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is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. Released in 2003 for the Sony PlayStation 2, it is the sequel to the best-selling Final Fantasy X, and the first direct sequel in the Final Fantasy series. The English release of Final Fantasy X-2 won the prestigious Seventh Annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award in 2004 for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance for the character Rikku, and the game has sold in excess of 5.14 million copies worldwide.
Final Fantasy X-2 set several precedents in the Final Fantasy series aside from being the first direct sequel. It was also the first game in the series to feature only three playable characters, an all female main cast and the option of accessing nearly any location in the game's fictional world from the beginning. Additionally, it featured a variation of the character classes system, one of the series' classic gameplay concepts.
Gameplay
Though a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 does not duplicate its predecessor's gameplay, instead including some traditional elements along with innovations of others. Characters once again "level up" after a certain number of battles, gaining pre-determined stat bonuses. Additionally, the Conditional Turn-Based Battle system has been abandoned in favor of a faster-paced variation of the Final Fantasy series' traditional Active Time Battle system. Under this enhanced version, rather than waiting for an enemy's turn to finish before attacking, it is possible for the playable characters to interrupt an enemy while they are preparing to take action. Furthermore, it is possible to chain the playable characters' attacks together for greater damage. However, the same strategies can be used against the player's party.
A further departure from the gameplay of Final Fantasy X is implemented in its world navigation system. Unlike before, players are able to visit almost every location in Spira from early in the game, transported via the airship Celsius. Additionally, this is a deviation from the Final Fantasy series in general, as the most efficient means of transportation is typically not obtained until late in the game.
These two changes provide players the option of choosing a less linear storyline. Unlike Final Fantasy X, in which the player's course through the game's world was largely straightforward, Final Fantasy X-2 is almost entirely freeform. The game consists of five chapters, with each location featuring one scenario per chapter. Put together, the five scenarios in one locale form a subplot of the game, called an "Episode". Only a few scenarios per chapter are integral to the game's central plot, and are marked on the world navigation system as "Hotspots" ("Active Links" in the Japanese version). By accessing Hotspots only, the player can quickly proceed through the game's story without participating in side-quests. However, the game also keeps track of the player's completed percentage of the storyline, increased by viewing the scenarios comprising each Episode.
If 100% of the game is completed, an additional ending will be unlocked. Additionally, the game features a fork in its plot, allowing the player to make a choice that changes what scenes they see and the quantity of percentage points they acquire afterward. It is not actually possible to see all of the game's content on a single playthrough due to the fork in its storyline, though it is possible to achieve 100% storyline completion in a single playthrough. Additionally, when the game is completed for the first time, it unlocks a New Game+ option that allows the player to start the game over with all of the items, Garment Grids, dresspheres and storyline completion percentage achieved previously.
The field map navigation system of Final Fantasy X-2 is much the same as that seen in Final Fantasy X. Moreover, it is still dominantly three dimensional with mostly contiguous locations. However, a few upgrades have been implemented, providing the player with extended interaction with the environment through jumping, climbing and rotating camera angles.
The game includes a number of sidequests involving optional bosses and dungeons, and the most minigames of any Final Fantasy at the time of its release. These minigames include Gunner's Gauntlet (a third-person shooter game) and Sphere Break (a mathematical coin game involving addition and multiplication), as well as the fictional underwater sport blitzball originally featured in Final Fantasy X with a different control scheme. Director Motomu Toriyama has explained that one of the concepts in mind during development was a large variety of minigames, such that "if you bought Final Fantasy X-2 you wouldn't need any other game".
Dresspheres and the Garment Grid
The Garment Grid is a placard featuring a geometric shape connected by nodes. These nodes are slots that can be filled with dresspheres, allowing characters to change character classes at any time during battle, provided it is their turn to act.
