User Review: Final Fantasy X-2
Sure this is our Final Fantasy… but less filling.
Since I got hooked on RPG’s, I’ve been a solid fan of the Final Fantasy series. Whenever a new Final Fantasy is announced, I cannot help, but get extremely excited! Now, I’m going to make my review in this historical installment of my most favorite game series and let’s see if it’s worth my excitement…
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Whenever we say RPG (shortcut for Role-Playing Game), the first thing that comes into our mind is Final Fantasy… (Well, for most of us). It’s been more than a decade since the first one was made in 1987. Twelve games have been made (Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy XII), excluding the various Final Fantasy-titled games (Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy Legend 1-3, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and Final Fantasy Tactics & Advance, expansions and various spin-offs) to date. Literally, we’ve been eating and sleeping Final Fantasy!
From its humble beginnings, now Final Fantasy is a known force to reckon with in the RPG world. For the first time in its history, Final Fantasy broke its tradition… a ‘direct’ sequel to the game has been made. Will this game continue Squaresoft’s tradition of great RPG’s now that the series is in the hands of Square-Enix? Let’s take a look…
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<B>STORY: 5/10</B> (one of the less compelling recent Final Fantasy stories)
Two years after the great High Summoner Yuna and the gang defeated Sin (for those who was not able to play Final Fantasy X, Sin’s the antagonist of the said game), finally, the people of Spira, has once again, achieved the “Calm” they have been waiting for so long. Gone are the days where all people are all about “Yevon says this”, “Yevon says that”. It’s now the time for “Machina Revolution” where people have accepted that the Al Bhed’s machina is not bad as long as it is used properly… not really, because there are still people fanatic to Yevon. This made rise to a conflict between the “Machine Faction” and the “New Yevon”… even Dona and Barthello became a victim of different beliefs. The peace everyone is dreaming of is still out of reach. With everyone busy of their new life, there is one person still unable to move on, our heroine Yuna (I assume you already know, why?).
One day, Yuna obtains this mysterious sphere that contains an image of what might be a Blitzball player she thought was gone forever. Although she’s not sure of what she saw, Yuna’s determined to unravel the truth behind it… even if only to find out that she will never see him again. To pursue that mission, she joined the “Gullwings”, a group of Sphere Hunters, headed by Cid’s first born. They explore all over Spira to find spheres flying high into the skies using their trusty airship, Celsius.
Throughout the duration of the game, there will be lots of mini-stories that you will have to discover. Each location in Spira has one. Ronsos’ revenge against the Guados, Macalania Woods’ death, Maechen’s history 101 and more! These mini-stories tried to patch-up the lack of complexity of the main story.
Overall, the <B>Story</B> is lacking in focus. What we have here is a log-rolled story. It made us to hardly appreciate the main story that Final Fantasy X-2 wants to deliver us. What Square-Enix made was to throw different short stories in one game, without having, even one of the short stories with direct connection with the main story. This makes the plot less compelling… it’s a pity.
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<B>AUDIO: 4/10</B> (greatly suffered from the absence of Nobuo Uematsu)
Background Music
Since the very first Final Fantasy, we’ve all been enjoying the magnificent sounds and music of Final Fantasy. Who’ll not recognize the much-loved Final Fantasy “Victory Music”… and the cranky “Chocobo Tune”? All credits goes to Maestro Nobuo Uematsu, but what happened to this game?
Remember the soothing music you’ll here when you’re walking in Besaid Island back in Final Fantasy X, or the creepy Hymn of the Fayth in Bevelle? Prepare your good byes to them. You’ll never here those wonderful tunes here. Instead, they have some mellow to almost silent background music for you. When I was playing this game, I feel like I’m playing a Survival Horror game or Stealth Action game. Anywhere you go you’ll here almost the same mellow tune. Whether you’re in the peaceful Island of Besaid, or in the busy Blitzball City of Luca, or traversing the dungeon Via Infinito, you can hardly notice the change in the background music.
