History VideoGame / FinalFantasyTacticsA2

* KillerRabbit: The aforementioned Dreamhares and their cousins of course. Moogles can be surprisingly effective as well, except for [[SpoonyBard Tinkers]]. Story-wise, the Mooglebane rabbit enemies terrify Moogles. Why? Because they ''eat the Moogles' pom-poms''.

** Hurdy goes on the top of this list. He's the only SpoonyBard you can get. Not only do his songs have great use in the right times, especially against undead[[note]]the song Requiem not only deals heavy, non-conditional damage to undead in a small area, but also removes tombstones.[[/note]] or as support for a magic reliant class, but he can doubleclass as a Fusilier, making him just as deadly as any other Moogle, but with a few 0 MP gimmick skills that can be surprisingly powerful.

''Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift'', released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, is the direct sequel to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and another escapist fantasy in the [[RunningGag eye-gougingly]] popular ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' {{RPG}} series.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: The in-universe Skyfrost Edition of the Bonga Bugle:
-->--Head Editor Takes 1,000 Photographs On Assignment\\
Head Editor Contemplating Career as Photographer?\\
Head Editor Leaves Lens Cap On\\
"Night: A Study In 1,000 Images" Rocks Art World

* FantasticalSocialServices: Carm Mercantile is a clan focused on charitable causes, paying special attention to the conservation of endangered monsters from overhunting and poaching. Luso and Clan Gully can regularly donate to Carm Mercantile to help its cause. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to most of its day-to-day members, Carm Mercantile is actually [[TotallyNotACriminalFront one of Khamja's many fronts]]. Portions of the funds raised by these charity drives bankroll Khamja's criminal empire, including the poaching that Carm Mercantile tries to prevent.]]

* FantasticalSocialServices: Carm Mercantile is a clan focused on charitable causes, paying special attention to the conservation of endangered monsters from overhunting and poaching. Luso and Clan Gully can regularly donate to Carm Mercantile to help its cause. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to most of its day-to-day members, Carm Mercantile is actually [[LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub one of Khamja's many fronts]]. Portions of the funds raised by these charity drives bankroll Khamja's criminal empire, including the poaching that Carm Mercantile tries to prevent.]]

* BonusDungeon: Brightmoon Tor, a set of three dungeons aligned to endgame content.

* VisualInitiativeQueue

* RandomDrop: ...And thanks to it you'll suffer when you can't buy the items needed to upgrade your party.

* ResignationsNotAccepted: [[spoiler:Khamja.]]

* ShoutOut: As to be expected from a game sharing ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'''s characters and mechanics. For example, one mission is entitled [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda "It's a Secret to Everybody"]].

* {{Magick}}: And "tecknologies" and "fantastickal".

* MatchMakerQuest

* InexplicableTreasureChests: Both played straight and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d.

* BraggingRightsReward: The "Moon Maiden" accessory, only gained by completing Brightmoon Tor.

* BlackAndWhiteMagic

* BonusDungeon: Brightmoon Tor.

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: The Moogle Tinker, regarded as [[TierInducedScrappy the worst class]] by most players due to its [[RandomNumberGenerator sheer unreliability]]. To elaborate, Tinker abilities can cast [[StatusBuff buffs, debuffs]] or [[StatusEffects ailments]] on ''either'' every enemy or every ally. So yes, if you're unlucky you can end up casting Haste on every enemy or inflicting Doom on all allies.

* FakeUltimateMook

* BonusFeatureFailure: [[spoiler:Al-Cid]], who can't even change classes and whose abilities revolve solely around having females on the party. Some people may see Adelle's [[spoiler:Heritor]] class as this, with only decent Growths and abilities that don't make up for the growth.

