Final Fantasy X (PS2)

...new collection. The eagerly awaited Final Fantasy X-2 (FFX-2) is here, and RPG fans, young boys who like Japanese women in bikinis, and anyone who loves a good romp on the PS2 should rejoice.

I’ve decided in this review to answer the questions I usually have about games before buying them, and some of the questions I get asked a lot by people who don’t really like RPGs or don’t understand the thrill of Final Fantasy (FF).

...TO HAVE PLAYED THE OTHER FINAL FANTASY GAMES TO PLAY THIS ONE?

No, not at all. It might help to play Final Fantasy X (FFX), as this is a sequel to that game, but each FF is usually a self-contained story with brand new characters. FFX-2 could be played with no knowledge of FFX, but you might not know what the fig Yuna is talking about half the time without prior knowledge.

Having said all that, there are usually recurring ... more

Well, spring is coming, and in the tradition of all the best designers, Square have decided now is the perfect time to unveil its new collection. The eagerly awaited Final Fantasy X-2 (FFX-2) is here, and RPG fans, young boys who like Japanese women in bikinis, and anyone who loves a good romp on the PS2 should rejoice.

I’ve decided in this review to answer the questions I usually have about games before buying them, and some of the questions I get asked a lot by people who don’t really like RPGs or don’t understand the thrill of Final Fantasy (FF).

SO IF THIS IS A SEQUEL, DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE PLAYED THE OTHER FINAL FANTASY GAMES TO PLAY THIS ONE?

No, not at all. It might help to play Final Fantasy X (FFX), as this is a sequel to that game, but each FF is usually a self-contained story with brand new characters. FFX-2 could be played with no knowledge of FFX, but you might not know what the fig Yuna is talking about half the time without prior knowledge.

Having said all that, there are usually recurring themes, such as big yellow birds called Chocobos roaming around, there’s usually a character called Cid, some of the enemies appear in all the games, and so on. These recurring themes aren’t important to your enjoyment of just one of the games though.

OK, SO WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

It’s two years after Yuna defeated Sin, and she’s travelling around Spira (the planet where the action is based) with a group of people called the Gullwings. They are sphere hunters, and are mainly made up of members of the Al Bhed, who we met in FFX. Rikku (and her bikini) is still tagging along for the ride, as well as a brand new character called Paine, who looks like a moody goth teenager. Yuna decided to join the hunt for spheres after finding a sphere showing footage of someone looking a lot like Tidus (the main character from FFX who helped Yuna defeat Sin) trapped in a cage. She’s looking for more information on his whereabouts, but it’s going to be pretty difficult because the LeBlanc syndicate, another group of sphere hunters, keep taking all the spheres and generally getting in the way.

WHAT ARE THESE SPHERES THEN?

Spheres are the main items in the game. They can contain movie footage, sort of like high-tech camcorder footage, or they can be dress-spheres, which when used by the characters gives them different outfits, and different abilities. We’ll talk more about dress-spheres in a minute.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK AND SOUND LIKE?

The graphics are astonishing, they really have to be seen to be believed. When characters are moving around, they look as good as characters in other games look in the cutscenes, whilst the cutscenes in FFX-2 are photo realistic. The soundtrack isn’t quite as evocative as FFX in my opinion, but at least the characters still have voices, which makes it more realistic, particularly when you turn off the subtitles.

HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY PLAY THE DARN THING?

The gameplay in Field mode is actually quite basic. You move around using the left analogue joystick, and the X is the action button. So you might run over to someone you want to talk to and press X, and it’s not much more complicated than that. The real challenge is usually working out what you’ve got to do, where you’ve got to go, or why you can’t do anything with that thing yet. Yuna can indeed now jump as well by pressing the circle button, but to be honest, it isn’t too much of a challenge getting her to jump instead of fall as if you forget to press the circle button, she just stumbles a bit, she’ll never fall off. You can never die by running around in the field, only in battle.

It’s in Battle mode when you might forget which button you need to press and when, but if you set the battle mode to ‘wait’ instead of ‘active’ you get a lot more thinking time. There are also useful boxes with ‘help’ in them which you can turn on or off. Anyone familiar with the FF series won’t find this difficult, but if you’re new to it, then it might take a little while to get used to.

To make it through the game to the end, you have to complete the five chapters by travelling round Spira and triggering missions. The missions are spaced around each area of Spira, and some are more integral to finishing it, whilst some are just ‘sidequests’. There is some scope for exploring, but if you go and do a mission, and “accidentally” finish the chapter before clearing all the other areas, there’s no going back. I find this a bit linear compared to the rest of the series, but no doubt I’ll have a bit more of a moan about that when we get to the “problems” area.

SO WHAT SORT OF MISSIONS ARE THERE?

The main missions seem to be ‘make it through this area, and then kill the boss at the end’. The problem to solve might be how you actually physically make your way through an area, for example, there might be walls blocking your way, or a locked door to open, or it could be that to make your way through an area you simply have to survive all the fights.

There are other very strange missions such as stealing LeBlanc uniforms, sneaking into her palace, and giving her a really good….massage. There’s also a section (which is optional) where you have to sell a certain number of tickets to a concert put on by the irritating blue Shoopuff rider (anyone who played FFX will remember him).

