The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: I fought the belts and the belts won.
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
It's out!
What is this game?
The sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, of course. It's a turn-based strategy RPG similar to the Ogre Battle series. You build up a clan, give your dudes jobs and have them hurt people. Or heal people, if you're really radical.
What's the story?
Luso finds a book at his school and is teleported to Ivalice. The real Ivalice, not the weird Ivalice in the first FFTA. The story is about Luso finding his way home with the help of Cid and Clan Gully.
FFTA2 is noted for having very little actual story. You'll spend a big chunk of time where the story really doesn't advance. This makes the story rather...neutral, as there's really none to judge.
Some FFXII characters make cameos, along with FFTA characters.
What's new?
There are several new races in addition to the old Hume, Moogle, Bangaa, Numou and Viera races, the Seeq and Gria are added to the game. Here is a job chart to see what's available. Stat growth chart for classes.
There is also the ability to summon Scions by filling a Smash meter. This meter however, does NOT empty when you use one. Instead, there's restricted use on each Scion.
The game's map system no longer allows you to customize the lay of the land. While this means a somewhat more static experience each game, it also means you don't get screwed out of rare loot. Instead, the areas are broken into smaller segments which compose a larger world. There are several cities and areas to explore.
The game also has auctions for control of these areas. Every so often, clans get the chance to bid on these areas. Controlling a zone has certain perks.
Also in the game is the Bazaar, where random drops can be sent off in exchange for new swag at shops. Don't sell off that junk!
Finally, Clan Trials are challenges that give you titles which bestow certain benefits such as reduced shop prices.
Are Laws Back?
Yes, laws are back and sexier than ever. They have gone changes and don't restrict your play as harshly as before, but there is a definite element of risk if you do go criminal. There are now passive buffs you gain for obeying the law: the old judge points are gone. There's also no specific thing you have to do to get the buff(s). Don't perform the forbidden actions and all is well. If you break the law, your clan loses the buff(s) and you lose the ability to revive dead characters (with spells, not perma-death).
So if your clan is way too weak by following the law, you can still actually USE whatever it is that's forbidden without your characters being hauled off to prison. You'll just lose the perk and suffer a somewhat serious handicap.
Helpful Stuff
My characters are getting their asses kicked. What the hell?
The game has a lot of side quests, and it's best to focus on those a bit before going to story quests. Story quests, by the way, have no time limit whereas side quests do.
No more quests within my level are available. What else can I do?
At a certain point in the game, random events will pop up at select zones (designated by a ? in a thought cloud). Sometimes these will be NPCs giving loot or such, but in many cases it'll be a battle.
New recruits start coming...when?
FFTA2 is more stingy with new blood for your clan. A quest will pop up that let's you select a new clanmate after answering some questions. Also, the aforementioned events will sometimes be a random dude looking for a clan. What race you get depends on the current time of the game year. The quest is repeatable after a number of days pass.
Why shouldn't I change a character's class?
Each class gains a specific amount of stats each level. So, a Soldier might get stats better for sword swingin' than a Black Mage. If a character has no new abilities to learn, change his or her class to something with the optimal stat growth for whatever you plan on doing with that character.
Anything to know about the law?
Charmed/confused characters can still violate the law. Keep Esuna handy!
How about Abilities?
Keep in mind that your ENTIRE CLAN gets ability points when you complete a quest or win a battle. You bring characters into battles for experience. So if your Juggler is ten levels higher than anyone, but is learning a crucial ability, don't be afraid to bench him for someone more needing of exp.
What is this game?
The sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, of course. It's a turn-based strategy RPG similar to the Ogre Battle series. You build up a clan, give your dudes jobs and have them hurt people. Or heal people, if you're really radical.
What's the story?
Luso finds a book at his school and is teleported to Ivalice. The real Ivalice, not the weird Ivalice in the first FFTA. The story is about Luso finding his way home with the help of Cid and Clan Gully.
FFTA2 is noted for having very little actual story. You'll spend a big chunk of time where the story really doesn't advance. This makes the story rather...neutral, as there's really none to judge.
Some FFXII characters make cameos, along with FFTA characters.
What's new?
There are several new races in addition to the old Hume, Moogle, Bangaa, Numou and Viera races, the Seeq and Gria are added to the game. Here is a job chart to see what's available. Stat growth chart for classes.
There is also the ability to summon Scions by filling a Smash meter. This meter however, does NOT empty when you use one. Instead, there's restricted use on each Scion.
