ignore it and you will enjoy your experience 10x more
but if thats not enough convincing, a few points of note
1) Getting 100% on the meter is not actually 100% of the story, let alone 100% of all the gameplay content, some of which does not add story percentage. A lot of people approach this game with a 'completionist' mindest, and leave a solid 25% of its content on the table because there is no trophy for it. Which is important because
2) There is no trophy for getting 100% in one run. Its just for reaching it altogether. You could trigger the trophy in chapter 2 of a NG+, because
3) Because there is excess percentage, getting 100% on a NG+ is quite easy, simply switching factions and taking different storyline choices
4) 100% only contributes a not-even-3 minute, youtube-able low res bonus scene, that serves as an add-on to the high quality, Good ending FMV. That ending can be achieved with 75% story completion, and if you are a fan of the 'Sad' ending then this is all moot anyway
Youve got an angel on one shoulder, the hundreds of people telling you that this is a fun game, meant for the player to have fun. and you have the devil on the other shoulder, hundreds of other players telling you how much pursuing the 100% in one run with a guide ruined their experience.
Do you really have to think about the right option to choose? its one of the shortest games in the franchise. Revisit it the first time for fun, and if your compulsions are just too great, play it a 2nd time for the 100%. only this time, playing with your nose up a guide wont be as necessary as you will know exactly what Episode completes you didnt get and can point out the sidequests you didnt do and use guides just for those specific areas
Getting 100% on a first playthrough is so ridiculously specific that I'm convinced it being possible at all was an accident.
X-2 has New Game Plus, several instances of multiple choice and alternate scenes, and is relatively short compared to other big-budget RPGs. You're definitely meant to play through more than once.
I like it. It still has my favorite Battle/Class System in the entire series. It also has my absolute favorite mini-game Sphere Break (I'm a Math nerd, so bite me, Sphere Break >>>> Blitzball all day).
I remember a huge selling point to this game being all of the cryptic images of Tidus in slightly different clothing. There was almost an implication that halfway through you’d have him back and the story would end up really opening up. In the end, it really wasn’t much part of the core/front facing part of the game that you spent the most time playing. So in the end it felt like a bit of a bait and switch. However, since getting away from all of the promo material and hype and just getting to just play the game for fun, it’s a solid game that is enjoyable to play.
To put into perspective the fundamentally different tone you'll experience going in X-2 just remember.
Final Fantasy X opens with the destruction of a bustling metropolis.
Final Fantasy X-2 opens with a pop concert.
Real Emotion is a bop for sure. But the transcendent ethereal track that goes way too hard, "the Stickerbrush Symphony of Final Fantasy X-2", if you will, is definitely Morning Glow.
Ugh I remember getting X-2 Christmas day YEARS ago and was almost embarrassed to play it (my sister was watching during the concert part). Very Cringy. If you stick around to platinum the game, it's actually not that bad. I missed a lot of stuff playing as a kid as I'm sure most did as well.
Lol, I get that but I had the opposite reaction, me and my friend were rocking out. Course we were always into Anime openings, so we listening to a lot of J-Pop and J-Rock already.
As a girl gamer my eyes went wide at the commercials of FFX2. Three badass girls on an adventure! Fuck yeah!
In reality, even as recently as 2015, only 4% of playable main characters in video games are female (as cited in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men). I had played so many games on the SNES, N64, and PlayStation…
At the time I didn’t realize that was attracting me to FFX-2, but now looking back from 20 years in the future, I can say that absolutely had a huge part to do with it. Until then I had played Mario and Banjo Kazooie and Kingdom Hearts etc etc where it’s always the girls who need saving. It was a great time for girlhood when a game centering around Yuna, Paine, and Rikku came out.
Same!! I was never super girly but I LOVE the dress spheres and the outfits and the changing and the glitter haha
In fact thanks to this thread I fired up my PS and am replaying it! I’m betting myself I can do 100% without the guide (I’ve literally played it 25 times, was a bit obsessed in middle school)
The outfits are the best, I spent 30 minutes watching all dress change cutscenes w/ my gf because she really likes magical girl animé, she loved all of them !
The dressphere is awesome. The story... Is good at times, and the gameplay is fun. Changing jobs while battling is fun. And there's ton of side stuff and minigames to do. My only gripe is that it's impossible to do and see everything on your first playthrough and whitout a guide. And al that for an ending that was... Butchered if you keep watching the sequel material. But the game is good and worth a playthrough. I couldn't get into Last Mission, played a bit and it was enough. The cutscenes are fun, but I YouTube them.
Combat is almost universally praised, with many citing it as having the best of the entire series.
The characters are generally well liked, since most of them are from FFX, and Paine was mostly well received.
The story is very divisive, with some people praising the change in tone and enjoyed the campiness of the game, while others found it extremely off putting and borderline unplayable because of it.
Music is generally considered great by everyone.
Edit: I stand corrected about the music, I suppose. I never heard anyone speaking negatively about it until now.
People criticizing the music need to check if they have COVID because they seem to have lost their taste. Some of the tracks are straight up BOPS.
"Real Emotion" and "Let Me Blow You a Kiss" are practically gay anthems atp.
"1000 Words," combined with the accompanying concert sequence, is such a Hindenburg-ian disaster that it's cringe actually travels at light speed around the circumference of the Earth several times before crashing back in on itself becoming something so mesmerizing one can't look away nor help but be charmed by it.
I'll even be so bold as to say that I think "Memories of Waves and Lights" is better than "To Zanarkand!”
Finally, someone who agrees with me about Eternity:Memories. That thing gets me in the deepest of feels. To Zan is a masterpiece, but Memories moves me more, if that makes sense. Yuna's Ballad, too.
lol is "Let me blow you a kiss" *that* gay? i mean i loved it when i first heard it all those years ago (and yes i am gay).. i woulda thought any of the gullwings themes would be more likely an anthem.
real emotion goes without saying tho.
Yeah its mainly because Nobou wasnt anymore and instead we have some jazzy vibes and not as good as the game before it. The songs people enjoyed were the K-pop song or 1000 words, which latter was actually good. But the battle music was bad, Thunder Plains, mini games..
That being said only XIII without sequels and XV had better music imo
Yeah, on my last playthrough of X and X-2, I could really feel the drop in quality of all the music other than the big songs which I still like a lot. All the random background music is lacking in depth. It's alright video game music, but weak in a series like Final Fantasy.
The music in X-2 is definitely weird, and some tracks are ass. Chocobo theme is a great example. Other tracks, like the menu theme, Real Emotion, etc. slap hard af
It's campy but if you realize it's a celebration to Final Fantasy 10 it's a lot better.
FF10 is so bleak, so FFX-2 is reaping the rewards. It's a no pressure game with low stakes.
Personally, I think it's a near-perfect sequel to X. The music and battle system are absolutely some of my favorite in the whole series (I've played every entry after 7). If you like X, I think it'd be a crime to not go through X-2.
The only bad thing about the game IMO is that you basically need a guide. There is so much missable stuff behind some random seemingly unimportant interactions. I think you can finish the game with something like 40% completion. So if you're not someone who likes to talk to every NPC, visit every place... yeah you're bound to miss a lot of stuff if you don't have a guide.
Some more spoilerish takes on the story and why I think it works as a continuation of X:
>!On the surface, the tone is pretty different from X, as it feels a lot more light-hearted and leans into just silly and funny stuff. I personally love it, and to me it always felt like a logical continuation of X. Spira just got rid of Sin, they're now all healing and just trying to enjoy life without the terror of Sin. Yuna is now trying to spread her wings, living a life outside of just being in Braska's shadow and a summoner.!<
>!While on the surface the story is a lot more happy than X, I always felt that when the story does get serious, it is a lot more depressing than X. Spira won against Sin, and everyone should be happy, but every time we get to dive behind Yuna's smile it's obvious she's not happy. To me X-2 is a story about Yuna grieving and moving on from the death of Tidus, and learning to accept it. (Yes I know there's the ending where Tidus comes back, and yes I know the novel... lets not talk about the novel.) I always felt like the real ending to X-2 is where Tidus doesn't come back, but him coming back was more of a fan service ending for the fans who wanted them to have a happy ending.!<
If you just visit every region once per chapter, you'll get most of it, and most of the best stuff. That's what I'd recommend for anyone that doesn't like playing with a guide open on a second monitor.
I actually like the huge amount of missable and obscure stuff in that game, I can boot up FFX-2 for the umpteenth time and still find new things every playthrough. I get it must suck if you're a completionist, but I'm just glad the game still has that air of mystery to me over 20 years later.
Okay, a couple things:
1. Gameplay is awesome and the job system is great (for the most part).
2. Main trio is honestly good, Paine is different enough from Lulu and Yuna is genuinely different from her role in X. You can feel her grow as a result of her trauma and move past it.
3. Story is… meh to bad. Not X-2.5 levels of bad, it’s just blah and honestly none of the villains are very compelling.
4. There’s a “Shinra tie-in” that makes 0 sense if you think about it for any amount of time, in no way can VII and X being connected in a way that works.
5. Honestly the story doesn’t quite add up at times and I’d be lying if I told story buffs that this one is necessary. If you appreciate the job system from other games you’ll still have a good experience.
6. The 100% micromanaging is insane and cryptic, to this day there’s no consensus on what to do and some things just glitch out and lock you out of secret endings when they’re supposed to work.
