Squaresoft's oddball spinoff from FFX

Somewhere, in a big book of rules at Square, there is written that a Final Fantasy game must never have a sequel. This held true for ten incarnations.
It may seem odd that square never really tried to cash in on their popularity by releasing a proper sequel, especially given the current climate in the gaming world. Well, now it's finally happened, and we have Final Fantasy X-2. And, boy it's an oddball. Rather than make it as if it were another final fantasy Square have decided instead to try out a whole load of new ideas.
Many people have labelled this as a money-grabbing spin-off, which arguably it is. However when you actually play it, it stands out far more in that it's trying something new. A lot of things new to be exact. There's never been a true sequel to a final fantasy game before, and there's never been a final fantasy game quite like this.

For a start, the game never even tries to go for a stellar plot. In fact, the plot is probably the weakest point of the game - very unusual for a final fantasy, where plot is usually the strongest point. This has two effects. Firstly, it will put off people who are used to an epic plot that takes 30 hours to see in a final fantasy game. If that is your mentality then you should give X-2 a miss. Secondly, it means that the developers concentrate more on gameplay. And it shows.
To be brutally honest, in my opinion the final fantasy series has been going downhill ever since ff7 in terms of how fun they are to actually play. Certainly in ff9 and ffx, it had gotten to the point where I was playing through merely to see the plot. X-2 is actually somewhat successful in reversing this trend.

The second oddity is that all of the world map is open from the start. This is very odd for an RPG, however to be honest it comes from ditching the plot somewhat. This does quite a lot to free the game of the shackles that hold most other RPGs. In fact, apart from the small amount of story that is forced upon you, the game is very non-linear. In fact, about two thirds of it is completely optional, which is unheard of in an RPG. This is yet another oddity - most of the game is made up of sidequests and minigames.

Square has come in for a lot of flack from some of the more hardcore gamers (and a lot of praise from some of the more casual) for deciding to put it's characters in very revealing outfits. Again, I believe that this is just them trying something new for them with X-2. It's arguable what this actually does for the game though.

Well, anyway, enough of what's odd about the game, how does it actually play?
Rather than keep with the battle system from final fantasy X-2, something almost completely new has been done here. The QTE battle system has been brought back from the dead, and then heavily modified.
First up are the character classes. You start with the basic 3: Thief, Warrior and Gunner, but uncover more later (there are tons...)
Rather than be stuck on one character class mid-battle, you are free to change between any class you want, so long as it is equipped on a character's grid. A grid is basically just a set of holes for the different classes to fit in, as well as a load of edges connecting between them which determine how you can change class. Here it gets complex, which is the sign of any good battle system. ^_^
Rather than being able to select any equipped class, you can only switch to a class next to the characters current position on the grid - like a small version of the sphere grid from ffx. The layouts, and the number of spaces for classes varies from grid to grid, along with special effects for equipping each grid and special effects for moving along certain edges. (For example, equipping one grid might give you an extra 10 attack power, and moving along a certain path mid-fight will give you an extra 10 attack power.)
You character's different stats are multiplied by large amounts depending on which class they change into, as well as their abilities completely changing, meaning that in reality changing class is just a more complex version of hot-swapping your characters in ffx. Only here, it is the character class that is changing rather than the character.
Also nicely done, is the character customisation. Other than their class, the only ways you have of customising a character any further is by choosing which grid (and hence what special effects) they have, and equipping 2 accessories. This gives you 3 ways you can boost their stats, however quickly you realise that optimally you would like more, hence a tough decision about what to equip characters with ensures.
The aeons have gone, and summons attacks with them, however a new system has been put in place which is pretty much identical, only accessed differently.
Other new things, mostly copied from the Grandia games: Abilities, spells, and using items now have a delay on them after they have been selected, and depending on what you do, the wait time for you next turn increases or decreases. When they get their turn, characters can attack together without pausing time while they attack. Time it right and attack together, and you can also do combo attacks for slightly higher damage. A particularly nice touch is that everybody no longer just stands in a line - they now move about, in 2 dimensions, which adds a greatly welcome feel of more realism, even if the game mechanics are still the same.

Well, that pretty much sums up what's so good about X-2. It would be great if I could stop there. However, unfortunately there is also a list of problems about as long to follow.
Firstly, battles are somewhat biased in that attacks happen instantly but spells and abilities have a slight delay before they are cast. Usually this is made up for by a reduction in the wait time for the casters next go, but it still means that attacks will get there first. Even worse, most spells do not happen concurrently with other attacks, which means that even when fully cast, there is a further wait time while the caster waits for everybody else to finish whatever attacks they are doing or about to do before actually using the spell. This means that for most fights, just switching to the warrior class (or similar) and holding down the X button to keep attacking is the best way to win. Kind of nice for mowing through annoying random encounters, however it feels so cheap.
Next, the plot. It's nice that a little more attention is focused on gameplay in this game, but the plot is terrible in places, especially at the start. The start feels a lot like Charlie's Angles, both in style and in crappness. It gets better after 2 chapters, and anyway isn't the main bulk of the game, but you can't help but look at the first couple of plot missions and think that they should have been cut out.
Another thing, stemming from the fact that a large part of the game is made up of sidequests. This is by and large X-2's main strength, however it comes back to bite it in that a few of them aren't actually any good or fun. Some are a complete pain to play through. Sure, they're optional, but they probably shouldn't even be in there - they're just wasting time with boring stuff.
It also goes a step too far, in that it removes some key final fantasy staples that have been in the game for ages, in some cases since the first game. The music has completely changed everywhere around Spira. While I can understand them wanting to change it a little so they couldn't be accused of laziness, I was rather expecting a load of remixes rather than something completely different. It's not that it's particularly bad or anything, it just feels wrong. Even worse, the final fantasy theme, the victory theme and the chocobo theme are not present. This is heresy! Especially considering the tune that replaces the chocobo theme.
It goes a little beyond the music as well. Limit breaks aren't in the game. Some of the best spells such as Ultima or Flare - while still there - can't be learnt by the black mage and must instead be got from equipping a grid, which just feels odd and means that the black mage is pretty pointless, especially later in the game. While we're on the subject, if you want to use some of the better abilities that some grids give, you have to change classes through certain paths for every fight - very annoying, making them useless except for the tough long fights where it's worth spending a bit of time mucking about before attacking.
Something that seemed like a good idea at first - the ability to jump - also turns out to annoy. It can only happen at certain scripted locations, and sometimes finding where these are exactly in the middle of a ton of random battles can be a pain. Also, jumping can only be done in the newly created areas where there is support for it - go to an area that was just copy and pasted from the previous game, and you will quickly find that it doesn't work anywhere, even in places that you would expect it would do.

And that about wraps up the review. Only thing I haven't mentioned so far are the graphics. They're about on par with ffx, except that there are much less any fmvs in the game, meaning that most of it is done in the game engine.
Overall, X-2 is quite an enjoyable affair, and if you are in it for the gameplay then it is a much better affair than ffx was. It's nice to see a game trying something a little different as well. Only thing is that it is far from perfect, and certainly does not deserve all the hype it gets purely from being the sequel to ffx.
So, we have a hit and miss affair, which is no better and no worse than most other RPGs out there.

Score: 7.5/10
Reviewer's Bias: Mildly for