Friday, and then I can focus more on FF Tactics A2, which is nice. I hope that Square Enix announces another Ivalice game. Probably next would be a PSP port of Vagrant Story, or maybe Vagrant Story 2. I’m suprised that FF Tactics A2 is so popular, I didn’t expect this, it’s a great game though!

EDIT:
Great! I’m liking this game more as I play through it more. I like these tips you sent me in your post. Okay I won’t sell the loot just use it for the Bazaar, which I haven’t used yet. I wish we had more people on here from Japan who spoke Japanese and beat the original versions of the games. So we can find out how great and how long and how popular all these games are. We can find out in advance how ultimate Final Fantasy XIII is going to be.

At the moment I’m hoping that the battles speed up, everybody’s damage they do is not high, it takes a while to win. I want to see the second week sales of the game, the first week has 60k, nice!

Will Final Fantasy IV(DS) be more popular than FF Tactics A2? 🙂

EDIT:
I noticed that sometimes at the top of the screen I see a picture of Luso’s magical journal. It sometimes has words that appear in it suddenly as you go through the story. This I believe shows me what percentage of the main quest I have finished. I have finished 60% of the first of the two pages. So I’m 30% done overall with the main quest maybe? I’m 9 hours into the game and finished around 19 missions. It appears that this game is like Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core in the fact that the main quest is short but the side quests are extremely long. As far as "side quests" go, FF VII: CC has 300 missions which can be repetitive and not interesting enough, and average 7-10 minutes long. FF Tactics A2 has 400 quests which are a bit less repetitive and a bit more interesting, but probably are going to average 15-20 minutes in length. I played an hour today of this game, but I’ll play more, I’m getting more into this game, partially because it appears that I am going through the main quest fast. Maybe I can finish this game by the end of the month! 🙂

EDIT:
Whoa! A ton of posts recently, this game is extremely popular. Just checking in. I’ll beat Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core today, and that will give me more time to play Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. Although I may buy Final Fantasy I(PSP) today, not sure yet. I better decide in 2 hours before the store closes though!

I’m at a part where I have to collect a pearl. 🙂

I tried the original Tactics on the Playstation years ago and Tactics Advance on the Game Boy, but the genre really isn’t my cup of tea. I’m not too keen on Square Enix branching the Final Fantasy franchise out too far, I’d prefer they concentrate on the main series.

It’s a very good game, I bought it yesterday and couldn’t put it down. Why are Vaan and Penelo on the back cover? As far as i’m aware they only appear in one side-quest, I’ve also heard that you can recruit them but it would require lots of luck to do so without a guide.

Is this game canon with FFXII and Revenant wings? If so how much time has passed since revenant wings?

The game is set in the same world as FFXII and Revenant Wings (Ivalice), but I’m not exactly sure where it fits in the timeline.

The game is set in the same world as FFXII and Revenant Wings (Ivalice), but I’m not exactly sure where it fits in the timeline.

I know that it’s set in Ivalice but I was just wondering whether Vaan and Ashe are in the game just as easter eggs and really the game has no continuity with XII or vice versa.

According to Wikipedia, the Ivalice sections of the game are set some time after XII, but that’s about all I know.

First glance of this game: The Sprites are beautiful! Although A2 has taken a more child-friendly appearance to the game, it doesn’t really affect it in anyway. The graphics and illustrations are well defined and anything but dull. enjoy every second because every second you will be looking at this game constantly for hours.

Also, the game seriously gives you more than 100 hours of gameplay. There are tons and tons of quests to do and so many side quests to fullfill any unanswered questions obtained within the main story-line.

Obtaining equipment takes a new turn with the loot system. you obtain loot almost everytime you kill a monster/enemy. with combining certain loot you can unlock equipment in the stores bazaar. while more time consuming, this also means you can get really good equipment very early! (you can also get starter equipment very late aswell).

There are about 8+ characters who have thier own unique sprites and more new jobs to try out this time!

After finishing this game at 100hours i can say this game is worth playing. you will have alot of fun. for those though, who want to rush through this game and leave it to collect dust, this might not be for you. just to reveal, you will get alot more out of the sidequests than the main story, so its not a game to rush. take your time through this game, and you’ll surely enjoy it!

Have fun =)

I find the plot and characters a bit weak. Typical fearless and cheerful protagonist does not attract me that much. Nevertheless, I still like it because of the graphics, effects and music (:

I like it its my favorite of the three tactics games. I have played over one hundred hours!