Final Fantasy X-2 Game Overview

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Final Fantasy X-2 is a sequel to the beloved Final Fantasy X. Released by Square Enix on the Playstation 2 2003 and subsequently on other platforms such as the Playstation Vita, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Microsoft Windows. Final Fantasy X is the first-ever Final Fantasy game that has a sequel.

Motomu Toriyama and Tetsuya Nomura directed and provided character designs for Final Fantasy X-2. This game is the first to feature an all-female party, along with the return of the job system last seen in Final Fantasy V.

Let’s kick off our complete Final Fantasy X-2 Game overview by briefly looking at its main characters.

Main Characters

Yuna

A former summoner turned sphere hunter, Yuna is a kind and honest person who sees the best in others and has a solid conviction to finish whatever task.

She is a devout follower of Yu Yevon’s teachings. However, in the sequel Final Fantasy X-2, she is now an athletic and outspoken person. Here’s our complete Yuna FF Guide. 

Rikku

Rikku is an outgoing and energetic person who maintains a healthy relationship with Yuna. Rikku remains an upbeat and reckless individual who causes her friends trouble.

She is also part of the Al Bhed Faction.

Paine

Paine is the newest addition to the cast of Final Fantasy X. Her first appearance is in Final Fantasy X-2. She is a cynical and overall serious person.

Paine keeps the Gullwings grounded with her satirical remarks when Yuna and Rikku get too ecstatic. Despite being a not-showy type of person, she highly values her friendship with Yuna and Riku.

Side Characters

Final Fantasy X-2

Buddy

Buddy is Brother’s childhood friend and is the navigator for the Gullwings. He is the opposite of Brother, where Brother is usually the most boisterous person on the ship; Buddy remains the calmest and is usually annoyed by Brother’s antics.

Brother

Brother is Rikku’s older brother and is also Yuna’s cousin. However, his blood relation to Yuna does not stop him from loving Yuna. Tidus and the crew can also recruit him back in Final Fantasy X as part of the Besaid Aurochs, Tidus’ Blitzball team.

Leblanc

Leblanc is the rival sphere hunter of the Gullwings. Logo and Ormis, her cohorts, accompany her to create the “Leblanc Syndicate.”  Leblanc, despite being bossy and cocky, has a very good heart. She treats outcasts like herself kindly and with compassion. Leblanc acts as the main protagonist for a good portion of the game, then eventually transitions as a side character throughout the rest of the story.

Tidus

Tidus is a recurring character from Final Fantasy X and is Yuna’s love interest. Although barely shown in the game, Tidus comes back if Yuna wishes to the fayth that she wants to be with Tidus again. Tidus is the main protagonist driving force of Final Fantasy X and a star blitzball player from Zanarkand. He also looks like Shuyin, Final Fantasy X-2’s main antagonist.

Visuals and Audio

Final Fantasy X-2 still uses the same engine as Final Fantasy X. There are a few differences to the visuals, such as the User Interface (UI) and even in the battle presentation due to the introduction of a new mechanic, Dresspheres.

There are a few debates regarding the remastered version of Final Fantasy X-2 not receiving the same visual treatment as Final Fantasy X had. However, I think that they both look great in the remastered version.

The soundtrack and the sound design of Final Fantasy X-2 generally sports a pop and upbeat type of background music compared to the dramatic BGM of Final Fantasy X. In my opinion, Final Fantasy X-2’s soundtrack is better than Final Fantasy X.

However, fans can argue that Final Fantasy X is leaning more on the story’s dramatic element; hence, Square Enix opted for a more heavy-feeling vibe for the soundtrack. One of my favorite tracks for Final Fantasy X-2 is the song called “We’re the Gullwings.”

Gameplay

Final Fantasy X-2

Battle System and Mechanics

The battle system consists of the classic ATB (Active Time Battle) seen in past series entries that offer a faster-paced action, unlike in Final Fantasy X. Party members can perform actions simultaneously. When a party member kills enemies, the game rewards them with AP (Ability Points) that the player can use to unlock new abilities for their dresssphere.

Throughout the gameplay, there are instances wherein the chosen command for the character includes a charge time before they perform their action.

Like Final Fantasy XIII’s stagger system, players can choose to chain attacks; this results in enemies getting stunned and taking more damage. The only equipment available throughout the game are accessories, and this is because the dresssphere determines a preset gear for your party members.

