Returning to a favorite series to finish a forgotten installation
Beginner's Quick Tips
Here's all the things I did on my new playthrough that I wish I had done the first time I ever played, I hope it's helpful information to you!
If you care about unit names, start a new game until you like the name of your clan's Nu Mou & Viera featured in the first mission
Only do the main story quests until you get stuck or pass the "Grounded!" quest & recruit new units as often as possible, according to your desired clan composition. I recommend this guide for recruiting units
If you care about skill mastery, answer the beginning questions in one of the following combinations: 121, 233, 333. You will start the game with the clan ability "Bonus AP 1"
If you care about skill mastery, acquire the "Bonus AP Points" 2 & 3 ASAP by doing the Trials: Negotiation-Teamwork at Lectors & Negotiation-Teamwork at Advocates
If you care about unit names, save before you encounter a new clan unit & move around the map extra days to randomize the name until you get a name you like
If you care about stat growth, take care to set your units to their optimal jobs before they are about to level. I recommend this guide for stat growth
If you have experience playing SRPG's, try Hard difficulty. It makes battles more interesting and less time consuming.
Current Playthrough
Starting Over in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
I have attempted replaying this game a few times over the years but never had the schedule or commitment to see it through. I'm finally in a place in my life where I have a more stable schedule and I've decided I really want to start playing games through to completion, rather than sampling a plethora of titles as they come to my attention. Due to my prior attempts, I remember the first few regions of this game fairly well. At first I decided to try Normal Difficulty since it had been a few years since I played a SRPG/TRPG, but I didn't feel challenged at all and the battles seemed to drag on longer so I went for Hard Difficulty instead and have been enjoying that much more.
I did some research on team building and jobs in this game because I didn't want to invest too much time in units I wouldn't end up using endgame. When you create your file the game generates a default team for you, and it's a little bit of time before you can recruit new units. I recommend unlocking Lezaford's cottage ASAP to make the recruitment process easier. You can get to the unit recruitment part of the game much faster if you just focus on completing the main quests.
Viera was my favorite race in FFTA. Despite the makeover of the art style in A2 making many of their sprites look less regal and more scruffy, I still wanted to have plenty of them in my team. I also like Nu Mou and Hume, Moogle is very cute, and something about Bangaa's White Monk job has always made it an appealing inclusion to me... but overall, I aim for a balanced and diverse spread. I prefer to run less units so I can focus on leveling the same units consistently, so I break down my units into a primary group and a dispatch group. What's nice about FFTA and A2 is the game mechanics and battles are relatively easy with enough leveling so you really can't go wrong with team building. There are people who focus on stat growth but because this game is pretty manageable I found focusing on stat growth to be far too stressful compared to focusing on skill learning. When it comes to certain aspects of gameplay, I'm a big completionist: skill mastery is one of those areas, so this choice of play style was a no-brainer for me.
[Edit] I restarted my game because the difficulty setting was too boring for me, so I've gone back and edited my entries to reflect my new game file and new party. My new blog posts will follow my new playthrough on Hard mode. I'm a bit further along than where I was during these old posts, so I apologize for the small skip in progress.
My Team (15 units 51 hours 57 quests 15 areas) ( * Primary ~ Dispatch)
Luso (H) * Lv. 26 Role: Mixed — Goal Jobs: Parivir & Seer
Adelle (H) * Lv. 25 Role: Melee — Goal Jobs: Ninja & Paladin
Brendyn (H) ~ Lv. 23 Role: Mixed — Goal Jobs: Paladin & Blue Mage
Cid (B) * Lv. 23 Role: Melee — Goal Jobs: Master Monk & White Monk
Phillip (B) ~ Lv. 24 Role: Support — Goal Jobs: Templar & Bishop
Noah (M) * Lv. 24 Role: Ranged — Goal Jobs: Fusiler & Flintlock
Mayet (V) * Lv. 25 Role : Mixed — Goal Jobs: Spellblade & Summoner
Valentia (V) * Lv. 24 Role: Support — Goal Jobs: Green Mage & White Mage
Yuma (V) ~ Lv. 25 Role: Melee — Goal Jobs: Assassin & Elementalist
Tilte (V) ~ Lv. 23 Role: Ranged — Goal Jobs: Sniper & Red Mage
Diema (G) * Lv. 23 Role: Melee — Goal Jobs: Ravager & Raptor
Qestra (G) ~ Lv. 23 Role: Magic — Goal Jobs: Raptor & Ravager
Lian (N) * Lv. 23 Role: Magic — Goal Jobs: Sage & Illusionist
Kings (N) ~ Lv. 24 Role: Magic — Goal Jobs: Arcanist & Alchemist
Peter (S) ~ Lv. 23 Role: Mixed — Goal Jobs: Ranger & Lanista/Berserker
Last time I was working on my file I went through all the auction houses to claim as many territories as I could, and I had a very successful run and swept the map. They're honestly pretty easy to achieve, just save before you go into the auction house each time so you can reload if you accidentally mess up or lose a territory you really wanted.
Today I'm planning to work on the clan challenges. If you know what to expect when you go into them and prepare your units accordingly, they shouldn't give you too much trouble. In my next entry, I'll be including all the reference material I use when I play in case anyone else in the world happens to be playing this game in 2019 haha.
Thanks for riding
Comments