namja

Please, please keep this more on topic with more substance. Yes, that means less bickering. Thank you.

Original thread found here:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=330007

Setzer

I initially had some hesitation on whether or not I was going to get this but after playing the demo, which was included in the latest issue of OPM, I'm going down to EB today and pre-ordering this one.

I love the FF series but I wasn't to keen on them doing a sequel and when the first media was released on FFX-2 I thought Square was out of it's mind. The pic of Yuna holding two guns...I thought "OMG they've made Yuna into Lara Croft" and the sequel looking like a Tomb Raider 'wannabe'. I enjoyed FFX and thought the ending finished the story nicely, so I couldn't really see the need to do a sequel and if that's the case why not do a sequel to another FF game that was more beloved by the fans, like FFIV, FFVI or FFVII?

Anyways reading OPM's review and playing the demo has changed my mind about this title. The battle system is super action oriented. Gone is the 'turn based' aspect of it, everything is in real-time except when you change jobs in the middle of the battle it goes into this 'Wait' mode as you watch your character transform to the chosen job. Hopefully in the final release there will be a way to skip through this sequence..it's kinda like watching the Aeons make their intro, from FFX, but only shorter. So combat requires quick thinking and I think definitely lessens the 'boredom' of fighting random battles.

The ability to change jobs on the fly, in battle, is killer and adds a unique strategy to the game. Certain bosses or monsters may have an immunity to physical or magical attacks and in this case just change out to the appropriate job. Need to heal? Change to a White Mage, heal, then switch back and deal damage. I like the flexibility.

The game is mission based which is cool cause you're not set on one path the whole game, like FFX. You decide how you want to play the game and how you play the game may result in a different ending which provides alot of customization to the player on which path he/she takes. After you complete the game there's a Game+ feature which will give gamers a reason to replay the game if you choose to do so.

I mentioned resemblence to Tomb Raider earlier and while thats not the case totally there is one aspect of the game they have in common. When moving your character around you now have the ability to jump and climb which you couldn't do before in an FF game...well climbing ladders yeah but I'm talking about making your character leap to grab a ledge and pulling yourself up sorta climbing hehe. You pretty much walked in a straight path, from place to place in FFX, now you have to work your way through obstacles and deal with the random battles. Plus some of the missions are timed based which makes this more of a challenge too. My only gripe about this was that in the demo you couldn't move the camera which made certain areas difficult to manuever thru.

Playing the demo has changed my attitude towards this game and I'm looking forward to picking it up next week. Any of you FF fans that had doubts like I did, do yourself a favor and pick up the newest issue of OPM and give it a try. A nice little bonus on the demo was a 15minute video which kinda ties FFX & FFX-2 together. It was included with FFX International which was a Japan only release.


***UPDATE***

So far I'm thoroughly enjoying FFX-2. I love the battle system and the whole 'dressphere' / job system. At first I thought the battle system was a little too fast for my liking so I slowed things up a bit in the config menu but now that I've gotten the commands down I've sped things back up. Random battles used to be a real drag...not anymore. I also like that the game is totally non-linear. You select which missions you want to go on and in which order. So, you could just do the missions that are part of the main story line or go somwhere else....it's all up to the player. I don't know how far I'm into the game, I've got almost 20 hours logged but I'm having more fun with this one than it's predecessor.

Outlaw

Good impressions, I'm planning on picking this up for Christmas probably, especially good to hear that its 60+ hours long. Still not sure how the non-linearness of the game will work out but I've heard good things about it.

RocShemp

I'll simply repeat the last thing I said in the former thread:

A friend of mine whose opinions I usually share recently bought this game and told me it's a whole lot of fun so far. By next semester, if his opinion of it is the same or better, guess what I'm buying?

(True, I'd rather rent it first but I forsee difficulty managing that in the near future.)

zerotl

Good review setzer, it sounds to me like this game is similar to KOTOR, I mean I'm not a big fan of RPG's but the action based battles on that game and the story got me hukt, and I love that game, just beat it over the thanksgiving weekend.

Maybe I'll give this one a shot.

flashburn

I just picked this game up and I am enjoying it for the most part so far. I am kind of pissed right now...on the second mission at Zanarkand.

outcastja

My copy is waiting under the tree right now.

flashburn

Anyone know how the Magic Gunner gains Blue Bullet skills? Do you just have to attack an enemy whose skill you can learn? Or do you just scan it?

Cuman

in order to learn blue skills a monster has to attack you using the skill you can learn. so just sit back and let a buncha different monsters wail on you for a little while.

Sessa17

OK, while X-mas shopping over the weekend I treated myself for all the hard work gift giving & bought this & started playing it last night. I'm really diggin' it so far, I'm not one of those hardcore game guys that says this FF game is better that that FF game, I love them all, it's my favorite game series of all-time.

