Advancement of your characters uses the tried and true level system. For all the people that have complained about RPGs using a level system, 
the truth is that it works and it works well. Each level, your character is given points that can then be spent on gaining new abilities on the skill tree. These skills can be special attacks, the ability to raise themselves in the initiative stack, and other useful items. Many of these skills act and play out very similar to Feats in D20, though some are directly used as skills. Grotesque Tactics 2 has blurred the line between the “Skills” and “Feats” to make the game much more accessible and to be played by just about anyone. As for how the rules play out, all of it takes place in the background and you’re never bogged down with constant messages. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your frame of thought. If you’re new to RPG games and you just want to play the game, then this is fantastic. But if you’re an old school stickler, like me, you may find yourself wanting to know why a certain hit was a critical or why a certain attack missed. Without some messages as to why these things are happening, you may start to feel that the game is cheating you just a bit or that there is a lot of meta gaming going on behind the scenes.
In the world of RPG games, many of us have become accustomed to some default keyboard shortcuts that are almost as ubiquitous as WASD. Unfortunately, the developers of Grotesque Tactics 2 have decided to attempt to reinvent the wheel and come up with their own shortcuts. Pressing
“I” will still bring up your inventory, but the age old method of pressing “L” to open your quest log has been replaced by “F3.” Your Character Sheet and Traits can be pulled up at once by pressing “C” or “K.” I did find myself wondering why nothing was happening when I would press “M.” The simple reason for this is that there is no map in the game! I found this more than a little vexing at times but not enough to really detract much from the overall game.
In all, I found Grotesque Tactics 2 to be a hilariously excellent game and a wonderful diversion to all the serious RPGs out there. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a good RPG that has more than a little tongue in cheek dialogue.
