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Video Game Review: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

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DOUG BUEL

Tribune correspondent

Published: August 8, 2008

System: Nintendo DS

Publisher: Square Enix

Reviewer's rating: ***½

ESRB rating: Everyone 10+

Game type: Turn-based strategy

Kind of like: "Advance Wars," but fantasy

Best feature: We've always loved the ease of play of this series.

Worst feature: Why the "ordinary boy from real life sucked into a fantasy world" story line again?

The bottom line: Square Enix called its new game "Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift" instead of "Advance 2." Presumably, that's because the series is no longer on the Game Boy Advance.

Sorry, Game Boy users - this game is for the Nintendo DS. Fortunately, it's a lot of fun and very easy to get playing.

The game returns to the same world seen in previous "Tactics" games. You have fantasy battles with groups of enemies. Your team and the monsters are arranged like pieces on a chessboard. During each of your characters' turns, you decide where that character will move and what attack to make or what spell to use.

The wonderful thing about this game is that it always intuitively shows you what you can do. If you go to move a character, it lights up and shows you exactly what squares you can reach. If you're going to use a healing spell, your teammates pop up on the upper screen so that you can quickly compare their health. This game comes extremely close to the fantasy video game ideal of re-creating Dungeons & Dragons, and surely does so better than anything else you'll find on the DS.

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