Final Fantasy Tactics series

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire (DS)

A2 is the sequel to the lacklustre first GBA ‘sequel' to the Final Fantasy Tactics. While Western newcomers to the series mostly enjoyed the game, fans of the original keenly felt Matsuda's absence in the dumbed down mechanics and storyline. Indeed, the game sold very poorly in Japan (half the number of sales it achieved in America).

The addition of the judge system was ill-advised and, the game's opening scenes, teaching the player the basic mechanics via a snowball fight set in a contemporary school playground were a far and sad cry from the regal drama and intrigue of the original's equivalent section.

Having spent a bit of time with this sequel, we can report that, while the game is still internally closer to the GBA original than the PSOne original, visually things have been tightened up considerably. The game looks marvellous on the DS with pretty character designs and emotive animations. The opening level, set in a thick forest where your team must fight a plump yellow eagle and her chicks, brought to mind Legend of Mana's comparative intricate, illustrative feel.

Yuichi Murasawa, director of the game, explains perhaps why it failed to appeal to the original's fans: "Both Tactics Advance games are designed to appeal more to casual players while maintaining serious narrative themes. The DS system is bringing in swathes of new players and this game is aimed at these people while offering new content to existing fans.

"We've added lots of new features for this sequel. While the game has the same core battle system as the GBA title, we've implemented some new elements to make use of the DS's features, introduced more variety into the quest system, added eight new jobs and races and treated the game to a new world area map system."

Whether these topsoil shifts are enough to convince a new generation of more dedicated strategy players, brought up in a world of Nipppon ichi complexity, that tactics A2 has anything meaningful to offer them remains to be seen.

Undoubtedly the new DS title will be a pretty and fun place for more casual players to cut their teeth on one of the most demanding of videogaming's genres. But with Matsuno gone the more serious stream of the Tactics name looks to have dried up. For now, at least, the PSP update of his original masterpiece is a welcome addition especially for those yet to lose themselves in its intricate web and delightful depths.