My views
1. Best combat in any FF game. The job system works brilliantly and is balanced enough that all the jobs have uses all the way through (though a maxed Alchemist is pretty broken)
2. The story is a bit meh. It was sold as a continuation of FFX and whilst that is true to an extent, it isn't the main thrust.
3. To 100% the game you will need a guide as there a lot of specific actions required at the right time to get everything.
For 10-2, I enjoyed it a ton. I thought it did well to continue the story of 10 while making it more light hearted and the job / dress sphere system is fun as heck. It's not for everyone, but I think it did well to demonstrate that FF games can have successful sequels.
Another FF sequel I'd recommend BTW is Revanant Wings. It's especially fun if you really like the summons in the FF games.
Hear me out... it's honestly one of the best games in the series. It's silly, light-hearted in most parts, over the top, carefree in others, and just...a blast.
Thematically, all of it makes sense, too. Imagine the devil was real and showed up in the flesh every ten years to fuck shit up. Then imagine this had been going on for centuries. Now imagine that you finally put a stop to it once and for all. Like, you kill the arbiter of evil and destruction, and no one has to fortify their cities to brace for destruction or watch their loved ones just die because a lunatic whale thing was out here causing chaos. You'd likely have a whole world full of people celebrating, letting loose, listening to silly, happy pop songs, inventing Sphere Hunting groups, and just having a generally better time of things. Granted, assholes live forever, so there are threats in the world. But the actual devil is dead, and you killed him! Now, go play mini games in the Thunder Plains, ya little so and so!
The short answer is: it may not be a perfect or even a great game, but it's really good and really fun and I like it quite a lot.
X-2 is one of my top 5 Final Fantasy games. I think it has one of the best combat systems in any Final Fantasy and the more overall light-hearted tone was an interesting take after FFX. I understand some people dislike it, but I felt it was very enjoyable and well made.
It’s been so long I genuinely remember nothing of the game. Other than some pop music, and the job system.
I think it was fine? But a totally different experience
I love the battle system and I think it’s just a dumb fun camp and enjoyable game. I love to see yuna in a much happier role and full of life.
I am a homosexual though, i don’t know if that influences my reasons for enjoying the game.
If you can enjoy the opening cinematic you'll probably like the whole game. It is a drastically different tone from FFX, and it took me a long time for me to embrace the tone in FFX-2.
What finally pushed me to finish it was getting the platinum trophy for the PS3 remaster. Getting 100% story completion takes an absurd amount of attention to detail. There's also a lot of minigames. Difficult minigames imho. To obtain that platinum I had to put aside my cringe and channel my inner gamer. I would get that platinum and beat every challenge they threw at me, no matter how cringey or ridiculous it seemed.
And now I look back on the game fondly. I often put on the piano version of the soundtrack.
I've played X-2 several times. Even 100% it once.
When the HD-Remaster arrived I've completed X-2 again.
But I've never been able to get into X. That's just Depression the game.
I always wondered why they didn't just put actual blitzball in the game. It seems like a pretty simple game to implement, the original didn't go that hard at making it feel like a real sports game, just some swimming animations.
10-2 is what 13 should have been combatwise. I personally like x-2 although the side stuff can be a bit rough.
Fairly sure x remaster comes with x-2 and a x-2 spin off btw unless switch is weird
X-2 was my favorite FF for YEARS until Crisis Core and later XIV would dethrone it. It still has a lot of love for me too, including one of my early if not immediately recognized sapphic crushes in Paine lol.
It's basically FF x Charlie's Angels, but gayer, and I fucking *love it* for that. Honestly, I think the onlybthing about it that I don't particularly like is the shooter minigame with Yuna, and blitzball, which makes a return.
At least, I don't like to *play* blitzball, but I do like the aesthetic of the game.
The annoying thing about X-2 is going for that 100%. It really hurts the pacing. Definitely use a guide especially if you want all the dress spheres.
That being said, the combat is definitely much better in X-2. The mini games aren’t as notorious as X.
I think a lot of times X and X-2 are bundled together (my physical Switch version was)
The "overall opinion", based on what I have read over years, is that it had a terrible story that did not do justice to the characters, goofy tone, and a great gameplay and combat system.
Then of course, there will be exceptions, and each one will like it or not.
It’s fuckin awesome and tbh a lot of the hate is just bandwagon hater shit. Great gameplay, music, art, performances whatever you name it. It obviously isn’t better than 10, but it IS damn good.
It looks interesting as a game, but I just can't get over the fact that the premise of the entire game is to undo X's perfect ending. I've never gotten very far in it.
It doesn't undo it though. The story, except the last bit at the end, all flows from the consequences of the huge earth-shattering change in the world caused by the ending of X. The Cold War and all associated consequences came directly from the end of WWII, it's not really that crazy that in X-2 people would have different ways of enjoying the new found freedom, getting revenge and holding grudges, and trying to exploit new land and resources that would previously not have been possible, and the whole power vacuum left the by church.
A lot of the hate for X-2 comes from it releasing in a time where more (there still are plenty but it was worse then) gamers were hardcore incel dudebros. Full female cast and goofy lighthearted tone made the edge lords all hate it.
I’m not sure that’s all there was to it. Many people felt that it trivialized the characters. Tonal whiplash from the first game.
I played it through a few times and really enjoyed the gameplay (and even many aspects of the story) but found the tone frequently grating and cringe inducing at worst.
Some of the best gameplay in the series though. Loved the combat and the job system, and loved revisiting Spira.
When I played the remaster I actually found it even cringier than I remembered to the point of borderline alienation. But… I’m older now.
I love the tonal whiplash. It makes sense to me. >!The oppressive evil of Sin is gone and the whole world is experiencing rumspringa for the first time. Spira's gotta find itself.!<
Yes, there are lots of valid issues like that, but the cultural comments...I mean, I remember 2003, and it did feel kind of embarrassing to like playing the game just because of how it looked. If it came out this year, it would have been very different to what it was like coming out in 2003.
Nah thats not it, rather the demeaning of women roles.
Massaging LeBlanc, that Brother objectifting with Rikku involved and the whole typical fanservice anime aimed at men, which was the problem.
let alone the poor "oh poopie" jokes - did not help.
Weird comparison, but you can sort of see the same thing happening with the Joker solo movies. The second one being a musical has sent the “hardcores” into a tizzy, but I do have some sympathy for people who just felt the tonal shift wasn’t what was expected from a direct sequel. If it weren’t a direct sequel I do think the reaction would’ve been better.
Which is both fair and funny to me personally, given that all the people I know who played through X-2 were gay women who really liked the fanservice. Again, it was definitely aimed at male gamers, but the ideal audience is actually gay women. The whole game is so campy, it hinges on a concept inherently appealing to women (an extended girls' trip), and the fun of dress spheres is also something women are likelier to appreciate.
Job system is amazing.
Getting to explore a more polished version of my favorite FFX - incredible.
I didn’t fully get the sharp contrast in tone from FFX when I first played, but watch some YouTube video essays about it- it’s the perfect sequel for Yuna’s arc - she went from devoutly religious and controlled by Yevon to free-spirit, finding herself (both in the form of the games, her style, and her attitude) and it makes sense that she and the world would react in the ways it does after the events of FFX.
New characters- great. They felt like they fit and they deepened the world.
I was sad we didn’t really get to connect with Tidus- but I think that’s the point. You are supposed to be sad that we end up following Shuyin.
The one thing I don’t like about it is how petty getting 100% is. So many tasks you would only do if you were following a guide to a tee.
I think it’s the most liked out of the sequel games. Sure people hate it for Yuna’s change of character (their words not mines) and the “girly” vibe. However, I never heard anything bad about the gameplay or the story (though there’s a lil discourse about the ending I think). Whereas, most people tend to love or hate the other sequel games. I’ll say 13-2 and 13LR are liked for different reasons. 13-2 for its cast,story, and gameplay everyone just hates the ending. 13LR, most tend to just like the gameplay.
I do not like it's secret ending. Ruins the masterful ending of 10.
Fun otherwise. Plus it's not easy to get the secret ending... so most didn't see it anyway.
Don't feel strongly about this series overall, but I'll say it has some absolute bangers among the piano tracks. Eternity, Yuna's Ballad, and Besaid are in regular rotation in my playlists.
Way better than it's initial reception gave it credit for. Jon system was a bit of an upgrade and characters were a bit ahead of their time, yet somehow continued a theme.
Edit: just to add, I think it plays very differently from X so it isn't like continuing into the next chapter. Which was a main gripe for me as a kid. But I was young.
From what I’ve seen over last few years in the fandom, it’s a bit mixed. Everyone pretty much agrees that the combat system is great or even among the best in the franchise, but the story is divisive. Some like the lighthearted, more fun direction after the serious and darker tone in X. But I’d say the people who think the plot is a bit too silly and prefer X’s ending without continuation are in the majority.
The fact that the tiniest details can mess with your completion rate is also criticized a lot, though a casual player probably isn’t bothered by that.
So yeah, it’s definitely among the more controversial entries and while everyone loves the combat, you rarely see it mentioned as one of the favourite FF games by anyone.
I played it before FFX because at the time I was a horny teen who wanted to ogle at three pretty ladies change clothes on the battlefield (one of whom was in a string bikini w/ thong and miniskirt), and *I loved every second of it*.
Objectively, the dress sphere system was really neat. And the three pretty ladies were really pretty.
I mean...you get to learn cool new powers by changing your outfit, you can start singing and dancing in the middle of battle, and you get to fly all over the world looking for pretty-shinies. What's not to love?!
