Seven reasons I’m not buying Final Fantasy Tactics A2
I adore Final Fantasy games. It is definitely one of my favorite game franchises and Square Enix is easily one of my favorite developers. I own every game in the series and a few of the remakes and ports as well. (I have three versions of FFVI, and in a few weeks I’ll have three versions of FFIV too.)
But there’s one Final Fantasy game I don’t own and don’t plan on buying - Final Fantasy Tactics A2. It isn’t because I’m an RPG fan who can’t handle strategic RPGs. I have the the PS1 and PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and nearly every NIS game released in North America.
Simply put, Square Enix dropped the ball on Final Fantasy Tactics A2. The developers didn’t think things through when creating the game. There are seven things I’ve learned about the title from reviews from credible game sites and Gamefaqs forums reports that make me realize that this is one adventure I don’t want to experience.
#1: Laws against “attacking the weak,“ “missing” or “critical” hits.
I don’t really mind the whole concept of the law system. Follow just one or two little rules and the game will give you free equipment and items. Awesome. Except when the game decides to use insane laws. Its like the game system realizes it has all of the power and wants to screw you over. I’m talking about the “attacking the weak,“ “missing” and “critical” laws.
No “attacking the weak” just annoys me. It means your characters can’t be a higher level than their opponents. If the enemy’s level 15, all of your characters have to be 15 or under. So much for level grinding.
No “missing” or “critical,“ on the other hand, are just asinine. I’m amazed by the game’s audacity. You can’t control whether or not your characters land a critical hit. It’s totally random. The same with missing. Sometimes the game will say you have a 99% chance of landing and it will still miss. It happens - players shouldn’t be penalized for things they can’t control.
#2: Random recruiting.
You start with only six people in your party. You don’t even get either of the two new classes (Seeqs and Gria). So how do you get more? Randomly.
That’s right. You can’t just walk into a pub and recruit from a pool of potential, waiting people. You have to walk around the map and take quests and hope that an event will trigger saying that someone wants to join your clan.
Oh, but if you want certain species to join your clan, then you have to only search certain areas at certain times. The game has a month and season system set up. So if you want an extra Viera, you have to wait for the month of either Ashleaf or Mistleleaf, have completed the Moon Seal quest, keep walking in and out of Camoa or the Rupie Mountains and cluck like a chicken. If you wanted a Gria, you better be patient - they aren’t unlocked until players reach the extra continent.
#3: Battlefields can’t be rotated.
If you’re going to make environments where it can become difficult to see or select characters, then give players the option to rotate the battlefield so they can see everything.
#4: Recycled sights and sounds.
If I am going to pay $40 for a game, I’d like to see all new character sprites and hear all new music. Instead, I’m seeing the same character sprites from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and hearing the same music. At least the character head-shot art is different.
After all, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance had different music and sprites. Plus the DS has greater capabilities than the GBA did. Square Enix should have stepped up and given players something new.
#5: Jobs that must be unlocked through missions.
I love the assassin Viera class. At the end of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I had three assassins in my party. I admit it, I abused the system.
So when I heard about the game, I immediately was getting ideas for a team configuration. A juggler moogle, two assassins, one of those gria classes, a nu mou alchemist with black magic and maybe a ninja or dragoon. Then I heard that quite a few classes had to be unlocked through missions before you could play as them. Way to make people jump through hoops.
#6: “Trading” is a lie.
The game claims to have a trading system, where you can trade with other users over local wireless. Silly me, I thought trading meant you’d be able to trade items you had. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you’d have to trade to get items to complete all 300 quests.
Well, in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, trading means something different. You don’t get to exchange items from inventory. Instead, each of the players trading will receive a raffle ticket, which they then exchange in-game for an item. The item could be common, or rare. It could be new to you, or something you have 15 of lying around. That is not trading, that’s like that whole Pokemon mystery gift thing.
#7: MP starts at 0.
Never before have I heard of a game where you enter a battle and your MP is at 0. This practically renders magic users useless. MP regenerates 10 points at a time, so if you want to use a spell like Cura (12 MP), you’d have to wait two turns. Or you’d have to have another character waste a turn with an item that restores MP. There is a Clan Ability you can earn called “MP Channeling” that lets characters get 20 points per turn. Big whoop.
I’d rather start battles with full MP and have it never regenerate, than have to deal with this. It’s like Square Enix wants drawn out battles in Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
Read [Gamefaqs Forum] Also Read [Metacritic] Site [Final Fantasy Tactics A2]
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@Ryags153 - Actually, I relish challenges. Odin Sphere, Persona 1, 2 and 3, Legend of Legaia and the original Phantasy Star are some of my favorite titles.
I’m glad you enjoy it, but it just isn’t for me. I’ll wait for Disgaea DS instead.
on August 10, 2008 at 12:10 PM - LINKSay What, much of what you had to say I already addressed. I encourage you to read more carefully.
