Playstation 2 - Final Fantasy X-2

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Square Enix
Developer
Square Enix
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

Final Fantasy X-2

By David Rasmussen
6th Oct 05

Yeah, it’s not Final Fantasy VII but it does feed your one specific need, the need for FF females! I mean, what else can you possibly be playing that’ll do that for you… other than FF Xtreme Beach Volleyball but that’s just asking for too much I suppose.

In a game that’s less like Final Fantasy X and more like Final Fantasy meets Charlie’s Angels, we catch up with the world of FFX sometime after Sin’s defeat to find that fan favorites Yuna & Rikku (no relation to whiney not very long seen character Riku from Kingdom Hearts) are now out and about as Sphere Hunters. Sphere Hunters hunt Spheres, Spheres being sorta like VHS/DVD recording devices for the future which also seem to yield data for new dressspheres to dress the ladies up with -- which comes with guns, or swords, or magic, and really revealing transformation sequences. Anyway Yuna, Rikku and a third partner in a mysterious female named Paine (who seems to be a stand-in for Auron since the first thing she spits out on the first major sub-boss fight in the game is “It comes!” (which is what Auron yelled out about 3/4ths of the way through Final Fantasy X during at the start of a boss battle)) are the main heroines in this game. Don‘t look for the ability to swap characters during gameplay like Final Fantasy X though, that won‘t happen. As for the girls? They’re working with Rikku’s “family” and the airship from FFX… only now changed to… dear god is it supposed to be a red motorcycle thing… what the (bleep)! Anyway Brother (from FFX) is there, and someone else (can’t remember if he’s from FFX) and a kid who, strangely enough, is named after an evil organization from FFVII (Shinra). They, and our three heroines, are all part of this team of Sphere Hunters known as the Gullwings. The Gullwings? Sheesh, what a name.

The opening movie (the few CGI movies are really spiffy to look at by the way, so be sure to buy them ASAP from the theater in Luca for only 2000 gil a pop) shows Yuna as an idol singer… only it’s not Yuna, it’s a scantily clad blonde thing who has her own little Sphere Hunter thing going, which is good since she doesn’t seem bright enough to hack it in any other job other than stealing Spheres from others. She has two goons, and that’s all I’ll say about the thin/thick Abbott and Costello wannabes that work for her.

The story is that Yuna found a Sphere one day that seems to suggest that FFX star Tidus is alive, and imprisoned somewhere. So she joins up with Rikku (and Paine) in the Gullwings as a Sphere Hunter to find more Spheres that’ll lead her to where he is. Yeah, that’ll go well.
It’s been awhile now since then, and as we join the story in progress we watch as they become involved in a growing situation between the rival factions of the Youth League, and the spin-off of the old Yevon group called New Yevon. But that is nothing compared to the truth behind the identity of the guy in the Sphere Yuna clings onto (who she thinks must be Tidus), and the dire situation that spins from their investigation which may lead to another end of the world scenario. Yeah, that’s always welcome, the end of the world.

The combat is in realtime, so don’t expect to have a little time to mull over your combat choices since you should be making split decisions during each battle. It makes the combat flow fast, but it also makes it feel a little rushed as you have to make snap decisions quickly (do you go with a regular attack, magic, a special ability, etc). Also there’s the Dressspheres. Each of these (over a dozen with three special Dressspheres customized for each lady) offer a different power, and those powers grow as you become more proficient in each dress’, so that means you need to constantly monitor the “progress” on each dress and try to balance it out (have all your dressspheres grow in ability equally to maximize your useage of each during gameplay). There isn’t many chapters so I think the best way to do this is basically try to get each sphere to level up to about 25% of it’s potential for each Chapter, that means trying to extend each chapter as long as possible until you got your levels which means lots of endless fighting and work (which isn’t a bad thing).

If you take your time, and travel each chapter extensively looking for things that doesn‘t leap out at you immediately as something you need to do, you’ll open up things you might not have seen if you just rushed each chapter missions. So taking your time in this game will be rewarded.

The game is not universally loved by all FF fans, and that’s a shame since it is better than some of the (bleep) I’ve seen released recently. Arc the Lad : End of Darkness comes to mind for instance.

It’s not Final Fantasy VII, nor X, but it is worth a place in your collection, and it’s a far sight better than Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube, which is just a waste of space if you ask me.
Ok, breakdown time.

Final Fantasy X-2 Breakdown
What’s Hot?
Hey, it’s Final Fantasy, it’s got three cute female leads, and it’s far better than wastes of time like Arc the Lad : End of Darkness… really, what else do you need? Oh-kay. It’s also fairly good, it’s got humor and titillation and it’s (by now) cheap as heck since you should be able to grab a copy for $20.
And really, for a fairly decent game that won’t cost you $50 to play? What’s not to like.

What’s Not
It’s not Final Fantasy VII nor X, but it’s good enough considering you could be spending your $20 (or more) dollars on worse games. And you should be at this game for awhile, at least 20-40 or so hours so why not. It’s not too short (if you take your time leveling up your dressspheres for full effect and exploring everywhere so you can see everything) so why not. And did I mention it’s only $20 by now? Yeah.
Low cost and fair gameplay equals a good enough reason to at least check it out.

Oh-kay. Is there any bugs or stuff in the game? Well I’m not the biggest fan of it’s fast moving combat system which only gives you a few seconds to make split decisions (since your enemy only waits long enough for their meter to charge before attacking and not much longer), but it keeps the combat moving at a nice fluidic pace so who is to complain about it. Hmm… no swapping of characters, of course, and no summoned beasts this time out (which is logical considering what happened in Final Fantasy X).

So I guess I don’t really have a problem with X-2, at least not to the same degree I had problems with Arc the Lad : End of Darkness, and no I’ll never stop complaining about that because it’s just plain bad.
But I’ll forgive Namco since they’re rolling out We Love Katamari, and we do love Katamari so what the heck -- you’re forgiven. Now never do another Arc the Lad ever again.

Moments to Remember?
Hmmm…. Lots, actually. Then again a game with only female lead characters is always memorable, and sometimes for all the right reasons. Really.

What to Ignore?
If you liked the gameplay from Final Fantasy X then you might as well forget it since you won’t get that here. Gameplay is entirely different so you won’t be coming here for the same gameplay as the original X. It does sport a new mini game though, Sphere Break, and that’s with coins and stuff and you have to know math in order to play it and… well… know how to add things.
Hmm… did I mention all the titillation in the game, and the J-pop songs? I forgot that, didn’t I! Well for you fans of the J-pop you can find some nifty songs here, and a theater (in Luca) to buy both songs and movies.

Overall?
Should I draw a picture? Hmm… better not, the Editors will never allow me to show it.
It’s not the best, but it’s fair enough and for $20 a pop you can’t really go wrong on this one.
If you were holding onto your hard earned money until the game was a more affordable price then now is the time to go and pick this one up. It’s $20 and it won’t get any lower… unlike Catwoman which now retails brand new at $10 a pop, showing how (bleep)y that game is if they can’t even give it away.
Final Fantasy X-2 however isn’t (bleep)y, so go grab a copy, you might actually like it.

-- David Rasmussen 6th Oct 05

Playstation 2 Final Fantasy X-2 Images