That said I have a question that I really need help on before I go any farther. I just finished chapter 1, & I'm at the beginning of Chapter 2 when you have to decide which people to give the stolen sphere to, the New Yevon or the Youth League, so my question is does this decision change the outcome of the game. My one friend says he heard if you choose one side (Yevon I think) you can get more of the game complete. When I play an RPG I try to get every possible thing you can, so I don't want to play farther until I find out.

Also, once you beat Chapter 1, can you still go back & go to places & do things from Chapter 1?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

flashburn

Great, thanks alot!

flashburn

I am not too sure about the whole New Yevon/Youth League situation. I just decided to pick the Youth League. I do know that after that I went to Beville and the guys at New Yevon attacked me.

As far as your second question goes, I am not sure what you mean. If you are talking about the actual locations, yes they are still there. I believe the side-missions change though.

Shagrath

No, the missions change from Chapter to Chapter. The best thing to do if you want to do everything in the game, is to start at Besaid, and work your way through the list every chapter, skipping the Hotspots and doing those last.

I'm on chapter three now, and have pretty much done everything I can so far, and am now maxing out all three characters on all my currently available dresspheres. I'm almost done, and all my characters are level 70+, so I should have no problem running through any bosses for the next few areas, to say the least.

flashburn

How many total chapters? 3?

ZakVTA

If you give the sphere to the Youth League, you can aquire 100% story completion in a single game. If you give it to New Yevon, then you can only complete 99%.

There are 5 chapters.

Dragon Fly

I'm like near the end of Chapter 3 I think. After reading around looks like I missed out on a couple dress spheres No GunMage or Trainer for me this time around I guess.

Sessa17

Thank you very much. Are you positive about this? I'm going to go with the Youth League then.

Shagrath, thank you also. That is what I thought, so I just erased my game & started over since I didn't go to any of the locations on Chapter 1 outside of the hotspots.

How is everyone liking this sequal so far, compared to all the other FFs.

I'm diggin it, for the fact, at least so far, it's got much more of a lighter tone, & given that it's just a sequel, it actually does try a lot of new things. I'm not a big fan of the dress sphere thing, it get's annoying watching the whole scene every single time you want to change outfits. I can also see where it gets a little old only having 3 characters to battle with the entire game (unless that changes also). One other complaint, Brother has to be the most annoying character in the history of the franchise. I hope he goes away later in the game.

But overall I'm really liking it.

flashburn

You can actually change the length of the Dress Sphere animations, from full, short or off.

So far I am enjoying it much more than FFX, I really hated how linear it was. Overall I think the dress sphere idea is a decent one, much better than the sphere grid from FFX.
I do have 2 small peeves about it so far.
A) I wish I could change to japanese voice overs.
B) I really really hate some of the mini-games..they seem very half assed. Especially the racing/slot machine ones. I was looking forward to doing the shooting mini-game/side mission but I ended up hating it. It is pretty lame that after you get hit Yuna cant fire for some reason so you just get hit more.

But the good thing is the mini-games so far have been optional.

Setzer

For those of you trying for 100% completion make sure you talk to the person in the Moogle suit during the opening sequence. Right after you beat the Yuna imposter you'll gain control of Riku. Go up one screen and on your left there's a bunch of boxes and crates...the Moogle is hiding in there. Talk to the Moogle to restore your HP/MP and also gives you a small % story completion.

I wish I had known about that when I started. I tend to be very thorough when playing through an RPG but apparently not thorough enough playing this one. I've got a little over 20 hours logged and I would have to restart in order to get 100% now...oh well, sucks for me.

flashburn

Does the ending change if you get 100% vs 99%? Thats the only reason I could see possibly restarting to make sure I dont miss anything.

Sessa17

Dammit. Dammit. I just restarted the game after getting through chapter 1, b/c I wanted 100? completion & now I read this. I try to be as thorough as can be as well.

From what little I've read, you do get a different ending, or at least more added on to the ending if you have 100% completion.

Setzer

Yes, finishing the game with 100% completion gives you the best ending. It will be different if you score less than perfect. I don't know the exact differences but I've read on another forum that the 100% ending shows some stuff in relation to Tidus. Can someone else verify this?

I know how you're feeling. I bought the strategy guide when I picked up the game and I just now used it to see if I had missed anything in Chapter 1...sure enough. Should have looked at it sooner.

flashburn

I will just have to make sure I borrow the save from someone I know will get 100%.

Sessa17

Is the strategy guide really worth getting? Does it have EVERYTHING in it. I never bought one before, but it does take me a long time to do everything without help. It took me a little over 1 full year to be FF X. I really hate missing things, should I break down & get the strategy guide?

flashburn

That is exactly the same question I was going to ask. ebgames.com has 20% off their guides right now, (HB20 is the code). I was thinking about picking it up with some of the gift certificate codes I have, so I could get it at a decent price.

I have been trying to use some of the faqs on gamefaqs, but I don't really like the way they are written.