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 - Final Fantasy XIIFF XII on PS2 format is challenging and fun, and you dont need 20 fingers to play it. Rating:  - A shining example of what happens when you throw together a game using a bunch of negative female stereotypes...Where to start? Sigh, just thinking about this game gets my blood boiling. I can't for the life of me understand why some people are giving this 5 stars. Well, first off, just let me say that I am female. It should be glaringly obvious that this game is targeted towards a female audience (or so Square-Enix may believe). Unfortuneately, I was sickened by this game. Well, let's start with something good. Graphics (10/10): Not bad at all. I'm not too picky about graphics and I can honestly say that these are pretty good. Bright, shiny, nice for a PS2 game. Music (4/10): Honestly, this is a matter of opinion, but I didn't like the mix of jazz, techno and pop that made up this soundtrack. The final fantasy series is known for its beautiful classical-style music, and this game is a huge departure from that. The airship music made me want to turn off the sound and put a previous game's soundtrack into my cd player. The only song I really liked was "A Thousand Words". Characters (0/10): This section may even deserve a negative rating. It's like Square-Enix decided to make a game just for the women out there-except they chose the top 10% of the female populous that were the most stupid, shallow, and air-headed people they could find for advice on what to put in this game. This game gives real women a bad image. Yuna, a mature, intelligent character I love from FF10, has been kidnapped and replaced with a body double who has the intellect of a card-board box covered in glitter. I mourned the loss of the real Yuna. FF10 Yuna grappled with such deep and complex issues as self-sacrifice and questioning her faith, FF10-2 Yuna likes playing dress-up and uses words like "dissasteriffic". Honestly, the other two characters are no better; they are just as shallow and stupid. I was actually excited about the all-female cast, I was expecting the intelligence-level of the female characters from FF10--not to be found here. Story (1/10): Wow. This story is vapid. It starts out promisingly enough-Yuna views a sphere of someone who looks like Tidus, and sets out to find out if the impossible task of ressurecting him can be accomplished. The rest of the story falls apart from there. The vast majority of this "story" is made up of mini-games and side-quests. Now, I like sidquests and mini-games as much as the next person, but there's a reason they have the words "side" and "mini" in them. They are supposed to take a back-burner to the main story. In this game, it's the other way around: the main game is composed of one dull, uninteresting sidequest/mini-game after another, while the main storyline takes forever to emerge/develop. By the time the main story finally got around to being focused on, I no longer cared. Battle System (6/10): I had no real qualms with the actual battle mechanic. The system is a variation of turn based that is rather fast -- battles move quickly and your characters move around the field, helping you break out of the "let's all line up and attack" feel of previous games (which I actually didn't mind at all). I must say that the Dress-sphere system itself is actually a rehashed version of the Job system from FFV. Except in FFV it felt serious and mature-here it feels like you're playing Barbie dress-up. Also, unlike FFV, you usually need to switch outfits in mid-battle, which slows battle down in an irritating fashion. Another complaint that brings down the score in this section is the irritating phrases of your characters in battle. Just listening to Rikku sqeal out another irritating inane phrase makes me cringe. Gameplay (0/10): If the rest of my review isn't enough for you, here's the final nail in the coffin. I was excited when I heard this game would be non-linear. I thought it would be like Chrono Cross, where there was a story that you moved through, but certain key decisions (i.e. choose to rescue a character vs. not doing so) made along the way would affect future plot points. Not so here, it is a mission based system with almost no direction. The only real effect skipping half the inane crap does is to keep you from getting the perfect ending. Things as small and pointless as forgetting to talk to one random NPC in chapter 2 could make you miss 1/2 a point which would prevent you from getting that perfect ending. The effect of this is that you must follow a guide to the nearest letter, thus ruining any feeling of "non-linearity". Oh, and all those "fun" sidequests you'll be doing aren't fun at all. Overall score (1/10)- *NOTE that this is not an average, it's my subjective feel of what this game deserves. As for whether you should rent or buy this, I suggest neither. In fact, if you're a fan of the original FF10, I suggest you forget this game ever happened. Rating:  - the storyline can feel a little nebulous and disjointed FFX-2's free-form approach to game progression is novel, but it lacks the singular narrative thrust of FFX or other typical RPGs, and the storyline can feel a little nebulous and disjointed as a result. Consequently, you'll feel compelled to visit every area in every chapter in order to get a firm handle on the game's plot. Jody Bissoon Rating: - FantasticI had heard that this was "A Chick's Final Fantasy" and I was a little more than turned off at first by the way people described it too me, what with the basic concept being to collect different outfits and stuff. But I was drawn in by my pretty much impossible goal of getting every Final Fantasy game out there, I got this one fairly cheap. It was shipped super fast, in near perfect condition, it doesn't skip or anything. I agree, it has more of an appeal to females, however, there are some fan service areas that might make men consider buying it. Such as a hot spring scene, and a rather up played back massage scene and skimpy outfits. Game play is very familiar basically, except there's no summoning for your party, you only control three characters, and you can change outfits mid-battle to change abilities. Even though some parts are disappointing, I would still recommend this game for hardcore fans, and sometimes even a few laughs ^^. Rating:  - Trying to be fair...Compared to FFX, X-2 is a bit short, childish and sort of pointless. But I wouldn't say X-2 is simply a piece of junk. It does contain some new and interesting elements. People usually like things that they are familiar with and reject things they are not. I think that's why people are yelling that X-2 is such a letdown. Because people are so used to the system of X which is such a perfect game and don't really want to adjust themselves to fit in the new system. I hated ATB when I first picked up this game and decided to give up. But after a couple of hours play it turned out kind of fun. The battle system requires you to design a good "first step" dressphere grid and choose different jobs for each character to defeat different enemies with different attributes. Speaking of the downside of the game, there are quite a few. Most of the music is annoying, especially the one when you are on the ship. Except the beginning theme (where you choose "New game" and "Load game") which reminds me typical FF series, the rest is either childish or boring. The graphic isn't bad in terms of color and overview. But much details are missing from X, like real-time facial expression. The faces in X-2 are just so fake. These things make the game a little cheap. X-2 is not as good as X, but that's all because X is such a perfect game. X-2 still has something interesting for FF fans to explore.
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