TGS '07: FF Tactics A2 Hands-On

TOKYO--We just managed to cut through the insanity of the Tokyo Game Show, not to mention a large line, to get our hands on a playable build of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire. As you might infer from the title, The Sealed Grimoire is the sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the Gameboy Advance, and shares more than a few things in common with its prequel.

For starters, you yet again play the role of a boy sucked out of the real world and into Ivalice. That boy is Luso, hapless librarygoer turned wacky-looking adventurer by dent of a magical book--the eponymous Sealed Grimoire. We aren't sure what Luso looked like before landing in Ivalice, but his Final Fantasy duds are everything an androgynous boy hero could ask for, including a big, floppy pink hat, suspenders, and what appears to be a bodice. His supporting cast is equally odd looking, including Cid, an older man with dark skin, blond hair, a long nose over a longer mustache, and horns on the four corners of his face, as well as a sassy girl with purple hair in purple clothes who has a penchant for stealing. We'll call her Winona, though that probably isn't her name.

To go with these colorful new characters are colorful old ones, if you consider Final Fantasy XII old. Though we didn't see them in action, we're told that both Vaan and Panelo will make appearances. There are also two new races including the Guria (half girl, half dragon girl!) and the Shiku (The shark-pigs from FF XII; they're new to the Tactics series). There will also be at least 10 new jobs, including the Chocobo Jock and the Pirate. While we know little about the Chocobo Jocks, aside from the fact that they ride Chocobos and so can probably move really far, we know that the Pirates will have special bonuses on any map with water.

If that hasn't shivered your timbers, let's get to the gameplay. When our time with the build began, we went to a pub and bought a quest contract. This lead us to a previously unoccupied zone in search of an artifact that was in the possession of killer tomatoes and a pinheaded ghost. First off, a law was chosen for the battle, and we got to choose a clan skill. Now, laws won't behave in The Sealed Grimoire the way they did in Tactics Advance--rather than getting penalized for breaking a law, you're now rewarded for following them. So, you can sit there and break your assigned law until the cows come home, but if you decide to be good and obey, you'll receive a nifty bonus at the end of the fight. If you remember the strict laws from the last game, you'll probably breathe a sigh of relief at this news.

Once we had our law and clan skill out of the way, we chose the rest of our helpers from our gang, which had seven members (out of apparently a maximum of 24). Included were a platypus in aviator goggles wielding a bazooka, a black mage, a mog chocobo jock, a shark-pig with a mohawk, a dragon girl, and a couple others. We chose the dragon girl, who turned out to be an archer, the shark-pig, and the black mage, and were joined by Cid. Just as we were about to begin fighting, Winona (again, not her real name) entered the fray on our side.

We quickly sent the main character into battle, slicing at tomatoes (don't worry, it's only ketchup), along with the shark-pig, while Cid and Winona acted on their own. The dragon girl hung back and plunked away, while we attempted to heal people with the black mage. Why? Because we thought she was a white mage, until we shot a fireball at Luso while trying to heal him. Some other abilities we discovered were a whirlwind attack that knockbacked all surrounding enemies, and a silencing blast that prevented spellcasting. With the tomatoes pasted and the pinhead down, we turned our attention to retrieving the artifact, but the thief girl beat us to it and vanished.

Back in town, where we were trying to explain things to an unimpressed shark-pig, we saw the girl and sprinted after her, but we don't know what happened next, because our time with the game was up. What we do know is that Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire is coming soon in Japan, but has no US release date. That's a shame, because this game looks great, and can't come soon enough.