Welcome back Spira, the setting of the best Final Fantasy of all time*. This time, though, it's for the PS3/Vita and looks a lot nicer.

So what's the deal with this remaster? Is it just graphics and sound?
Nope! It also includes a widescreen format, trophy support, an audio drama that takes place after the events of X-2 and gameplay features that were in the International versions of X/X-2 that never got released outside Japan.

Pretend I've never played either of these games before. Break it down for me.
You got it!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfLTGgDem0

Square Enix wrote:

In ages past, the world of Spira experienced a golden age of perfection, brought about by an advanced civilization through the use of wondrous machinery called machina.

However, around one thousand years before the present day, a colossal menace known only as "Sin" appeared and sundered all before it. Though a line of summoners have since brought Sin low many times, it inevitably returns in an unending cycle of destruction. In the face of this ever-pervasive threat, the people of Spira flocked to the teachings of Yevon, which tell that Sin is a punishment to those who relied overly on machina.

Tidus is a young Blitzball star that mysteriously finds himself in Spira after his home city of Zanarkand is destroyed by Sin one thousand years in the past. Believing Sin to be the key to returning home, Tidus joins a young summoner named Yuna on her pilgrimage to destroy Sin and bring about the Calm.

Stilts' Summary: A big-ass whale with gravity powers is fucking shit up, and you have to use the power of love/anime to stop it once and for all.

The Cast


Tidus
I hope you like Tidus' absurdly-feathered hair, because this is the dude you have direct control of for the entire game. He's super good at Blitzball, which is a weird fantasy sport that's basically soccer but played in a giant floating orb of water. Then one day he gets shoved up Sin's sphincter and shunted off to (from his perspective) an alternate-universe version of Spira. He gets a lot of shit for being whiny and having daddy issues; though in his defense, his dad was kind of an asshole and the whole point of his character arc is learning to be less of a self-centered tool.

I won't even try to defend the laughing scene, though.

In Battle... Tidus is part knight, part time mage. He hits decently hard, but his real strengths lie in his speed (the only one faster is Rikku) and party buffs. Haste and Hastega are the most important spells in the entire game. You want them. Tidus also has some abilities that can mess with the opponent's turn order, which can be a pretty nice defensive option to have.


Yuna
Say hello to the actual main character of FFX. Yeah, Tidus is constantly going on about how "this is my story," and the story is told from his perspective; but in the end, it's all about Yuna. She's the one that has to get shit done, she's the one that keeps this band of misfits together, and she's the only one that literally everyone in the group respects and depends on. She's the daughter of Braska--the previous summoner who defeated Sin--and now it's her turn. Everyone else acts as "Guardians" for her pilgrimage, since the roads of Spira can get pretty crammed with monsters. Thankfully, in addition to having a small army, Yuna can summon giant monsters to shoot laser beams at the smaller, more pitiful monsters.

In Battle... Yuna is your white mage, which means she's incredibly important. In addition to standard heals, she can buff your defense with stuff like Shell, Protect and various elemental resistances. Oh, yeah, and then there's the whole Summon thing. Yuna has a stable of Aeons that she acquires as you progress through the story. In FFX, summons take the place of the entire party, and you pick actions for them just like you would a normal party member. They even have their own limit breaks. If you're the type of person who likes a challenge, though, you may want to steer clear of them. They can trivialize some early-game boss battles. People who rely on them should be careful, too. Eventually you'll start running into bosses that have one-hit-kill attacks specifically to take out Aeons.


Auron
This guy is radical. He's an old friend of Tidus' dad and one of Braska's guardians, which means Yuna (and most everyone else) has a whole lot of respect for him. Thematically, Auron is basically a combo of "mysterious ronin" and "group dad." The younger characters (like Tidus, Yuna and Rikku) seek him out for advice and guidance, while the older characters see him as an ally that can murder the hell out of some fools. His introduction is one of the best cinematics in the game.

In Battle... That gigantic sword isn't just for show. Auron hits hard, and he can even apply stat debuffs to enemies while attacking. He's also built like a tank (his base HP is almost double Tidus'), so he can take quite a few hits before falling. The downside is that he's one of the slowest characters in the game.


Kimahri
Kimahri is a Ronso: a sentient race of blue lion-people, basically. Unfortunately, he was exiled from his tribe after he disgraced himself; but he managed to find a new life as Yuna's bodyguard. He's a pretty typical "proud warrior race" character and is honestly kind of boring, I think. He starts out really not thinking much of Tidus, though, so at least he's got a good head on his shoulders.

In Battle... Kimahri is a blue mage, which means he can learn unique skills by intentionally getting hit in the face by monsters. Also, unlike every other character, he doesn't have a "default" path on the Sphere Grid (more on what that is later). You can make him into pretty much whatever you want to. Sadly, this is the sort of game that rewards specialization, not versatility. Combine the wishy-washiness of his ability path with average stats across the board and you get a character who is constantly just "the poor man's version of [insert PC name here]."


