// ARCADE DECADENCE: Final Fantasy Tactics A2 preview

The original Final Fantasy Tactics on the PlayStation has proven to be more popular than perhaps anyone could have predicted. Though it's been almost 10 years since the original game was released in North America, the Tactics series is picking up more steam than ever. The sequel of sorts to the original, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, was released in 2003 in North America; a remake of the original game for the PSP was just released this week in Japan; and now, with Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the series is making its debut on the Nintendo DS. Gamespot had a chance to try the game out at the 2007 Square Enix Party in a stage setup that was utterly unique. Instead of a line of kiosks, the demo for A2 took place in a room constructed to look like a small schoolroom, complete with brick walls, a library of books on the back wall, and school desks and chairs.
Tactics A2 is the sequel to the Game Boy Advance's FF Tactics Advance, and though the game plays similarly to the original, the setting isn't exactly the same. In Tactics Advance, the characters began in the town of St. Ivalice, only to be transported to the magical realm of Ivalice (setting of other FF games such as Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings) after discovering a magical book. By contrast, A2 seems to start out immediately in Ivalice, where a small party is exploring a forest, only to run into a monstrous-looking Chocobo.