I remember a conversation I had at 2am in the con suite at Anime Iowa 2004 about FFX-2. I was cosplaying as Rikku and the other girl I was talking to was cosplaying as Lum.
We started talking because I was chatting with my friends and she came over and told me that I, too, must be as upset at her about “the new final fantasy,”
I didn’t really know what she meant—I LOVED X-2–so we started chatting and ended up smack dab in the middle of what I remember being at the time a raging debate: is this game fun for girls or is it patronizing?
The only online space I exist in where people talk about video games is unlike any other I’ve ever really been in in my whole internet life, and it’s a space where people give genuine credence and recognition to like, fashion games on the DS and whatnot. I cannot stress how unlike the rest of the internet that is, especially back when X-2 was contemporary.
At that time, girls like the Lum cosplayer were aghast at X-2, the word “ditzy” got thrown around, so did the word “embarrassing,” In that time, being a girl who liked video games meant wading into pretty awful places: game stores where they hate and leer at you, online spaces where they hate and leer at you, and games themselves where they hate and leer at characters like you.
To like games as a girl in the early aughts meant you had to learn to deal with never getting to play a game with strong women and you had to learn to deal with men who would make fun of the games that did have strong women.
And some women learned how to deal with those things by demanding nothing be feminine. It was a defense mechanism; our femininity was a curse in nerd spaces, so why embrace that curse?
I get it, and I wish I could remember Lum’s real name—we hugged after the chat and she said she would give X-2 another shot.
I love X-2 very much and I’m glad 16 year old me got to play it.
We started talking because I was chatting with my friends and she came over and told me that I, too, must be as upset at her about “the new final fantasy,”
I didn’t really know what she meant—I LOVED X-2–so we started chatting and ended up smack dab in the middle of what I remember being at the time a raging debate: is this game fun for girls or is it patronizing?
The only online space I exist in where people talk about video games is unlike any other I’ve ever really been in in my whole internet life, and it’s a space where people give genuine credence and recognition to like, fashion games on the DS and whatnot. I cannot stress how unlike the rest of the internet that is, especially back when X-2 was contemporary.
At that time, girls like the Lum cosplayer were aghast at X-2, the word “ditzy” got thrown around, so did the word “embarrassing,” In that time, being a girl who liked video games meant wading into pretty awful places: game stores where they hate and leer at you, online spaces where they hate and leer at you, and games themselves where they hate and leer at characters like you.
To like games as a girl in the early aughts meant you had to learn to deal with never getting to play a game with strong women and you had to learn to deal with men who would make fun of the games that did have strong women.
And some women learned how to deal with those things by demanding nothing be feminine. It was a defense mechanism; our femininity was a curse in nerd spaces, so why embrace that curse?
I get it, and I wish I could remember Lum’s real name—we hugged after the chat and she said she would give X-2 another shot.
I love X-2 very much and I’m glad 16 year old me got to play it.
good characterization for yuna and rikku. story's hit and miss but the battle system and side content totally make up for that
if you think this is a character assassination of yuna you're retarded
The combat system is pretty good (I really like this job system take especially since you can do it directly in battle). Story and characters are cringing me quite a lot and the exploration is as bad as og FFX, which had to be expected since it's a sequel using the same engine and all that.
I really want to love this game. I absolutely adore the battle system, the dressphere system is bloody genius, i like the non-linear nature, I like the new team dynamic. It had the potential to be one of the best final fantasies, but is sabotaged by several massive problems:
- 50% of this game's completion is easily missable. Sorry that I didn't talk to some random NPC at a random-ass point in the game. There was no way I could have known to do that unless I had a guide.
- The Canonical ending is locked behind said %100 completion. That is inexcusable, especially since everyone was playing the game specifically to see it, and if you dont jump through very stringent hoops, you're not going to see it. This is the ONLY Final Fantasy game with multiple endings, and is the best example for why this should be the only occurrence.
- "Oh, you lost to the penultimate boss of the game? Let me just autosave so you reload into the bad ending cutscene, and have to go back to the last manual save, 45 minutes, three boss fights and two long-ass cutscenes ago."
- This games difficulty curve is just bizarre. You never really seem to get more powerful, since most jobs dont give you over 2000 hp by the end of the game. The only way I was able to feel powerful in this game was to over level a tonberry.
- Spira was boring enough in X, and the best parts of this game are the new dungeons added in. If only there had been more time and focus on new ideas and locations rather than having me walk up and down the thunder plains for the tenth time.
- Most of this game's story is squished between the tail ends of each chapter. This game should not have chapters. All it achieves is mandatory filler episodes for 80% of the game, rather than focusing on the genuinely interesting main plot. In fact, you really have no idea what the game is even about until you get to the final dungeon.
- 50% of this game's completion is easily missable. Sorry that I didn't talk to some random NPC at a random-ass point in the game. There was no way I could have known to do that unless I had a guide.
- The Canonical ending is locked behind said %100 completion. That is inexcusable, especially since everyone was playing the game specifically to see it, and if you dont jump through very stringent hoops, you're not going to see it. This is the ONLY Final Fantasy game with multiple endings, and is the best example for why this should be the only occurrence.
- "Oh, you lost to the penultimate boss of the game? Let me just autosave so you reload into the bad ending cutscene, and have to go back to the last manual save, 45 minutes, three boss fights and two long-ass cutscenes ago."
- This games difficulty curve is just bizarre. You never really seem to get more powerful, since most jobs dont give you over 2000 hp by the end of the game. The only way I was able to feel powerful in this game was to over level a tonberry.
- Spira was boring enough in X, and the best parts of this game are the new dungeons added in. If only there had been more time and focus on new ideas and locations rather than having me walk up and down the thunder plains for the tenth time.
- Most of this game's story is squished between the tail ends of each chapter. This game should not have chapters. All it achieves is mandatory filler episodes for 80% of the game, rather than focusing on the genuinely interesting main plot. In fact, you really have no idea what the game is even about until you get to the final dungeon.
