Grimoire of the Rift is the 2007 sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Expectations were muted by comparison due to unfairly negative fan reaction to Advance, with its gameplay and story that differed quite a bit from fan favorite FF Tactics on the original Playstation.
Rift's story follows Luso Clemens, who is your typical JRPG child brat. He discovers a book while cleaning his school library as punishment for misbehaving in class. Upon opening it, he is sucked into the world of Ivalice, right into the middle of a battle with a giant creature. Luso is understandably freaked out. Luckily, this game's incarnation of Cid is promptly shown to save the player's skin. For no particular reason, Cid (who is actually a demihuman in this game) decides to offer Luso membership in his clan. Then the game begins.
Grimoire's graphics make great use of the increased capability of the Nintendo DS, akin to the visual improvement between Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and the DS' Dawn of Sorrow. The next gen bump is most apparent in the character models, even though the retained jobs from Tactics Advance are visually similar. They JUST look better.
The musical score is by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who also uses pieces from his score to Final Fantasy XII. Not being a fan of most of FFXII's music, I couldn't say which pieces were used. FFXII was a sharp fall from grace for Mr. Sakimoto, the composer of the classic scores to Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics.
Music in Grimoire consists mostly of remixes of tunes from Tactics Advance, suitably enhanced by the DS' superior sound chip. Most of the tunes from Advance were great for GBA music, and they fare even better in these new mixes. I also like the clan menu music, and a certain sky pirate's theme kicks major ass, which really made me wish FFXII had music like that.
Gameplay is retained from previous Tactics games, where battles take place on isometric grids that require the player to move towards enemies with up to 6 party members while using different strategies to defeat them. The terrain and elevation of landmasses can play a factor as well. The biggest change is the MP system. No longer do characters start with full MP; it builds up with each of their turns. When I first heard of this system, I didn't care for the idea. Upon playing, I've realized that the change had several purposes.
Some of the spells in this game are overpowered, like Quicken. The Assassin's abilities were especially broken in Tactics Advance, so having to wait for MP was meant to cut down on their overuse. I don't quite see the need, as the game is still easy, but I commend Square Enix for trying something different. Doing as such helps Grimoire to feel and play a bit different from other entries in the series.
Another change meant to address gameplay from Tactics Advance is the new Judge system. Many gamers disliked the Judge system as it often handicapped what types of abilities the player could use, with penalties if you disobeyed. In Tactics A2, the Judge still enforces rules, but in a different way.
Before each battle, you can pick from a list of stat bonuses that you earn by completing clan trials. These run the gamut from stronger physical attacks to regenerating health. Rules vary from no hitting members of a certain race to some crazy ones like no damage over 20 (?!), if you break these laws, the judge takes away your privileges and leaves, which prevents KOed party members from being revived. Many of the privileges are very helpful, so it behooves you to follow the law.
There is also a new auction system, which you can use to gain control of areas throughout St. Ivalice. I think the auctions were meant to address the clan/territory system of Tactics Advance, which required too much vigilance to maintain, being necessary to access secret missions. I didn't spend much time on auctions, as there were no obvious benefits.
Tactics A2 also has two new races: the Seeq and Gria. The Seeq come from FFXII and the Gria are entirely new. They have interesting jobs that are good for those looking for variety. The previous races all return with some new jobs. The bangaa seem to have benefited the most with the new master monk and cannoneer jobs, both of which have many useful abilities. Whereas I didn't use bangaa at all in Tactics Advance, they were committed members in this game. It was quite the opposite with the Moogle race though.
Challenge in A2 varies, depending on your experience with the genre and your job choices. Ninjas and Assassins still kill everyone, just not as easily. Of course the game will be difficult should you attempt a mage only run (or perhaps not, hence variety). Overall, some of the boss battles are challenging, but the difficulty in this game comes more from failing to learn the battle system, so it is really varies from player to player.
Replay value is rather low, as it takes a great while (60+ hours) to get through this game, and that isn't counting the multitude of side missions and other stuff you can do. Because there is so much to do, it will be awhile before one may want to play this game again.
In summation, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift is a very good continuation of the FF Tactics series of games. There is a good amount of new stuff as well as familiarity to make it fun to strategy gamers. It is probably the weakest of the series, with its story written as an afterthought and stifling MP system, but I still had a great time with it.
- Ugly Bob
article id: 589 | poster: uglybob