The most disappointing part of this is the battle music. It’s just TOO awful! I cannot believe that what I have just played is a Final Fantasy game. Gone are the thrilling boss music and the sweet victory tunes. We have here one of the most boring battle theme in the RPG world. Not even the final boss battle tune is acceptable considering the great history of Final Fantasy music.
Oh, I think Square-Enix did not exert much effort to make a remedy for the absence of Mr. Uematsu.
One good thing, the Song “1000 Words and “Real Emotion” by Jade are quite well performed. I liked it since I heard (and saw) the demo video in UnLimited Saga :)
Voice Acting
Like its predecessor, Final Fantasy X-2 dubbed the Japanese Version of the game to English to cater for a bigger audience. Not much is changed. I like the change in Yuna’s voice. More energy was given to suit her new personality. You will still have to bear with the horrible voice of Rikku… anyway, most of us, I assume, were used to it by now. Paine’s voice is well acted. Basically, the voices are nice. My only complain is that sometimes the dubbing is late. The characters have spoken about two or three syllables already before the English translation is spoken. Well, I’m not an authority in dubbing, but I think they could have made it much better.
It could have been better if they took time to re-synch the voices and acting like what they did in the English version of Kingdom Hearts.
Overall, the <B>Audio</B> is really disappointing… I think Square-Enix is not ready to let free Mr. Uematsu’s expertise yet :(
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<B>VIDEO: 9/10</B> (the best there is for a RPG to date, but there are still rooms for improvements.)
Final Fantasy X still has the best graphics of all RPG’s made in the PS2… and you can expect the same quality and detail in its ‘direct’ sequel.
The girls are well crafted. The new looks of Yuna and Rikku are a welcome change. NPC’s (Non-Playable Characters) also looked great. The different areas are unparalleled… so far. Despite the sheer goodness of the characters and the surroundings, … sheeesh… they still haven’t perfected the hands!!!
The Dress Sphere changing sequences in battles are nice, but if you look closer, there are almost no variations in the poses of each character. That thing made that sequence a little bothersome to watch.
Gone are the days where the party is like being tied by a rope when trying to escape. Nice! There are only two things when escaping: 100% escape or escaping not allowed :)
Although you cannot expect the realism that you might be expecting, the way things are presented is well accepted. You’ll know that the wind is strong in a given place because Yuna’s dress and/or hair is waiving. When walking on snow you’ll leave your footprints, and I love the realism of Yuna’s reaction whenever she almost slips in a cliff!
Here are some annoying graphical failures. In Besaid, oh, you can’t even play at the shallow waters of the shore! It seems like some barrier is hindering Yuna from wetting her feet… even, just, her toes! In Macalania, try to pass O’aka’s shop and go to the temple area back in Final fantasy X, another “barrier” is preventing you. Is it hard for the developer to illustrate that ‘a strong wind is pushing Yuna away from the direction of the temple, preventing her to go any further’ or prompt Yuna to say that “there’s no reason to go there”? One thing more, the ability to run without having to hold a button is very convenient, but when your character is still running even when facing a wall or hindered by a person annoys me more than ever! I’m not really particular to realistic graphics, but things like such are unacceptable to me, especially that graphics is one of the assets of this game.
Overall, the <B>Video</B> quality is still the standard to beat by other RPG’s to date. There are quite some flaws, but it’s not really an issue.
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<B>GAMEPLAY: 7/10</B> (amazing early in the game and gets pretty boring later on. Flaws are scattered everywhere!)
Controls
Nice controls suited for the battle system of the game. However, you’re not given the chance to customize your config based on your preference :(
The dual shock vibration is still available. Unfortunately, there are no special moves or spells that warrant the use of very strong vibrations so, don’t expect the “shock” you experience when casting FF8’s Apocalypse or Anima’s Oblivion in FF10.