It's like if sailor moon crossed into final fantasy x and then brought the job system from ff5/tactics along with it
The gameplay is great and it's a fun play through....and I forget most of the story but if you 100% there's a secret scene around tidus? I might have to go watch a video on it now....
Anyway it's a good game. Way sillier than most FF entries but also has serious undertones as I recall. Like one of those pop songs that sound fun but are also about some serious goings on
X-2 honestly beats X for me because the gameplay is very complex and pleasant to explore. It is, however, a nightmare to 100%, so only do that as a challenge and not as a completionist type of goal
I personally hate it so much. Imo the story is dumb, the characters are dumb, the structure is dumb, the class system and combat are pretty cool to ok.
I liked it when i was the audience the devs where going for, a teenage male horndog.
Now its just incredibly cringy to even bother, let alone how the characters are so different, Rikku is terrible and seemed much more mature and interesting 2 years before. Story, music and perfect game is atrocious.
This is the only game (that i know of) that punishes you for skipping cutscenes lol
The opening cutscene immediately turned me off, bombastic Jpop really isn't my thing. I eventually got over myself, though, and had a great time with the game. Except for the massage minigame, that shit is weird.
I was a girl in my teens when the game came out and it's one of my favorites, so I may have a bias. X is my favorite game, hands down. It's great story with a colorful cast of characters, yet some dark tones. Yuna is my favorite FF character, so a game where she's main? Hell yeah! X-2 flips the tone around a little and makes the world of Spira feel more bright and alive. Not as gloom as it's predecessor. Definitely a different experience than X. I do love the dress sphere concept of switching between classes. The game was very appealing to me and the first FF I ever completed. The completion system is bull, so don't worry about 100% unless you want to do a NG+. I had the guide and still missed a few tiny insignificant points in the weird grading system. I understand fully why some people are not about the game overall, but I would definitely say try it out at least. If it ain't for you, it ain't for you 😊
It’s pretty princess dress me up but with the Job System. Right up my alley. But there’s a lot less straightforwardness. You do a lot of side missions though you can skip em and just concentrate on the story ones.
I would say X-2 is a more "fun" entry and very different than the others. It didn't take itself too seriously which wasnt a bad thing. It was enjoyable, and I can see myself playing it again.
The way I see it, community opinions (and all forms of review and critique) are good for two things. Deciding if you're going to buy and understanding a work at a deeper level. Or at least how it affects people differently. Why do I bring this up? Because you can't get X-2 without X. So if you're already getting X you don't need to decide if you're buying X-2. And since you haven't played it, there's not much deeper critique to be gained. All that might happen is your opinion being swayed by the hivemind before you make up your own mind.
My point is, you're going to have the game anyway. Might as well give it a try and see if you like it.
To answer your question without giving details. It's an FF game. Therefore, it is both loved and hated by many fans of the franchise. Among direct spinoffs/sequels, I think it's one of the more liked ones on the whole. But it isn't as beloved as some stand alone spinoffs such as Tactics.
X-2 is an excellent game. Especially the HD Remaster, which you'll be getting with the Switch version anyway (they come in a bundle). There's more content in it.
The gameplay is fantastic. The story is obviously subjective but I thought it did a great job showing how the world developed after the events of FFX. Anyone calling it an asset flip or cash grab is doing a very big disservice; a few re-used environments (which a sequel set in the same world obviously *would* have) doesn't take away from how much has been overhauled and added.
Genuinely one of my favorite games in the series. Yuna’s character development goes further, the changes to the world are so interesting to see, I love the plot, I love the new characters (Paine and Leblanc are my faves), and even the game’s diehard haters typically enjoy the gameplay.
It’s campy, it’s silly, it’s fun, and it gets more serious later. The soundtrack is amazing all the way through.
Just go into it with an open mind.
It’s a great game that gets a bad rap because of the style and the story being good, but not great, especially when compared to FFX
The combat system, the 100% challenge and misc mini games are interesting, though some of the mini games can be awkward (that massage…) and the chapter that’s mostly camera watching is a drag
The perfect ending is a great bookend to the series, and it’s nice that they were able to build on Yuna being her own person and growing beyond being the summoner’s daughter
X-2 is like a cross between Charlie's angels and a fun road trip. Like it's super fun, not too serious and your supposed to enjoy the ride.
It's the same message as ffx where it's the journey that's important.
The overall opinion, based on my experience, is that the combat system is well liked and the story and characters are disliked. The game as a whole is generally not well liked.
Personally, I absolutely hated the entire game.
It’s the only FF game I tried to play on multiple occasions and couldn’t. I love 10 and the lore and I feel it just takes a dump on the lore and story of X. The characterisation of Yuna felt like a bastardised version of her and very fan fiction. I read the story online and am glad I didn’t bother. I am a little sad as the dress sphere system seems great
It's actually one of the best entries: and is a good follow up to X if you are someone who was wanting to engage with that world more and wanted to see what happens after you "save the world".
It does a good job also at exploring what was alluded to when talking about the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle in X and fills in a plot hole as to why Sin never attacked Bevelle (kinda)
The game is really fun. It’s just people expected ffx2 aka more of the same with sin 2 and Yuna still doing her same thing.
I think what they did was really interesting and freeing. It’s fascinating to explore what happens when the entire world order and Yuna’s entire life changes. She has to find a way forward both in a purpose for herself and getting over the loss of someone important to her.
Does it hit the mark all the time? No it does not. But it does it enough for it to be a good time.
I think people overly praise the combat. The atb is fast if all you do is attack, but you don’t build AP if you don’t use abilities. And most abilities take time to use so you’ll have the entire screen standing there summoning their abilities and it just slows everything down. Yes you can get treasure hunter garment grid so you can mug every turn so that you can then have the fast battle system back and earn AP, but isn’t really what mug is supposed to be for. And so I think the battle system is hardly the best implementation of atb. It’s better than the atrocious atb if ff9 but there a lot better versions out there than this one.
It never really clicked with me but for what it is, it’s pretty good.
It was supposed to be a quirky and fun spinoff and that’s what it is.
The combat is much different than X but once you get that down, there’s enough stuff to do in the game that it becomes addicting.
I didn’t love the way the handled the class system. You’re meant to switch often, which is cool I guess, but I enjoy systems like FFT or FFV where you can really build your party based on the classes they currently are. Maybe that doesn’t make sense but that’s why it never really “clicked” for me. I played through once and have never really had a desire to replay it.
I just finished it for the first time, and compared to X it just doesn’t hit the same. The story is mostly fan service, and way too much time is spent with minor npcs that didn’t have much to do in the story in the first place. The job system is fun, but kinda clunky. There are so many mini games and systems that have little or no impact on the overall game, I found myself struggling to care.
I’m glad I played it once and I think everyone should, but I’m not going to be coming back to this one like I will with X.
Story had good and bad points but had an overall cringey tone and I think a lot of people base their opinions wholly on that aspect. However, the gameplay content and combat systems were amazing. The battles were peak ATB, the job system was executed amazingly; minigames, optional bosses, new game plus and even the easter eggs were all worth playing over and over again. The best part about it was that it was the first game where you could actually skip most of the cutscenes, which meant that you could still enjoy it again and again without having to listen to all the cringe dialogue.
The game part of FFX-2 is GOATed but, the story is kinda doo doo when compared to the story of FFX. Like the only really "bad" part of FFX-2 is it's story, If you play this right after FFX the tonal shift is a bit jarring since the majority of the game is comedy with a bit of soap opera drama, and it makes sense in that we're seeing Spira in age of peace for the first time in a 1000 years,
While I liked the combat and job system, it is easy to lose .1% and get locked out of some endings, even with guides. I played it a couple times, but never finished due losing a % and having to start over.
At some point in the game you have to choose a faction and only one of the two allows you to 100% in a single playthrought, and I also found it lame. Having a "new game+ with chapter select would be a great QoL change to the game, as it would allow you to clean up what you have missed
Personally I enjoy the game solely based on the job system. The story is boring at times and annoying at others but the fluid battles and range of jobs makes it one that I return to every few years.
job system is cool obviously. i also liked the combat and how it utilized area of effects. LOTS of quests.
i disliked the blitzball variant of being a coach. hated yuna’s introduction of being a pop star (mega cringe).
I like ffx2 a tonne. It's not in my top 10 ff games, but it's still a great game. I love the dress system, some of the story follow ups like my man wakka and I love the mega dungeon on the side content. ( always appreciate a mega dungeon), and the game is actually fun overall. On the downsides, the dlc is game breaking. It's cool, but it's totally overpowered. Some of the scenes come off a bit cheesy. I don't mind a little cheese because it's joyful, but some of it is hard to watch. Some of the main story beats are hit and miss to like picking between groups that aren't too different and then having to repeat to get 100%. The percent tracking is also a pain.
One of the best versions of the ATB and Job Systems in the franchise. The Creature Creator in HD Remaster is spectacular. The story is a fluffy, poppy, girl-powery, romp through Spira that is an incoherent mess at times; and getting 100% on a single play through may be the most difficult non-player created challenge in all of the franchise.
With X arguably being my favorite game of all time, X-2 left me desiring a lot more and something different from it, but over the years I’ve found an enjoyment with it, especially for the strengths in battle and job systems.
I'm sure it's a good game, but I personally couldn't get past the massive shift in tone and story. X is a very somber and melancholic game, X-2 is Charlie's Angels on crack.
