Here's another in what seems to be a barrage from me. Ravenwoods has been busy lately and he apologizes profusely. Well, as promised, today is indeed Saturday, and I will keep my word and present you with my OurView of FFTA2. So lets jump right in!
Long was the time I waited for the localized version of this game to come out. And when it did come out, boy was I excited. Now you're probably wondering why I'm posting this so long after the game has come out. Well its because I only recently finished the game and I just needed to share my views on this game with the rest of the DS playing world. First of all, I want to warn you, I may get caught up in my OurView and get a little bit sidetracked, but bear with me.
Lets take it from the top. FFTA2 is a strategy RPG game (much like Fire Emblem, discussed in my Fire Emblem Love article) published by Square Enix (ooh...ahh). So automatically we expect a great game right? Well, you get what you expect with this game, as it truly is the deepest strategy RPG available for DS at this time (with maybe the exception of Disgaea DS, but FFTA2 came out before Disgaea DS so...yeah). The only crap part about the game is the horrendously childish story. Its about a kid who gets sucked into a book and is warped to a different dimension where he battles other creatures and meets friends who are different races to people (including moogles... more on moogles later). But yeah you play as Luso (Robinson Cruzo, anyone?), and you go to this world in a different dimension to discover that you need to fill a journal with memories and when the book runs out of pages you go back to your world. That's about as unexciting as a game storyline can get. Its just so boring. There's no diabolical bad guy, you just solve daily problems like escort people around and defeat wanted creatures that are posted up in the local 'pub'. Yeah I said Pub because the game chose not to call them Inns. I know, strange.
This means there's no sense of urgency or there's no real enemy to chase, you just do stuff pretty much to get to your final objective. While eventually you do meet a diabolical bad guy, the game never tells the story in a convincing enough way, that I totally forgot that there even WAS a story. I was just playing because I wanted to make my character kick major ass. The music never sets the mood right in the numerous cut scenes in the game and Luso himself is as shallow a protagonist as it gets. He doesn't have a complex character at all, he's just this kid who wants to have an adventure. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I never got that spine tingling feeling when reading through the cut scenes. That for me is a great story in a game - if it can make my spine tingle at least once, that's good enough for me. This game didn't even come close. If you're over the age of 15, you'll probably feel ashamed at some point for playing a game that is seriously trying to sell such a childish, ridiculous story.
But that's where the criticism ends for me. Apart from the storyline, the game is amazing. The controls work just as you'd like them, (though there is touch screen functionality, it sucks hugely). You take turns moving your characters on a chessboard like map. At the end of battles you earn experience that goes towards leveling characters who took part in battle. After battle, you are presented with your spoils of war and AP points. AP points are what you use to master abilities. Each character in your clan has a job, in other words a class which you choose. The equipment you choose to use determines what abilities which character can use, and if equipped with the right items, allows them to master abilities and advance in their job levels. This all sounds very complicated, because it is. The game has a very steep learning curve. It will take you upwards of 2 hours to figure out just what the hell's going on and how the game works. But when you figure it out, you'll feel like you just learn't how to take a shit while doing the macarena. Yeah, its that great.
So this radical battle system is great and obviously extremely deep. But you get to a point where you need to advance more job levels to get to better jobs, but to do it you need better items (because with certain items for certain jobs, you master new abilities). What do you do then? You go and make your own gear! Well, almost. You go to the 'bazaar' and give up raw materials you collect during battles and turn them into cool items. There is a rather lengthy list of item types you can build, and each item type has 5 ranks of gear, from A to E grade items. If you have the right materials, it is indicated on the chart, and you are able to create that item. But be warned, creating the item doesn't mean you own it! You must then purchase the item as well.
All this is pretty fun but the battles take a long time to complete. Sometimes you just wish there was an auto-battle system and you could get it over and done with. That's where the dispatch system comes into play. You can send clan members to do jobs for you while you go off and do your own quests. This is the optimal way to play the game. As I promised about the moogles. Yes there are moogles who you fight and who fight for you. They make cute sounds and well... they're moogles for god's sake. Pretend for a second you don't know what a moogle is. Moogles are the mascot of the Final Fantasy series and they have appeared in pretty much every FF game after FF6. Allow me to continue now.
Now lets get to deeper elements of the game. The job system allows for really deep game play, posing questions such as: what will my main team consist of? How many of what job? Should I have spellcasters? How many do I want? What abilities should I equip? Which characters should use Items? and so forth. But when you think of it logically, the answers are very very clear.
Take a long hard look at the game after you've sunk 25 hours into it and you see that all that depth is pretty useless. Build a team of 4 ranged units (fusiliers, cannoneers, archers, assassins, snipers you choose) 1 thief and a soldier/parivir character and you've won every battle in the game. Plain and simple. You don't even need that thief, the thief is just to have a little more fun in the game. What's the strategy? Just stay where you are and shoot the shit out of the enemies as they helplessly come to you. When they get close charmshot or sleep as many as you can. Watch the ensuing carnage. If any are asleep, go and steal their accessories (if you like them). Use the parivir to smash the crap out of any toughies. Done deal. Healing, you say. No problem. cannoneers have ether shot and potion shot to spruce up any injured team members instantly from ridiculous distances, for no mana cost.
But I guess half the fun is getting to that 25 hour mark and deciding just which strategy is best for you. Either way, this is an entertaining title that will keep you playing for over 50 hours if you really like strategy RPG's. If you don't like the genre in general, stay far far away as you will bore of it in about 4 minutes (just about when Luso is still in school just about to get sucked into that
book). Thanks to you all for reading!
Want to try FF:TA2 for yourself? Well then be my guest! Download here!
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