Final Fantasy X-2 | Yuna is a Badass Now

Hi everyone and welcome to my place! 🙂

It’s time to continue with my Final Fantasy series review (yaiiiiii). If you are an observant person you see that I skipped Final Fantasy X. Well, that’s because I already reviewed it on my Top 10 series! 😀 If you want to read Final Fantasy X first, please go here! Talking about the top 10 series just made me remember that I have yet to do a post to wrap it up and to have in a certain place in my blog so it’s easy to get there for new visitors…. But I digress…

Just a little disclaimer… This is sequel of Final Fantasy X, so it’s impossible for me not to spoil the previous installment So if you don’t want to get spoiled about Final Fantasy X just click away, or skip to the part of gameplay/graphics/music (basically don’t read the story and characters XD).

NOW, let’s start it shall we?

The Story:

Let’s face it… We all started playing Final Fantasy X-2 with hopes of seeing Tidus coming back after his death/disappearance in Final Fantasy X. However, the main setting of the game is not that… But we will get there don’t worry!

So, the story happens after you have killed Sin and the “Eternal Calm” started. As you could imagine, people who believed that Yevon was the right way to go and felt that machinery was the source of Sin coming back just realized that was not the truth. This combined with the priests of Yevon choosing to expose the truth about the order made advanced technology and the Al Bhed to be embraced by the population as a whole. Sipira citizens started to pursue leisures such as attending musical concerts and participating in blitzball (At the present there is no worries of having a large amount of people together in one place). Others have become hunters of ancient treasures, such as spheres. Those who do this are called “Sphere Hunters”, Yuna and Rikku decided to join one of these groups, called the Gullwuing, 2 years after the pilgrimage. Yuna, of course, is doing this in the hope to find a way to bring Tidus back. So the main (and only playable characters) are Yuna, Rikku and a new addition Paine.

Due to the abandon of Yevon teachings, 3 different factions arised. The progressive Youth League, seeking a break from the past, the New Yevon Party, seeking more gradual change and a neutral party, Machina League. Having complete opposite ideals, it’s no surprise that the Youth League and New Yevon Party are building more and more tension between themselves.

Now that the setting is done, let’s go then to the story itself! 😛 During their missions, the Gullwings develop a rivalry with the Leblanc Syndicate, another spehere hunting group. A new technology is developed by one the Gullwings’ members which let our girls use the spheres to help them in battle as a dressphere (I’ll explain this better in the gameplay), however it’s important to mention that the Songstress dressphere has a special affinity with Yuna. That’s why Yuna is a singer most of the times and well it will be important to the main story at some point.

Gullwuings end up finding a sphere that contains images of a colossal machina weapon known as Vegnagun that comes from the time of a the Machina War a thousand years ago. This weapon is powerful enough to destroy Spira itself. This weapon is being roused by the ancient spirit of Shyun, a guy that seems to be really similar to Tidus (really, they could be brothers) and the one who Yuna saw in the sphere that made her pursue the career of sphere hunter.

As you can see, way similar!

And from here Yuna and her gang will be doing three separate things, deciding which faction should they support, trying to get the most spheres possible AND try to stop this machina from destroying… Well, the world.

For the ones who have played the game, I know there is more to that, but if I start telling much more I just end up spoiling the story. Because, yes, the story is not that long and it’s a little straight forward, but it is a good story for a sequel. It’s enough to show you how Spira ended up after Sin and well, how can you help Spira to become even better. Something I liked about this is that you can make some choices that will change the main plot, one for example is choosing which league to support. I mean, Yuna IS the summoner who defeated Sin once and for all, so people in Spira really do care what she has to say.

Other thing is, you have is 4 endings. I’m not going to tell you which one is what, because what is the fun to play the game if you know what is it going to happen in the end right? I will just say that, yes it is possible for Tidus to comeback AND I still didn’t do the perfect ending where you need to do the things you do to get a good ending AND have 100% on the game… Yeah there are many spheres to collect guys 😀

The characters:

I like the characters, although there is not much to add. You have Yuna and Rikku who are already well settled in Final Fantasy X, so they didn’t have to add much to their personalities. However, Yuna comes way more badass and upfront than she was in the previous installments… You know, killing something as powerful as Sin and losing a loved one can change you!

Then you have Paine who is the more masculine and cool kind of girl. I do like her though, she is really mature and calm when making decisions… I like those kind of characters 😛 And, although coming only in this installment, from the beginning you know that she is extremely loyal, although very secretive. And yes, you will have some of her background along the game so you can build that love for her!

The Gameplay:

So, here is where Final Fantasy X-2 shines the most (in my eyes).

The game is completely different regarding other Final Fantasy installments in what comes about the exploration part. You start with an airship from the beginning and the game is played through missions. Well, it’s not really what I prefer to be honest, but it would not make sense making you to explore Spira all over again. HOWEVER, there are many side quests to pursue and you can choose which ones to take, giving you the feeling of a not that linear plot since these side quests give you intel about the world, the characters, society, etc. Meaning, it is not only side quests for the sake of it, but quests that add value to the game more than just experience and items.

Now the battle system is one of the best in the Final Fantasy series, because of the dresspheres! What is this about dresspheres? Basically you can see them as a class. Each sphere as a class, such for example the singing one I talked about before. Ok, until here nothing that different right? The thing is… In Final Fantasy X-2 you can equip more than one class at the same time and when fighting you can SWITCH them middle-battle.

Well, this just blew my mind! Finally a game where you will not be always using the same classes that you know that need to have to be in your party for you to be able to beat it (such as white mage, fighter, black mage)… Nope in this case you can really go nuts and experiment all sort of combinations. And you will need to try different combinations since depending on the combinations you may find a special dressphere, unique to that character. I don’t remember how many there are, but I know it’s a lot, that I didn’t get all of them and that the “classes” are original, some of them you really didn’t see them before and that was refreshing.

The Graphics:

Graphics are good, basically it’s between Final Fantasy X (Which were already amazing) and Final Fantasy XII (which are also amazing). The best thing is without a doubt the dressings you have! Every time you change a dressphere you will change you clothing (makes sense right?) and they really did go to the detail in each one of them.

Yeah, that’s a lot right! And can you see all the different details in each clothes? It’s just spetacular!

Music:

Not my favourite… I’ve been listening to the OST while writing this and none of the musics gave me that feeling of nostalgia that you normally get with Final Fantasy music.  But, the music is good when thinking in RPG standards!! My favourite has to be 1000 Words (mobile users hear here).

And that’s it, to be honest, if Final Fantasy X-2 was a main installment it would not be that good, but since it’s a sequel from a game that gave you so much insight and build the world and the characters so well, this sequel just hits the spot. If you have played Final Fantasy X then I completely advice you to play this one… If not, get the Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD edition and just play both because you are missing out! 😀

I give Final Fantasy X-2 4 Dresspheres out of 5 Singing Gigs

Comment down below what do you think about this sequel! If not, comment down below if you are thinking on giving it a try! 😀

See You Soon 😀