FFX-2 abandons FFX's thoughtful characterization, strategic gameplay, and epic story for disjointed side quests, a chaotic battle system, and upskirt shots. To be fair, the combat is fast and punchy, and the job system is an interesting and streamlined take on class building. It's just a shame that this game's take on female empowerment is lascivious camera pans over slutty-halloween-costume versions of classic Final Fantasy classes. Levels also have really poor collision and the jump controls are awful. I love the idea space this game is playing in, but the execution is just awful.
Many people say this game is just pure Fanservice but the gameplay is good and if you liked X you should definitely give it a try!
yooooooooooooooooo
I suppose the battle system was kinda neat but I really just couldn't get very far in this one. Everything about it was such a disappointment tbh.
One of the first bosses in the game is straight-up named after a Who song, which is simultaneously hilarious and completely out of place. I think that sentiment applies to most of this game.
This review contains spoilers
FFX-2 is a really odd game. Rather than feeling like a standard sequel to FFX, it takes a rather daring route of having a completely different tone, story structure, character dynamics, gameplay, and hell even music. The only thing that's really similar to FFX is the graphics, since well this is clearly a bit of a lower budget game that reuses a ton of graphical assets. Also, while we technically have a different protagonist this time, it feels like a natural transition, considering Yuna was the hero of FFX's narrative. Unlike how FFX tells a sombre tale of accepting death and finding hope in a broken world, FFX-2 is unabashedly campy, over the top, and all about living life to the fullest. Obviously, this makes the game pretty divisive, and I don't blame anyone that found the experience jarring and a disappointment.
So... how did it work out for me? I'd say surprisingly well. Admittedly, I was lucky to go into this with the right expectations—if I played this when it released 20 years ago, I probably would have been pretty miffed. But I really did appreciate how different this was to FFX, and how we get to see Yuna enjoy a life without her old burdens, instead focused on finding her place in a world where summoners are no longer needed. I enjoyed the more straightforward conflict between New Yevon and Youth League (renewed old ideals vs entirely new ideals), and it's frankly really nice to see a sequel that isn't afraid to pull back on scope, and take a magnifying glass on more grounded, human conflicts.
For a lower budget sequel that's mostly in the business of reusing assets, X-2 uses this to its advantage by putting a big emphasis on side content, and showing the aftermath for all the areas and side characters we met in FFX. Instead of dragging them into some big new conflict, these side stories are more interested in showing what all these cultures and characters do next—for example, what do all the minor summoners do now, what happens to the Guado or the Ronso, what's going to happen to the Zanarkand ruins. While these issues are explored with a lighter tone relative to FFX, I think they're mostly pretty nuanced and do justice to aspects of the world that FFX didn't have enough time to focus on/portray the aftermath of. A highlight for me was seeing Wakka and Lulu get some final resolution on Chappu's death, and watching them grow together as a couple. I really wish more franchises were willing to explore epilogues to the characters we've spent tens of hours with, and let us see a bit of their lives after—this isn't just fanservice, but it also makes them feel more human, and the world more lived in.
The core party of this game is significantly shrunk back from FFX, now being a trio of Yuna, Rikku, and our new addition Paine. While FFX's party dynamics were a lot more serious, and designed to dig into some pretty heavy topics, these three instead have the fun factor in mind first and foremost. There's lots of dorky comedic moments spread throughout the game with this trio, and a big emphasis on girl power. It's cheesy, but it's also fun and feels surprisingly ahead of its time—no wonder this game wasn't received well in early 2000s western gaming culture, lol. While not explicitly queer, a lot of this game feels pretty queer coded, with the amount of flamboyant characters and outfits, as well as the vibes in general. Not to say there isn't some male gaze going on here—there's no way the creators' intentions were entirely pure, let's be honest—but I do appreciate how the dialogue is more interested in empowering the girls rather than being sleazy about it.
In the gameplay department, this game takes the foundations of FFX's combat, keeps some of the spirit of it (such as dress spheres based off party member roles in FFX), and chucks the rest away, building a completely new system from scratch. We're back to ATB, jobs have returned from FFV, battles are absurdly fast-paced, the dress sphere/garment system encourages job changing on the fly mid-battle, and normal levels have returned. While I missed the fantastic sphere grid from FFX, I think this was all an excellent decision, as the new combat is absurdly fun and fits the tone of the game so well. Of course, there's some clearly broken combos that can utterly cheese the game, but hey, what's the fun in doing that? Job systems are all about experimenting, and X-2 offers so much room for that it's crazy.
Of course, all of what I mentioned about does have its flaws. For example, learning all the abilities for a job can be a huge grind, which is especially annoying when there's so many of them and skills are learnt on a per character basis (compared to FFV where it felt like you gained job skills at a more natural rate). A lot of the side content is really hidden, obtuse, and practically impossible to do without a guide—it's very clear this game expects multiple playthroughs, a game design philosophy that sadly hasn't aged too well. Not to mention most of the minigames kind of suck... which granted, FFX was no better at. But I didn't let this bother me too much, as I wasn't going for 100%—something I definitely don't recommend unless you're truly in love with every tedious aspect of this game. 100% also nets you an interesting reward... but more on that later.
The story itself is fairly straightforward and not all that long, as most of the content in this game is side content. It's primarily focused on Paine's old friends who all lead the three big factions, along with Yuna's hunt for spheres that tell more about this Tidus-looking fellow. All of this ends up tying together pretty well when we learn Shuyin is the original person Tidus was based on, and sort of represents an alternate Yuna x Tidus ending where the 'Tidus' fails to save the 'Yuna', and is left with such massive regret he continues to materialise in the world for one thousand years. While Vegnagun is a walking plot device, it's a good one that represents the cause of the original conflict between Bevelle and Zanarkand, which is tied in well with the conflict between New Yevon and Youth League.