** One of the best units in the game is the Ranger, one of the Seeq's ''starter jobs''. Besides having the best Speed growth (meaning more turns) among the Seeq jobs, the ''Mirror Item'' and ''Item Lore'' abilities in combination with X-Potions do a [[FixedDamageAttack flat 400 damage]].
** Illusionists are the most overpowered and broken class in the game, when properly set up with abilities that increase the power of their spells while doubling the casting cost, and an ally Bangaa Cannoneer casting Ether Shot, an ability that can be done for free and gives a large amount of mana. 40 mana to be exact, and on the Illusionist's turn they get the standard 10 per turn, which allows the powered up illusion spells to be cast every turn and when using the non-elemental illusion spell, you are guaranteed to win every single fight in 2 rounds. (Save for the final boss).
** Despite other abilities, the most efficient thing a Time Mage can do is Haste someone every turn, unless he happens to get enough MP to use Hastega. The same goes for the Arcanist, with using Drain and maybe Death.
** Knots of Rust are near-worthless little chunks of scrap metal that you can sometimes get as rewards from jobs or from the Judge for obeying the law. Their sole purpose is as a throwing item that inflicts a few points of damage. However, some of the StatusEffects are cured when you take damage, and if you need someone cured of their confusion or infatuation now before they do something stupid and don't have any other way to do so (such as healing spells, other items), then these are nice to have around.
** Step one: get a Fusilier with Stopshot, or any other class with the ability to inflict "Stop" or maybe even "Stone". Step two: get a Thief. Step three: Stop a non-immune enemy until the status effect takes hold. Step four: use the Thief to rob said enemy blind of items and gil. It tends to get boring rather fast, but with skills like Loot level 3 or 4 you will get a significant payout.
** Got a Viera? Make her a Green Mage and teach her Tranq, which buffs accuracy. That skill is most likely second only to Haste in terms of practicality, but considering how unique it is and the fact that its effects apply to a good majority of the skills means it's very useful for classes like Assassins or a team is fighting against enemies with high evasion.

** Especially annoying is that you don't even get to choose all 24 members of the clan. Luso, Adelle, Cid, and Hurdy are all made permanent fixtures of the clan as you progress through the story, and to get OneHundredPercentCompletion, you'll have to recruit [[spoiler: Vaan, Penelo, Al-Cid, Montblanc]], and [[spoiler:Frimelda]], none of whom can be booted from the clan. They range in usefulness from an awesome warrior who comes with Dual Wield already, to a guy who can't even ''change class'' and revolves around having women on the team. The upshot of all this is that you only get to freely choose 15 generics, and that's not counting the guys who are in your clan to begin with.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Scion Zodiark causes max damage, seeming to disregard stats. But it's near useless due to the fact that it hits everything on the field, both enemy and ally, with only a 50% chance of hitting in the first place (unless the enemy is in Sleep, Stop, or Stone status). You're much better off using Ultima (which damages all foes and heals your entire party) or Shemhazai (which only targets one enemy but usually has a 100% chance to hit and its damage is supposedly based off of how many enemies the user has killed)
** Without MP restoration (or Half MP) methods, the "Ultima" skills (all of which have a cost of 32 MP) take at least four turns to be ready, bringing them close to this trope.
** On the lower end of the power scale, Dragoons have the Jump attack. In addition to being the Dragoons' signature attack, it deals something like double their physical damage, and from a distance that Dragoons (and indeed, most Bangaa classes) cannot match with any of their other attacks. Plus, it looks awesome, with the Dragoon leaping clear off the screen and then smashing into the target. However, it's only half as accurate as a regular attack, and the unit ''must'' have a spear equipped to have access to it.
** Gravity removes 1/4 of the target's HP and Graviga removes 1/2, but the same class can cast Death with the same amount of MP as the first and 10 ''less'' than the second.

* BadassAdorable: Any of the Moogle classes, but notably Moogle Knight. And the fact that some of the classes has them equipped with guns (remember, they are little bunny-like people).

** The Bonga Bugle Head Editor and owner tend to fit this when they try to participate in combat. It's especially bad in the Plumfrost mission. One of them has 10 HP left? He attacks a Grenade, does 2 damage, and gets killed by its Bonecrusher ability. The fact that they're levels 10 and ''1'' respectively just makes it worse. Somewhat justified in context by both of them being [[SmallNameBigEgo show-offs]], but that doesn't make keeping them alive any easier.

** Immunity's description says it prevents Buffs or Debuffs from being removed, but what it actually does is protect the user form certain debuffs (namely Silence, Sleep, Blindness, and Poison).

