i offer no apologies whatsoever for the final fantasy-related geek content of this entry. and to those who are interested in final fantasy but haven’t played FFX-2 yet, please look away, as this entry contains spoilers.

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as i’ve mentioned previously, the weekend is the time for me to get some r ‘n’ r. kicking butt. done it. okay, it wasn’t a case of sekali ketis, more like 5-6 kali ketis, berterabur tulang rusuk dia. well, at level 82 whaddaya expect? hehehe. ya, sayalah orangnya.

Y-R-P!

as with my previous experiences in playing FF, it feels sad finishing this game. for this i totalled about 86-ish hours of gameplay (i spent 124 hours on FFX), long because of all the levelling up of the characters and chasing around beasties around the globe in search of items that increase the character’s attributes. where was i again? yes, sad because after all the hours spent on the console, you kinda get to know the characters (like reading a well-loved tale). furthermore, FF games are of the role-playing variety (RPG). therefore, developing the characters as you go along the storyline kinda makes it a little personal experience for the gamer.

FFX-2 follows after FFX, in which yuna, the protagonist, is trying to search for further evidence that her long-lost love is still around somewhere. together with a charlie’s angels kinda posse called the gullwings, made up of rikku, an FFX veteran (ok, she’s like… err, 17) who’s a thief and looks like a cross between amy mastura and christina aguilera, and paine, a mysterious leatherclad she-warrior with the biggest sword known to (wo)man. the gameplay is slightly different from FFX in which the three character can virtually change attributes by changing their… err, costumes. it took me a while to get used to the idea of playing some kind of barbie RPG. malibu yuna now turns into… you know the drill. as usual, i got addicted and started playing soon after finishing FFVII a couple of months ago. the story’s ok lah. the gameplay is pretty good as it’s not as linear as FFX. however, there is a little catch. certain tasks are needed to be performed and if you follow the walkthrough (yup, i used one… kiasu!) religiously, you’d get a 100% completion rate and you’d get to see the perfect ending after the credits roll. the usual creatures unique to the FF universe are around again, namely the chocobos, tonberries (mental!) and cactuars (lagi mental!). and as a grand finale, you kick some really biiiiiig monster’s behind. just another day playing FF.

i finished at 96%, and got to see the better ending (there’s also a mediocre good ending) and suffice to say, yuna got her beau back and all’s well. in japan, they have a newer version of the game called FFX-2: international+last mission, where the gullwings have one last job to sort out before calling it a day. alas, it’s not available in these shores. i’m not sure about malaysia, but i’m sure uncle low yat has some in store.

the game’s directed by motomo turiyama and produced by yoshinori kitase, who also produced FFX and directed both FFVII and VIII. the music this time was not handled by nobuo uematsu but by noriko matsuda and takahito eguchi, which had a more bouncy, pop-ish feel. character design is again done by tetsuya nomura and concept art by yoshitaka amano (check this bizarre pre-orgy-esque piece out!).

They'll get a room. I promise.

there shouldn’t be an FFX-3 as i feel they’ve stretched this as far as they could. sequel-wise, i look forward to the release of final fantasy VII: advent children, whenever that’ll be, and the new FFVII spin-off, dirge of cerberus, on the ps2.

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picture credits: final fantasy insider and ffshrine.org, with thanks.

for another of my FF ramblings, read about it here.