Final Fantasy X-2 is the first
breath of fresh air that the series has had in the last six or seven
years and that, my friends, is a good thing. It isnt like FFX-2 just
throws tradition out of the window, though. Sure, it is the first direct
sequel we have seen, but just like every other entry into the series,
FFX-2 introduces a new battle system along with a new way to assign
abilities to your characters. The characters and world are the same, but
the gameplay is slightly different. We also get a new story but we get
to hang out with characters we already love instead of meeting a new
cast, which is perfectly fine with me because I loved Final Fantasy X.
However, unlike previous games in the series that were designed to be
accessible to everyone, FFX-2 was intended for fans of FFX and even
though it is a great game on its own, you wont enjoy X-2 nearly as much
if you havent played through X.
The story in Final Fantasy
X-2 takes place two years after the events of FFX. Yuna has been living
a somewhat normal life in her hometown since the defeat of Sin, but one
day Rikku arrives and shows her a video sphere that features someone
that they had thought was gone forever. Yuna decides to join Rikku and a
mysterious warrior known as Paine and they form a group of sphere
hunters known as the Gullwings. They travel around Spira looking for
valuable spheres and also to try and find out the truth about the figure
that Yuna saw in the sphere. The tone of the game is much more
lighthearted than previous entries in the series, but eventually the
quest to find a lost friend turns into a much larger adventure that once
again requires you to save the world of Spira.
One of the most interesting
things about Final Fantasy X-2 is that it begins with you in control of
an airship and you have the freedom to go wherever you want from the
very start of the game. This is the exact opposite of the way many of
the games in this series have played out, and is a rather refreshing
change. The game has also morphed into a mission-based format and it is
also broken into five chapters. There are important missions marked on
the map as hotspots that move the story forward, and while you can
actually move through the game very quickly by beating only the hotspot
missions, you will miss out on a lot of story details and items. In
order to get the complete story and give your characters proper leveling
up, you will have to visit each area on the map at least once in each of
the five chapters. Youll make a fair bit of progress from a storyline
perspective no matter where you go in the game, so it is nice to be able
to control the pace of how you are taking everything in. The game can be
beaten in 15-20 hours if you only focus on hotspot missions, but for
gamers who like to take their time and figure everything out the game
clocks in at a more standard length of about 35 hours.
The missions in the game range
from standard dungeon crawls to defeating all of the enemies in an area
in a certain amount of time to more lighthearted missions like wandering
around outside of a concert in a Moogle costume while the other members
of your team investigate what is going on inside. The mission variety
helps the game feel light and fun and it never feels like you are
slogging through battle after battle just so you can see the ending. You
are experiencing everything the world of Spira has to offer while still
learning all you can about the story, and that really is an entertaining
way to progress through an RPG. Many of the side missions are made up of
minigames, and not all of them are fun, but the rewards are usually
worth the annoyance of putting up with a card game or doing something
silly like handing out balloons to little kids. Also, it is sometimes a
little difficult to figure out exactly what you are supposed to be doing
in some of the side missions because you arent being pushed towards the
next big cinema sequence or battle like you are in the hotspot missions.
The good parts about the mission-based gameplay outweigh the bad,
though, and it is definitely a nice change of pace from standard RPGs.
One of my favorite parts about
Final Fantasy X was the way you could swap in new characters during
battles in order to bring in fresher fighters or swap your healer in and
out as you needed them. In FFX-2 you cant swap characters during
battle, but you can change each characters job in mid-battle so that
new attacks and abilities will be available to you. This is done through
the Dressphere and Garment Grid systems. As you play through the game
you will find items called Dresspheres that allow you to change your
characters from warriors to gunners to black or white mages and many
more forms right in the heat of battle. Each Dressphere has different
stats for attack and defense and speed so it is important to know how
and when to use each one in order to be effective in battle.
To use the Dresspheres, you
have to place them on Garment Grids. On the Garment Grids there are
spots for Dresspheres as well as fixed spheres that give you bonuses
that increase your attack or defense power and many other things in the
current battle. So, lets say that you know you are probably going to
switch from black mage to warrior at least once in an upcoming battle.
It would be wise to put the appropriate Dresspheres on the Garment Grid
in positions where you will get an attack boost when you switch from
black mage to warrior so youll be as powerful as possible. Thinking
ahead like this and being clever about where you place Dresspheres on a
new Garment Grid adds a lot of strategy to the game.
The combat in FFX-2 flows at an
insanely fast pace, and it is amazing how fast you can jump into a
battle, finish off your enemies, and be back on your way up the path.
The game uses the active-time battle system that was used in many of the
previous FF games, but it has been tweaked quite a bit. Aside from the
noticeably faster pace, there is now a combo system in place that
greatly increases the damage you can do. If you can launch your attacks
within a couple of seconds of each other, a little combo indicator will
pop up on the screen and you will get a big damage bonus. This combo
system adds a lot of extra depth to the combat and it also does a good
job of keeping you interested in the battles because you are encouraged
to use more attacks than just your most powerful ones.
Graphically, Final Fantasy X-2
isnt all that much better looking than FFX, but that isnt really a
problem since the game still looks really fantastic compared to just
about everything else on PS2. The character animation is a bit smoother
and realistic and all of the characters are intricately detailed. The 36
or so Dresspheres you can find all look awesome on the girls and it is
more fun than youd probably think to play dress up with Rikku, Yuna,
and Paine. The world of Spira looks pretty much the same it did before,
but if you can look past the fact that all of the backgrounds and
everything were reused from FFX it is still pretty easy on the eyes. As
always, Squares FMV is top notch and looks absolutely gorgeous.
The sound in FFX-2 is equally well done. All of the voice actors from
the first game have returned and do an excellent job. Hearing those same
voices again make you feel instantly comfortable with the story and
gameplay and you just want to dive into the game and have another
adventure with these characters that you already fell in love with in
the last game. The soundtrack is also well done and does an outstanding
job of maintaining the lighthearted feel of the game.
Final Fantasy X-2 doesnt follow all of the FF rules, but the end result
of this experiment is a quality game that can hold its own against the
rest of the series. If you didnt enjoy Final Fantasy X, then it isnt
likely that youll enjoy X-2.
I think
that is one of the problems Final Fantasy traditionalists have with the
concept of sequels it makes them mad that there can be new a new Final
Fantasy game on the market that they dont want to play. Well, too bad
for you. If you are a fan of FFX, X-2 offers the chance to experience a
new story with the same great characters and features new combat and
ability systems to keep everything feeling fresh. There are tons of
references to specific events in FFX and it is always a thrill to return
to a location that was once a disaster area thanks to Sin and find a
thriving city in its place. Final Fantasy X-2 is a solid game all around
and is a definite purchase for fans of FFX. If you havent played FFX,
X-2 is still a very enjoyable game, but you wont appreciate all of the
little details and fan service that this game is overflowing with. Rent
it or buy it, just make sure you give Final Fantasy X-2 a try.
Eric Qualls (12/16/2003) |