** Illusionists are the most overpowered and broken class in the game, when properly set up with abilities that increase the power of their spells while doubling the casting cost, and an ally Bangaa Cannoneer casting Ether Shot, an ability that can be done for free and gives a large amount of mana. 40 mana to be exact, and on the Illusionist's turn they get the standard 10 per turn, which allows the powered up illusion spells to be cast every turn and when using the non-elemental illusion spell, you are guaranteed to win every single fight in 2 rounds. (Save for the final boss.)

** Step one: get a Fusilier with Stopshot, or any other class with the ability to inflict "Stop" or maybe even "Stone". Step two: get a Thief. Step three: stop a non-immune enemy until the status effect takes hold. Step three: use the Thief to rob said enemy blind of items and gil. It tends to get boring rather fast, but with skills like Loot level 3 or 4 you will get a significant payout.

* CastFromHitPoints: The passive ability "Blood Price" allows a unit to use magicks at the cost of using hit points. The catch is that the HP cost is double the normal MP cost and you can't use your normal MP anymore with it active... [[GameBreaker It is pitifully easy to set up your equipment so you get healed for more than the cost while casting blood price spells]].

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In FFTA, the Bangaa, being the most physical race, took on an unfortunate stereotype as a bunch of craven DumbMuscle thugs, and were an overwhelmingly prevalent choice for minor bad guys. [=FFTA2=], however, brings Seeq to the table, a race which pushes even further to the end of the physical spectrum. In characterization terms, these guys essentially became the new Bangaa, while Bangaa themselves received a more favorable portrayal overall, as gruff but well-meaning [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]]. To put it another way, the Seeq took over the Bangaa's old role as the "orcs" of Ivalice, while the Bangaa were promoted to "dwarves".

* ColourfulThemeNaming: The Five Kings of Cinquleur. "Cinquleur" is a portmanteau of the French ''cinq couleurs'' (five colours). Likewise, the mages' first names are all phonetically the same as the French word for the colour of magic they use. Hilarious messed up though, because enemies always use the opposite color scheme for sprites, so Blue Mage Bliu the Blue King is red, Red Mage Ruuj the Red King (Queen?) is blue, despite equipping all gear that is ''[[InformedEquipment explicitly red]]''.
* ContinuityCameo:

** The tourney battle against Clan Centurio is Montblanc's former clan from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' and all the members were NPC allies in XII that helped you in a few missions (They are also the default party members in the Japanese version of Tactics Advance, but the English version gave them random names instead (as well as changing the clan name to "Nutsy").
*** There's even a monster in this game that made an appearance from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. When you fight a gang of yellow chocobos and one red chocobo near the town of Goug, there is a chance that the red chocobo will be level 99, which is a ShoutOut to 12's rare level 99 chocobo. Beating the monster nets you a rare item that lets you summon a powerful scion.
** Many pieces of loot are items from previous ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' titles, as well as famous Characters' exclusive weapons, such as Cloud's Buster Sword, and Squall's Lionheart, Terra's ultimate weapon "Apocalypse" and a weapon called "Kain's Lance" (Which outright says belonged to a Dragoon of Legend)

** Be prepared to see non-player characters - enemies and allies alike - using impossible skills. The surprise of having a Hume Illusionist unleashing first round spells that hit your entire team can only be matched by discovering that she's using Blood Price (a skill only Viera can learn) to do it.

** Early in the game [[spoiler:Cid]] gets shot by a ninja wielding a pistol, keeping [[spoiler:him]] bedridden for a while. Nevermind the fact that ninjas can't use pistols, and they deal pitiful damage, even at close range.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Much more apparent this time than last. Most visible in the Duelhorn plot and stories that involve zombie powder / Lethean Draught [[spoiler:the two cross at one point, cue a tear jerker]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: The Lang Brothers, four members of the Arbiters of Death, beat the everloving tar out of the other twenty-eight members of their clan and then fled the city. Why? Because one of the latter spilled his drink on one of the former, and the rest simply tried to break up the resulting fight!
* DraconicHumanoid: Ordinarily the bangaa are described as LizardFolk, but their dragoon job plays on their tangential relationship to dragons, giving them BreathWeapon abilities.