This reaches its climax in the 1000 Words scene, where we see Yuna connect with Lenne's spirit to convey her wishes and regrets to the present, in an absolutely incredible cutscene, preventing history from repeating itself once more. The 1000 Words scene rivals Suteki Da Ne in its direction and how amazingly the song is conveyed, and I loved the extra touch in the eng dub where it turns into a duet, with the cutscene adjusted to fit. This serves as an impetus to the finale, where Paine resolves things with her old friends, and Yuna confronts Shuyin through Lenne, freeing him from his regrets and allowing both to move on to the afterlife. In turn, Yuna is forced to accept Tidus' death, and move on with her life.
While I only watched the cutscenes, Last Mission is a nice addition to all of this, letting us see how the main trio have changed after half a year and giving us resolution to the story.
As for the true ending... I don't like it, at all. It's not a bad idea in theory, but it comes completely out of the blue and feels really unearned, after the game was building up to Yuna accepting Tidus was gone throughout the whole game. Maybe if the scene had more build up and weight to it, it would have felt better, but to me it just seemed like incredibly forced fanservice that went against everything this game stands for. Perhaps the X-2.5 novel will change my mind, but for now this is easily my least favourite aspect of X-2.
The music is an interesting one, as none of the original three composers from FFX return, all replaced with a new duo (who I believe married years after this game released!). I actually think this was an excellent decision, as their jazzy and energetic styles mesh perfectly with FFX-2's tone, and it was a nice surprise giving all the old towns new music to represent how they've changed. I do think it's a step down from FFX's ost, as a lot of tracks can be pretty repetitive with their short loops, along with less general variety compared to FFX's three composers with pretty different styles. But overall, I would say I'm quite happy with it, and it added to the experience.
So yeah, overall? I loved FFX-2. It's by no means a perfect game—there's a lot that feels like it needed more time in the oven—but I've found myself firmly on the side of appreciating the tone it went for, and enjoying it as a lighter epilogue to FFX, as well as a nice continuation of Yuna's arc from that game. I can't possibly say it's as good as FFX, as that game really is something else for me, yet I certainly wouldn't say it brings that game down—it instead enhances it, and just left me mostly satisfied (barring the true ending). I'm not sure if I want a FFX-3, unless it were to focus on new characters, but who knows, maybe the novel and drama CD will change my mind (we'll see though... they seem even more divisive than this game).
Also happy I can call Yuna the best FF protagonist for real now :^)
So... how did it work out for me? I'd say surprisingly well. Admittedly, I was lucky to go into this with the right expectations—if I played this when it released 20 years ago, I probably would have been pretty miffed. But I really did appreciate how different this was to FFX, and how we get to see Yuna enjoy a life without her old burdens, instead focused on finding her place in a world where summoners are no longer needed. I enjoyed the more straightforward conflict between New Yevon and Youth League (renewed old ideals vs entirely new ideals), and it's frankly really nice to see a sequel that isn't afraid to pull back on scope, and take a magnifying glass on more grounded, human conflicts.
For a lower budget sequel that's mostly in the business of reusing assets, X-2 uses this to its advantage by putting a big emphasis on side content, and showing the aftermath for all the areas and side characters we met in FFX. Instead of dragging them into some big new conflict, these side stories are more interested in showing what all these cultures and characters do next—for example, what do all the minor summoners do now, what happens to the Guado or the Ronso, what's going to happen to the Zanarkand ruins. While these issues are explored with a lighter tone relative to FFX, I think they're mostly pretty nuanced and do justice to aspects of the world that FFX didn't have enough time to focus on/portray the aftermath of. A highlight for me was seeing Wakka and Lulu get some final resolution on Chappu's death, and watching them grow together as a couple. I really wish more franchises were willing to explore epilogues to the characters we've spent tens of hours with, and let us see a bit of their lives after—this isn't just fanservice, but it also makes them feel more human, and the world more lived in.
The core party of this game is significantly shrunk back from FFX, now being a trio of Yuna, Rikku, and our new addition Paine. While FFX's party dynamics were a lot more serious, and designed to dig into some pretty heavy topics, these three instead have the fun factor in mind first and foremost. There's lots of dorky comedic moments spread throughout the game with this trio, and a big emphasis on girl power. It's cheesy, but it's also fun and feels surprisingly ahead of its time—no wonder this game wasn't received well in early 2000s western gaming culture, lol. While not explicitly queer, a lot of this game feels pretty queer coded, with the amount of flamboyant characters and outfits, as well as the vibes in general. Not to say there isn't some male gaze going on here—there's no way the creators' intentions were entirely pure, let's be honest—but I do appreciate how the dialogue is more interested in empowering the girls rather than being sleazy about it.
In the gameplay department, this game takes the foundations of FFX's combat, keeps some of the spirit of it (such as dress spheres based off party member roles in FFX), and chucks the rest away, building a completely new system from scratch. We're back to ATB, jobs have returned from FFV, battles are absurdly fast-paced, the dress sphere/garment system encourages job changing on the fly mid-battle, and normal levels have returned. While I missed the fantastic sphere grid from FFX, I think this was all an excellent decision, as the new combat is absurdly fun and fits the tone of the game so well. Of course, there's some clearly broken combos that can utterly cheese the game, but hey, what's the fun in doing that? Job systems are all about experimenting, and X-2 offers so much room for that it's crazy.
Of course, all of what I mentioned about does have its flaws. For example, learning all the abilities for a job can be a huge grind, which is especially annoying when there's so many of them and skills are learnt on a per character basis (compared to FFV where it felt like you gained job skills at a more natural rate). A lot of the side content is really hidden, obtuse, and practically impossible to do without a guide—it's very clear this game expects multiple playthroughs, a game design philosophy that sadly hasn't aged too well. Not to mention most of the minigames kind of suck... which granted, FFX was no better at. But I didn't let this bother me too much, as I wasn't going for 100%—something I definitely don't recommend unless you're truly in love with every tedious aspect of this game. 100% also nets you an interesting reward... but more on that later.
