Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy X was a very good game throughout- not my favorite of the series or anything, but still at least in the top half. As one of the most mainstream games of the series, it makes sense that it was the first given a proper sequel, because as we all know the Final Fantasy games all have nothing to do with eachother- that's why FFX's sequel is FFX-2, while FFXI and FFXII are completely different games. FFX had one of the most sensible stories of the whole series, and by sensible I mean the plot doesn't suddenly take a sharp turn off the highway, next stop the fucking moon. There is a goal at the start of the game- to once and for all defeat an all-powerful self-regenerating behemoth known as Sin who has been attacking the world of Spira for the past thousand years. Along the way there's a sense of impending doom and you know it's not quite going to have a happy ending. This is realized as the main character, Tidus... sort of 'slips away' from reality. A quick scene post-credits reveals some sort of unfinished business, and this idea is fully realized in Final Fantasy X-2. Yuna, Tidus' lover, is distraught over her loss but after seeing what may be his image on a mysterious video-sphere, she sets off to find any sort of evidence that Tidus might still be out there. Yuna joins up with her old pal Rikku and a newcomer, Paine. This band of adventurers set off hunting for more spheres hoping to find anything, be it signs of Tidus or wealth and fortune. Along the way you'll run into some old friends and engage in sidequest-heavy gameplay until you get your answers as to why Tidus has been appearing to Yuna. Sounds good right? Well, not exactly. For instance, there's not much that was worth checking up with these characters two years later. Wakka, Kimhari and Rikku are basically the same and have shown no maturing since the defeat of Sin. Lulu barely gets any screentime at all. Tidus and Auron don't show up at all. That leaves Yuna, who I admit I finally came around on. I found her pretty terrible as Tidus' love interest in FFX, but here as the star of the sequel she actually comes out of her shell a bit and becomes fun to root for. Don't get me wrong though, the transition to voice action cutscenes is still pretty damn awkward here and there's loads of awful side characters who will embarass you as you play through the game. The story gets really uninteresting really quickly and by the end I really had no idea why I was fighting some of the final bosses. Now the game wasn't all bad though. From a pure gameplay standpoint, this actually might rank among my favorites. Battles are fast and fluid, and there's a competent job system that rewards you for trying out different job classes. There was no ridiculous spike in quality at the end, and I found the side-missions for the most part pretty fun. But because you wouldn't want other people to watch you play this game out of sheer embarassment, I can't say I recommend Final Fantasy X-2.