* DuelBoss: [[spoiler: Adelle fights against one of The Gifted by herself as a test of strength. If she passes, she'll be able to gain abilities as a Gifted for herself]]. At the end of Frimelda's story line [[spoiler:Ghi Yelghi]] challengers her to a duel.
* DumbMuscle: The leader of the Bangaa Brotherhood is alleged to be this by the leader of the Nu Mou Nobles. "If muscles were brains, he'd be a rare genius, that one!" The Viking Lord Greyrl also seems to be significantly lacking in intellectual faculties while possessing a like overabundance of physical might.
* EarlyBirdBoss: Lord of the Flowsand. You are at the mercy of RandomDrops for abilities and equipment so very much at this point. When he shows up latter in an optional mission, much buffed up, [[VillainForgotToLevelGrind but is fairly easy with access to actual attacks and gear.]]

* EliteTweak: Most classes reach the cap in their primary stats before level 99, so careful shuffling between classes can produce characters with higher final stats than single-classed characters. Additionally, the Speed stat's growth on levelup is a percentage chance based on the character's class, but always either 0 or 1. Players dedicated to maximizing their stat growth will reload on each levelup to make sure that the character's Speed always grows.

** The laws aren't as severe anymore, but they're also now tied directly to missions, so there will be situations where they're only in the way to make things harder for you. Battle against a team of mostly thieves? Having things stolen from you will be illegal. Battle against one guy and 5 girls where the objective is to defeat the one guy? Hurting the girls will be illegal. All the enemies weak to fire? Using Fire will be illegal. You get the picture.

* FiringOneHanded: Fusiliers and Al-Cid fire all their guns one-handed, even though half of them are rifles. It sort of makes sense for Al-Cid, since the guns are all made for moogles, creatures half his size.

** Also, when Hurdy asks to join Cid says "We've never been a clan to turn people away" regardless of how many people the player has turned away before.

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Against [[spoiler:Adelle]] later on in the game.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Mauri, the Nu Mou who gives the "Stone with No Name" line of quests, gets - and inevitably dies - of this.

** The pub owner who hands out your missions is pretty much the same sprite no matter what town you're in. Ditto for the shopkeeper lady. And the auctioneer. Which is made even funnier by the fact that the pub owner is the same one as in the previous game and while his dialogue portrait has been updated, his sprite has not. (The shopkeeper was also the human shopkeeper from Tactics Advance.)

* InstrumentOfMurder: Instruments are one-handed weapons that can be equipped by Animists, Beastmasters, and Chocobo Knights. Hurdy can also equip instruments in his special job,[[MagicMusic the Bard.]]

** Moogles are quite gimmicky, but in the right hands are incredibly dangerous. Fusiliers for example, when combined with Moogle Knight abilities as a secondary, can fire off Ultimas from 8 tiles away, which is the longest range in the game. They also possess the only means of doing damage while Stopping an opponent, and can Charm similarly. The endless loop of two Smile-Tossing Jugglers from the first game is also just as viable in this one.
** Hurdy goes on the top of this list. He's the only SpoonyBard you can get. Not only do his songs have great use in the right times, especially against undead[[note]]the song Requiem not only deals heavy, non-conditional damage to undead in a small area, but also removes tombstones.[[/note]] or as support for a magic reliant class, but he can doubleclass as a fusilier, making him just as deadly as any other moogle, but with a few 0MP gimmick skills that can be surprisingly powerful.

* LevelScaling: uses FFTA's system of basing the level of random encounters on the average level of your clan members. Recruited units also match your clan's average level up to level 30.

*** It is possible to fail a Clan Trial barring ranged attacks by scoring ''a critical hit'' in melee, which moves the target four squares before dying. Result? Instant fail. There are many laws for regular battles that punish critical hits, like "No knockbacks", "No dealing over X pts of damage" and "No targeting distant units" (yes, it decides on whether or not a unit targeted it "distant" based on where it is ''after'' the attack is done). Thankfully, there is a trick to avoiding the first and third ones of those, at least when it comes to critical hits: just keep the enemy unit backed up against something immovable (walls, chests, other units...) Alternately, just use magic or use physical skills that can't knockback or crit, like Air Render.

