Just like the plot to the first game, this one revolves around a kid by the name of Luso who happens to fall thru the magical pages of an ancient book, and lands smack dab in the middle of the fictional Final Fantasy land of Ivalice, made popular in both the other Tactics games and the more recent Final Fantasy XII on PS2. Luso joins up with a clan, and adventures out to try and make his way back home, tackling 400 quests in the process, and a unlocking nearly 56 classes, each with their own particular skills, along the way.

Like the previous Tactics Advance, when you enter into a battle in A2, you're put into a 2D grid based battlefield. You'll control your units turn by turn, and typically you'll be attempting to fulfill the requirements of whatever quest you're currently undertaking. There are no random battles in FFTA2, instead, everything is quest based outside of a few treasure-hunting events.

Also, like the previous titles, each battle has a Judge that oversees the events, and creates certain laws that must be followed for a battle to be a success. Most of these simply outlaw the use of a particular skill or spell, while others are a bit more cumbersome and aggravating to avoid. Once again, if you break the law you'll end up in jail, but this time out if you manage to play by the rules you can also gain small bonuses, generally in the form of stat boosts, that will help your party in a fight.

Another slight change from the previous title is the ability to gain points for your members that aren't currently involved in a battle, which keeps you from having to constantly switch out teammates to try and put everyone on a level playing field. However, there's a major focus on equipment when it comes to gaining new skills, so you'll find yourself using the characters you have the best equipment for, as opposed to the people you might actually want to play with, at least until you can acquire the right loot or make the right exchanges at the local bazaar.

Also, FFTA2 isn't entirely portable friendly. Quite a few of the quests you'll partake can last longer than a half hour or so, and while there is a quick save feature, it's hardly the game you'll want to play when you're on a 15 minute break or riding the bus to work. However, there's a ton of quests to take on, classes to unlock, and abilities to gain, and for the most part the game tends to be pretty enjoyable throughout. You can put well over 70 hours into a single play through, especially if you're attempting to do a complete run. There are also a few special guest characters that can be unlocked along the way, similar to the guests that popped up in the PSP port of the original Tactics.

The Sakimoto soundtrack for FFTA2 is fantastic, as most Sakimoto soundtracks tend to be, and you'll catch a lot of familiar tunes from the previous Ivalice centric titles along the way. Graphically the game doesn't really step things up from the previous title, keeping with the familiar 2D sprite presentation, but everything reeks of color, and the battlefields even look bright and engaging. There's obviously a lighter theme that runs thru the Advance versions of Tactics compared to the original, and it shows in the visual palette.

The added stylus controls don't add much to the gameplay, and I found myself relying on the less annoying direction pad than I did on navigating the map with a stick. Also, you still can't rotate the battlefield, and things tend to get aggravating when there's quite a few characters on the screen at once, as it can be hard to locate and navigate thru the tiles available. Why they don't just allow me to rotate using the L and R buttons I don't understand, and hopefully it's something they'll finally fix whenever another sequel rolls around.

Overall, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and I definitely suggest it to both fans of the series and strategy RPG enthusiasts. It's not the best in the genre, but it's a solid title with a ton of value for someone that's looking for something that'll last a while. The translation is excellent, and while the story isn't on par with War of the Lions, it still manages to engage the player enough to keep them motivated to continue. Definitely check this one out, it shouldn't disappoint.