Thread 3845163

Is it worth playing?

>>3845163 (OP)
it's a rare example of a "what happens to the world after the jrpg plot has ended" story. you might not like the change in tone but it's silly and fun.

>>3845163 (OP)
First half hour is torture, after that it's just a JRPG with a few good ideas.

>>3845163 (OP)

No. In fact it will ruin your experience of the original game by completely changing Spira and actively trying to rewrite X´s ending. The dynamic class system was an interesting spin on the combat mechanics though. That´s probably the game´s sole salving grace but it´s not really enough to merit anyone´s time.

>>3845163 (OP)
Having 100%ed this game about two or three times, Final Fantasy X-2 has a fair number of good things going for it. It's also a completely befuddling mess of a game that tries its damnedest to hide its best foot by putting its actually interesting ideas behind missable side content and instead having absolute nonsense as the focal point for a lot of the plot.

If you play it, I recommend using one of these to experience the good content:

https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=166376 (Long)
https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=166501 (Short)

Is it worth playing?

>>3845163 (OP)
You already know what the consensus is, why not try it for yourself and see if you agree?

>>3845163 (OP)
Downside > I loathed the story and most of the characters. I don't care about your rebel faction or whatever they were
Upside > The combat. The dress sphere (dynamic class system) is pretty darned cool and definitely my favorite part of the game. Its unironically one of the best combat systems amongst all the FF series
Also, if you're a complentionist then you have to play it on new game + as some things can only be acquired based on the faction you choose to support

>>3845163 (OP)
It's not a good followup to FFX, and it's generally inferior to FFX. However, judged purely on its own merits, it's still a decent JRPG.

>>3845163 (OP)
Its alright. Played it on release. Never hated it like everyone else but I think its because I had the strategy guide which was full of pictures and charts and broke the game down much easier to understand.

Keep in mind that X-2 does a weird thing where most of the big or late game enemies from X are little babies now while the generic palette swap enemies will push your shit in. Almost all of the coyote enemies have an instant death skill and start to come in packs of three around the middle of the game, for example. There's also the Coeurls that use an instant death (or HP to 1) skill every other turn.

>>3846032
Nah, that's the novel. X-2 is just kind of harmlessly retarded.

Yeah it's alright.

>>3845163 (OP)
Its a direct sequel but if you've played X then yeah its excellent. Its only real flaw is its 'we gotta sell strategy guides' mentality to its completion rate.

>>3846227
I thought the Mi'hen crusaders being so tragic in the first game then turning into basically a fascist youth movement in x-2 was smart

This is a weirdly gameplay foreward final fantasy game. We are begging for this kind of gameplay focus in modern era, this is the kind of game we need more of.

>>3845700
peak FF

>>3847188
The content with the Crimson Squad, New Yevon, and the Youth League is pretty well done, but so heavily underwritten. So much more could've been done there, but they're just shoved into the background most of the game. One of my favorite little reveals is that Seymour's motivation to destroy Spira probably in part was at least inspired by Kinoc. Kinoc tries to get Vegnagun, fails, tries to kill the Crimson Squad survivors, fails at that, then Baralai hides out with Seymour and tells him everything. This leads to Seymour's whole speech in X about how Kinoc was a schemer who kept vying for more power and his eventual murder of the guy.

>>3845163 (OP)
>by the time of X-2, Yuna is only just starting to learn Al Bhed
>Wakka, meanwhile, has become completely fluent
How does this happen?

>>3848425
Wakka has been chilling in Besaid with nothing to fill his time but getting fat and fucking Lulu. Yuna has been stuck in weird government/church pr bullshit. One clearly had a lot more free time.

This is the most Guide-Dang-It RPG in existence.
>Oops, you didn't talk this this minor NPC in the corner of the map in chapter 1
>That's -10% from completion
I've NEVER gotten into the Den of Woe.
Every playthrough I somehow miss a crimson sphere, because I do something out of sequence.
And I've played this like 10 times. So I'm confident when I say it's bad design.

Fuck Sphere Break.
Fuck the Calm Lands Promotional/Matchmaking.
Fuck the long-ass Cactuar Nation sidequest.
Fuck the Crimson Spheres.

did I forget anything?

>>3845163 (OP)
The gameplay is fun and the three actually have really good chemistry so they're entertaining.

