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 is a story told by former summoner Yuna, taking place in Spira two years after the events of Final Fantasy X where she and the rest of the world are attempting to come to terms with living in a world without Sin when political conflicts and a force from the ancient past threaten to destroy the newfound peace.

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 character'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.

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.

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.

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 Gullwings. After Rikku showed her a sphere of a man resembling her lost love, Tidus, Yuna left her uneventful life in Besaid for the chance to reunite with him.
 * Rikku: An upbeat Al Bhed girl who is Cid's daughter, Brother's younger sister, and Yuna's 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 Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal, but doesn't like to talk about her past.

Story

 * The game begins on the context of events featured in Final Fantasy X: Eternal Calm, an extra cut scene included with the release of Final Fantasy X International.

Two years after Sin's defeat Yuna, now a high summoner, was leading a quiet life in Besaid when Rikku presented her with an ancient sphere discovered by Kimahri. The recording showed a captive man, strongly resembling Tidus, demanding to see the summoner. The sphere, along with Rikku's encouragement, inspired Yuna to seek adventure and a purpose for herself and she joined Rikku as a sphere hunter.

Yuna, Rikku, and Paine are members of a sphere hunting group, the Gullwings, led by Brother. Brother's friend Buddy is the co-pilot of their airship, the Celsius, and Shinra is an Al Bhed boy prodigy who devised the dressphere system the girls use to enhance their battle abilities. Together they travel a Spira that finds itself amid a clash of factions that have established themselves since the coming of the Eternal Calm, unearthing hidden legacies from Spira's ancient history.

A rival sphere hunter, Leblanc, stole Yuna's Garment Grid, allowing her to perform a concert in Luca under Yuna's guise. The concert is disrupted by Rikku and Paine while Yuna wanders Luca incognito. Rikku and Paine approach Leblanc on stage and she flees. Rikku and Paine chase Leblanc to the docks where Yuna joins the fray and reclaims her Garment Grid. Shortly after switching to the Songstress dressphere, Yuna finds herself overcome with a strange emotion and dances uncontrollably, both frightening and intriguing her.

Back on the Celsius the Gullwings use the Sphere Oscillo-finder to detect hidden spheres throughout Spira and pick up a signal from the recently discovered Floating Ruins at Mt. Gagazet's peak. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine encounter the Leblanc Syndicate and compete for the sphere, but emerge victorious and take it on board the airship. The sphere is a recording of the ancient Zanarkand, but brings the team no new information, and Shinra turns it into a new dressphere for the girls to make use of in battle.

Sphere waves emanate from the Zanarkand Ruins, and YRP goes off to investigate. They discover the ruins have become a tourist attraction promoted by by Cid and Isaaru, much to the team's disapproval. In an underground ruin the Gullwings discover the sphere they were after, but it is only a fragment and useless for either viewing or as a dressphere.

The hostilities between Youth League and New Yevon build to a head as an "awesome sphere" is discovered in Kilika. Youth League and New Yevon compete over it but the Gullwings claim the sphere. The ancient sphere contains images of a machina weapon called Vegnagun hidden beneath Bevelle with enough power to lay waste on all of Spira that is unable to distinguish friend from foe once activated. The sphere shows the man who resembles Tidus calling for "Lenne". Over the evening the Gullwings celebrate their success and Yuna wears the Songstress dressphere and sings for everyone. Afterward she gets angry pondering who Lenne is and storms off to bed, where she dreams of herself and Tidus stuck in an underground passage being shot by guards. When she awakes Rikku blames the nightmare on Yuna having worn the Songstress dressphere while asleep.

The Gullwings return the sphere to either Youth League or New Yevon and gain allegiance with their chosen faction but become enemies of the opposing one. While the Gullwings are out to deliver the sphere Leblanc breaks into their airship and steals the half-sphere YRP had found in Zanarkand. Intent on reclaiming it, the YRP travels the world to locate Syndicate members to steal their uniforms, and storm Chateau Leblanc in Guadosalam to discover Leblanc had the other half of the sphere and stole theirs to restore it. Leblanc explains she is hunting spheres to gain the affections of Nooj, the leader of Youth League, and after discovering the Gullwings support her cause, they join forces to investigate Bevelle Underground where Vegnagun is held. Discovering a tunnel recently dug into the floor of the weapon's chamber, they realize Vegnagun has been moved to the Farplane at Spira's core.

Disagreements between Spira's factions escalate after Baralai, Nooj and Gippal—the leaders of New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction respectively—go missing. Returning to the underground of Bevelle the Gullwings discover the missing faction leaders discussing Vegnagun and learn the machina's artificial intelligence allows it to detect hostility and respond by activating and fleeing. Previously Nooj had come to Bevelle with the intention of destroying Vegnagun, prompting it to flee to the Farplane. Yuna learns Paine had once been friends with the three men, assigned as their sphere recorder while they were candidates for the Crimson Squad, an elite group intended to be assigned leadership of Crusaders chapters across Spira.

Two years earlier in a cave beneath Mushroom Rock Road called the Den of Woe, before the failed Operation Mi'ihen, the squad's final exercise was conducted. Within the cave the candidates were swarmed by pyreflies and driven to kill one another and the only survivors were Paine, Baralai, Gippal and Nooj, who were targeted by the Yevon order afterward when they revealed having seen images of Vegnagun while in the cave. Even after escaping the predicament, Nooj shot his comrades, and although all parties survived, it severed the group's friendship. Unknown to the others, Nooj was not acting of his own accord when he shot them but was being possessed by a malevolent spirit who entered his body while in the cave.

