Metareview: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

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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