Reviewer Chi Phan	Story	8/10
	Characters	8/10
	Graphics	9/10
	Music	9/10
	Gameplay	8/10
	Extras	10/10
	Final Score	8.7/10

Two years ago, Final Fantasy X enters the Playstation 2 age. Final Fantasy X quickly became the biggest selling Final Fantasy game ever. Quickly pleasing fans that were disappointed with Final Fantasy IX. Of course Final Fantasy X had a strange ending that left a cliffhanger of sort for fans on the fate of their new favorite character Tidus. But true to form, Square Enix surprises all a few months later announcing their first true FF sequel called FFX-2. Speculation and excitement grew on what FFX-2 will be about. Two years later, the speculation is over and the excitement begins as FFX-2 is finally release to the public. Is this the game that will finally please FFX fans that were disappointed with the ending of FFX? A question that we are about to answer for you.

I'm searching for him, Kimahri. How's the baby, Lulu? Okay..before buying this game, any true FFX fan will probably know what this story is about. The plot of this story is simple. Yuna search or quest to find Tidus. The outcome of the story is pretty obvious as well. That is unless you don't get the perfect ending. We are know in the end that Yuna will find Tidus. The only question is how this scene plays out. All other scenes between the beginning and the ending are nothing more than filler scenes that fill the gap between the beginning and the end of the story so gamers will have something to do before getting the ending that they really want to watch. The story jumps off immediately into the action with Yuna, Paine, and Rikku pursuing the Leblanc Syndicate. Apparently the Syndicate leader, Leblanc has stolen Yuna's dressphere. We are then introduce to what dresspheres are. The corner stone that the gameplay is base on. To find out what dresspheres are please read the gameplay section. After the altercation with the Leblanc Syndicate, we are then given a brief summary from Yuna on what had happened during the past two years since the end of Sin. Yuna has joined the Gullwings, a group of sphere hunters run by Rikku's brother, Brother. During sometime in the last two year, Kimarhi, her former guardian discovered a sphere that showed someone that looks like Tidus asking to see a summoner. For this reason alone, Yuna had decided to join the Gullwings to become a sphere hunter in hopes of finding more spheres that will give more insight on whether or not the individual inside the sphere was indeed Tidus. The journey of the story begins here with Yuna and the rest of the Gullwings travelling around Spira. Here we come to realise that after the fall of Yevon, the calm had begun. Out of the calm arrived a new group calling themselves the NewYevon. This New Yevon group claims they are now a new and better religious group that will not become corrupted as the Old Yevon group. This New Yevon group is headed by a man name, Baralai. But things are not that easy as mistrust from the Old Yevon has been place on the New Yevon simply by name inheritance alone. A second group called the Youth League was formed in opposition to New Yevon led by a man name Nooj. At this time, tension between the two groups have escalated to the point of war. The Gullwings are caught in the middle and must decide which of the two group to side with. On top of the current war situation, a spirit over a 1000 year by the name of Shuyin has awaken due to Yuna's dressphere. Apparently Yuna dressphere has a lingering spirit inhabiting it. The spirit is that of a former summoner and singer by the name of Lenne. Each time Yuna uses her dressphere to change into a singer, the essence of Lenne's spirit is release. This resulted in the awakening Shuyin. Through dreams and visions, Yuna was able to conclude that Shuyin and Lenne were once lovers over a 1000 year ago before the time of Sin, during the Machina War. The two met a tragic fate. Shuyin had passed away 1000 years ago but his spirit still linger on Spira due to his despair and guilt of not being able to protect Lenne. After an event at the Farplane where Shuyin mistaken Yuna for Lenne, Yuna learn that Shuyin intend on using an ancient machina to destroy Spira. This once again has brought Spira into danger from destruction. With war between two of Spira fractions breaking out and a danger of an ancient spirit planning to unleashed a great power to destroy Spira. Yuna and her Gullwings teammates are thrust into a battle to save Spira. At this point the two sub-plots merge into Yuna's quest to find Tidus to form one whole story for the game. That should describe to you the basis of the whole FFX-2 story. To round it off, if you ever wonder what would happen when you mix in Charlie Angels with Final Fantasy, then wonder no more. You would get FFX-2, complete with Charlie Angel battle poses and girlie dialogue. From a male point of view, at times during the story, certain scenes would make you just want to laugh as to how cheesy certain story sequences are. It's like you want to sit back and say, "Do girls really act and talk like that when guys aren't around?" The story has the female target audiences written all over it. That's not to say guys can't enjoy this story but just keep in mind that the story is really meant for the female audience if you are a guy. This is like three short story in one story. You have the basic love story overall with Yuna searching for Tidus. Add in two backdrop stories with New Yevon and the Youth League going to war and a smaller love story between Lenne and Shuyin. These are mini stories added together to make one big story. The story with the Youth League/New Yuvon and Shuyin are nothing more than filler stories trying to keep you busy before getting to the end of Yuna's story quest. Overall the story is pretty good. Not great mind you. It's really the perfect ending that make the story all worth it in the end.

