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Die hard gamers have long beseeched Square to continue the storyline of one of its Final Fantasy games, and with good reason. After spending a good 50 hours with a group of characters embroiled in one life-or-death situation after another, you can't help wanting more. Now the concept of a direct sequel has been put into practice, and the result is Final Fantasy X-2: a slightly uneven but still engaging game that's worthy of the revered name. The story's almost-total reliance on a familiarity with Final Fantasy X may limit its audience to those who enjoyed that game. At its best, FFX-2 is every bit as poignant, endearing, and engrossing as its forebears, and it's this similarity to stronger games in the series that ultimately makes X-2's minor flaws forgivable. Most of the action is basic (crawling through dungeons, talking with other characters, leveling up, fighting bosses). The active-time battle is extremely quick, with the characters attacking almost as soon as you issue your command. A new chain combo system adds a welcome extra "oomph" to the battles. The girls gameplay revolves around "dresshperes", or costumes that the characters don with different abilities. Two years after the defeat of Sin, Spira is finally enjoying the fabled eternal calm. However, the peace is made tremulous by the tension and competition between rival factions, each trying to bring Spira under its own control. Yuna and Rikku have joined forces with a tough new character, Paine, to form the Gullwings. Together, they roam Spira searching for spheres which are video-recordings of historic world events. Sphere hunting is popular, so the girls face plenty of competition. By the end of the game, the story will come full circle and link up with events from FFX. This is an enjoyable addition to the FF family and one that gamers should enjoy. PROS - Voice acting is outstanding with new and returning actors, with well written dialogue. Exceptional soundtrack. Familiar graphics and maps from FFX (considered a con by some). Fair amount of sidequests. Solid and entertaining RPG that any FF fan should play and enjoy. CONS - Graphics almost identical to original FFX game. Limited CG movie sequences, one of the original games' best feature. Disjointed storyline with "free form" approach to game progression which can be confusing.Read full review
For me, the change in formula made for a fun game, save for the cheesy script (made lots of awkward moments), the game's massive amounts of estrogen (you play as 3 teen girls, need I say more?), and the game's lack of a good engaging story. So what did SquareEnix change for the first time in Final Fantasy history? 1.) playable characters are 3 girls and you only play as them throughout the whole game. NO additional playable characters, no switchable characters. 2.) not linear. The game is now mission-based and so you could go around any part of the world and complete sidequests and earn cool stuff. 3.) no super evil (sin, Sepirath, etc) but a humongous machina that's really really easy to beat 4.) dress speheres where you change the character's dresses from say, like a samurai to a thief (thieves wear bikinis for some reason) to a giant armored metallic birdsuit that does massive amount of damage Is change good? From what I looked at IGN reader reviews, the answer varies on who you are. Do you mind the fact that preppy girls are going to save the world? Do you mind the fact that the important male characters in the game not only look gay but also act kind of gay? Do you mind the fact that the fighting style is not turn-based anymore but active time-based turn system (almost identical to FFVII gameplay but much, much faster)? Do you mind the fact that you play dressup in order to use special roles for your playable characters? If you do, then you will absolutely hate this game, because I noticed most people who hate this game, hate it for those reasons, and in most cases, those reasons only. If you overlook that, this is one hell of a game. The dress sphere idea sounds retarded but once you get used to it, it's not. It's revolutionary. For example, you can teach abilities with dress spheres, abilities such as "Evade and Counter", "Ribbon" (immune to ALL status effects), "Congrats" (get 9999 gil from enemy), "Assault" (cast protect, shell, reflect, and beserk on user) and stuff like that. It makes for an amazing battle experience. Each dress sphere is unique and it's fun to use different kinds. It sure beats having to unequp and equip materia or stealing magic from fiends or using a complicated sphere grid system. And for the first time in FF history, a non-linear FF game! You know what this means? More mini-games than any other game in FF history! These mini games are hard but really fun. Some sidequests are retarded but you get awesome rewards for it. The game also has multiple endings depending on how many sidequests you complete and some special things you do to trigger the ending. Overall, this is one FF game that focuses more on fun then the main plot. If you just play the plot, the bosses are hella easy and the game is so-so. But go on this one sidequest where you hav beat the ultimate fiend of all times (334,000 hitpoints!!!), and you will drop your jaw at the incredible amount of strategy you would have to use to get incredible amount of fun in return. I have to warn you though, that if you didn't play FFX, the story won't make sense at all. The game hardly links the game back to its prequel and doesn't explain that but still, it's a FUN game. It's a change of formula but for the right people, it's a formula that works real well.Read full review