The game's map system no longer allows you to customize the lay of the land. While this means a somewhat more static experience each game, it also means you don't get screwed out of rare loot. Instead, the areas are broken into smaller segments which compose a larger world. There are several cities and areas to explore.
The game also has auctions for control of these areas. Every so often, clans get the chance to bid on these areas. Controlling a zone has certain perks.
Also in the game is the Bazaar, where random drops can be sent off in exchange for new swag at shops. Don't sell off that junk!
Finally, Clan Trials are challenges that give you titles which bestow certain benefits such as reduced shop prices.
Are Laws Back?
Yes, laws are back and sexier than ever. They have gone changes and don't restrict your play as harshly as before, but there is a definite element of risk if you do go criminal. There are now passive buffs you gain for obeying the law: the old judge points are gone. There's also no specific thing you have to do to get the buff(s). Don't perform the forbidden actions and all is well. If you break the law, your clan loses the buff(s) and you lose the ability to revive dead characters (with spells, not perma-death).
So if your clan is way too weak by following the law, you can still actually USE whatever it is that's forbidden without your characters being hauled off to prison. You'll just lose the perk and suffer a somewhat serious handicap.
Helpful Stuff
My characters are getting their asses kicked. What the hell?
The game has a lot of side quests, and it's best to focus on those a bit before going to story quests. Story quests, by the way, have no time limit whereas side quests do.
No more quests within my level are available. What else can I do?
At a certain point in the game, random events will pop up at select zones (designated by a ? in a thought cloud). Sometimes these will be NPCs giving loot or such, but in many cases it'll be a battle.
New recruits start coming...when?
FFTA2 is more stingy with new blood for your clan. A quest will pop up that let's you select a new clanmate after answering some questions. Also, the aforementioned events will sometimes be a random dude looking for a clan. What race you get depends on the current time of the game year. The quest is repeatable after a number of days pass.
Why shouldn't I change a character's class?
Each class gains a specific amount of stats each level. So, a Soldier might get stats better for sword swingin' than a Black Mage. If a character has no new abilities to learn, change his or her class to something with the optimal stat growth for whatever you plan on doing with that character.
Anything to know about the law?
Charmed/confused characters can still violate the law. Keep Esuna handy!
How about Abilities?
Keep in mind that your ENTIRE CLAN gets ability points when you complete a quest or win a battle. You bring characters into battles for experience. So if your Juggler is ten levels higher than anyone, but is learning a crucial ability, don't be afraid to bench him for someone more needing of exp.
Sterica on
0
Posts
XBL: Torn Hoodie
@hoodiethirteen
That being setting them on fire and destroying everything they've worked for in an orgy of blood, pain and Moogle parts.
Or something. The first game was weird.
Hear, hear for touch screen tactical goodness!
I understand the strategy aspect is still fun regardless of how much damage you do, but seriously, it took HOURS upon HOURS before you had anyone doing an attack over 100 damage, and I always hated that.
I really didnt like having to learn skills by items, I preferred the job point system of FFT, and occasionally the law system was retarded, like not being able to use the Fight command.
It was still a lot of fun though and I will be picking this one up. The main thing I would have done more with was the mission thing, where you send 1 or 2 clan members off to complete a task. I always thought it would be cool to have the option to play those out.
Edit: Also theres a thread for this game and FF4 here http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=60291
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
That was the problem I had with the original FFTA...It just doesn't seem right to call it a SRPG when no strategy is actually involved, or at the very least required..hopefully they ramp it up a little for 2
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
"Whoa!, some people think laws totally suck, others don't mind... what should we do?"
"Hmmm, how many people think laws are totally awesome again?"
"Uh... let's see here... looks like..., um, two."
"Excellent, we'll tone down the severity of the laws, those two people will love it!"
"And the rest?"
"Tell the rest that they're not allowed to not like laws in this game, muahahahaha."
The item skill thing also sucked, but I could live with it.
But nah, complain about it without checking out the differences. They obviously put something horrible in their game, again, after people bitching about it, without trying to make it work well this time around. Certainly.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
It's a nice system I think, lets you make the game as tough as you want. Though, I'm not a huge fan of learning abilities from weapons but it's an interesting change from the SRPG's i've played lately.
FFBE: 898,311,440
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/dElementalor
The nice thing about learning abilities from weapons is that it encourages you to use every weapon (or most of them) throughout the game, rather than never having to think and always picking the weapon with the highest attack power.
Yeah that way it's nice and gets one to buy every weapon that becomes available instead of having a lot of trash weapons, but I kinda liked not needing to re-outfit my team after every few battles so I don't feel like I'm wasting points. But that's probably since I play mainly while I commute.
