Dressphere

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January 15, 2013

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Yuna's impostor, wearing the Songstress dressphere on Yuna's Garment Grid.

The whole mess started with the Garment Grid... That's the invention that lets us harness the dresspheres' power.

Yuna

Dresspheres (ドレスフィア, Doresufia?) are an integral part of the battle system in Final Fantasy X-2; each character has to choose a dressphere to use in battle, which roughly translates into a job system from previous Final Fantasy games; however, dresspheres are a little more encompassing than previous job systems.

Dresspheres determine the character's weapon, base stats, and appearance and there is no equipment to control these choices. Consequently, and perhaps fittingly, all of the equipment are some form of accessory.

Dresspheres need to be equipped in the character's Garment Grid to be used, and the player can change between dresspheres mid-battle by moving to a different node on the Garment Grid. Due to the game's New Game Plus function, it is possible to gain several of the same dressphere and equip them to the same Garment Grid, allowing gates to be activated while keeping the same job class.

During battle, a spherechange can be implemented at any time to change the current dressphere. This can be done to gain extra abilities from the Garment Grid, to activate the special dressphere, or just switching to a different job more suited for the particular enemy. Switching of dresspheres can be stopped by status effects.

The weapons wielded by the characters while wearing some of the dresspheres—particularly Warrior, Samurai, Dark Knight, White Mage, Black Mage and Mascot—are weapons featured in Final Fantasy X. For instance, as Warrior, Yuna wields Tidus's Brotherhood sword. Another example is when, as a Samurai, Rikku wields a katana identical to Auron's.

In Last Mission, up to five dresspheres may be equipped on a character, with additional dresspheres providing support abilities, while certain combat abilities are only available based on the primary dressphere. Certain combinations of dresspheres are required to access powerful support abilities. Each dressphere carries an HP total and will break and is lost if the current HP is reduced to 0. If all equipped dresspheres are eliminated, then the character is forced to fight bare. Template:See Also

Profile

Yuna's imposter spherechanging.

Garment Grids and dresspheres were invented by Shinra, an Al Bhed kid, part of the sphere hunting group Gullwings. Yuna, Rikku and Paine, the field agents for the group, can thus use Shinra's inventions. It is indicated that dresspheres are a recent invention that came about after Sin's defeat.

Dresspheres are regular spheres equipped on a Garment Grid to make use of new skills and spells. Most of the time a dressphere gives each wearer a unique attire, but there are exceptions: while wearing the Songstress dressphere Yuna inherits Lenne's exact outfit, and Leblanc is able to modify her entire appearance to the likeness of Yuna while wearing the Songstress sphere on Yuna's Garment Grid, although this may not have been the power of the dressphere.

Only the player party is shown to use dresspheres, although Rin offers a dressphere as the grand prize of the Sphere Break Tournament in Luca, a contest intended for the general public rather than just sphere hunters. In the Japanese version, the word "dressphere" is explicitly mentioned by him.

It is not revealed where Yuna, Rikku and Paine obtained their starting dresspheres, but it is known that Rikku brought Yuna's new attire to her when asking her to join the Gullwings, indicating she may have brought the Gunner dressphere to Yuna on that day.

Characteristics

Dresspheres determine most things about the characters, including their base stats. Unlike many other games featuring jobs, weapons and armor cannot be equipped and the weapon used is tied to the dressphere, though they only serve an aesthetic purpose and the base stats are what decides strength. The only equipment type is accessories, which can be equipped by any job.

Each type of dressphere has the character in a unique outfit, and the outfit is also unique to each character. The girls also have unique victory poses for each dressphere.

Each dressphere has its own section of abilities viewed from the menu. Players learn abilities by selecting them and then defeating enemies and by using the abilities of the dresspheres to gain AP. Jobs have sixteen available abilities, but some will be already learned by default, while others cannot be accessed until prerequisite abilities have been earned. If an ability belongs to two dresspheres, the party member will not have to learn it twice: the AP counts for the ability even if accumulated in the other dressphere. When an ability is mastered, it will have an icon of three gold stars and the word "Master" beside it. After mastering all abilities, that dressphere is considered mastered and will have a gold crown icon beside it.

