Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy X-2 is the first true playable sequel in the Final Fantasy series by release date, released in Japan and North America in 2003, and a year later in Europe. It follows the story of Yuna, taking place two years after the events of Final Fantasy X.

An HD remaster version for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita was announced at the Sony Press Conference in Japan on September 14, 2011 as part of a tenth anniversary special. The game is bundled with the remastered Final Fantasy X. A PlayStation 4 version was released in May 2015.

Gameplay
Final Fantasy X-2 utilizes the interchangeable job system featured in Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy V, and the Tactics series. In Final Fantasy X-2 the party member's abilities vary depending on which dressphere she is wearing. Garment Grids allocate dresspheres to each character for use in battles. The grids have inherent powers activated when equipped, or as the player spherechanges by passing through gates. New Garment Grids are acquired from the story and from sidequests.

The dressphere system grants the freedom to customize the battle style for each character, assigning them jobs mid-battle to adjust their strengths to best suit the opponent's weaknesses. By changing through all the dresspheres on a character's Garment Grid they may change into a special dressphere unique to them.

The battle system is the classic Active Time Battle, rather than the turn-based system of Final Fantasy X, but is faster and party members can take actions simultaneously as opposed to the one-at-a-time system used in previous Active Time Battle systems. When a character takes actions and kills enemies they gain Ability Points that unlock new abilities on their dressphere. When a character chooses a command there may be charge time before the command can be executed. New to the Final Fantasy series, the players can chain attacks to stun enemies and deal more damage. As the character's battle gear is determined by the dressphere, the player can only equip accessories.

Final Fantasy X-2 diverges from its predecessor in many ways, including a fluid mission-based storyline, allowing the player to participate in many sidequests and minigames. A significant portion of the game's events are unnecessary for the completion of the main storyline, but much of the depth of the story–including characterization and background details–are featured in the optional content, which generally follows how each part of Spira is healing in the time since the passing of Sin.

The mission-based system allows the player to create their own journey, making the story somewhat non-linear. It is up to the player to determine which and how many sidequests to attempt and complete. The game is divided up into five chapters, and most locations have a new sidequest to undertake during each chapter. For the first time the player has access to most locations early in the game. Several quests encompass the entire game, while others can only be started during a specific chapter. For those who complete the game with 100%, there is a special cutscene.

Episode Complete is an end result that can be achieved within each area in the final chapter. Getting an Episode Complete provides the most satisfactory outcome for an area. Obtaining Episode Complete for all areas in a single playthrough awards the player with the ultimate dressphere, Mascot.

Minigames, such as blitzball, chocobo raising, excavating in the Bikanel Desert, and the new coin game, Sphere Break, make for diversions to the game's main plot.

Setting
Spira entered an Eternal Calm two years ago when Sin was defeated for good. The temple of Yevon crumbled as Spirans learned of its corrupted ways and how following its precepts was never a path to salvation from Sin. With the Yevon faith disbanded and the fayth from its temples having departed to the Farplane, the plane of afterlife in Spira, the summoners' means to call forth aeons is also gone, as well as the rite of the pilgrimage. Thus, some come to view summoners as obsolete. The fayth's disappearance has had some positive and negative effects in the wider world as well, among them are the reveal of the Floating Ruins at Mt. Gagazet, the melting of Lake Macalania, and the withering of the magical flora in Macalania Woods.

Yevon's fall led to a power vacuum that newly founded groups are seeking to fill. The Youth League, led by Maevyn Nooj, wants to unveil Spira's true past it considers concealed by Yevon. Its members frequently clash with the followers of New Yevon, accusing them of continuing down the path set by Yevon in oppressing Spirans and keeping them in the dark of many truths. New Yevon is led by Praetor Baralai with the motto "One thing at a time," to ease Spira into a new way of life gradually.

The Al Bhed are no longer as vilified as before, as the ban on machina was lifted in the wake of Yevon's downfall. The Al Bhed can thus mingle with the other races of Spira more freely as Spira begins to adopt automation to ease everyday life. This effort is aided by the Al Bhed group, the Machine Faction, led by Gippal. Its goal is to change perception of the previously forbidden technology by calling it "machines" rather than machina, and helping introduce its benefits to the wider society.

The Guado on the other hand have been exiled from their homeland, many blaming its tribesmen for aiding Seymour Guado, the late Maester of Yevon who tried to annihilate Spira by becoming Sin. Many of the Ronso, guardians of Mt. Gagazet, swear vengeance for Seymour's actions, who had killed many Ronso in his quest to apprehend Yuna's party.