Further driving my points (because I came back to the game recently to finish it and my experiences have been wrought with annoyances), this game so actively pisses me the f*ck off by trying to have me jump through loop through loop through godd*mn loop. Want a new recruit or mission? Waste many a moon wandering for the right month. Want a new weapon for new skills (and good luck finding what you’re looking for without a FAQ)? Go steal some arbitrary sh*t from some bad guys. The missions already have so many loops, from item or job requirements to time limits to clan skills to blah blah blah, on top of having a completion limit. And please, don’t tell me that good strategy comes from limitation. A good strategist isn’t going to win any competent game of chess with a board full of pawns. I’m not suggesting that everything should be handed to the player on a platter, so don’t give me that straw man, but I would appreciate it if I didn’t have to rub my tummy and hop on one leg and pat my head every time I want to do something.
Not to mention the menu system can get quite atrocious. Having to search through all of your items for one weapon or piece of armor just to find one that has a skill suitable for your class. And don’t tell me about the option to only show items that character can equip; that option becomes useless when you don’t always weapons free for everyone to use at any time. And would it seriously kill them to show me what items I’ve already made in the bazaar?
To reiterate my issue with the misleading statistics, the numbers can drop to as high as a quarter of the estimated damage. This generous rift is very often large enough to spare the life of your target; I’m sorry, but I’m playing this strategy RPG for fun of strategy, if I wanted to play the slots, I’d go to a casino. This one I just can’t see myself not getting mad at; on top of already witnessing a plethora of failed killing attempts, I just got back from a failed mission simply because one monster simply didn’t die when he wasn’t supposed to. The same mission that had me on the edge of frustration when my healer was Rouletted to death, my main offense was stoned, and then I accidentally broke the copycat law when I repeated a move that was actually done several turns beforehand because no action was apparently performed between my repeated moves. Long story short, this sh*t never happened in FFT. And what a godd*mn shame it is.
on August 22, 2008 at 09:37 AM - LINKMe again. I’m glad to see you’ve at least considered getting it if you find it at an incredible deal (although I doubt it will ever end up there). I’m currently at the 90 hour mark or so, and I’m realizing I’ve got at least another 40 hours in this game, if not more (not even considering hard mode).
The law system isn’t actually as bad as it seemed like it would be early on. For the most part, I haven’t had any of the stupid ones (no missing) in at least the last 30 hours of gameplay. A couple are still irritating, like copycat, which got me a couple of battles ago. On the whole, they do tend to do a good job of mixing it up and forcing me to adopt new strategies (last battle was “no harming the weak” ie. attacking lower leveled units, so I used two units low enough to attack, two moogles that had smile toss, and two supportive units). Just wanted to make the point that once you learn the laws, they’re rarely a problem.
I also wanted to say that this game has much more challenge than FFTA. Maybe not in all of the missions, but there are a few strings that will give you a run for your money, like the King missions and the Tower missions.
Also, the guy above me just sounds like he’s about to have a heart attack or something. The ‘misleading statistics’ point he’s raising is just retarded. In my experience, the damage dealt can range +-5 or 10 (what, do you expect it to give you the absolute number? what fun is that?) It also sounds like he’s a horrible strategist. Give your healer a ring that makes them immune to insta-KO attacks or one that gives them auto reraise, like I have. Those items aren’t that hard to get. His early points about the statistics being off are phooey too. I’ve been stealing items (50% chance) and doing certain status skills (70%) and overall, they’ve felt about right. Of course sometimes you’re going to miss 4 or 5 times in a row, that’s just odds and over time it averages out. And that’s what strategy is all about anyways. Managing the odds to put them in your favor.
Anyways, if you never get this game, ok, not like it affects me at all anyways, but if you’re going to skip it, don’t do it for that guy’s reasons, he’s full of hot air.
PS- as for $ per hour of entertainment, I’m currently at ~52 cents per hour, likely to climb higher than 33 cents per hour. The movies can suck it, this was a good investment.
on August 26, 2008 at 11:27 PM - LINKI hardly think your 90 hour commitment adds to your opinions being less biased. Spend as much time on the game as you want; in my honest opinion, people who spend an inordinate amount of time in games tend to be the worse tacticians. While I am making an obvious implication on my judgment of you, Desi, feel free to consider yourself outside that general observation if you think you’re an exception. And for the record, I am playing the game on hard, and to the game’s credit, it is fairly hard.
Obviously I don’t expect it to give me an exact number, but I would appreciate it if the numbers did not deviate from the estimation as much as MY own experience (let’s not discount another’s experience just because our own is difference, yeah?) has shown me, and in my experience, the numbers rarely rise above the estimation unless it’s a critical. The reason why this issue is such a large concern of mine is because strategy should not be hedged on luck (and no matter how you think about it, it is luck. I’m quite aware of the avenues available to increase hit percentage, but those skills are not readily accessible to all classes at all times. Besides, this would not be an issue if the percentages were simply higher; this is a criticism of the game design that I have no intention of detailing in this post, so please do not set up a straw man unless you understand well my perspective on the game).
