Psyched for the Remaster, Rundown of International additions!

[Karifean]

I love FFX and I think it's a great game. The same applies to FFX-2. I've been holding off on replaying FFX for a while now cause I want to play it when the remaster comes out and I fear it'll ruin the experience. I also look forward to playing FFX-2 again even though I'm playing it right now. The game easily has the most replay value out of the entire series for me.

What makes me so hyped? Well, mainly the International additions! Those are pure awesome. And I'm saying that even though I own the Int Versions of both games.

Let's start with FFX. Expert Sphere Grid. Anyone who complains that the Sphere Grid is linear and allows for little customizing has to try this. Everyone starts out in the center and while it does involve a little detour, you can easily break into other characters' grids and level characters in completely different ways than you're used to.

Then there's the Dark Aeons, those notorious superbosses. Whether it's Dark Yojimbo using Wakizashi on his first turn and wiping out the party or Dark Anima turning all your characters to Stone or Dark Magus Sisters instantly wiping you out with Delta Attack as soon as the battle starts, all these guys have left quite an impression on players like me. Being able to beat them requires a lot of farming, but it does feel pretty awesome to finally take them down.

If you live in Europe or happen to own a copy of the International version, consider yourself lucky, you got it all. Still won't stop you from experiencing this amazing game over again, will it?

FFX-2 is a whole different story. Can you even call X-2 and X-2 Int different releases of the same game? I can safely say that I've never had more fun playing a game than with X-2 Int. Most Final Fantasy games excel in their storyline for me. X-2, I play for the fun factor.

The two new dress spheres. While I don't particularly care for Festivalgoer, Yuna's version is really powerful when you start the game. -ga spells before going to Mt. Gagazet? Damn. The Psychic on the other hand is my favorite dress sphere in the game. Remember Quick from earlier FF games? Psychic has it - you can freeze time for 10 real-time seconds. It can also eject enemies which is far better than it should be, teleport behind enemies for double damage, use an AoE attack that ignores defense and make themselves invulnerable.

But those two spheres are nothing, NOTHING in comparison to Creature Create. I don't know how they'll call the feature in the localization but it'll be awesome no matter what. CC involves two main features: Fiend Catching and the Coliseum. Fiend Catching is a simple process and can make your party even more ridiculously overpowered than it already is. Just remember to put one from YRP into your party, otherwise it might get a bit boring. Every monster has its own little storyline and a unique ending scene which usually resolves some of their backstory, what their life was before they became a fiend etc.

You can also get some familiar faces into your party if you invest time into it. In a New Game Plus, you can get Lulu and Kimahri into your party without any trouble.

FullBreakAuron.png
Auron using Full Break on an enemy.

Coliseum is simply amazing. You compete in tournaments against unique enemy formations to win a grand prize. While it may be tempting to start off with this right away, you'll soon come to realize how weak you still are when you're put up against monsters that deal 50% of your max HP with normal attacks. It's always fun to take some time after doing some sidequests to simply fight in the Coliseum for a while. It also completely removes missable and unique items. Remember Key to Success? Yeah, you can get an infinite amount of them through the Coliseum. Whether that's a good or a bad thing I don't know.
And of course, I have to mention this guy:

FFX2ShinraOmega.jpg
I won't even get started on the Major...

Single-handedly making it to #1 of my favorite superboss list with his signature attack. Isn't it great when you enjoy watching your own party get wiped out?

So yeah, I have already played these versions. Does that make me any less psyched? No. FFX-2 International was mainly Japanese though thanks to a translation patch it was very much playable (thanks to pbirdman). Not being able to read Japanese can be pretty frustrating - so a localization is very much welcome! FFX is a game I always like to replay as well, it only gets better with every subsequent playthrough. I really enjoyed playing through both games multiple times. Plus, I like trophies. And even if the game had none, I wouldn't mind doing everything over again, from the main plot to the superbosses.

Just felt like sharing my passion for this upcoming rerelease. Thoughts, criticism, psychedness?

[Roogle]

Will the Creature Create system be in the remastered version of Final Fantasy X-2? Aren't there new segments for that part of the game? This part might not be coming over if it would require additional voice work from the original cast. I believe the Festivalgoer and the Psychic job classes had English quotes as they were a part of the original International version of the game, but I doubt that anything that was extra, like the Last Mission segment, will be coming over.

[Jinx]

Didn't the UK and Australia get the International version, though?

[Karifean]

Europe got the International Version Additions of X, but not of X-2. X-2 International is still only available in Japanese.