The dressphere is an interchangeable job system that inspired Final Fantasy XIII’s Paradigm Shift System. The party’s roles are interchangeable depending on which dressphere they are using.

Garment Grids are also essential to the game as they provide statistics to each character’s dressphere. Through exploration, sidequests, and advancement in the story, the game rewards players with new dresspheres and Garment Grids.

Final Fantasy X-2 also features a mission-based system that gives the player an option to customize their journey, rewarding them with a somewhat non-linear story every playthrough.

There are five chapters throughout the game, each with its unique questlines. At the beginning of the game, players can access most areas already, giving them the freedom to tackle any area of the world to their liking.

Dressphere and Jobs

Dresspheres determine the job and basic stats of each character throughout the game. Players can not customize weapons and armors as these come as presets with the dresspheres.

During battles, players also have the option to utilize a mechanic called Spherechange. This mechanic allows characters to move to different nodes in their garment Grid. If the Spherechange activates a colors gate, it will reward players with buffs and additional stat boosts throughout the current battle.

When performing a Spherechange, the characters will be able to change their jobs by changing clothes and equipment. Characters are also immune to enemy attacks, and using Spherechange will also halt time. Players can further utilize this mechanic to time their Spherechange with enemy attacks so that they wouldn’t take any damage.

There are 17 (14 regular dresspheres and three special dresspheres) dresspheres available in the base game and two additional dresspheres on the HD Remaster of the game.

Regular Dresspheres

Gunner

Gunner

The Gunner is Yuna’s default dressphere; it allows players to shoot enemies from a distance. It boasts excellent accuracy and a decent agility stat. The most notable abilities from the gunner dressphere are Scatterburst, Trigger Happy and Cheap Shot (ignore’s target defenses). This dressphere was Rikku’s gift to Yuna.

Thief

The thief, a classic Final Fantasy class, is known for its quick attacks and the ability to steal items from monsters. This class is Rikku’s default dressphere which offers high agility, an okay balance of strong defenses, and an increase in the luck statistic.

The latter moves like Master Thief have a long waiting time; however, thieves have two attacks in a single attack command, compensating for the long wait time in their strong moves.

Most notable abilities include steal, flee, Pilfer HP/MP/Gil, first strike, and master thief.

Warrior

Warrior is Paine’s default dressphere, allowing her to attack enemies with strong, elemental-imbued strikes. This class is known for its good strength and immense defense.

Much like Auron from FFX, the attacks you would need to utilize throughout battles would be power/armor/magic/mental break, which applies debuffs to your opponents and elemental attacks.

Songstress

Songstress acts like the bard of the group. It provides buffs to the party and even debuffs or status ailments to the enemy team. This class is mainly a support class; hence it cannot directly attack enemies unless afflicted with the berserk status.

Black Mage

Another classic Final Fantasy class, the black mage, offers characters the ability to cast catastrophic spells called black magic. This class can wield multiple elements such as fire, water, lightning, ice. It’s best to utilize this class depending on the enemy’s elemental weakness.

Most special high-level attacks include Flare and Ultima and a signature attack that drains MP from an enemy called Osmose.

White Mage

A contrasting class to the black mage, a white mage equips rods, and much like the songstress, it cannot attack enemies unless inflicted with berserk.

The white mage offers white magi, consisting of healing spells, resurrection spells, and even spells that remove status ailments inflicted on your party members. Although white mages have low hp, high magic defense stats compensate for their lack of HP.

High-level white magic includes auto life and holy which are accessible through equipping a specific garment grid.

Gun Mage

Final Fantasy X-2

Gun mage is a new job introduced in Final Fantasy X-2. However, there’s nothing special about this class except its magic and field hunter abilities which multiplies the damage to specific monster types by four. This class is also a hybrid of a classic blue mage whose ability is to steal an enemy’s ability if enacted upon them.

Alchemist

Much like the name suggests, the alchemist class utilizes several items coming out of a limitless stash to mix into more potent items. It is similar to Rikku’s overdrive in Final Fantasy X. As an alchemist; your character will have access to abilities such as a mega potion, phoenix down, mix, elixir, Elementalist, and even items level-ups.

Dark Knight

Dark Knight is a well-known job for its great HP, high strength, and ability to tank either physical or magical attacks. They offer significant status ailments as well, like bio and break.

