Final Fantasy X is my favorite game. There, I said it. It's better than Chrono Trigger or any other games in the franchise. However, X-2 kinda sucks. I don't think it's the story's fault, mind you. But this isn't about quality.
There are a lot of underlying story points that tie them both together that make for a great and worthwhile experience. Even if X-2 isn't your brand, I think playing it for the plot (the actual plot) makes both games better. I'm gonna focus on themes and concepts because I didn't like much else in one of them...
Let's start with what the story of Final Fantasy X is about: Death. This is obvious, and everyone who's discussed the game has said that. Mika makes this obvious before he poofs away. He says something to the effect that Sin is the spiral of death that the whole of Spira revolves around. Sin kills people, and people die trying to stop him. Even if Sin dies, it'll come back, and the whole thing restarts. But there's more to it than that.
Fiends are all dead people. People who die and aren't sent return to Spira as mobs we have to kill. But, if they are sent, they go to the Farplane. The Farplane is the realm of the dead where the living can envision the bodies of their dead loved ones and speak to them. They can't respond or interact, so it's a thing for the living.
However, some of the dead can "survive" as Unsent. We fight many of them through the game, and others become strange friends. And it's amazing how prevalent the Unsent are. In fact, they pretty much run the place. For being corpses, Unsent have a lot of power.
Maester Mika, the de jure head of the theocracy that is Spira and has been dead for several years.
Also a maester, Seymour feels like the true villain of the game, seeing how Jecht merges with the story and Yu lets us stop him. At the very least, you see him enough. Hell, you're the one who kills him.
Lulu's backstory is an Unsent boss, Lady Ginnem.
The most notorious fight in the game is against Lady Yunaleska, an Unsent. The Unsent control the modern religion and formed the precepts that keep Spira in her death cycle.
Belgemne is a friendly unsent who's a model for Yuna. She teaches our main heroine the finer arts of summoning before she lets Yuna send her.
There's also Maechen, who we don't learn the secret of until X-2.
But, of course, there's also Auron, a playable cast member. He's a mentor to Tidus and Yuna and an icon to the rest of our party and Spira.
But there are more dead people who guide Spira who are actually dead.
Lord Jyscal is perhaps the largest turning point in the series. When he breaks free of the Farplane to give Yuna a sphere (somehow), he takes nearly everything off the rails. Yuna's got a b plot for our b villain.
Chappu is a big part of the backstories of three characters. He was Wakka's brother, Lulu's lover, and Luzzu's comrade. Tidus even gets to use his sword for thirty hours.
The High Summoners are the legendary people of Spira's past. Everyone looks up to them, especially Braska.
Braska is Yuna's dad, Auron's friend, and Tidus' "uncle." He, more than anyone else, is the reason for X's plot. If he doesn't pilgrimage, neither does Yuna. If he doesn't take a defamed monk and a drunk from a sacred city along with him, we're not here. Tidus, especially. What kind of person would Yuna be if she weren't half Al Bhed?
According to Auron, "that depends on how you define alive?" What about Jecht? Do you consider him dead?
There are also the spirits of the fayth. All we know about them is they chose to become relief statutes so their souls may aid in stopping Sin. And before that, they stopped Bevelle. Did these people die before or after the Machina War?
FFX-2'a entire crisis of s because a dead guy wants to destroy the world.
Not only that but, if the songstress and black mage dress spheres are to be believed, all dress spheres are made from the memories of corpses. Who was the white mage!?
Nearly every location is filled with people dying. It, Sin, follows us.
There's Dream Zanarkand to jump start the journey.
We see the devastation of Kilika when we arrive.
How many did the guado kill in Luca?
There's Operation Mi'ihen and the fallout at Djose.
The Moonflow flows with pyreflies, and Guadosalem has the Farplane.
The Thunder Plains is where dreams of maxing all celestial weapons die.
Macalania is where our faith is ruined.
Home is destroyed by the guado.
Bevelle!
The Calm Lands is where many pilgrimages end. This includes Lulu's first and second.
Seymour nearly causes the ronso to go extinct.
Zanarkand has the Final Aeon and is the point of no return for other summoners as their fight against Sin is eminent.
Inside Sin is where Yuna performs her final sending.
How many people die or want to die?
The Crusaders willingly get excommunicated from Yevon for a small shot of killing Sin. They know most of them will die buying time for the Al Bhed's laser, but we don't find anyone second guessing their decision. Gotta even wants to be on the frontlines. We've gotten to know Gotta and Luzzu since our journey started in Besaid, so our friendship takes a turn when one of them doesn't survive.
