Game Review: Final Fantasy X-2

 

      Since I made a blog post about Final Fantasy X, might as well make one for its sequel: Final Fantasy X-2. Again, Final Fantasy X-2 is a role-playing game and was developed and published by Square-Enix (or formally known as Square) for Sony's PlayStation 2 in 2003, two years later after the best-selling game Final Fantasy X was released. The game's story follows one of the main protagonists from Final Fantasy X, Yuna, now as the main protagonist, as she seeks to resolve political conflicts in the fictional world, Spira before it leads to war.Of all the Final Fantasy game series, this was the first one having only three playable characters and are all female. So if you are a guy and you prefer playing male roles, this is probably not a game for you, unless you might change you mind. 

      The sequel is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy X, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. After receiving a movie sphere that shows a blurry figure that looked strongly like Tidus located at the Mount Gagazet by one of the characters from Final Fantasy X, Kimahri Ronso, Yuna decides to be a sphere hunter in the a group created by Rikku, another character from the Final Fantasy X's brother, called Seagull. Along with Rikku, Yuna is also teamed up the third and last female trio, Paine, who unlike Yuna and Rikku, is serious about her work and rarely trusts people other than the duo. Unlike Final Fantasy X, these trio have a different way to 'power up'. Instead of using a Sphere Grid, they use Dresspheres and Garment Grid. A dressphere is where the character can use to gain different abilities such as the ability to heal using white magic, fight using black magic, uses a variety of gadgets, or fight using one classic sword. These dresspheres are gained throughout Spira, like the Aeons (summoning beasts) in Final Fantasy X. Now with Sin forever gone, the young people of Spira abandon the Yevon teachings for machina to help shape a new Spira. However, the older generation thought this was a big change and is going way too fast. As new ideals and practices began to sweep Spira, several new political groups emerged. Most influential among them were the Youth League led by Mevyn Nooj, and the New Yevon Party led by a former priest named "Trema" until his disappearance, and later by Praetor Baralai. The Youth League consists mainly of young people, determined to see Spira completely abandon its past practices, while the New Yevon Party consists of members both old and young who felt that changes should be gradual, their motto being "One thing at a time".

     Overall, I think its pretty nice to see the original characters from Final Fantasy X and new characters, but I still feel disappointed. Despite the fact that the game was voted as the 32nd best game of all time, there are flaws. I still prefer Final Fantasy X because of the variety of characters while Final Fantasy X-2 focuses on a trio of girls. However it's less complicated so to those who prefer that, go right ahead and play it!

Game Review: Final Fantasy X

   
     I have no idea WHY would I pick this topic, but most teenagers (especially the guys) play video games, right? Well I'll be more specific on the game I'm talking about: Final Fantasy X. Like movies, there are genres for videogames and for Final Fantasy X, this is a role-playing game, a.k.a RPG. What is a role-playing game? It is when the player takes a role of a character(s) in a fictional setting. It's like you are part of a story and a game at the same time! This was developed and published by Square (Square Enix) as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2 and was the first to include voice-acting.
    The game sets in a fantasy world named Spira, where the whole story's main purpose was to destroy a monster called "Sin". Sin is a 'creature' shrouded with water and was created because of the people's sins and the only way to end it was for the people's atonement for their sins from using machina weapons (machines) for war.The play character is Tidus, a blitzball (a fictional underwater sport) star who finds himself in Spira after his home city of Zanarkand is destroyed by Sin. During the game, Tidus, along with several others, aids the summoner Yuna on her pilgrimage (journey) to destroy Sin.
      I noticed there are a lot of similarities from the game compared to real life and ideas based on real life. For example, there are some different 'races' or tribes/clans in the game that can be distinguished by the their outlooks and a made-up religion called Yevon. There is also the 'atonement' that the people must do because of their use in machina for war. In real life, the atonement is like what we call "the Apocalypse" or "The Final Judgement" predicted because of people's evil acts. The underwater sport, blitzball, is also based on a real life sport, soccer (football) and handball. There is also a similar 'act' of genocide (not torturing people or keeping them captured, but were trying to get rid most of them) of people in the videogame called the Albed. The Yevon's people think that the Albed are the cause for Sin because they do not follow Yevon's teachings and they use machina, a forbidden act from Yevon's teachings. For that reason, they fought against Yevon and had to dispersed to other foreign islands because were being outnumbered with the people of Yevon. 
    Overall, I really enjoyed this game, despite the fact that its really old and all. It also features minigames and a way to power up your characters by using a "sphere grid". I loved the plot because it contains a bit of romance towards the two protagonists in the story. However, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like really complex games. With a fan reaction towards this amazing game, its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, was released two years later in 2003.
        - Interested in this game? Here's a link: FFX