PS2/PS3/PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy X-2

 Final Fantasy X-2 was supposed to be a Yuna-centric sequel to find our good lad Tidus after the ending of Final Fantasy X.  What it envelopes is looking into spheres that may look into Tidus and a male figure that looks like Tidus, but it leads to an adventure that digs deep into the past of Spira. To this day, this game gets crucified for its fan-service type gaming as it leads with the aforementioned Yuna, but FFX star Rikku and newcomer Paine.  Is the game rightly crucified? Is the game a bit unworthy of the claim? All that and more below!

Positives:

1. Active Battle System- This is probably the best takeaway from the game is the active battle system and its ability to succeed in this game I believe probably was the spring board to games later on to the active battle system.  This was a great plus as opposed to the turn based games of the past.  I felt that Square did really well overall for this.

2. Music- I was going to put this as a neutral but in the end it goes to the positives but only just.  It's not a favorite soundtrack of mine, but it isn't bad.  The battle theme and boss theme are okay, but the worlds maps music are the best.  So that overall is why the game's music is the main plus.

3. Chapter 4 Song- One of the best songs I would say done on Final Fantasy but probably the signature of the game other than the battle system is the fact that this song was done.  The way that this song was done was exemplary and it does really amazingly well with all the graphics and it makes it worthwhile overall to play for that moment.

Negatives:

1. Story- Good golly the story is just so awful.  I just don't get how they made it that way.  I get the idea of trying to find a lost loved one but make something of it after that.  Make the story meaningful.  Square doesn't do any of that in this game.  I felt that this game, which has the active battle system, use of the past worlds would have been so much more and could have been so much more open but instead it was just bland, and honestly just bad.

2. Fan Service- Okay look, I am for making characters look amazing but there comes a point where it just becomes fan service and this easily was fan service to the characters.  To me it makes me feel like.. they are already beautiful and we already know Yuna and Rikku are fantastic leaders and role models.  I don't see the need to provide fan service and try to attract male viewers to them and also LeBlanc, and it just looks porous.  You can make them amazing, fantastic characters, leaders and just have a good story.

3. Side quests: For as much as I thought FFX was arduous on this, FFX-2 is just ridiculous on it.  I get they are a big point to the game but it feels that this game just missed the mark on them and it became boring for lack of better words.  I kept expecting the game to burst to life with the story, quests and side-quests and it just didn't do well at all.  I also wouldn't recommend the re-calibration of the lightning towers because that is just ridiculous.

4. The NPC's- For the record, NPC's means Non-Playable Characters, and honestly I just thought this game has mediocre at best NPC's.  It's not anything great, LeBlanc is meh, Nooj is meh, same with Baralai and others.  I just never got any major appeal to them and honestly they came up well short.  It's so unfortunate that this happen while other games had good NPC's.

Overall Rating:

I cannot recommend FFX-2 to anyone, and here's the reason.. it's legit just fan service to have.  I didn't enjoy much of anything about the game.  The story isn't good, the quests nor side-quests are good either.  I feel the battle system was the only good thing to this game and it is highly unfortunate overall that this was the only good thing about the game.  Very rough game that deserves only a 4 out of 10. 

PS2/PS3/PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy X

 Final Fantasy X was the game that brought Square Enix into the 21st Century with Final Fantasy.  The change from Squaresoft to Square Enix was also appropriate for the time considering the merging of two big gaming companies. The other main thing, it brought with it a new console, the PlayStation 2.  For PlayStation, it was critically important to have a monster game, which ended up being FF7.  Square needed to have another hit launch for the PS2, which they made in FFX.  What did this game do well? What needed to be changed? All that and more below as we end 2021 with FFX! 

Positives

1. New Gen, New Improved Graphics- And yes they get even better on the PS3 and PS4 remasters.  However even just for the PS2 it is fantastic the graphics as they moved into a new era of gaming.  The Square Enix people did spend three years on this and it was time well spent and they deserve all the accolades for how they did transitioned to a new console to make the graphics.

