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Thread: Ranking the 16 Dresspheres

  1. #1
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    Default Ranking the 16 Dresspheres

    I've recently been in kind of a Final Fantasy X-2 fever and clocked in over 160 hours in the International version even though I already 100%-ed the game multiple times. Something I particularly like about Final Fantasy X-2 is the versatility yet viability of nearly all dresspheres. Not counting the special dresspheres - they would probably rank near the bottom because your accessories do not affect them (which is stupid).

    #16 Festivalgoer


    Now here's a dressphere I never really found a use for. It has pretty bad stats, no reliable offensive skills and no saving grace. It is useful in the very beginning of the game - at least Yuna's version is - because it can randomly cast -ga spells. As soon as you get the Black Mage dressphere, it's time to move on.

    #15 Trainer


    Here we have a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Unfortunately it's not good enough at any of its strengths to be a viable choice in most situations and even though Rikku's has its moments, those are very rare. By the time you get it, it's outclassed in every conceivable way.

    #14 Samurai


    The Samurai in and of itself isn't really useful. Sure it has okay stats and some really kick-ass abilities, but it's generally a lot more preferable to use the Bushido Lore or the corresponding Garment Grid to actually use the dressphere. Its abilities come in handy a lot when using Paine's Mascot, so really there's no need to ever use this dressphere once you have that.

    #13 Alchemist


    Yes, one of the most broken dresspheres is this far behind. Why? Because once you reach the point where defense is necessary to survive, Alchemist is useless. It really is. Its potions are easily replaced by using the Item command and while it is helpful that it can spam Mega Potions as soon as you get it, it's never really necessary at all and can be replaced by other means. It also doesn't have a lot of helpful mixes - with the exception of the absurdly overpowered Miracle Drink, but we don't talk about that.

    #12 Black Mage


    This is where things start looking up tremendously. The Black Mage is useful at pretty much any stage of the game. -ga spells wreck everything up until Chapter 4 and as soon as you get Garment Grids that give Flare or even Ultima, giving it to a Black Mage means any storyline boss is history. Couple it with a Black Tome and either Ragnarok accessory or just a Twin Stars and you've got yourself a powerhouse that can even have its uses in the Via Infinito.

    #11 Gunner


    The Gunner comes in handy in many different ways. Trigger Happy is a combo machine that can make your powerful moves even more powerful. All of its abilities are instantly used so you don't have to worry about the damn magic queue. Tableturner is surprisingly effective, especially against enemies like the Black Elemental. Finally, Scatterburst coupled with an MP-Stroll accessory is enough to get you through most of the main storyline. And no, I'm not counting the Cat Nip setup.

    #10 Gun Mage


    If you actually bother to learn some Blue Bullet skills, this dressphere can work wonders. Mighty Guard can be gotten as soon as the game starts and remains a powerful support spell for a long time. With the Fiend Hunter skills, the Gun Mage can make short work of most random encounters. In postgame, Mortar and Annihilator are two of the strongest abilities YRP can use and can deal some serious damage as they ignore the enemies' defense stats. Unfortunately its low defenses necessitate a fix which eats up both the Garment Grid slot as well as 1-2 accessory slots. But if you do invest into this class, it can be really powerful.

    #9 Warrior


    The only reason this dressphere is so high is because of Sentinel. Sentinel is a beast of an ability and if you quickly switch to Warrior when the time comes, it can save you from sticky situations. It blocks all physical attacks, including such atrocities as Megaton Press and Trema's Meteor. Unfortunately the Warrior has few useful offensive skills despite its name, but its physical defensive potential is unmatched. It's very situational but in those situations, it's a lifesaver.

    #8 Thief


    Again, like the Warrior, there's only one main reason this class is ranked this high: First Strike. The Thief always finds its way into my setup for the tough superbosses simply because of this auto-ability allowing for instant dressphere switching at the beginning of the fight.
    Admittedly, this is a poor reason for ranking the dressphere this high, so I'll continue. It attacks twice with a regular attack though both hits only have half of the normal attack power. Couple that with Auto-Haste and the International Cat Nip and you can open any battle with 19998 damage before anyone can blink. Also, the Thief is the only way to steal reliably. Very situational again, I know, but it really comes in handy in those situations.

    #7 Songstress


    Talk about an underrated gem. The Songstress kicks ass in so many ways. Its Sleepy Shuffle song renders almost all random monsters that aren't immune to sleep trivial. Its Magical Masque song is one of the most useful abilities in the game. And then there's the dances which are amazing. Matador's Song is really damn good as it allows you to dodge pretty much anything. Cantus Firmus, when successfully built up, can trivialize certain superbosses. Yes, the Songstress lacks both offense and defense, but it more than makes up for it with its abilities that turn the battle in your favor.

    #6 White Mage


    It took me a long time to realize just how damn good the White Mage can really be. Its main strength for me was the fact that with a simple +60 Magic Defense boost (either Valiant Lustre or Oath Veil work fine for this), its Magic Defense is up to 254. That is so amazingly helpful. It is vulnerable to physical attacks like no other dressphere but that can be remedied as well. Vigor happens to be one of the best healing abilities in the game. The green magic that comes with it is a nice plus. Finally, you can set the White Mage up for a Holy spam and be a real powerhouse. Believe me when I say the White Mage outperforms the Alchemist by a long shot.