Consider that dark knights have attacks that drain their HP to deliver powerful attacks, similar to the Darkside attack from other game installments. Their signature black sky is also a beneficial spell providing multi-hit attacks to the player’s target.

Samurai

Samurai is one of the most fabulous-looking dresspheres. Regarded for their high strength and ability to deal with large enemy groups, the samurai is one of the best classes in Final Fantasy X-2. They can also remove status ailments from themselves with an ability called Clean Slate.

Lady Luck

Lady Luck reiterates Setzer’s gambler job from Final Fantasy VI. This class utilizes dice and slots to issue commands and attacks to the opponent. High luck is the main selling point of Lady Luck which then converts to multiple critical hits throughout the battle. Lady Luck can also use Reels, the primary source of offense and defense for this dressphere.

If the reel fails, the character will suffer from a status called Dud, which damages the player casting reel for 75% of their total health, which a player can avoid if the character is invincible or is null to physical damage.

Berserker

Final Fantasy X-2 Berserker

The berserker is a class that has an excellent damage potential; however, held back by the class’s minimal defense stats. A good strategy for this class is equipping your berserker with an accessory that induces the haste buff, resulting in a devastating physical attacker.

Couple that with a berserk status on themselves, then you now have a damage-dealing machine of a character on your party.

Trainer

The trainer class is similar to the beastmaster job to the other games. The trainer utilizes pets to attack enemies; Yuna uses a dog, Rikku uses a monkey, and Paine uses a pheasant. Each pet has different abilities exclusive to one another.

Mascot

The mascot is one of the few dresspheres wherein characters have their exclusive abilities. The mascot combines different skills from classes such as warrior, black mage, white mage, dark knight, berserker, and even the samurai dressphere.

Players highly regard the mascot as the ultimate and balanced regular dressphere. As a mascot, Yuna will change into a Moogle, Rikku will be a Cait Sith holding a doll, and Paine will become a Tonberry.

Festivalist

Festivalist offers different jobs depending on the character using this dressphere. As Yuna, she will have the ability to cast full-on elemental magic and attack with her Temari. As Rikku, she will be able to use elementally-imbued physical damage, and lastly, Paine will be able to inflict status ailments through physically damaging her opponents.

Psychic

Using this dressphere will have your party dress as school girls accompanied with modernistic visors and use their mind power to debilitate enemies during combat.

Special Dresspheres

Special dresspheres serve as the limit break for characters in Final Fantasy X-2. Much like summons, once a character changes into their specific special dresspheres, other party members will disappear from the field until the player removes the special dressphere.

One of the few setbacks when using a special dressphere is you can’t command your character to use items, forcing you to prioritize implementing strategies when using this mechanic.

Floral Fallal

Final Fantasy X-2 Floral Fallal

Floral Fallal is an exclusive special dressphere for Yuna. A player can further enhance this special dressphere by finding items scattered around dungeons. In turn, this rewards you with HP limit break and Damage Limit Break for this dressphere. Once equipped, this dressphere will provide Yuna with dual pistils that unlock the Fallalery skillset.

With the left and right pistil, Yuna can attack two times and access the Right and Left Pistilplay skills.

Machina Maw

Similar to Yuna’s Floral Fallal, Machina Maw is Rikku’s special dressphere which lets her mount a machine that she can use to overwhelm enemies with her attacks. If the player finds the Machina reactor and the Machina booster, the special dressphere will have HP and Damage Limit Break access.

Full Throttle

Full Throttle is Paine’s special dressphere which includes Paine having wing-like blades and a whirling set of blades on top of her head. Gettig Corpus Invictus and Victor Primoris will let Paine access HP and Damage Limit Break.

Breaking The Game With Dresspheres

The dressphere is the main selling point of the battle system of Final Fantasy X-2. You can get so overpowered in the early game with a certain dressphere. After scouring forums and opinions on the best team dressphere composition, look no further as we’ll be presenting some of the best team dressphere compositions.

  1. For leveling and grinding purposes – 3 Lady Luck
  2. For bosses – 2 Dark Knight and 1 Alchemist as support.
  3. For Via Infinito Dungeon- 3 Mascots because mascots are OP as hell.
  4. Following the lore of the game – Yuna as Gunner, Gun Mage, or White Mage. Rikku as Thief, Alchemist, or Lady Luck. Paine as Dark Knight, Samurai, or Berserker.

