I heard that Square went out and asked people what a fantasy story would mean to them... they got the whole medieval europe thing..
And as for FFX-2 that was probably released because FFX was so popular and sold so well they made FFX-2 because they thought everone who played X would want to play X-2... i think they just did it to get the same kin d of money they made from X... I'm probably babbling a bit here...sorry...