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Rent it for a week first

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 35
Date: December 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am a HUGE, huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy IX and X were both superb games that I played for months. Just what is up with this dress-up game, Final Fantasy X-2?

My first impression of the game was that it was made by a bunch of male game designers who wanted to watch semi-naked teenage girls dance around to sexy music. Yuna and Rikku have both been given makeovers to wear scanty clothing. Paine was added in to give the 'goth' alternative in the trio. The three are like Charlie's Angels (a movie that I love) but less intelligent, more childish. These women are supposed to be in their 20s but act like they're 8 years old.

You get to play Yuna, Rikku or Paine and you battle and puzzle your way through the game series, gathering spheres and working through missions. Somehow you have completely forgotten the Al Bhed language and have to relearn it. Somehow your cousin is in love with you. Instead of strategy battles, you are in "active time battles" which double penalize you for spellcasting and reward you for button mashing. The graphics were GREATLY reduced in order to bring this change, too.

Gone is the brilliant sphere grid system to customize your characters. Instead you get ... paper-doll clothing changes. Yes, I'm serious. You get to try new outfits on your characters and get a few skills with each one. Of course, most of the outfits are quite revealing.

The music was really annoying and I had to turn the sound off in some situations. The side quests were sometimes just tiresome and sometimes bordered on the highly questionable (giving back rubs to hit pleasure levels?) I had a lot of respect for Yuna after the end of FFX. Given what was going on two years later, it seemed like Yuna regressed rather than matured.

I know a TON of women who loved FFX and gladly played it. It seems with FFX-2 they tried to make a "game for women" by turning it into insipid nonsense. What an insult to females everywhere, to say that the only way we'd play was to give us dress-up outfits and girly-girl giggling. And what an insult to say that girls should be sex objects that have to fall out of their outfits to get any attention.

The game designers should have taken a good look at Eowyn and Arwen in the Lord of the Rings movie series to see how women can be intelligent, strong, skilled and amazingly appealing. I will finish FFX-2 to write the walkthrough, but it won't be a pleasureable experience.

I'd rent this for a week and make sure you really enjoy what it offers before you buy it.

A Final Fantasy First!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: April 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Wow! An actual sequal to a FF Game! I've played through the Japanese version, and when it boils down to it, it's a pretty good game. The opening sequence featuring Yuna (or is it?) in concert is great (Koda Kumi sings the song)! Basically, the plot revolves around Yuna, Rikku, and Paine hunting for spheres, as Yuna tries to find out what happens to Tidus! Gameplay is different. You choose your missions for sphere hunting rather than linear play. Changeing jobs in battle is a little bizarre (think Sailor Moon). Good story line, lots of plot twists, an INTERESTING last boss, and multiple endings. I highly recommend this game! Will Yuna find the man she's searching for?? I won't spoil it!

Puts a blemish upon its predecessor

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 16
Date: May 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Once upon a time, I was playing Final Fantasy VII for the very first time. It was 1997, and I was upwards of ten hours into the game. I had explored every inch of this monstrous metropolis known as Midgar, dominated and controlled by the evil corporation of Shinra. It was my quest (or so I thought) to stop Shinra from literally sucking the life force from the planet, when it suddenly became clear to me that my party and I were going to have to leave Midgar for the first time to chase down a man in a black cape, a man known as Sephiroth, and before I had ever even seen his face, I had learned to fear him. To my astonishment, when I left Midgar, it became apparent to me that not only was Midgar not the only place I had to go to in this game, but it was merely a dot on an enormous world map! It was then that I understood exactly why this game was being described as "epic." Since then, I've been consistently enthralled and compelled by all of the Final Fantasy games, from its humble beginnings on NES to its mastery on PS2.

And then came this debacle of a game. Final Fantasy X-2 not only took everything I loved about the series and threw it out the window, but it veritably raped everything I loved about the original. People who disagree with me will probably say that this game doesn't appeal to me because it's "different." No. Final Fantasy VIII was different. Different is one thing -- morphing an epic tradition into some sort of quasi-Sailor Moon/Charlie's Angels parody that makes me lose faith in my favorite genre is quite another.

The premise of the story for X-2 is that two years have passed since Yuna and her guardians vanquished Sin and Yu Yevon. Since the eternal calm has set in, Yuna has led a relaxed life, (which apparently involved throwing out the dress and staff for hot pants and a pair of guns, not to mention the whole becoming a pop star thing) and it comes to her attention that Rikku, who is now a sphere hunter, has found a sphere that shows a clip of someone who resembles Tidus in some sort of trouble. Thus, Yuna joins the gullwings, which is Rikku's team of sphere hunters, and the quest to find Tidus begins.

