What makes a game great? For me, it's not all about getting a high score or beating someone else in a couple of bouts. No, for me, it's mainly about a compelling storyline. Nothing beats the feeling of being awed and emotionally invested in a truly wonderful game.

Before I began writing this article, I was looking through my game collection and seeing which ones I've played through multiple times and what these games have in common. Each game that I picked out was an RPG with an interesting story and an excellent cast of characters that I found myself becoming emotionally invested with. Some of the games I've enjoyed most are many of the entries in the Final Fantasy series, Lunar, Chrono Trigger, and numerous others. However, one game that embodies what I enjoy most in a gaming experience is Final Fantasy X. The characters are interesting and the story is deep making it a game I find myself going back to time and time again.



My best friend at the time picked up FFX about 2 weeks before I got my hands on a copy of my own. That first night, we played from 8 o'clock that night until about 6 the following morning. I can still see us both just watching the intro cinematic with all of the characters sitting around the campfire outside of Zanarkand. I was immediately hooked after hearing Tidus's opening monologue which felt like an invitation to the player to join him in the telling of his story. This really gave me the feeling of joining in on an epic adventure. While it's true, the story is never as mind-blowing after you've seen it once, I still find it immensely enjoyable to relive the experience again and again. When I hit a major plot point in the story, I can remember how I felt that first time I experienced it and regain those feelings. For me, it's just like reading a great book multiple times, only in this case, it's playing a video game.



Another thing I really enjoy from games like this is when the ability to customize your party's stats and abilities is included in the game. Using FFX as the example, there was certainly quite a bit of customization that you could use for each character. The sphere grid, while not a perfect system, was still able to provide the player with the ability to build a character's stats in a variety of different ways. If you wanted a character with plenty of physical strength, you'd simply take them through Auron's or Wakka's section of the grid. If you wanted White or Black magic, you'd take a character through Yuna's or Lulu's sections respectively. This allows the player to play the same game over and over and never have the exactly the same setup each time. This system could even be used to make the game more challenging for the player by eventually getting Auron around to Yuna's section, and making him more of a White Mage or taking Lulu through Wakka's section and making her a bit more potent with her dolls. While a player typically wouldn't set up their party in this way, it's nice to know that the option is there, should the player be so inclined to try to make the gaming experience as unique as possible.

In this 3D graphical era, the graphics will age and become antiquated, but an engaging tale will be forever. Being able to experience a great story will keep me coming back to excellent games over and over again.

So I've been playing FFTA2 for about 2 weeks now, and I've already clocked over 45 hours into this game. I'm awfully suprised at just how much time I've put into this game. This certainly isn't a great a game, but for some reason, I'm incredibly addicted to it, despite also having the new FFIV game for DS just waiting to be played.

I was incredibly disappointed by the first Tactics Advance game, mostly due to the high expections from the original, and wonderful, Final Fantasy Tactics. The introduction of the harsh law system and the incredibly toned down story, FFTA was extremely far from what I had wanted, so when FFTA2 was announced, I was extremely hesitant. Once I learned that the law system had been pretty much overhauled, however, I decided I'd give this game a shot.

When I first began my new game, I was disappointed to see that my character was still a child going on summer vacation, only to be sucked into a book and taken into the world Ivalice. This was so very similar to FFTA, that I nearly shut the game off then and there. But, I decided to continue on and at least give some of the battles a try. After the obligatory training mission, I felt prepared enough to take on my first story mission. This actually turned out to be a bit tougher than I had expected, bringing back some fond memories of the originial Tactics game for the Playstation. After I beat the first mission or two, I felt I was ready to begin taking on some of the additional side quests the game had to offer. Here's where I found some of my favorite moments in the game. Very few side missions are standalone. Typically each little story takes place over a handful of side quests. While yes, they are relatively simple, not overly deep stories, they're at least interesting enough to make me want to see what will happen next to the people I've interacted with.

Along with enjoyable side stories, each quest itself is really pretty fun. Yes, there are quite a few "defeat all foes" or "defeat this mark" missions, the areas and character placements vary enough to make me feel as though I need to put in more thought into my moves than I did in FFTA. Another thing that makes each battle more enjoyable is, surprisingly enough, the law system. The new law system isn't nearly as harsh as it was in FFTA. If you don't follow a law in this game, you are only penalized by not being able to Raise your fallen comrades during the battle, and you lose out on a couple bonus items after the fight. My only real complaint about this system are some of the ridiculous laws (I'm looking at you No Misses law). While these can be annoying, since the penalties aren't horrible, it's easy enough to get over the loss of 2 or 3 bonus items.

Another reason I really enjoy these side quests, is the reward of the ability points needed to upgrade your character's jobs. For some reason, I've always enjoyed gaining access to new jobs and working on learning all the abilites as quickly as possible. This current system isn't too different from the other Tactics games, in that you can use abilities from two jobs at a time, one set of abilites from your current job, as well as a second set from another job you've leveled previously. This allows for each player to customize their characters, making most player's experiences different from anyone else's. Obviously there are "ideal" builds that most people will use, but it's nice to know that the customization aspect is there for those that want to have a unique gaming experience.

As far as the main story line goes, it has been somewhat lackluster. I've only completed about 12 main story missions. Right now, I'm having way too much fun completing all the side quests that I possibly can. This is why my team is already level 45-50, despite having completed so few story missions.

All in all, this game is quite a step from the first Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but not quite up to par with the original Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of story. Despite this fact, I'm certainly happy that this game is a part of my DS collection.

PS: First blog post, Yay!