** Vikings use shields and wear heavy armor, and also have access to the "Thunder" spells and the (unique to the class) Tsunami spell. They're more "knight" than "magic", though, as Seeq tend to have very low Magick scores.

* MagikarpPower: Blue Magicks eventually gives you some of the most powerful and versatile units in the game after learning abilities such as White Wind, Mighty Guard, and Matra Magic. However, this only applies to the ''ability'' Blue Magick, because once you master the passive ability "Learn" (and maybe the Counter ability MP Shield) there's really no reason to stay in the class because you don't need to stay in the class to learn anything and it's stats (besides resistance to status change) aren't very good.
** Tinkers as well. While their skills are outright abysmal, their ''stat growths'' are some of the best growths in the entire game. Time spent as a tinker will only be regretted during and before, not after.

** The passive ability Concentrate had its accuracy boost considerably reduced from 50% for physical attacks and 20% for status effects to a flat 5% rate for everything.

* NonLethalKO: When hit by an instant death effect, the GrimReaper shows up and takes your soul from your body - and you pass out. HandWaved as a perk of being in a clan with a Judge: you can't die. Even if the Judge leaves you after breaking the law. Even more ridiculous is the stuff you can do to some ''recurring'' characters who don't appear to be Adjudged. You could, say, reduce an important, recurring character to Critical HP, and then have an Alchemist use Transmute to turn him into a ''consumable item'', like a Potion, ''drink the potion'', and then they're ''alive and well'' in the next mission that involves the character.
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Get knocked off a high (which is defined as a height greater than the unit could jump down itself) cliff by a critical or other knockback skill, and you take damage. A considerably high amount of damage, too, especially compared to the previous game. And not even SoftWater will save you. Unless you have SuperDrowningSkills, then the game simply won't allow you to be hit off the edge.

* RandomDrop: and thanks to it you'll suffer when you can't buy the items needed to upgrade your party.

* RandomEventsPlot: Taken to its most extreme here. It's flat-out stated that Luso's best chance of going home is if he does enough random quests to fill up his Grimoire. [[spoiler:Though most of these events end up leading back to Khamja, Ivalice's underworld kingpins.]]

* ReviveKillsZombie: Undead enemies are reduced to tombstones instead of death and rise again a few turns later. Phoenix Downs can remove the tombstones, as can a few specialized abilities like the Archer skill Burial. The same skills can also be used to instantly kill undeads, but the success chance is much lower when they still have hitpoints - unless they are put to sleep first.

Luso Clemens is a [[KidHero typical troublemaking schoolkid]] who, on the last day of school, is forced to help tidy up the school's library as part of detention. There he finds a [[BlankBook mysterious tome with blank pages]], and impulsively decides to write his name on the first page. This act suddenly whisks him away to the magical land of VideoGame/{{Ivalice|Alliance}}, a fantasy world where "Clans" of mercenaries compete against each other for territories, gold, fame and adventure.

Luso is quickly cajoled into joining one of these Clans (to receive the protection of the enigmatic Judges who oversee them) and discovers that as he adventures throughout Ivalice, the pages of the grimoire he signed begin to fill up. Deducing that once the book is complete he will be taken back home, Luso resolves to see his "story" in Ivalice through to the end: doing jobs for his Clan, tangling with a [[LovableRogue tricksy thief]] called "Adelle The Cat", and [[TheSyndicate dealing with a shadowy cabal of criminals known as "Khamja"]], [[EvilCounterpart whose leader carries a grimoire similar to Luso's own]].

The game features a host of gameplay enhancements over its predecessor. The Law system still exists but is far less restrictive: breaking a Law merely results in losing a token "Clan Privilege", the right to revive fallen units, and a few bonus items after the match. The game has also fixed several {{Game Breaker}}s that existed in ''Final Fantasy Tactics Advance'', with Accuracy no longer being the main tool used to balance abilities. Clan Abilities no longer dispense items that can [[DiscOneNuke break the power curve of the game]], and Thieves can no longer strip an enemy bare. The impact of Status Effects has also been toned down.

