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Square has always been good about changing things up among their games. None of them play the same way. There were always tweaks to the battle systems, different ways that summons play, and revamped leveling systems. There was perhaps no greater breakaway from the previous game as there was between Final Fantasy X and X-2.

Set a couple of years after the events of X, Spira is struggling to enjoy their permanent calm after Yuna and company defeated Sin. Now, the world is beginning to split up into factions. For whatever reason, Yuna still can’t get over the loss of Tidus (seriously, girl, get over it! It’s been years! Also, he wasn’t real.) She spent so much of her life doing things for other people, she can’t figure out what she wants. So she decides to join Rikku to become sphere hunters – people who track down video spheres in hopes of learning about Spira’s mysterious past.

Eventually, they discover one that features a man who looks awfully much like Tidus (but also is kind of clearly not actually him). And of course, totally unable to “get over it,” Yuna, along with her partners Rikku and Paine, set off to find out more, eventually learning about a terrible secret from the past that once again puts the world of Spira in peril.

The story of the game is lackluster. Most of it is side plot, featuring story lines that don’t make a difference to the overall narrative. In fact, you spend the majority of the game doing side missions that involve mini-games. It isn’t until about half way through the game that the main story begins to poke through and take priority. Even then, you spend the next chapter and a half touring Spira doing more side missions that have nothing to do with the main story. It’s actually hard to say if the story is good or not because it’s such a small part of the overall plot. There are all these strange little sub-plots and side missions that take precedence for the majority of it. As such, the game feels chopped up, with no rhythm or pacing to speak of.

These side missions range from chasing down other sphere hunters to running an obstacle course to pairing monkeys for mating purposes. Almost none of them add anything to the overall story, or really to the world as a whole. What’s worse is that many of these missions don’t have you fighting enemies. You could potentially do half a dozen missions and only fight in one or two of them. You will literally waste hours just for garment grids or dress spheres that you’ll probably never use. And of course, you won’t even level up your characters.

What’s strange is that while the story is a complete joke, the game play is incredibly fun and engaging. It’s almost the total opposite of its predecessor. X had an engaging story with solid characters, but stale and boring game play. X-2 has a terrible story with boring characters, but a fun and active game play system. The most disappointing elements of the game play is that you only ever get three party members and the “summons” are strange and uninteresting.

Unlike X which plays out in a purely turn-based chess style of battle, X-2 is faster and extremely active. The ATB is reintroduced, and you can attack enemies as soon as that bar fills. Additionally, you can sit on your move for a little while and wait until you see an enemy start to perform an attack. If you time it right, you can use your attack to actually delay the enemy for a moment. You can also wait until your characters are lined up, then have them all attack an enemy at the same time and build up chains.

There are only three party members, so none of the characters have any particular class skills or stats. Instead, they introduce “dress spheres.” Every character can fulfill any job role you want. As you battle in a particular class, you gain experience and ability points, which go toward learning specific skills. Although similarly to FFV, you can’t really combine skills – unless you equip garment grids with skills built in or accessory items. To make up for this, they allow swapping jobs on the fly in battle. It’s also a bit annoying that you can’t see how many ability points you earn. The end stat screen only shows gil and experience points, which makes your skill leveling seem to happen at random.

It was nice to get that FFV style of job systems back in, and being able to swap jobs mid-battle actually doesn’t make the combat much easier the way swapping characters mid-battle did in X. Not sure why they decided to over-sexualize the crew though.

Overall, it’s such a huge departure from its predecessor, it’s hard to imagine people liking it. Yet it seems to have been released to generally positive reviews. Admittedly, I don’t think I know anyone who legitimately likes the game. I think many people – especially fans of the franchise – are in the same boat that I am. That is that we can appreciate the change up of style. Yet it’s so misguided and seems to actively avoid the depth that made X a solid game, and they are almost disrespectful to the original game, its story, and its characters that it’s almost assuredly not what fans of X had hoped for.

But it’s also hard to ignore that the combat is infinitely more fun than X. If only they could combine the game play of X-2 with the story and characters of X…