>>3845209
I had a blast playing this years ago on PSP. I can't imagine it being as fun if you played it episodic

>>3850531
The Chocobo Dungeon where you have to catch four Chocobos, send them to four locations, fight ten battles, have them all come back, level them up, send them to four locations, fight ten battles, have them all come back, level them up, send them to four locations, fight ten battles, have them all come back, level them up, send them to four locations, fight ten battles, have them all come back, level them up, and then randomly the next time you enter Clasko's place, he'll open up a secret dungeon for you.

This game is really bad about wasting your time with dumb shit.

>>3851617
I swear, in the original, if you didn't talk to Clasko in ch1 off to the side of the screen on Mushroom Rock Road, you were locked out of this side quest entirely.

But playing the HD Remake, I missed him, but he's there at that dungeon in ch5. Idk.

Is the ff13 trilogy worth it? I'm considering buying it for the visuals alone but i wanna know if the other aspects of the game are alright.

>>3851660
Game is shit to play through but if you care about visuals then go PC all the way. Game looks beautiful on the PC and I'm talking about just the base version without any mods. With mods you can get some stunning visuals. Biggest issues with the PC ports however are they need patches and fixes. Mostly just XIII and XIII-2. Otherwise the games crashes and still crash even with the fixes. Its not "too" common of a crash but still annoying.

>>3851703
>Game is shit to play through
eh i can stomach bad gameplay, i had a blast with stuff like baten kaitos even though everyone says its dogshit

>>3851738
Baten Kaitos is actually good. Its just this site has a dedicated schizo who hates card games and any of the sort.

>>3851660
13 is actually a pretty engaging story. yes, it's linear, but it makes sense for the game to be. i think that as long as you go in with an open mind and engage it on what it IS rather than on what you think it "should be," you'll have a fine time with it.
but you have to engage with its systems. yes, you can slowly and easily win every fight but you should instead do your best to optimize and find ways to get the best 5 star score in each random encounter. yes, the story has a bunch of jargon in it, but if you do your best to learn the jargon, it's straightforward enough.
13-2 is also good, and then LR is just kind of crazy and weird.

>>3851660
How do these games run on steam deck? Do the mods people recommend work on there?

>>3851649
If I'm not mistaken, you have a second chance to talk to him in Chapter 2 and he'll run away instead of going onto your airship. I think it's only after that that you get perma-locked out of that quest.

>>3851703
PC version has the same awful hd remake issues as X

>>3852312
>remake
I don't think you know what that term means.

>>3845700
>random encounter
>Tonberry
>Tonberry is weak as shit and does no damage, only having high HP
>victory music
>random encounter
>three dogs
>dogs all immediately use Killer Fang before you get a turn
>Game Over

I wonder why this game went out of its way to make the main antagonist feel so inconsequential. Not only Shuyin barely showing up outside of optional cutscenes, but even the way Vegnagun is handled.

>Sin
>shown to have city destroying powers
>has a reputation of being borderline undefeatable by conventional means for 1000 years
>only able to be defeated by one method, which more or less immediately revives it
>can shed smaller monsters, mess with your memory, and use gravity magic strong enough to be seen from space

>Vegnagun
>was never deployed in combat because it was programmed with anxiety
>literally compared to a frightened child
>spends most of the game hiding in a hole
>capabilities are extremely undefined beyond having a big cannon and maybe the ability to revive/mind control the Aeons

>>3845163 (OP)
Depends if you want the "happy ending". It's a continuation of the original...

>>3845165
>>3847715
I did appreciate the new factions and exploring the power vacuum in Spira. The world building is incredibly lacking. I wish it was a sequel, but it's so clearly a rushed series of side quests. The main plot is an interesting one, that Sin was the horrific monster result of summoners at war, makes sense the tech uses would try to counter it.

Still, over all, it's only been 2 years and the world was just devastated by a major assault on the Al Bhed, Ronso and all the maesters are killed. The amount of people and happiness is a tonal shift for sure, but it hardly addresses the utterly depressing nature of the world prior. Its trying so hard to have the ending of FF10 lead to happiness, it kind of ignores how insane it is to be throwing parties all the time.

>>3855863
>throwing parties all the time.
All the faggy depressed incel losers suicided, now Spira is populated by chads. Happy festival fireworks, ya?