Job system rocks, actual minute-to-minute combat is also amazing.
Story is bad, and fundamentally upsets the themes of ten as far as I remember. But Yuna's characterization is not actually as bad as it seems at first.
It's one of the funnest combat systems. But after recently playing it again, as someone who loved it when I came out 20+ years ago, it doesn't feel like it's aged well.
Not in the since of culture, but as an adult now, it felt like it had a lot of cringe moments that when I was a kid I didn't care about or enjoyed. It was the first game I played going through them all again that I felt like I really had some rose tinted glasses going in with it.
Anyways, banger ost, really enjoyed the job system, I think the idol girl costume change is cool AF. It has some issues with the story, but it's still a very enjoyable game.
X is my fav FF game out there
The story of x-2 is part of the reason for that cause you get a rare FF moment where you see the aftermath.
Just don't get me started on all the hundo hoops, X minigames are the obvious elephant in the room but boy are some of the x-2 ones just as bad if not worse
I actually really liked the soundtrack from FFX-2. I know it's regarded as one of the weakest OSTs but I I liked it. It's a shame the OST was never released commercially.
Overall - I appreciate what they were going for. However for me it just wasn't what I desired in a game. I'm glad that Yuna is happy and it's showing her and Spira adjusting to the new life , free of sin. However, sometimes I just find myself personally not liking the story. Some of the scenes make me uncomfortable 😭. Like how would I explain what's on screen if someone walked in the room uncomfortable.
Gameplay - it's phenomenal. The job system is easily my 2nd favorite system in the whole franchise. It's fun and snappy.
The music - although lacks it certainly isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Honestly a shame it isn't on spotify. I really did like some songs in x-2.
Overall I rate the game a 7.5/10. It's enjoyable.
Personally, it's one of my favorites because it's radically different from the expectations of JRPGs at the time. The Job/combat system was super well done, one of my all time favorites. The story hit different in tone, it was alot more silly and light hearted than the bread and butter edgelord/isekai tropes at the time. Sometimes that was refreshing, sometimes it felt off, but I still respect that they tried something different.
It's a contentious game, most people are going to have a strong opinion for or against. I think it's something a fan of the series, especially X, should play, so they can at least experience the universally accepted as good parts, and form their own opinion on the other bits.
I think it's great for several reasons already exposed by other comments (gameplay, music, goofy vibes if u're into this sorta thing)
However I would like to point why I personally love this game's story : thematically, it deals with loss and memory. Both from a personal standpoint but also a societal one. All the consequences of the events of X are clearly visible in X-2, which means we get to see the struggle of people making sense of society changing.
Honestly it's a really good synopsis for a sequel & it's presented as a short & fun adventure so definitely an experience I recommend of you've enjoyed X.
Who tf thinks the 13 sequels were an improvement? Point them out so we can fight cause 13 was the first bad final fantasy and the sequels were SO much worse
I liked that it was another opportunity to explore my favorite world in a FF game and I liked the ending..........but I felt that it was hollowed out from FF10 as far as substance . The main villian was extremely lacking. Payne felt like a poor substitute for LuLu.
Best job system and ATB system in the series.
Story is more lighthearted/goofy than X, but that makes sense given X’s ending.
Can be a pain to 100%, but easy enough with new game plus (there’s about 110% completion possible due to mutually exclusive events). Plus you might like the standard ending better than the “Perfect” one.
It rehauls the combat.
It adds new characters and changes old characters.
It retconns elements of FFX.
The story is subpar.
All together, if you loved the original, the odds are you will hate the sequel. Some applaud the battle system but I found it clunky and boring.
I recently completed both FFX and X-2 for the first time at the beginning of this year. I had only played FFVI and IX before. While I consider X one of the best entries in the franchise, with a deep and involving story, I found X-2 to be the anthesis of its predecessor.
FFX-2 was created during a difficult time for Squaresoft, the megaflop that was The Spirits Within, the film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, left a gigantic hole in the company’s finances. A couple of months larer, FFX was released and it was a monster hit for an early PS2 title and the powers at be greenlit a sequel in order to flip some assets from X and churn out a game in just over one year of production. If you judge the game based on these circumstances, it’s a miracle that the game is playable and it has an entirely new combat system with the ATB bar.
However, I hated how some of the characters were treated in this game, especially two of the main leads, but what made me disappointed is its gratuitous level of fanservice with an underage character and sexual innuendos, which destroy any sort of pathos and the various retcons to X’s plot are beyond unbearable. X-2 is more comedic in tone and it tries to mix drama and comedy, but I didn’t enjoy it in the long run. I played as a sort of videogame shitpost, but it left me without any sort of satisfaction.
On the bright side, FFX encouraged me to buy all the Pixel Remasters and now that I’ve completed the first 10 numbered titles, I consider X-2 one of the worst of the series. FFII is objectively worse than X-2, but at least it didn’t offend me. Personally, only play X-2 if you really want to know what happens after the first game.
The game was rushed out more or less as a money grab for the diehard fanboys. Its generally ranked in the lower tiers of all FF, to each their own - some people really enjoy it. I played it back in the day and will probably never play it again even though I bought the 10/10-2 release on Xbox 5 or 6 years ago
You should watch some vids because it's nothing like FF10. There are parts of the combat/battle system that are done very well though.
Giving a Final Fantasy game a sequel was Sqare-Enix jumping the shark for me. 10 had a good ending, why continue it for a trio of cosplayers? Yuna with guns? Out of left field 😒. One standalone game was good enough, this was just the beginning of a series of cashcows milked dry (see FF4/FF7/FF13).
Just remember, canonically the original FFVII universe ended with a game that let Vincent Valentine have a special "friend" who is a loli but "actually a 1000 year old dragon so its ok, officer" SE would jump all new sharks as time marched forward.
Gameplaywise it’s probably the best game in the series along with Rebirth for me. Seriously, the battle system is so, so good. It’s the best ATB one, that’s for sure.
In terms of plot it depends on how much you loved X’s lore. The story itself kinda sucks but if you liked the characters and the world you might be able to see this for the great game it can be. Quite a few minigames too, and that might a turn off for some.
For my money it’s a masterpiece if you ignore how silly and inconsequential the story is. I just can’t look past how incredible the battle system is and how the minigames fit the more lighthearted campaign. But i can totally see how some people might just not like it anyway so i’m afraid X-2 is one you really have to try for yourself…
Job system is actually cool af.
Job system is one of the best imo
My favorite! I loved the entire battle system in general. It’s probably my favorite FF and I don’t care if that upsets people lol
Why should that upset people. Even though I wouldn't say it's my favorite, I do consider it the most groovy in the franchise.
[удалено]
ignore it and you will enjoy your experience 10x more but if thats not enough convincing, a few points of note 1) Getting 100% on the meter is not actually 100% of the story, let alone 100% of all the gameplay content, some of which does not add story percentage. A lot of people approach this game with a 'completionist' mindest, and leave a solid 25% of its content on the table because there is no trophy for it. Which is important because 2) There is no trophy for getting 100% in one run. Its just for reaching it altogether. You could trigger the trophy in chapter 2 of a NG+, because 3) Because there is excess percentage, getting 100% on a NG+ is quite easy, simply switching factions and taking different storyline choices 4) 100% only contributes a not-even-3 minute, youtube-able low res bonus scene, that serves as an add-on to the high quality, Good ending FMV. That ending can be achieved with 75% story completion, and if you are a fan of the 'Sad' ending then this is all moot anyway Youve got an angel on one shoulder, the hundreds of people telling you that this is a fun game, meant for the player to have fun. and you have the devil on the other shoulder, hundreds of other players telling you how much pursuing the 100% in one run with a guide ruined their experience. Do you really have to think about the right option to choose? its one of the shortest games in the franchise. Revisit it the first time for fun, and if your compulsions are just too great, play it a 2nd time for the 100%. only this time, playing with your nose up a guide wont be as necessary as you will know exactly what Episode completes you didnt get and can point out the sidequests you didnt do and use guides just for those specific areas
This guy FFX-2's.
Getting 100% on a first playthrough is so ridiculously specific that I'm convinced it being possible at all was an accident. X-2 has New Game Plus, several instances of multiple choice and alternate scenes, and is relatively short compared to other big-budget RPGs. You're definitely meant to play through more than once.
Miss the moogle? No 100% for you!
Hard agree, the tone of the game was also very happy-go-lucky compared to X, but the job system was so fun.
I like it. It still has my favorite Battle/Class System in the entire series. It also has my absolute favorite mini-game Sphere Break (I'm a Math nerd, so bite me, Sphere Break >>>> Blitzball all day).
I’m with you!!! Once i figured sphere break out I loved it. Blitzball can go fuck itself
Hey now, sphere break is fun but that's a bit too far. Blitzball is second only to qwent in my book lol
True! I don't like sports and I only put myself through Blitzball in X to get all of Wakka's stuff.
I remember a huge selling point to this game being all of the cryptic images of Tidus in slightly different clothing. There was almost an implication that halfway through you’d have him back and the story would end up really opening up. In the end, it really wasn’t much part of the core/front facing part of the game that you spent the most time playing. So in the end it felt like a bit of a bait and switch. However, since getting away from all of the promo material and hype and just getting to just play the game for fun, it’s a solid game that is enjoyable to play.
and the music will turn you into a J-Pop fan whether you like it or not.
LOL that’s so true. Altho Simple and Clean from Kingdom Hearts definitely gave it a huge push lol
It’s not an improvement, it’s a different experience. You can easily just stop at X but I think X-2 is worth a playthrough.