Y.R.P This game only feature 3 main story characters. A far less number than the original FFX game. That's not to say there won't be a lot of characters in this game. Beside the 3 main characters, the game introduces about 6 new secondary story characters. The LeBlanc Syndicate, Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal. Then add in all the previous characters from FFX in the game and you have an all star casts from FFX. Of the 3 main characters, Paine is the only new one. Rikku and Yuna are returning ones and at this point, the game doesn't take much effort into developing them. It's expected at this point in the game, you should know all about Rikku and Yuna by now from FFX. It will only update gamers on what Rikku and Yuna have been up to since the end of FFX. You are also given a brief update on the other former FFX main characters as well. Paine and the other new story characters are slowly develope as the story goes on. It's a nice pace. Not as in-depth as one would like as their background are told through scenes in Spheres most of the time. Overall a nice cast of characters, each with their own standout personalities. But no real strong character that the game rely on to carry the story. The game rely on the charm of the girls to carry the story. That might be good or bad depending on your point of view. The characters are told through a female perspective so females can probably relate to the characters more. But on the other hand, male gamers may not be all that turn on with these characters.

Am I in the Farplane? When FFX first came out, it was consider one of the best graphically game for the Playstation 2 during it's time which is why it was given a 10/10. However since that time, we now know there are even better graphically games out there. Final Fantasy X-2 is a prime example of this. One doesn't have hindsight to predict future review scores and one cannot go back and re-edit every single review scores that were given in the past. As such FFX-2 graphic scores will be base on today's rpg game. FFX-2 is definetly an improvement over FFX. But not a lot of improvement. Since FFX-2 is base in the same world with the same characters as FFX, it's more or less a conversion of the original FFX graphics but done to a point where it enhances the graphics than what was shown in FFX. The background and character designs are more smoother, sharper, and polished with better details. Each of the towns and places have better background scenaries added to them to make them look more authentic. The colors are more richer and brighter. The characters have better facial expression in their look than before. From eyes to mouths. I like how you can see their teeth and tongue when they talk. However while the face have better details, it's not really designs that good. It's not so much as the problem in the graphic engine but the way it's drawn out. Especially with Rikku. She look like she has a busted lip in non CGI mode. But again that's probably the way the designer see how Rikku is suppose to look. The jaggies from the anti-aliasing isn't as much and as obvious as before on the 3-D polygons. Not much has change in the CGI sequence. Maybe not better but just as good. There's aren't a lot of CGI sequence in this game though. Overall better graphics than FFX but not the best Playstation 2 graphics.

1000 Words, 1000 Years It's been a long time since a Final Fantasy game had a real love theme in the overall game. Not since FFVIII with Squall and Rinoa. FFX didn't really have any real strong love theme although the music was very good. FFIX tried to have a love theme in the game but that didn't go over in the game that strong. Melodies of Life wasn't that great. And since FFX-2 is base on a female point of view base on a quest to search for a love one, the overall theme is going to be base on love. And of course since this game is geared toward the female audience, you will have a happying going atmosphere to it. And the music of the game also reflect that. There are over 30 different musical themes with 2 songs in there. Most of the musical themes are about the Gullwings in action or the Gullwings are ready to help you out. Even the battle music are happy going battle music. Bottomline is the music is about fun, fun, and dance away. There's no real depressing music here or serious musical overtone. The song Real Emotion is a prime example of that. Real Emotion is sung at the beginning of the game. It's a japanese pop tune that's about dancing away and having fun. If you're not into japanese pop music then you probably don't like it. I think it was okay and nothing special. I'm not into japanese dance pop music at all. The heavy hitter is 1000 Words which is a song that expresses love over a 1000 years. 1000 Word is better than Real Emotion but fail to hit a strong cord with me like FFVIII "Eyes on Me" or Xenosaga "Pain". There are two reasons for that. One, 1000 Words even though it's a love song still sound like a happy going pop tune instead of a more serious love tune. And second, 1000 Words is a song more base on Lenne and Shuyin. Which takes away the effectiveness of the song. Lenne and Shuyin are secondary characters in the game that aren't as develope as much. Other than the fact that we know they love each other but the game doesn't go beyond the developement of why they love each other so much and how they became to love each other. We only know the end fate of their love for one another. So a song like 1000 Words becomes less effective due to being associated with characters less develope for gamers to care for. It would've been better off if they made a song for Yuna and Tidus to be played at the game. At least for those two characters, gamers can relate to more since they know more about Yuna and Tidus then Lenne and Shuyin. The scene when Tidus and Yuna re-uniting would be more effective if there was a love song playing during that scene. Still, while the music isn't 100% perfect. It's still very good and better than pretty much most of the rpgs out there for the Playstation 2.

