Low Tide

Battles:	1
Plot:	1
Music:	2
Visuals:	3
Tilt:	2

Overall: 2

Release Date: November 18th, 2003

In short: Only those whom expect nothing of Final Fantasy X-2 will get exactly what they expected.

If there ever could have been a game to rival Kingdom Hearts in its infamy among RPG fans, a Final Fantasy sequel showcasing established characters and settings in an unprecedentedly silly tone could do it. Final Fantasy X-2 has accomplished more than simply this however - it has succeeded in provoking quite possibly the deepest and most virulent schism between fans that there ever will be. Casual browsing of forums and message boards alike attest to the sheer volume of heated opinion surrounding this singular title. The question of the hour then is "why." How could a simple tale of a few girls having a fun adventure garner such simultaneous ire and adulation?

The answer hinges on what one perceives the Final Fantasy series to represent. On the one hand, this series of games is simply that: a number of high production-value titles produced by a single company among many others. From this perspective, FFX-2 is a fairly entertaining and extremely polished game. The battle system, for example, has been simplified and refined from its predecessor, FFX. Active Time Battles have returned along with an increased sense of battle speed. This speed is directly felt not only in the literal sense of enemies and party members exchanging blows every few seconds with nary a lull, but also in the visual sense of dynamically animated characters jumping around the screen and performing impressive-looking attacks.

Press X, watch eye-candy, repeat.

Everything outside of battle has seen similar refinement from FFX. Coming from the atrociously complicated Okage: Shadow King, the interface of FFX-2 was cashmere silk for the eyes. Menus are simple, easy to coordinate, and are accompanied by intriguing background pictures, lights and sparkles. The new class system is easy to pick up and remains otherwise intuitive - just slap those Dresspheres on a Garment Grid and hunt yourself some Fiends. There are many different classes and each of them has an easy-to-understand set of abilities you learn via AP earned at the end of battle. I mean, who could ask for a better system, right?

Unfortunately, there remains a rather large contingency of fans such as myself whom view a Final Fantasy as something more than simply another game produced by a another company. There is a precedence associated with the name, a reputation of excellence, quality, and craftsmanship. And it is this unspoken promise which has, decidedly, been broken.

A few hours into the game, after the luster and mystique of the blazingly fast battle system wore off, I was struck by a thought. Since using abilities and items causes a significant delay in ending most battles, what would happen if I simply pressed the attack button over and over instead? The result I found was rather disturbing: I beat every single encounter. It seems when Square was cutting corners in order to hasten battle speeds, one such large corner cut was any semblance of strategy whatsoever. Each of the fifteen different classes has a number of seemingly useful abilities that are, in practice, wholly unnecessary for the completion of the game. Fans of FFX's party-swapping, FF9's equipment management, FF8's Junctioning allocation, FF7's Materia optimization, FF6's Esper manipulation, or any of the other elements of strategic battle planning present in every single other Final Fantasy, well, you are out of luck. Indeed, the player will find "special" Dressspheres rather early in the game which provide the function of FF8's Guardian Forces, destroying utterly any sense the battle system was ever meant to be taken seriously.

This sense of irrelevance carries over into what I hesitantly term "plot." Being a direct sequel, one naturally assumes that some of the same narrative and themes would appear here, perhaps even explored to a greater depth than in the first title. Instead, one is presented with the equivalent of a postmodern Reader's Digest bedtime story - a shallow tale completely devoid of any artistic merit. The localization is rather apt in this regard: the player is reminded at all times that any emotional investment made is promptly set ablaze with the absolutely most asinine dialogue in an RPG. Even humorous and self-referential games such as the Lunars have enough tact to know which boundaries should not be crossed. Imagine my surprise then, when the main characters exclaimed "Poopie!" during a moment of extreme mortal peril. That boundary has been crossed and we are in truly unexplored territory now. Territory populated with Dressspheres, Garment Grids, transformation sequences, and bubblegum-pop concerts to save the world, no less.

Dressed for success.

There is little question that the graphics in FFX-2 could rival just about any other RPG on the market. From the majesty of Mt. Gagazet to the ethereal Macalania Woods right down to the cavernous expanse below Bevelle, one gets the impression that the processing power of the PS2 was pushed just about to the max. What impression one does not get however, is that the graphics have been improved in any significant way since FFX. Besides the superficial and obviously fanservice costumes the main characters wear, the remaining entirety of the game seems to have been cut and paste from its boundary-pushing predecessor. Direct sequel or no, I think it fair to expect that some of the returning characters would have changed visually just a bit after two years of post-Sin life, especially Lulu whom seems to be able to hide her 9th-month pregnancy behind the same corset worn when Tidus was still around. This becomes even more annoying when one battles the exact same fiends from FFX, whom were amazingly bland even the first time around.

The soundtrack that accompanies this nonsensical adventure manages to encapsulate the shallow nature of the game perfectly. Despite a few nice tunes towards the beginning, the absence of Uemetsu [?] proves to be deafening. Multiple remixs of The Hymn of the Fayth have been replaced by elevator techno and some entertaining if not completely out of place J-Pop. So, despite the new battle system, despite the new musical direction, despite the revised plot-development structure, I feel that FFX-2 has nevertheless either employed too many stock characters/enemies or innovated in the wrong direction, or both, and thus earns only an average originality score. While it is certainly true that one will most likely never find another game quite like FFX-2 on the market, I view this largely as a good thing.

Lulu in her third trimester? Riiiight.

Although I have tried to give Square the benefit of the doubt, after seeing the ending sequence to this short excursion into the 12-16 year-old girl demographic, I remain in shock that such a game was given the Final Fantasy title. I was not a particularly large fan of FFX's story or characters, but I nevertheless felt betrayed by their superfluous use in the game - they demonstrate absolutely no resemblance to the emotionally hardened and mature characters which defeated Sin and saved the world a scant two years ago. Indeed, I find it hard to imagine this game succeeding if it were based on any other setting or group of characters. Wild ARMs? Lunar? Breath of Fire? Dragon Quest? No, the only reason why the "choose your own adventure" mission progression actually seemed a good idea during play was because of the unspoken promise (mentioned above) of a deeper meaning to the entire game. Instead, I find myself playing 35 hours worth of mini-games in an effort to seek closure concerning a conveniently-place loose end. Closure which has evidently been deferred to the inevitable Final Fantasy X-3.

In the end, I suppose FFX-2 is only as good as the emotional baggage you bring to it. Those looking for profound insights into the world of Spira will leave unenlightened. Those seeking strong narratives common to the series will hear only silence. Those whom wish for a second chance to swim in the ocean of FFX will only discover a tide pool here - diverse, vibrant, colorful, and yet shallow, short-lived, and devoid of greater meaning. Ultimately, only those whom expect nothing of Final Fantasy X-2 will get exactly what they expected.