As with various items and accessories that can be equipped, Garment Grids may also provide characters with a variety of enhancements and extra abilities. The game features many Garment Grids and dresspheres which can be discovered as the game progresses, providing the player with a variety of options. While most dresspheres can be used by all three playable characters, each character can acquire a dressphere that only they can use. These dresspheres do not have to be set onto a Garment Grid, but can only be activated after a character has changed into all the character classes designated to their Garment Grid in a single battle. When a character activates one of these dresspheres, the other characters are replaced by two independent support units the player can control.
Story
Setting
Aesthetically, the world of Spira is essentially unchanged in the two years that have passed following Final Fantasy X. Most areas from the original return (exceptions being the Omega Ruins and Baaj Temple), with few new locations. The only significant changes include the reconstruction of the village of Kilika and the clearing of the mist atop Mount Gagazet, revealing forgotten ruins. Additionally, the Palace of St. Bevelle is now accessible throughout the game, rather than only during mandatory storyline sequences. However, even with Sin gone, fiends are no less populace than before.
While cosmetic changes have been few, with regard to the ideology of Spira's people, there are major differences. After Sin's defeat came the arrival of an era known as "the Eternal Calm". The priests of the Yevon religion chose to expose the truth about the order, leaving the population to decide for themselves how to live in a world without religion and without Sin. Advanced technology and the Al Bhed are now embraced by the population as a whole, and most have begun to pursue leisures such as attending musical concerts and participating in the sport of blitzball. Others have become hunters of various ancient treasures, ranging from coins and machinery long buried under the sands on Bikanel Island to spheres in forgotten caves and ruins. Those who pursue the latter are known as "sphere hunters", of which many groups have formed.
However, despite the absence of Sin and the corrupt maesters of Yevon, Spira is not altogether without conflict. Young people were especially quick to abandon Yevon and embrace machinery (called "machina"), eager to see Spira develop, while many of the older generation felt that cultural changes were happening too quickly. As new ideals and practices began to sweep Spira, several new political groups also began to emerge. Most influential among them were the Youth League, led by Mevyn Nooj, and the New Yevon Party, led by a former priest named "Trema" until his disappearance, and later by Praetor Baralai. The Youth League consists mainly of young people, determined to see Spira completely abandon its past practices, while the New Yevon Party consists of members both old and young who felt that changes should be gradual, their motto being "One thing at a time".
Following their formation, both the Youth League and New Yevon sought High Summoner Yuna's support in the hopes of bolstering their political presence. However, she chose to remain neutral, instead joining the Gullwings, the sphere hunter group to which her cousins'Rikku: Hey, do I look like Yunie, you think? / Tidus: (Huh?) / Rikku: Well, my dad's sister is Yunie's mother, you get it? (Final Fantasy X) Brother and Rikku belonged. She also began working with the excavation team of the Machine Faction, a neutral group of Al Bhed researching more advanced machina technology, and led by a young man named "Gippal".
As time passed, tensions between the Youth League and New Yevon began building toward violence. In the meantime, Yuna sought spheres that she hoped would lead her to Tidus, her lost love who perished during the ending of Final Fantasy X. After defeating Sin, Yuna had retired to a quiet life on the island of Besaid, arranging appointments daily with citizens of Spira who wished to meet her. However, Rikku brought to her a video sphere discovered on Mt. Gagazet by her childhood guardian, Kimahri, now the elder of the Ronso Tribe. The sphere displayed a young man with a strong resemblance to Tidus, apparently locked inside a prison cell. Despite misgivings from Wakka — now married to their childhood friend, Lulu, and expecting a child — Rikku convinced Yuna that she had fulfilled her duty to Spira and deserved to follow her heart.Rikku: Well, look, I really want Yuna to go. / Wakka: She can't do that. / Rikku: Why not? / Wakka: Because she's booked solid for three months, ya! And everybody wants to see her. / Rikku: Oh yeah? Well, what about what she wants? / Wakka: Well, yeah, but.. Okay, maybe once things calm down, y'know? / Rikku: And what if they don't, Wakka? What then, huh? I don't believe it. After everything Yuna did for us! Why can't she just do what she wants to do now? Why? You know, every time I visited here, I wondered... why is it, that when everyone's out making their dreams happen and everyone's getting their chance, Yuna's dreams are on hold? / Wakka: Gee, it's not like... / Rikku: What do you know anyway, tubby? Yuna? / Yuna: I want... (I want to journey again. But... if I leave, I'll be disappointing everyone else.) I want... I'll go.(Final Fantasy X: The Eternal Calm) Yuna then left Besaid to join the Gullwings and hunt for more clues about Tidus.