The story itself is fairly straightforward and not all that long, as most of the content in this game is side content. It's primarily focused on Paine's old friends who all lead the three big factions, along with Yuna's hunt for spheres that tell more about this Tidus-looking fellow. All of this ends up tying together pretty well when we learn Shuyin is the original person Tidus was based on, and sort of represents an alternate Yuna x Tidus ending where the 'Tidus' fails to save the 'Yuna', and is left with such massive regret he continues to materialise in the world for one thousand years. While Vegnagun is a walking plot device, it's a good one that represents the cause of the original conflict between Bevelle and Zanarkand, which is tied in well with the conflict between New Yevon and Youth League.
This reaches its climax in the 1000 Words scene, where we see Yuna connect with Lenne's spirit to convey her wishes and regrets to the present, in an absolutely incredible cutscene, preventing history from repeating itself once more. The 1000 Words scene rivals Suteki Da Ne in its direction and how amazingly the song is conveyed, and I loved the extra touch in the eng dub where it turns into a duet, with the cutscene adjusted to fit. This serves as an impetus to the finale, where Paine resolves things with her old friends, and Yuna confronts Shuyin through Lenne, freeing him from his regrets and allowing both to move on to the afterlife. In turn, Yuna is forced to accept Tidus' death, and move on with her life.
While I only watched the cutscenes, Last Mission is a nice addition to all of this, letting us see how the main trio have changed after half a year and giving us resolution to the story.
As for the true ending... I don't like it, at all. It's not a bad idea in theory, but it comes completely out of the blue and feels really unearned, after the game was building up to Yuna accepting Tidus was gone throughout the whole game. Maybe if the scene had more build up and weight to it, it would have felt better, but to me it just seemed like incredibly forced fanservice that went against everything this game stands for. Perhaps the X-2.5 novel will change my mind, but for now this is easily my least favourite aspect of X-2.
The music is an interesting one, as none of the original three composers from FFX return, all replaced with a new duo (who I believe married years after this game released!). I actually think this was an excellent decision, as their jazzy and energetic styles mesh perfectly with FFX-2's tone, and it was a nice surprise giving all the old towns new music to represent how they've changed. I do think it's a step down from FFX's ost, as a lot of tracks can be pretty repetitive with their short loops, along with less general variety compared to FFX's three composers with pretty different styles. But overall, I would say I'm quite happy with it, and it added to the experience.
So yeah, overall? I loved FFX-2. It's by no means a perfect game—there's a lot that feels like it needed more time in the oven—but I've found myself firmly on the side of appreciating the tone it went for, and enjoying it as a lighter epilogue to FFX, as well as a nice continuation of Yuna's arc from that game. I can't possibly say it's as good as FFX, as that game really is something else for me, yet I certainly wouldn't say it brings that game down—it instead enhances it, and just left me mostly satisfied (barring the true ending). I'm not sure if I want a FFX-3, unless it were to focus on new characters, but who knows, maybe the novel and drama CD will change my mind (we'll see though... they seem even more divisive than this game).
Also happy I can call Yuna the best FF protagonist for real now :^)
This review contains spoilers
Only FFX, abandoned at Jecht fight.
First entry in the Final Fantasy series and a little boring. Things often felt stale in gameplay but I guess thats alright considering it's a 2000 something PS2 RPG, not sure what I expected. Story is dry and generic, things are predictable all the way through. boring/5
First entry in the Final Fantasy series and a little boring. Things often felt stale in gameplay but I guess thats alright considering it's a 2000 something PS2 RPG, not sure what I expected. Story is dry and generic, things are predictable all the way through. boring/5
I want to like the story and everything but i just can't get through it honestly.
This game would be 5 stars except that all the little fiddly stuff to get 100% is such a pain in the butt.
This is game is aight. There's no Titus, which is plus for me, and I was really vibing with Yuna's adventures here. I just wasn't the biggest fan of FFX and the things I did like (the battle system and sphere grid) are gone so it was hard for me to really get into it. It is fun tho and the dress sphere system is neat.
This game is not the affront to god I always heard it was.
Gameplay wise I think its great, one of the best ATB systems I've used. The Dressphere and grid system, while a bit more limiting than I would have liked at times, were fun to mess around with. I like that each girl, despite using the same dresses, has different weapons, animations, transformations, battle quotes and victory screens.
Story wise I can't say I enjoyed it and ended up with 90% completion. I found the story to be mostly dull but I think a lot of that has to do with how it presents itself in its mission like structure. Lead to more swift tonal shifts and out of place moments than not.
This isn't the Yuna you know from Final Fantasy X and Rikku is more comedic in comparison than I remember as well. I wouldn't call it character assassination but if the plot wasn't so directly tied to FFX, having new characters taking over the whole thing might have went over better.
In terms of music I think it was mostly forgettable. One or two tracks I liked and a few I really disliked such what might be the worst chocobo theme I have ever heard in a FF game.
In the end its decent but the gameplay does 99% of the carrying, especially if you like job systems.
Gameplay wise I think its great, one of the best ATB systems I've used. The Dressphere and grid system, while a bit more limiting than I would have liked at times, were fun to mess around with. I like that each girl, despite using the same dresses, has different weapons, animations, transformations, battle quotes and victory screens.
Story wise I can't say I enjoyed it and ended up with 90% completion. I found the story to be mostly dull but I think a lot of that has to do with how it presents itself in its mission like structure. Lead to more swift tonal shifts and out of place moments than not.
This isn't the Yuna you know from Final Fantasy X and Rikku is more comedic in comparison than I remember as well. I wouldn't call it character assassination but if the plot wasn't so directly tied to FFX, having new characters taking over the whole thing might have went over better.
In terms of music I think it was mostly forgettable. One or two tracks I liked and a few I really disliked such what might be the worst chocobo theme I have ever heard in a FF game.
In the end its decent but the gameplay does 99% of the carrying, especially if you like job systems.
