This review contains spoilers
I try to go into every game I play as 'blind' as possible with as little expectations as possible, but I couldn't in this case. What little I heard about this game was that it was essentially FFV with cute girls, and as I started up the game I was expecting the story to be bad (another thing I'd heard a lot) but also that the gameplay would be so good that I would love the game anyway - just like my experience with FFV. In the end, the game ended up subverting my expectations in several ways.
Firstly, I really enjoyed a lot of the story, and I liked the new direction they took Yuna and Spira in. Juxtaposing the end of FFX and the beginning of X-2 comes across as jarring and bizarre, but it's only to be expected. Rikku makes this point in Eternal Calm (an additional cutscene meant to take place between the two games). If Sin is gone, Rikku argues, why shouldn't Yuna change? And if she was ready to sacrifice her happiness and life to defeat Sin, why shouldn't she now do what she wants? Apply this to all of Spira and the new setting makes a lot of sense. I'd say the game does a great job of exploring the new Spira by revisiting the supporting characters from the previous game and seeing how they adapted to the world around them changing so fast. The game explores some great themes in a very on-the-nose way, but that doesn't bother me since subtlety isn't my forte! The main issue with the story for me is how much there is and in its pacing. It's nice to revisit all the places I visited in FFX in a new light, but there's simply not enough going on to sustain interest, especially since I had to visit every single location in every single chapter in order to get the full experience. As a FOMO player (like 99.9% of the JRPG players out there), the late game ended up feeling like a complete chore. This is especially sad as the latter half is where the payoff for all the little story arcs is - but by that point you're likely to not care so much because of a loss of momentum.
I have to say that the gameplay hooked me in very early on, and I spent much of the first chapter wondering where in my FF top 5 the game would end up. It was slick, it was stylish, it was fun. The outfits being jobs and the characters being able to switch jobs mid-battle with Sailormoon-esque transformation sequences was endearingly campy, and there seemed to be limitless possibilities and options! However, this game is much closer to FF3 than FF5/Tactics in the job mechanics in that there is little mixing and matching that you can do between jobs and skills. I realize this part is personal preference, but I really wish I could have made a warrior with the berserker's counterattacking ability, or a white mage with the dark knight's status immunities - this mixing and matching was what made FF5 and Tactics the Kings of the job-system Hill for me.
The above is a minor quibble, but the gameplay also stumbles due to being convoluted but very easy. There are plenty of jobs to play with, and a metric ton of garment grids with different abilities, but the storyline battles are so easy that you rarely have any incentive to explore them. It doesn't help that most garment grids require that you class-change in battle to unlock their full power, but most random battles are over in 1-2 turns anyway.
If I had to sum up the game's failings in a word, it would be 'bloat'. The sheer amount of content results in you being overleveled most of the time even without grinding, making all the cool jobs and abilities feel unnecessary - the gameplay and story bloat feed into each other resulting in a game experience that feels bloated as Sin (sorry, couldn't resist).
I know I will replay the game, as I do with anything with a job system. And I'm likely to give it a better score the second time round, as better familiarity with the content will mean I can pick and choose what I do and will trim a lot of the fat from the experience. But there's something tragic about a game that rewards experiencing everything it has to offer with bad pacing and a destroyed difficulty curve.
Firstly, I really enjoyed a lot of the story, and I liked the new direction they took Yuna and Spira in. Juxtaposing the end of FFX and the beginning of X-2 comes across as jarring and bizarre, but it's only to be expected. Rikku makes this point in Eternal Calm (an additional cutscene meant to take place between the two games). If Sin is gone, Rikku argues, why shouldn't Yuna change? And if she was ready to sacrifice her happiness and life to defeat Sin, why shouldn't she now do what she wants? Apply this to all of Spira and the new setting makes a lot of sense. I'd say the game does a great job of exploring the new Spira by revisiting the supporting characters from the previous game and seeing how they adapted to the world around them changing so fast. The game explores some great themes in a very on-the-nose way, but that doesn't bother me since subtlety isn't my forte! The main issue with the story for me is how much there is and in its pacing. It's nice to revisit all the places I visited in FFX in a new light, but there's simply not enough going on to sustain interest, especially since I had to visit every single location in every single chapter in order to get the full experience. As a FOMO player (like 99.9% of the JRPG players out there), the late game ended up feeling like a complete chore. This is especially sad as the latter half is where the payoff for all the little story arcs is - but by that point you're likely to not care so much because of a loss of momentum.
I have to say that the gameplay hooked me in very early on, and I spent much of the first chapter wondering where in my FF top 5 the game would end up. It was slick, it was stylish, it was fun. The outfits being jobs and the characters being able to switch jobs mid-battle with Sailormoon-esque transformation sequences was endearingly campy, and there seemed to be limitless possibilities and options! However, this game is much closer to FF3 than FF5/Tactics in the job mechanics in that there is little mixing and matching that you can do between jobs and skills. I realize this part is personal preference, but I really wish I could have made a warrior with the berserker's counterattacking ability, or a white mage with the dark knight's status immunities - this mixing and matching was what made FF5 and Tactics the Kings of the job-system Hill for me.
The above is a minor quibble, but the gameplay also stumbles due to being convoluted but very easy. There are plenty of jobs to play with, and a metric ton of garment grids with different abilities, but the storyline battles are so easy that you rarely have any incentive to explore them. It doesn't help that most garment grids require that you class-change in battle to unlock their full power, but most random battles are over in 1-2 turns anyway.
If I had to sum up the game's failings in a word, it would be 'bloat'. The sheer amount of content results in you being overleveled most of the time even without grinding, making all the cool jobs and abilities feel unnecessary - the gameplay and story bloat feed into each other resulting in a game experience that feels bloated as Sin (sorry, couldn't resist).
I know I will replay the game, as I do with anything with a job system. And I'm likely to give it a better score the second time round, as better familiarity with the content will mean I can pick and choose what I do and will trim a lot of the fat from the experience. But there's something tragic about a game that rewards experiencing everything it has to offer with bad pacing and a destroyed difficulty curve.