But really, it's a good message about not being a gay downer

>>3851738
>eh i can stomach bad gameplay
13 and 13-2 combat is practically automated for multiple hours.There Is bad and than there is ff13.

>>3855866
It's a pretty terrible message about fucking off and not actually rebuilding society. You can't just hang out at concerts and hot springs.

>>3855388
Yeah they did a really bad job on Vegnagun, I never had any feel for it beyond it being a crudely retconned macguffin.

>>3856561
It needed to be crude though. Cause if it worked they should have used it against Sin. Still, yea, it didn't feel as threatening, when it should have. The issue is, story takes time and the original FF10 was developed over years, the spent months on the story before moving forward, while FFX-2 move forward right away and had about 1 year.

>>3855388
>>3856561
Square Enix seems to do that a lot.

which is the bigger coomer game, X-2 or Lightning Returns?

>>3851660
i honestly enjoyed 13 for what it was, ive never been able to get into 13-2 though since the pc port is a tire fire that crashes as soon as i finish the tutorial

>>3857317
I don't know much about LR, but I doubt it has a massage mini-game or a hot springs cutscene.

Combat's fun, minigames story and characters are absolutely retarded
I remember the white haired guy (Baralai?) kicking my ass a lot

>>3857317
Lightning Returns isn't even remotely a coomer game. If it was then the series would at least been decent.

>>3845331
in addition to what this guy said
>the music is also cool
>the minigames sucked ass

>>3845163 (OP)
One thing that I remember about this game that there was a boss an ultima weapon in some kind of maze dungeon, that I never defeated, and I remember to make a lot of damage with the girl with the guns like 9999 for shot.
Someone defeated that bastard?

>>3860638
thats not even the hard boss at the bottom
after you kill him you are instantly thrown into a fight with some monk dude that kicks your ass

>>3856542
shut the fuck up you idiot, if a several decades long occult ritual came to an end youd be damned fucking sure people would be validated in spending a couple years traveling, crafting bonds with communities they were unable to contact, re-establishing traditions, fuckin celebrating. theyve literally got the rest of fuckin time to rebuilt hesu christo let people go to the fuckin Yuna concert god damn dont be an asshole

>>3860638
You 100% read some kind of guide online and now pretend you played the game because you dont just "remember to make alot of damage with the girl with the guns" because Catnip is fuckin ass to get for Gunner and requires a several hours long separate grind and isnt even reliable as a strat because you have to be in yellow HP to activate the 9999 damage output. Via Infinito is also visited and escaped in the main story before it becomes the "maze dungeon". it isnt the "only thing you remember about this game", you didnt play it

>>3845163 (OP)
I liked it.
The main plot thread is retarded, but everything else is actually quite decent.

>>3860638
Catnip strategy was funny to watch but really cheesed the game. The remaster, which was based off the Japanese only international version, sort of patched that method out and made it harder to set up but still worked, barely. Ironically it would add the Creature Creator which was even more broken than the catnip strategy if you spent a lot of time in it. Otherwise, was completely optional.

>>3860950
i remember having the game and seeing stuff about the International Version online- and some forums not specifying which version of the game they were about so itd just be completely random horseshit about an Arena mode i had no idea concept of - and things like the spheres for that one cave being called "Akagi Spheres" further throwing me off about what the fuck was actually in the game.

>>3860954
The international version was a re-release of the game with added content. Square Enix did this a lot back in the 2000's.

>Final Fantasy X International
>Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission
>Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System
>Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
>Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+
>Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix

All were re-releases with added content and bug fixes. Some even had extra story but the games would never be released outside Japan until the remasters came along. Only the EU got Final Fantasy X International because they waited like a year after X was released. The reason for all the re-release bullshit was because re-releases were pretty common in Japan as they'd buy the same game 6 or 7 times, as in 6 or 7 different re-releases and Square figured the west wouldn't bother to by these games again.

It was a real stupid time.

>>3860962
makes sense because even on /v/ i was aware of the releases and never thought anything about not seeing them available for purchase anywhere EU or NA- but by the time i gave a shit i was into emulation and still never questioned the reasons for the games.

i think the only thing ive ever personally touched tangentially is FFXII Zodiac when i played it 2 years ago

>>3845163 (OP)
Try to play it as a separate game, using FFX as it's IP.
With how serious FFX was, I'm glad this was much more random and ridiculous. Spoiler of true ending kind of made it feel like all the work in FFX meant nothing, but with the story being Sin comes back periodically, I guess it didn't mean much.
Some of the minigames are so tedious that I had friends help me grind them out.
Getting 100% completion in this without a guide was also fun, but I'd use a guide to play this game again.
It's all about preference though. Some will say bad, and like me, I like it and have played through 5 times 100% completion.