The Cheesy Yet Satisfying Story

Aftermath of Sin

Final Fantasy X-2

Two years have passed since Tidus, and the crew defeated sin in Final Fantasy X. With the age of the summoners coming to an end, Yuna is now part of the Gullwings, a group of Sphere Hunters consisting of Rikku and Paine.

In Luca, the Gullwings crashed a concert to retrieve a stolen garment grid by another sphere hunter named Leblanc accompanied by her assistants, Logos, and Ormi. After taking back her songster dressphere, Yuna seems to have been taken over by the dressphere itself as she frantically prances around dancing involuntarily.

Shinra, the Gullwing’s technical support, mentioned that it might be possible for a dressphere to have a mind of its own if the emotions of the previous owner are strong enough.

Yuna’s journey began when she saw a sphere recording of Tidus, which piqued her curiosity. Spheres are a valuable part of Spira as they contain memories, knowledge, and even powerful abilities to their users.

Reunited with Familiar Faces

As she visits Besaid Island, Yuna meets Wakka revealing that Yuna ran away from them and suddenly joined the Gullwings. Wakka also announced that he and Lulu got married, and they are expecting their firstborn soon.

Yuna showed Wakka the sphere that made her become a sphere hunter. Within the sphere’s memory, they saw someone with a very notable resemblance to Tidus, who seemed to need some help.

Throughout their journey across Spira, they met familiar faces such as Tromell (Seymour’s former aid) and Cid (leader of the Al Bhed Faction). As they went to see Zanarkand Ruins, the crew found a cracked sphere in which they took along their journey.

When they visited Kilika Port, they were astounded to see that Kilika Port had been rebuilt into a prosperous community once again. There was already a commotion between the Youth League and New Yevon as the Youth League wanted a sphere that contained historical records stored in Kilika Temple.

Nooj, the leader of the Youth League, declared that they are open to fighting against the lies and deception done by the religion. However, the New Yevon prepared to defend themselves with a giant golem. As the Gullwings defeated the golem Machina, they snatched the sphere from the Youth League and the New Yevon.

When they viewed the sphere, they saw the Tidus look-alike standing across a monstrous machina talking of saving a woman named Lenne, which Yuna found oddly upsetting. Later that night, Yuna had a dream of her and Tidus getting rundown by soldiers and eventually getting shot in front of the machina they saw in the sphere.

A Former High Summoner

Eventually, they got Bevelle to return the sphere. As they enter Bevelle, the New Yevon still greeted Yuna with high regards and praise as she is still a renowned High Summoner.

They meet the leader of the New Yevon, Baralai, as he explains that the machina in the sphere is known as Vegnagun. Vegnagun is a machina built a thousand years ago before Sin appeared in Spira.

They returned to the ship and found out that Leblanc snuck in and stole the broken sphere fragment. Looking for disguises to sneak into Leblanc’s mansion, they met Gippal, the leader of the third major faction in Spira, the Machine Faction.

Later on, they meet Kimahri on Mt. Gagazet, and after finding the disguises they need, they infiltrate Leblanc’s home, which used to be Seymour’s former house in Guadosalam.

The crew overhears Leblanc talking to her beloved Nooj. They talked about the location of the Vegnagun in which Nooj plans on using. Upon getting into the mansion itself, they discover that Leblanc has a new sphere, and it contains information about a bloody selection process for the Crimson Squad.

Among the victims, only four people have survived the procedure. They then found the broken sphere fragment containing a more vivid detail about Vegnagun, including its location underneath Bevelle. Both teams then cooperate in dismantling Vegnagun before it can be used to harm anyone.

A Journey Towards Vegnagun

Final Fantasy X-2 Vegnagun Boss

Once they’ve descended further into the temple, they were sure that it was the exact location as the one in the sphere. Baralai then stops the crew from descending further as he mentions that Vegnagun should not be disturbed.

Upon successfully edging a win over Baralai, a huge dark aeon similar to Bahamut halted the team. After defeating the dark aeon, its presence confused the crew as they thought Aeons should not exist anymore.

Finally, they have arrived at Vegnagun’s resting place; however, it was an empty hole with Vegnagun nowhere in sight. What’s worse is when they got back to the ship, fiends appeared and flooded every temple across Spira.

