If you take a moment to look through our past reviews of Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, it should be fairly apparent that there is a pattern of excellence running through the series. Things haven't changed much in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, so you can expect the same fantastic blend of tactical action and RPG elements set in the now-familiar land of Ivalice. Though the DS offers some new control possibilities, the minimal implementation incorporates the simple control schemes of the previous games while making good use of the extra screen real estate afforded by the dual screens. Really, there weren't a lot of ways to improve on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, so it's somewhat surprising to find that Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is superior.

Bizarre Bazaar

As a traditional Japanese tactics game, the gameplay of FFTA2 consists of a series of turn-based conflicts in which you and your party of allies battle against other clans of warriors on a lavishly decorated environmental grid. Each character has a Job that represents the different abilities they can employ in a fight, but characters can switch Jobs in between battles. Some Jobs have a prerequisite of mastery of a variety of other Jobs. So, while the Ninja Job offers some sweet skills (like the ability to dual-wield weapons), you'll need to learn four techniques from the Thief Job before you can become a Ninja. Equipping weapons or armor specific to your Job will enable you to use new attacks or spells which can be learned (making them a permanent part of your repertoire) after a few fights.

This method of character progression should be familiar to longtime FFT fans. The major change in A2 is that you no longer have to wait for vendors to stock new and more powerful items because you and you alone are responsible for discovering new weapon designs through the use of the Bazaar.


Each battle awards assorted monster parts and other materials ideal for crafting new weapons and armor, and the Bazaar is where you exchange them. In order to gain access to new items (and thus new abilities as well), you must deliver your spoils of war to the Bazaar, where craftspeople work to build new swords, bows, guns and everything else your clan of characters needs to advance through the ranks of Jobs.

Unfortunately this system has a bit of a downside, as it can sometimes take a while to gather the necessary ingredients for a new weapon that specifically benefits a Job. It also doesn't really help that the Bazaar will never give you any hints as to which materials are necessary for what type of weapon or armor, so it's not like you can actually hunt for the bits you need. (However you can become familiar with the types of ingredients, for example pelts are usually used for armor.)

This little snag can impede your progress if you're not careful and in the worst-case scenario can actually be an obstacle to obtaining more advanced Jobs. Granted, you can always shift the stalled character to a different Job, but it can still be disheartening when a character only needs one more Black Mage spell to be able to become an Arcanist but you lack the necessary weapons to learn the necessary spells.