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It's like old time rock 'n roll, but does it still rock hard without rusting? The Final Fantasy series really is like an aging rock star ... who's been cloned. Each year there are maybe five to 10 spin-offs in the RPG adventure series, and diehard fans, always filial, buy them. And as with an aging rock star, it won't draw millions (unless it a new FF game, and it's released in Japan), more like a few hundred thousand.

Like pop music critics writing about rock stars, critics have called Final Fantasy legendary. (Both are wrong: You can't be a legend unless you're dead.) What they mean is that Final Fantasy has a lauded history, one that, to paraphrase Patti Smith in "Babelogue," don't fuck much with the past, but fucks plenty with the future.

I mention Patti Smith because Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift seems to be a lot more than just a bloated-ass sequel. Like the line in the classic Smith tune "Rock N Roll Nigger," the protagonist is "outside of society." But just a little. Luso might cut classes from time to time; he doesn't always feel like going to school. He wouldn't be one of the guys who got one of the girls in the pregnancy cult pregnant. Nor would he even care to know the Klebold dude. He's not a delinquent. With a healthy dose of attitude, he just wants to do things his way ... some of the time.

Like others, I feel that the Final Fantasy series is somewhat diluted by the constant onslaught of new titles. Many are compelling, sure. But if Square put out one a year, maybe that one would be utterly amazing, end-of-year-top-10-list amazing. You have to be a FF insider to even understand this game title: A2 refers to Advance 2, since this is the follow-up to the GBA game released in late 2003, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. And Grimoire is a special book of magic, black magic. (Word geek note: It originated pre-Middle Ages from the French word grammaire, from which grammar and glamour also evolved.)

Grimoire seems at first blush to be excitingly different. When I first open the DS game, there's no grand Final Fantasy music (just a lonely echoing piano) or even one of those the big signature opening movies. There's not even a cut scene, not even a still graphic. There's nothing but text, white on black as someone complains that he has to go to his last day of school when it's summer outside. Once the birds-eye graphics begin, the teacher scolds him and makes him clean the library even after every other kid at school has been released to begin a grand, glorious summer vacation.

But this is no John Hughes movie. Once in the cluttered library, this kid Luso gets sucked (literally) into the Grimoire, to the fantasyland of Ivalice where Klesta, a giant chicken monster, is about to chomp him. If he joins a clan before the chicken strikes, he'll be helped out. So Luso joins the clan not only to save his teenage skin, but to get back home, presumably to weasel his way out of the library job and enjoy the Dog Days. In Ivalice, you'll meet Cid, not Cid Randell from FF Tactics Advance, not Cid from FF Tactics, and not Cid the airship pilot from the Final Fantasy console games. This Cid is a non-human clan leader from the Rebe race. See what I mean when I say it's complex? And this is just the start of the game.