And no, I don't think additional voice work is required for Creature Create. They didn't even go to the trouble of making them for the International release, it's all just incomprehensible monster sound effects. Besides, it's a part of the game. You access it by talking to Shinra on the airship, not by a separate menu. The one thing that would require new voiceovers is Last Mission and that's technically a separate game.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah anyone who didn't get the Advanced SG - that's the best reason to get this.

It's a nice consolation prize if you own a PS3.

[Pike]

I'm still mad about this not being on 360

[Hambone]

The U.S. is in serious need of the International features of X and X-2, especially the dark aeons/Penance in X and the coliseum in X-2. I just got my sixth and last Iron Duke in X-2 today and I don't even have Major Numerus to try them all out on. Then there's X: I've gotten to the point where I can beat Nemesis on my own without even having to use the aeons to take Nemesis's hits. I love these games but without the added International features they're just too easy.

[Karifean]

I just got my sixth and last Iron Duke in X-2 today and I don't even have Major Numerus to try them all out on.

You actually went through the Via Infinito six times?
And I thought it was bad when I spent an hour or two getting six Iron Dukes in X-2 Int...

It's still near impossible to beat Numerus using YRP even with 6 Iron Dukes.

[Hambone]

I just got my sixth and last Iron Duke in X-2 today and I don't even have Major Numerus to try them all out on.

You actually went through the Via Infinito six times?
And I thought it was bad when I spent an hour or two getting six Iron Dukes in X-2 Int...

It's still near impossible to beat Numerus using YRP even with 6 Iron Dukes.

Yeah, I can't exactly say I'm proud of it, but I got two for each girl for completion's sake. Needless to say I will not be doing another play through for a very long time.

And is it really still hard even with 6 Iron Dukes? I figured I'd just spam Finale over and over (actually getting The End garment grid from oversouling every fiend in the game was far more tedious than playing the game six times for the Iron Dukes). Either way, this just makes me want to play the International version and challenge Major Numerus even more.

[Karifean]

I just got my sixth and last Iron Duke in X-2 today and I don't even have Major Numerus to try them all out on.

You actually went through the Via Infinito six times?
And I thought it was bad when I spent an hour or two getting six Iron Dukes in X-2 Int...

It's still near impossible to beat Numerus using YRP even with 6 Iron Dukes.

Yeah, I can't exactly say I'm proud of it, but I got two for each girl for completion's sake. Needless to say I will not be doing another play through for a very long time.

And is it really still hard even with 6 Iron Dukes? I figured I'd just spam Finale over and over (actually getting The End garment grid from oversouling every fiend in the game was far more tedious than playing the game six times for the Iron Dukes). Either way, this just makes me want to play the International version and challenge Major Numerus even more.

I actually never really considered using Finale against Numerus. But if you were to just spam it, you'd probably go down because he hits so damn hard. The only foolproof way to kill Numerus using YRP is to use invincibility, but then it gets so ridiculously easy it's not even fun.

Let me put it this way. On his first turn, one of Numerus' heads uses an attack that works pretty much like Megaton Press - 30k damage to one character, just like that. As if that wasn't bad enough, on his second turn, he uses an attack that deals around 20k damage to the entire party. It is survivable, but you basically need to focus on healing with two party members permanently while leaving all attacking up to the third.

If X-2 didn't have those incredibly broken gameplay features, it'd probably be notorious for the difficulty of its optional content.

[DMKA]

The International additions for FFX we'll probably get because Europe got them, so everything is already in English.

According to Famitsu, however, it's still undecided whether we'll get FFX-2's International content, since Europe didn't get that either.

There really hasn't been any confirmation from SE on any of it though so I guess all we can do is cross our fingers.

[Karifean]

The International additions for FFX we'll probably get because Europe got them, so everything is already in English.

According to Famitsu, however, it's still undecided whether we'll get FFX-2's International content, since Europe didn't get that either.

There really hasn't been any confirmation from SE on any of it though so I guess all we can do is cross our fingers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, only Last Mission is undecided since it is technically its own separate game (the disk name was "Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission") and is still only in Japanese, so they'd have to record new voiceovers in English. Benjamin Bateman already confirmed the addition of the International features back in March.

[Jinx]

This is just me, but if I'm not getting ALL of the content I didn't get before, I really have no desire to buy the game again.

[Pike]

I'd do it.

But then again I'm that person who owns like four copies of Sonic 2, two each of Morrowind and Deus Ex, three of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and so forth.

[DMKA]

Yeah, I really, really hope that all the International content is included, but even if it isn't, even if these were the exact games we already got, I'm still excited to get them in beautiful HD.