The Nintendo DS was an extremely successful system, and it plowed through the handheld competition like butter upon its release. The touch screen/normal screen combination added a whole new world to the handheld gaming industry, and it was able to make quite a few waves. Today, we have the Nintendo 3DS, a system extremely successful in its own right, taking things from the original DS and amplifying them, creating a physically and graphically superior system. However, backwards compatibility is a beautiful feature of this console, and it is particularly significant when it comes to the DS, as there were so many excellent Nintendo DS games that players will still be able to enjoy on their 3DS system. The ones that most people think of would be "Mario Kart DS" and the Pokemon games, and, if you have classy taste in video gaming, "Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright" may come to mind when considering high-quality, original Nintendo DS games. However, one that often falls under the radar is "Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced II," but is one of the best Nintendo DS games available.
The original "Final Fantasy Tactics" for the original PlayStation introduced a new and unique player control and battle system into the world of "Final Fantasy," a popular franchise most known for its Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) style mechanics and extensive quantity of games. In "Tactics," there was a completely different style of gameplay. Instead of the normal style, your line of heroes versus a line of villains with every character attacking in order, there was a new board game-esque function: each character would be placed on a field and would take turns moving and attacking enemies depending on their location. It brought in a whole new field of fascinating battle mechanics that was previously unexplored. "Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced" took this a bit further, and created a beautifully rendered and extremely fascinating world for the characters to interact with, and new weapons and classes to help up the variability and quality of the game.
In "FFTA2," we finally reached the peak of the game’s quality (although I, for one, would love to see another "Tactics" game for the 3DS that takes it to the next level), with a compelling story, lovable characters, a fully-evolved tactical game style and a fun new element called Auctions. The game is satisfyingly long, and it has enough content to allow you to enjoy building up your characters and increasing your power curve while never outgrowing the missions, all while still having just enough of a struggle to make it enjoyable.
There are a few points of interest that I want to particularly discuss. The first is the open-world style of the game. I'm the kind of gamer who loves open-world games, often more than sequential ones. The game has a story, but you choose when to progress further: you go to the pub and take quests depending on what you're interested in pursuing. Late game, it's often possible to play for hours without advancing the story at all because of how many side quests are available, and these side quests are often fun and always rewarding. The auction feature is also quite enjoyable, allowing the player access to exclusive items and weapons through a fun and wacky style of engaging mini-game.
"FFTA2" is quite a fantastic game, and it deserves much more praise and recognition than it has received. It's certainly worth a play through, although if you’re like me, you will likely find yourself playing it again and again.
