In Defense of X-2

[Laddy]

X-2 is not a bad game.

There, I said it.

Is it brainless? Mostly. Does it have a reason for existing? Not really. Did people want it? Definitely not.

But you know what? I don't care. It has a dumb story and stupid moments aplenty. But it's so lacking in pretense, so self-aware, and so shameless that I can't help but respect it.

Its battle system is fast and enjoyable, its job system is an excellent advancement to the concept, its non-linear structure gives you a variety of missions, sidequests, and minigames you can't help but find something to keep you entertained, and I appreciate that in a series that, quite frankly, was needing to take a step in that direction.

It's a dumb game, yes. But it's also the game the series needed. There was some legitimately great ideas in this game and it's a shame that people dismissed it.

[Yar]

My favorite of the PS2 era, but definitely a sign that Final Fantasy was beginning its decline in quality.

[qwertysaur]

The battle system is the best of all FF games. Q.E.D.

[maybee]

It has Baralai and Gippal so it gets automatic cool points

It's about 7th on my Top 10 FF's list.

[Aulayna]

I liked X-2 a lot and loved the girlie comradarie but I'm a sucker for that stuff. Though I will say the Battle System was terrible. I literally got through that entire game by just hammering X to Attack and not bothering with Dress Spheres at all. Maybe occasionally stopping to use a Potion.

Now don't get me wrong I loved the Dress Sphere system but at no point did it really feel like you had to use it smartly to overcome situations compared to say the Paradigm Shift system. Whereas in other FF games sure you could probably do alright hammering X to Attack but you'd also probably get your fair share of Game Over screens or narrow victories. X-2 I never once felt in danger of Game Over by doing it.

[Shauna]

I thought it was pretty fun to play, which in the long run, is all a game really needs to be for it to be considered good in my eyes.

[Formalhaut]

For me, X-2 is a lesson in pretty good gameplay, but rather shoddy storytelling. I liked it, though I do agree with Aulayna. The game was so easy to begin with, that any tactics to be used with the Dressphere system sort of melted away. Seriously, all you really needed was:

Dark Knight using Darkness
Dark Knight using Darkness
White Mage / Alchemist healing everyone

That would get you through virtually every main game battle, leaving more niche dresspheres such as the Trainer or Songstress gathering dust. The Warrior dressphere, while invaluable in the early game, is abandoned after Dark Knight is obtained at the end of Chapter II.

Besides from that, the Dressphere system was quite good, and brought back some jobs from other earlier games.

The sidequests were generally amusing sometimes and the minigames were cool (Leblanc's massage) though they did cripple Blitzball. While the game is pretty much easy, the Via Infinito did raise the difficulty triple fold. Chac, Concherer, Paragon, and Trema being utterly devastating bosses, not to mention the normal enemies at that time were tough as well.

The storyline itself though, was... decent. It's not terrible, but it's just loosely binded together.

Chapter One: Going round sphere hunting.
Chapter Two: Infiltrate Leblanc's chateau!
Chapter Three: Save the temples.
Chapter Four: Concert making.
Chapter Five: Defeat Vegnagun.

Chapter four being a great bore, going round with those commspheres.

[Mirage]

I clocked like three times as many hours in X-2 than I did in X.

It is a good game.

[Karifean]

Yeah, I think I clocked 300 hours of game time before getting the perfect ending for the first time. The one thing that still really stands out to me is the Via Infinito which is so awesomely hard it's amazing. Plus when I got the International Version, I had a good reason to play it some more. Now I'm just waiting for the English Patch

[Formalhaut]

Yeah, I think I clocked 300 hours of game time before getting the perfect ending for the first time. The one thing that still really stands out to me is the Via Infinito which is so awesomely hard it's amazing. Plus when I got the International Version, I had a good reason to play it some more. Now I'm just waiting for the English Patch

The thing with the Via Infinito is that the rest of the game is so so easy, that when you do enter the Via Infinito, it's a "whoa!" moment, at least for me. The first 50 floors are rather managable, but once you start encountering packs of Lacerta or Mushroom Clouds... oohhh...

If only they distributed the difficulty more evenly.

[Cloudane]

I actually really enjoyed it. It was a fun and relatively lighthearted game which was nice (as a one off) as a break from the usual FF heaviness. I loved the dress sphere system and the addiction of levelling them all up across a few new game+ replays.

The girliness didn't faze me at all
<-- pony
and I actually sort of enjoyed the girl power thing

Sure it has its flaws. Once you get Dark Knight (though it's not obvious as I didn't even pick it up first time) it breaks the game, the things you have to sit through to get 100% are quite dull and tedious e.g, the sphere CCTV thing, etc. But don't they all.

Also, though I didn't achieve it until the second play, I think it's nice to get Tidus back for Yuna. They're too adorable. And the ending to X was too sad that way. Yeah it's not exactly a realistic thing as you can't bring back the departed in the real world. But I guess it's much the same as wanting Aeris back - it's a fantasy darnit, sometimes you want a happy ending!

Oh and yeah, Via Infinitio .. Damn. An exercise in tedium, but amazingly satisfying. I think I went in there at level 50ish and got my backside kicked all the time, and emerged at level 99. Talk about being "toughened up", awesome.

[Jinx]

FFX-2 is insanely fun. Does it have a stupid story? Oh, hell yes. But that doesn't take away its entertainment value.

[Madame Adequate]

FFX-2 is awesome and anyone who says otherwise is just taking everything too seriously and refuses to admit they enjoyed something frivolous.

[Nebulance]

It's a dumb game, yes. But it's also the game the series needed. There was some legitimately great ideas in this game and it's a shame that people dismissed it.

I don't know if it's the game the series needed -- if only because the story was rather dumb. I agree on your points about gameplay, however. What they should have done was a prequel -- and I recall some interview way-back-when with some of the developers where that was the original plan. They scapped it, because they thought this story based on the three girls would be 'fresher'. It may be more fresh, but that doesn't mean it's a good choice.

I don't play it anymore because, despite it somewhat tying up the story with Yuna and Tidus (however convoluted it was), I just can't get into the general story where Yuna's personality has completely changed.

[Elly]

i don't see it as her personality completely changed... rather, i see it as Yuna shaking off the repression she was born into and enjoying her newfound sense of freedom and self discovery... she's no longer marching to her own death with every passing moment of her life, she has a right to finally be happy...