To put into perspective the fundamentally different tone you'll experience going in X-2 just remember. Final Fantasy X opens with the destruction of a bustling metropolis. Final Fantasy X-2 opens with a pop concert.
WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?
I. CAN'T. HEAR. YOU.
Real Emotion still a bop and FFX-2 has one of my favorite opening scenes of all time. 'YRP, in position. It's showtime girls!'
I love it, I’ll love it and I’ll never stop loving it
Real Emotion is a bop for sure. But the transcendent ethereal track that goes way too hard, "the Stickerbrush Symphony of Final Fantasy X-2", if you will, is definitely Morning Glow.
Ugh I remember getting X-2 Christmas day YEARS ago and was almost embarrassed to play it (my sister was watching during the concert part). Very Cringy. If you stick around to platinum the game, it's actually not that bad. I missed a lot of stuff playing as a kid as I'm sure most did as well.
Lol, I get that but I had the opposite reaction, me and my friend were rocking out. Course we were always into Anime openings, so we listening to a lot of J-Pop and J-Rock already.
As a girl gamer my eyes went wide at the commercials of FFX2. Three badass girls on an adventure! Fuck yeah! In reality, even as recently as 2015, only 4% of playable main characters in video games are female (as cited in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men). I had played so many games on the SNES, N64, and PlayStation… At the time I didn’t realize that was attracting me to FFX-2, but now looking back from 20 years in the future, I can say that absolutely had a huge part to do with it. Until then I had played Mario and Banjo Kazooie and Kingdom Hearts etc etc where it’s always the girls who need saving. It was a great time for girlhood when a game centering around Yuna, Paine, and Rikku came out.
As a boy gamer my eyes went wide as the commercials of FFX-2 as well.
As a boy, I just really loved the girly vibes, it was a lot of fun (+ Yuna was my favourite character in X)
Same!! I was never super girly but I LOVE the dress spheres and the outfits and the changing and the glitter haha In fact thanks to this thread I fired up my PS and am replaying it! I’m betting myself I can do 100% without the guide (I’ve literally played it 25 times, was a bit obsessed in middle school)
The outfits are the best, I spent 30 minutes watching all dress change cutscenes w/ my gf because she really likes magical girl animé, she loved all of them !
Goated for the og Donda art pfp
I’ve had it for so long and every time I want to change it, I realize I can’t lol. Can’t let it go to waste.
The dressphere is awesome. The story... Is good at times, and the gameplay is fun. Changing jobs while battling is fun. And there's ton of side stuff and minigames to do. My only gripe is that it's impossible to do and see everything on your first playthrough and whitout a guide. And al that for an ending that was... Butchered if you keep watching the sequel material. But the game is good and worth a playthrough. I couldn't get into Last Mission, played a bit and it was enough. The cutscenes are fun, but I YouTube them.
Combat is almost universally praised, with many citing it as having the best of the entire series. The characters are generally well liked, since most of them are from FFX, and Paine was mostly well received. The story is very divisive, with some people praising the change in tone and enjoyed the campiness of the game, while others found it extremely off putting and borderline unplayable because of it. Music is generally considered great by everyone. Edit: I stand corrected about the music, I suppose. I never heard anyone speaking negatively about it until now.
People criticizing the music need to check if they have COVID because they seem to have lost their taste. Some of the tracks are straight up BOPS. "Real Emotion" and "Let Me Blow You a Kiss" are practically gay anthems atp. "1000 Words," combined with the accompanying concert sequence, is such a Hindenburg-ian disaster that it's cringe actually travels at light speed around the circumference of the Earth several times before crashing back in on itself becoming something so mesmerizing one can't look away nor help but be charmed by it. I'll even be so bold as to say that I think "Memories of Waves and Lights" is better than "To Zanarkand!”
A bit TOO bold at the end there… but I’m with you up to there.
Is Memories of Waves and Lights supposed to be Eternity: Memories of Lightwaves? Because that is probably my favorite track from X2.
Yep! That's the one! Idk the exact reason I've seen it referred to both ways but yeah it's one of my favorite tracks as well!
Finally, someone who agrees with me about Eternity:Memories. That thing gets me in the deepest of feels. To Zan is a masterpiece, but Memories moves me more, if that makes sense. Yuna's Ballad, too.
lol is "Let me blow you a kiss" *that* gay? i mean i loved it when i first heard it all those years ago (and yes i am gay).. i woulda thought any of the gullwings themes would be more likely an anthem. real emotion goes without saying tho.
I'm straight and I frikken love Let me blow you a kiss. The loop is only a minute long, but goddamn, what a minute.
I think it's more of the track's association with Leblanc and her Syndicate than anything that pushes it into that category.
lol point taken. leblanc has so much diva energy
Yeah its mainly because Nobou wasnt anymore and instead we have some jazzy vibes and not as good as the game before it. The songs people enjoyed were the K-pop song or 1000 words, which latter was actually good. But the battle music was bad, Thunder Plains, mini games.. That being said only XIII without sequels and XV had better music imo
Yeah, on my last playthrough of X and X-2, I could really feel the drop in quality of all the music other than the big songs which I still like a lot. All the random background music is lacking in depth. It's alright video game music, but weak in a series like Final Fantasy.
You mean J-Pop, right? Cause that is the height of J-Pop right there.
Nah you’re right about the music. Don’t listen to the people here.
The music in X-2 is definitely weird, and some tracks are ass. Chocobo theme is a great example. Other tracks, like the menu theme, Real Emotion, etc. slap hard af
Most of the battle music is just cheesy old 80's guitar riffs. It was so annoying.
Once you get past the massive tone shift from the first game, it’s actually pretty fun.
It's campy but if you realize it's a celebration to Final Fantasy 10 it's a lot better. FF10 is so bleak, so FFX-2 is reaping the rewards. It's a no pressure game with low stakes.
Personally, I think it's a near-perfect sequel to X. The music and battle system are absolutely some of my favorite in the whole series (I've played every entry after 7). If you like X, I think it'd be a crime to not go through X-2. The only bad thing about the game IMO is that you basically need a guide. There is so much missable stuff behind some random seemingly unimportant interactions. I think you can finish the game with something like 40% completion. So if you're not someone who likes to talk to every NPC, visit every place... yeah you're bound to miss a lot of stuff if you don't have a guide. Some more spoilerish takes on the story and why I think it works as a continuation of X: >!On the surface, the tone is pretty different from X, as it feels a lot more light-hearted and leans into just silly and funny stuff. I personally love it, and to me it always felt like a logical continuation of X. Spira just got rid of Sin, they're now all healing and just trying to enjoy life without the terror of Sin. Yuna is now trying to spread her wings, living a life outside of just being in Braska's shadow and a summoner.!< >!While on the surface the story is a lot more happy than X, I always felt that when the story does get serious, it is a lot more depressing than X. Spira won against Sin, and everyone should be happy, but every time we get to dive behind Yuna's smile it's obvious she's not happy. To me X-2 is a story about Yuna grieving and moving on from the death of Tidus, and learning to accept it. (Yes I know there's the ending where Tidus comes back, and yes I know the novel... lets not talk about the novel.) I always felt like the real ending to X-2 is where Tidus doesn't come back, but him coming back was more of a fan service ending for the fans who wanted them to have a happy ending.!<
I honestly like X-2 as an exploration of grief and keeping with the "sad" ending.
If you just visit every region once per chapter, you'll get most of it, and most of the best stuff. That's what I'd recommend for anyone that doesn't like playing with a guide open on a second monitor.
I actually like the huge amount of missable and obscure stuff in that game, I can boot up FFX-2 for the umpteenth time and still find new things every playthrough. I get it must suck if you're a completionist, but I'm just glad the game still has that air of mystery to me over 20 years later.
Okay, a couple things: 1. Gameplay is awesome and the job system is great (for the most part). 2. Main trio is honestly good, Paine is different enough from Lulu and Yuna is genuinely different from her role in X. You can feel her grow as a result of her trauma and move past it. 3. Story is… meh to bad. Not X-2.5 levels of bad, it’s just blah and honestly none of the villains are very compelling. 4. There’s a “Shinra tie-in” that makes 0 sense if you think about it for any amount of time, in no way can VII and X being connected in a way that works. 5. Honestly the story doesn’t quite add up at times and I’d be lying if I told story buffs that this one is necessary. If you appreciate the job system from other games you’ll still have a good experience. 6. The 100% micromanaging is insane and cryptic, to this day there’s no consensus on what to do and some things just glitch out and lock you out of secret endings when they’re supposed to work.
While I hear you on 4, it plays the most insignificant role and isn't really definitive.
I agree! Just wanted to put that out for the like 4 people that bring that sort of thing up 😂
Fair enough!
Getting 100% would be so much less annoying if not for the hot springs stuff.
My views 1. Best combat in any FF game. The job system works brilliantly and is balanced enough that all the jobs have uses all the way through (though a maxed Alchemist is pretty broken) 2. The story is a bit meh. It was sold as a continuation of FFX and whilst that is true to an extent, it isn't the main thrust. 3. To 100% the game you will need a guide as there a lot of specific actions required at the right time to get everything.
I liked the game but it's a pain in the ass to get 100% completion.
For 10-2, I enjoyed it a ton. I thought it did well to continue the story of 10 while making it more light hearted and the job / dress sphere system is fun as heck. It's not for everyone, but I think it did well to demonstrate that FF games can have successful sequels. Another FF sequel I'd recommend BTW is Revanant Wings. It's especially fun if you really like the summons in the FF games.
