Final Fantasy X-2 (2004)

**Contains some spoilers for Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2**

I shouldn’t like this game. It’s girly, in your face, poppy and bright, everything I was not back then, and still am not now. But somehow, despite myself, this is one of my favourite Final Fantasies of all time.

I am a perennial tomboy. As a child, I shunned most “gender appropriate” toys and leaned into the complete opposite. A well meaning distant relative bought me a Barbie for a birthday once, and that poor girlie was tormented. I bit her feet, cut her hair and generally discarded her. Sorry Barb, nothing personal, but the idea of playing dress-up disgusted me. On the surface, Final Fantasy 10-2 seemed to have more in common with the likes of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura with the amount of outfit changes and its bright, poppy soundtrack. So why the hell would a game about “dress spheres” and changing into cute, powerful outfits appeal to me?

Well first of all it had “Final Fantasy” on it. By the time FF10-2 released, I had devoured 8 and 9, delved into 7 and dug into a PlayStation 1 port of 6. Having gotten into 10, the story and characters were still fresh in my head. Whilst not as memorable for me as some of the earlier instalments, I still enjoyed it (temple puzzled be damned). 10-2 came along as the first real Final Fantasy sequel. Despite being chronologically named, Final Fantasy games usually follow a self-contained plot with a self-contained set of characters - none of the main series games are direct sequels of one another. 10-2 was the first to do this as a sort of spin-off-sequel-not-quite-main-game. And who doesn’t like a “where are they now” follow-up?

Final Fantasy 10-2 picks up fairly closely to where 10 left off. We join now High Summoner Yuna and Rikku, and new character Paine on a rip roaring adventure through locations we know and love in Spira. Whilst hunting for treasure and spheres, the gang come across some old footage of a guy who looks like Yuna’s lost love, Tidus. They decide to investigate further, and follow a trail of evidence uncovering love, war and evil. As you do.

I was intrigued by the concept of Tidus possibly coming back to life, but Paine is honestly what really made me really look at this game. She was a cool, badass rocker chick, everything I wanted to be as a teenager. I mean, just look at her. This is absolutely the look that millennial teens who were obsessed with any form of guitar music were going for (sword included).

The start of the game felt like it reached out of the TV and slapped me in the face, demanding my attention. It begins on a stage in a futuristic arena with Yuna (maybe?) singing a song called “Real Emotion” while Rikki and Paine are kicking ass and taking names. I had been bitten by the Japanese pop bug following Hikaru Utada’s songs from Kingdom Hearts the year previous and this song at the very start of the game just blew me away. That’s it - 2 minutes in and I was hooked. Just listen and try not to have a little dance.

The three main female characters take on different roles in battle through “Dresspheres”. These are a fun take of the tried and tested job system mechanic, combining it with the Sphere grid from Final Fantasy 10. Job systems allow one character to take on multiple different roles, rather than having one character in one set role for the whole game. Rikku could become a Black Mage and throw Fire, mild-mannered Yuna could go wild as a Beserker and angsty rocker girl Paine could even don a dress and pump some feminine energy as a Songstress or Lady Luck.

Unlike other job-system games, it was also possible to switch roles within battle and the game rewarded you for doing so. If you switched enough times during one fight, you were granted access to each girl’s ultimate form. These were similar to summons in Final Fantasy 10; the other party members clear the battlefield and you’re left with one OP character dressed to kill. Rikku’s Machina Maw was one of my favourites, you can’t hate a giant robot bird, especially one as cute as Rikku’s. Through these encouraged switches, the game really leans into its magical girl inspirations. Each outfit change is accompanied by a theatrical, dramatic animation (this can be turned off as, like the FF7 summon animations, it can get tiring when it happens EVERY time, like come on just rinse this enemy already).