** One of the best units in the game is the Ranger, one of the Seeq's ''starter jobs''. Besides having the best Speed growth (meaning more turns) among the Seeq jobs, the ''Mirror Item'' and ''Item Lore'' abilities in combination with X-potions do a [[FixedDamageAttack flat 400 damage]].
** Illusionists are the most overpowered and broken class in the game, when properly set up with abilities that increase the power of their spells while doubling the casting cost, and an ally Bangaa Cannoneer casting Ether shot,an ability that can be done for free and gives a large amount of mana. 40 mana to be exact, and on the illusionist's turn they get the standard 10 per turn, which allows the powered up illusion spells to be cast every turn and when using the non-elemental illusion spell, you are guaranteed to win every single fight in 2 rounds. (Save for the final boss.)

** Got a Viera? Make her a green mage and teach her Tranq, which buffs accuracy. That skill is most likely second only to haste in terms of practicality, but considering how unique it is and the fact that its effects apply to a good majority of the skills means it's very useful for classes like assassins or a team is fighting against enemies with high evasion.

* ColourfulThemeNaming: The Five Kings of Cinquleur. "Cinquleur" is a portmanteau of the French ''cinq couleurs'' (five colours). Likewise, the mages' first names are all phonetically the same as the French word for the colour of magic they use. Hilarious messed up though, because enemies always use the opposite color scheme for sprites, so Blue Mage Bliu the Blue King is red, Red Mage Ruuj the Red King(queen?) is blue, despite equipping all gear that is ''[[InformedEquipment explicitly red]]''.

** There are other character connections as well, for instance mention of Gaol, a hero mentioned in multiple missions in the original, and whose right-hand... uh... moogle, Lini, you can recruit as a secret character in the previous game.

* AnAdventurerIsYou: In particular, the Mezzer: Inflicting StatusEffects and casting buffs is the reason to live by Green Mages, Spellblades, Archers, and Fusiliers.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: This game is probably the most notable for being the least frustrating in the series, even with its flaws. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics The first one]] was a confusing maze of astral relations and dragged out and complex mechanics, but knowledge of those mechanics let you smash the game into itty bitty pieces. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance the next game]] was far less complex but with the law system in place for the entire game it quickly became frustrating due to breaking the laws removing a character from the battle. This game's law system only removes a few bonuses if you break a law, and isn't that hard to understand, however it also is the most well balanced, having the fewest ways to outright break the game, but still many ways to build up characters powerfully.

** DuelBoss Ghi Yelghi, unlike the rest of the AI (who will even heal you this way when allied) will use his elementally based attacks if you set your equipment to absorb that type of magic. This is nice because the character he duels is a pain in the ass to level.
** Alys The Ensorceled, one of the Four Bosses of Duelhorn, is a special brand of ineffective in combat when (and ''only'' when) [[RedemptionDemotion she's on your side.]] She's a Summoner, a potentially powerful unit, but she starts every battle with several StatusEffects on her, claiming that [[DisabilitySuperpower they increase her power (they don't),]] one of which is often ''Blind''. In addition to that, she has powerful attack summons, including Maduin, but prefers to spend every action summoning Kirin (gives Regen), using an Ether on your party members (even if that party member has Blood Price and can't ''use'' their MP), or using a basic attack on the enemy... even though she's equipped with a ''[[HealingShiv Healing Rod]]''.
** The Bonga Bugle head editor and owner tend to fit this when they try to participate in combat. It's especially bad in the Plumfrost mission. One of them has 10 HP left? He attacks a grenade, does 2 damage, and gets killed by its Bonecrusher ability. The fact that they're levels 10 and ''1'' respectively just makes it worse. Somewhat justified in context by both of them being [[SmallNameBigEgo show-offs]], but that doesn't make keeping them alive any easier.

** Special mention goes to the Goug guardians. There is a Tinker on board who just doesn't know when to give it up. He keeps casting Red Spring (which bestows Haste) until he hits his side with it. The problem being that he generally wastes, unless you stop him with the single character you have, around 3 turns hasting the entire enemy team into an unwieldy bombardment of speed and metal, and when he finally hits your side, he starts it all over again the second a single member loses Haste. He doesn't do anything less painful, like Green Gears (which inflicts Poison), he always casts Red Spring until the entire party is sped up and only then does he cast the detrimental but significantly less painful Green Gears.