Navigation
Same as Final Fantasy X… the only difference is you are now using Yuna. Most of your time will be spent going back and forth the different areas in Spira. The camera angles are automatic. No way for you to control it. Still, no over-world map for us. The airship has an auto-transport system that will bring you to your destination of choice. Despite having a cool airship, we still cannot manually control it :( Whenever you want to get back to your ship, just find a Save Sphere and you can automatically leave an area. :)
By the way, you are now allowed to jump or climb to some places like trees, cliffs and ledges in order to reach something. By allowing this, you can finally reach the peak of Mt. Gagazet and other areas not accessible in its direct prequel.
Controlling Yuna is not quite as good as Final Fantasy X. When you take turns or corners, Yuna seems to become a little bit stiff and annoying to control. Although doesn’t really matter, I can’t help but to say that it really annoys me.
Power-Up System
The basic way of powering-up your party is by accumulating EXP you can get from battles to level up your characters. Stat increases depend on the dress sphere you are using, but it is not permanent. As you change job, stats also change to adapt to the kind of stats compatible to a certain job.
The highlight of this game’s power-up system marks the return of the much-loved ‘Job System’, now in full 3D, in the form of Dress Spheres. Although I love the ‘Job System’, I think this game demoted the almost perfected ‘Job System’ of FF5 and FF Tactics. Each job has its own distinct abilities. Like FF9, you’ll have to choose which ability you want to learn first and gain AP for it. By learning some of these Abilities, you will be able to unlock other more powerful and useful ones. It’s a good thing that you can learn abilities in-battle and can use it as soon as you learn it. The real thing that makes this uses of ‘Job System’ a downgraded one… IT NEVER ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE ANY CUSTOMIZATION! It’s more like this game returned to the ‘Job System’ of FF3j. If you change to another job, you will not be able to have the abilities you learned from the other jobs. On the good note, the ability to change your job in-battle is very useful.
NO SUMMONS FOR YOU! This is another breach in the tradition. Since FF3j introduced it, Summons easily became one of the most beloved trademarks of the series. We cannot do anything about it because YOU killed them in Final Fantasy X! Well, that’s what the story wants to happen. Instead of summons, they replaced it with Special Dress Spheres. These Special Jobs allows your party to combine into one special robot-like job, taking the form of one of the 3 Special Dresses each owned by our heroines. Generally, these jobs are more powerful than the normal jobs, but they take so long to fill their ATB bar. When taking these jobs, the character whose Special Dress is being used becomes the body and the other two becomes the arms. Despite the great powers of these Special Dress Spheres, they are usually taken for granted because before you can use it, you have to change to all the other Dress Spheres equipped in your Garment Grid… again, very cumbersome.
Garment Grids are also a way to power-up your characters. Garment Grids are where your Dress Spheres are attached to allow you to use it. Think of the ‘Materia System’ of FF7. The weapons or armors are the Garment Grids and the Dress Spheres are the materia. These grids allow your character to change from one job to another. Another good thing about this is that some grids later in the game provide additional features aside from its main use. It may give you stat boosts, auto-abilities or allows you to access commands you haven’t learned or cannot be learned. However, I am doubtful if anyone really changes Garment Grid that much. It’s just too cumbersome to shift from one Dress Sphere to another!
Another way of powering your characters is by equipping accessories. Two accessories can be equipped at a time. This game marks the return of the “Relic System” from Final Fantasy VI, where you equip accessories that are compatible, which can give special effects. Although very useful, the really good ones are quite hard to get and easy to miss. Some accessories are so great that leveling up is not really important. Have you ever encountered one in any RPG where an accessory gives +100% HP, +100 in almost all stats, and auto-protect/shell/haste in one? Once you get it, you’re free to forget about the Dress Sphere and Garment Grid. Want to customize your characters’ abilities? There are some specialized accessories that will allow you to use abilities learned from other jobs even when using a different one, but using such will deprive you of the beneficial use of stat-changing accessories :( Well, it could have been more interesting if they allowed our characters to equip helms, armors, gloves and shields.