Whereas Final Fantasy X drew heavily upon ancient Japanese culture and Asian settings, Final Fantasy X-2 incorporated a number of elements from modern Japanese pop culture. An exception, however, is the Trainer dressphere, featuring the game's main characters fighting alongside a dog, monkey and bird, the three animals befriended by the Japanese folk hero Momotaro in a traditional story.
Characters
The playable characters in Final Fantasy X-2 are Yuna, Rikku and Paine, abbreviated in-game as "YRP" ("YuRiPa" in the Japanese version). Yuna and Rikku reprise their roles from Final Fantasy X, and though their personalities are much the same as before, for Final Fantasy X-2, it was decided that their appearances would be heavily altered to give a greater impression of activity. Furthermore, it was decided that the pervading cultural changes occurring in Final Fantasy X
Several other major and supporting characters from Final Fantasy X also appear in the game. Additionally, other new characters are introduced and developed in Final Fantasy X-2, such as the Leblanc Syndicate, a group of sphere hunters who serve as the Gullwings rivals for much of the game. The game's primary antagonist is Shuyin, another new character.
Plot
Final Fantasy X-2 begins as Yuna, Rikku and Paine recover Yuna's stolen Garment Grid from the Leblanc Syndicate in the first of several encounters in which they vie for spheres. The game is punctuated by a narration of Yuna addressing Tidus, as though she's recounting the events of the game to him as they occur, a style reminiscent of Tidus' own narration in Final Fantasy X. Though Yuna's quest is to find clues that may lead her to Tidus, much of the storyline of the game follows the clash of the various factions that have established themselves in the time since the coming of the Eternal Calm, as well as the uncovering of hidden legacies from Spira's ancient history. A significant portion of the game's events are actually unnecessary for completion of the main storyline, but much of the depth of the story — including characterization and background details — are featured in the optional content, which generally follows how each part of Spira is healing in the time since the passing of Sin.This centralized plot begins 1000 years before the game's present day, with the death of the game's main antagonist, Shuyin. Shuyin was a famous blitzball player in the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand, and the lover of a popular songstress named "Lenne". Lenne was also a very talented summoner. The two lived during the time when Zanarkand was at war with the more powerful city of Bevelle, and during the course of the war, Zanarkand ordered all summoners to the front lines, separating the couple. Believing that Lenne would die in battle, Shuyin decided that the only way to save her was to use Vegnagun, an enormous machina weapon buried beneath Bevelle that is said to be unable to distinguish friend from foe once activated.Maechen: Although Vegnagun was constructed during the Machina War, there is no record of it ever being used. One could argue that the coming of Sin made war a secondary concern. But the real reason was that Vegnagun was nothing short of a titanic failure. You see, it was quick to respond to hostility, but lacked the ability to discern friend from foe. A weapon that slaughters indiscriminately would be far too dangerous for actual use in combat. Incidentally, this is why Vegnagun was never considered as a measure to combat Sin. Instead it was locked away under Bevelle.(Final Fantasy X-2)
Shuyin successfully infiltrated Bevelle, but when he first approached Vegnagun, he was caught and jailed. Determined to use the behemoth machina, however, he escaped and attempted to claim it once more. However, Lenne had perceived Shuyin's intentions, and — unwilling to allow him to take the lives of many others for her sake — followed him to Bevelle. When she caught up to Shuyin, he had only just begun to operate Vegnagun's control panel, an organ integrated into its head. Before he could use the giant cannon located in its mouth to destroy Bevelle, Lenne called to him to stop. Doing as she asked, he moved away from Vegnagun's controls, and a group of Bevelle soldiers arrived a moment later. With Shuyin and Lenne unable to escape, the soldiers easily shot them. Fatally injured, the two fell to the floor while Lenne attempted to tell Shuyin that she loved him before they died. However, she was too late and he didn't hear her.Paine: "The man she loved, he struggled to save her. He fought till his very last breath for her. I think that Lenne's final words might have been happy ones: 'I love you.'" ... / Yuna: "But wait... Everything is all wrong. He never heard. The one person she wanted to tell... He never heard her words."(Final Fantasy X-2)
