Y. R. P. In position

We're 364 days early, but I'm ready for a J-Pop jouncy through old haunts!

Final Fantasy X-2 is a sequel that no one asked for and few actually liked. Metacritic probably considers it better than the prevalent thoughts, but it's a very odd game. FFX was about finding oneself in an unknown world of grief. X-2 is about finding someone else in a world of your creating. Gone is the large cast of people who shouldn't be friends, replaced by three women with one goal. The sphere grid has also gone away, but I'll get to that in a moment. I'm not entirely sure what to say here, so let's end the preamble and get on with the show!

The camera is above Luca, home to blitzball. But we're not here for sports. Biggs, a guard from the previous game, has been knocked out and is being dragged away as we see a woman in black walk away. Rikku appears on screen to tell everyone they're in position. As she does, we cut to Yuna! She's performing in the stadium and has become a singer in the two years since we last saw her. I wonder if the devs always thought she could sing, but she never did so in FFX. While we get a mild introduction to the new Rikku and her friend, Paine, Yuna performs "Real Emotion." The most striking thing about it is all the machina around her. In just two short years, Spira has gone from shunning all things metal to embracing drones and robot drummers for the sake of entertainment. Adding to all that is the once conservatively dressed Yuna is now donning a short skit, bearing midriff, and a shirt with a plunging neckline. How scandalous. For some reason, Rikku and Paine are beating up other Biggs, while Yuna has a question mark next to her intro. After the song, Rikku and Paine rush the stage, and we have our first fight!

The ATB gauge is back, which is another difference from FFX. Ironically, this makes the game more traditional. Despite that, battles go very fast in X-2. All actions take place simultaneously, meaning you might be able to stun lock smaller mobs with your constant attack rate. Make use of that to form combos for additional damage per turn. But, for this fight, Rikku and Paine are fighting Yuna and two goons. None of them are strong, so don't worry about healing. Rikku starts the game with steal, and Paine can lower an opponent's attack.
 
After you win, Yuna gets away, and they give chase around the Luca Stadium. Along the way, more goons and she-goons assail our party. If things get rough, find the odd moogle in dock two. At dock three, is when we finally catch up to Yuna. After Rikku demands she slow down, a tall man approaches from behind, insisting that she's too slow. From the other way comes a rotund man. These are Logos and Ormi, and they attack. Steal from them; this battle is much the same as before.

After the fight, another will enter the scene. Evil Yuna appears! She's the boss of Logos and Ormi, but she's not the only person to show up. Gunfire erupts from behind our opponents, and someone does a fun gymnast routine. It's the real Yuna! Two handguns have replaced her staff, and her long dress is now daisy dukes. That plunging neckline is still there, though. Rikku demands that Evil Yuna gives back the "grid" and "dress sphere." Evil Yuna says it sucks, so she does. She transforms into Leblanc, wearing a stupidly scanty outfit, even by stupid Nomora standards. Yuna gets her grid back, and we enter another battle! This fight introduces us to what makes X-2 unique: dress spheres and dress grids. The job system has returned to Final Fantasy! During battle, our three characters can switch jobs on the fly but only to ones placed on a garment grid. We can't do much with that for the time being, but I'll get into more specifics when I can. We're obligated to change Yuna into a Songstress, a bard/dancer, and all she can do is blind Leblanc. Leblanc usually uses Thunder, so this isn't helpful. Have Rikku steal again and just attack. We're still in the tutorial section, so we're in no harm. Afterwards, Leblanc and co. will run away because Yuna can't stop dancing. A red airship descends to the docks, and we hear the voice of a man saying how excited he is to see Yuna dance.

We cut to YRP on board the Celsius, and we get an introduction to the team! First up is our fighting team. The new girl, Paine, is a goth with short, silver hair and a kinda pompadour. She's got red eyes and a mysterious past. She joined the Gullwings, Rikku's new sphere hunting group, before Yuna.

Rikku is the same Rikku from last game. She's wearing fewer clothes now that she's seventeen but is the same as ever. She's the one who found the sphere that kicked off Yuna's journey. Yuna was sitting in Besaid one day when Rikku told her she found someone who looks like "someone else..." You can view the sphere at the next person, and it does look and sound a lot like Tidus.

Shinra is the boy wunderkind behind a mask. The Al Bhed boy is responsible for dress spheres and garment grids. When asked how they work, though, he'll say he has no idea. "I'm just a kid." He also has various text tutorials and encyclopedias to look at if you want to. Check out the dress sphere tutorial for a gree garment grid.

To the left of the pilot is Buddy, the default number two of the Gullwings. He was on Cid's ship two years ago, but no one remembers him.

Sitting in the same seat as he did two years ago is our leader, Brother. He piloted the Fahrenheit and ruined blitzball games in FFX. Now, though, he has the hots for his cousin, Yuna, and is really creepy. He learned Common to communicate with her, and we get some primers from him (and Buddy) now. He's still Rikku's older brother, and I still wonder what his name was before Rikku was born.

We now have to explore the ship and talk to the bartender, Bartender. He's a hypello, and he's even more mysterious than Paine. Take a nap because why not? Also, don't forget to explore the engine room. Chests down there reset every chapter. As we walk back towards the elevator, an alarm klaxon rings. Buddy has found a sphere!