In terms of commands, jobs will typically have a regular command and a skillset at the very least. Some jobs like mages do not have the basic Attack command. The skillsets contain varying amounts of miscellaneous abilities specific to the job. Some of the abilities learned from the ability menu sometimes serve to improve the effectiveness of a job's commands. While abilities are not transferable between jobs, some Garment Grids and accessories give abilities from other jobs' skillsets to the users.

Completing the ability set for a dressphere in the HD Remaster version earns the trophy Complete Ability. Obtaining all dresspheres earns sphere hunter.

Spherechange

Player changing dressphere on the Garment Grid.

In battle, if a character spherechanges she can go from one node to another on the Garment Grid. Colored gates between the nodes are activated by passing between the nodes and activating gates can add stat boosts or other effects for the duration of the current battle. In each battle, a character that links to all the nodes can activate their special dressphere, which functions similarly to summons in other Final Fantasy games; party members are replaced on the fighting field by the dressphere entity and the dressphere manifestations are manifold each comprising a "party" of three entities.

When spherechanging, an animation of the character changing clothes interrupts the battle, although the player can turn these off in the config menu. The first time viewing it is always shown in full. In the animation, the character twirls around while her previous clothes disappear and a new garment manifests on her. Changing into a special dressphere has a unique animation. Nude models for the party members are used as the base models for the spherechanging animation, and while skin can be seen during dressphere transitions, the models lack anything explicit.

During the spherechanging animation the party is immune to enemy attacks and time is halted. Spherechanges can be timed to coincide with enemy blows to survive unharmed, although the timing has to be very specific and it won't work against enemies' cinematic attacks.

Spherechanging all girls in the same battle in the Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster version earns the Dressed for the Occasion trophy.

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List of dresspheres

Standard dresspheres

Gunner

Yuna's default dressphere, the Gunner, allows the player to shoot an enemy from afar. This dressphere has excellent Accuracy and fair Agility. The Gunner's most useful abilities include Scatterburst, Tableturner, Enchanted Ammo, Trigger Happy and Cheap Shot, as it ignores target's defense.

Thief

Rikku's default dressphere, the Thief, is a quick attacking job that allows the player to steal items (among other things) from enemies. As such, she has high Agility, combined with balanced strength, defenses and Luck. The stronger moves like Master Thief have a long wait. Thief is the fastest dressphere and gets two attacks in one command. The Thief's most useful abilities include Flee, Steal, Pilfer HP, Pilfer MP, Pilfer Gil, First Strike and Master Thief.

Warrior

Paine's default dressphere, the Warrior, allows the player to attack an enemy with strong elemental strikes. Warriors have good Strength and high Defense and their most useful abilities include Power Break, Armor Break, Magic Break, Mental Break and the elemental attacks.

Songstress

Songstress relies on the character's dancing and singing skills to inflict status ailments on enemies or to support her group. If the player is using it only to master it, the process can be expedited by using a Garment Grid that gives the character Magic, Bushido, or Instinct abilities, as the Songstress cannot attack in the normal sense. The only way to attack is to be afflicted with Berserk or to use Mug. The party gains the dressphere after defeating Leblanc the first time in Luca. The Songstress dressphere is comprised of Lenne's memories.

Black Mage

The Black Mage dressphere allows characters to cast devastating Black Magic spells. A Black Mage wields elements such as Fire, Water, Lightning, and Ice. She can also utilize an Osmose-like ability called MP Drain. The spells are limited to the basic elemental magic, and higher level Black Magic, such as Flare and Ultima, can only be gained by equipping a relevant Garment Grid. Players receive the Black Mage after the first mission in Chapter 1 on Floating Ruins. It is implied the Black Mage dressphere was created from Maechen's memories.