Wakka
Wakka is a childhood friend of Yuna and captain of Besaid's rinky-dink blitzball team known as the Aurochs. No one takes the Aurochs seriously, but dammit, Wakka's gonna win a game some day! He's easily the most earnestly optimistic member of the party, and he pretty much wants to be everyone's friend. As a devout Yevonite, he's Spira's equivalent of the Bible-thumping Southerner stereotype, which means he's pretty racist towards the Al Bhed; though this racism is framed more as him being an indoctrinated doofus than as him being, like, really into hate crimes or something. His character arc can be summed up as: "Learns to think for himself and stop being as asshole to fantasy-world Middle Easterners."

In Battle... He uses his blitzball to attack, which means he's one of the only party members who can hit flying enemies whenever the hell he wants. He's about as powerful as Tidus in terms of pure strength, plus he can also inflict status effects (like poison) on enemies. I never used him much, but apparently he's pretty good.


Lulu
This belt-lover is Yuna's other childhood friend. She's the mom of the group and takes her job as guardian very seriously. Lulu's a bit cold, but not because she doesn't care. It's just that she's been tasked with protecting one of the most important people in the world, so she has zero tolerance for other Guardians fucking around and doing dumb things. Oh, and she used to be engaged to Wakka's brother, Chappu. You know, before he died. So that makes the group dynamic a bit awkward.

In Battle... Lulu's a pretty standard black mage. She expends MP to hit enemies with fire, ice or lightning attacks. If you've played any JRPG ever, you know the drill here. She's pretty consistently useful throughout the whole game, especially when dealing with things that have elemental weaknesses and/or stupidly high physical defense. She's as slow as Auron, though, which makes sense considering she's wearing a dress made of belts.


Rikku
I saved the best character for last. Rikku's a member of the Al Bhed, a race of desert nomads who have rejected religion in favor of science. Specifically, science that lets them build totally sweet robots, airships and giant laser turrets. Unfortunately, Yevonites (followers of the religious figure Yu Yevon) believe that the Al Bhed and their machines were responsible for Sin appearing (sort of like nukes were to Godzilla). Since a lot of Spirans are Yevonites, well, the whole world kind of hates the Al Bhed. On the surface, Rikku appears to be this game's token "genki girl," though she ends up being a bit of a subversion of that trope. Despite talking like a ditzy valley girl, she regularly builds and operates mecha, salvages airships from deep beneath the sea and improvises crazy weaponry (like black hole grenades) from random shit in your inventory. Rikku's pretty much MacGyver as a teenage anime girl, which is why I think she's great.

In Battle... Rikku is really goddamn fast. She is so fast that sometimes she'll take multiple turns for every one that, say, Auron gets. As the requisite thief character, she can also use Steal and Mug, which have the added benefit of instantly killing most robotic enemies. Her damage output is mediocre, but that's not really what she's for. She's a problem solver. Her Use ability lets her access a much, much wider array of consumable items that can be invaluable for shoring up holes in the party's defense or offense. It may not be glamorous, but it'll save your life.

Gameplay Mechanics
Combat System
Unlike every other Playstation FF game, FFX is turn-based. It's not totally traditional, though. The order of the turns is determined by every participant's agility stat, and you put in a character's action only when it's their turn. Certain actions will also add modifiers to a character's speed, so a character might take their next turn earlier if they use an item rather than cast a spell. It's designed to feel a lot like a tactics game, and I feel it works very well.

Overdrives
Since this is an FF game, there are limit breaks. Except this time they're called Overdrives. Tomato, tomahto. It works exactly the same, though with slightly more minigames this time (Lulu's, for example, is straight out of Mario Party). Most are pretty straightforward (use it to do a bunch of damage), but there's one that deserves specific mention: Mix. Mix is Rikku's overdrive, and I'd argue it's the best in the game. When you activate it, you choose two items to combine, which makes a kind of super item. Some of these effects aren't so great, but most are pretty useful. And a few are downright game-changing. Bookmark this list. All the Wall items, Quartet of 9999 and Super Elixer, for example, are crazy good.

Sphere Grid
This is the game's level-up mechanic. The Sphere Grid contains hundreds of nodes that are arranged in a circular pattern. Instead of gaining levels, you gain sphere levels. You have to spend one sphere level to move to the next node on the grid (as long as the two nodes are connected). If the node has some sort of upgrade inside it (like a stat boost or new ability), you can spend the appropriate type of color sphere to activate that upgrade (i.e. red-colored Power Spheres activate strength, defense, and HP boosting nodes). If a node has nothing in you, you can actually find special spheres that you can expend to put a stat increase inside an empty node. I kinda like the sphere grid, but mostly for its aesthetics. It gives the appearance of freedom, but unfortunately is very linear.

So What Extra Stuff Does the Remaster Have?
The Expert Sphere Grid = This version of the Sphere Grid is meant to be a bit more freeform. Everyone starts out like Kimahri does, so you could make Auron into white mage if you really wanted to. Keep in mind that you can't change the type of weapons they equip and what their Overdrives are, so the traditional paths will still be optimal for most characters. It's also a little easier to transfer into a different path (Yuna can pop into the black mage path from her normal path and quickly pick up the -ara spells, for example).