Our own party member, Kimahri, is willing to sacrifice himself against Seymour just outside Bevelle. If Tidus doesn't force the party to return, he's dead.
He, and the rest of the ronso. According to Seymour, "the ronso threw themselves at me" to prevent him from catching Yuna and crew.
But it's not just our furry guardian. All guardians are willing to sacrifice their lives for their summoner. It's a statement made several times throughout the game. Auron says it a bunch. And it's no more evident than at the end of our pilgrimage. Lady Yukon's pyreflies image foreshadows it when her guardian jumps at the opportunity to become her Final Aeon.
Speaking of, the Final Aeon can only be made through sacrifice. And that just leads to more death. Sin is defeated, and the Final Aeon kills their summoner. A sacrifice for a sacrifice; all for naught as the great cyclE begins again.
And it's all sanctioned by the people. Not just Yevon priests but the masses before us are all looking forward to Yuna dying. All the old people, the kids, Calli, the maesters. Even Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri are complicit in Yuna's death. Only Rikku and her people want to stop it.
But if you succeed, you get a statue in the temples of Yevon, and the citizens get a few months of peace. Yuna may think it's worthwhile, but Tidus doesn't.
Seymour Guado is a constant thorn in our side, and he's got a one track mind. He wants to bring death to Spira. Seymour dreams of becoming the Final Aeon to become Sin and bring more death. His plan is to kill everyone in Spira. It's morose, but I can understand. There's a terminal amount of death that can happen before the cycle of death is forced to end. If there are no people, then there's no death. And at last, we have peace.
But how does Spira overcome this death? Sports and art.
Everyone is excited for the Blitzball season. The masses risk a genocide when they all group up in Luca to watch underwater handball. We can recruit dozens of people to join our team all throughout Spira, from all races and backgrounds, proving how important the sport is. Just after Kilika is destroyed, Tidus wonders if they should even be thinking about playing. Wakka assures him that now is the best time for blitz, though. It's the only thing that brings peace to Spira.
But, something I haven't seen mentioned throughout the internet is the importance of art in Spira. We see banners and symbols of Yu Yevon everywhere we go, but is that just religious indoctrination? It seems to work for everyone on the mainland.
The fayth. These stone relief statues are made from former people who wanted to stop Sin. These statutes give hope to the people that they will one day stop Sin. Summoners go from temple to temple, forming bonds with them as a way to grow stronger and prepare for their Final Aeon. As stated above, though, all of this is just more death. The bodies are dead, but the soul lies on as the beasts we summon
The Hymn of the Fayth is a song that is beloved by all races across Spira; Yevonites, Al Bhed, and even Dreams. Tidus tells us that Jecht loved it and would often hum it. Every faith has their own version of it, save for the Magus Sisters. Even Lady Yunaleska has a version that is several people all singing it; all the Final Aeons that have tried to stop Sin. We hear the Al Bhed sing it before Cid blows up Home, and the entirety of Spira sings to calm Sin just before the team breaks into him. Even the ronso sing it to us after we prove we're on their side, and they allow us to pass Gagazet. It's a song 1000 years old that, ironically, was sung in defiance of Bevelle. Now it's just a memory of those trapped in stone and sung as a Yevon hymn.
But that's how people cope with their life. Every good game teaches a lesson to its players. It's usually something boring like, "friendship is magic" or "violence isn't always right." FFX, though, teaches us about the power of dreams. Through the power of dreams, Spira can overcome the cycle of death.
People dream of becoming a guardian and fighting fiends to protect their hometown, their summoner friend, and all of Spira.
Either as a guardian or a Crusader. The Crusaders dreamed of stopping Sin, ending the summoner sacrifice, and laid their life on the line at Mushroom Rock Road. Wakka informs us they defend Luca during the blitz season, trying their hardest to keep Sin away from the big cities. Presumably, they do the same at Bevelle.
People dream their team will win the blitz tournament. Wakka keeps the Aurochs in line when we reach the ruined Kilika. Tidus isn't sure we should be playing a game at this time, but Wakka makes it clear now's the best time.
At least one kid dreams not of playing bltizball but of simply becoming a blitzball. Whatever keeps ya ticking, brother.
The Al Bhed dream of stopping Sin, as well. They teamed up with the Crusaders for Operation Mi'ihen. They think big, fancy guns and other technology will stop Sin from killing them. And they end up being right when the Farhenheit's lasers tear apart their foe (without help, of course).
