Tactical RPGs are a genre well suited to portable systems. You’re able to save at almost any time, and their sheer length makes them great choices for long trips. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 fits this role well, offering a high-fantasy RPG where you manage your own ’clan’ of warriors and make your way through a variety of sidequests alongside a main story. It’s a rather long game with a lot of content, and while it is quite easy it’s pretty entertaining all the same.
Typical for the genre, combat in FFTA2 is handled in a series of turns; you and the computer alternate between moving your troops on an isometric square grid, trading blows and flanking maneuvers as you go. The major change to this formula is a series of laws that change in each battle, forbidding the use of certain weapons or skills. Complying with them gets you a little extra loot after the fight, while breaking them gives you a few penalties for the rest of the battle. Normally this is fine, though there are a few that seem completely unfair; being punished for missing is one example, and moreso for causing a knockback effect (which happens automatically during random critical hits). I can see they were trying to encourage you to approach each fight with a different plan, but I imagine designing battles better would have had the same effect with less annoyance. Still, it’s a minor problem at worst.
This variety of content is the main point of the game, since the plot itself is pretty basic and is mostly an excuse to get you playing around with dozens of classes spread across a variety of races, most of these taken from or partially inspired by things from other Final Fantasy games. There are plenty of different classes to try, ranging from the obvious swordfighters and mages, to more obscure ideas like nature-attuned characters that can control certain types of enemies. Some classes are too weak, others are reasonably useful, and a few are just too strong, but you at least have the option of not using them. Character customization is also a big deal in FFTA2, and over time you’ll be able to make characters that combine talents from several different classes to make something unique.
Joining this character customization is an emphasis on clan management and growth. You’ll have several side quests to pursue (though most of them amount to "show up, beat up the enemy, and be on your way"), trial battles to fight for raising your clan’s rank and status, and more. It’s easily possible to spend as much time on these tasks as you do on the main plot, leaving you with a lot to do. In fact, all these side tasks and managing your clan can be more interesting than the main story, and that’s well enough.
Thus while this game isn’t quite a wide open ’sandbox’ title, it certainly comes close. The lack of difficulty can be compensated for by using self-imposed handicaps, and the Law system is only a minor irritation compared to the previous release in this series. Given the sheer amount of things you can do in this game, it FFTA2 overcomes its flaws and fans of the tactical RPG genre will be pleased.
