Promotional Consideration: Tactical advertisements
by Eric Caoili 
{ Jun 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM }
Did you forget that Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift ships in North America this week? We wouldn't be surprised if you did, as, aside from two magazine advertisements, Square Enix hasn't done much to promote the SRPG sequel.
In fact, unless we've missed something, the only two handheld game commercials Square Enix has aired in the U.S. since the GBA were for the Final Fantasy III remake and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker -- Mario Hoops 3-on-3 doesn't count. That's a shame considering how creative the original Final Fantasy Tactics Advance commercial was!
Bring your mages, ninjas, and gunners past the break for the GBA clip and the two FFTA2 magazine pieces we mentioned above!
Gallery: Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Mar-shay. Annoying rules. Irritable Mewt.
Pretty much everyone but us loathes this FFTA commercial -- we can't help that we're easily won over by corniness! Really, there aren't enough parodies of 80s/90s helpline commercials out there.
If you pay close attention while Mewt is accosting his caller, you'll notice that someone dressed up a bunny with wings to make it look like a Moogle! It's not as cool as the Moogle in the Final Fantasy III (FFVI in Japan) SNES commercial, but the rabbit is still cute!
Though Square Enix doesn't seem to have any plans to promote the game to television audiences, the studio has put out two different magazine ads in the past few months:
Not bad at all! You can even get that first image as a desktop wallpaper -- 1024x768 and 1280x1024. FFTA2's Japanese site also has a wallpaper featuring the imposing judge with his back to the game's protagonist, Luso Clemens -- 1024x768 and 1280x1024. Set one of these as your background, and you'll have no trouble remembering to pick up the SRPG later this week!
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Crazylink @ Jun 22nd 2008 8:15PM
I haven't forgotten. In fact, I'm going to buy a new DS for the game. Well the fact that my phat's R shoulder doesn't work anymore is a big contributor too.
mac @ Jun 23rd 2008 1:27PM
um....does crisis core count?
Mr Khan @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:18PM
Looks like just the epic game to piss away the hours between my two jobs
I love summer
Deozaan @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:35PM
I thought his name was Mewt.
rainking187 @ Jun 23rd 2008 12:19AM
I'd forgotten. Until it popped up as one of my goldbox deals I thought it was coming out in July.
supa_s @ Jun 26th 2008 5:25AM
Hmm you're probably thinking of FFIV
Pixel-One @ Jun 23rd 2008 12:52AM
It's a shame that 3rd party publishers don't advertise more for their Nintendo releases, it'd really sell alot more games if people only knew that it was even there.
LordFu @ Jun 23rd 2008 1:32PM
I'm passing on this. I was underwhelmed by FFT:A, and I don't want to encourage them by dropping $40 on this. If they ever decide to stay closer the the original FFT formula, count me in.
FFT:A just seemed watered down, in comparison. The quests were uninspired. I hated the mechanic of learning skills from items. The main character was a child (pet peeve). The story lacked depth. The law system sucked, which I understand they addressed in A2, to some degree. Any of those I could have probably overlooked by themselves, but combined, it was too much for me.
Halfway through, I lost interest in it, completely. I have no desire to finish it or begin the sequel. Thankfully I have many, many other GBA and DS srpgs, and there are many new ones coming this year.