Fainaru fantajî X-2

I was pretty dissapointed in the game. I am not a major Final Fantasy fan; but it never hurts to try new things.

The three female cast reminds me of Charlie's angels too much. The only thing that was cute was the dresshsperes.

Many people see the title as overly "loose"; the story, the gameplay, the girls.

Many people forget that aside from the fact that we have now crossed the border from interactive entertainment into artistic beauty, many gamers still have one integral requisite for any entry to their video game collection; FUN.

This game is light-hearted, following the events in a world torn apart by a 1000-year war, and the events of a very depressing game in said world.

The main character, once a girl-next-door type, full of excitement and curiosity has broken her shell of naivety and humility to broaden her horizons and look for a lost-love.

Alongside her spunky cousin and a not-so-familiar denizen of Spira, Yuna watches as a plot of love and betrayal unfolds amidst her journey across many familiar towns to reunite with many familiar faces.

The girls are three fun-loving, yet scantily clad - and with good reason - females who hunt for spheres containing video snippets of long-lost Spiraian history throughout the mostly-tropical world -hence the title of "Sphere Hunters", and hence the bikinis.

The game is a dramatic change of venue from the previous title, and not unreasonably so. Along with the removal of a plot-heavy story, yet still set in the same world, a complete reversal of mood is not an unwelcome change, as it is accompanied by myriads of non-pertinent games, missions, and enemies that await those who wish to explore, and a surprisingly cohesive plot awaits those who don't necessarily want to wait, but rush right to the end.

This game was made for everyone, and at the same time, nobody in particular. It is right in some senses to say that this game is hit-or-miss for various gaming audiences, but a strong sense of planning and effort went into this game in the graphics, the music ( be they the cheesy, 70's bucka-bucka-wow tracks, or the beautifully orchestrated tracks sung by a particular main character ), the story, the unbelievably fun and compelling battle system, or the dozens of optional quests that will keep you occupied for hours.

All in all, this is a great game, because that is exactly what it is; a game, and the only thing a game needs in order to be called such is one element; fun.

And trust me, this title is packed with it.

I had never before even thought about playing a FF game in my life. That was until this one came out. It's not like the rest of them I'll assure you of that, well except X. There were parts in the dialog where I was like 'what the hell' and others i almost fell out of my chair laughing. That was mostly whenever Paine or Rikku said something funny(or stupid) I loved the characters, some though I wanted to find on the business end of Paine's rather large sword. But I liked the characterization of YRP, Yuna matured, Rikku...somewhat, but Paine I think 'grew' the most. There were, I'll admit,some questions in the story line that I would have liked to have answered. Some say there were too many side missions that had nothing to do with the plot when in fact: THEY DID! OK so the monkey thing...Stupid, boring, i could go on and on about that one. But other things led you deeper into the original thing.

So in short: Love the game, Love the plot (so sweet), and Love YRP.

And if you think this game is sexist ladies (or gents)...grow up! I'm a girl and I love it (just ignore the costumes like i do (Lady Luck dressphere must burn!)

10/10

OK, So this game is the sequel to one of the best-selling games of all time. Yuna is convinced that Tidus is still alive because of a sphere she receives. Well, that's the storyline, but of all the time it took to get through the entire game, I think I heard about a total of five minutes about it.

Well, that's definitely not the reason why I gave the game such a high score of course. The gameplay is the best I've seen in a while. This is what ATB should have been from the beginning. When you get into a random encounter, the first person to go is the first person to hit their command. But unlike other games, you can attack when someone else is attacking.

The job system also is great. Plenty of jobs and plenty of things to do with each of them. The story of the game might not be that great, but everything else is.

Like Final Fantasy VIII, the focus of Final Fantasy X-2 isn't on the worldsaving-- though worldsaving does, of course, appear. Instead, it's on the characterizations of the protagonists and her allies, and it does an amazing job of it. I clocked in at 77 hours, gaining the Normal Ending; a replay is definitely in order and I'm glad they've included New Game Plus in order to make it easier to get the story again.

X-2 is a game where you definitely have to explore and poke around everywhere in order to squeeze every bit possible from the story; if you only follow the big clue hammer plot points, you will indeed only get the barest sketchings of a story and maybe even finish it in 15 hours. However, I feel that the Square-Enix team has used the previously created world of Spira very well, taking advantage of players' familiarity and interest in the world to weave engrossing stories about not just the protagonists but many of the characters encountered in the previous game.

It's not only a game where you have to explore in order to find more story, it's a game where you can't see and get everything on a single playthrough. It's also a game where you repeatedly run across signs that Yuna and company aren't the only adventurers and explorers in Spira.

I really enjoyed the development of the inhabitants of Spira-- what retired summoners do, the fact that the fiends of Spira encourage even grandmothers to be competent-- the game starts out extremely easy, although it does get harder later, and this is clearly meant to reflect not only Yuna's experience in Final Fantasy X but also the world's experience with wandering monsters.

Finally, the music and voice acting in FFX-2 is just fantastic. Yes, the music is peppy and jazzy. It's also quietly desolate in places, and some of the repeated themes are just beautiful. As for the voice acting-- Yuna, Rikku and Paine's voice actresses all deserve medals, as do several of the other more minor characters. They bring a richness, subtlety and depth to the story that older games could only reach for. Yuna's voice actress in particular once again does a stellar job, conveying a nervous, self-conscious, but determined Yuna who can't help wanting to save people but wants to learn to have fun, dammit. And who misses her boy a lot, underneath it all.