Afterthoughts on X-2

[Breine]

I had fun playing the game. It wasn't excellent or as good as many other FFs, IMHO, but it had its enjoyable parts, such as exploring the world of Spira, the characters and the battle system with the return of the Job System and the fast-paced ATB battles.

My words exactly. I appreciated it for what it was and really enjoyed it.

[Little Blue]

I enjoyed the game and the story immensely, especially the ronso / guado arc. It was relatively easy to complete, much quicker than any other FF I've played which makes it a very good game for me to play when I'm bored since missions usually only take about 10 minutes to half hour to complete which fitted in beautifully with other stuff I was doing. But then I realised it was supposed to be continuing FFX, which then made me sad...

[Kalinda]

Wow.. I'm surprised there isn't a lot of "It totally sucked!" bashing here...

X-2 is my guilty FF pleasure... really, it's far from perfect.. but I love it anyway and look past its faults.

Critcally, I'd probly give it a 7.5/10; it had a great story but they didn't put enough effort into it to remove some of the gaping plot holes/unanswered questions... Actually, the whole thing really lacks in effort... except for the battle system and voice acting and whatnot... but the game itself.... yeah... I wish they'd devoted some more of the optional missions to expanding the story instead of to stuff that didn't matter much.

Really, it's true that they were trying to cash in on X's success.. but I'm glad they did it because it opened the door for things like Kingdom Hearts 2, which they might not have done otherwise. And that was a GREAT game And while in XII they are scantily clad, I believe that stronger female characters is a direct result of X-2. I note that XIII's heroine isn't wearing skimpy clothing, either.

The only problem with it is that it also encourages them to make sequels without much effort... like, I haven't played any of them.. but from what I've heard, an awful lot of the FF7 games are pretty crappy... and I don't think Advent Children was anywhere near as good as it could've been... Sequels are fine, so long as they are good games. I can excuse X-2 because it was their first try and was an experiment... but I still want them to make good games, games as good as regular numbered FFs.

[silentenigma]

A couple of years ago I played and completed Final Fantasy X.

Then I played and completed Final Fantasy X-2 (99%) some 9 months later. I never thought it was all that good anyway, and the only "fun" parts were the battles, if you can call that fun.

Now about a month ago I decided to replay Final Fantasy X just for fun, because the way the story goes with the foreshadowing, it's a good game to play over. The thought that FFX-2 took a lot away from FFX was always in the back of my mind. But when I reached the part in the game where Tidus says "listen to my story, this may be our last chance" (just like in the introduction) and I thought about FFX-2 where there were a bunch of tourists standing there, I thought to myself, "Boy, did FFX-2 ruin the atmosphere of FFX and everything the game accomplished."

also, in order to maintain the overall theme of FFX, Tidus should have stayed dead, which makes FFX-2 a pointless game to make in the first place.

[daiyu]

Yeah I'm also impressed by how balanced this discussion is.

Looking back I suppose I was mainly impressed by the work they did with Yuna's character -- right up to the final cutscene sequence before her fight with Vegnagun (with the interjections from Auron, Braska, etc) , which I found to be a more moving "ending" than either the normal or special FMVs.

As Kalinda notes too many of the side missions had absolutely nothing to do with the plot: this largely negated the advantages of having a non-linear game structure, and I ended up actually missing FFX's linearity. This was a particular problem in Chapter V, when I had a hard time stringing together the missions together in a way that led thematically into the endgame (the Zanarkand, ViaInfinito, Luca, Gagazet, and Besaid missions cohere pretty nicely, the others are simply random battle missions or just pointless, best I can tell). I wonder whether anyone has come up with a preferred order for completing the Chapter V missions...

[Rinion]

I was not challenging enough. I like game that are very challenging. Gives you more to strive for. Games that require thinking and pondering. This game left much to be desired.

Don't get me wrong, overall it was a great game. But I just didn't find it as interesting as X , or for that matter most of the Final Fantasy series. But it had it's moments. Good game, not a waste of money, but still would be easy to improve.

[Old Manus]

FFX-2 was awful. Refer to THE TRUTH thread to find out why.

[Christmas]

FFX-2 was awful. Refer to THE TRUTH thread to find out why.

This lice is only upset cause there aren't enough scenes of Brother to satisfy his lust.

[FallenAngel411]

I'm afraid the mew really didn't like this game at all. We got bored halfway through and kept playing just to find Tidus, and when we did, we hated Square for actually bringing him back. Tidus should have stayed dead for the sake of emotional impact! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DAYS WHEN THEY VALUED STORY OVER MONEY?? 3:<

[samantha]

the only thing i dont like is how its sety up my people bary did any thing the first time i played and i powened the last boss its kinda bad when the desert boss is harder than the one to beat the game.... i like ffx's set up better....

[Melodies_of_life]

I, personally, loved the game. To me more of the story lies within the game itself other than in only the missions.
The main thing that I liked about it is that you had a lot of freedom in it unlike X, I am not saying that X isn't good, because it is good.
I really love the way X-2 ended because the way X ended was kind of depressing, it was to me anyway.

And another thing, did you know that it is possible to get 100 percent complete on the first play through.

[Tabris]

Great post, CVFreak. I have to admit, I didn't really learn the appreciate and enjoy the game until I reached chapter five. It wasn't really until then I saw the brillance of the battle system, how flexible it was when you had the grids, the DS' and the accessories - with those, you could make almost anything.

X is my favourite game, and Spira is my favourite game world. Therefore, I always loved X-2 simply for the fact that I was able to explore Spira further. However, some of the dialogue and girliness still makes me cringe. (And as a woman, I am offended if SE thinks this is what "we" like).

Plotwise, I have to admit that I'm not too impressed. I loved the New Yevon/Youth League fractions, and the dynamics between them. (But I found it rather silly that a J-pop concert was all it took to make them forget their differences). But I didn't much care for the Shuyin/Lenne-plot, it felt too random and far out. Personally, I would've preferred if they delved deeper into the canon background mentioned in X: history of Yevon, machina war, Mi'ihen etc etc.

Ok, so I know Vegnagun was a part of the machina war history, but it was sort of a completely new thing being introduced.

[Changsta]

Iunno... I found it to be painfully easy...
The only difficult part was killing the aeons...
But i loved X's storyline... the ending made me cry lol
so yah I had to play it
It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as X
well... in my eyes anyways.
It's interesting to look back and notice how Square was deviating from the normal battle system, making way for XII
though it'd be nice to have a new FF with the oldschool battle system...

X2 was a good idea but it just didn't really feel like an actual FF...
Kinda like Dirge of Cerberus and VII.

[Materia Hunter Yuffie]

It was fun for what it was... a sequel... I don't expect much from them anymore. Once I got into the game I had fun playing it. The piano thing ticked me off though. I think it was more for the girl fans who wanted Yuna to get Tidus back. (which i'm guilty....) But I wish they would have had a different approach to it. Yuna couldn't possibly change that much in two years, come on now. She was my favorite character and I loved her Kimono-like outift in X.

[Nasarian Altimeros]

FFX-2 succeeds in what it was trying to achieve more than any other FF game in the series. It's basically the Majora's Mask of Final Fantasy (ie awesome).