Horrible strategist, hm? Haha, I find it laughable that you would feel so easy to judge when you have nothing to judge from. I lost one mission, is that where you were drawing it from? Did you notice that I highlighting that particular fight as a bad experience, and in doing so, revealed it as one of my most admittedly worst experiences regarding my frustrations with the game’s mechanics? Rhetoric aside, Dealing with highly specific instances does not a good strategist make.
Strategy is not about “Managing the odds to put them in your favor.“ That’s gambling. Strategy concerns the employment of actions and intelligence to achieve a certain goal, which is usually “winning”. As stated earlier, the fun of a strategy game is derived from the player’s deployment of new, unique, and generally fun strategies. This criteria is admittedly broad and vague, which is why giving the player a multitude of strategies, not limiting them, should result in a more acceptable play experience.
I’m not suggesting for anyone to buy or skip the game. I’m simply highlighting the criticisms of the game I’ve come across. If you agree with me, good for you, I’m not the only who sees these things (and I already know I’m not, I’ve seen people make the same claims I have). If you don’t, good for you too, enjoy the game, but unless you can make some pretty damn convincing arguments, I don’t see myself changing opinions (though the possibility is certainly there). On a related note, I would ask you all who feel “offended” to not just go and post just because someone doesn’t agree with you, or doesn’t like something you don’t.
on August 27, 2008 at 10:42 AM - LINK“(let’s not discount another’s experience just because our own is difference, yeah?)“
Your own experience directly conflicts with his experiences and my own. We’re all playing the same game, with the same battle system, so if I know something is true and you say it’s not, you’re probably lying.
“The reason why this issue is such a large concern of mine is because strategy should not be hedged on luck”
You do realize this is a strategy RPG, right? Role Playing Game? As in traditionally played with dice rolls?
on August 27, 2008 at 10:57 AM - LINKAnd if I know something is true and you say it’s not, then you’re probably lying? I counted the numbers, I know as much as those tell me. On that regard, they aren’t as fickle as 4/6 for a 50% ratio, it’s more along the lines of 2/7 or 3/10, and I’ve had far more instances of not killing a guy due to under-performing numbers then unexpectedly killing a guy.
Putting a game into a genre is a convenience of categorization, it does not automatically define the mechanics of a game. You also realize this is a STRATEGY game, I’m sure, which does change the rules a bit. Besides, disregarding the implied context, I still don’t think strategy should be hedged on luck. If I wanted to play a tabletop (and regarding history, only western RPGs truly derived from tabletop), then I would play a tabletop, dice rolling and all.
on August 27, 2008 at 04:45 PM - LINKEvery single RPG I’ve ever played, Japanese or western, has involved a degree of randomness. Every time you attack and miss in an RPG, that’s because you failed your dice roll.
You’re being ridiculous. Yes, it’s a Strategy RPG, and it’s going to have elements of both, and a BIG part of being an RPG is the element of chance.
on August 27, 2008 at 04:52 PM - LINKI’m not sure how I’m the one being ridiculous, it seems that not only have you missed my point, but you are also putting words in my mouth.
I’m not saying that eastern RPGs are devoid of random chance, nor am I saying that random chance is completely bad. I’m saying that an excessive degree, one of which I claim I’ve experienced, is counter-intuitive to good strategy, i.e. strategy should not be hedged on luck. In regular RPGs, missing is such an infrequent occurrence that it often is not incorporated into the decision you make. My point is that if it happens so frequently that you actually have to consider these random elements, then the game is requiring you to incorporate luck into your strategy, something that I don’t believe really belongs in a strategy title. Now I’m not saying that good strategy won’t win you the game, because it will, and it has been working for me, but there are certainly elements that I think could do with some changing, this being one of them. And before we continue that conversation, I would suggest we understand what we’re arguing about before we engage: what makes an RPG a good RPG, or what makes an RPG an RPG. I’m arguing for what makes a good RPG, and as much as both of these have rather vague criteria, I’m willing to argue my perspective of what makes a good SRPG.
Aside from that, I don’t know why you feel the need to chastise me for having a different view. I’m not lying for the sake of feeling right, or making up claims just to complain, as none of these have no merit to me. As it is, I acknowledge that this is the internet and I could easily walk away and think that you’re just being silly and ignorant (which you’re not, I read your earlier posts and you weren’t an idiot, so I’ll give you that benefit of the doubt) and that I’m right. But I’m not going to do that, because there certainly could be someone who cares enough to read what I have to say and learn something from it, whether or not they agree with me.
on August 27, 2008 at 08:06 PM - LINK