Final Fantasy X-2 North American Preview

Majestic Mog writes "FiringSquad somehow managed to score an advance copy of the English version of Final Fantasy X-2, the first REAL sequel in the long-running RPG series. They cover changes in the game over the first FFX, the English voice actors, and something about girls wearing short shorts." It looks like they took the best of FFX and combined it with the best of DoA Volleyball. In other words, this might be the perfect video game. I just wish it would come out before december since I just finished KotoR and need a new game.

Comments

Not the first Square sequel period though...

[Zergwyn]

Though Square is best know for Final Fantasy, and I will admit a certain special fondness for FF6 in particular as it was the first realy RPG I ever played through and what got me hooked on the genre (for better or worse), they have made a lot of other terrific games as well. In particular, I am thinking of Chrono Trigger, which was one of the last games they came out with on the SNES and also one of the best. That one actually got a sequel, or perhaps a side story at any rate, called Chrono Cross for the Playstation. These games were both interesting, and especially Chrono Trigger at the time, because they did away with the whole 'Random Encounters on World Map' thing that virtually every other RPG I can think of up until that time had. This made it a lot more fun to just explore around, as there wasn't any annoyance or penalty for doing so.

I personally have mixed feelings about the latest, FFX. It certainly has fantastic graphics, and I have really found myself getting into it at times. I have had a bunch of fun in many pieces, which I guess is the ultimate test for any game. But, I personally find some of the voices somewhat gag inducing or just jarring to the experience at points. I know people complain about too much angst or whatever, but personally I kind of like having my main character be a bit of a bad-ass, someone who at least at first isn't super interested in running out and saving the world, who has emotional conflicts and doesn't have an easy time dealing with it. In FF7, for instance, I liked Cloud's opening attitude, though I may be one of the few if FFX fans are to be believed. And I really _liked_ the first opening city, which is where the game starts right off (not really a spoiler to talk about it, but stop reading if you don't want some suspense taken out of your first 5 minutes of the game). It is really cool looking and well designed, and, well, if I lived in a place like that and it, and all my friends, was blown up, I would be really f@&^!ng pissed. Instead, we get a quick "oh well, it's all good." *Shrug*. Harder to get into the a character (ie, to role-play, to feel and empathize with) who sounds just like a California surfer stereotype, and I certainly found myself rolling my eyes or thinking 'stop being such a whiny loser and get fighting already,' during some of the drawn out dialog. Given these things are on DVDs, would it kill them to include the original japanese sound track as well?

Re:Why Not FFVII?

[jellisky]

Not quite. Actually, of the PS FFs, I also liked FFVIII the most. FFVII's plot was too cliche for my tastes in many points. FFIX lacked a certain emotional tone during it's middle section that ir ended up being boring. FFVIII's plot and characters are always unfairly portrayed, at least in my eyes, as shallow or predictable. But, I always felt that there was a little more adult tones to the whole storyline. It was refreshing. Squall doesn't "grow" as a person, and people find fault with that, but does every main character have to "grow" for the game to be good?

The battle system, while eventually degenerate at points, was refreshing in its own way. The limit breaks were lots of fun to play with and added some additional feedback and actual play into the battles. The difficulty of many of the bosses throughout the game were excellently balanced such that most of them were close and enjoyable. The game could be beaten WITHOUT having to spend a lot of time levelling or working through the sidequests (most annoying aspect of FF7, really... the world's on the verge of being destroyed and you're spending your time breeding chocobos!!!). The plot was interesting and had some nice facets... and had some good twists (granted, some of them were expected, but others were a little unexpected).

Yes, it wasn't perfect, but I would contend as a full game package, it was more enjoyable than either VII or IX. FFIX is still a minor disappointment to me. It's not bad, per se, but just a little underwhelming. VII's late game was ludicrous and annoying... I love VII's early and mid-game... but after the mid-point of Disc 2, it started bothering me just how much extra I had to do to keep up with everything. VIII, even though it's battle system was flawed because it "forced" you to lengthen battles and have more encounters, was just a more enjoyable package than the other two.

Granted, I'll gladly pick up games in either three at any time... and ChronoCross, too... but I also liked VIII the most of the PS era. (FFVI, though, is still the overall favorite... but that's almost universally true.)

-Jellisky