First of all, I'd like to point out that there is no real story to this game. There are subtle hints most of the time hiding in the background somewhere that a story might come into being sometime over the course of the game, which is the only reason I kept playing this game, really, but these unfortunately only remain as not much more than subtle hints until the end of chapter three, and by then you're pretty much done with the game. Everything that was epic and compelling about the previous installments of the Final Fantasy's is lost here in a muddle of girl power and uninteresting psuedo-politics that I couldn't have cared less about. The character that I grew to love in Final Fantasy X, Yuna, now has been rendered to be completely devoid of character. Sure, she's cute and happy now, but who cares? There is no conflict, no intrigue in her character. Her only desire seems to be to find Tidus and to help people (neither of which are substantially developed in this game), but rather than being the character who was built on self-sacrifice for the good of others like in the last one, she instead comes off as a self-centered brat who usually doesn't have much to say other than something along the lines of "why do I have to do this?!" Rikku's her dumb self, unsurprisingly, and Paine is just a female version of Auron except not half as cool and not a tenth as interesting. There are a few new characters who you do want to learn about, such as Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai, who are three of the leaders in the new Spira, but their backstory is minimal when compared to character giants such as Terra, Celes, Aeris, or Cloud. Characters like Buddy, or Brother, or whatever his name was wanted to make me cry. I wanted to take the composer who had replaced Mr. Uematsu and beat him out back with a stick, and every time Yuna, Rikku, and Paine would pose and cheer themselves on, I absolutely cringed. By the time the end of the story rolled around, I didn't really care what was happening next.

To be fair, there are a few good points to this game. The battle system has undergone some major revision, and the revision was for the better. The beloved jobs system of Final Fantasy V are back again, and this time they are mixed with the sphere grid of X and an extremely fast-paced upgrade of the active time battle system. The graphics are slightly better than its predecessor, which means that the graphics are phenomenal considering how amazing they were in X. Most of the missions -are- somewhat fun, but the whole game in itself was too sugar-coated, too easy, and too short (I had the game beat in fifteen hours). If I wanted just pure fun, I would've played Grand Theft Auto, and frankly, that game is much more fun than this one. Final Fantasy stands above all the other franchises because it's always been about more than just the fun involved with the battles. I have to admit that this is probably a love it/hate it type of game, but for my part, the closer and closer I got to the end, the more and more apparent it became to me that this game truly was the monumental disappointment that I was fearing it would be the second I first saw Yuna singing a pop song that reeked of Japanese excess in the introduction FMV. I wish I could've felt otherwise, but I didn't.

Forget about Kefka and Kuja -- the main villain of this game is a machine. This game was nothing more than a marketing ploy for Square to cash in on a successful game, and I'm just praying that XII won't turn out the same way.

Corny and Boring

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 16
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I first heard that there would be an actual sequel to FFX, I was happy. FFX is probably my favorite RPG of all time, but the ending was kind of disappointing.

Unfortunately, FFX 2, is not in the same league with it's predecessor.

Graphics: 3 - Ok this game is every bit as beautiful as FFX, but not better. In 2001 this was amazing. In 2003 they are old news.

Sound: 1 - Annoying! Plain annoying. First of all, 90% of the game has the exact same music throughout. And the loops are very short. Normally I don't care about the music in a FF game that much--I usually end up blocking it out, because I'm so wrapped up in the game. Here it is impossible to ignore, unless you want to use mute and miss out on the voice acting.

Which brings us to the other annoying factor in sound. The voice acting is terrible. At times I felt like I was playing a video game version of "Spice World" set in a fantasy world. Rikku was one of the highlights of FFX. In FFX 2, she has become Britney Spears. Yuna isn't much better.

Plot: 1 -- Plotwise, you'd be better off watching "Charlies Angels," as it doesn't require you to waste as much time. Where FFX had a moving story, this one is about style over substance all the way. Well there is Brother's crush on Yuna, which is kind of bizarre seeing as how they are first cousins.

Game Play: 2 - Some actually like the new battle system, over the old one. I say if it aint broke, don't fix it. Basically, in this one battles are in real time, which means you'll take a lot of damage if you try to plan out a strategy. Even if you slow down the ATB and set it to wait mode, you still don't have much time to plan. There are no limit breaks either. I did like the function that allows you to completely turn off the dress sphere change animations, as they can get old very quickly.