When I first played this game I dropped it after 20 minutes, because I had just finished a replay of FFX and was extremely put off by the drastic shift in tone and dramatic change in the returning characters' personalities. In 2021 I gave it another shot, approaching it as completely its own thing rather than comparing it too much to one of my favorite games of all time. And... I dropped it after 5 hours instead.
The change in tone is not inherently a problem, and it absolutely makes more sense for this game to be more light-hearted than its predecessor considering that the world has been freed from its spiral of death and misery. But the tone is not just "light-hearted", it's incredibly goofy, dumb, and absolutely loaded with cringe-worthy attempts at fanservice centered around Yuna and Rikku. A more light-hearted game set in a freed Spira is fine. Brother screaming in my ear about how he wants to see his cousin get half-naked and dance for his amusement is not fine.
The change in characters is also not inherently a problem. Yuna in particular has gone through a lot and it makes perfect sense for her to have grown and changed, and even become much more outgoing and confident. The big problem here is mostly that we did not actually see most of that change happen, only the catalyst and the endpoint. On top of that, with how fanservice-laden this game is, it's kind of hard to look at her personality shift entirely in a vacuum. How much of this was a logical progression for her character, and how much was a cynical excuse to put her in booty shorts and make her an idol?
Rikku on the other hand feels less like she evolved and more like she's been flanderized. She's always been the upbeat bubbly kind-of-annoying one, and even in FFX she had her moments of grating or cringey dialogue... but in this game it feels like all of her worst traits have been amplified at the expense of all the charm she had. I dreaded every line of her dialogue, and she has a LOT of dialogue. This was especially not helped by her "chemistry" and frequent exchanges with Brother, who was fine as a bit character in FFX but is insufferable as one of the main supporting cast in X-2.
The game overall feels like it's trying to be an ecchi comedy anime, which is not exactly a genre I'm fond of. From the new skimpy outfits, to the combat system relying on the main girls changing into different clothes, to the multiple idol dance sequences, to the constant awful attempts at humor, not a single thing that happened in this game endeared me to it.
As far as the actual gameplay... it's fine I guess. I've seen some people online sing it's praises as the "best ATB combat in the franchise", but as someone who's never been a huge fan of the ATB style in the first place I found it simultaneously way harder AND way more boring than the slower turn-based style of FFX. I'll try to explain why.
As for why it's harder: The fast pace of battle and ability for enemies to attack while you're in the middle of an action makes it extremely easy to lose control of a fight. Combined with the seemingly high damage that early-game monsters can dish out, unless you spend a while on early-game grinding it's really easy for opponents to down one or more of your party in a couple of moves. Items and healing magic are also substantially worse in this game compared to X because of the "charge time" they take, which effectively makes them cost 2 actions (and makes the caster incredibly vulnerable to being killed while trying to heal).
As for why it's more boring: because magic and most special moves take way longer to use than basic attacks (on top of costing mana), it rarely feels worth it to use them. I very quickly fell into a loop of simply basic attacking with two of my party members and healing with the third, every single round until the battle was over. This probably isn't actually the most optimal strategy for most fights, but it gets the job done well enough that I didn't see much reason to change it up. The fast pace of ATB battles discourages me from changing it up, because every second spent thinking about what would be better is lost DPS and increased incoming damage. There is a "pause" mode which is supposed to pause the ATB timer during menu selection, but it only pauses during the sub-menus which means you're still losing time if you need to go in and out of multiple menus to look at your options and think.
This is all exacerbated by the "dressphere" class and leveling system, which replaces the Sphere Grid from X. Leveling is a completely linear set of vague stat increases (not even communicated upon leveling up), and instead of having a large party with many specialists you instead have only 3 party members who can switch classes at will. Because switching classes takes an entire turn (as opposed to party switching being free in X) it doesn't make sense to switch frequently, and this in turn leads to less variety in strategy. On top of that, since all the classes level separately, if you at some point realize you need (or could really use) a class that you haven't been using, then you'll need to grind it up to a reasonable level before it's worthwhile. Even in my short time playing, this discouraged me from switching classes even further; I didn't want to spend time on tedious grinding, but I also didn't want to divide my XP between more than a few classes since this would hamper my progression. All in all, I found the progression system much less interesting and engaging than the Sphere Grid system.
From what I've read online, the "proper" way to play this game is to go everywhere and talk to everyone EXCEPT the stuff that will progress the story forward, including revisiting every single area in Spira during every single chapter, and completing dozens of barely-relevant minigames and side objectives. While I'm generally a fan of games with tons of optional content, apparently the "good" endings of the game are locked behind full completion, and based on the combat and progression systems I got the impression I was expected to do a lot of that extra content in order to decently level my classes and get good enough stats to win consistently against tough opponents. I really don't like the idea of tying the "good" ending of a game to MISSABLE side-quests - especially not early-game side-quests - and I think if that is the "intended" way to play the game then it should really be communicated somehow in-game. The few times I ventured off the path of the main story I was met with road blocks telling me to come back later, so I eventually just powered through Chapter 1 without going to most of the areas on the map. Learning afterwards that I was now locked out of the true ending was what made me put down the game for good.
As for the story... I can't comment on much since I dropped the game shortly after it seemed like the "real" story might be starting, but what I got was boring and felt completely pointless. And the music is fine, but it's a real step down from X in my opinion.
TL;DR: I really did not enjoy this game. I found the characters and tone insufferably dumb and annoying, I found the core combat and progression systems boring and unengaging, I found the story/mission structure unclear and frustrating, and I found myself annoyed by a world I normally love. I'm glad that some people love it, and I have no ill will towards those people, but I thought this was a terrible game, and I have no desire to play any more of it.
