First pictures of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

[Aelph]

I actually think the characters are rather appealing looking. But I've never been known to be turned off by anything 'cute' (Japanese or not, I might add, before anyone accuses me of anything in that direction ;-)). I do wonder how long it would take them to get dressed in the morning, though...

Could be decent fun. I may be in the minority, but I'll be looking forward to this one.

[Lucid]

I was hoping they'd go for the more serious tone of FFT. I'll try this out like I did FFTA, but if the story is anything as boring I probably won't finish it as I did not finish FFTA.

The whole Ivalice alliance stuff has really turned me off to be honest. From Vaan's(and most of the rest of FF XII's cast) horrid character design, to the childish looks of the FFTA games, I just don't really care too much anymore.

I'd rather see some new ogre battle.

[Eusis]

I'm just kinda tired of this clustering of games. WORLD OF MANA, IVALICE ALLIANCE, FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS! Just shut the fuck up and give the agmes. Hell, I think it makes the relative lack of varity stick out more.

[Prime Mover]

Eh, unless it allows me to explore the world, instead of giving me a map with dots, I'll probably avoid it, just like I avoided the first two.

[Dice]

THe main characters are rather bizarra looking.

Understatement of the year.  What in the fuck is up that weapon that Heroboy is holding?  Not to mention the big-ass clover emblem.  Just needs some orange stars and purple horseshoes to complete the ensemble. :P

Truth be told, I was gonna gauge on everyone else's reactions then re-instate mine.  I fucken hate these designs, they look like they're about to walk the gay pride parade (no offense to homosexuals, its just that FFT's are about war...and this just doesn't really suit).

See? Fuck Japan. I'll have every damn one of you believing it before long. :P

A bit bold and harsh...but yeah, I'm starting to get pissy about the same shit each time.

[Alisha]

personally if they made a FFT based in the world of Vanadiel that would fucking OWN!

hume,mithra,taruaru,galka,elvaan >> ivalice races.
vandiel actually has way more races because of the beastmen.and they could make an alternate scenario where you get to play as beastmen. i would totally make a yagudo monk.

[Spoony Mage]

personally if they made a FFT based in the world of Vanadiel that would fucking OWN!

hume,mithra,taruaru,galka,elvaan >> ivalice races.
vandiel actually has way more races because of the beastmen.and they could make an alternate scenario where you get to play as beastmen. i would totally make a yagudo monk.

Isn't that what the first FFTA game was?  I could have sworn that's where FFXI got all their races from.

Like Aelph, I'm not instantly turned off by anything done in what I'm calling the "cute" anime style.  The girl, at least, looks appealing enough.  The dude looks like a mish-mash of clothing disasters, though.  He almost looks like a design that got rejected for Sora of Kingdom Hearts.  

Either way, I probably won't play this one.

[Eusis]

Isn't that what the first FFTA game was?  I could have sworn that's where FFXI got all their races from.

... You've completely mangled it. FFXI has it's own races, and FFXII is the one that shares races with FFTA. Also:

The dude looks like a mish-mash of clothing disasters, though.  He almost looks like a design that got rejected for Sora of Kingdom Hearts.

I don't think it's people being upset about anime design (Well, in this case at least - CV is another story), it's about that specific character. The girl, whatever. The guy though... I just noticed he's wearing high heels. What the hell.

[everluck]

I'm 40 or so hours into the first one and still no where near completing it. The story was not gripping in the least.

Marche: "Well, I've been transported to an awesome place, so that's pretty cool. I can't get back home? Well, that's not so bad, as long as I have friends. My brother's evil now? Well, that's not so great, but as long as he's enjoying himself..."

edit:
It was still fun, but A2 is seriously going to have to improve this branch of the franchise if it's going to warrant a purchase.

[Shooichi]

God, guys, if the game is fun it warrants a purchase. I don't typically try to push my values over others', but fuck, I thought RPGFan's membership was smarter than to go for the cute/kids == crap route.

[Hidoshi]

...Richard, You sit in #rpgfan half the day and you STILL have faith? What the hell man.

But yeah. While I wasn't a great fan of FFTA, A2 may be a change for the better. Big fucking deal if the hero's wearing high heels. A lot of us bought Shadow Hearts 3 and Godhand after all.

[Eusis]

God, guys, if the game is fun it warrants a purchase. I don't typically try to push my values over others', but fuck, I thought RPGFan's membership was smarter than to go for the cute/kids == crap route.

Maybe your reply would've been more fitting for another thread, but... Nice job being an idiot and oversimplifying this and making it black and white, if not entirely missing the point as to why it really bugged us. Clearly if we don't want our main characters dressing as FREAKS, that means we hate anything that's even remotely colorful and spend all day playing Doom and with some GoW. But GoW wouldn't be ideal to play all the time, as Marcus Fenix has shiny blue lights on his outfit, can't have that much color!

I'm pretty sure most people here will touch stuff even if it's overly colorful and kiddy: I'm enjoying Gurumin and want to get Eternal Sonata. And admittedly, no one here said they wouldn't buy FFTA2 that I saw: They just thought the main character looked stupid, and for all anyone knows you might not /have/ to drag him into battle anyway. Plus while not mentioned in this thread, some of us are just getting irritated that it seems everything is just teeny bopper crap, with JRPGs that simply STAR an adult being a rarity.

I probably wouldn't get the game anyway in all honesty. I had fun with FFTA but got bored with it and annoyed that it felt like I had to grind grind grind in order to get the other jobs. Unless I hear amazing praise for this, I'll be skipping it regardless of character design. The rest of the game looks fine though, as I basically said in my original post.

A lot of us bought Shadow Hearts 3 and Godhand after all.

Nope, I don't have either (did many even get Godhand here?), and both have better designed main characters anyway. SH3's was more clothing ill-fitting for the time period than WTF like this is, and Godhand... Main character seems mostly normal, though the rest of the game looks delightfully fucked up from the pictures I saw, but that's an entirely different type of oddity from the character design for FFTA2's lead. You could, however, cite KH as this reeks of Nomura.

[Amankhan]

Ok, if we're done arguing about how the game looks, maybe we can move on.  I think its quite interesting that SE is putting a GBA game out this late in the cycle.  GBA development is all but dead, and yes, the system may still have a large install base in Japan.  However, a developer still working on the system at this point shows they have a lot of faith in the game.

How many copies did FFTA sell, anyway?

And if we have any translators on the messageboard (Haven't seen Shiguma post in forever), does the article mention "DS" just to say that yes, you can play GBA games on the DS?  Or does it say something else?

[Eusis]

I'm a translator of english to english, and I can say that I see the letters DS in that article.

Edit: That's what I get for skimming your last paragraph. Why the hell'd you think it was for the GBA? They're practically screaming DS in that article, and what looks to be a info panel says "DS" in it, not GBA. If it's because of the A2 thing, well... There's a reason they're saying A2 and not Advance 2.

Edit 2: Just for fun, blatant confirmation.

[Amankhan]

Why the hell'd you think it was for the GBA? They're practically screaming DS in that article, and what looks to be a info panel says "DS" in it, not GBA. If it's because of the A2 thing, well... There's a reason they're saying A2 and not Advance 2.]

Practically screaming?  It says "DS" a grand total of 1 time in the article.  Which is coincidentally the same amount of times that it says "GBA".  (Green square on the right side of the page, a bit towards the top.)  And yes, DS is in a larger font.

Jesus, I just didn't know what system it was for and assumed GBA.  Sue me for making a mistake.