Tactics A2 is no doubt one of the best RPGs on handheld systems, ever.
Character customization
Number of side quests
Hours of gameplay
Soundtrack
Strategic combat sequences
Vivid map terrain (not the overworld)
The Bad
Some missions drag out
Story is watered down from side missions
Repetitiveness of missions
Law system
Story - 7/10
The story begins with Luso Clemens (who can be otherwise named by the player), a young, enthusiastic, and a bit rebellious kid in school. He's sent to clean up the library as a punishment before enjoying his summer vacation and happens to find a book that transports him into the magical world of Ivalice. He meets several members of a clan, one of them being Cid, one of the main characters, and is shorty accepted into the clan via a judge. Upon doing so, he gets some new garb, more form fitting to the world, and the natural instinct to swing a sword. He is then set off to find out, with the clans and his new friends help, how to exit this world and return to his own. Sound familiar? (Hint: FF:Tactics Advance)
The thing that I didn't quite enjoy about the story was how loosely the ends were connected for me. The first few hours of missions are mostly story related, but afterwards, the level requirement for the missions were getting higher, forcing me to complete more and more side missions inbetween each part of the story. At a point, I realized I had no idea what was going on, who that villain is, why we came here, and so on. Even though it was one of the things I liked most about the game, the huge number of missions very well are a downside. The engagement of leveling and equipping my characters surpassed my interest in the story. But, since there is no lack of story, and, in a way, I am to blame for not keeping tract of it, I won't say the story is horrible. And, without spoilers, the ending felt very dull and unrewarding.
On a side note, what is good about the large number of side quests is the individual stories in each of them. There are a lot of missions that give you a small plot and develop the story over three or four missions. The "bite sized" stories of the side quests are what made me want to trail off of the main story line in the first place. Each mission was put in front of it a story, more or less very simple, and I commend Square Enix for doing so to the 300+ missions in the game.
Gameplay - 9/10
The best part of any of the FF:Tactics games are, of course, the level of strategy involved in each battle. Depending on what combination of classes, skills, and spells you've accustomed to your characters, each players experience in combat is unique. Here is a more detailed look at the mechanics of the game.
The clan system in Tactics A2 allows players to have up to 24 different units, some of which are your and other main characters. Any of the "regular" units can be released from the clan while new ones can be recruited from a quest in which one takes a four question survey to determine their class (a clever mechanic in my opinion). As well as taking up to six units battle under the players control, small groups can be "dispatched" to complete a mission, during which they cannot participate in other missions until returning with the news of a successful or failed attempt.
Dispatching wasn't one of the game's features I used at all. I would always want to complete the mission under my own control, and sending the game off to play by itself, while useful and time saving, didn't appeal to my style of playing. Also, I found myself leveling only a core group of units partway through the game. Sending them off while I twiddled my thumbs seemed unnecessary.
Now for the customization, my personal favorite aspect of the game. Each unit is one of six races, and depending on which race they are, can be up to 13 jobs. Since all of the jobs are not available at the beginning of the game, more advanced jobs are unlocked through specific side quests throughout the game. Instead of having a stock set of abilities and spells, these are instead learning through wielding equipment. Most weapons and armor have 1-3 skills that can be learned by specific classes. While wielding the item, the unit can perform the skill, but in order to use the skill without the item, a number of ability points must be earned toward the skill. At the end of each mission, ability points (30 or more) are rewarded to all members in the clan, weather they fought in the mission or not. Once the required ability points are earned, the skill is "mastered" and can be used regardless of equipment.
Expanding on the skill mastering mechanic, units can also change jobs between missions. When a unit changes jobs, not only can they master new skills to the corresponding job, but they can also use any skills mastered from a single previous job. This opens up numerous possibilities to what blend of jobs a player can create. Personally, this is what consumed most of my gameplay time: constructing a group of units whose abilities appealed to my interests and executed flawlessly in combat. Although all of the jobs aren't required to complete the game, many of them have unique abilities that aid in certain situations or just speed them up greatly. If there's one thing that brings me back to Tactics A2 the most, it's the job system.