2. Voice Acting- Gone were the text boxes, in with the voices and with it, voice acting.  It was a major change from FF's of past.  It resembled the new changes, but it works here.  Yes they were not the most obvious mouth movements in the words but the emotion in the voice acting was top notch to be honest.  As the era changed, FF changed with it.  In this instance it was a real good change. 

3. Story- The story, it's massive, it's life-changing, it tells about everything and it is emotional.  I don't think there is one part of this story that is missing.  There is friendship, love, death, dreams, dreams dashed, remembrance, hope, fear, redemption, and triumph all wrapped into one game.  Heck some Final Fantasy games don't even provide that, and FFX did.  Which brings me to..

Side Note: The story/arc I enjoyed most was actually Auron's.  From his beginning of the game helping Tidus, to learning about him and then the end, his arc was most dramatic and most genius.  The way he was written in this story is nothing short of masterful.

4. Devious Villain? Yes- Yes I admit Seymour is a tool, however he is devious enough to warrant being a plus here.  He has his plans, and executes them quite well and would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids and their older guardian.  All jokes aside, yes Seymour is devious because of what he can control, which is..

5. Playing on Religion/abuses of power of Religion- He almost has a devious way of controlling Yevon's teachings and abusing them for his power.  We see that a bit with a very important part of the story at one point and his ability to stay on Spira.  This is also shown with another major plot point involving the heroes and more specifically Yuna.  We see it with how they want to script one thing about machina, but use it in their own way.  They play on the religion aspect but use it to show an abuse of power, much like some people in some religious circles today.  It is a fine line that Square can go with that, but with this they play it perfectly throughout.

6. Music- Going next gen meant they needed to hit the music.  They did.  The remastered games are better with this though.  I love the remasters on this and the music is more fluid sounding and just better overall.  The battle theme in the remaster is absolutely amazing, but the next to last major boss fight is the one people will most remember.  And for good reason.  The song is an absolute banger and well worth it.  The music in every way is fantastic and I really enjoyed listening to it.

7. Race? Yes- Race plays a major factor here with the religious aspect but also with a couple characters.  Luckily one of those characters views change over time due to their eyes finally opening (those that have played will know who I am talking about.) but it exemplifies the plight one race of people have endured due to the religious aspect in this game and the vitriol they face through the game.  It's still an issue today with race, but not totally necessarily due to religion.  However, people can still learn a massive lesson with this game in my opinion because Square brought it in a game and executed it again brilliantly.

8. Yuna- Her poise in the midst of incredible odds, her determination in the midst of everything falling apart, her ability to express emotions when things are going right or wrong is something that Square hit absolutely on target with.  You could argue she is the main protagonist in this story and you wouldn't be entirely wrong.  Yes the story is about Tidus, but it's easily clear that Yuna plays at the worst a second role to this.  Her ability to grow throughout the story is nothing short of amazing considering what her journey should be as opposed to what it becomes.

Negatives

1. Sidequests- They are way, way too arduous.  Notes: All the Aeons, all the celestial (ultimate) weapons incur a lot of arduous tasks and especially for the aeons means if you miss one thing oh boy you are in a world of hurt later on.  I honestly think that doing these sidequests are meaning they are way to arduous and way too story breaking.  In all honesty as well, as long as you use the sphere levels, you may or may not need to do these either. 

Overall Rating/Ranking in Final Fantasy Rankings

Overall, this is an excellent game.  You can nearly disregard the sidequests but it helps immensely if you don't.  However that would be the only downside.  This game is so thorough, so well done that you can disregard one negative out of this.  I overall very thoroughly enjoyed this game and it has such an emotional ending that you should play just for that.  I give a rating of 9.5 out of 10.  Where does that rank FFX in terms of my FF Rankings?

1. FF 6

2 (Or possibly 1a, as they could be co-equal #1's in my opinion). FF 10

3. FF 9

4. FF 5

5. FF 7

6. FF 15

7. FF 4 

8. FF 8

9. FF 1