FFBE: 898,311,440
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/dElementalor
It's expected, I know. But I stopped playing Pokémon because of this.
EDIT: Also, Opportunity Events are neat.
The new law system is still really cool, though. The first game got insane with laws towards the end, stacking you with three or so of the damn things. I dunno if the number of laws will increase in A2, but you at least get items and a buff of your choosing.
Game is very slick and pretty but oh god it's so slow.
Also, please tell me there's a preference I can't find, which makes tapping a square with the stylus actually select that square instead of moving the cursor one space toward that square, i.e., exactly the same thing I could have done with the D-pad. (Who makes these boneheaded UI design decisions? It seems like every recent Square Enix game, except for TWEWY, has at least one utter UI design fail.)
FFT needs to relax off all these random bullshit rules and restrictions. FFT was great because you could just make anyone anything you want.
I never asked for this!
I like all that stuff you mentioned and wasn't fond of the "toss rocks at each other so you get JP!" in FFT.
Which is why I play FFTA and not FFT.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Laws are less restrictive this time around. You follow them and get extra loots at the end of the battle if you do, instead of, "Hi. This battle is full of nothing but beasts. The law is Don't Attack Beasts. Have fun."
I also like the item=ability system. It goes really well with the idea of focusing all their attention on tons and tons and tons of little sidequest-stories instead of the main plot itself.
I think if you go into it knowing it's all about the fun little activities and mini-stories, the "main" plot snapping in half with a stiff breeze won't bother you so much.
Because that was my favorite part of FFTA.
Agreed. As much as I love FFT (and count it among my favorite games ever), there's no question that SRPGs have *LONG* needed to move past this bullshit where it makes more sense to drag combat out doing useless shit to build levels/unlock skills than it does to come up with a strategy, execute said strategy, and get rewarded for doing it well.
FFTA2 does this very well...much better than its predecessor, which got too mucked up in the goofy law bullshit and too many crossover classes to be really awesome.
It's great having actual, substantial difference between race...if there were no class restrictions, what would be the point of having multiple races (aside from an aesthetic choice)?
Also, someone asked about multiple laws. The answer is no. There will always be only one law per battle.
nonono, the hot girl is the ninja, the main is the yojimbo, duuuh
FFBE: 898,311,440
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/dElementalor
Well, that annoyed the fuck out of me as well but it's probably just something that got lost in translation. What they want to tell you is to use any means to get rid of the Flans, which for some reason means talking to them. That "fight" is easy when you finally see the experiment-option
Another thing that I found disturbing as hell on the same theme was the fight whith the law against not using MP. It took a while for me just see the double negation so I didn't use any magic first. When I finally realized what it said I still lost when I used a potion. Turns out that the law in that fight means "only heal by using MP"
THAT! My friends is my main peeve with the game. If you have to have dumbass laws in the game at least write them down in plain fucking english so that people can fucking abide them!! /Rant
Otherwise it's a great game. I'm roughly 5 hours into it. Just completed the first tier of clan trials. Can anyone tell me where to find the previlege AP up. Can someone also explain to me on what grounds the gained AP is calculated. The EXP seems to be a function of how active a character is in fighting.
You know what that sounds like? it sounds like they ripped off gang of daggers!
That would be awesome as fuck.
AP is a flat rate. You get 30 per standard mission or "random" battle, and 80 for story missions.
In regards to that law, if you read the description, it specifically applies to abilities (ie, any non-attack/wait command). "Item" is an ability, and it uses no MP, therefore is prohibited when that law is active.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/560436/25619
It's nice to know what you're aiming for from the start.
Oh and is it possible to miss anything big in this game? There was a bit too much of that previously with the whole throwing the wrong item away screwing you out of a full mission log thingy.
So like The World Ends with You but without touchscreen combat?
You could have VespaKnights and Cellphonemancers! Hobo would be a viable class too!
No, TWEWY is a completely different style than I'd ever want an FFT-type game to be.
But something set in a modern world with either a fantasy story that involves lots of "real world" stuff, or a more realistic story (because I honestly can't think of one, and it'd be kinda cool to play something without a hint of fantasy to it). Add to that the gameplay of FFTA2 (specifically, the pacing of the character development and the variety of classes/abilities), and I'd be a happy camper.
Wait...
Hobomancers!
Really enjoying this game so far. A lot of my complaints with the first game -- mainly the shop interface -- have been fixed.
And Wesnoth doesn't count. Feels different.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=159363
Destiny Profile : http://www.bungie.net/en/Profile/254/7028016
I think it's quite a good game....