This week marks the auspicious arrival of a new Final Fantasy game on the DS. Fans of the two previous Tactics games, or of the Ivalice Alliance, or the beloved strategy developer Quest (Ogre Battle), who began the Tactics series once absorbed into Square, may have even more reason to rejoice; fans of the traditional Final Fantasy RPG series should be warned, as they always should with a spinoff, that Tactics is way different.Is the sequel to the GBA spinoff of the PlayStation spinoff of the Final Fantasy series worthy of its various progenitors? It sounds like it just may be!
IGN: 90% -- Daemon Hatfield misses the PlayStation iteration, but can't deny the addictive quality still present in the Advance series: "It would be nice to get another mature Tactics game like the original, but A2 won me over quickly with its beautiful visuals and deep, strategic gameplay. This is one of those desert island games you'd want with you if you were stranded with nothing to do."
GamesRadar: 80% -- Carolyn Gudmundson of GamesRadar thought the game coddled the player a bit more than strategy games typically do, but still worthy of hundreds of hours of your attention: "Like its predecessor, A2 presents a kinder, gentler tactical RPG (it's much easier than the original FF Tactics on PS1 or any of the Advance Wars titles, for example), so if you like your tactical action rough and punishing, we still recommend giving Tactics A2 a try, but skip straight to hard mode. "
GameSpot: 70% -- GameSpot's Shiva Stella found the opposite: a bit too much difficulty, and overcomplicated play. "One of Grimoire's setbacks is the amount of time that it takes to accomplish even the simplest of tasks, with most quests lasting 45 minutes to an hour, although there is a handy quicksave feature. Grimoire also sports a steep learning curve for both its combat and micromanagement elements, and is a bit slow to pick up because you spend the first 10 to 20 hours mastering basic abilities, unlocking classes, and gathering equipment to play the jobs that you want."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-23-2008 @ 7:10PM
Roto13 said...
Ignoring the Gamespot review as I always do, this sounds good. I absolutely loved the last Tactics Advance game, so I'm definitely going to be picking this one up.
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6-23-2008 @ 7:29PM
Mr Khan said...
Yeah, i too will pick this up on a walk-in on Wednesday between my two jobs, and start it up late that night
Looks like just the game to while away the rest of the summer
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6-23-2008 @ 7:32PM
Fiefdom said...
I can see how the game is thirty percent worthless if quests can last forty-five minutes and you have to play it to unlock stuff. Hey, wait a second; with that much alleged content the game might be worth playing!
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6-23-2008 @ 8:28PM
Tristan said...
I have to agree with the Gamespot review, because the old one did seem to suffer from the issue of the quests lasting too long (some put me to sleep), and it didnt pick up until the 10th hour. I might avoid this one until the bargain encompasses it with a nice embrace.
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6-23-2008 @ 8:42PM
thesycophant said...
I was getting all kinds of excited for this just the other day, thinking I might actually splurge and pick it up this week. But Stella confirmed what I was worried about for the title, which are the reasons why I never finished the first Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (and started my game over several times, lost and confused). Beautiful game but it just took too damn long to do anything. If I need some FF strategy, I'll be catching up with Revenant Wings.
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6-23-2008 @ 9:22PM
Eleniel said...
Shiva Stella is the best name ever.
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6-24-2008 @ 3:17AM
Pixel-One said...
I can't see the Gamespot review being even near spot-on. The quests might indeed be long, but with the DS's built-in ability to sleep whenever you need it to, there's terribly little reason to complain.
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6-24-2008 @ 7:57AM
RabanastreRat said...
Long quests (and 400 of them to complete)? Micromanagement? Complicated battle system? 20 hours just mastering basic skills?
Sign me up! That sounds great!
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6-24-2008 @ 10:25AM
deft said...
I'm so eagerly looking forward to playing this game!
But as it seems, I'll have to "skip straight to hard mode" ^^.
I still know how it felt to play the first battle in the original FFT on PSX where I got my ass kicked several times before I even figured out how to work the game: AWESOME!! :D
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6-24-2008 @ 1:20PM
Nadril said...
I'll have to pick this up for sure. I still remember having the original tactics advance for my gameboy SP.
Worst part was I finally got to that bitch of a last boss and man she was hard. Before I could beat her I must have had my SP slip out of a pocket or something because it got stolen >:(
Oh well, picking this up today.
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