White Mage

White Mages equip rods but cannot attack unless afflicted with Berserk or are equipped with a Garment Grid or an accessory which grants access to physical attack commands and/or skill subsets. They work similar to White Mages in past games, casting White Magic and healing. Higher level White Magic, such as Auto Life and Holy, are gained by equipping a relevant Garment Grid. The White Mages' HP is low, but they have excellent Magic Defense. The dressphere is received after completing the story mission in Besaid during Chapter 1.

Gun Mage

Players can obtain the Gun Mage dressphere in either Chapter 1 or 2 at the Moonflow. The Gun Mage is quite weak in all areas except Magic. Fiend Hunter abilities, which deal quadruple damage to specific fiend types, are where she really shines. Gun Mages also have the Blue Bullet skill, which works like traditional Blue Magic, in that the character learns an enemy's ability by having it performed on them and surviving the battle.

Alchemist

Players obtain the Alchemist dressphere in Chapters 2, 3, or 5 at the Calm Lands Ruins in the Calm Lands. Alchemists can use several items from a limitless stash and mix items together to make stronger items, an ability that is functionally identical to Rikku's Overdrive from Final Fantasy X. The Alchemist's most useful abilities include Mega-Potion, Elixir, Phoenix Down, Mix, Chemist, Elementalist, and Items Level Ups.

Dark Knight

Dark Knight has great HP, Strength and Defense, and also has fair Magic and Magic Defense, but has low Agility. Dark Knights have abilities such as Bio and Break. They have attacks which drain the user's HP in order to cause damage, similar to the Darkside attack from previous games; and Black Sky, a powerful multi-hit attack. The Dark Knight has more status-proof abilities than any other dressphere. Dark Knight is found in the Bevelle Underground by choosing the right lifts and activating the blocks correctly.

Samurai

Found in the Kilika Temple in Chapter 3, the Samurai has high Strength and is useful for dispatching large groups of enemies with Bushido abilities like Fireworks, and command abilities like Zantetsu. It has the useful Bushido ability Clean Slate, which heals the user and removes status ailments.

Lady Luck

Lady Luck is the equivalent of the Gambler job (and is actually named as such in the Japanese versions), and has abilities similar to those of Setzer from Final Fantasy VI. It can be obtained either by defeating Shinra in the Sphere Break tournament at Luca in Chapter 3, or failing that, challenging and defeating Shinra in Chapter 5.

Berserker

The Berserker has low Defense, but is balanced by great HP, Strength and Evasion. Equipping the Berserker with a Haste-inducing accessory makes the Berserker a deadly attacker. Berserkers can double their max HP with Howl, and can inflict Berserk on themselves. The dressphere is found after completing the Lake Macalania mission in Chapter 3.

Trainer

The Trainer is a version of the Beastmaster from past games. Unlike in other games, where Mediators equip whips (or daggers and guns, like in Final Fantasy Tactics), Final Fantasy X-2 Trainers attack by giving orders to pets. Yuna uses a dog similar to Daigoro (Yojimbo's dog) named Kogoro, Rikku uses a monkey named Ghiki, and Paine uses a pheasant named Flurry.

Each animal accepts different commands and performs different abilities. This is similar to releasing monsters in Final Fantasy V, except the monsters are permanent. To obtain the dressphere, Yuna must talk to and correctly respond to Kimahri in Chapter 2. He will give the dressphere to the party in Chapter 3 when Garik Ronso is planning to attack the Guado. If Yuna rests at the Celsius cabin at least once every chapter, in Chapter 5 a scene will occur and the player can rename the animals by talking to Barkeep.

Mascot

The Mascot has wide range of functions and can be considered the ultimate dressphere. Yuna is a Moogle holding a Moomba doll, Rikku is a Cait Sith holding a PuPu doll, and Paine is a Tonberry holding a Cactuar doll. It is obtained by getting Episode Complete in every place. Due to a glitch, if the player completes Zanarkand last, they will not receive the dressphere. It can also be obtained by beating the Youth League Tournament in Fiend Arena in the International and HD Remaster versions.

