Final Fantasy X-2: Improved gameplay, regressed on (almost) everything else.

Fresh off of finishing X, I just finished (as in, the canon ending, not that horrible 'perfect' ending) X-2 for the second time. I had played through it when I was younger, but playing it this time felt completely foreign. That's not a bad thing as it allowed me to completely divest from any bias.

At the same time, and I remember this from before as well, the game feels like someone needed an excuse to show Yuna's butt in hot pants and figure out how short to make Rikku's skirt - with absolutely no shame given in her victory pose for the Psychic dress sphere.

What I Liked

The gameplay in X-2 was by far and away superior to that of X. I even remember feeling comfort at the return of actual EXP rather than dealing with the sphere grid and total control over the building up of dress spheres. Battles felt more fluid overall, and there were very few instances of unbalanced gameplay.

While not open world, the general sense of freedom from the get-go was refreshing, compared to X where that freedom doesn't come until the final quarter of the game and even then is somewhat restrictive.

1000 Words. Simply one of the greatest video game songs ever done. Kudos to the producer, composer and Jade Valerie on that one.

What I Didn't Like

Unfortunately, the game is roughly 80% fetch quest. Many people criticize Torna: The Golden Country for the Community feature; to me, that felt like you were actually helping people for a reason that was tangibly felt in the game. In FFX-2, I never got a feeling that anything I was doing really mattered to anyone except Yuna, and even her motivations changed mid-game to Paine, who was never really explained very well anyway. (yes, she was explained. But not well.)

Some of the story-mandatory segments are dull and uninteresting. One has you chasing an NPC back and forth through multiple maps which takes forever. Another has you playing notes on a random organ in a dungeon. Yet another expects you to basically let a spike wall touch you (which is not your first instinct), and if you don't, you can't continue until it resets. Silly things like this that drag the game down overall.

Everything that actually develops the characters is hidden behind sidequests or dungeons not part of your normal progression. That annoys me - it really does. It's fine to use those to tie up lose ends from a 99% character development, but to basically make it to where certain characters are completely not understood without sidequests is annoying.

The storyline is clear and easy to understand but it's illogical. There's no emotional connection to what's going on - there should be, but certain events feel like they were cut in an effort to keep the game a certain length. There's a segment midway through the game where key characters go missing, but this is largely glossed over and you never feel the impact of their loss (thus not making them feel like 'key' characters at all).

Unless I missed something, two years have passed since the end of Sin, yet Wakka has gone from a beast in battle to rendered completely impotent and unable to fight. (Sorry, it's a nitpick, but it's annoying!)

The 'perfect' ending is a joke and should never have happened. Yes, it's optional, but most who play through the game will stumble on it, and I'm sorry...it's not the worst ending in all of gaming (coughArcRiseFantasia*cough*), but it's up there in the cringe factor.

I never did like the whole "Charlie's Angels"/"Grrl Power!!" feel of the game. Especially with Yuna. Rikku is at least in character, but Yuna feels forced and uncharacteristic. Paine is the only one who comes across like a serious, credible threat to anyone.

New Game Plus is all good, but I'll not be doing it. Certainly not the worst game I've played, but people could skip X-2 and miss absolutely nothing. Then just go to YouTube and watch 1000 Words.