Feel my rage! Are you real? Or a dream? Game Information    Genre: Traditional Rpg    Publisher: Square Enix    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 186 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Vibration: Yes    Dual Analog: Yes    Digital Control: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: November 2003 Gameplay is a little bit different this time compare to FFX. It's not story driven but mission driven where you have to complete certain missions. Now there are two areas in the game. Your ship and of course the towns and cities on Spira. Your ship is your main base and starting point. From your ship you can go to any cities in Spira to explore and talk to the people in those cities. Once you enter a city, you are taken into a mission quest. Of course you don't need to explore all the cities. Progression of the game is done through cities and areas that are deemed Hot Spot. How the game unfolds and play out is done through some of the choices you make when the time comes. This keep the game from becoming too linear. There is one thing that you will need to keep an eye on in terms of the gameplay. Story Completion Percentage point. Throughout the game, there are certain points in the gameplay that you are require to do and complete inorder to gain a certain amount of story completion percentage point. The goal is to try and achieve 100% story completion. This will net you the perfect ending. The only way to tell how many percentage you have acquire is by saving. Your save file will tell how many percentage point you have acquired. Now getting a 100% story completion is nothing more than optional but I believe pretty much everyone will want to try and get it. Not easy to do though. So you might want to pick up the official strategy guide for that. As for the rest of the gameplay. The key features are explained below: Hot Spot: Hot Spot are areas within Spira that you must do inorder to progress the main story. Each chapter of the game has certain numbers of Hot Spot available. Think Hot Spot as your main mission quests that you need to do. If you don't want to do sidequest missions and just want to progress the story, then you would only do Hot Spot. However keep in mind that not doing sidequest missions will result in not getting all the story completion percentage that you need. Mission Complete: Now the gameplay is base on mission completion. Each time you enter a different town, you will enter a story sequence which will result in the beginning of a mission quest. You are then require to finish the mission by doing what is necessary to complete it. Completing a mission will result in getting a story percentage completion as well as help progress the story a little. Although some mission quests have nothing to do with the story at all. So your basic overall gameplay are the mission quests. It's different and unique compare to other FF gameplay. Garment Grids: In FFX, the game uses a sphere grid. Things are a little bit different this time. Instead of sphere grid, you have a garment grid. A device that harness the power of each dressphere. In other words, this is where you place your different dresspheres on. There are many different types of garment grids. Each grid comes with it's own unique stats boost or allow usage of a unique ability or magic that you would normally only be allow to use when equipping certain dresspheres. So equipping the right kind of garment grid during certain fights would do good to your advantage. Of course before equipping a garment grid, you will need to place dresspheres on the garment grid. Dresspheres: Dresspheres are pretty much like your different types of job classes (Black Mage, Thief, White Mage, etc) with unique abilities for each job class. Each character will start off with a default dressphere. But as the game move along, you can find and get more dresspheres. Even powerful special class dresspheres for each character. Since each dresspheres are unique and different, try to equip dresspheres that are most useful in terms of different abilities and stats boost for your character. However, when placing dresspheres on a garment grid, keep in mind that you can only place a limited number of dresspheres on a garment grid as well as making sure that the placement for each dressphere are within a good distance of one another in advantage to each particular character so that when it's time to change a character dressphere to another type of dressphere during battle that they don't have to move all over the place on the garment grid before finally changing to a dressphere who's abilities that you would like to use. A quick change is best to make a battle easier and faster. Abilities: As mention above, each dressphere has it's own different type of abilities that are helpful to you. Once you acquire a dressphere, certain abilities have already been unlocked and mastered for you. But there are other abilities that haven't been master or unlock yet. As you start to master the various abilities of a particular dresspheres, new abilities will be unlock for you to master. Mastering a particular ability is done through a percentage point. 100% is the point where you master an ability. Mastering an ability is base on raising enough AP points. Each ability has a set amount of AP points that you will need to acquire before being able to master it. You, of course get AP point by fighting. Each monster gives a certain number of AP points in battle. Each time you perform an action in battle, you acquire the AP point that the monster gives. For the most part, abilities aren't too hard to master quickly. And with help from certain accessories, you should be able to master a few dressphere classes in no time flat. The battle system is pretty simple and easily learned. Battle is done in real time through wait and active mode. This is known as the ATB guage. You basically have a guage that needs to be filled up before an action can take place. Once you select a command to be done in battle, the gauge move into the Wait Mode. At this point, your ATB guage starts to fill up. Once the guage is filled up, your character will then performed the selected action. Which means you are now in Active Mode. How quickly the guage moves depends on the speed of each different dressphere class. The commands in battle are the basic, tradional ones. Attack, Item, Abilities, Magic, and Escape. Simple stuff that most rpgers should be familiar with. Two key things to note in battle mode. Chain Attacks: The concept of this is simple. When two or more successful attacks follow one after the other immediately, the word "Chain" will appear. This is the beginning of a chain attack. Successful attacks in a chain causes increase in damage one after the other. So the goal is to make a really long chain attack to get off a really good deal of damage done to your opponent. Spherechanges: As previously mention, when battle begins, you start off with the current dressphere you have equip. However, you can change to different dresspheres during the battle to optimize the situation in your favor. Pressing L1 will bring up the Garment Grid and your current position on the Garment Grid. At this point you can spherechange to a different dressphere. But you can only move within one spot in any direction of the closes dressphere. If a dressphere is about 5 spot away then you will be require to spherechange one spot at a time. This can be time consuming and costly as battle are done in real time. You don't want to be wasting time trying to reach the dressphere that you need to change to when your opponent is swinging away at you. So placing dresspheres on a Garment Grid is very important. Depending on how you look at it, FFX-2 gameplay can be long or short. If your goal is to try and get 100% completion then it will take over 60+ to complete. But if you don't care about that stuff then you can probably finish this game under 30 hours. The gameplay itself isn't base on the traditional gameplay where you go on a real quest around the world in a strong in-depth storyline. The game is more or less sidequest stuff base on doing missions with a small story and another small story within the small story. Those who are hoping for a real big rpg quest may and will probably end up disappointed with this game. However if you're willing to try something different from the usual FF gameplay flare then this game just might hit the spot. I enjoy this game. It's not the kind of rpg quest I had in mind but I didn't really care as in the end, it's all about wanting to see the perfect ending for me. And once I did, I was satisfy. Cause after all, rpgs are more about story then gameplay.

