If you can look past the constant annoyances, you'll have a great time and be able to make it last as long as you like.
Negative: - actual laws range from rediculous to mind-numbingly stupid - other little annoyances here and there that hurt the experience a bit - the graphics look ok but they're not completely upgraded from the GBA - no multiplayer -
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFTA) was the defining game for the GBA. Whether you liked it or not, it showed us just how much could fit onto one of those little game cartridges. We've waited four and a half years to get our hands on a sequel, and we FFTA lovers had every right to have sky high expectations for this game. It's not all it could have been considering how great its predecessor was, but it's still a great, addicting game nonetheless.
Grimoire of the Rift's story is fine but not as great as in FFTA. The new main character, Luso Clemens, is really likable and his personality and dialogue make him a memorable and worthy main character. The supporting cast isn't half bad either, with other fun characters like Cid, Adelle, and Vaan that make the story better. The story is similar to FFTA: Luso gets transported into the world of Ivalice by accident through a magic book and he sets out on an adventure to figure out how to get back home. Thankfully he meets some good friends to help him on the way and he gets used to the new world pretty well right off the bat. As he goes along his adventure, he discovers that his journal, magically filling in its own pages telling of what he's done, is his ticket home. When it's filled, he'll return. But near the end of the game, a deeper plot to destroy Ivalice is discovered and this ends up being linked with Luso's way home. It turns out to be pretty good in the long run, but you don't even know what the 'Grimoire of the Rift' (you know, the thing the game is named after) is until about 5 missions before the story's ending.
FFTA's premise is simple: you pay a fee to take on a mission, you move around on the big map to get to where you need to go, you fight, you clear the mission. Repeat 400 times (for you completion obessessors). The battles are where a lot of your time will be spent (for obvious reasons) and is where the gameplay occurs (for other obvious reasons). The grid is viewed from a kind of slanted bird's eye angle, which is neat until you can't see behind a couple units blocking the space behind them, then it's kind of annoying sometimes. You move your guys around in turn-based strategy fashion, beat up the other guys until you defeat your mark or all enemies on screen, and that's it. The battles are hugely enhanced by the vastness of the jobs your characters can take on and the abilities they can learn to be more efficient in battle.
The main thing about FFTA2 is also what makes it live up to its $40 pricetag: it's absolutely huge. With 400 missions to clear and tons of jobs and abilities for your characters to master along with a load of stuff on the side, the game is bigger than what most developers bother to put into one DS game card. If you play until you beat everything, you will have spent well over 100 hours of your life, congrats.
However, not all of your time will be spent in battle. In fact, a large amount of your time with the game will be spent on outside strategies such as figuring out what job to have your character work with, which abilities they'll be learning, and going to the shop. The shop is greatly enhanced by adding a 'bazaar' in which you can exchange three pieces of loot for new weapons, suits of armor, shields, and all that good stuff. You'll definitely be going to the bazaar freqnently to see if your new loot can make you a new item, and it's a nice addition to the game.
The main reason FFTA2 is annoying is because of the laws. In every battle, your nifty little judge will protect your characters from actually dying so long as you obey one single law. This law can restrict you from using a certain type of weapon or magick (it's spelled with a 'k' at the end in the game, kind of strange...), but it can also restrict you from getting stolen from, dealing more than a set amount of damage, performing actions with a certain type of unit, moving more or less than an exact number of spaces... the list of stupid laws like these just goes on and on, and you'll find that about 50% or more of your battles will be riddled with frustration because of these kinds of laws that either make you feel like you shouldn't be playing to your best abilities or that you should just throw the DS into the wall across the room. I can guarantee you will turn your DS off on impulse and come back to it later several times before you're through with this game, it gets that annoying sometimes.
Thankfully, breaking a law doesn't get you a stat reduction or a ticket to the local jail. Instead, you can't revive KO'd units, you lose your law bonuses at the end of the battle (items and loot given you for keeping the law), and you also lose your clan priveledge. At the beginning of each battle, you select a Clan Priveledge that allows you to move farther, attack with increased power, regenerate HP every turn, or other nifty little things like that. It's a really cool feature, but it's really damaged by the fact that you'll be breaking the law in about half of your battles because you either don't care or can't do anything about it. This is the main thing that will make people not want to continue playing the game, but if you can look past this you'll have a great time.
FFTA2's graphics are both updated and not updated at the same time. The maps look no different than they did back in the GBA days, and neither do the character sprites. However, the attack animations have recieved a true DS upgrade, and there are a few that look pretty stunning but otherwise they look just fine. Overall, the visuals aren't up to par with the DS's standards but they don't look bad.
The sound here is nothing too great. The music is pretty good and fits the game pretty well, and tunes from the GBA game make a return occasionally which makes it cool for people who played that game. The sound effects are ok, not annoying but not particularly cool. But whenever a mission is finished, you hear some random kids screaming "Yay!" or "Aww!". This is annoying sometimes and definitely could have been done without.
Working with the DS's unique layout has done much good for the game. Both screens are used for your maximum convenience, and things that bugged you in the GBA game can't bug you any more, because rather than going back to your characters' abilities to see if they've mastered something, it'll tell you if you've mastered it on the top screen as you're scrolling through weapons, making equipping much more convenient. In battle, the bottom screen shows the grid and the action while you can look to the top screen any time to check the law, clan priveledge, and who will get the next moves. Both these uses of the top screen are great and make you feel like the whole thing is much better. There are also touch controls to use at any time, on the map, menus, or in battle. However, you'll likely stick to the regular controls because the touch control isn't worth the hassle.
The big hit against FFTA2 is the lack of multiplayer. I was thoroughly disappointed at this. Come on, this game is BUILT for multiplayer and online! Trading items and characters and helping your friends do better in the game and battling and all that stuff would have been awesome! They had it in the GBA game when you needed a stupid link cable, and now that it's on the DS with wireless and online they cut it!?! Why? It's perfect for the game and the system and takes away a lot from us, and it would have pushed it above and beyond into being a much better game, but nope. And I don't count getting a raffle ticket after connecting to another DS and exchanging it for an item I already have multiplayer, by the way.
Overall, FFTA2 is a sequel that isn't as good as its predecessor, but it's still a great game. You'll be addicted from start to whenever you feel like getting on with your life, and you'll most likely never finish it. Being such a huge game, it's well worth your $40, but you do need patience. If you can take time to look past the annoyances it brings and stop lamenting the lack of multiplayer, Grimoire of the Rift will be a rewarding game that you'll undoubtedly enjoy and play for a very, very long time.
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Value: 10