Special dresspheres

Special dresspheres are similar to Limit Breaks or summoning in other Final Fantasy games. A special dressphere is activated by a character highlighting all of the paths on a Garment Grid within the course of one battle (maybe an unintended glitch, but simply accessing all jobs on the grid is enough to use the special dressphere). Once the character changes into the special dressphere, the other characters are no longer visible or playable until the special dressphere is removed. In battle, each special dressphere consists of three components which take turns just as regular party members do.

Additionally, as long as a character is changed into a special dressphere, any accessories that character has equipped will have no effect. These dresspheres also have no access to the Item command. Unlike all other dresspheres, the base statistics of the special dresspheres are directly related to the number of nodes on the equipped Garment Grid, thus forcing a player who intends to make use of the special dresspheres to choose a balance between speed of access and power of the form.

Obtaining a special dressphere in the HD Remaster version earns the trophy Specialty.

Floral Fallal

A giant flower with two pistils Yuna uses to dish out magic attacks. The dressphere is mastered with two key items found in Chapter 5: Aurora Rain that gives Break HP Limit, is found in the back of Yojimbo's chamber in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth at the bottom of the Calm Lands northern gorge; and Twilight Rain, that gives Break Damage Limit, is under a bridge on the long Besaid path. Floral Fallal is obtained when chasing the Leblanc Syndicate on the Djose Highroad in Chapter 2, behind a rock.

Machina Maw

A large salvaged machina Rikku uses to bombard her enemy with attacks. The dressphere is mastered with two key items: Machina Reactor that gives Break HP Limit, can be accessed in the same chapter as the Chocobo Ranch is set up, by gaining access to the Ruin Depths. The ruins are a secret dungeon at the back of the ranch. The other item is Machina Booster that gives Break Damage Limit, and is found in a chest at the bottom of the lift up to the Youth League HQ at Mushroom Rock Road during Chapter 5. Machina Maw is found in Chapter 2 in Bikanel Desert in the Oasis.

Full Throttle

A large blade suit with two large wings of blades Paine uses to slice and dice her enemies. The dressphere is mastered with two key items: Corpus Invictus, gives Break HP Limit, found in the second (after Cid is found) secret dungeon in Thunder Plains, behind a false wall; and Victor Primoris, gives Break Damage Limit, obtained by riding a chocobo to the northernmost curve in the Mi'ihen Highroad; at the gap, the chocobo will hesitate and then fly up to a chest.

The player must wait at the same spot a second time, and it will fly into the gorge, where one of the items is found. This is only available if the Gullwings helped Calli in Chapter 2. Full Throttle is obtained by talking to Tromell four times in the Macalania Woods in Chapter 1 or 2. Since talking to Tromell at any point in the game is optional, Full Throttle is the only one of the special dresspheres that can be permanently missed.

International/HD Remaster dresspheres

Festivalist

The girls don traditional Japanese festival outfits and attack with spinning objects and fireworks. Each girl has a different set of weapons. Yuna uses Temari (balls attached to her wrist) and sandals and specializes in elemental magic; she can also deal two attacks at once. Rikku uses cotton candy and fish in a plastic bag and specializes in elemental physical damage. Paine uses a giant fan and a mask and specializes in dealing status conditions with physical damage. The dressphere is obtained by talking to Brother when the player is on the airship for the first time. A second copy can be acquired by beating the Grand Cup: Hard three times.

Psychic

The girls wear school uniforms and stylized futuristic visors. As the name suggests, Psychic utilizes mental energy and the laws of physics to engage in combat. Psychic dressphere is obtained by beating the Standard Cup in the Fiend Arena.

Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission dresspheres

Freelancer

In Iutycyr Tower, each dressphere has a HP designation; if it runs out of HP, it breaks and the girls have to wear the next dressphere in line. If they run out of dresspheres, they will be reduced to wearing their sleepwear. At this point, the girls are at their highest levels, but have no abilities to use, and can do nothing but punch and kick for beating fiends.