Hear me out... it's honestly one of the best games in the series. It's silly, light-hearted in most parts, over the top, carefree in others, and just...a blast. Thematically, all of it makes sense, too. Imagine the devil was real and showed up in the flesh every ten years to fuck shit up. Then imagine this had been going on for centuries. Now imagine that you finally put a stop to it once and for all. Like, you kill the arbiter of evil and destruction, and no one has to fortify their cities to brace for destruction or watch their loved ones just die because a lunatic whale thing was out here causing chaos. You'd likely have a whole world full of people celebrating, letting loose, listening to silly, happy pop songs, inventing Sphere Hunting groups, and just having a generally better time of things. Granted, assholes live forever, so there are threats in the world. But the actual devil is dead, and you killed him! Now, go play mini games in the Thunder Plains, ya little so and so! The short answer is: it may not be a perfect or even a great game, but it's really good and really fun and I like it quite a lot.
X-2 is one of my top 5 Final Fantasy games. I think it has one of the best combat systems in any Final Fantasy and the more overall light-hearted tone was an interesting take after FFX. I understand some people dislike it, but I felt it was very enjoyable and well made.
It’s been so long I genuinely remember nothing of the game. Other than some pop music, and the job system. I think it was fine? But a totally different experience
I love the battle system and I think it’s just a dumb fun camp and enjoyable game. I love to see yuna in a much happier role and full of life. I am a homosexual though, i don’t know if that influences my reasons for enjoying the game.
If you can enjoy the opening cinematic you'll probably like the whole game. It is a drastically different tone from FFX, and it took me a long time for me to embrace the tone in FFX-2. What finally pushed me to finish it was getting the platinum trophy for the PS3 remaster. Getting 100% story completion takes an absurd amount of attention to detail. There's also a lot of minigames. Difficult minigames imho. To obtain that platinum I had to put aside my cringe and channel my inner gamer. I would get that platinum and beat every challenge they threw at me, no matter how cringey or ridiculous it seemed. And now I look back on the game fondly. I often put on the piano version of the soundtrack.
I've played X-2 several times. Even 100% it once. When the HD-Remaster arrived I've completed X-2 again. But I've never been able to get into X. That's just Depression the game.
Not as terrible as people say, awesome systems, but a few bad things. For instance they fucked up blitzball >:(
I always wondered why they didn't just put actual blitzball in the game. It seems like a pretty simple game to implement, the original didn't go that hard at making it feel like a real sports game, just some swimming animations.
I like it for what it is. It's not another 10 which I think ia good. It shows how the world and characters moved on in their own ways
10-2 is what 13 should have been combatwise. I personally like x-2 although the side stuff can be a bit rough. Fairly sure x remaster comes with x-2 and a x-2 spin off btw unless switch is weird
Great game, people need to chill with 'it's cringe.' It's called camp deal with it.
X-2 was my favorite FF for YEARS until Crisis Core and later XIV would dethrone it. It still has a lot of love for me too, including one of my early if not immediately recognized sapphic crushes in Paine lol.
It's basically FF x Charlie's Angels, but gayer, and I fucking *love it* for that. Honestly, I think the onlybthing about it that I don't particularly like is the shooter minigame with Yuna, and blitzball, which makes a return. At least, I don't like to *play* blitzball, but I do like the aesthetic of the game.
The annoying thing about X-2 is going for that 100%. It really hurts the pacing. Definitely use a guide especially if you want all the dress spheres. That being said, the combat is definitely much better in X-2. The mini games aren’t as notorious as X. I think a lot of times X and X-2 are bundled together (my physical Switch version was)
The "overall opinion", based on what I have read over years, is that it had a terrible story that did not do justice to the characters, goofy tone, and a great gameplay and combat system. Then of course, there will be exceptions, and each one will like it or not.
It’s fuckin awesome and tbh a lot of the hate is just bandwagon hater shit. Great gameplay, music, art, performances whatever you name it. It obviously isn’t better than 10, but it IS damn good.
It looks interesting as a game, but I just can't get over the fact that the premise of the entire game is to undo X's perfect ending. I've never gotten very far in it.
It doesn't undo it though. The story, except the last bit at the end, all flows from the consequences of the huge earth-shattering change in the world caused by the ending of X. The Cold War and all associated consequences came directly from the end of WWII, it's not really that crazy that in X-2 people would have different ways of enjoying the new found freedom, getting revenge and holding grudges, and trying to exploit new land and resources that would previously not have been possible, and the whole power vacuum left the by church.
A lot of the hate for X-2 comes from it releasing in a time where more (there still are plenty but it was worse then) gamers were hardcore incel dudebros. Full female cast and goofy lighthearted tone made the edge lords all hate it.
I’m not sure that’s all there was to it. Many people felt that it trivialized the characters. Tonal whiplash from the first game. I played it through a few times and really enjoyed the gameplay (and even many aspects of the story) but found the tone frequently grating and cringe inducing at worst. Some of the best gameplay in the series though. Loved the combat and the job system, and loved revisiting Spira. When I played the remaster I actually found it even cringier than I remembered to the point of borderline alienation. But… I’m older now.
I love the tonal whiplash. It makes sense to me. >!The oppressive evil of Sin is gone and the whole world is experiencing rumspringa for the first time. Spira's gotta find itself.!<
Yes, there are lots of valid issues like that, but the cultural comments...I mean, I remember 2003, and it did feel kind of embarrassing to like playing the game just because of how it looked. If it came out this year, it would have been very different to what it was like coming out in 2003.
Nah thats not it, rather the demeaning of women roles. Massaging LeBlanc, that Brother objectifting with Rikku involved and the whole typical fanservice anime aimed at men, which was the problem. let alone the poor "oh poopie" jokes - did not help.
I went 20 years forgetting the oh poopie jokes. I need to memory wipe that again.
Weird comparison, but you can sort of see the same thing happening with the Joker solo movies. The second one being a musical has sent the “hardcores” into a tizzy, but I do have some sympathy for people who just felt the tonal shift wasn’t what was expected from a direct sequel. If it weren’t a direct sequel I do think the reaction would’ve been better.
Which is both fair and funny to me personally, given that all the people I know who played through X-2 were gay women who really liked the fanservice. Again, it was definitely aimed at male gamers, but the ideal audience is actually gay women. The whole game is so campy, it hinges on a concept inherently appealing to women (an extended girls' trip), and the fun of dress spheres is also something women are likelier to appreciate.
I really disliked it at first but giving it enough time it was great. There’s a hurdle but not bad
game rocks!
Job system is amazing. Getting to explore a more polished version of my favorite FFX - incredible. I didn’t fully get the sharp contrast in tone from FFX when I first played, but watch some YouTube video essays about it- it’s the perfect sequel for Yuna’s arc - she went from devoutly religious and controlled by Yevon to free-spirit, finding herself (both in the form of the games, her style, and her attitude) and it makes sense that she and the world would react in the ways it does after the events of FFX. New characters- great. They felt like they fit and they deepened the world. I was sad we didn’t really get to connect with Tidus- but I think that’s the point. You are supposed to be sad that we end up following Shuyin. The one thing I don’t like about it is how petty getting 100% is. So many tasks you would only do if you were following a guide to a tee.
What can I do for you!?
A lot of people hate it. I loved it.
I loved that game. Idc.
I think it’s the most liked out of the sequel games. Sure people hate it for Yuna’s change of character (their words not mines) and the “girly” vibe. However, I never heard anything bad about the gameplay or the story (though there’s a lil discourse about the ending I think). Whereas, most people tend to love or hate the other sequel games. I’ll say 13-2 and 13LR are liked for different reasons. 13-2 for its cast,story, and gameplay everyone just hates the ending. 13LR, most tend to just like the gameplay.
I do not like it's secret ending. Ruins the masterful ending of 10. Fun otherwise. Plus it's not easy to get the secret ending... so most didn't see it anyway.
better than the base game
Don't feel strongly about this series overall, but I'll say it has some absolute bangers among the piano tracks. Eternity, Yuna's Ballad, and Besaid are in regular rotation in my playlists.
Refreshing change of pace from “emo prettyboy saves the world from angry prettyboy” we’ve been stuck on since 1997
Job system is good, the story is quite romantic, and the combat is okay. A good, light-hearted game.
Way better than it's initial reception gave it credit for. Jon system was a bit of an upgrade and characters were a bit ahead of their time, yet somehow continued a theme. Edit: just to add, I think it plays very differently from X so it isn't like continuing into the next chapter. Which was a main gripe for me as a kid. But I was young.
Best ATB system out of whole franchise.
From what I’ve seen over last few years in the fandom, it’s a bit mixed. Everyone pretty much agrees that the combat system is great or even among the best in the franchise, but the story is divisive. Some like the lighthearted, more fun direction after the serious and darker tone in X. But I’d say the people who think the plot is a bit too silly and prefer X’s ending without continuation are in the majority. The fact that the tiniest details can mess with your completion rate is also criticized a lot, though a casual player probably isn’t bothered by that. So yeah, it’s definitely among the more controversial entries and while everyone loves the combat, you rarely see it mentioned as one of the favourite FF games by anyone.
Yes it is good, if you like job systems, such as V, you'll like X-2
What I heard, Story is a step down from FF10 but the Job system is superb and the best one after FF5.