** Without MP restoration (Or half MP) methods, the "Ultima" skills (all of which have a cost of 32 MP) take at least four turns to be ready, bringing them close to this trope.

%%* BlackAndWhiteMagic

%%* FakeUltimateMook

%%* MatchMakerQuest

* OverratedAndUnderleveled: Adelle, after you get her back, can be up to four levels behind the rest of the clan, and you probably won't be able to get her caught up ''ever'' unless you do all the Heritor weapon quests and use her in every battle for a while... or unless you do the quest to get her back immediately after she leaves. Frimelda can also be a little behind the curve, and is a pain to level as she can't be dispatched, depending on when you get her, though to compensate, she comes with [[DualWielding Dual Wield already mastered,]] and high strength for a paladin. The other secret characters you can recruit [[spoiler: such as Vaan, Penelo, Al-cid and Montblanc]] also suffer from this trope. [[EliteTweak The flipside of this is that most of them can be leveled up in classes with better stat growths than their default class.]]

%%* ResignationsNotAccepted: [[spoiler:Khamja.]]

%%* TalkingIsAFreeAction: This happens a ''lot''.

%%* VisualInitiativeQueue

* AWinnerIsYou: The bonus 301st mission is a tournament against five squads of insta-death spamming maniacs who automatically get 50 turns before you can even blink. The reward for surviving this onslaught is... the credits. And a picture of a book.

* OhCrap: During the "Mountain Watch" mission, Luso encounters an assassin, named Ewen, who wants to buy his judge. Naturally, Lusso refuses, leading to a fight against Ewen, who promptly neutralizes your judge. Cue a change of music and this trope from both Lusso and the player, as you lose your clan privilege and can't revive your fallen members under these circumstances. Your best option is to bring Ewen down quickly, as his team is quite powerful.

* OverratedAndUnderleveled: Adelle after you get her back can be up to four levels behind the rest of the clan, and you probably won't be able to get her caught up ''ever'' unless you do all the Heritor weapon quests and use her in every battle for a while... or unless you do the quest to get her back immediately after she leaves. Frimelda can also be a little behind the curve, and is a pain to level as she can't be dispatched, depending on when you get her, though to compensate, she comes with [[DualWielding Dual Wield already mastered,]] and high strength for a paladin. The other secret characters you can recruit [[spoiler: such as Vaan, Penelo, Al-cid and Montblanc]] also suffer from this trope. [[EliteTweak The flipside of this is that most of them can be leveled up in classes with better stat growths than their default class.]]

** Notably averted, although you can miss out on a very useful ability for Hurdy early on with the only alternative being repeating a quest that only comes once a year 4 times.
** It ''is ''possible for unique weapons to be destroyed by enemies, including the ones you need for Hurdy to learn all Bard abilities and for Adelle to master Heritor abilities, halting progression of the Heritor sidequest.

* RareRandomDrop: Corollary. the more you need a drop, the lower the chances to get it.
* RedIsHeroic: Luso wears a red hat. Defenders, Jugglers, Red Mages (obviously) and Berserkers on your team wear red. White mages on your team have red markings on their robes. Allied Alchemists and Ravagers are dressed in pink. There are many job classes that {{invert|edTrope}} this as well. Enemy Soldiers, Black Mages, Blue Mages, Tinkers, Spellblades and Warriors wear red. Enemy Time Mages have red hats.
* ReluctantMonster: [[spoiler:During her time as a Zombie, Frimelda is surprisingly eloquent and well meaning, though she does have a bit of a slur.]]
%%* ResignationsNotAccepted: Khamja

* SequenceBreaking: Using the above mentioned mirror item/item lore/x potion combo can clear missions that are otherwise above your level like the Cinquleur duels, getting you powerful items as rewards.

** Speaking of Zelda shout outs, the second most powerful Greatsword is the Master Sword, which grants the user immunity to instant KO. Also appeared in FFTA.
** The Bangaa Trickster class may very well be a subtle shout out to ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Their [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/1/19/BangaaTrickster.jpg outfit]] bears the Nobody Emblem on the pant legs, and bears a vague similarity to the [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/kingdomhearts/images/8/81/Number10-LuxordsGamblerNobody.jpg Gambler Nobodies]]. In addition to that, they use cards and have a thing for inflicting bad status, much like Luxord.

** If your party leader is a moogle for the mission "Wanted: Moogle Ranger", after the Moogle Rangers introduce themselves he'll asks them if he can "[[Anime/{{Voltron}} form the pom-pom]]".

* SpitefulAI: In some of the escort missions, the character who you need to protect will ''[[TooDumbToLive actively dive into the thick of battle]]''. This can make otherwise easy missions very difficult, but can be overcome with the paladin's [[TakingTheBullet Cover]] ability.

** Makes sense, if you think about it. Illua, copying Luso, is writing a journal starring her as the "hero" of the story. And you can't have a proper ending without an exciting battle against the villians, now can you? She just ''has'' to wait for you guys, else her grimoire won't have enough power to do what she wants.

** Adelle is a bit mean to Luso at the end but while Luso and Cid went off, Adelle cries while Hurdy comforts her. (They were teleported at the final stage, at which you can go back to the mainland and prepare for the final fight).

* [[TwoTimerDate Five-Timer Date]]: [[spoiler:Al-Cid]] and Margot.

* TheGift: [[spoiler:Adelle]] and Lennart. Both of them agonize over it, because, for starters, WhoWantsToLiveForever

* AnAdventurerIsYou: In particular, the Mezzer: Inflicting StandardStatusEffects and casting buffs is the reason to live by Green Mages, Spellblades, Archers, and Fusiliers.

** Alys The Ensorceled, one of the Four Bosses of Duelhorn, is a special brand of ineffective in combat when (and ''only'' when) [[RedemptionDemotion she's on your side.]] She's a Summoner, a potentially powerful unit, but she starts every battle with several StandardStatusEffects on her, claiming that [[DisabilitySuperpower they increase her power (they don't),]] one of which is often ''Blind''. In addition to that, she has powerful attack summons, including Maduin, but prefers to spend every action summoning Kirin (gives Regen), using an Ether on your party members (even if that party member has Blood Price and can't ''use'' their MP), or using a basic attack on the enemy... even though she's equipped with a ''[[HealingShiv Healing Rod]]''.

** Knots of Rust are near-worthless little chunks of scrap metal that you can sometimes get as rewards from jobs or from the Judge for obeying the law. Their sole purpose is as a throwing item that inflicts a few points of damage. However, some of the StandardStatusEffects are cured when you take damage, and if you need someone cured of their confusion or infatuation now before they do something stupid and don't have any other way to do so (such as healing spells, other items), then these are nice to have around.

* SuperDrowningSkills: The mechanics involving water tiles have completely changed from the previous game. Now instead of restricting your units from being able to do anything while inside, some units simply cannot enter a water tile at all, such as all Nu Mou and Moogles unless they equip the Wing Shoes.

* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Get knocked off a high (which is defined as a height greater than the unit could jump down itself) cliff by a critical or other knockback skill, and you take damage. A considerable amount of damage, too. And not even SoftWater will save you. Unless you have SuperDrowningSkills, then the game simply won't allow you to be hit off the edge.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Moogles and Nu Mou acquired this so that the Feather Boots would still have a purpose. The Galmia Shoes also grant this in exchange for Super Jumping Skills. Although instead of dying if you fall in water those units are simply unable to be put in a water tile, even if they're pushed into by an attack that moves you over.

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: The Moogle Tinker, regarded as [[TierInducedScrappy the worst class]] by most players due to its [[RandomNumberGenerator sheer unreliability]]. To elaborate, Tinker abilities can cast [[StatusBuff buffs, debuffs]] or [[StandardStatusAilments ailments]] on ''either'' every enemy or every ally. So yes, if you're unlucky you can end up casting Haste on every enemy or inflicting Doom on all allies.