One thousand years later, during the course of Final Fantasy X-2, Yuna falls into the Farplane and Shuyin mistakes her for Lenne. Feeling affection toward him that is not her own, Yuna listens as Shuyin describes how he "awoke" after they died, alone and unable to find Lenne. He then expresses anger that people have not yet come to understand the heartache that war can cause, and reveals that he has developed a plan to use the old but still operational Vegnagun to destroy all of Spira, ending the possibility of there ever again being a war like the one that cost he and Lenne their lives. In so doing, he believes that he will be making the world a better place.Shuyin: Lenne. We disappeared together, but when I awoke, I was alone. I looked for you for so long. While I wandered, I realized something: Spira hasn't really changed at all. Everyone's still fighting over nothing. Still dying like they used to. A thousand years have passed, and they can't leave the hatred behind. I'm through waiting. I'll fix it. This world continues to fail us, and what's worse, I failed to protect you. Vegnagun will make that all go away. And we'll fade together again, together. Help me do it, Lenne.(Final Fantasy X-2) Over the course of the 1000 years since he died, Shuyin's despair and resentment over not being able to save Lenne bonded to pyreflies and caused him to experience the anguish of that moment countless times.Shuyin: I wanted to rest forever, but the pyreflies make me relive that moment... Again and again and again.(Final Fantasy X-2) Over time, his despair became so powerful that it began acting on its own,Fayth: It may look like him, but the real Shuyin died long ago. Even after a thousand years, his hate and misery linger on. His feelings grew so strong, they began to act on their own... Eventually, they became a shadow - a shade that wants only to vanish, but cannot.(Final Fantasy X-2) and he came to believe that — in addition to helping the world — he would be able to at last fade away with Lenne if he destroyed Spira.
While Shuyin plots, the hostilities between the Youth League and New Yevon begin building to a head. Disagreements are punctuated further after the disappearance of Baralai, Nooj and Gippal, the leaders of New Yevon, the Youth League and the Machine Faction. After joining forces with the Leblanc Syndicate earlier to investigate the underground areas of Bevelle, the Gullwings discovered that Vegnagun had left, burrowing a hole to the Farplane. Returning there now, they discover the missing faction leaders discussing the matter and it is revealed that Vegnagun's artificial intelligence allows the machine to detect hostility and respond by activating itself and fleeing.Baralai: The thing's more sensitive than its size would lead one to believe. It detects hostility, and in an instant, springs to life! Should one even think of harming it, it awakens like a frightened child.(Final Fantasy X-2) It is revealed that Nooj had come to Bevelle with the intention of destroying Vegnagun, prompting it to flee to the Farplane.Baralai: I'm a little confused. You came to claim it for yourself, didn't you? But Vegnagun awoke. Why? Because deep down you hated it. Did you come here to use it or destroy it? Well? / Nooj: Both.(Final Fantasy X-2) Additionally, it is revealed at this time that Paine had once been friends with all three men, assigned to be their sphere recorder while they were candidates for the Crimson Squad, an elite group intended to be assigned leadership of Crusader chapters across Spira.Paine: They're old friends. The three of them were candidates for the Crimson Squad. And I was the recorder assigned to their team. Yevon created the Squad and started training members two years ago. It was supposed to be an elite fighting force. The best were to be assigned leadership of Crusader chapters across Spira...(Final Fantasy X-2)
