Why do people STILL bash FFX-2?

[Nieroshai]

I like both games, but I had two complaints.
1. A pretty gender-neutral game, ffX comes out. Then a sequel comes out, but not just having a female lead, it was A TOTAL CHICK GAME! Making your sequel harder for guys to like is a bad marketing decision.
2. Whereas X played turn-based, X-2 played like FF7 but with SUPER TRANSFORMATIONS! This difference, while not itself bad, confused me as to why they didn't just make a new game.

 

[Cptn_Squishy]

The combat was adequate, the story was fine, the leveling up system is kinda dopey (just play each character until each costumes stats are maxed *yawn*).

Getting 100% tends to be more than a little ridiculous. The chicks are hot, but just kinda wander around being hot. It's a lot like the Final Fantasy movie...it wasn't that it sucked, its that wasn't nearly as good as it SHOULD have been.

One thing I will say though, is this: The music is outstanding.

 

[SupabadMan]

No one 'still' bashes FFX-2, because they had forgotten about it.

But lets look at it rationally.
1.The combat system was nice and worked pretty well.
2.The story sucked the dark side of my scrotum.
3.The atmosphere from FFX was polar opposite from FFX-2
4.Other than the start up song, the sound track sucked as well.

On its own merit, it was that. Forgettable.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

I actually managed to enjoy FFX-2 for what it was. Yet in order to accomplish this, I essentially had to turn off my brain and completely remove its association with FFX. Why it receives such immense dislike is for a multiple of reasons, most prominently being it was a nigh insult to what was cited a masterpiece in FFX. There were a large variety of ways a sequel could have been explored. I had dabbled myself upon a concept wherein the game largely took place in Tidus' Zanarkand, that it had not faded away as perceived, possibly through efforts of Seymour (in my case) or any number of the villains who sought to maintain what had become the norm for Spira. In any case, it was a cheesy fanservice plot.

What I personally found irksome was the horrific character assassination Rikku underwent. In FFX, she was hyperactive, yet frequently displayed an intellectual mind. She was childish, but not to an aggravating sense. Not to mention at fifteen, it is to be expected. In FFX-2 they removed any sense of the aforementioned to adhere to the "dumb blonde" stereotype and drove it home relentlessly. Hell, she even fights with Yuna in the international version for little reason than her own selfishness that Yuna has Tidus and therefore stays in Besaid. This is the complete opposite to her FFX persona.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

I haven't exactly played this but from what I have read FF X -2 is a sequel or addition to FF X. I understand what you're saying how they should judge the game and not have their opinions influenced by the rest of the franchise, but if FF X leads into FF X -2 and the people hated FF X it would make sense not to go an by what essentially would seem to be the games brother.

Think about it, if you're watching a movie and it totally sucks really bad, but then you hear that one of the next movies in the series is really good, you're most likely still not going to watch it.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

IDK.Personally,I liked it

 

[Marter]

...I actually quite enjoyed FF-X2. The only thing I didn't like is what they did to Blitzball, but the rest of the game was still quite fun for me.

 

[manaman]

Ah yes, you are talking about Final Fantasy: Dress Up. Judged on the merits of the Final Fantasy series or not the game is a failure.

I couldn't even finish the game. It couldn't even come close to holding my interest.

 

[Amnestic]

To sum up my opinions on FFX-2:

The story is ridiculous and full of plotholes. I think the biggest nail in the Story Coffin is the so-called 'Perfect' Ending, which almost literally urinates all over the emotionally touching, beautiful end cutscene of FFX. Tidus' disappearance and the death of the Aeons were heavy emotional events which mattered. The 'Perfect' Ending flips all that around because...um...the Heart of the Cards did it? For that matter, is it ever explained why there are Dark Aeons again?

The graphics actually feel worse than FFX, and I don't know how they managed that. They might not actually be worse, but they feel it.

The soundtrack was sub-par for a FF game and felt almost phoned in by the crew. It's almost sad really that a game which opens up with a Songstress has such average and even bad music.

Blitzball was made worse. They had an opportunity to improve upon the game from its FFX counterpart, maybe add a third dimension like it should've had in the first place, but instead they turned it into a management game. Sphere Break was yawn-tastic and I felt even less inclined to play than Tetra Master or Triple Triad, and that's not even getting into the god-awful Calm Lands advertising stuff.

What else? Ah...characters. Bourne Endeavour summed up my feelings on Rikku, but all of them seem like they're almost parodying their FFX counterparts with Paine subbing in for the 9-months-pregnant-but-still-the-same-model Lulu. The dialogue is utterly terrible and had me groaning at line after line after line. JRPGs are cheesy and melodramatic to begin with but...jeebus.

Positives though were the Garment Grid system. I liked that you could change jobs for bonuses and you used it to unlock special dress spheres and whatnot. That was pretty cool, though I always found myself sticking with just one DS until it maxed out before switching to the next, meaning that I had less incentive to change until I'd maxed out all the dress spheres I was using. Better bonuses for switching during battle would have encouraged people to change around more and given more dynamic play.

It's not my least favourite Final Fantasy game (that honour goes out to FFVIII), but it's definetly up there.

