FFX-2: Square Earns Fifty Respect Points!

Special thanks to G-Man for the sprite edit!

 This is my story: A year ago, Square announced they were making a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X and began releasing artwork of the cast. This news was immediately met with countless harsh skeptics, and I was certainly one of them. But having now spent the better part of my last ten days played Final Fantasy X-2 almost non-stop, I now have a whole new attitude towards the future of the Final Fantasy series and Square in general. FFX-2 is easily the best Final Fantasy game since FFVII. The battle system is great, the story is surprisingly deep, the villain is great, the ending is extremely satisfying, and Paine, the new party member, kicks tons of ass.

 What about the reasons behind my harsh skepticism? Well, there's still no question that Rikku's outfit is god-awful. I hate it. I had her change dress spheres as soon as was humanly possible. But Yuna's outfit doesn't really bother me at all. It comes across as being more adventerous (like Paine) instead of slutty (like Rikku or *shudder* Leblanc). That's definitely a good thing considering the fact that she's now an adventurous treasure hunter. Besides, Yuna's my favorite character from FFX. I shoulda known I could never stay mad at her. ^_^

 To my fellow skeptics: Ignore the heinous job Square's done at marketing the game. Play it. I was ready to completely abandon Square, but this game has gone a long, long way towards renewing my faith in the company that disappointed me so many times in the last five years. I was still somewhat disappointed that the only classic Final Fantasy theme to make it into this game was a few bars in the Chocobo theme, but I can let that slide, especially since it looks like it'll all be coming back in FFXII. For the first time in years, I'm now entirely looking forward to the next installment of the Final Fantasy series. Rock on, Square-Enix.

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