<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, I didn't actually play this game, just watched my friend play but it seems pretty obvious what little plot that exists can be summed up in about 1 page at the most (and probably much, much less). I don't know... I guess if you're into the costume thing and like to run around doing random missions for the sake of doing them it might be a fun game, but I would prefer a game with a real purpose. Although story is overrated in RPG (most of them suck anyway), FFX2 sure is a very aimless game. You just go to Hotspot to Hotspot and eventually something happens. If you done enough things you get the good ending even though there's absolutely no correlation between running more errands for Spira and the good ending.
From what I can tell the real time battle system in FFX2 is more of a drag than it helps. It's like a turn-based system but you can get whacked while choosing your commands or find the right costume to change into. Consider you do a lot of frivilous things in the combat system (changing to different costumes for example) I don't understand why it's made to be real time. It's not like you actually have to make a decision on what costumes to change into unless you happen to be caught without a White Mage. The Costumes system is kind of like Tactics in that whatever 3 random combination you put up will probably work (because the game is really easy) especially if you have at least one White Mage in there somewhere.
I like how they're integrating more voices into combat. However, Yuna and Rikku are way overdone. Yuna is always trying to act 'cool'. It's like "Hey wat up man I am a cool girl, not country bumpkin High Summoner Yuna!" and frankly I think she falls flat on her face trying to do that. It is pretty much like Shion of Xenosaga where you've a totally clueless ditz trying to act like she knew what's going on, but whereas in Xenosaga there's Jr./Chaos/KOS-MOS to keep Shion's stupidity in check, since Yuna is the High Summoner she gets to do whatever dumb things that came to her mind. All of her retarded plans work because she's the main character but it is absolutely unconvincing that Yuna even had a clue how to fix the problems. It's like Rinoa's brain-dead plans in FF8 but worse because Yuna is the main character.
And Rikku is just downright annoying. She went from cheerful & energetic to just downright annoying in FFX2. It made sense in FFX to have Rikku's attitude consider you're fighting something no one has ever actually won before, so her cheerful attitude provides the much needed support to the gloomy atmopshere. No matter how hard they try in FFX2 it is just hard to imagine High Summoner Yuna who got mysteriously turned to a level 1 weakling is now fighting to save Spira from something that appears to be significantly weaker than Sin (I mean if it's so powerful, why didn't that get rid of Sin?). Rikku's characterization feels something like: "OMG EVERYONE A FLAN! BUT IF WE TRY OUR BEST WE CAN DO IT! GO GO GULLWINGS! LALALALALA!" And really does Rikku need to dance after battle in every conceiveable costumes (even as a White Mage)?
Paine is a pretty solid character, but 1 out of 3 doesn't really cut it for main characters. I think this game is similar to FF8 where all the cool characters are the one you can't play as. Shuyin in particular reminded me a lot about Laguna... not because of the personality but because how the two characters just have their own style, and both have a wannabe version of them (Squall/Tidus). The new characters are at least fairly interesting, and certainly not annoying like Yuna and Rikku. The 1000 words concert is a scene I don't think that will have the same effect if it wasn't a CG. Most of the time I think CG is just there to fit some graphics quota but I think this one is actually necessary. It is, at least for me, the only redeeming part of the game. I'm be first to say that having Yuna singing is one of the most retarded things I've seen but that doesn't take away from the greatness of this scene.</div>
From what I can tell the real time battle system in FFX2 is more of a drag than it helps. It's like a turn-based system but you can get whacked while choosing your commands or find the right costume to change into. Consider you do a lot of frivilous things in the combat system (changing to different costumes for example) I don't understand why it's made to be real time. It's not like you actually have to make a decision on what costumes to change into unless you happen to be caught without a White Mage. The Costumes system is kind of like Tactics in that whatever 3 random combination you put up will probably work (because the game is really easy) especially if you have at least one White Mage in there somewhere.
I like how they're integrating more voices into combat. However, Yuna and Rikku are way overdone. Yuna is always trying to act 'cool'. It's like "Hey wat up man I am a cool girl, not country bumpkin High Summoner Yuna!" and frankly I think she falls flat on her face trying to do that. It is pretty much like Shion of Xenosaga where you've a totally clueless ditz trying to act like she knew what's going on, but whereas in Xenosaga there's Jr./Chaos/KOS-MOS to keep Shion's stupidity in check, since Yuna is the High Summoner she gets to do whatever dumb things that came to her mind. All of her retarded plans work because she's the main character but it is absolutely unconvincing that Yuna even had a clue how to fix the problems. It's like Rinoa's brain-dead plans in FF8 but worse because Yuna is the main character.
And Rikku is just downright annoying. She went from cheerful & energetic to just downright annoying in FFX2. It made sense in FFX to have Rikku's attitude consider you're fighting something no one has ever actually won before, so her cheerful attitude provides the much needed support to the gloomy atmopshere. No matter how hard they try in FFX2 it is just hard to imagine High Summoner Yuna who got mysteriously turned to a level 1 weakling is now fighting to save Spira from something that appears to be significantly weaker than Sin (I mean if it's so powerful, why didn't that get rid of Sin?). Rikku's characterization feels something like: "OMG EVERYONE A FLAN! BUT IF WE TRY OUR BEST WE CAN DO IT! GO GO GULLWINGS! LALALALALA!" And really does Rikku need to dance after battle in every conceiveable costumes (even as a White Mage)?
Paine is a pretty solid character, but 1 out of 3 doesn't really cut it for main characters. I think this game is similar to FF8 where all the cool characters are the one you can't play as. Shuyin in particular reminded me a lot about Laguna... not because of the personality but because how the two characters just have their own style, and both have a wannabe version of them (Squall/Tidus). The new characters are at least fairly interesting, and certainly not annoying like Yuna and Rikku. The 1000 words concert is a scene I don't think that will have the same effect if it wasn't a CG. Most of the time I think CG is just there to fit some graphics quota but I think this one is actually necessary. It is, at least for me, the only redeeming part of the game. I'm be first to say that having Yuna singing is one of the most retarded things I've seen but that doesn't take away from the greatness of this scene.</div>