    #5 Lady Luck


    The Lady Luck dressphere is really, really useful. Double EXP and Gillionaire are godsends for grinding and its always-critical hits are wonderful. But the main selling point are the reels, specifically two outcomes: All 7's on Random Reels and all BARs on Item Reels. The former causes "CONGRATS!" which is an instant bribe on all enemies and gives you a lot of gil in the process. It's a lot more efficient to use it to get all the items you ever need instead of grinding for gil and using regular bribing. And the latter - 3x BAR on Item Reels - causes Mighty Guard +. This thing is simply overpowered. It gives Wall as well as reducing all damage taken to a mere sixth. If you can set it up, almost all superbosses in this game are trivial.

    #4 Berserker


    Like so many, the Berserker is here for one reason only: Evade & Counter. I cannot tell you how insanely useful this auto-ability is. Evading all enemy physical attacks is almost game-breaking. It also has Auto-Regen which is a lot better than it might sound and it's the fastest dressphere in the game. The one, major downside of this dressphere, though, is its non-existant Magic Defense (and also Defense, but that is rarely an issue). It's so low that it almost can't be remedied with Garment Grids and Accessories. Bring the Berserker into a lot of situations and your fight is instantly won. Elder Drake, for instance.

    #3 Dark Knight


    Who is surprised by this? No one. The Dark Knight has the highest physical defenses in the game which already breaks the main storyline by itself. But it also has Darkness, an ability that is ridiculously powerful. It ignores defense and hits all enemies for a lot of damage. It costs HP, but in FFX-2, this is a non-issue most of the time. It also has passive status guards which can save you at times. Its active abilities are largely useless, unfortunately. Its high HP somewhat remedy its lacking Magic Defense stat. The Dark Knight carries you through almost the entire game and the optional content by itself. Until it is eventually outclassed, but we'll get to that.

    #2 Psychic


    You don't even need practical experience to know this dressphere is awesome. Let's start from the bottom shall we? It can be obtained from 30 minutes into the game to whenever you want. It can learn all elemental Eater auto-abilities except for Holy Eater. It can Teleport itself behind enemies for double damage. It has an attack that hits all enemies and ignores defense. It can freeze time for 10 seconds, often allowing for two command inputs. It has a very good Magic Defense stat. It can greatly increase its evasion stat. It can make itself completely impervious to either or both physical and magical attacks for a short period of time. And finally, it can eject enemies from battle with a hit chance that is way too high - no seriously, it's almost like Quistis' Degenerator. Do I even have to say anything else? No, I don't think I do.

    #1 Mascot


    The most predictable placement ever, I know. But it really is the best. It simply outclasses every other dressphere in this game. Not only does it have the highest HP coupled with innate Auto-Wall and Ribbon, it can also use abilities from other dresspheres and it has access to what are by far the best abilities in the game. Yuna's Mascot is hands down the best healing class in Final Fantasy, period. Rikku's Mascot is situational, but still really powerful and if PuPu Platter wasn't glitched, it would be downright unfairly good. Paine's Mascot is easily the strongest dressphere in the game thanks to two things: Cactling Gun and its access to the Samurai's skillset. The former ignores defense and does an insane amount of damage. The latter includes the useful spells Fireworks, Nonpareil and Hayate. There is nothing that can even begin to compare to the Mascot in ANY way. It is the best healing class, the best defensive class, the best offensive class and mostly the best supporting class. If it had a way to give stat-ups, the latter wouldn't be "mostly" anymore and would remove all reason to use anything but the Mascot. Still, even though it lacks all those abilities like Vigor, First Strike, Evade & Counter, Sentinel, Item/Random Reels and Darkness, it still reigns supreme as the undeniable king of dresspheres and the only one fit against every challenge FFX-2 has to offer.

    That's it, hope you enjoyed it. Do you agree or disagree? Thoughts/comments/feedback?

  2. #2
    Pinkasaurus Rex Pumpkin's Avatar
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    Interesting thoughts on your list. Do you max out all of the dresspheres for all of the characters, or assign different ones for different characters? I go with the second one.

    Here's my ranking. Never played with the festival goes and the psychic so they aren't on the list.

    #14 - Mascot. I just don't like it.
    #13 - Songstress. I really don't like it. I should, but I don't. The only dance I've ever cared about is the one that hastes my party. Then again, as much as I like status buffs in theory, I hardly ever actually care to use them.
    #12 - Lady Luck. I don't have the skill or luck to use this dressphere effectively.
    #11 - Alchemist. Unlimited items is cool and all, but I've always hated using items in a fight for some reason. In any Final Fantasy game.
    #10 - Samurai. For me this doesn't accomplish anything that other dresspheres do better and that I prefer using.
    #9 - Gun Mage. I like the dresses, but other than in FFIX, I'm awful at learning Black Magic. I wish I was more successful at it.
    #8 - Trainer. I like how they're jack of all trades. I have fun using the Trainer.
    #7 - Warrior. Useful early on, but I've never been much for physical attackers.
    #6 - Gunner. Pretty good and fun to use.
    #5 - Berserker. Fast and strong.
    #4 - Thief. Quick and fun to use. Steal is useful.
    #3 - White Mage. Healing without needing to use items always makes me happy.
    #2 - Dark Knight. Strong and has a lot of spells I like.
    #1 - Black Mage. Just because I <3 Black Mages.

  3. #3
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    I assign different ones to each character. And though I always only max out one at a time, the more I think about it, the more sense it'd make to assign a Garment Grid full of unmaxed dresspheres to each girl and have them be flexible in which of them they wear, essentially maxing out all the dresspheres at the same time.

    I find it somewhat amusing that you put Mascot at the bottom of your list.

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