The dress spheres are another problem. Instead of advancing in levels to learn new skills, you equip dress spheres. It's annoying to be in a battle and have to change professions in the middle of it all, because you've got three warriors but need a healer. The old sphere grid was a much better concept.

Overall, I'd say only play this game if you are a fan of the whole series. Even then expect to be disapointed. If you haven't played FFX stay away from this one, as it will be too confusing.

Personally, I found I couldn't play this one for more than an hour at a time--it's just too goofy and boring. Quiet frankly, midway through the game I no longer cared about what happened to Tidus. Square is capable of much better than this, and hopefully this flop isn't a sign of things to come.

"What Can I Do for You?" You ask? How about...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: June 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let me sum this up quickly: This game sucked, and it sucked hard... and I'm only talking about the twenty-five hours I could bear playing it. I am absolutely STUPIFIED at how multiple videogame magazines put out nearly perfect reviews on this game! Square must have paid them off or something, because this game was not imaginative, fun, or even have a storyline worth thinking about.

Storywise, it's so non linear you just want to cry. Most moments are spent wondering "where do I go now? No, really, WHERE do I go? I because no one seems to be saying anything useful about where I should go." Sure we like non-linear stories for the purpose of making the individual gaming experience unique for every player, but did you have to go as far as "okay, no hints, just bumble along!" It's so non-linear, you can actually miss nearly HALF the game (actually, I finished chapter 1 with I think 25 percent complete. *_*) It's so non-linear, even having the strategy guide won't help you make sense of the game.

Gameplay: Exploration is a pain, since you're not sure if you're even on the right part of the planet most of the time. The battles are even worse, since you have to spend half the time switching outfits to get the status bounuses on each dress map thing.

Characters: I know Yuna deserves to have some fun after saving the world, but I mourned for Yuna, because she seems to have died and was replaced by some ditz I want to hit with a blitzball. I want to know what Square was on when the thought of the Lenne thing, because I don't get it, and I don't think I want to get it.

The premise was sooo promising, and... to steal/paraphrase part of a line from Red Dwarf, "A word has yet to be invented to describle how this game is, but you can be sure this game is utterly and totally so." It's not a flattering word, indeed.

Don't waste your money.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 25
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm well into chapter 3 of the game. What the heck is this? Final Fantasy Fashion Plates?

The story line sucks. Hands down. I was just saying to my wife "I certainly hope that this story pulls together sometime soon!" 10 was considerably better.

OK, now for the nitty-gritty. What the heck is with the battle system? OK, I'm familiar with Active Battle mode. That's fine. But, you wait until your meter charges up, then if you want to cast a spell, you have to wait AGAIN until your spell meter charges up. Then it costs mana. So, you have to wait twice as long to cast a spell.

And I can't even BEGIN to figure out the "Special Dress Spheres". Oh, and how about the equip? OK, I guess since we're playing dress-up, that we can't wear gauntlets, a ring, and earrings at the same time. Sorry, folks, only 2 slots. And you can't change equips in the middle of battle, so you'd better hope that if you're going up against Ifrit, you know in advance so you can put on something to reduce fire damage, otherwise you're hosed. Oh, did I say "Save game often?"

I mean, come on people, one of the tasks I had to do was to give one of the other characters a BACK RUB? And make sure I reached a pleasure score within a certain number of moves????

This game was apparently written by pre-pubescent kids who like seeing girls in different outfits.

Quite frankly, the worst $50 I ever spent.

Shall I go on? Sure, why not. It doesn't matter that I got EVERY Al-bhed primer in 10, you start over in 10-2. It doesn't matter that two thirds of your party SPEAK al-bhed, forget understanding a thing they're saying.

Sorry, I'll take 10 over 10-2 any day. For that matter, I'll take 8 over either of them.

--Greg

If You Can Get Over, Certain Issues, It's Not a Bad Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For a twenty Year Final Fantasy veteran, playing Final Fantasy X-2 was a kick in the stomach. At least when I first started the game, that is. Instead of the typical World-in-Despair opening of other Final Fantasy games, FFX-2 begins with FFX's Yuna apparently now as a pop princess superstar, with her loyal "fox force" of Rikku and Payne backing her up as Yuna's BFFs.

Yes, it's very girly. And, for the bread and butter of the Final Fantasy crowd (most of us are males, and this chronicler happens to have quite a few years on most of the FF fans), it's enough to shut off your PS2 immediately. And I did.

And I hated Square Enix for releasing this game.

A few weeks later, while over at my friend's house, I let her eight-year-old daughter play my copy of FFX-2. And she loved it. As I rolled my eyes, I did take a few minutes here and there to watch her play.

