Thursday 5 August 2010

Final fantasy X-2

gamespot score: 8.1(great)

my score: 8.0

(+)pros:- fast and well paced turn by turn battle system,- dressphere system is great and allows any different strategies,- plenty of optional events make the game worthwhile, - cameos from previous game make the expereince even better.

(-)cons:- main story is not very long to be called a final fantasy title,- not much character progression since party has only 3 members.


gameplay time: 30-40 hours( above average)





Alright. Im STILL bored to do PS2 games, but well, theres still abit more before I finally throw those out for good. Today Im doing final fantasy X-2, a friggin old game and the very 1st final fantasy sequel game. Thats right it very well breaks the rules, since final fantasy games alone are all stand alone games, without sequels. Well X-2 is the 1st, and does breaking the rule make it a worthy choice? Well, kinda, but this game they could do without, final fantasy 10 itself had one very "self-impacting" ending, they could just leave it at that. But, oh well.



Being a sequel the story obviously takes place after the events of final fantasy 10. Yuna is done being a high summoner, and has gone on in life to become a sphere hunter. She is now in a group of sphere hunters called the gullwings, joined by buddy, brother, shinra and barkeep. The 3 early names may sound familiar if you've played the original game. Oh yeah and joining yuna in her sphere hunting activities are pain, a new face, and rikku, a returning character. Together they fly around spira in thier ship, seeking sphere waves and locating spheres. This is yuna's new life.




Gameplay in final fantasy X-2 remains mostly unchanged. Like in final fantasy X, you walk around, encounter monsters, kill them, blah blah blah. But in X-2, you have already unlocked all of the locations in spira, so you can fly anywhere you want, wheter it is to do missions or just to go there to train or explore. Plus, everytime there is a story mission, you just need to fly to the location, do your shit and get it done and over with. There are no specific orders in the areas you have to go to, which rocks.



Battle in the game is different from final fantasy 10. Instead of using basic turn by turn, it reuses the ATB system used in previous final fantasy games( 7/8/9). On one hand, Im glad ATB is back, it provides fast paced gameplay, but it may be confusing for those who are used to final fntasy 10's battle system. Well in this game, to spice things up, square added the dressphere system. One can think of it as "job change", its teally cool and adds depth to battle. 1st, you select a garment grid, then you place whatever jobs you want in the grid itself, for every space it has. Then in battle, when u use the garment grid, you can change into any of the jobs you have in there. Cool eh? This allows stragetic depth, since changing play styles in the heat of battle can allow you to approach the fight differently. Plus, with cool jobs such as dark knight, samurai and gunner, you can change into many cool looking costumes in battle.




The flaws this game have are rather basic. For one, unlike the previous final fantasy games, which have like at least 6 members of party, you have only 3 for this one. Not that its bad, since you got dresspheres and shit, but as a RPG, you would want to see character peronaility grwoths in the process of the game. Well with only 3 characters, theres not much to go around. Also, this game is very short, in terms of main storyline. Theres ALOT you can do for optional events, but if you intend to stick just to the story alone, you can only squeeze 20 hours out of it, at max.
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As an RPG final fantasy X-2 doesnt fail to deliver what its trying to. But the short main storyline and lack of character progression dont make it as amazing as some of the titles the franchise is known for. All in all, the game's great, an experince not to be missed by fans of the series.



Happy gaming.