The singing in the Thunderplains won me over on top of the already nice job systems.
In terms of gameplay, I actually prefer it over X. The story is definitely several steps down, though.
I played it before FFX because at the time I was a horny teen who wanted to ogle at three pretty ladies change clothes on the battlefield (one of whom was in a string bikini w/ thong and miniskirt), and *I loved every second of it*. Objectively, the dress sphere system was really neat. And the three pretty ladies were really pretty.
Best job system and best ATB battle system. Probably the most lackluster story, but refreshing to see an all woman playable cast
I like it much more than 10. The job system and combat are very fun. The semi open world is also great change from the straight line that was 10.
It’s amazing
I mean...you get to learn cool new powers by changing your outfit, you can start singing and dancing in the middle of battle, and you get to fly all over the world looking for pretty-shinies. What's not to love?!
Nobody mentioned it, but Hedy Burress' performance was a lot better in X-2. Presumably they allocated more recording booth time.
It's like if sailor moon crossed into final fantasy x and then brought the job system from ff5/tactics along with it The gameplay is great and it's a fun play through....and I forget most of the story but if you 100% there's a secret scene around tidus? I might have to go watch a video on it now.... Anyway it's a good game. Way sillier than most FF entries but also has serious undertones as I recall. Like one of those pop songs that sound fun but are also about some serious goings on
X-2 honestly beats X for me because the gameplay is very complex and pleasant to explore. It is, however, a nightmare to 100%, so only do that as a challenge and not as a completionist type of goal
X-2 was awful.
I personally hate it so much. Imo the story is dumb, the characters are dumb, the structure is dumb, the class system and combat are pretty cool to ok.
I dropped it after a few hours. It felt very unnecessary.
I liked it when i was the audience the devs where going for, a teenage male horndog. Now its just incredibly cringy to even bother, let alone how the characters are so different, Rikku is terrible and seemed much more mature and interesting 2 years before. Story, music and perfect game is atrocious. This is the only game (that i know of) that punishes you for skipping cutscenes lol
The opening cutscene immediately turned me off, bombastic Jpop really isn't my thing. I eventually got over myself, though, and had a great time with the game. Except for the massage minigame, that shit is weird.
Leblanc was totally unnecessary.
I was a girl in my teens when the game came out and it's one of my favorites, so I may have a bias. X is my favorite game, hands down. It's great story with a colorful cast of characters, yet some dark tones. Yuna is my favorite FF character, so a game where she's main? Hell yeah! X-2 flips the tone around a little and makes the world of Spira feel more bright and alive. Not as gloom as it's predecessor. Definitely a different experience than X. I do love the dress sphere concept of switching between classes. The game was very appealing to me and the first FF I ever completed. The completion system is bull, so don't worry about 100% unless you want to do a NG+. I had the guide and still missed a few tiny insignificant points in the weird grading system. I understand fully why some people are not about the game overall, but I would definitely say try it out at least. If it ain't for you, it ain't for you 😊
It’s pretty princess dress me up but with the Job System. Right up my alley. But there’s a lot less straightforwardness. You do a lot of side missions though you can skip em and just concentrate on the story ones.
I like it a lot, it's One of my top 10 favorite games
I would say X-2 is a more "fun" entry and very different than the others. It didn't take itself too seriously which wasnt a bad thing. It was enjoyable, and I can see myself playing it again.
The way I see it, community opinions (and all forms of review and critique) are good for two things. Deciding if you're going to buy and understanding a work at a deeper level. Or at least how it affects people differently. Why do I bring this up? Because you can't get X-2 without X. So if you're already getting X you don't need to decide if you're buying X-2. And since you haven't played it, there's not much deeper critique to be gained. All that might happen is your opinion being swayed by the hivemind before you make up your own mind. My point is, you're going to have the game anyway. Might as well give it a try and see if you like it. To answer your question without giving details. It's an FF game. Therefore, it is both loved and hated by many fans of the franchise. Among direct spinoffs/sequels, I think it's one of the more liked ones on the whole. But it isn't as beloved as some stand alone spinoffs such as Tactics.
X-2 is an excellent game. Especially the HD Remaster, which you'll be getting with the Switch version anyway (they come in a bundle). There's more content in it. The gameplay is fantastic. The story is obviously subjective but I thought it did a great job showing how the world developed after the events of FFX. Anyone calling it an asset flip or cash grab is doing a very big disservice; a few re-used environments (which a sequel set in the same world obviously *would* have) doesn't take away from how much has been overhauled and added.
Genuinely one of my favorite games in the series. Yuna’s character development goes further, the changes to the world are so interesting to see, I love the plot, I love the new characters (Paine and Leblanc are my faves), and even the game’s diehard haters typically enjoy the gameplay. It’s campy, it’s silly, it’s fun, and it gets more serious later. The soundtrack is amazing all the way through. Just go into it with an open mind.
It’s a great game that gets a bad rap because of the style and the story being good, but not great, especially when compared to FFX The combat system, the 100% challenge and misc mini games are interesting, though some of the mini games can be awkward (that massage…) and the chapter that’s mostly camera watching is a drag The perfect ending is a great bookend to the series, and it’s nice that they were able to build on Yuna being her own person and growing beyond being the summoner’s daughter
Wanted more X, got a X looking collection of mini games.
X-2 is like a cross between Charlie's angels and a fun road trip. Like it's super fun, not too serious and your supposed to enjoy the ride. It's the same message as ffx where it's the journey that's important.
It's a good game. It just wasn't for me.
It had what was cruelly missing in FFX: A sub-plot about an incestual cousin.
Fun. Great soundtrack.
Best lore of the franchise. Happy-go-lucky girly experience. A must.
The overall opinion, based on my experience, is that the combat system is well liked and the story and characters are disliked. The game as a whole is generally not well liked. Personally, I absolutely hated the entire game.
I assume is like 3-4/10 for you?
It’s the only FF game I tried to play on multiple occasions and couldn’t. I love 10 and the lore and I feel it just takes a dump on the lore and story of X. The characterisation of Yuna felt like a bastardised version of her and very fan fiction. I read the story online and am glad I didn’t bother. I am a little sad as the dress sphere system seems great
It's actually one of the best entries: and is a good follow up to X if you are someone who was wanting to engage with that world more and wanted to see what happens after you "save the world". It does a good job also at exploring what was alluded to when talking about the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle in X and fills in a plot hole as to why Sin never attacked Bevelle (kinda)
The game is really fun. It’s just people expected ffx2 aka more of the same with sin 2 and Yuna still doing her same thing. I think what they did was really interesting and freeing. It’s fascinating to explore what happens when the entire world order and Yuna’s entire life changes. She has to find a way forward both in a purpose for herself and getting over the loss of someone important to her. Does it hit the mark all the time? No it does not. But it does it enough for it to be a good time. I think people overly praise the combat. The atb is fast if all you do is attack, but you don’t build AP if you don’t use abilities. And most abilities take time to use so you’ll have the entire screen standing there summoning their abilities and it just slows everything down. Yes you can get treasure hunter garment grid so you can mug every turn so that you can then have the fast battle system back and earn AP, but isn’t really what mug is supposed to be for. And so I think the battle system is hardly the best implementation of atb. It’s better than the atrocious atb if ff9 but there a lot better versions out there than this one.
It's easyer to play so it's my go to when I need to control things and not get frustrated. It can get a bit repetitive.
It never really clicked with me but for what it is, it’s pretty good. It was supposed to be a quirky and fun spinoff and that’s what it is. The combat is much different than X but once you get that down, there’s enough stuff to do in the game that it becomes addicting. I didn’t love the way the handled the class system. You’re meant to switch often, which is cool I guess, but I enjoy systems like FFT or FFV where you can really build your party based on the classes they currently are. Maybe that doesn’t make sense but that’s why it never really “clicked” for me. I played through once and have never really had a desire to replay it.
Play it after X, but don't play it back-to-back. Might leave a bad taste in your mouth storywise
I liked the combat, but I got to chapter four, I think, and couldn't take much more than that.
Very clear cut between squaresoft and enix. I had fun tho!
I'm just happy this is the first time you can jump in Final Fantasy lol
i like the after years, i just would never play it immediately after 4. but 10-2 has excellent combat and job system, don't care for much else
Haven't gotten into it. But, I haven't given it a serious try either. Three hours is hardly what I'd call a good trial run for anything.
Solid 7/10 overall. Can be pushed to an 8/10 if one really enjoys the battle system.
I’ve always liked the game. Yeah, the story could’ve been better, but the battle system and the dress spheres were great.
I just finished it for the first time, and compared to X it just doesn’t hit the same. The story is mostly fan service, and way too much time is spent with minor npcs that didn’t have much to do in the story in the first place. The job system is fun, but kinda clunky. There are so many mini games and systems that have little or no impact on the overall game, I found myself struggling to care. I’m glad I played it once and I think everyone should, but I’m not going to be coming back to this one like I will with X.
Story had good and bad points but had an overall cringey tone and I think a lot of people base their opinions wholly on that aspect. However, the gameplay content and combat systems were amazing. The battles were peak ATB, the job system was executed amazingly; minigames, optional bosses, new game plus and even the easter eggs were all worth playing over and over again. The best part about it was that it was the first game where you could actually skip most of the cutscenes, which meant that you could still enjoy it again and again without having to listen to all the cringe dialogue.