Characters
The playable cast is set early and, for the first time in the series, only three characters are playable and the playable cast is all female. The player controls Yuna, Rikku, and Paine, leaving the job system as the angle for variation.
 * Yuna: The high summoner who defeated Sin and brought Spira the Eternal Calm two years ago. She is now a sphere hunter and member of the sphere hunting group Gullwings. After Rikku showed her a sphere recording of a man resembling her lost love, Tidus, Yuna left her uneventful life in Besaid Village for the chance to reunite with him.
 * Rikku: An upbeat Al Bhed girl who is the Al Bhed leader Cid's daughter, Gullwings' founder Brother's younger sister, and Yuna's younger cousin. Rikku served as one of Yuna's guardians during her pilgrimage two years ago. Believing Yuna should have some fun in her life and do something for herself, Rikku convinced her to join the Gullwings and embark on a personal journey.
 * Paine: A mysterious young warrior woman who joined the Gullwings shortly before Yuna. Paine is cynical, keeps her distance, and only reveals anything about herself when she needs to. She has ties to Spira's leaders—Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal—but doesn't like to talk about her past.

Story
After her pilgrimage two years ago, Yuna has joined the Al Bhed sphere hunting group Gullwings. She goes on missions with her friends Rikku and Paine while traveling Spira on their airship. She has an ancient sphere recording showing images of a man who resembles Tidus, and is on a hunt to find more with hopes of solving the mystery. New technology developed by the Al Bhed whiz kid Shinra, who travels with the Gullwings, allows the girls to use the spheres they uncover as dresspheres, and the crystallized memories within the spheres empower them in battle. One such sphere, which the Gullwings use as the Songstress dressphere, has a special affinity with Yuna, making her feel ancient emotions that intrigue her.

They find a sphere that contains images of a colossal machina weapon known as Vegnagun that originates from the time of the Machina War, and is powerful enough to destroy Spira itself. It is being roused by the ancient spirit of Shuyin, or rather, his feelings of despair and anguish that have imprinted onto pyreflies and begun acting on their own. Shuyin's spirit has possessed Nooj, the leader of the Youth League, one of the new leading factions of Spira now that Yevon's fall has left a power vacuum. Shuyin has Nooj seek out Vegnagun hidden in the Bevelle Underground, but Nooj is not under Shuyin's complete control, and wants to destroy the weapon. Sensing Nooj's intentions, Vegnagun burrows underground and flees to the Farplane, the otherworldly realm of afterlife that exists on the inside of the planet.

Nooj is pursued by his old friends, Baralai and Gippal, who cannot fathom Nooj's changed demeanor and inconsistent actions. When the two confront Nooj, Shuyin's spirit abandons Nooj to possess Baralai and takes him to the Farplane to find Vegnagun. Yuna becomes embroiled in the events, and when Shuyin sends fiends to pour out of the former temples' Chambers of the Fayth, the Gullwings embark to stop them from destroying the villages where the temples are situated, encountering the aeons possessed by Shuyin's despair. During one such mission, Yuna falls into the hole from where the fiends are emerging from, and finds herself in the Farplane, where she meets Shuyin in Baralai's host body.

Shuyin mistakes Yuna for Lenne, an ancient summoner and Shuyin's lover, of whose memories Yuna's Songstress dressphere is comprised of. Shuyin is the man who resembles Tidus whose image had prompted Yuna to embark on her new journey, but his personality is nothing alike: 1000 years of reliving the memory of dying with Lenne has manifested as a desire to destroy the world. The Gullwings follow Shuyin to the heart of the Farplane where he is attempting to activate Vegnagun. Shuyin gains a corporeal form when he abandons Baralai, and the Gullwings defeat him in battle. Lenne's spirit emerges from Yuna's dressphere and puts Shuyin's spirit to rest, and they fade away together.

The Gullwings return to Spira where Nooj, Baralai and Gippal address the Spirans to announce their pursuit of world peace. Yuna returns to Besaid, where she has a chance to reunite with a revived Tidus if she asked the fayth to return him to the world while she was at the Farplane.

Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eien no Daishō~
In a companion novel, soon after reuniting, Yuna and Tidus end up shipwrecked on an unknown island and come in contact with ghosts of the Machina War.

Last Mission
Three months later, Yuna, Rikku and Paine each receive a letter asking the trio to reunite and investigate the newly discovered Iutycyr Tower.

Themes
The main theme of Final Fantasy X-2 is the search for the lost, as Kimahri's discovery prompts Yuna to set on a journey to find her lost love. The theme of memories and how they affect people is also prominent. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine think about the events of the past and find strength in them to keep going and look towards the future. As Shuyin's despair over the Machina War and his failure to save Lenne grew over a millennium and began acting on its own, he became a monster who wanted to destroy Spira. Lenne's memories and emotions are shown through Yuna acting as her vessel, and she sought to have Yuna help her express the pain that results from war and stop Spirans from repeating their past mistakes, and ultimately help Shuyin find peace.

