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Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 18 Nov 03
User Rating
9.8 (24 votes) -
- Move over Charlie's Angels, the Gullwings are in town! The girls struts their stuff and take no prisoners in this FFX sequel.
Overview
Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy title to appear on the PlayStation 2, now Final Fnatasy X-2 is the first-ever direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game and it too is on the PlayStation 2. The story is focused on the former high summoner Yuna and her adventures during the eternal calm. She is aided by her cousin Rikku and a new face Paine, as she travels throughout the land of Spira on an airship piloted by Rikku's brother who ironically or not is named Brother. The three girls are members of a sphere hunting group called "The Gullwings". Their objective is to travel the land in search of treasure spheres, which unlock the keys to Spira's past. This storyline may sound a bit lighter then the previous Final Fantasy titles, but just leave it to Square to make this preppy storyline into something much deeper and involved then you would expect.
Gameplay
The game starts at a concert, yes that's right a concert featuring who else but the lovely Lady Yuna, and who would have guessed that Yuna could sing? From there on you have the run of the world and can go anywhere in Spira you want, there is no unlocking cities and towns in this game. So how does this work, you ask? Well, you undertake missions in most locations that you visit, and they vary in terms of the objective and difficulty level. Some mission are compulsory, as they are used to advance the story, while completing other will give you additional information on the happenings in Spira. You don't have to complete all the missions to finish the game, but doing so will net points that go towards your overall percentage completion. So basically you control where you go and what you do to get to the end boss from the very beginning of the game.
Throughout the game there is only three characters in your party, you have them from beginning to end and they never change. Those party members are Yuna, Rikku and Paine. This was a bold step for square since in every Final Fantasy title to date there have been at least 6 or more party members available by the end of the game. The reason why this works though is simply because the girls have a new invention in their hands called the "Garment Grid" this enables the girls to equip "dress spheres" to it and allows for them to switch outfits on the fly during battle. When they switch outfits, not only do their looks change drastically but they also change their jobs. For example, equipping the thief dress will grant the user the ability to Steal, while white mage grants healing and protection spells.
Battles have returned to ATB and this time they are faster then ever before. When you issue an attack the girls react instantly and perform the move right away even if two of them end up attacking at once. Each attack now takes a certain amount of time to perform, for example using a potion would take much less time then casting a magic spell on a fiend. The new dress sphere system works well when you really think about it, it's very similar to being able to switch players in battle at any given time in Final Fantasy X. The dress sphere's seem to work a little less effectively then being able to switch characters simply because you have the same amount of health when you change outfits, unless of course the outfit you change to has a greater amount of health to begin with, but you still have the same percentage taken off.
There is a new addition to when you beat the game. After you kill the last boss and watch the ending movie, you will be allowed to create a New Game Plus where you can keep all your items, outfits and gils from your pervious game, only downfall is you start back at level one. This adds a new twist to the game, and surprise, surprise to get the perfect ending you must beat the game at least twice, there are 3 different endings.
The voice acting is amazingly well done; thankfully Yuna's voice is no longer long, drawn out and just plain annoying. It has some newfound energy to it, as do the rest of the girls' voices. The music is a bit new to the Final Fantasy series, yet it still does the job and a good one at that. The same thing can be said about background noises in general.
Graphics
The graphics for FFX-2 are basically the same for the ones in FFX, they are just a little bit more fine tuned. During short cut scenes when the characters are talking, the emotions shown in their faces are much sharper then in FFX, its small differences like these that end up making a big difference in the quality of the graphics. Another thing to mention would be the battle system graphics. When switching the girls' outfits the scenes that follow are a good deal enhanced then the summoning scenes in FFX. As far as the FMV's go, they are still beautiful, but sadly enough they are no more striking then those in FFX.
The backgrounds are amazingly detailed, everything just seems to fit in the right places, like trees swaying in the wind on Besaid Island or glistening leaves in Macalania. Everything just comes together to create a whole new believable world with it's own mysteries and problems.
Fun Factor
The game has quite a bit a lot of good things about it, and it is most defiantly fun to play. It has over 100 hours of enjoyable gameplay to sit through and so many options open to you. Being able to start a New Game Plus adds hours upon hours of more gameplay, and you can take so many different paths to reach the end, without having to worrying about your items or money. The submissions are frequent and full of entertainment, so overall it's a great amusing game to play and enjoy.
Overall
The storyline is engaging, the battles are fast and furious, the mini games are entertaining, and options are endless. The soundtrack is new and different for a Final Fantasy game but it's still excellent. You can get hours of fun and excitement from this title, so why not play it? It's defiantly a game I suggest you buy rather then rent simply because of the massive gameplay options, it's hard to get tired of this game, unless of course you hate the series and this type of game. Apart from that, this game is a keeper.
- Gameplay
10.0 - Graphics
8.0 - Fun Factor
10.0 - Overall
9.0