Yuna gives us some backstory on the ruins because they're over Mt. Gagazet. After Tidus and his fayth disappeared, the clouds that shrouded "Zanarkands's guardian" dissipated. What the mist hid was at least one floating island that we're about to explore. Rather than take us to the top, the girls drop onto a narrow passage, and Yuna gets dizzy. She almost falls off, but Rikku and Paine save her. Brother asks what's wrong, and Rikku says it's "dissasterific." Brother gets mad, Rikku gets annoyed, and Paine asks if he can "hurt him." Anyway, they pull Yuna up, and we start exploring. We get introduced to the jump mechanic here. Just press circle when you approach a ledge, and Yuna will jump the gap/climb up. If you don't, she'll either fall down or stumble. The girls will come to an ancient machina elevator, which Yuna activates. It seems to work at first, but it quickly breaks down, and everyone falls. No harm is done, but Yuna called it "dissasterific," which causes Brother to worry and rush to help them. Rikku was hurt a little bit, but Brother didn't care. Poor Rikku.

After some more jumping, our old friends show up. Leblanc and co. ambush us! It's a three-on-three battle, but they haven't gotten much stronger than before. What they did bring, though, was a smoke bomb! They use it and rush ahead of us, intending to reach the sphere before we do! Sphere Hunting is a dangerous business in modern Spira. This is the first "mission" of the game. We get a screen that will look familiar in time, and our goal is to reach the top before Leblanc does. We have six minutes, but time doesn't go in battle. Loading screens, though...The time limit is very generous. I messed up on the puzzle bit and still had two minutes to spare. Along the way, Logo and Ormi will attack us with goons, she-goods, and mechanical snakes. In the second room is a puzzle. Jump onto the blocks on both sides of the entrance and activate the switch. This'll open up a block Yuna can jump on down the path to get a Red Ring, an accessory that allows its user to cast fire. I got lost, so here's a word of advice. The red arrow on the map is back (but you can turn it off), so don't follow it if you want the ring. Keep on keeping on past the Ormi battle. On the otherside of that is a point of no return. The clock will go away, but we can't get back down to explore if you missed anything. When you climb some of the ruins, you'll see Leblanc and co. hanging next to a chest. They failed, and we won. Our reward is a muscle belt, another accessory that raises the user's strength and defense by ten points. There are no weapons and armor in X-2, so the only thing to raise stats are accessories. You'll gonna want to collect a lot of them! Beyond our terrible rivals is the sanctum at the top of these ruins. Guarding is a giant spider named Boris.

Boris is weak to fire, so that red ring will be handy. I had Paine learn Flametongue on the way up here, which did over 200 damage! Boris may have been in EDGE Magazine to promote FFX-2, but we'll never see him again. Behind is a piece of materia! It's actually a sphere, which a limping Leblanc says is a dud. But it's ours, and we love it! As we try to leave, Rikku asks Brother to pick us up. Buddy comes in over the intercom to inform us Brother isn't here because he ran off when Yuna got hurt at the elevator. We cut to the airship anyway and see Brother lying on the ground. Rikku and Paine ignore him, being more interested in the sphere, but you have the option to console him. If you do, Brother tries to hug you, but Rikku kicks him before he gets too close. But what was on the sphere? It's a video of Zanarkand! I don't know if Yuna and the others know it, but the player should know it as the golden city Tidus started FFX in. But it's not ruined. We eventually hear a voice telling us he's shocked he got a ticket and managed to "shake her hand." Who's "her," and why does this voice sound familiar? Paine and Rikku wonder if they can sell it, but Shinra lets us know that it can be used as a dressphere. We now have access to the black mage role!

As we finish that, Buddy informs us he's found another sphere. Two of them, actually! One's in the ruins of Zanarkand, and the other is in Besaid. We get another tutorial about how to pick our destination, which is the same as in FFX. Buddy also warns us about friend strength...blah blah blah. The gloves are off, and the world is our oyster, so let's explore new Spira...

...tomorrow!

Final Fantasy X may be my favorite game. Despite that, I've always been middling on its sequel. I didn't hate it, but I haven't played it since it came in in 2003. I got it for Christmas that year, so I probably played most of it in the spring semester of eighth grade. I reached 98 percent, so I've never seen the true ending. I won't this time around either, so whatever. I'm here to see if X-2 is worthy of its predecessor! It's not, but Chrono Cross isn't great compared to Chrono Trigger, but CC is still a great game. Was X-2 a Chrono Cross, a Mass Effect: Andromeda, or worthy of a mainline Final Fantasy?
 
I'm also putting some restrictions on this playthrough by only allowing each character to use a handful of jobs.
Yuna: gunner (her default), black mage, white mage, gun mage, and songstress jobs.
Rikku: thief, alchemist, lady luck, and samurai.
Paine: warrior, dark knight, and berserker.
I know that distribution is off, but I don't plan to do much with the songstress or gun mage routes, nor do I think I'm capable of winning lady luck. Ultimately, it's three for each, which I think fits their history and personality.