 

[Austin Howe]

To sum up my opinions on FFX-2:

The story is ridiculous and full of plotholes. I think the biggest nail in the Story Coffin is the so-called 'Perfect' Ending, which almost literally urinates all over the emotionally touching, beautiful end cutscene of FFX. Tidus' disappearance and the death of the Aeons were heavy emotional events which mattered. The 'Perfect' Ending flips all that around because...um...the Heart of the Cards did it? For that matter, is it ever explained why there are Dark Aeons again?

The graphics actually feel worse than FFX, and I don't know how they managed that. They might not actually be worse, but they feel it.

The soundtrack was sub-par for a FF game and felt almost phoned in by the crew. It's almost sad really that a game which opens up with a Songstress has such average and even bad music.

Blitzball was made worse. They had an opportunity to improve upon the game from its FFX counterpart, maybe add a third dimension like it should've had in the first place, but instead they turned it into a management game. Sphere Break was yawn-tastic and I felt even less inclined to play than Tetra Master or Triple Triad, and that's not even getting into the god-awful Calm Lands advertising stuff.

What else? Ah...characters. Bourne Endeavour summed up my feelings on Rikku, but all of them seem like they're almost parodying their FFX counterparts with Paine subbing in for the 9-months-pregnant-but-still-the-same-model Lulu. The dialogue is utterly terrible and had me groaning at line after line after line. JRPGs are cheesy and melodramatic to begin with but...jeebus.

Positives though were the Garment Grid system. I liked that you could change jobs for bonuses and you used it to unlock special dress spheres and whatnot. That was pretty cool, though I always found myself sticking with just one DS until it maxed out before switching to the next, meaning that I had less incentive to change until I'd maxed out all the dress spheres I was using. Better bonuses for switching during battle would have encouraged people to change around more and given more dynamic play.

It's not my least favourite Final Fantasy game (that honour goes out to FFVIII), but it's definetly up there.

Wait, you've played not only this, but II, III, V, and even X, and VIII is your least favorite? Quite frankly, what the fuck is wrong with you?

 

[Amnestic]

Wait, you've played not only this, but II, III, V, and even X, and VIII is your least favorite? Quite frankly, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Well ever since I watched my wife of fourteen years get cut down in cold blood by a clone of Hitler, I've always been a little screwed up.

And yeah, VIII is way worse than X.

 

[Austin Howe]

Wait, you've played not only this, but II, III, V, and even X, and VIII is your least favorite? Quite frankly, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Well ever since I watched my wife of fourteen years get cut down in cold blood by a clone of Hitler, I've always been a little screwed up.

And yeah, VIII is way worse than X.

Well, despite the fact that that opinion is tragically ill-informed, fact of the matter is that every other game I listed is monumentally worse.

 

[justnotcricket]

Ah yes, you are talking about Final Fantasy: Dress Up. Judged on the merits of the Final Fantasy series or not the game is a failure.

I couldn't even finish the game. It couldn't even come close to holding my interest.

More or less this. By a twist of fate, I played X-2 before X - in other words, I almost didn't play X because X-2 left me with such a 'WTF?' impression. Basically, in hindsight, X-2 didn't really need to exist. And that's by Final Fantasy standards - in my opinion there's a bit of a question mark hanging over several of the more recent ones.

 

[A Weary Exile]

It's an unecessary sequel to a great game with a plot that amounts to little more than bad fanfiction, not to mention the "Barbie dress-up" battle system (Which I never used, I never had a reason to switch classes).

 

[WanderingFool]

Wait, you've played not only this, but II, III, V, and even X, and VIII is your least favorite? Quite frankly, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Well ever since I watched my wife of fourteen years get cut down in cold blood by a clone of Hitler, I've always been a little screwed up.

And yeah, VIII is way worse than X.

Huh? What!? But I liked FFVIII... and come to think of it, I might be the only one... but to be honest, I dont really like any of them, I just hate 8 the least.


[sub]oh, and sucks about the wife and all that jazz...[/sub]

 

[Direwolf750]

yes. yes it is. the story was pointless at BEST, and I really hated the way of controlling costumes. The entire thing was based off of the ability to grind an absurd degree without much of any merit. I disliked it, and how annoying it was to get any kind of good ending.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Even if it were your very first Final Fantasy, it will ALWAYS be "Final Fantasy: Charlie's Angels Edition".

The really sad part? The combat/core gameplay is actually pretty good despite the whole "dress up like emos/furries/S&M Models/pop-star whores" gig.
But it's still FFX-2, where your goal is to find...ugh...urp...UGH...*burp*...excuse me, gag reflex...your goal is to find..

Spoiler

...Tidus.

Yeah. Fuck that.

 

[astrav1]

Square-Enix made the choice to associate that shitpile with the good name of Final Fantasy. My only duty because of that is to trash that game as much as possible.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Although I've never played it, I would guess that it's because it marks the point in which the Final Fantasy series as whole arguably started to decline. Also prior to X-2 there never was any direct sequels or spin-offs. Each entry in the series was more like a volume then a sequel.
We really should let that go, shouldn't we?