As they start exterminating every fiend across Spira, they discover another sphere recording that shows the Tidus look-alike from the old war, warning that he will use Vegnagun against Bevelle. The machina is now established as the product of war, resulting in Sin and a different Spira altogether.

From Sphere Hunters to Monster Exterminators

Revisiting Besaid, they help out Wakka from clearing their temple from fiends. Within, they find another dark version of Yuna’s first aeon, Valefor. This dark version of Valefor is the cause of the fiends appearing from the temple, and once exterminated, the fiends are gone as well.

The crew also went to Kilika Temple to defeat a dark Ifrit and Djose Temple to defeat a dark Ixion within. However, after winning against the dark Ixion, an explosion occurred and knocked Yuna into the hole of the fayth chamber.

A Faithful Reconciliation With A Loved One

Yuna wakes up in a dream-like scenario in her songstress outfit where she finally meets the Tidus look-alike man claiming that he is Shuyin and mistakes Yuna for a woman named Lenne. Shuyin revealed that after both of them were murdered, he lingered in the spirit realm as an unsent and concluded that Spira is unsavable due to its constant nature of war.

With this conclusion in mind, Shuyin intends to use Vegnagund to end the entirety of Spira and pass on in peace with Lenne. The dressphere sends Yuna into a paralyzed state. It confused her if she was overwhelmed with her own or Lenne’s emotions.

Nooj then screams at Yuna to break the illusion. Yuna realized that Baralai acted as Shuyin throughout the illusion as Nooj and Gippal helped her. Nooj and Gippal then handed Yuna some spheres for Pain. After the group retrieved Yuna, Shinra then confirmed that the original owner of the songstress dressphere was Lenne.

The Crimson Squad

Final Fantasy X-2 A The Crimson Squad

Paine then revealed her relation to the three men, Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai. The three men were candidates for the Crimson Squad, and Paine was then assigned recorder during the trial.

People intended the Crimson Squad to be an elite combat group under Yevon’s command to replace the crusaders lost to Sin. Everyone in the Crimson Squad died except the four of them due to an accident for reasons unknown. This tragedy became a turning point for Paine as she decided to become a sphere hunter to uncover the mystery behind the accident.

Spira’s Unification

With the three prominent leaders of Spira gone, Yuna decides to calm the people of Spira through a concert. Before the show began, Yuna reminded the people of Spira about the civil war that once occurred, resulting in Sin. Lenne’s voice begins to come out of Yuna and urges the people of Spira not to tear themselves apart again.

As she sings, Lenne’s memories start to manifest as she takes the place of Yuna. This revelation showed how the war drove Shuyin to activate Vegnagun and end it himself, only for Lenne to try and stop it, which ended in soldiers shooting at them, leading them to their untimely deaths.

The memories also revealed that Lenne was formerly a songstress turned summoner due to war. Deaths of summoners were likely during the war; hence Shuyin decided to end the war and save Lenne by stealing Vegnagun.

Throughout the rest of the game, most of the characters from Final Fantasy X had proper closure to their respective storylines. All that’s left is defeating Vegnagun.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Is Final Fantasy X-2 a Sequel to Final Fantasy X?

Answer: The short answer is yes. Final Fantasy X-2 directly begins two years after the events of Final Fantasy and includes different closures and endings for formerly playable characters in Final Fantasy X.

Question: How Many Hours Does it Take to Complete Final Fantasy X-2?

Answer: If you want to rush through the story without any side missions or any extras along the way, you’d best expect around 30 hours on average. If you’re going to complete the game entirely, then prepare a comfy seat for your butt, as you’ll be playing the game for over 117 hours.

Question: How Do You Get the Secret Ending in Final Fantasy X-2?

Answer: A straightforward but complex answer would be to reach 100% completion, which would unlock the perfect ending. The secret ending is nothing special, it’s just a scene wherein Tidus and Yuna revisits Zanarkand. It’s just a nice little touch or a bow per se to wrap up the series’ ending in general.

In Conclusion

Although the story of Final Fantasy X-2 is not as great or as layered as Final Fantasy X, the evolution in the combat system made up for its flat storyline.

I would highly consider this a better and more polished version of Final Fantasy XIII. Try this game out for yourself, as the game’s replayability will indulge you by discovering different builds to tackle on different enemies.

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