The change in tone is not inherently a problem, and it absolutely makes more sense for this game to be more light-hearted than its predecessor considering that the world has been freed from its spiral of death and misery. But the tone is not just "light-hearted", it's incredibly goofy, dumb, and absolutely loaded with cringe-worthy attempts at fanservice centered around Yuna and Rikku. A more light-hearted game set in a freed Spira is fine. Brother screaming in my ear about how he wants to see his cousin get half-naked and dance for his amusement is not fine.
The change in characters is also not inherently a problem. Yuna in particular has gone through a lot and it makes perfect sense for her to have grown and changed, and even become much more outgoing and confident. The big problem here is mostly that we did not actually see most of that change happen, only the catalyst and the endpoint. On top of that, with how fanservice-laden this game is, it's kind of hard to look at her personality shift entirely in a vacuum. How much of this was a logical progression for her character, and how much was a cynical excuse to put her in booty shorts and make her an idol?
Rikku on the other hand feels less like she evolved and more like she's been flanderized. She's always been the upbeat bubbly kind-of-annoying one, and even in FFX she had her moments of grating or cringey dialogue... but in this game it feels like all of her worst traits have been amplified at the expense of all the charm she had. I dreaded every line of her dialogue, and she has a LOT of dialogue. This was especially not helped by her "chemistry" and frequent exchanges with Brother, who was fine as a bit character in FFX but is insufferable as one of the main supporting cast in X-2.
The game overall feels like it's trying to be an ecchi comedy anime, which is not exactly a genre I'm fond of. From the new skimpy outfits, to the combat system relying on the main girls changing into different clothes, to the multiple idol dance sequences, to the constant awful attempts at humor, not a single thing that happened in this game endeared me to it.
As far as the actual gameplay... it's fine I guess. I've seen some people online sing it's praises as the "best ATB combat in the franchise", but as someone who's never been a huge fan of the ATB style in the first place I found it simultaneously way harder AND way more boring than the slower turn-based style of FFX. I'll try to explain why.
As for why it's harder: The fast pace of battle and ability for enemies to attack while you're in the middle of an action makes it extremely easy to lose control of a fight. Combined with the seemingly high damage that early-game monsters can dish out, unless you spend a while on early-game grinding it's really easy for opponents to down one or more of your party in a couple of moves. Items and healing magic are also substantially worse in this game compared to X because of the "charge time" they take, which effectively makes them cost 2 actions (and makes the caster incredibly vulnerable to being killed while trying to heal).
As for why it's more boring: because magic and most special moves take way longer to use than basic attacks (on top of costing mana), it rarely feels worth it to use them. I very quickly fell into a loop of simply basic attacking with two of my party members and healing with the third, every single round until the battle was over. This probably isn't actually the most optimal strategy for most fights, but it gets the job done well enough that I didn't see much reason to change it up. The fast pace of ATB battles discourages me from changing it up, because every second spent thinking about what would be better is lost DPS and increased incoming damage. There is a "pause" mode which is supposed to pause the ATB timer during menu selection, but it only pauses during the sub-menus which means you're still losing time if you need to go in and out of multiple menus to look at your options and think.
This is all exacerbated by the "dressphere" class and leveling system, which replaces the Sphere Grid from X. Leveling is a completely linear set of vague stat increases (not even communicated upon leveling up), and instead of having a large party with many specialists you instead have only 3 party members who can switch classes at will. Because switching classes takes an entire turn (as opposed to party switching being free in X) it doesn't make sense to switch frequently, and this in turn leads to less variety in strategy. On top of that, since all the classes level separately, if you at some point realize you need (or could really use) a class that you haven't been using, then you'll need to grind it up to a reasonable level before it's worthwhile. Even in my short time playing, this discouraged me from switching classes even further; I didn't want to spend time on tedious grinding, but I also didn't want to divide my XP between more than a few classes since this would hamper my progression. All in all, I found the progression system much less interesting and engaging than the Sphere Grid system.
From what I've read online, the "proper" way to play this game is to go everywhere and talk to everyone EXCEPT the stuff that will progress the story forward, including revisiting every single area in Spira during every single chapter, and completing dozens of barely-relevant minigames and side objectives. While I'm generally a fan of games with tons of optional content, apparently the "good" endings of the game are locked behind full completion, and based on the combat and progression systems I got the impression I was expected to do a lot of that extra content in order to decently level my classes and get good enough stats to win consistently against tough opponents. I really don't like the idea of tying the "good" ending of a game to MISSABLE side-quests - especially not early-game side-quests - and I think if that is the "intended" way to play the game then it should really be communicated somehow in-game. The few times I ventured off the path of the main story I was met with road blocks telling me to come back later, so I eventually just powered through Chapter 1 without going to most of the areas on the map. Learning afterwards that I was now locked out of the true ending was what made me put down the game for good.
As for the story... I can't comment on much since I dropped the game shortly after it seemed like the "real" story might be starting, but what I got was boring and felt completely pointless. And the music is fine, but it's a real step down from X in my opinion.
TL;DR: I really did not enjoy this game. I found the characters and tone insufferably dumb and annoying, I found the core combat and progression systems boring and unengaging, I found the story/mission structure unclear and frustrating, and I found myself annoyed by a world I normally love. I'm glad that some people love it, and I have no ill will towards those people, but I thought this was a terrible game, and I have no desire to play any more of it.
Such a hot mess in so many ways that it's almost inconceivable. The story is terrible, the music is mediocre, the pacing is awful, the performances are horrible, the writing is disastrous and the structure of the game is mind-bogglingly bad. The one and a half stars are for the wonderful combat system and what little I enjoyed of the camp this game has in droves.
I've been doing a series replay and have been platinuming all the games as I go and will continue to do so, but I'm not platinuming this one. Not because the platinum is hard (FFIX and FFX were much tougher), but because I don't feel like playing more of this game. This is by far the worst mainline Final Fantasy game and it's not even particularly close, and it's definitely the poster child of games I tolerated as a child but can't stand now.
