Final Fantasy X-2 is one of my favorite games, not because of the depth, but it's just plain fun. Having played the original version almost a year ago, it was kinda nostalgic having to go on adventures with Paine, Rikku, and of course Yuna again.

First things first, there's a bonus FFVII Advent Children trailer on this game. While the CG is less impressive than that of the Final Fantasy movie from a few years ago, it'll still be interesting to see what they do with this movie-sequel to the game. From what it looks like now, it'll be quite impressive and meaningful for people who have played that game.

So for the game itself, it's split up into two parts. The first part is the English version of the game, the second is the Last Mission game which takes place a few months after the end of X-2.

In regards to the English version, it was extremely generous of Square to let people who played the original game to load it in the English game. My saved game in Luca after passing the game twice was valid, so I could see the cutscenes and videos to see how they changed without having to play the game all over again. This is actually the first time I've seen them since I skipped the US release since I knew I was buying this version.

Oh dear, what did they do to Yuna and Lenne in the "1000 Words" video? They re-rendered the scenes so that the lips match the English words and added a few new scenes in there, but they're just so poorly done. The re-renderings don't look like Yuna, nor Lenne, and the video brightness is dramatic between the new scenes (extremely bright) and old scenes (extremely dark). "real Emotion" wasn't too bad, but they did do a "fake" widescreen where they cut off 25% of the video. Overall the video was a little more blurry than the original (yes, it's noticeable, especially on a 100"+ screen).

The voices weren't too bad as I'm inured to their voices from FFX original. Jade from Sweetbox isn't too bad, but Kumi Koda does have a more powerful voice. So in all, English part was okay, but I didn't get it for that.

Last Mission is an expanded mini-game that leads you up 80 floors of a newly discovered Tower. Yuna, Paine, and Rikku all received letters to visit the place and to go all the way to the top to find something special. Along the way (i.e. every 10 floors), there's a cutscene where the three of them discuss what has been going on with their lives. They laugh, fight, and reminisce. While it didn't contain any big shockers, it was a nice conclusion to the FFX saga. You have to load a completed game to play Last Mission. Since I loaded my game with Tidus saved, I probably got something different than a cleared game that didn't have Tidus coming back.

Anyhow, good game. I'm biased, and it shows in my ratings.

Rating: 4/4

(Here are the notes I took while ascending the tower. I spent 24 hours playing that game, from the night of Friday 2/27 to early Sunday morning 2/29. I'm too lazy to clean them up, but if you want, go ahead and read them.)

Started at 11pm, Friday. Around the 10th floor, get fire-proof is really helpful. I forgot what the combination is, but I know it requires a gunner and white mage.

Oh, get the festival outfit as soon as you can. With it, you can have the ability to earn magic points everytime you defeat an enemy. Couple this with a white mage, and you'll never have to worry about running low on HP.

After 10th floor, cutscene where Rikku explains what's been going on. Rin and Shinra are working together researching underseas. Rikku's father and brother are entrepaneuring, taking cues from O'aka with the hot springs in Gagazet (LeBlanc, Sano, Uno come in here too but I forgot why). Kilmari is a bit worried about the whole ordeal. Clasko is helpless as usual and gets help from the kid group.

In the early teens, Ice-proof is invaluable. It requires Berzerker outfit and singer.

4:05am
Level 15 is a bitch: stupid cannot get the two seals unlocked. You need to beat five enemies and place two items down. Took me forever to figure that out. And I hate that bitch guy who comes and spirits me away, bastard.

After level 20: there's a cut scene with Yuna wondering what's the big somethign at the top of the tower. They conclude that the tower might be as old as zanarkand, which gets Rikku asking how Nooj, Gippel, and Baralai are doing. Paine says that it's been a while since she's talked to them, but after their factions split, they've been together contemplating.

Past out at 6am, floor 26

Woke up at 10am and started playing again.
Floor 30: You need to drink two items to unlock and defeat some enemies. The cutscene on floor 30 has the gang looking at a sunset and Yuna saying that the sun's always the same, but the people aren't. She goes on to say that she has a boyfriend who is in Bisaid, where she's staying now.

Now it's 1:52pm
I've finished 40th floor. The boss on the 40th floor was a bit tough, but I have the defeat enemy/magic increase, and also "protect all" for a few turns. Wasn't too bad, although I think I need to level up.

The cutscene here has the girls talking under the moonlight about what they've gone through (refering to previous games). Paine says they should leave it in some permanent form so it won't be forgotten. Rikku makes fun of Paine saying she's not the author-type person. Paine asks what Rikku wants to be, she doesn't know, but takes offense and starts complaining about Yuna putzing around in Bisaid rather than living the adventurous life as she does. The Yuna and Rikku start bickering and Paine comes in to break them up.

It is now 5:15pm.
Just finished up to level 50. Cut scene has Rikku not wanting to go further, but Yuna says go on. They start talking about who it could be. Rin? LeBlanc? But no, it was Paine. She said she just wanted to have some fun again since it's been a while (3 months) since they were together. Despite finding out who it is, Yuna says to keep on going.

It's 6:45
Just finished up to level 60. However, I need to play that over. The boss, Ultimate Weapon, kicked my ass so I got out by a hair. I think that if I play it again, it'll be okay.

7:15 all done.
Cutscene: The evening sun (evening already?) reminds Paine of when Nooj got possessed by Shuuin and shot her along with Baralai and Gippel and thinking of the dark times after that. THose memories shoudl have been forgotten, but they weren't. Rikku mentions that she had the same kind of feeling when she first went to Zanarkand (cutscene shows intro to FFX) and how she was half crying thinking about what was going to happen to Yuna.

10:03pm
campfire
yuna is anxious to finish. rikku is tired and in a seemly bad mood, paine asks, himitsu. Yuna guess correctly, Rikku want sto go back to the way things were with the three of them. They talk some more and resolve their differences. Yuna has move on! (yeah, easy for her to sya, it'll be another three hours for me).

11:57pm
Played until the final boss. Frickin' beserk status, Yuna stripped down to her underwear. So frickin' confuse. I decided to use a saved game and go back a few floors and get dark knight outfit which has confuse proof.

3:20am
Fuckin' bitch, it's a three stage boss (a hydra). Disproportionally difficult. Just gotta keep whacking at it.

After the battle, the girls talk and admit that even though they're different now than they were before, they'll aways be inseparable; and with that, they walk through the door to the top of the tower (user gets control back).

At the top, there's is an anticlimatic nothing (well, just a not-too-intereting rock statue that resembles nothing). Rikku starts complaining (as well as I) about having to fight monsters, having argued with the other girls, just to get up here and to find nothing. Sarcastically, Rikku asks what Paine meant when she wrote the letter that invited them to go atop. Even if others can't see, she can says Paine and they stare at the vista above the clouds with birds fliying and the bright sun.

Ending is a video with Yuna (Mayuko Aoi) singing "To You." Featuring video from FFX and FF-2.

"Someday, somewhere in the sky...may we meet again"

And from now on, I can watch the video as many times as I want since I cleared the game.

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