The Aeons are dreams of the fayth. No one knows if they're an "ideal" of the soul or something else, but we know it's how the fayth appears in battle. We also know they have human forms we can speak with when we get an airship.
But there are two vital aeons that are more important than the one we summon. Jecht and Tidus. Jecht becomes Sin, and Tidus kills him. Both are from Dream-Zanarkand, which is what the fayth on Gagazet have summoned through Yu Yevon. Without either of those two men skipping town and ending up in Spira, the cycle of death continues. I wish it were better understood how they reached Spira, but they're here. And they saved the world because dreams are all powerful.
But it wasn't them alone. Had Yuna kept to the precepts she'd grown up with, all of this would have ended like the other High Summoners. Yuna hoped to live with her friends and her love, Tidus. If she accepted her namesake's plans, one of them would have had to die, just as Jecht did ten years ago. But she cared about her friends and threw off the yoke of her false religion. Yuna shaped her story as she saw fit. She took her fate into her own hands and made her dream come true.
Final Fantasy X is about death. But it's also about overcoming death with dreams. And how does that carry over into Final Fantasy X-2?
The theme of X-2 is a bit harder to pin down because it doesn't show up until the last chapter. Several times during the game, chapter five, especially, the idea of memories are brought up. Early on, it's just a word, but we eventually realize that Yuna's entire journey isn't just about finding Tidus. Her dreams from two years didn't come true. She's not living with Tidus. Her friends are out and about being the ronso Elder or whatever Rikku is doing. Auron is at peace. We know she's living with Wakka and Lulu, but what, exactly, is she doing before joining the Gullwings? Receiving praise for bringing the Eternal Calm, but she never felt worthy of that. We learn before the battle with Vegnagun that Yuna's upset about the failings during her journey. She's been mulling over the things she wishes she could have done. Could she have saved Tidus and Jecht? What about Auron? And we see the suffering on her face as she summons her aeons during the final sequence, only for us to need to kill them after.
FFX-2is about Yuna not being able to leave her memories as that. She wants more out of life; she wants her dreams back. Tidus, Braska, peace. She saves the world again to protect all she's done.
Macalania Woods is the most obvious of the areas. We see how the dying trees affect her in chapter five as it becomes an empty and silent sarcophagus for her memories. Macalania was where she began to question her faith in Yevon. It's where she failed to kill Seymour, where they fled to after Bevelle, and where she shared her first kiss with Tidus. It's a large reliquary of her precious memories, and she doesn't want to lose them. But, sadly, she has no choice. Like the Moonflow bandits, we don't fix anything.
Her feelings are also pretty clear in Zanarkand. Seeing the place that finalized her commitment to her friends turned into a tourist trap breaks her heart. She gets upset that some shoobie is standing where Tidus stood at the start of FFX. "I never wanted someone else to stand there." In response, she breeds monkies to push out all the humans.
Returning to the pre-Vegnagun fight again, Yuna doesn't want to see any of her new friends to die just as her older ones did. She wants to protect Nooj, Gippal, Barelaie, and even Leblanc because of the bonds they've formed. They're not even that strong, but Yuna won't let them be more sacrifices.
She even uses the memories of Tidus as a way to understand what Shuyin is going through. And it works!
Now that I think about it, the title of the main menu song is called "Memories," so the theme should have been clear from the get-go!
And, if you've gone through all the filler, Yuna's effort makes her dreams come true. Tidus is brought back to Spira by the power of her aeon friends. She seems to have accepted that she couldn't save everyone. Some were already dead, for example, but she and Tidus return to Besaid to live happily ever after. Well, uh... Look, listen. I'm not sure where to go with this because the audio drama and light novel kinda take the entire journey of Spira and totally ignores it. I don't know how to connect them, so I'll end this final thought.
Dreams come true. I've been in the midst of depression for nearly twenty years, and everything I've ever wanted has eluded me. But how much have I fought for what I wanted? I didn't save the world once, let alone twice. Obviously, I shouldn't have to do such a thing alone or with a group of six friends, but life can be what you make of it. If you have the drive to be a simple priestess of a false religion, you can. But only if you're willing to make that goal come true. I know this sounds cheesy, but if you have good friends, then friendship really is magic. It can overcome a lot and save the world of some people. And people should cherish their memories. But be prepared to let them go in the face of a changing world. Don't cling to that which wounds you. Let the good times guide you to more good times with your magic friends. Just don't kick any coconuts...
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