I've been doing a series replay and have been platinuming all the games as I go and will continue to do so, but I'm not platinuming this one. Not because the platinum is hard (FFIX and FFX were much tougher), but because I don't feel like playing more of this game. This is by far the worst mainline Final Fantasy game and it's not even particularly close, and it's definitely the poster child of games I tolerated as a child but can't stand now.
2003-me would have despised the tone and style of this game. 2023-me absolutely adored it...which is why it kind of pains me to find myself abandoning it. Its structure, which essentially amounts to a selection of side quests that you can pick and choose from, wears exceedingly thin, and without a compelling enough hook for the narrative to push me forward, I found myself burning out extremely fast. This is compounded by the fact that many of those quests amount to little more than a collection of uninspired minigames, and the daunting task of doing all of this to see 100% completion weighed too heavily on my motivation to keep going.
Had Final Fantasy X-2 stuck with the same combat system as its predecessor, I might have been able to find enough enjoyment in the game to justify finishing it. However, the switch back to an ATB system kind of doomed the whole experience for me in retrospect. ATB isn't a bad system by any means, but it's always been a weird middle-ground between action and turn-based. Even when done well, as it was here, I still find myself longing for either of the other two options. As a result, my journey with the Final Fantasy X universe ends here. I wish I enjoyed my time in Spira more than I ultimately did.
Had Final Fantasy X-2 stuck with the same combat system as its predecessor, I might have been able to find enough enjoyment in the game to justify finishing it. However, the switch back to an ATB system kind of doomed the whole experience for me in retrospect. ATB isn't a bad system by any means, but it's always been a weird middle-ground between action and turn-based. Even when done well, as it was here, I still find myself longing for either of the other two options. As a result, my journey with the Final Fantasy X universe ends here. I wish I enjoyed my time in Spira more than I ultimately did.
The combat is really good but good God the mission structure is just awful. A bunch of asinine missions and terrible minigames that you HAVE to complete for the true ending, besides the grindfest that is the creature stories. Coming from Final Fantasy X the new songs for this one are mostly awful as well. It's not worth it to taint your playthrough of FFX with this.
Tried to play this for an hour since I've been open minded about all the FF games I've played, FF2 aswell, but it feels like this game throws like 3 times the shit FF8 throws at you in the first hour of the game, and that alone is an insane feat.
GIRLS NIGHT!!!! GIRLS NIGHT!!!
raw but in hd
I honestly had not heard great things about this game, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The plot of many games focus on the most exciting period of time for the characters, and often the world they inhabit. That story was already told in FFX. This game shows the aftermath of the first game several years later. I like the more laid back tone, you get to see how the world has evolved due to the events of the previous game, and what your new place is in it. Another big highlight is the combat, which is some of the best in the series. In someways, it goes back to a more traditional system than what FFX used, but the addition of the 'dressphere' system is what really makes this game stand out. Basically, you can swap between jobs mid-battle for free, allowing you to optimize which class would be best suited for each situation. It works really seamlessly, and makes me wish that other games would adapt to it. There are some downsides though, I do feel that this game is not quite as good as its predecessor, particularly in the writing department. Any character who was not in FFX has zero character development, including one of the three main leads. They also pulled a main villain out of nowhere, as exploring the changed dynamics of the world doesn't lend itself to a good final battle.
nah
The story is so so so bad that make the rest of the game worst because of it
This review contains spoilers
Did a bit of an odd thing with this, put some hours into it, and even though I appreciated the dressphere's as quite a fun concept, there's just something about the combat flow and management I wasn't quite clicking with.
One issue I found odd was the framing of a lot of the fights, made it oddly difficult to parse all the information. Also, the "platforming" that was added was very bad even though it's not really that big of a deal.
So, I knew I was going to struggle to have the patience to see this through, as I'm not really feeling it at the moment, and to make things worse there's some endings that are locked behind some completion stats which I wasn't going to do well on.
But I really wanted to see how things play out, as it'd been on my mind to get round to for years. So I’ve watched a youtube edit of all the cutscenes with the important gameplay bits inbetween. I wouldn't normally think doing that would be worth writing anything about it afterwards, but considering that I think the main draw is the story, combined with feeling like I at least got a good sense of the combat and loop of the game, it left me wanting to write some thoughts down.
I think this game has been hard done by in perception because of its initially much lighter/comedy and campy tone. This is probably the most queer-friendly Final Fantasy game, (hope that’s a fair observation from a cis-het dude) and even though I don’t really vibe with it so much myself, and a lot of the humour I think is just bad, I think it's great they did this.
The idea people seem to have that this is an unserious Final Fantasy seems so far off. The story of Spira trying to figure out how to move forward after the events of the first game, and falling into factions and conflicts is a very believable story to follow on from the original.
The story of Yuna's personal growth and journey to put her own thoughts, beliefs, desires first in light of who people expect her be is really strong. I think it's kind of meme'd on but Yuna's "I don't like your plan, it sucks" line is genuinely so powerful and brilliant.
I can't quite decide on the fact that there's multiple endings though. In some ways I feel like getting the super-happy ending almost undermines Yuna's growth in the game by giving her, her the fairytale dream boyfriend back. But on the other hand, it works with her attitude of "no more sacrifices, there's a better way of doing things."
Then I watched the last mission add-on cutscenes as well, and I was taken aback by the maturity of the story and how much it resonated with me.
By all accounts I've seen, not fun game to play. But the story of the girls getting back together for the first time in months, then getting into arguments and realizing they've already grown apart and coming to terms with that. Really hit home to an extent I wasn't expecting.
So I can’t say I’ve truly engaged with all the game’s systems, as I haven’t played deep enough into it to give it a fair enough shake. But I think where it matters this is an excellent sequel to X and stands with it as part of the same piece.
One issue I found odd was the framing of a lot of the fights, made it oddly difficult to parse all the information. Also, the "platforming" that was added was very bad even though it's not really that big of a deal.
So, I knew I was going to struggle to have the patience to see this through, as I'm not really feeling it at the moment, and to make things worse there's some endings that are locked behind some completion stats which I wasn't going to do well on.
