Not the best of FF, but the gameplay makes it interesting.
The game allows the player to control 3 different characters, including a Yuna who has shed her looks as a decent summoner and taken the form of a vibrant sphere hunter. The story in FFX-2 takes place 2 years after the events in FFX. There does not seem to be a direct link to the previous story, but there are dialogues and memory flashbacks that allow players to link FFX and FFX-2 together. This game can pretty much stand on its own. The player do not have to know every single bit about FFX in order to play this game. The main storyline is pretty common and nothing out of the ordinary.
With a breathtaking FMV as the opening scene of this game, and being thrown into battle as soon as the player gains control of the game, any player will be caught in this engaging battle system and superb graphics this game has to offer. Since FFX-2 can be said to be based from the FFX engine, the graphics are not much improved from FFX. However, character movements turns out to be much smoother than in FFX. Lip synchronisation in the Japanese version is done fairly accurately, which is a marked improvement from the previous FFX, which was the first to have voice-overs.
There is a main storyline for the player to follow, that is, by visiting all the "HotSpots" on the map. Visitng other places without the "HotSpots" indication can trigger special scenes and short stories in between. By visiting all the places at least once in each chapter, there is a wider storyline for the player to follow. That is, the player can choose to complete this game quickly or at a slow pace. With an airship for the player to maneuveur since the beginning of the game, every bit of Spira is explorable at almost anytime you want to. Completing sidequests and playing mini-games at anytime the player prefers is definitely a great addition to this title.
The player can choose between Active Mode or Wait Mode as the battle system in this game. There is a new "Chain" feature in this battling system, in which performing simultaneous attacks on the opponent before it regains its normal posture can result in higher attack points done on the enemy. Choosing the attack time becomes crucial in making effective chains. Besides a new battle system, this game also features a whole new Dressphere system. The characters can equip any type of Dressphere and learn new abilities as the given job specified as the Dressphere. For example, equiping a Warrior Dressphere allow you to learn abilities a warrior can learn. With this new feature, there will be a missing feature present in previous FFs. That is, the player will not be able to buy any weapons as there is no specified job for any character. Purchasing of accesories to increase the attack/defence points will still be available.
Music this time round is not composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who had done FFX's, the somewhat familiar chocobo theme is remixed in a hip-hop style, with the basic chords, but, overall, it's still significantly different, it is re-arranged by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. These composers have done music for The Bouncer and has done an equally good job on FFX-2. FF music is still in good hands although Nobuo is not present.
This game allows the player to select different options to follow different paths of the storyline. Different scenes and endings can be triggered with different selections of options as the game progresses. The new percentage system plays a part as to what the ending will be too. A New Game Plus feature allows the player to accumulate the percentage points from the previous play-throughs and collect the missing percentage points by doing things that was missed previously. Attaining a perfect percentage of 100% will trigger another ending.
This game does not have an intriguing storyline, but the music, graphics and gameplay make up for it.