Yuna's Saga Continues (Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2))

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
Date:	21/07/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful graphics, takes hours to complete

Disadvantages: No new monsters or back drops. No world map.

Final Fantasy X-2 is the sequel to the highly successful Playstation 2 game, Final Fantasy X (FFX). As far as I know this is the only sequel in the Square's RPG (Role Playing Game) series as the standard format is that each game is stand-alone although there are elements that are common to all episodes.

Final Fantasy X-2 is set 2 years after the events of FFX and as it begins we're treated to a musical spectacular as Ex-Summoner Yuna performs in a concert in Luca, or does she? Those who've played FFX will recognise Yuna and her companion Rikku from there but for those unfamiliar with them they are introduced in a fair amount of detail. It seems that the world they inhabit (Spira) is once more in danger, but what does this have to do with the Summoner turned sphere hunter?? You'll have to play the game to find out.

As with all the later Final Fantasy (FF) games Square have pushed the boundaries when it comes to utilising the Playstation 2's graphic capability. The scenery is a delight to look at, with the characters beautifully realised. Again, as with all of the FF games the girl's seem to wear far too few clothes, I like playing the games, but I'm sure some of them would freeze to death wearing what appears to be only their bras and knickers even when travelling over icy paths. The real flaw with the graphics is that there are no new locations, you will only travel to places you've seen in FFX, and in fact there are fewer locations here than in FFX as some previous locations are unavailable.

With FFX-2 there is a new system of levelling up to master, all skills and magics are now learnt via dress spheres (jobs) and garment grids. Certain skills can only be learnt via different grids and spheres and weapons are also linked to the jobs. For example only gunners and gun mages can use gunners, while warriors use swords. There are however a good number of different dress spheres to collect and this can increase game play as you try to get each character to learn every possible skill. Unlike pervious FF games there are no Aeons (powerful god-like allies) to collect and the replacement of special spheres is far more fiddly to use. In contrast to many others of the series there are only a total of three playable characters which could make some of the bosses more difficult (it's always nice to have at least one character as back up), but as none of these bosses are incredibly difficult....

The random battle system can be annoying, when trying to level up I find there can be a long time between battles and as I need to win these battles to gain experience points to level my characters up and increase their strength I do often spend a few hours in one place trying to prepare for a boss battles. As the game progresses the battles do get harder, but as with FFX the monsters are a little repetitive, probably more so as there is really nothing new. As with all FF and most RPGs gameplay is pretty linear with certain tasks needing to be completed in each of the four chapters, but you are able to visit all locations from virtually the beginning of the game. A quick point about locations that I really don't like is that there is no world map view so I imagine that if you've never visited Spira before it would be quite easy to get lost.

The thing that I like about FF games is that there is a definite difference between finishing the game and completing it. FFX-2 is no different in this respect, I would imagine that it would be possible to finish the game within 20-40 hours, but this would leave the many different sub-plots and mini games incomplete. I personally like to level all characters up to level 99, learn all skills and collect everything possible. This takes a good deal longer, I spoke to somebody a few weeks ago that was up to 200+ hours and had still not completed the game and I'm not far behind.
I bought my first copy of FFX-2 over three years ago and spent a good deal of time attempting to complete it without the help of any FAQs or walkthroughs. Unfortunately I took on the last boss before I completed the game and so I thought all that hard work had been done for nothing. But never fear FFX-2 has a neat little New Game + facility that allows you to re-start the game with all dress spheres and garment grids collected in place.

As I said I bought my first copy a few years back but this got lost in a move and I recently replaced it (for £7.99 second hand). I enjoy playing games where I need to solve puzzles and think about my strategies much more than fast paced action games. And as with all the FF games this provides me with that, but although I enjoy playing it, it is a bit 'more of the same'. The sound track soon becomes annoying, remember my comments of about that spectacular concert, well that was me being ironic, it was cheesy pop fluff. The locations are very much of the been there done that kind and while the cut sequences are beautiful to look at, they do soon become overlong and yes some can be skipped, but this will prevent you from getting 100% completion.

So am I recommending FFX-2? Well I suppose that if me you enjoy RPGs and need this to complete your FF collection, then yes this is a reasonable game which will take many, many hours to complete. But if you are new to the series then I would recommend FFXII as this is far superior in all aspects. It is, however, unlikely that you will be able to Final Fantasy X-2 new, and if you're planning to buy it from somewhere like Game or Gamestation pre-owned then it make take a while to find it. I was regularly checking the shelves for three months before I found it for a very reasonable £7.99.

Summary: Spira needs saving again.....