Development

One of the first things decided for Final Fantasy X-2 was that, being a sequel, the game developers didn't want the game to be just an extension of Final Fantasy X. Yuna's new character design was designed to freshen things up and was one of the first things made for the game. From Yuna's new look the developers came up with the idea of "dress-up", which led to the development of the dressphere system. It was known since the beginning Final Fantasy X-2 was not going to have summons and that something else was needed in the summons' place; this is where the idea for the spherechange system came from, since it provides something appealing both visually and in terms of gameplay.

The ones that were hardest or most challenging were the ones that are "cute". It's a personality/style that I'd never worked on (since I have been designing monsters in the past). I think the songstress is at the top of that list. I remember gathering all kinds of materials and having a hard time finalizing the designs. My favorite costume is dark knight - I'm a fan of armor and suits of armor.

Tetsu Tsukamoto, Alternate Costume Designer

Other appearances

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

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Other media

Dead Fantasy

Yuna and Rikku spherechange. In Dead Fantasy II, Rikku attempts to spherechange but is interrupted when she bumps into Hitomi. In Dead Fantasy IV, Yuna spherechanges to her summoner form, which is her main appearance in Final Fantasy X, to aid her rival Kasumi against her antagonistic clones.

In Dead Fantasy VI, as the late Monty Oum stated, Rikku was supposed to spherechange using fan-made dresspheres won through his competitions, such as Lolita, Spell Sword and a Ninja. She was going to do this to fight her rival Ayane. In the last preview, Rikku used Machina Maw to fight Ayane in the ocean grounds.

Gallery

Dresspheres

Note: Dresspheres with names written in italics are obtained during main storyline.

Gunner

Thief

Warrior

Songstress

Black Mage

White Mage

Gun Mage

Lady Luck

Trainer

Alchemist

Berserker

Samurai

Dark Knight

Mascot

Exclusive Dresspheres

For the International + Last Mission and the HD Remaster versions only.

Note: Dresspheres with names written in italics are obtained during main storyline.

Festivalist

Psychic

Freelancer

Special Dresspheres

Note: Dresspheres with names written in italics are obtained during main storyline.

Floral Fallal

Machina Maw

Full Throttle

Concept art gallery

Numerous dressphere ideas were planned, of which only a part is seen in the game. The pictures below are from the Ultimania guides for Final Fantasy X-2.

Samurai.

Floral Fallal.

Full Throttle.

Full Throttle.

"Geomancer".

Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

Special Dressphere concepts.

Dressphere concepts.

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Dressphere concept.

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Dressphere concept.

Dressphere concept.

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Dressphere concept.

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Dressphere concept.

Trivia

Concept art of a Gunblade in FFX-2.

• The concept of the dresspheres' spherechange sequence is based on the "magical girl" genre of Japanese anime and manga, where the heroines have elaborate changing sequences from civilian attire to magical attire, a prominent example being Sailor Moon.
• Though not appearing in the finished product, designs for an unused class showing Yuna wielding a dagger-like gunblade can be found in the game's Ultimania guide among numerous other potential classes.
• The Dark Knight has the least amount of Ability Points to master it, while the Alchemist has the most (without inclusion of Mascot). Mastery in Mascot can be considered the toughest to achieve as it uses abilities from two out of rest of the thirteen dresspheres, which easily beats a number of about 3,300 AP mastery compared to the Alchemist.
• In Dead Fantasy, a popular CGI movie series, creator Monty Oum had a contest for fans to create a dressphere for Rikku to use in her upcoming battle with Ayane from Dead or Alive. The three chosen were: Ninja, Spell-Sword, and Lolita.
• Most of the dresspheres' stats, excluding HP and MP, tend to increase and decrease from level 80 onwards. The reason for this is unknown.
• In the International and HD Remaster versions, each girl's current dressphere appears on their portrait in the main menu and the battle results screen.

References

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