Well, the game did get better. After an opening sequence designed to appeal to the Hello Kitty crowd, and dealing with a battle system based on these girls changing their clothes (not in a good way), you do begin to see signs of a real Final Fantasy game in here.

You just have to be patient.

This game is clearly designed to bring young girls into the Final Fantasy enterprise, trying to broaden its stronghold of a boys-only RPG. And it succeeds, to an extent, but I believe that it goes too heavy on the YOUNG part, more so than the GIRL part (though it is really girly).

The story of the game is hit or miss; you'll either like it or loathe it. True FFX fans (Final Fantasy fans who rate FFX as their favorite) will probably hate the storyline of FFX-2. As far as it goes, it is two years after the events of Final Fantasy X. Yuna is now a sphere hunter, along with Rikku (from FFX as well) and Payne (No, that isn't a butched-up Lulu on the cover).

The reason behind Yuna becoming a sphere hunter is that she found a sphere that contained an image Tidus, the young man she fell in love with in Final Fantasy X, who was ultimately destroyed at the end of the game. By collecting spheres, Yuna hopes to uncover more information on Tidus, to find out if he is really alive, or if she's just been tracking down a false hope.

The game play of FFX-2 has been called the best yet, and I'll admit that it is good in certain respects. However, as someone who played Final Fantasy XII before this game, X-2 hardly has the best battle system yet.

There are no set character classes, and you only control three characters throughout the game. You can place the three girls into classes by using the dress sphere grids. Basically, the girls obtain dress spheres from their sphere hunting, and use the dress spheres to change their clothes to become the character class of your choosing. There are outfits to be a thief, a warrior, a black mage, white mage, gunner, songstress (where you must dance to afflict your enemy with status ailments!!!), et al.

As I said, if you can get past the girly parts of this game, which will probably even bother girls as well, provided they're over the age of fifteen... If you can get past that, it's a passable Final Fantasy game. It's good enough to waste 40 or 60 hours of your life on, though it won't leave most gamers wanting to blow more time than that, chasing after the 100 percent completion mark.

The characters also talk during the battles, as well, much more so than in FFX. A lot of people say that this is a good thing, and that Rikku is hysterical. If that becomes your opinion as well, so be it. But your opinion will be wrong. Rikku is nothing but friggin' annoying all throughout this game, and about tenfold more annoying than she was in FFX.

I had to put my television on mute every time I got into a fight.

And that's about all I'll say about FFX-2. All in all, a decent GAME, but a lackluster Final Fantasy. If you can bear the first fifteen minutes of the game, though, it does get better, but nothing here is going to blow you away, which is disappointing, as every Final Fantasy has at least one thing about it that really makes your jaw drop.

It's disappointing, but the game itself has its own merits.

And for the record, just for the fan-boys out there who want to judge my opinion based on other Final Fantasies, my ranking goes like this (take into account that I did not play FFXI, as I don't want to play Final Fantasy online, and FFIII has never been released on the PlayStation):

FFVI, FFXII, FFIV, FFIX, FFX, FFVII, FFVIII, FFI, FFV, FFII, FFX-2, FF Tactics.

Finally a sequel!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: April 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I ahve been a loyal fan to all of the Final Fantasy games. I have been dreaming of a sequel and there is finally going to be one! Out of all of the games FFX was the best choice for a sequel. The caharcters were the most indepth and you could feel the most emotion for them. Come on who doesn't want to see if Tidus and Yuna find eachother and get together? And what about Wakka and Lulu and the baby, who knows what that could develop into. Any way, i think that it is great that Square is finally making a sequel to and awesome.

Is this really what we've been waiting for?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy X was a great game. And whether you liked FFX or not, just the name "Final Fantasy" grabs your attention when you see this game. Final Fantasy X-2 actually links to FFX in an accurate way, but as far as it goes for a game it's just okay and that means that for Final Fantasy it's rather mediocre.

You start off watching Yuna give a pop concert and of course because sex is making it's appearance back in the world today, she's very revealing and so is Rikku. After the concert and the intro begins it quickly feels like your watching Charlies Angels or some late 70's, Early 80's show. For some, it quickly grabs their attention (if you like staring at woman who aren't real, that is) but for serious Final Fantasy fans its just...well, stupid. Not to mention that unlike past Final Fantasy games you don't see what the point of the whole intro was at all. In FFVII you knew why Cloud was on the train and destroying the reactor, in FFVIII you knew Squall and Seifer were rivals against each other. But in this we have no idea why Yuna is giving a concert or why she's with the group of "Sphere Hunters" called the Gullwings.