Dark Aeons = Twisted versions of Yuna's Aeons that you can fight as optional superbosses. Basically like the Weapons in FFVII.

New abilities and various gameplay tweaks that were in the International version.

*Opinion may be controversial and only held by me.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU2JQLpVxnI

Square Enix wrote:

Two years have passed since Sin was destroyed. Since her victory and becoming a high summoner, Yuna has lived on her childhood home of Besaid Island. Then one day, Rikku comes to Besaid and shows Yuna a sphere. The recording is of him. Or is it?

Yuna can't tell whether it's him or just someone who looks like him. If it is him, Yuna might be able to see him one more time. No matter what the truth may be, the answers she finds may change things forever.

Stilts' Summary: Yuna wants her boyfriend back, so she and Rikku form a rescue team under the pretense of being treasure hunters. Think Charlie's Angels mixed with Indiana Jones sprinkled with Sailor Moon and glazed with J-pop. Easily one of the strangest and most experimental FF games.

The Cast


Yuna
Yuna's back, and this time she's very obviously the main character. It seems the influence of Tidus' personality combined with the threat of imminent death no longer hanging over her head has had a significant effect on her. She's quite a bit less serious and fatalistic in X-2. She's going on exciting adventures and having a lot of fun.

In Battle... This is the only one of these I'll do, because this time all three characters are equally effective at any job. There are a few minor differences (and the Ultimate Dresspheres are unique), but ultimately which girl uses which dressphere doesn't really matter.


Rikku
Considering this adventure is mostly her idea, it only makes sense that Rikku returns for the sequel. Unfortunately, her default Dressphere (Thief) is hella fanservicey; and if you were hoping that her character would develop alongside Yuna's, well, prepare to be disappointed. Any depth she had in FFX is gone. She's pretty much just here to be the goofy sidekick.

Can you tell I'm kinda bitter about this?


Paine
Yeah, I know, her name is a bit on the nose, but give her a chance. Paine is actually pretty radical. She's got a neat character arc and a fun rapport with Yuna and Rikku. Also she never once says the word "poopy," which automatically make her dialogue, like, a million times better than her two teammates'.

Gameplay Mechanics
So you know how I said at the start that this game was really experimental for an FF game? Here's where I list why.

The Mission Structure
FFX-2 is the closest Square has ever come to an open-world FF game. You start the game with an airship and can travel virtually anywhere in Spira at any time just by picking it out of a menu. It's stylized fast-travel. Exploration is encouraged, too, since you'll find sidequests in-between the main missions.

The Entire Combat System
Okay, so the obvious thing here is the Dresspheres. Jobs are nothing new to FF, but X-2 was the first game where you could swap jobs at any point during battle (complete with a fancy magical-girl-esque transformation sequence). In fact, the player is encouraged to swap jobs frequently, since the Garment Grids (the things that you'd "equip" your Dresspheres on) can give you really nice passive buffs and ability unlocks for activating "notes" on the grid via job-swapping. It occurs to me that the previous dependent clause might not have made much sense, so maybe this image will aid your understanding.

In addition to that, X-2 puts a twist on FF's famous Active-Time Battle system: you can do combos now. Instead of mashing the X-button as soon as someone's turn comes up, the player is rewarded for paying attention to the various attack animations and timings. If at least two attacks hit in quick succession, a "chain" will start (some abilities inherently hit multiple times, such as the Thief's default attack). The chain gives a damage bonus that grows larger as your combo get logner. By timing your commands properly, you can create a pretty sizeable chain that ends up dealing significantly more damage than the abilities would on their own.

If any of this sounds familiar, it's because FFXIII prettly blantantly took inspiration from everything X-2's combat did. Hell, one of the early prototypes for FFXIII straight-up used Rikku and Yuna's character models as stand-ins.

The Tone
Final Fantasy games tend to take themselves pretty seriously. For the most part, X-2 doesn't really take anything seriously. Like, FF7--for all the weird shit in it--is still a self-serious story about a dude who experienced psychological trauma so extreme that he confused his own history with that of his dead friend and also his girlfriend gets stabbed by his former colleague. Meanwhile over in FFX-2, Yuna starts out infiltrating a J-pop concert while wearing a Moogle costume and later enters a competition to determine who is the best mathlete in the world. It's goofy as hell. Sometimes it works really well. Sometimes it...doesn't work well at all.

So What Extra Stuff Does the Remake Have?
Like FFX, X-2 features a remastered soundtrack and features that were only available in the "International" version. These features include two new Dresspheres (Psychic and Festivalist), new garment Grids, a Pokemon Colliseum-esque minigame called Creature Creator and a playable epilogue called Last Mission. Last Mission eschews X-2's normal combat system and instead emulates rouge-likes.

Gee, that's a lot of words. Could I just, like, watch a video about all this or something?
Well fine! Here are some trailers, I guess.

E3 Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc1A8hzXOMQ

SD vs HD comparison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20dK5j8Kjbc

Remastered Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym9WyzSQ2oo

New features
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei2YfZymtJw

The Collector's Edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYIKoXUbjwE