A few weeks ago, I had a 4-hour long car ride and anticipated being painfully bored. I decided it would be a good idea to pick up a game for my DS. I had played Final Fantasy Tactics (of course) and Tactics Advance, thoroughly enjoying both. Call me old fashioned, but I trust Square Enix to make games that are just plain fun, so I bought A2: Grimoire of the Rift.

To be honest I haven’t really been able to put it down, much to the chagrin of my closest friends who have to put up with talking to me while playing. The game doesn’t differ much from its predecessors, instead it tries to build upon them.

The game boasts 56 jobclasses to master, spread out among 7 different races. Obviously each race and job excel in different areas, allowing for awesome party customization. The two new races are Seeq and Gria pictured left.

A2 is a tactical game at its core; battles take place on a grid where characters move and perform actions when it’s their turn. Characters earn EXP by engaging in battles, and all clan members earn AP after battle, regardless of their contribution. If you’re not up for a long battle, you could always send out some dispatch teams to earn loot, money and AP for you. Just make sure they don’t fail! I was failing dispatch missions like it was my job until I noticed a pattern:

A character who jumps up and down when placed in the leader position is more likely to succeed than one who does not Party members who bow their head in shame will not contribute to the party and increase the chance of failure Party members who raise their arm when placed in the party are the best contributers to a party Party members who stand, but do not raise their arm will help, but are second to those who raise their arm Always have a full party

As I mentioned, completing dispatch missions grants loot like yada-yada-crystal or blah-blah-gem. Loot is essential to the game’s awesome item synthesis system. 2-3 loots are combined and sent to a Bazaar where they are traded for weapons and armor. Loot can also be stolen by thieves and hunted by hunters. The more loot you acquire the more equipment you can buy.

Some pieces of equipment have abilities which characters can learn after wearing them and having attained the correct amount of AP. Once learned, abilities are permanent. Learning a certain number of abilities unlocks new jobclasses. Some jobs, however, can only be unlocked by completing quests.

The story is my only complaint really. It’s not that I don’t like the story, it’s just that I have little interest in it and find battling to be more of an incentive to play. The main character Luso is a normal student who is punished for being late to class by his teacher. The punishment is to clean up the school’s library. While there, Luso finds an old book, which asks for a name. Luso writes his name in the book and soon finds himself sucked into the fantasy world of Ivalice.

Luso

Luckily, right as he appears in Ivalice, a strange looking… man-bear-thing… named Cid happens to stumble upon him and forces him to join his guild. Cid helps Luso find a wizard who informs Luso that the key to returning to his world is to fill up the mysterious book which he wrote his name in with experiences here in Ivalice.

Another minor complaint I have is the complete lack of expressions when it comes to dialog art. Whether Luso is saying “I love Pie!” or “Ack! Were under attack!” his dialog art remains the same. I don’t think it takes a whole lot of work to add that in for at least the story characters.

The last element of the game worth mentioning is the auction system. Clans bid on territory at an auction house using coins with different values. The auction system simulates a real-time auction in which bidders have a set number of coins and turns to spend them on. Whoever bids the most wins (in case that wasn’t already obvious.) There are 3-4 territories to an area, and when the player takes over all of an area, he controls it for life. Gaining control of an area grants lower prices for mission info as well as items.

At first I found the auctions a bit clunky, but after participating in about 15 auctions, you can access to a store which allows you to spend clan points on coins. Clan points are acquired by completing missions and in my opinion are best spend on auction coins.

If you are interested in playing the game, you can grab a copy at Amazon.com here for $39.99. For more detailed information on the game, its story and jobclasses, check out the game’s official North American site here.