I am not going to get into a re-review of the ffx by looking at pacing, combat or storyline since those things have already been review back during the games release in 2001. Having the US version or Int. version changes those aspects very little. Instead what this review will look at is the supposed improvements that have been made to the game.
Let us start with the most noticeable change which is the remodeled characters. For this i will address each character individually.
Tidus: While the clothes and body shape are done superbly, his face looks lifeless and bleached, the color of his eyes is particularly distracting; once you notice that they are the color of crystal clear water, with a hint of sparkle and eye liner everywhere, you can't help but dust off your FFX (PS2) cd and look back at the original character model. The following is an imagine of how Tidus in the original FFX (PS2) was modeled in the CG scenes, his eyes are a shape of blue but not this vibrant clear water shape which is proving quite distracting.
Yuna: The character model that plagues me the most, like Tidus; the clothes and body shape are done superbly however, in various cut scene's (NOT CG); her face looks ugly and wrinkled at times. In particular because her scenes are always from a side shot with her turning her head toward the camera in a sense. The pupils in the eyes give off the impression of having a snake like shape. One eye is too green, the other is too blue, creating an awkward contrast between them. Whereas when the original ffx came out, there were a lot of discussions in regards to if she had two different colored eyes. Now, onto the worst part about this character's model, the eye balls look as if they will launch out of their sockets at any time!
Wakka: Incredibly well done model, in the original he felt stretched and on the chubby side having very little detail in his clothing or design since his weapon of choice is a ball. From his gear to his body shape, to his necklace, his hair, eyes, everything is vibrant and alive making the character come alive and look natural.
Lulu: Same as wakka, truly feels like lulu :)
Kimahri: BEAST! OMFG HE IS A BAD ASS!! =D
Rikku pre joining party: Upscaled, not redone, looks like a waste, makes for akward character interaction with tidus
Rikki post joining party: Have no reached that part in story yet.
Seymour: Well done, hair looks awkward but overall well done model.
Everyone else: Now i would have expected at least a few of the important secondary characters such as Luzzu and Gatta or at least the other two maester of Yevon to be redone, they haven't. The character models look flat (the faces in particular were flattened on a lot of side characters), lifeless and make for weird interactions with the higher quality models.
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Moving on to Audio. I don't even notice the difference between the original sound track and the remastered sound track, at the same time i don't care enough to listen to both and find those differences, the game sounds the same as the original from what i can remember.
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Moving on to Menus. Simply gorgeous!
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Moving on to Miscellaneous. There are two choices for the sphere grid, the standard and expert. I started the game with the expert grid giving me a lot of freedom and variety in how i am developing my characters as well as making a lot of abilities available a lot earlier than on the standard grid. I don't deduct any points for this, this is merely my opinion but the expert grid makes the game a bit too easy because too much is available to quickly and detracts from each characters unique identity. This isn't like FFX where every character is every role, in the long run you can do so but in this game each character has their own unique path, traits, identity which was established. Yuna is a white mage, Lulu is a Black mage, Rikku is our Thief, Kimahri is our. . idk lol :) Having said that, i ended up starting over with the standard grid because it felt right for me, but this is completely up to the player and isn't a detriment to the game, in fact simply having the option to choose which grid is a positive.
On another note, various new skills have been added which make game play a breeze, example of this are ability extract which makes mobs drop ability spheres easily instead of making you grind for them in Besaid before leaving for Kilika or on the Mi'hem Highroad. I am unsure how i feel about these new skills since they don't improve the quality of the game but in fact feel as if they remove an aspect of the game i found challenging in the past.
This is not part of the review but i felt important to mention the Official Brady strategy guide that can be purchased with this game is utterly abysmal. I would have been happy had they take the orignal guide and fixed some of the few issues however, they made a completely new guide which has piss poor maps that don't show all item locations or Al Bhed Primers on the map. There is a variety of content missing as well such as the different Overdrive Modes, what they are used for, how they are obtained, etc. Along with a vast variety of inaccurate information such the Key Techniques required for Tidus. For anyone having played the original, that has the new guide. They will instantly recognize one of these mistakes and while in FFX making those mistakes is forgivable since most of everything can be obtained at any point in time in the game. FFX-2 is less forgiving and these mistakes will prevent a new player from getting 100% in their first run through.
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Overall, the game is as fun this time around as it was back in the day. However having played the PS2 version, the emulated version and now the remaster, I cannot help but feel that some parts look utterly beautiful while others were redone in an abysmal matter making the game look beautiful and horrendous at the same time. The main thing that makes this game better than the emulated version on the PC is the new GUI. I do wish some cut scenes were skippable but that is a minor point. However while being happy to be able to replay the original, i cannot overlook the shoddy job done in remastering huge aspects of this game, perhaps this is due to the fact that the game was outsourced and not done by Square, who knows. 7/10
This score does NOT reflect story, pacing, combat, etc. Only the remastered aspects of the game!