>>3860943
I played this game when came out 20 years ago, I don't remember a shit about story and characters, same for FF X and XII

What the fuck was with Wakka's voice shift? It's still Joe DiMaggio, but it feels like he's going for completely different inflections with Wakka now, to the point that half the time it feels like a soundalike is voicing him instead.

>>3851748
>i think that as long as you go in with an open mind and engage it on what it IS rather than on what you think it "should be,"
That doesn't help when I think what it IS, is really dumb

>>3855388
>and maybe the ability to revive/mind control the Aeons
That was Shuyin, he's filled with so much hate he can corrupt anything made of pyreflies (which is effectively anything not a living human or a robot)

I enjoy 10-2 for what it's trying to do. Tidus not coming back is the most is the best of the endings. It feels the most appropriate for Yuna's character, and I wish the additional supplemental material went with that route.
>>3857390
I never bothered modding 13, but 13 and 13-2 have a bug fix mod. 13-2 on PC was completely fine for me. Also being able to change the battle music to be the aggressive versions of the map themes instead of the standard battle tracks was nice for variety.

>>3861254
Lulu is giving him speaking lessons, she doesn't the child to speak like a retard as well

>>3860845
>strongest boss in the (original version of the) game is some random old man that's already dead
I wonder how strong Maechen is.

>>3861254
From what I remember in old interviews. The FFX dub cast was just winging it and didn't do many takes I think. A lot of them don't even remember how they did those voices so they all sound off when you hear them reprising their roles in recent media.

>>3860939
You're gonna need to build boats and airships to travel around. There are holes in everything you are saying.

>>3845163 (OP)
I love it, but there's a reason it's divisive

>>3860845
based trema

>>3862881
James Arnold Taylor has a lot to say about the way certain scenes were played in the JP version, so I'd assume that he put some level of research into his performance if nobody else did.

>>3864360
He was kind of an exception to the whole affair. The reason Tidus sounds like he does in english is because he was intentionally going for a Marty McFly (but not TOO much, JAT can actually do a really good Michael J Fox impression but then it would be too obvious) kind of thing. Which he did because of his interpretation of the character, which paraphrasing here but he said something like
>When Masakazu-san did the voice of Tidus, the character was very "cool" and confident and strong, but that's not how I read the character. That strength was a front, his confidence is a lie, he's actually very insecure under the skin

>>3864437
Main problem with that is that he's supposed to be a dominant pro athlete. He can be putting up a front but it really needs to be more than skin deep before you hit insecurity.

>>3864642
yeah i dont get the justification. Its not like the other characters should poke him about his hair and he gets mopey because "i read him as insecure", his entire connection to the world is his father and his father's efforts before him so its only natural story progression that he pretty quickly unravels into a near snotnosed crybaby about every element of his father but remains otherwise confident- because by all accounts in the gameplay hes stil la capable athlete and fighter

its like if Mark Hamill tried to justify playing Luke being untrustworthy and having daddy issues "because his father wasnt around" when thats retroactively putting stuff into the character because you as the actor knows the plot. which come to think of it is pretty much how Kylo Ren was actually written

>>3845163 (OP)

No. FFX best features were it´s world building and it´s story, specially the ending and X-2 shits on both. If you liked X you really should stay away from X-2.

That said, in order to be absolutely fair i´d say the dynamic job system had some potential but that´s it.

>>3864642
>>3864678
I should note that it is possible to be very strong and capable, and give off an air of confidence, but have it ultimately be a front that breaks down when your mental weakness comes into play.

>>3864716
X-2 has good ideas, but hides them behind side quests and leave them underdeveloped. It's weird.

>>3864716
>be me
>play 1-10 + tactics
>love 10, though recognized it marked the end of the series I loved l
>drop series and stop playing FFs
Feels good man.

>>3864716
Not everyone plays rpgs for story or cutscenes man

>>3851660
listening to old sbfp podcasts has also got me interested in playing these.
i need to know just how bad the ending is in context of the story as a whole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oB2ywJ-VLQ