Sure, the power-up system of this game is not cheap, but the lack of customization is a pity. RPG… Role-Playing Game… We take a role we want. If we want to be a pure Fighter… we should be able to be one. If we want to be a pure Mage… we should be able to be one… If we want to be a combination of both… we should be able to be one. It’s so unorthodox in these days where we claim a game to be Role-Playing when we cannot have the role we want to take.
Battle System
The return of my much beloved Active Time Battle (ATB) System of Final Fantasy has been remade. Before your party and enemies can make a move, they have to fill their ATB bar first (enemies’ ATB bar is not shown). What is the difference of this ATB System to the previous ATB System? Well, once you’ve selected your move, you will not be able to execute your move (well, most moves) immediately. It will have its own “charging time” bar. The speed of your ATB bar depends on the job you are using. Generally, jobs that allow you to deal great damage takes longer time to charge and mages can act faster.
Being able to simultaneously attack with your allies/enemies is the best feature of this new ATB System. Once your allies have filled their ATB Bar, just time their attacks in a way that the next attack will hit the same target just after the last attack hits or by just hitting the same target at the same time will result to a combo. Each additional hit will result to more damage to the enemy… the drawback is... the enemies can also do it to you.
This system is very much in your favor when fighting normal enemies, but once you face the tough optional boss, it may seem like the system is cheating. The Active mode is not really a 100% Active Mode. When we say Active, it means that the enemies may attack you even though you’re still choosing your next move. Here, the ATB shifts to Wait Mode when your character or an enemy is doing a special attack, but there are times that it will continue to be Active even if a special move is being done. In the same way, the Wait Mode is, also, not a 100% wait mode. There are battles that ignore this mode like the battle with some optional bosses. Even if you’re choosing an item to use, enemies’ ATB Bar still continues to move. This really cheats the newbie gamer who wants to take advantage of the easier Wait Mode of ATB. How I wish the next ATB System will have a 100% Active and a 100% Wait Modes.
The annoyingly long charging time of some moves is also a pain. A Dark Knight who wants to use a Phoenix Down to revive a fallen ally may take about 6 seconds to fill her ATB gauge and choose the Phoenix Down and will take another 4 seconds for her charging gauge to fill before she can use the said item. By that time, the enemy is already charging its ATB for its second turn.
Miscellaneous
A very nice feature of this game is allowing the gamers to cut short many cut-scenes, which are very repetitive like the flying ‘Celsius’ scene. It could have been better if you can skip all cut-scenes and FMV’s at your will. The game also allows us to shorten or totally skip the repetitive and boring Dress Sphere changing scenes. If you’re afraid not to see the scenes even once, don’t you worry! When it’s the first time you change from a Dress to another, you’ll see the full dress changing scene… like the summon sequences of FF9. On top of that, the ever-famous ‘L1+L2+R1+R2+Select+Start’ soft reset is back to make our lives easier :)
Overall, <B>Gameplay</B> is messy, but still tolerable.
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<B>FUN FACTOR: 5/10</B> (lots of things to do, but most are just time-eaters)
Game Progression
A new addition to the series is the introduction of the Mission System of game progression. Instead of having the traditional RPG way of straightforward storytelling, it adopted the way of the adventure platformers where the game is divided in Chapters and each Chapter is, then, divided into missions. This makes the game progression, in a way, dependent on your style. On the way, you can do some side-quests, but ultimately you still have to follow the main story’s path. This will affect the events that may happen later in the game. Remember that this game has lots of sub-plots.
Difficulty
This game is either super easy or annoyingly hard. As a popular saying says, “excess in anything is not good”… Final Fantasy X-2 is a proof to that.