Score: 8/10

It began here, it ends here. Enough already when thinking about sidequests and mini games. Sometimes too much isn't good. And this game put the definition in the phase "too much". Mini games are all over the place. Some of these mini games have a purpose while other mini games are just there to drive you nuts and help expand the gameplay and make it longer than it needs to be. Examples of mini games are Blitzball, Cactuar Nation, Chocobo Ranch, Gunner's Gauntlet, Publicity Campaign, ect. The list keeps going on and on. Trust me when I say there's a lot of mini games. Now for the sidequest stuff. About 60% of the game is filled with sidequest. But in terms of definition, sidequests are consider optional quests that you don't need to do. However if you want to get 100% completed then you need to complete all the sidequests. So can you still call these sidequests? Most of these sidequest are easy to do and complete. With the exception of the 100 Floor Bevelle dungeon. Which consist of some really tough bosses. Especially the final dungeon boss that has 999999HP. But all bosses have a way of being defeated. The game also consist of questions with multiple choice answers which can change the way the story is played out. This result in great replay value. You can play the game one way to get the perfect ending then replay it again in another direction to see how the story unfold differently. And to help you along, the game gives you a New Game+ option so you can replay it again with all your accessories, dresspheres, and skills that you have learned. Good incentive to playing the game again. Sidequests, mini games, and replay are all there. The only bad thing you can say is that it's too much.

If you're expecting a main rpg then forget it. This isn't a main rpg. It's more a side desert rpg to please fans that weren't satisfy after finishing dinner. If you brought and play FFX, then you would be happy with the result. But if you're looking for a new main rpg to play then look elsewhere as this game doesn't provide that. As a side desert rpg, it's well worth it. While getting the 100% story complete is a real pain in the ass, it's well worth the pain in the ass. As this game is all about getting the perfect ending and to see the scene that Yuna and Tidus unite. And I definetly enjoy the ending. As a result, this game gets a thumbs up. Would I like to see a FFX-3? Sure. It would be cool to see the real FFX gang re-uniting for a real quest. It's nice to see other FFX characters making guess appearances but seeing these once great characters being relegated to weak story supporting characters in this game don't suite them. But alas, the story of FFX ends here with FFX-2. Final Score: 8.7/10 Time to complete: 60+ hours (100% completion) Difficulty: Medium Favorite story character: Tidus? Worst story character: Paine Best Dressphere: Mascot Most useful fighter: Paine Best accessories: Cat Nip (9999 HP Damage) Best music theme: Yuna Ballard Best advice: Master Gunner and Dark Knight Best Skill: Trigger Happy Also try: Final Fantasy X Up next: Dot Hack 4