Despite being pretty girly, I really enjoyed seeing each character in their different costumes. Rather than just having each character lazily skinned with the same outfit, FFX-2 dresses each character individually for each job. There’s themes and similarities in their outfits, such as the Gunners all having a flowing side skirt, but each one feels like it embodies the girl wearing it. Yuna, Rikku and Paine all have their own personality and sass written into their characters, as well their clothes. Tetsu Tsukamoto, the alternate costume designer, has said he found it hard to design a lot of the costumes. Being the guy who usually designs the dark and evil monsters everyone fights against, I can see why it was hard for him to come up with bright, bold and fun costumes for girls. He did a great job though, and the designs really reflect the amount of work he put into them.

There were also plenty of cheeky little Easter eggs hidden in the dresspheres. Yuna’s Warrior form uses Tidus’ Brotherhood sword and she does the same victory animation as he did in Final Fantasy 10. Rikku’s Mascot form is Cait Sith from Final Fantasy 7, and there’s also a theory that 10 and 7 are in the same universe, thousands of years apart, connected by a little character in FF10-2 called “Shinra”… let that sink in.

At an average of 30 hours to complete the main story (and much less than that if you skipped the lengthy cutscenes) FF10-2 was made to be replayable. The game demanded multiple run throughs if you wanted to collect all the dresspheres, and uncover the “true” ending. I wouldn’t normally replay a Final Fantasy game just after completing it; the potential 100 hour time sink alone would make my brain melt. But 10-2 was bright and breezy, and easy to run through. I attempted plenty of New Game + runs, donning different dresspheres to master them, and different tactics. It almost feels like a rouge-like, if each run lasted 15 hours…

I’ve already talked about the J-Pop smash hit that is “Real Emotion”, but this game has depth! I’ll be honest, as I listen again in 2026, the whole soundtrack has a very early 00’s feel (I can’t explain it but IYKYK…). Aside from the usual beautiful orchestral Final Fantasy music, the combination of squeaky guitars, blooping synths, Yuna’s Songstress Ugg boots all seems to scream fun and games in Y2K to me.

Musically, it feels very different to a usual Final Fantasy game. This is probably largely because legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu stepped back and composing power-couple Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi smashed it out instead. The soundtrack wasn’t very well received, with some calling it “shallow” and “too bubbly”, but I honestly think a traditional Final Fantasy soundtrack would feel weird on this game. It would be like Robert Smith from the Cure doing a duet with Britney Spears. It could work, but in trying to appeal to too many different audiences, you’re probably going to miss the mark and disappoint everyone. As a teenager who had just discovered J-Pop, I bloody loved it.

This song will stab you right in the heart, rip it out and then kick it across the room. YRP hold an impromptu concert in the Thunder Plains (fuck you Thunder Plains) and Yuna sings this gorgeous ballad. Talk about real emotions. This was easily one of my favourite songs of my teenage years, I played the hell out of it and it definitely featured on my MySpace profile.

You end up listening to battle music A LOT in random encounter RPGs. These are the tunes that will worm their way into your brain and stay there. You might forget town music and “Main Character’s Theme” over time, but battle music is forever. The Final Fantasy X-2 battle music still has that early 2000’s feel about it. The YRP Battle Theme 2 is my favourite, it almost sounds a bit like drum & bass band Pendulum made it.

Although Final Fantasy X-2 was never going to be the best game in the franchise, it’s still up there as one of my retrospective favourites. I think it taught me that games don’t have to be heftily masculine to be fun and women main characters can kick ass without being too overtly sexualised (though some of those outfits… 😬). I’m still hooked on magical girls and J-Pop, so it must have done something right. Overall, it’s just FUN, showing that Final Fantasy isn’t always a boys game and it can let its hair down every once in a while.

Have you played Final Fantasy X-2, either in the 2000’s or more recently?

Final note: if you’re a Final Fantasy X or X-2 fan and love a little meme, do check out @OllieDreamer on all socials. His on-point costumes and Final Fantasy X comedy always have me chuckling.