However, two years earlier, just before the failed Operationa Mi'ihen, in a cave beneath Mushroom Rock Road called "the Den of Woe", the squad's final excercise was conducted. Within the cave, the various squad candidates were swarmed by pyreflies and driven to kill one another. The only survivors were Paine, Baralai, Gippal and Nooj, who were themselves targeted by the Yevon order afterward when they revealed having seen images of a giant machina while inside the cave. The images they had seen were of Vegnagun, and the feelings that drove the squad members to kill one another were Shuyin's despair.Paine: This is what destroyed the Squad. Despair strong enough to crush the minds of those it touches. What just happened to us happened to them, too. Here. They felt Shuyin's despair. They went mad, and they died. They killed each other!(Final Fantasy X-2) Before the four survivors could leave the cave, Shuyin himself (requiring a host in order to interact with the world physically) had possessed Nooj, and later forced him to shoot his surviving comrades.Paine: It was Shuyin. Two years ago, the guys encountered Shuyin's memories and learned of Vegnagun. After we escaped, they said they would uncover the truth behind it. But then...Nooj shot us. We thought he'd betrayed us. But Nooj wasn't Nooj. I understand now: Shuyin was using him the whole time.(Final Fantasy X-2) In the time since, Shuyin had been subtly goading Nooj on a subconscious level, coercing him to approach Vegnagun so that Shuyin may use Nooj's body to control it.
Nooj's will, however, was too strong for him to be completely controlled, and his desire to destroy the large machina prompted it to flee. Now desiring a new host, Shuyin left Nooj's body and possessed Baralai's, pursuing Vegnagun to the Farplane. Nooj and Gippal follow in pursuit, asking Yuna to keep things under control on the surface. In doing so, the Gullwings must fight and defeat each of Yuna's aeons from Final Fantasy X, their spirits corrupted by Shuyin's despair on the Farplane,Fayth: Yuna. I'm sorry. We weren't strong enough to stop him. We wanted to at least warn someone...but instead, we were dragged into the darkness. We're no better than fiends.(Final Fantasy X-2) as well as organize a concert to which everyone in Spira is invited, supporters of the Youth League and New Yevon alike. During the concert, a sphere screen reacts to the Songstress dressphere worn by Yuna, and projects the memories incased within to everyone in attendance, showing them images of Shuyin and Lenne's last moments and giving them an understanding of the senseless nature of their disagreements. Yuna's Songstress dressphere is, in fact, comprised of Lenne's memories. It was for this reason that Shuyin had mistaken Yuna for Lenne, and also why Yuna had felt emotions around Shuyin that were not her own.Buddy: Lenne, huh? / Shinra: Yeah, the girl from the Songstress dressphere. ... / Rikku: So, the reason Shuyin keeps calling Yuna "Lenne" is-- / Paine: Because of that dressphere?(Final Fantasy X-2)
Though hostilities on the surface are settled, inside Spira, Shuyin has nearly carried out his plan to use Vegnagun's cannon to destroy the planet. Joining forces with the Leblanc Syndicate once again, the Gullwings make their way to the Farplane and find Gippal and Nooj already battling Vegnagun. Working together, they manage to disable the giant machina before its cannon can fire at Spira. Finally confronting Shuyin, Lenne's consciousness emerges from the Songstress dressphere and convinces him to abandon his mission and be at rest. Thanking Yuna, Lenne guides Shuyin's spirit to peace on the Farplane.
Subsequently, the fayth once located in Bevelle appears before Yuna and thanks her as well. He then asks her if she would like to see "him" again. Replying that she does, the fayth locate Tidus' scattered pyreflies, pull them back together and send them to Besaid, where they reform. Thus, when Yuna returns home, she is reunited with Tidus.
Development
Developed from early 2002 to 2003, Final Fantasy X-2
Due to the production's emphasis on a brighter, more optimistic setting, the game's dressphere system (inspired by the magical girl sub-genre of anime and manga) was implemented, and the atmosphere of J-pop introduced right from the game's opening sequence. Additional allusions to popular culture in general were featured, such as the style of the Charlie's Angels films.