There are also the usual sidegames, such as a card game (similar to the coin game in FF9) and a chance to play Blitzball again, although it is in a slightly different form (which I personally found a bit easier to understand and play).

HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY FIGHT ENEMIES?

The biggest change in FFX-2 is the new battle system; instead of different sorts of characters with different fighting methods (like warriors, mages, weird orange tiger things), you play with the same three characters wearing different outfits, such as the ‘warrior’ or ‘black mage’, which give the character different stats and fighting methods. This is a bit complicated to get the hang of to start with, but like all the battle systems in previous FF games you get used to it after a couple of hours (if you’ve played FF8 and found the junctioning system pretty strange to start with, then you’ll understand what I mean).

Once you get a dress-sphere, you place it into a garment grid, which each character must be equipped with. You can all use the same one, or you can choose different ones. There are about 40 to find in all. The dress-spheres can be found or won all over Spira, although you start with 3, Gunner, Warrior and Thief. Each dress-sphere changes the character’s stats and abilities; for example, a warrior has higher strength than a mage, but their magic stat is lower, and a warrior has the ‘attack’ ability, while the mage has the ‘magic’ ability.

Once you opt to change your character into a certain dress-sphere by pressing L1 and choosing it from your garment grid, you get a beautiful full motion video (FMV) of the character changing clothes. You can turn these off in the options menu, or choose to have the shortened version.

The more you fight in a certain outfit, the more ability points (AP) that dress-sphere gets. AP makes your character learn abilities (very similar to the stat building in FF9). You can choose which ability you want to learn next, and eventually each dress-sphere becomes mastered by the wearer. Fighting enemies also helps you level up and increase your stats by gaining experience points (EXP).

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY LEVELLING UP AND MAXING STATS?

If you’re not aware of these terms, it probably means you’ve never played an RPG before. It basically means that the more EXP you eanr, the higher level your character is, and the better their vital statistics are. Stats measure your character’s strength, agility, and so on, and therefore how likely they are to win a fight.

HANG ON A MINUTE, DON’T I GET TO BUY BIG WEAPONS THEN?

I’m afraid not. The weapon comes with the dress-sphere. The warrior has a big sword, the thief has two hand knives, the mage has a staff, and so on. There are 17 dress-spheres in all, as well as three character specific special dress-spheres, so it’s not too boring.

IT SOUNDS REALLY DIFFICULT – IS IT ALL WORTH IT?

That depends on whether you like RPGs or not. The FF series is the benchmark for RPGs on consoles; even though there are many more brought out each year than just the ones by Square, they are usually reviewed in reference to FF. If you liked the other FF games, then you’ll know what to expect. There’s nothing overly new here if you’ve played one of them, or even any other RPG, before.

AREN’T RPGs JUST FOR GEEKY TEENAGERS AND PEOPLE WITH NO SOCIAL LIFE?

Okay, this might sound like a stereotype, but I’m sure it’s a view that a lot of people hold. There seems to be some expectation of shame when you admit you’re a 28 year old woman into playing these games.

Some people just don’t find RPGs satisfying, because there’s more thought involved to the fighting than just your average ‘run around and point and shoot’ game. My brother-in-law hates my FF games, because he says it’s not realistic enough because when you’re running around, you don’t see any enemies, but then the game screen pauses and you go into a battle.

If you like a game which takes over your life for a few weeks and you’ve never tried an RPG, then it might be worth giving it a try

HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO TAKE ME, AND IS THERE ANY INCENTIVE TO PLAY IT AGAIN ONCE I FINISH IT?

I haven’t quite finished it myself yet after 38 hours, and I already know I’m going to have to play it again for 3 reasons.
1. There’s a point in the game where you have to make a decision between two things, so next time I play, I’ll have to choose the other way to see the difference it would have made.
2. I foolishly went onto chapter two without properly finishing chapter one, and so I can’t possibly get 100% completion.
3. If you get 100% completion, you get a different ending.

YOU SEEM TO LIKE THIS GAME, IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT?

Like I said earlier, the only thing wrong with it is the fact it’s a bit more linear all the way through than the other FF games. For example, whilst some people believe FFX to be linear because you have to take each area in turn, at least when you got near the end and got yourself an airship you could revisit areas and finish off sidequests. In FFX-2, even though you have an airship from the beginning, you cannot go back and finish sidequests you forgot to complete earlier on.

SHOULD I BUY IT THEN?

It’s quite hard to answer that. If you like FF, than you probably either already have it, or you want it. If you don’t like RPGs, then you probably have no interest. I suppose if I was targeting this OP at anyone, it would be at those people who might have played one bad RPG and sworn off them for good – I’d say to them, give it another go, as this one is truly a landmark in console game history.

WHY DO THEY ALL WEAR SKIMPY BIKINIS?

Probably for pre-pubescent males to get their kicks from I’d imagine.

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COST - £29.99 from PC World

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THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY REVIEW. IT’D BE GREAT IF YOU COULD RATE IT AND PERHAPS COMMENT ON IT FOR ME TOO!!
 

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