The finality continues! Review

The finality continues!

An oft-repeated cry among RPG fans is that after more than 10 official Final

Fantasy games, the series is anything but “final.”” But in all that time,

there has never been an official sequel that continued the same universe of characters

and struggles.”Game after game introduces a new cast of characters and a new mythology,

which in part has turned off players hoping for more continuity. Just think how

interesting it would be to control wheelchair Cloud or denture Garland!

Traditions

are made to be broken, and the Final Fantasy series has at

last strayed from its rigid past with the release of Final Fantasy X-2,

the first official sequel to a Final Fantasy game. X-2

continues the exploits of Final Fantasy X‘s

ex-summoner Yuna and her caffeinated pal, Rikku, plus introduces goth-gal newcomer,

Paine.

The team of Yuna, Rikku, and Paine form a fashionable medieval fantasy version

of Charlie’s

Angels.” Known as the Gullwings, they are sphere hunters, searching for

the remnants of recorded memory locked within spheres strewn throughout the

world of Spira.

With its cast of leading ladies, FF X-2 is centered around

“girl power.’ The characters favor words like “poopie” and “awesome!” – sort

of like the Power Puff Girls hanging out in the Valley. Hence, the game winds

up leaning quite heavily on the sugary, bubblegum pop side, but this actually

works as a less serious alternative to the scads of role-playing games that

focus squarely on some bleak, apocalyptic future.

More important than the far-reaching plot is Yuna herself, who is a much more

engaging character than in FF X.”She’s less grim now; I guess

saving the world from disaster was just the chill pill she needed to make her

a fun lead character. Better than any whiny male lead, at least.

Final Fantasy X put you on a straight, linear road up until

close to the end, where you were finally given a few path choices.” FF

X-2 gives you much more freedom from the get go, allowing you to pick

and choose a diverse range of missions from an overhead area list. Only the

hot-spot areas are necessary to push the story along, but there’s plenty of

fodder in the form of non-essential side missions.

The side missions frequently involve mini-game style exploits while the main

story missions center on traditional RPG-style adventuring, complete with random

battles.”Considering the many other changes this game offers from other FF

games, I don’t understand why it still goes back to random battles. It’s just

not very fun anymore. And while the side-quests are plentiful, some of them

are downright boring.

But

things shift back into drive during the normal combat, which hearkens back to

the original Active Time Battle system of previous FF games

instead of the Conditional Battle system of Final Fantasy X.”Final

Fantasy X-2‘s version of the Active Time Battle system feels as if

it’s been given a jolt of speed, moving at a much quicker pace than in any other

Final Fantasy.”The combatants all have their own independent

timers; moves can be made when the time meters are filled, leading to a flowing,

fun system.

In dark, seedy gamer alleyways, FF X-2 has been re-dubbed

“Final Fantasy Dress-Up” due to the costumes, which is X-2‘s

version of the Job system. The girls can change into various outfits throughout

their battles as delineated by their Garment Grid. Dressing up is actually clever

and fun; by using different costumes, characters can improve their abilities

and switch roles to keep the battles feeling fresh.” Of course, it still has

a certain Barbie stigma attached to it and might turn off more macho gamers.

The look is almost exactly like Final Fantasy X due to visibly

reused resources, particularly the textures and environmental modeling.”There

are still some little jaggies in the more finely detailed areas, such as the

grass, but by and large the game looks very solid and the environments feel

very organic.

While the character modeling suffers a bit due to the mix-and-match costume

options, Yuna, Rikku and Paine simply look fab.”Good facial animations help

convey emotions well.

For a game that starts off with a big musical number, contains a “Singer’

job class and puts a strong emphasis on pop style, the music is mostly uninspired,

watered-down techno beats.”The soundtrack quality just isn’t as sharp as previous

releases.

Final Fantasy X-2 boasts one final detail: more thongs

than any previous Final Fantasy!” Well, unless those 8-bit

characters were all wearing thongs and we just didn’t notice.” Frankly, I don’t

want to be the one to strain my eyes to check.””

But if thongs and girl power RPG antics are wrong, then I don’t want to be

right. Final Fantasy X-2 is a solid sequel that revives most

of what made FF X a good game while offering some interesting

(if a bit cheesy) dress-up features. Too much sugar might be bad for you, but

fans of the series should feel free to sink their teeth into this one.