The combat sequences are the heart and soul of "Tactics" A2. As I've mentioned before, the experience one has with combat is determined by the jobs and skill sets they've accustomed to. While one person might take a brute force approach with six fighter classes, another might send assassins to ambush the enemies off guard. That might sound a bit dorky, but it was one of the things I really liked about the game. I found myself assigning my units specific jobs to undergo for each mission and felt a great deal of accomplishment when their different skills combined got me through the mission with ease.
What wasn't so great about the large number of missions was the repetitive groove they got in. About 90% (which is my guess) of the missions requires you to defeat a number of enemies. At the beginning of the game, you see a lot of the fresh new enemies (and most carried from the first Tactics Advance) and figuring out how to take each down is an interesting game in and of itself. However, a set number of color pallets can only get you so far before hacking through the same monster types over and over. Of course, they do throw in a lot of different map terrain, guest characters, and restrictive laws to shape the difficulty which, in a way, balances the scale by the slightest bit. The rest of the missions that weren't combat focused includes missions that require you to pick up quest items from small sparkling nodes scattered through the map. While the enemies guarding them did throw a twist to the normal routine, I found these quests to be a bit dry in gameplay.
One of the new mechanics added to Tactics A2 (but used in the Final Fantasy series) is the Bazaar. The Bazaar is a shop that takes the spoils you've collected from defeating enemies and completing missions. There are specific "formulas" of loot that produce an item from a category of items ranked from A to E. Since not all weapons and equipment are sold in regular stores, the Bazaar is the only way to get gear to skill up your units. However, since the game doesn't tell you what skills a piece of equipment has until after you've used up the spoils, the Bazaar becomes a game of stabbing in the dark, hoping that what you get is useful to the units you have. I've found myself numerous times trying to find a useful item without wasting all my loot collected and reseting my game to get only the specific items I needed. The Bazaar is a great system of collecting new gear from the spoils earned through missions, but playing the game of hit and miss makes the Bazaar a tedious process.
Another new gameplay mechanic is the Auction House. Every in-game year or so, the Auction House opens up to all the clans of Ivalice and sections of the world are open for bidding to have control over the region. Having bought specific regions, the player earns certain bonuses such as discounts on quests and items purchased. Also, opposing clans will pop up in the region and open up an optional challenge. While this is a great new way to own and collect territories, I, for the most part, ignored the caution house season. The random challenges are more or less a waste of time considering that missions give more payoff (although extra experience never hurts), and the game gives you enough gold as it is that discounts aren't very useful. This never at all got in the way of my gameplay experience, but the concept didn't appeal to me personally.
Sound/Graphics - 10/10
The original soundtrack of Tactics A2 brings a lot of life to the already lively world of Ivalice. From the name select screen to the final boss the soundtrack fits perfectly in sync with the world. This game is, of course, played on a DS screen, and even though the DS is capable of detailed 3D graphics and environments, Tactics A2 builds from Tactics Advance and carries over the simple, 2D sprites and colorful top down map terrains that correspond to the region of the world it's in. Everything felt just right, and the units blended well with the more detailed map terrain. Combined with the catchy battle music, the soundtrack and graphics of Tactics A2 are well tuned to the imaginary world of Ivalice.
Overall Score - 9/10
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is, again, one of the best strategic RPGs I've ever played (the best in terms of handheld games). No game has occupied my DS for more than about 35 hours, but I've clocked over 75 hours with Tactics A2, only completing about 200 of the games missions. This game is a slight improvement from Tactics Advance, improving some gameplay mechanics and features, but lacks a compelling story due to the excessive missions list. As for the elements I reviewed in the "Gameplay" section, it may have seemed like I was being harsh in many of the game's mechanics. However, the fact that I didn't like them didn't get in the way of my gameplay. They weren't horrible concepts that failed, they were just small, tedious things that were, in my opinion, greatly outbalanced by the game's overall gameplay experience.
If you are at all a fan of turn-based strategy or Final Fantasy, this game is a superb installment of the Tactics series.