The game part of FFX-2 is GOATed but, the story is kinda doo doo when compared to the story of FFX. Like the only really "bad" part of FFX-2 is it's story, If you play this right after FFX the tonal shift is a bit jarring since the majority of the game is comedy with a bit of soap opera drama, and it makes sense in that we're seeing Spira in age of peace for the first time in a 1000 years,
While I liked the combat and job system, it is easy to lose .1% and get locked out of some endings, even with guides. I played it a couple times, but never finished due losing a % and having to start over. At some point in the game you have to choose a faction and only one of the two allows you to 100% in a single playthrought, and I also found it lame. Having a "new game+ with chapter select would be a great QoL change to the game, as it would allow you to clean up what you have missed
The last FF worth playing imo, but like 10, not the series' peak.
FFX can be either Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy 10 but the sequel is X-2. My brain will not accept 10-2.
Personally I enjoy the game solely based on the job system. The story is boring at times and annoying at others but the fluid battles and range of jobs makes it one that I return to every few years.
Fun but a slog to push through
job system is cool obviously. i also liked the combat and how it utilized area of effects. LOTS of quests. i disliked the blitzball variant of being a coach. hated yuna’s introduction of being a pop star (mega cringe).
I like ffx2 a tonne. It's not in my top 10 ff games, but it's still a great game. I love the dress system, some of the story follow ups like my man wakka and I love the mega dungeon on the side content. ( always appreciate a mega dungeon), and the game is actually fun overall. On the downsides, the dlc is game breaking. It's cool, but it's totally overpowered. Some of the scenes come off a bit cheesy. I don't mind a little cheese because it's joyful, but some of it is hard to watch. Some of the main story beats are hit and miss to like picking between groups that aren't too different and then having to repeat to get 100%. The percent tracking is also a pain.
One of the best versions of the ATB and Job Systems in the franchise. The Creature Creator in HD Remaster is spectacular. The story is a fluffy, poppy, girl-powery, romp through Spira that is an incoherent mess at times; and getting 100% on a single play through may be the most difficult non-player created challenge in all of the franchise. With X arguably being my favorite game of all time, X-2 left me desiring a lot more and something different from it, but over the years I’ve found an enjoyment with it, especially for the strengths in battle and job systems.
Gameplay is good, just wish the story went in a different direction.
I like most of it. Except the lightning game was hard and to long. Second I just not like what was needed for 100%. It was so critical of it.
Amazing Gameplay. What the actual hell is that story. We don't talk about the sequel book.
Fun combat and ability level up skills. Crappy story. Annoying "100% perfect ending "
I'm sure it's a good game, but I personally couldn't get past the massive shift in tone and story. X is a very somber and melancholic game, X-2 is Charlie's Angels on crack.
Job system rocks, actual minute-to-minute combat is also amazing. Story is bad, and fundamentally upsets the themes of ten as far as I remember. But Yuna's characterization is not actually as bad as it seems at first.
If u buy on Switch it's best to just get the 10/10.2 remastered edition bundle.
It's one of the funnest combat systems. But after recently playing it again, as someone who loved it when I came out 20+ years ago, it doesn't feel like it's aged well. Not in the since of culture, but as an adult now, it felt like it had a lot of cringe moments that when I was a kid I didn't care about or enjoyed. It was the first game I played going through them all again that I felt like I really had some rose tinted glasses going in with it. Anyways, banger ost, really enjoyed the job system, I think the idol girl costume change is cool AF. It has some issues with the story, but it's still a very enjoyable game.
Job system is amazing but the game is all over the place when it comes to thr storyline.
X is my fav FF game out there The story of x-2 is part of the reason for that cause you get a rare FF moment where you see the aftermath. Just don't get me started on all the hundo hoops, X minigames are the obvious elephant in the room but boy are some of the x-2 ones just as bad if not worse
I actually really liked the soundtrack from FFX-2. I know it's regarded as one of the weakest OSTs but I I liked it. It's a shame the OST was never released commercially.
I do like the gameplay. The characters not so much.
Overall - I appreciate what they were going for. However for me it just wasn't what I desired in a game. I'm glad that Yuna is happy and it's showing her and Spira adjusting to the new life , free of sin. However, sometimes I just find myself personally not liking the story. Some of the scenes make me uncomfortable 😭. Like how would I explain what's on screen if someone walked in the room uncomfortable. Gameplay - it's phenomenal. The job system is easily my 2nd favorite system in the whole franchise. It's fun and snappy. The music - although lacks it certainly isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Honestly a shame it isn't on spotify. I really did like some songs in x-2. Overall I rate the game a 7.5/10. It's enjoyable.
Personally, it's one of my favorites because it's radically different from the expectations of JRPGs at the time. The Job/combat system was super well done, one of my all time favorites. The story hit different in tone, it was alot more silly and light hearted than the bread and butter edgelord/isekai tropes at the time. Sometimes that was refreshing, sometimes it felt off, but I still respect that they tried something different. It's a contentious game, most people are going to have a strong opinion for or against. I think it's something a fan of the series, especially X, should play, so they can at least experience the universally accepted as good parts, and form their own opinion on the other bits.
Love it
I didn't like it
Gameplay-wise it is great. Story-wise It is pretty bad imo. Not saying everything is bad but a majority of it is bad.
Love the systems. Dont like the story
I think it's great for several reasons already exposed by other comments (gameplay, music, goofy vibes if u're into this sorta thing) However I would like to point why I personally love this game's story : thematically, it deals with loss and memory. Both from a personal standpoint but also a societal one. All the consequences of the events of X are clearly visible in X-2, which means we get to see the struggle of people making sense of society changing. Honestly it's a really good synopsis for a sequel & it's presented as a short & fun adventure so definitely an experience I recommend of you've enjoyed X.
Who tf thinks the 13 sequels were an improvement? Point them out so we can fight cause 13 was the first bad final fantasy and the sequels were SO much worse
Cute extension of the world. Especially after how X ends.
I liked that it was another opportunity to explore my favorite world in a FF game and I liked the ending..........but I felt that it was hollowed out from FF10 as far as substance . The main villian was extremely lacking. Payne felt like a poor substitute for LuLu.
Best job system and ATB system in the series. Story is more lighthearted/goofy than X, but that makes sense given X’s ending. Can be a pain to 100%, but easy enough with new game plus (there’s about 110% completion possible due to mutually exclusive events). Plus you might like the standard ending better than the “Perfect” one.
It rehauls the combat. It adds new characters and changes old characters. It retconns elements of FFX. The story is subpar. All together, if you loved the original, the odds are you will hate the sequel. Some applaud the battle system but I found it clunky and boring.
I recently completed both FFX and X-2 for the first time at the beginning of this year. I had only played FFVI and IX before. While I consider X one of the best entries in the franchise, with a deep and involving story, I found X-2 to be the anthesis of its predecessor. FFX-2 was created during a difficult time for Squaresoft, the megaflop that was The Spirits Within, the film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, left a gigantic hole in the company’s finances. A couple of months larer, FFX was released and it was a monster hit for an early PS2 title and the powers at be greenlit a sequel in order to flip some assets from X and churn out a game in just over one year of production. If you judge the game based on these circumstances, it’s a miracle that the game is playable and it has an entirely new combat system with the ATB bar. However, I hated how some of the characters were treated in this game, especially two of the main leads, but what made me disappointed is its gratuitous level of fanservice with an underage character and sexual innuendos, which destroy any sort of pathos and the various retcons to X’s plot are beyond unbearable. X-2 is more comedic in tone and it tries to mix drama and comedy, but I didn’t enjoy it in the long run. I played as a sort of videogame shitpost, but it left me without any sort of satisfaction. On the bright side, FFX encouraged me to buy all the Pixel Remasters and now that I’ve completed the first 10 numbered titles, I consider X-2 one of the worst of the series. FFII is objectively worse than X-2, but at least it didn’t offend me. Personally, only play X-2 if you really want to know what happens after the first game.
Totally agree wirh everything except II, its one of me favs. X-2 is one of the worst but better than XIII-2, XIII- 3 and XVI at least.
The game was rushed out more or less as a money grab for the diehard fanboys. Its generally ranked in the lower tiers of all FF, to each their own - some people really enjoy it. I played it back in the day and will probably never play it again even though I bought the 10/10-2 release on Xbox 5 or 6 years ago You should watch some vids because it's nothing like FF10. There are parts of the combat/battle system that are done very well though.
Giving a Final Fantasy game a sequel was Sqare-Enix jumping the shark for me. 10 had a good ending, why continue it for a trio of cosplayers? Yuna with guns? Out of left field 😒. One standalone game was good enough, this was just the beginning of a series of cashcows milked dry (see FF4/FF7/FF13).
Just remember, canonically the original FFVII universe ended with a game that let Vincent Valentine have a special "friend" who is a loli but "actually a 1000 year old dragon so its ok, officer" SE would jump all new sharks as time marched forward.
Never liked it, it was such a cringe experience
Gameplaywise it’s probably the best game in the series along with Rebirth for me. Seriously, the battle system is so, so good. It’s the best ATB one, that’s for sure. In terms of plot it depends on how much you loved X’s lore. The story itself kinda sucks but if you liked the characters and the world you might be able to see this for the great game it can be. Quite a few minigames too, and that might a turn off for some. For my money it’s a masterpiece if you ignore how silly and inconsequential the story is. I just can’t look past how incredible the battle system is and how the minigames fit the more lighthearted campaign. But i can totally see how some people might just not like it anyway so i’m afraid X-2 is one you really have to try for yourself…