If all you want is to beat this game, no problem. In the normal course of the game (meaning, no side-quests included), you can finish this game in about less than 15 hours. The regular enemies and boss are nothing… even easier compared to FF6 and FF10! Just pressing the X button each turn may finish all battles without sweat. Abilities are almost useless because the regular enemies and boss aren’t challenging… I’M NOT EXAGGERATING! The commands with constant usefulness are Fight and Pray only… go prepare your turbo controller and tape that X button!
If you are a perfectionist, you’ll have to go through some of the most annoying and patience-testing quests… but the rewards are great. The highlight of the difficulty of this game is the Via Infinito 100 Level-Dungeon in Bevelle. The dungeon is super boring… it will really test your patience to the bloody pulp! It has the most annoying enemies to grace the Final Fantasy Series. Without the Cat Nip Accessory, your chance of reaching the 100th Level is very low. If you’re not so unfortunate enough to reach that level, face the newest addition to the WEAPON family… and if you think he’s hard… you’ll lose yourself when you face gramps…
Mini-Games
This installment of Final Fantasy offers lots of mini-games to keep you busy for some time. Unfortunately, it’s a pity that most of these games are made without much consideration. Let’s take some examples.
The Blitzball game is back! If you got bored with this one back in Final Fantasy X because of the very long time you have to spend just to finish a match, they made it much shorter this time… and more boring. This time, they removed to us the right to control the players. All you can do is set your party and let the computer play. Words are not enough to describe the lameness of this mini-game :(
The Gunner’s Gauntlet mini-game is just frustrating. You have to shoot monsters and accumulate as much points as you can get in a limited amount of time. It’s not really hard, but reaching the quota is not easy. If there is another way to get the awesome Adamantite Accessory, I’ll never even bother to play this.
There loads of other boring and annoying ones: Sphere Break, Cactuar Shooting, Digging Game, Chocobo Raising and a crap load of mini-games in the Calm Lands. These extras are more of a time-eater rather than fun bringers :(
Optional Quests
The adoption of the new Mission System of story progression will assure us of lots of optional things to do. An optional quest is usually a part of an entire short story comprising this game. If you want to get a 100% Episode Complete for all the short stories, you have to do all the optional quests… almost all of the optional quests in the game. Feels like it’s not really optional because the game will become very short without it.
With regard to the amount of optional dungeons, this game will never fail you, but the quality of such are below average. Each dungeon has a different way of getting your objective. Some are puzzle-oriented; others require you to get certain special items. What is bad is that most of these dungeons have only about 2-3 kinds of monsters. It’s too boring. Even the layout is too simple and repetitive. Your only real motivation is the good rewards you can get by finishing each area… you have to lengthen that cord of patience of yours.
Life Span
At least 70% of the things you can do in the game are optional in nature so rest assured you’ll be playing this game for a while. Obtaining a 100% Story Level and Episode Complete in all areas is already cumbersome. Add to that the numerous extras this game has to offer, including the collection of all the Accessories, Dress Spheres and Garment Grids; you got a game, which will take your time for quite a while. With three possible endings, it’s sure that this game has a really good replay value. However, because of the not so fun extras, this RPG is lucky enough if you give it a second or third shot.
Overall, I find the <B>Fun Factor</B>of this game is very low of Final Fantasy standards. There are so many things to do. Sad to say, most of them are pretty boring.
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<B>Rent or Buy: </B>
A solid Final Fantasy Fan will definitely buy this (especially if you have the means) regardless of its quality, but for practicality reasons, better rent this game.
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<B>RATIONALE: 5.6/10</B>
This historical installment of the Final Fantasy Series could have been very promising if given more time and attention. In my honest belief, Square-Enix rushed this game… I’m terribly disappointed. Sure this is our Final Fantasy… but less filling. The “Is this Final Fantasy?” audio, the log-rolled story, the boring dungeons, the annoying mini-games, and the lame use of the ‘Job System’ are enough reasons to remove Final Fantasy X-2 in your priority list of games to buy if not for the “Final Fantasy” in it… (Unless, again, you’re a solid Final Fantasy Fan, like me) Shame on you Square-Enix!