The game is sort of like an expansion pack to its prequel. The mechanics of the game have changed however. There are familiar moves and items, but the old fighting system has been modified to feel less turn based. Additionally, summoning is gone. I'd say these changes are marginally worse. I prefer the new dressphere system over the cumbersome sphere grids from ten. It certainly requires strategy, but you choose which moves to pursue. The story is a continuation from the previous game, but can't quite live up to the predecessor. It's interesting, but still a sequel. If you liked ten, you will still enjoy this game though. Yuna and Rikku are great and the new character Paine is good as well. I do wish the party was larger however. The game is a bit old, but I think the graphics are fine. I think it holds up. The cost was quite low so the value is certainly reasonable. If you want more classic final fantasy, this is a good buy.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Final Fantasy X-2 is the sequel to the magnificent Final Fantasy X, which was weighty and emotional and loaded with pathos. So to see this game open with a rock concert animation ending in a "girl power" battle is jarring to say the least. Even more off-putting is the inclusion of peppy pop music that makes battles too annoying to fight with the sound on. Aggravating even beyond that is the stinging sensation that this was a game made for girls -- but a game made for girls by boys who had stereotypical ideas of what girls would like and what boys would lust for: cutscenes of bikini-clad main characters relaxing in a hot spring, sexy poses during a battle that make no sense for fighting -- one character's signature stance actually has her back turned to the enemy -- and literally CHANGING CLOTHES for new powersets and status boots. The main game has five episodes centering around a quest for a missing team member from Final Fantasy X, which is what will draw in most players. However, there are a metric ton of side quests to keep one distracted, and one actually misses out on quite a bit of story if one doesn't take every side quest possible. I had to go back and watch some side quests on YouTube to get the full gist of the story. So even though only a few towns available might light up as "hotspots", you really need to hit every town possible to get the full game experience (as well as access to all the characters' powersets). Gameplay is pretty standard and the "dressphere" system is fairly easy to grasp, though there are several powerset-granting costumes you'll likely never use. The game also includes status-boosting "garment grids" in which to place the dresspheres that determine your characters' costume changes and which grant powerset and/or status boosts upon changing clothes mid-battle (as well as some static grants in battle). I only made use of perhaps four of these total, though the game provides a couple dozen -- it's just too time-consuming to change clothes mid-battle, even if you have the configuration option to turn off the wardrobe-altering cutscenes (which, in a few cases, are almost NSFW). The worst thing about Final Fantasy X-2 is getting halfway through the game and realizing that you're not going to get the payoff you were looking for going into the game. One of the game's more challenging themes is how much people change, and that includes the game's characters. You realize early on regarding the main character Yunie that she's not the same person as she was in Final Fantasy X, which can only be expected since she's no longer a summoner and no longer under the crushing weight of duty she endured in Final Fantasy X. You go into the game wanting to pick up where you left off in Final Fantasy X, but time and the characters have moved on, and there's no going back. Ironically, a later sequel called Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission would be released that hammers heavily on this theme, as it finds that the characters in X-2 have moved on even from one another, each chasing different goals and finding that they've consequently grown apart. (Last Mission is not included in this version of the game -- I watched a YouTube video of the gameplay and wasn't impressed by it.) I would recommend playing Final Fantasy X-2 directly after completing Final Fantasy X, as you will want to be familiar with the characters and settings from X during X-2. One of the most attractive elements of X-2 gameplay is nostalgia: Because X-2 reuses many of the characters and settings from X, you'll constantly be thinking, "I remember what I did here back in X," or, "There's that character from X!" The visceral trip down memory lane during a brand new game is a fairly unique experience in video gaming, even as the jarring differences from the original game will probably have you wishing X-2 was more like its predecessor. Beating the game was not difficult, although occasionally I needed to rely on this or that online strategy guide to help with a monster or two. By and large if you find a good spot to power-level and max out your abilities on all your dresspheres, you can beat 99% of the creatures in FF X-2 -- including the final bosses -- by sheer brute force. You may also need to hit the strategy guides to find a side quest or two -- the side quests are pretty imaginative and usually worth playing just for the variety, even if the payoff items don't always seem worth the effort. That last bit is pretty much a good one-line review of the game overall: imaginative, and especially innovative for its use of nostalgia and new systems at once, but I doubt you'll reach the end of the game feeling the quest was worthwhile. So make sure you hit every side-quest possible, as you'll likely want to make this a one-and-done experience.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I played FFX, and decided that I wanted this one. I like it. The battle systems are better, the dress-sphere system is engaging and allows for good balanced game play, and the game itself is more challenging than FFX. The missions are very engaging, and if you want everything the game has to offer, you have to travel through Spira between each plot development. The plot itself, however, is a bit weaker than previous FFs, and the game itself seems more geared toward girls and horny nerds. Not that those are necessarily bad things, but I felt Yuna, the main character, should have had a greater purpose in life than finding her boyfriend. All said and done, however, it is a solid, fast-paced game with original characters, great graphics, and definite playability. It also has a good replay value, because near the beginning of the game, you're forced to make a decision between supporting one organization, or another.Read full review
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