- Author
Posted April 30, 2018
I run and climb up the first level of platforms and am thrown into a fight against Vegnagun's tail. Aside from a sweeping attack, this is not a particularly difficult or long fight and I'm soon on my way up to the next set of platforms. Leblanc, Ormi and Logos are struggling to beat the creature's leg, so I take over. This is another relatively easy fight and the creature reels from its defeat once again. Finally, I climb to the top level and face off against its head and arms.
The arms counterattack anything directed at the head, so I destroy them first, however they can be revived repeatedly. I continue my primary strategy of using Yuna to heal and buff everyone (Haste, Shell, Protect) and repeatedly using physical attacks - Rikku's berserker moves are especially strong - and the head is defeated. Huh, this has all been incredibly easy so far. What's the catch?
Shuyin, still inside Baralai, is enraged and reactivates the Vegnagun for a final round against the head. Once again, this is surprisingly easy and I have no difficulty in winning. After the battle, Yuna uses her songstress dressphere to appear as Lenne, coercing Shuyin out of Baralai's body and calming him down. However, the illusion doesn't last long and Shuyin realises Yuna isn't really Lenne. The final battle, therefore, is against Shuyin -or, rather, his ethereal spirit.
Shuyin has some powerful attacks, similar to Tidus's limit breaks, however they are almost all directed at single targets. Yuna is knocked out twice, but a Phoenix Down and an X-Potion are all I need to get her back into the running. Keeping everyone Hasted and Protected, and continually attacking, is enough to beat Shuyin and with that, the final battle is over. Relatively easy on the whole, and a bit of an anticlimax.
Having won the fight, the spirit of the real Lenne emerges out of Yuna, tells Shuyin to stop this fighting and takes him with her to the Farplane. They both turn to energy and disappear, together again. The game's ending FMV is set inside Luca's massive stadium, where the three leaders of Yevon are talking to the people. They say that Spira had lost its way but now they're all going to work together as a single people, and that the Eternal Calm will continue. Cheers erupt. They give a special mention to Yuna, who isn't here. Instead, she and the others are standing on the deck of the Celsius, the wind in their hair and new adventures ahead of them. The Celsius flies into the clouds and the credits roll.
Total playtime: 39 hours (approx.)
Some snaps taken on my travels (when I eventually remembered the Vita's screenshot function):
A mission completed, I think it was the Ixion battle in Djose temple.
The Farplane Abyss (FMV).
Scoping out the secret codehidden around Besaid.
Mama Cactus sends us around the world.
The final area of the game is genuinely beautiful, to be fair.
The random encounters with 'Omega Weapon' still end with an over-the-top death animation. Hints of FFVII there.
Themusical puzzle to open the last barrier.
"New game plus"is unlocked, but I'm not doing that.
There's also something called Last Mission, set a few months after the events of FFX-2 where the characters all receive letters inviting them to come to Iutycyr Tower. This is a turn-based strategy game where you work your way up randomly generated floors, picking up items and fighting monsters using one character at a time. It incorporates dresspheres and spells but the gameplay is totally different, the inventory is severely limited, and dying sends you back down to the bottom. No thank you, not interested.
So, that's FFX-2 done. I have to say, and I'm sure this is apparent from my writings, I didn't find it particularly enjoyable. I sort of struggled through it best I could, but it'sa slog. And it's not even that long, it's just boring.
The battle system, switching back to a version of realtime combat that feels like it's trying to be an MMORPG (was there development crossover with FFXI?) was a bit of a shock and I never quite got used to it. Dresspheres are a nice idea, like an advance on the Job system from the old games, but constantly switching in battle is tedious (even with animations turned off). The charge time needed for most spells and special moves meant that I gravitated towards physical attacks, making most of the dresspheres pointless. Enemy designs, locations and characters are recycled from FFX, and there's no improvement on stock animations or lip-synching. Everything still feels off; it's just more FFX, but worse. *sigh*
And for what? What's the overall goal of the game, the story it wants to tell? Yuna goes on a journeyto find something that turns out to be something else. Who the hell was Shuyin, why did he look like Tidus? Was it just a coincidence? It's not satisfying. The characters (particularly Rikku) are annoying. The quests are boring, the mini-games manage the spectacular feat of being even worse than the ones in FFX, and frankly I'm sick and tired of Spira. Macalania Forest, the Calm Lands, Besaid, Luca...I've spent nearly two hundred hours running back and forth through this world and I'm sick of the lot of it! 
Positives, then? Er, the music grew on me. The FMVs are spectacular. Brother is quite funny. The game isn't too long.
And, as far as expansion/sequel type things go, it's better than FFIV: The After Years. So...yeah.
3
