Final Fantasy X (PS2) > Reviews (151)

Released in 2004, Final Fantasy X - 2 made FF history as being the first ever sequel in its long running episodes. Yet not surprisingly it is the first Final Fantasy to recieve mixed reviews from official press. Money wise you'll find this game for around tenner in most gaming shops and even cheaper online.

Story -

As every Final Fantasy fan knows, FF X finished by Tidus disappearing with the Fayths dreams. Yuna and her guardians had defeated Sin and Tidus' story was over.

This time round it is Yuna's story and her life as a summoner is now over, yet her reputation has somewhat not dissolved. Joining a gang of Sphere Hunters, Yuna now travels all over Spira in search of both Invaluable and profitable spheres accompanied by Rikku and newcomer to the FF Series Paine.

After a while in true FF style, the story becomes much more complicated and other side stories become intertwined. It all starts when Yuna finds a sphere which shows a man resembling 'him'. Believing he is still alive, Yuna and her gang search Spira for more spheres that could ultimately bring 'him' back to her.

As stories go, FF X 2 is at times both memorable and uneventful. Its a nice idea and concept of searching for Tidus and seeing Yuna's longing for him, however you seem to get tired quickly as the story takes so long to evolve and many side stories appear often. For instance Paine is a quiet yet powerful character almost resembling Lulu, yet her story seems to unwind itself as you play along also.

Different names pop up every now and again to remind you of the essence of FF X, yet each character just seems to be placed in at random intervals leaving them insignificant in the whole plot.

I'm not going to ruin the ending (or should i say one of many) but i was hugely disapointed by this. To me it seems rather rushed and just 'invented' at the last minute. Its like one of those ending where they wake up and its all just a dream disapointing :(

Graphics -

FF X - 2 is on par with the previous installment. Familar gorgeous sceneries cloud the background and fills the whole game with a real life world. Clouds litter the skies perfectly and each landscape is heavily detailed no matter if its the lush paradise beaches of Besaid Island or the glooming darkness that is the Thunder Plains.

Only one perhaps new place has been added to the Spira world and personally i think this was a right decision. FF X had already created a world that was full of life, real life cities such as Bevelle appealed to the player as somewhere authentic and differing races appeared in different regions. Changing this would have been a disaster and not much of a sequel.

Character design has been heavily improved for the main characters. Obviously happening two years after the first, Yuna and Rikku have both grown up a little and 'developed' more physically.

For instance Yuna's face seems much more realistic (if that was even possible). Eyes move more fluently as humanly possible and cheeks create wonderful facial reactions.

As for attire - sexy is the new road forward for the makers of this game.

You can tell by the heavy detail that has gone into the bodies of all three main characters, that they have tried to get rid of that Innocent persona of Yuna and results into a much more confident appearance.

Clothes have been modified to flow with the bodies curves and Rikku wore any less the game would be an 18. Its all rather flawless though. The sex appeal works without changing any of the characters too much and monster design has yet improved.

However i was heavily disgusted at some character designs. Take LeBlanc for instance. her model is somewhat confused. trying to 'bad' and sexy at the same time hasn't worked well, and her face is rather jagged and ugly.

Animation wise not much has changed. Characters all move like humans and monster attacks all flow nicely together. I would say though that certain movements seem slugish such as the 'jump' that us now availble. Its more like a rushed movement that the beautiful smooth movement we come to expect.

Sound -

All the familar tunes return for the second installment. Funky tunes radiate throughout different places and each match the sceneries mood superbly.

On aboard the Celsius (the airship) funky and up beat music is played to capture the flying experience, whilst wierd tempo music is played in the pecular and bizare region that is Guadosalam.

Voice Overs range from Excellent to poor throughout the game. Rikku's Upbeat character matches her vocal dialogue perfectly. I even have come to like Yuna's voice. At times in FFX i thought her acting was a little cold, but her her new confidance shines out.

I was disappointed with LeBlancs and her Goons voices though. It seems rather cheap and the corny type of bad guy voice you come to expect in shabby Goon type films. The best way to describe it is slap stick its more comcial in bad way and silly its just plain dumb.

A nice little feature i am fond of is the characters actually speak to each other in battlle sometimes. Both Rikku and Yuna come out with litle humourous puns and one liners whilst Paine replies sarcastically and unimpressed.

Gameplay -

Beginners will find this game extremely difficult to begin with. The battle system has now changed into an ATB system where you dont take it in turns to attack. This makes some battles more challenging which is good but at times the fast paced encounters are just annoying. You'll find yourself just attacking all the time rather than scrolling through your menu's to select more tactical attacks. This in my opinion reduces the playability of the game somewhat.

A nice added bonus however is that you can create a link of chain combos as characters can act staright after one other meaning defensive manoevers can be implemented. For instance as an ememy attacks Yuna, Rikku can attack the enemy just before it hits Yuna to counter attack the attack.

The whole battle feature has been upturned and changed as most people know. The new and original combat uses dress spheres which ultimately decides what type of fighter your characters become.

For instance there's a Gunner sphere and a black mage sphere and a Singer sphere. So changing spheres allows you to change your tactics more as the enmies change. Very much how certain characters were best at defeating certain enemies in the first game. For example Auron was best to use whilst fighting Hard amoured enemies, so here in FF X 2 the warrior dress sphere is best to use.

This all becomes rather tedious though im afraid because it just doesn't catch on and the result to be honest is rather camp. Not being sexist but it is really girly the way the game is made and some players will be really put off.

Away from battles, you have to complete missions to progress in the game and this resembles a more platformer type game. Jumping from ledge to ledge etc. Even though you can pick your destination which adds a little freedom, its still a laid out map so it is heavuly linear just following the same course over and over again.

Side quests i must say are so boring its unreal. You'll just leave them alone. FF X had side quests to obtain spectacular new Aeons and since you cant use them in this game side quests conists off mini games sometimes like passing out flyers to advertise a fair or digging up treasures in the Bikkanel Desert.

FF X 2 is playable though and a somewhat more than average adventure exists if your willing to play through. Like many FF Games hours upon hours upon hours are availble in the game and as mention the story does pick off later in the game. Though original the battle system has many flaws but it is a system every gamer wants to experience because its never been done before in any RPG.

Overall Yuna's story is not very enticing but deffinately capable of carrying out some moments of enjoyment. Not very many emotional events happen and there are lots and lots of cut scenes but if You loved FFX it is a nice memory to visit some of the excellently designed places again and encounter some much loved characters from the original.

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