Another prominent theme is friendship. Paine joins the Gullwings and initially keeps to herself, but learns to open up even though she is often annoyed by Yuna and Rikku. The party discovers Paine's past friendship with Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai, who are also a reason for Paine to join the Gullwings.

Yuna's journey is that of self-discovery. Since she is no longer a summoner and burdened by its responsibilities, she is free to embrace the life she believed she would have to sacrifice for Spira's sake. Through her time under Rikku's influence, Yuna finds her place in the new Spira, and finds a strong and confident woman inside herself.

Another theme is human conflict and change. Spira has changed since Sin's defeat and with the arrival of the Eternal Calm, a reformed Yevon fights with the recently formed Youth League over the control of Spira's future, while the Machine Faction tries to remain neutral by supplying machina to both sides. Now that Sin is gone the people are free to have fun in life and are no longer subject to Yevon's teachings. However, they have to deal with the repercussions of the actions taken to achieve that independence, and the people who lost their lives in the process, and have to come to terms with the changes overtaking Spira and the consequences that come with progress.

Development
Final Fantasy X wasn't originally planned to have a sequel, but after a strong fan reaction to the short story titled Eternal Calm included with Final Fantasy X International, the development team decided to continue the story in a sequel. Producer Yoshinori Kitase has commented that at the time the team was ready for a new challenge, and thought that creating a sequel to Final Fantasy X would be a kind of challenge they hadn't yet tried.

The developers didn't want Final Fantasy X-2 to be a mere extension of the previous game. Even before the team had completed the story for the sequel, they had worked on recreating Yuna's look, and decided on a story to fit that style. In the beginning, the team decided on an action-adventure game with a trio of female characters; the decision to have a female cast was one of the new challenges the developers wanted to try out with the game. One other approach that had been discussed was depicting the story of Jecht and Auron's generation, but the idea was scrapped for being too traditional, and also, the team didn't want a game with no female playable characters.

Director Motomu Toriyama has commended that it's not uncommon for women to star as main characters in Hollywood movies and the team looked into films like Charlie's Angels and Tomb Raider for inspiration, but the Hollywood stories were using "macho" women to fill the same type of roles usually played by men. With Final Fantasy X-2, ideas from movies were used as a starting point but the goal was to base the story around cuter and more feminine characters. This was achieved in offering various outfits for the party, using ladylike movements in battle, and the group's lively reactions to events to keep the atmosphere light-hearted and reinforce the cuter aspects of the game's heroines.

The developers wanted a change from the previous game's theme. The Final Fantasy X theme was described as independence from the ties of law and customs, whereas Final Fantasy X-2 was to be about the changes that occurred from the chaos after gaining that independence. In Final Fantasy X, each character had something big to face, but in Final Fantasy X-2 the developers wanted to show their journey searching for their new self. To contrast with Final Fantasy X's at times sorrowful atmosphere, Final Fantasy X-2 was to have a "pop" and upbeat tone in the game's beginning. To portray Spira's change, summons were excluded, locations were redesigned, and new vehicles were included.

It was known since the beginning Final Fantasy X-2 was not going to have summons and that something else was needed to take their place; this is where the idea for the spherechange system came from, since it provides something appealing both visually and in terms of gameplay. Since Final Fantasy X-2 was the first game in the series to reuse a game world the developers wanted to offer something new in other areas and took a different approach to the battle system.

The production team for Final Fantasy X-2 was only a third the size of the previous installment; because the team was already familiar with the material and content from Final Fantasy X could be reused, it allowed the game to be developed in one year, and at half the time it normally takes to produce a Final Fantasy title.

One challenge with the localization was getting the tone right, as explained by Brian Grey who worked on the localization of the game:

Music
The game's music was composed by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi, two composers who had also created music for the obscure racing RPG Racing Lagoon, a game from 1999 that was never localized and was developed under the former Squaresoft label. The regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute a single track despite having composed the majority of the first game's soundtrack. The Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack was released on two discs in 2003 and after the release of Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission, an album titled Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack composed of the songs added to the soundtrack was released as well.

The game's musical style is different from its predecessor's, including many lighthearted and upbeat tracks. Unlike "Suteki da ne", the vocal theme of Final Fantasy X, "real Emotion" and "1000 Words" received English versions for the global release.

