Overpowered Tactics A2: Bending the Laws
It’s been a little while since my last article; thanks to a combination of hectic days, weird internet problems and writer’s block. Today I found myself determined to put the fingers to the keyboard and come up with something interesting, so I decided to write about what would be considered a rather niche topic.
One of my most used pieces of gaming hardware is my Nintendo DSI. Finding a good game on a Nintendo hand-held nowadays can be a challenge; we don’t all want to know what Mama’s been cooking or randomly tap a screen at an animal like the world’s most negligent fish owner. One of the gems from the rough is a game called Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Surprisingly more playable.
It’s no secret that I really enjoyed (and still go back to enjoy) the original Final Fantasy Tactics. Tactics was a complicated, well-written and fun masterpiece. Unfortunately they made a sequel named ‘Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance’. Many people enjoyed the game, but almost anybody who had played the original found themselves outraged.
Tactics may have had rather simple graphics, but the story involved conspiracies, murders, heretics, religion, myths, lineage, war, demons… I could go on. The sequel was a game where you played as a child in a world where nobody dies and, to be frank, nothing interesting ever happens. They even introduced Judges, which even fans of FFT:A to this day cannot defend.
Judges were a good concept. They threw a spanner in the works of a player’s optimization, forcing you to think about different strategies, jobs and itemization. Unfortunately the concept was far overshadowed by a failure of implementation.
I am not even kidding you here: There are laws which forbid certain in-combat actions that are not affected by the several common status ailments that cause you to lose control of your character. Think about that. Yes, you would be punished if the computer told your berserked/confused/charmed character to break a law. Yes, if you did critically strike on a normal attack and by chance the attack knocked back a target, it was considered a ‘knockback’ and you would break that law. Yes, if there was a law limiting the damage you can deal with an action you could easily, accidentally critically strike and break the law.
Is it any surprise that Tactics A2 was so easily overlooked?
I love this game. It’s still a little childish, but at least stabbing somebody in the face kills them half the time. It’s also great that the main character isn’t a completely coddled child (he borders upon having a blood lust sometimes) and, the best part of all, the laws are a bit more refined and following the judge law is an optional choice in most missions. Follow the law and you get a little more loot, can resurrect allies mid-battle and maintain a privilege.
I heard that the story for the main character was supposed to be that he survived a plague which wiped out his whole town, but Nintendo considered it ‘too dark’ and the plot was instead granted as the back-story for another character named ‘Adelle’. Oh well, people make mistakes sometimes. All things considered, I’m just happy that his age is in the double digits.
.
Now that you understand what’s to enjoy about this game, I’d like to announce a small series I will be doing about Tactics A2 which I’m calling ‘Overpowered Tactics A2′. For the first installment:
The Top 3 Ways to ‘Bend’ Judge Laws
…
3- Traps, traps and more traps.
…
Rangers are one of the more interesting job classes in Tactics A2, and they are unique to the Seeq race (brutish pig barbarians). They have 2 main features as a class: they are amazing at using items due to being capable of making them twice as effective (and can even reverse their effects, making a Remedy quite the hilarious offensive choice) and they lay traps; the same traps that plague you on the battlefield.
As soon as you lay a trap it’s effectively part of the scenery. You are no longer responsible for the trap and, funnily enough, you have to avoid stepping on it yourself. Due to this, you can run a Ranger or two around the battlefield dropping traps all over the map, killing off enemies with direct damage or charming them with the traps so that they kill each other.
Traps will bypass almost any law you can think of, even the limited damage laws, since according to the game you aren’t responsible for the damage. You still gain experience and items for killing the enemies, but essentially the Judge doesn’t care who laid what traps or what happens when they trigger.
This tactic is best employed by having a Viera (the bunny girl race) on field as a Sniper/White Mage, sneaking around resurrecting your Seeq Rangers should they die. If you can have all the non-Rangers invisible it’s a great advantage. Note that enemies are usually most tempted to attack from behind your characters. Use this to your advantage!
That's cold, mate.
2- Doom and Poison. Poiseidoom?
…
Poison is just amazing in Tactics A2. Poison (or Regen) in this game do not have a limited duration. Poison all the enemies on map and watch as their health slowly and reliably ticks down by 10% per round. For best results, utilize the Blue Magic spell ‘Bad Breath’ (Only Humes can be Blue Mages) which can be learned very early in the game. Bad Breath will attempt to Silence, Blind and Poison enemies in a T-shaped area (cone), which is just fantastic. While Silence has a limited duration, the target won’t be able to cast healing spells while afflicted.
Need to kill something that’s healing, but can’t break a damage cap? Doom is your friend. Doom is one of the more difficult spells to cast on an enemy: not only does it usually only have a 40-50% chance to hit, but most of the effects which cause it require high-level weapons and often do damage simultaneously. Fortunately, Blue Mages once again come into play here, using the Blue Magic spell ‘Doom’ for a measly 8 mana from a fair distance away. The best part? Doom technically doesn’t do damage; it inflicts the KO status effect. You’re killing somebody without, as far as the game is concerned, even hurting them.
Avoid slowing or reducing the speed of your enemies when utilizing either of these status inflictions, since they both tick with each of the target’s turns rather than with what the game considers ’rounds’. Also note that inflicting a negative status effect on an enemy directly (without using a trap) is considered ‘harming’ them, and will still break laws which forbid harming specific targets.
I really hate the Judges.
1- An Opportunity to Counter!
…
Reaction and Opportunity abilities are your friend. Unless a law specifically states that Reaction or Opportunity abilities are forbidden, they will never break laws.
Opportunity commands are pretty noticeable. Your unit’s turn will begin with it bracing and saying a quote “Time to take off the gloves” style, then an additional small menu will be available above the standard commands, listing which Opportunity ability it would use.
This ability will change if you move the unit into a different square. For example, standing by yourself will make the unit cast Protect/Shell on itself, standing near two or more allies will cast Haste on all of you and, more importantly, walking up to an enemy will allow you to strike it (or them, if more than one is adjacent to you) with a flurry of attacks. Flurry is best used dual-wielding, as you can potentially strike a single target 4 times and be completely safe from breaking the law.
As efficient as Opportunity commands are, the greatest method for bypassing laws is definitely Counter. While many Reaction abilities offer different effects (such as Strike Back dodging an attack then Countering) Counter is the most reliable, since it triggers off of almost any ability an enemy might cast, so long as it is in an adjacent square.
It just goes to show that even in the world of Ivalice, the Judge will let you go if you can justify self defense.
.
I hope you’ve made use of the tips provided in this article, and thanks for reading.