But I really wanted to see how things play out, as it'd been on my mind to get round to for years. So I’ve watched a youtube edit of all the cutscenes with the important gameplay bits inbetween. I wouldn't normally think doing that would be worth writing anything about it afterwards, but considering that I think the main draw is the story, combined with feeling like I at least got a good sense of the combat and loop of the game, it left me wanting to write some thoughts down.
I think this game has been hard done by in perception because of its initially much lighter/comedy and campy tone. This is probably the most queer-friendly Final Fantasy game, (hope that’s a fair observation from a cis-het dude) and even though I don’t really vibe with it so much myself, and a lot of the humour I think is just bad, I think it's great they did this.
The idea people seem to have that this is an unserious Final Fantasy seems so far off. The story of Spira trying to figure out how to move forward after the events of the first game, and falling into factions and conflicts is a very believable story to follow on from the original.
The story of Yuna's personal growth and journey to put her own thoughts, beliefs, desires first in light of who people expect her be is really strong. I think it's kind of meme'd on but Yuna's "I don't like your plan, it sucks" line is genuinely so powerful and brilliant.
I can't quite decide on the fact that there's multiple endings though. In some ways I feel like getting the super-happy ending almost undermines Yuna's growth in the game by giving her, her the fairytale dream boyfriend back. But on the other hand, it works with her attitude of "no more sacrifices, there's a better way of doing things."
Then I watched the last mission add-on cutscenes as well, and I was taken aback by the maturity of the story and how much it resonated with me.
By all accounts I've seen, not fun game to play. But the story of the girls getting back together for the first time in months, then getting into arguments and realizing they've already grown apart and coming to terms with that. Really hit home to an extent I wasn't expecting.
So I can’t say I’ve truly engaged with all the game’s systems, as I haven’t played deep enough into it to give it a fair enough shake. But I think where it matters this is an excellent sequel to X and stands with it as part of the same piece.
It's a game that shouldn't exist and I feel like I wasted my time playing it
So....while I avoided Final Fantasy X for years, this is the game I straight up ignored, if you go back to my review on FFX a lot of the same reasons I didn't play that one is the same for this one as well, mostly for those who don't/didn't want to read, I didn't own a PS2 when the original game came out, As for this game, I was iffy about the idea of ever playing it because the thought of a Final Fantasy game having an ACTUAL sequel seemed off since all the Final Fantasy games were pretty much their own adventures, so going into this game I already had resistances. But despite all that, I really really like this game.
I'll say right off the bat, this isn't Final Fantasy X again...not exactly anyways.
The gameplay is REALLY different, gone is the ladder turn system, gone is the "every character has rock paper scissor" system with their attacks, and gone goes the Sphere Grid system. This is game goes back to the prior Final Fantasy game of having levels which effects your stats. It also goes back to the "Active Time Battle" system so you're back to having bars that tell when your turn comes up. Lastly you are back to have a sort of "Job System" where you choose a job and gain abilities for that job through experience this is don't in the form of "Dresspheres" basically your character changes to the job and has an outfit matching it usually playing homage to the past games looks.
The Dressphere's is the point that made me love the game a bit more than FFX, I love final Fantasy games with a job system in place, while the sphere Grid was actually pretty good, it's not my preferred method so maybe I have a slight bias there. FFX-2 feels faster than the original game, not just in combat. but the game itself.
The reason it seems faster is because it is in a way, the music is giving a sort of fast theme than FFX, with synth, pop, and rock as the music choice giving it an energetic feel, so the game feels like it moves at a faster pace for that.
That said...the weakest part of the game is the story, this also leaks into the gameplay as well. The story is really goofy, like it has serious moments, but after playing FFX the game has a complete tonal whiplash. The 3 main characters are all likeable Yuna, Rikku, and Paine but the world itself despite it using the same assets as FFX it doesn't feel as heavy. The game is separated into chapters, episodes, and missions so the story comes out in pieces and things are easily miss-able. I think the biggest issue is the game trying to be a light hearted sequel to a very down to earth deep game before it. So, what you end up with is amazingly fast and engaging gameplay with a very unfocused story.
Despite the issues with the story it is an amazing game and works very well as a sequel.
I'll say right off the bat, this isn't Final Fantasy X again...not exactly anyways.
The gameplay is REALLY different, gone is the ladder turn system, gone is the "every character has rock paper scissor" system with their attacks, and gone goes the Sphere Grid system. This is game goes back to the prior Final Fantasy game of having levels which effects your stats. It also goes back to the "Active Time Battle" system so you're back to having bars that tell when your turn comes up. Lastly you are back to have a sort of "Job System" where you choose a job and gain abilities for that job through experience this is don't in the form of "Dresspheres" basically your character changes to the job and has an outfit matching it usually playing homage to the past games looks.
The Dressphere's is the point that made me love the game a bit more than FFX, I love final Fantasy games with a job system in place, while the sphere Grid was actually pretty good, it's not my preferred method so maybe I have a slight bias there. FFX-2 feels faster than the original game, not just in combat. but the game itself.
The reason it seems faster is because it is in a way, the music is giving a sort of fast theme than FFX, with synth, pop, and rock as the music choice giving it an energetic feel, so the game feels like it moves at a faster pace for that.
That said...the weakest part of the game is the story, this also leaks into the gameplay as well. The story is really goofy, like it has serious moments, but after playing FFX the game has a complete tonal whiplash. The 3 main characters are all likeable Yuna, Rikku, and Paine but the world itself despite it using the same assets as FFX it doesn't feel as heavy. The game is separated into chapters, episodes, and missions so the story comes out in pieces and things are easily miss-able. I think the biggest issue is the game trying to be a light hearted sequel to a very down to earth deep game before it. So, what you end up with is amazingly fast and engaging gameplay with a very unfocused story.
Despite the issues with the story it is an amazing game and works very well as a sequel.
dislike the new combat system....