Audio
For Final Fantasy X-2, regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu was replaced by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi, composers who penned the music for The Bouncer. Among the game's more notable tracks are two vocalized songs: the J-pop-style "Real Emotion" and a more slowly-paced ballad, . The Japanese versions of the songs are sung by Kumi Koda, a Japanese music artist who also did motion capture for the "Real Emotion" opening Full motion video and provided the voice of Lenne in the Japanese version of the game. The English versions of the songs are sung by Jade of Sweetbox. Koda also released her own English versions of the songs on her CD single Come with Me. While similar, the lyrics of Kumi's versions differ from those sung by Jade. Additionally, Koda's single for "1000 Words" spent twenty-eight weeks on Oricon's top 200 charts in Japan, with a highest rank of third place.
Reception and criticism
Within just two months of its November 17, 2003 NTSC U/C release — and just nine months of its Japanese release — Final Fantasy X-2 had sold one million copies in North America alone, and nearly four million copies worldwide. Furthermore, it has sold more than 5.14 million copies the world over — placing it as the fifth best-selling Final Fantasy title — and was voted as the thirty-second best game of all time by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu.
Despite these figures, the game has not been without criticism, in large part due to the atmosphere of grand tragedy in Final Fantasy X shifting to a dominantly lighthearted tone in Final Fantasy X-2. In the words of one reviewer, "Final Fantasy X opens with the destruction of an entire city, whereas Final Fantasy X-2 begins with... a pop concert". This title was also the first direct sequel to appear in the Final Fantasy series. Unlike Legend of the Crystals, an anime sequel to Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy X-2 is set shortly after its predecessor and features the same characters. This decision did not sit well with some fans who believed it to be a change in the spirit of the Final Fantasy franchise. The vehemence of these complaints has waned since the announcement of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, however, which indicated Square Enix's intention of pursuing this path, but the subject nonetheless remains a point of contention.
The game's soundtrack has also been met with mixed-feelings amongst fans, due both to Final Fantasy X-2
Different versions and merchandise
International version
As with Final Fantasy X, an expanded international version was produced for Final Fantasy X-2. The International version of the game introduces several new elements: two new dresspheres, an additional mission at a location called "Yadonaki Tower" and the option of using Tidus, Auron and Seymour from Final Fantasy X — as well as several supporting characters from both games — during battle. This version was never released outside of Japan.Books and media
Several action figures, books, soundtracks and a two-disc DVD collection of all of the FMVs and cutscenes featured in the game were released by Square Enix. The DVD release featured improved graphics over those seen in the PlayStation 2 game. Among the books that were published were three Ultimania guidebooks, a series of artbooks/strategy guides published by Square Enix in Japan. They feature original artwork from Final Fantasy X-2, offer gameplay walkthroughs, expand upon many aspects of the game's storyline and feature several interviews with the game's designers. There are three books in the series: Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimania, Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimania Ω and Final Fantasy X-2: International+Last Mission Ultimania. A similar three-book series was produced for Final Fantasy X.References
External links
- Final Fantasy X-2 official site
- Final Fantasy X-2 official site (U.S.)
- Final Fantasy X-2 official site (Europe)
- Translations from the Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimanias
- Final Fantasy X-2: International+Last Mission English translation
- Final Fantasy Wiki category list for Final Fantasy X-2
- Final Fantasy X-2 wiki guide at StrategyWiki (previously hosted by Wikibooks)
- — (Cast, producers, art direction, voice actors, etc.)
2003 computer and video games | Computer and video role-playing games | Final Fantasy X | Final Fantasy spin-offs | Interactive Achievement Awards Winners | PlayStation 2 games
Final Fantasy X-2 | Final Fantasy X-2 | Final Fantasy X-2 | Final Fantasy X-2 | ファイナルファンタジーX-2 | Final Fantasy X-2 | Final Fantasy X-2 | ไฟนอลแฟนตาซี X-2 | 最终幻想X-2
"Final Fantasy X-2"