The feelings that drove the squad members to kill one another were the despair of Shuyin, a man who died 1000 years ago. Before the four survivors could leave the cave, Shuyin's spirit—requiring a host to interact with the world physically—had possessed Nooj, and forced him to shoot his comrades. In the time since Shuyin had been goading Nooj on a subconscious level, coercing him to approach Vegnagun so he could use Nooj's body to control it.

Nooj's will was too strong for Shuyin to be completely controlled, and his desire to destroy the machina prompted it to flee. Desiring a new host, Shuyin leaves Nooj's body and possesses Baralai, pursuing Vegnagun to the Farplane. The former aeons' spirits become corrupted by Shuyin's despair and they emerge from the former temples' Chambers of the Fayth with an outpour of fiends. YRP visits each temple to quell the fiend outbreak and after defeating a possessed Ixion in Djose Temple, its surprise final attack sends Yuna falling into the pit in the ground that once hosted the temple's fayth.

She emerges in the Farplane and meets Baralai possessed by Shuyin. Shuyin mistakes her for a woman named Lenne because of a dressphere Yuna possesses. Feeling affection toward him that is not her own, she listens as Shuyin describes how he "awoke" after dying, alone and unable to find Lenne. He is angry that after a millennium Spirans have not come to understand the heartache war can cause, and plans to use Vegnagun to destroy the world, ending the possibility of there ever being another war. The possessed Baralai continues deeper into the Farplane and Yuna meets Nooj and Gippal who are pursuing their friend who ask Yuna to keep things under control on the surface. Yuna is angry and confused, but finds her way out of the Farplane by following a familiar whistle.

The cross-factional strife escalates with their leaders missing and Yuna decides to honor Nooj and Gippal's wish of her to "keep things under control". Gullwings and Tobli organize a concert to which everyone in Spira is invited, supporters of the Youth League and New Yevon alike, to foster a sense of kinship. It turns out the Songstress dressphere Yuna wears during the concert is comprised of Lenne's memories, and it reacts to the sphere screen Shinra had built to display the concert for the spectators. It projects Lenne's memories for everyone to see and, witnessing images of Shuyin and Lenne's last moments, Spirans come to understand the unproductive nature of their disagreements. Yuna learns it was because of Lenne's memories that Shuyin had mistaken her and she had felt affection toward him.

Maechen comes aboard the Celsius and explains everything to the Gullwings. A thousand years ago Shuyin lived in the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand and was the lover of a popular songstress and summoner, Lenne. The two lived during Machina War, Zanarkand's war with the more powerful Bevelle, and Zanarkand ordered all summoners to the front lines, separating the couple. Shuyin thought the only way to save her was to infiltrate Bevelle, commandeer Vegnagun, and use it to destroy Zanarkand's enemies. Lenne perceived Shuyin's intentions and followed him. When she caught up to Shuyin in Bevelle he had begun to operate Vegnagun, but before he could use the cannon to destroy the city, Lenne pleaded for him to stop. A group of Bevelle soldiers shot the couple and Shuyin failed to hear Lenne say she loved him before they died.

Over the following 1000 years Shuyin's lingering despair and resentment over his failure to save Lenne bonded to pyreflies and made him re-experience the anguish of that moment. His despair became so powerful it began acting on its own, and he came to believe that—in addition to helping the world—he would fade away with Lenne if he destroyed Spira.

Although the factional fighting has ceased, Shuyin has nearly carried out his plan to use Vegnagun to destroy Spira from beneath its surface. Joining forces with the Leblanc Syndicate, the Gullwings make their way to the Farplane and find Gippal and Nooj battling Vegnagun. They disable the machina before its cannon can fire at Spira and Shuyin's spirit abandons Baralai, becoming corporeal. Lenne's consciousness emerges from the Songstress dressphere to convince Shuyin to abandon his mission and be at rest.

Endings
Final Fantasy X-2 features multiple endings. Depending on certain criteria additional cutscenes will be featured before or after the regular ending FMV.

The standard ending features Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai addressing the people of Spira in Luca's stadium announcing the dissolution of their respective factions for the peace of the world. Yuna and the Gullwings depart for Besaid on the Celsius, and Yuna's story will continue as she embraces her new life.

A short cutscene will play before the ending should the player fail to reach at least 75% storyline completion and/or the certain criteria. As YRP departs from the Farplane, Tidus's spirit appears to bid farewell to Yuna who accepts she will always love him.

An additional ending FMV will play after the credits roll should the player reach at least 75% storyline completion and fulfill the ending criteria. The fayth have located Tidus's scattered pyreflies and sent him to Besaid, where he surfaces from the water where Yuna and Tidus reunite, an event witnessed and celebrated by Wakka, Lulu, and the people of Besaid.

A final cutscene will play after Tidus and Yuna's reunion should the player achieve 100% storyline completion. Tidus and Yuna travel to Zanarkand, where Tidus wonders if he might still be a dream.

In the International and HD Remaster versions, if one achieves 100% in the Creature Creator, the Creature Creator Ending locks out the Zanarkand Reunion Scene permanently.

If the party fails to defeat the fourth and final part of the Vegnagun battle in time, Shuyin fires Vegnagun's cannon and destroys all of Spira.

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 regroup and investigate the newly discovered Iutycyr Tower.

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. 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 of the game 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:

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.

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 entitled 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", Final Fantasy X's vocal themes, "real Emotion" and "1000 Words", received English versions for the global release.

None of the themes 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 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 is receiving an HD remastering alongside that of Final Fantasy X and that it will 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 is announced by Square Enix via its official site. The game will be released in May 2015.

Microsoft Windows (via Steam)
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster was listed in Steam's database in December 2015.

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 Final Fantasy X-2'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.
 * 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.