The story starts off with Yuna looking at a sphere of her past lover from Final Fantasy X. We assume he's dead but the ending left questions. So you decide to go Sphere Hunting. At first glance this storyline is pretty stupid and boring. But it starts to grow on you. Ultimately you'll end up saving the world in the end.

The graphics are nice but that can't save this game from its stupid lines. Rikku was actually more mature as a 16 year old than an 18 year old. While all the old characters return, you've got characters who you can't love anymore. I LOVED Rikku in FFX but in this her intellegance has gone down and somehow she FORGOT the Al Bhed Language you spent so much time learning in FFX (not to mention she's also Al Bhed).

Yuna has a better voice actor at least (actually it is the same voice actor). Yuna has more feeling in her voice than she did before. But even she seems strange to look at now. She now wears a revealing outfit as well (let's not even TALK about Rikku who might as well have worn nothing at all).

The battle system is rather dumb. While CTB was great and ATB is good, ATB certainly takes a turn for the worst. First you must wait for their ATB guage to fill up and then you must wait for it to fill up a second time (if casting magic or using abilities.) If you just select attack then you won't have to wait. Battling goes really fast in this but what makes it bad are the dresspheres. It is very similar to the job system we saw but what makes it terrible is that they take too long to change in battle. Second, I don't know about any of you but I don't play RPGs just to watch girls change their outfits all the time. And you have to change dresspheres constantly. So while the job system has returned it would've been better if it were done the way it was in FFV or FFT. Actually my question is when are we going to use Materia or the Sphere Grid again?

The music is also pretty bad. Perhaps its because Nobuo Uematsu didn't do the soundtrack this time. It's got a "Girlish" tune to it. There's nothing wrong with a more femanine style soundtrack. It's the fact that they just can't USE it correctly. Who wants to hear music that sounds all cute and stuff when a key member of your party is in danger? It just doesn't give you that feeling!

While the storyline and plot of FFX-2 is great it's just too non-linear. The storyline doesn't come together and for that matter it's all over the place. The game will tell you where to go but you could spend countless hours ignoring the story and doing something else...and the game will actually PROGRESS forward! It's actaually possible to have the story come out in the wrong order (say do a 'normal' event that actually plays a role in a 'key' event). You will sometimes scratch your head asking "What? OH I did that like 20 hour ago" and you'll realize, you really DID do that 20 hours ago.

However, being non-linear is a plus. You're not forced to do much in FFX-2 which also means that several sidequests are open up. This game is full them, but stay far away from the mini-games! They're only frustrating. Also, forget about blitzball you hardly even play it so don't worry about it.

The graphics are still astonishing. Maps are repeated from FFX which is both good and bad. It's good because we'll be familiar with the surroundings. But it's bad because we don't really go anywhere new for quite some time. So there really isn't much to explore if you've already played FFX.

Final Fantasy X-2 isn't a bad game. Square hasn't done anything wrong, really. The gameplay could use a touch up and personally, If I wanted I wanted to see really cute girls I wouldn't waste my time looking at ones made of polygons. Lastly, the whole Brother being in love with Yuna doesn't work. NOT just because Brother is Yuna's cousin, but because if you played FFX you'll note that this is totally out of character for Brother AND Yuna.

Girls just wanna have FUN!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay, when I first saw the game, I thought my brothers were just experienting a girl game to check out there bod, or judge their looks, but I found out, "Hey, this isn't so bad." I know a lot of people think it's stupid, and yeah, I understand why many of you think it's just another Charlies Angel thing, but it's not.
I hate that people assume things before even trying it out. FFX2 is one of the best games I've ever played. The clothes are really creative and cute, (although I did notice that some of them needed more coverage) and I like how the girls (Yuna, Paine, and Rikku) are the main characters, and for once the girls actually show more power instead of having really low attack and health points. I've played about 6 FF games, and I can clearly say, this was my favorite. I mean come on, have you ever played a game with multiple endings depending on how you played? And don't worry, if you get a bad ending you can always go play it over, trust me, I've played it over 2 times, and I'm starting on my 3rd. Although it's is a very good game and all, I have to admit, I didn't really like the voice over. I actually have the japanese version also, (although I can't understand anything) and it is way better! In the begining of that big perfomance, Yuna (or ????) was unbelievable! If you ever get the chance to, you should get the jap. version just to see how muck better it is. Even if you aren't a fan of the FF games, you should give it a chance.

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