None of the tracks from Final Fantasy X were re-used in Final Fantasy X-2. When asked about the chosen composers, the game's director, Motomu Toriyama, stated, "As symbolized in Yuna's live performance in the opening, we wanted to incorporate a pop feeling even with the music this time, which is very different from the typical Final Fantasy world. Ms. Matsueda and Mr. Eguchi were a perfect fit to the changes we were trying to achieve so we asked those two to handle the music for FFX-2. In fact, the drastic change in the music is one of the big differences that gave new direction for FFX-2. I wanted Mr. Uematsu to participate but due to other projects, we weren't able to have him on board for FFX-2."

Final Fantasy X-2: International + Last Mission
On February 19, 2004 (the day before the European and PAL release of Final Fantasy X-2), a special edition of the game was released in Japan. The new version features two modes: International and Last Mission. While the dialogue is the English dialogue (except for Last Mission), the subtitles and menus are in Japanese.

International is the entire game itself with general tweaks to the look, feel, speed, and dialogue; as well as two extra dresspheres, new Garment Grids, and the inclusion of a Creature Creator system similar to the Monster Arena of Final Fantasy X where fiends can be captured, trained and used in battle. Among these are Almighty Shinra (a demonic-energy infused Shinra) and Major Numerus (the final boss of Last Mission, a four-headed snake beast that rivals other Final Fantasy bosses for the spot of most difficult).

Many of the Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 non-player characters can be trained and used in battle, including Tidus, Auron, Seymour, Lulu, Kimahri, Lucil, Nooj, Baralai, and several others. Over 150 additional party members can be gained through this system, with the majority having their own small storylines and endings (some including familiar faces, such as Seymour and Jecht).

Last Mission is a storyline-based mission set three months following the defeat of Vegnagun where Yuna, Rikku, and Paine meet up for the first time since going their separate ways after their victory over Vegnagun to explore the recently-discovered Iutycyr Tower. The tower has 80 levels with a boss battle on every 20th level. On every 10th level, the girls discuss the current events in their lives and in Spira, adding many post-game conclusions for many people the girls encountered three months prior. These conversations are altered depending on how the player begins the mission.

Selecting New Game at the start screen prompts the player to load a save game file from Final Fantasy X-2 normal or International, or to begin without loading. When beginning from scratch, the dialogue will be based on the normal ending of Final Fantasy X-2. If the player loads a save game file with the happy or perfect ending, Yuna will talk about her new life with Tidus on Besaid Island at 30th floor. It is possible to remove certain pieces of dialogue: i.e., at one point the girls mention Wakka and Lulu's baby, Vidina, has had his first tooth, but by loading a save game set before completing Besaid in Chapter 5, any references to Vidina will be removed as the girls have not met him.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster


On 19 March, 2013, it was confirmed that Final Fantasy X-2 would be receiving an HD remastering alongside that of Final Fantasy X and that it would be based on the game's International version. The two games are available together on a single Blu-ray disc for the PlayStation 3 version. PS Vita owners can either download both games digitally for $39.99, or purchase a retail version that comes with a physical copy of Final Fantasy X and a voucher to download Final Fantasy X-2. The HD remaster has trophies and improved music and graphics.

The PlayStation 4 version was announced by Square Enix via its official site. The game was released in May 2015.

Microsoft Windows (via Steam)
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster was listed in Steam's database in December 2015. It was released on May 12, 2016.

Reception
Final Fantasy X-2 sold well; within nine months of its Japanese release, the game sold a million copies in North America, and nearly four million copies worldwide. The game's stylistic changes from past Final Fantasy titles created controversy; Final Fantasy X-2 was the first direct playable sequel to a Final Fantasy title, and the game's atmosphere was a drastic change from that of Final Fantasy X.

The reuse of content from Final Fantasy X received criticism. Despite negative comments the game's critical reception was largely positive. The game maintains an 86% approval rating on GameRankings and an 85% rating on Metacritic, both only slightly down from its predecessor. As of June 2011, it has sold at least 5.3 million copies.

Allusions
Final Fantasy X-2 makes numerous allusions to contemporary pop culture, among other subjects.

Trivia

 * As Final Fantasy X-2 is set two years after Final Fantasy X, it was also released two years after Final Fantasy X.
 * During the first mission in Chapter 1, when the Gullwings race the Leblanc Syndicate to the top of the Mt. Gagazet ruins, an animated picture which resembles the logo of Final Fantasy X-2, but with Leblanc, Logos and Ormi depicted, is shown at the top of the screen.
 * Kingdom Hearts Final Mix contains a trailer for Final Fantasy X-2. Unlimited Saga also contains a trailer for the game.
 * The game is punctuated by a narration of Yuna addressing Tidus, as though she is recounting the game's events to him as they occur in a style reminiscent of Tidus's narration in Final Fantasy X.