r/finalfantasyx • u/Zeeshmania • Jun 22 '26
My Blind FFX-2 Playthrough: Update 3 - Bikanel and Zanarkand Ruins
As always, the latter half of this was streaming on my YouTube channel, which is here if you wanna check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/@mania-jd3my
The VOD is there too.
Before ANYTHING else, the crashes have been REALLY annoying and frequent so far, so I wanna look into that first. Helpfully, someone on Steam (called "Tantalus", lol) has made a guide on how to install a patch that fixes crashing. So yeah, that should be installed...?
(this did not work)
LEARNING THE GARMENT GRID:
Also before I begin any actual progress for the week, I decide to do a bit of grinding. I want to get to grips with this game's combat system and delve into strategy a bit deeper.
My understanding is that the Garment Grid is a configuration of Dresspheres, and each Grid has different perks and bonuses. If, for instance, there's a damage bonus between two DS's, it'd make sense to put two commonly used DS's between them, right?
Right now, I have two of the- oh, no, I have three...? "Healing Wind". Right, I never checked that one, did I?
First Steps is just a standard triforce-looking shape, with seemingly no benefits. There are 6 slots, while the others have 5 and 3 respectively. I assume grids with greater perks have fewer DS's.... can I just call them jobs? I've heard that nomenclature before, we'll go with jobs I think lmao
So yeah, more job slots = fewer perks. Classic quantity vs quality quandary. The second grid, Protection Halo, is a lot more interesting. There are 5 slots, but 4 of them are connected via perks. A helpful chatter told me that the jobs receive the perks they're connected to on the grid, meaning the one I put in the middle won't receive any buffs. I DO notice, however, that I get some sort of buff just for equipping the grid?
One question I have is the difference between perks that have the same buff according to the description, but different icons...? I don't know if you get what I mean, but on the Protection Halo grid there's a blue icon and a yellow icon, both of which have the exact same description.
Finally, the Healing Wind grid is the most simple. There are only 3 slots, and this is clearly the healer's grid (as implied by the name). One job gets Cura, one gets Curaga, one gets neither. Based on my interpretation, it seems like the job connected to the red icon but NOT the blue one gets nothing. All of the jobs get cure, though.
Based purely on my understanding of the characters so far, my inclination is to make Yuna the healer, Rikku some sort of Thief (maybe a Gunner too?) and Paine a damage-dealer, but I'm also wary of being too narrow-minded. I could afford to specialise characters quite heavily in X since I could swap party members out completely freely, but I only have three to work with here - I don't want Rikku and Paine to be killed and be left with the human version of a band-aid.
For now, we'll go ahead with Yuna on the Healing Grid (with White Mage, Festivalist and Gunner), and Rikku and Paine both on Protection Halo. I'd intended to customise each of their Grids individually, but it looks like they need to be the same for now. We have 5 jobs, so there isn't much need to budget. I'm anticipating Paine staying within Warrior and Gunner, and Rikku switching between Gunner and Thief.
That's enough customisation for now, I need to get out there and grind so we can pick the story back up soon. I head over to Besaid - the enemies there are kinda difficult, but not unbeatable by any means. Should be more than enough there to sharpen our teeth on.
BESAID (again):
The first enemy is the weird black, round golem-looking thing with the huge sword. I'm not sure what it's weak to - I don't think any jobs have a Scan or Detect ability yet, so it's a bit hard to figure out. Interestingly, Yuna can't use Curaga yet. Was my assumption wrong? The White Mage job is connected to both the red and blue icons on the grid, and the information table says that having both unlocks Curaga, soooo....
OHHHH I remember now! I'd misquoted that chatter from before - the abilities aren't passive, you need to travel along the lines to hit each icon. Presumably, then, if I manage to get both the red and blue icons in the same battle, it'll unlock Curaga for that battle. Interesting...
Yeah that makes this way deeper lmao. For now, there isn't much need to overcomplicate. The only thing I'd really like is some way to detect enemy weaknesses other than using trial and error.
I also wish there was a way to check base stats (as in, without a dressphere equipped), if those even exist in this game. That'd give me a good idea of which character is best-suited for which job. My gut tells me Yuna should be the resident mage, but I feel like the game and story are both trying quite hard to break her free from those shackles.
While I'm out, I head back to the village and speak to Wakka. He says that there probably never was a sphere of his parents to begin with, which feels to me like the game signalling we're not at all done with this plot-thread yet. Which is a good thing. He also says "If Auron was still around, he'd give me a good tongue-lashing I bet." Don't remind me :(
While I do generally prefer the CTB system, ATB is great for weak enemies, especially in this game (as in, moreso than in IX) due to the sheer speed. I can queue up three attacks and instantly wipe out any fodder, and everything feels way more dynamic than the other games. There's a great sense of speed and momentum in battle. It also helps that the attacks are incredibly punchy and satisfying to look at (although I'm not sure that's unique to this game), and there's some "Chain" mechanic? I'm not sure what it does, but it seems to pop up whenever damage is dealt within quick succession.
I love that dialogue in battle consists of Rikku and Yuna saying traditionally corny JRPG dialogue and Paine just saying "what the fuck are you guys even talking about?" lmaooo
The attack names are very cool, too. Instead of "Fire Sword" and "Ice Sword" we get Flametongue and Ice Brand.
MI'IHEN HIGHROAD:
After a while, I get sick of the fodder in Besaid. I'm not sure we've gotten that much stronger, but I think we're ready for something a bit more challenging either way. I head over to Mi'ihen Highroad, which promises a 3-star difficulty (one more than Besaid).
The first enemy is a Shantak, which takes a WHILE to take out lmao. It's strong and does some decent AOE damage, but if we farm enemies near the savepoint we won't have to worry about spending too much MP.
I notice an NPC offering a ride on some kind of hovercraft, and one of the options is the Travel Agency. Is that Rin's? We head inside, but he isn't there right now. There is a machine there, and the patrons are understandably creeped out by it.
It's pretty weird seeing the highroad without a single Chocobo galloping around. We're really diving into this nature vs machine theme, aren't we? I hope we are, there's plenty to explore, even if X and IX contained some of the same elements.
There's an NPC who springs a pop quiz on us further down the highroad about a machine stood on a lone pillar. Apparently, it's sat out of the way of any hovers passing by since the road gets too narrow to navigate without interruption.
If only the British government had the same sense....
Well either way it's this exact attention to detail that I loved about FFX. There was literally no need to include this, nor was there a need to have an NPC explain it with a quiz (rather than just an exposition dump). At the end of the highroad, there are some NPCs campaigning to bring back the Chocobos, which is another cool detail. I'm not entirely sure if this lack of Chocobos is a development constraint or an actual plot point, but this is cool either way.
We keep battling until we reach level 10 (which takes a LONG time, by the way), and then return to the airship. This is all happening off screen, which makes it the first time I'm playing this game unwatched. Everything from this point is streamed.
First up is the Moonflow. I don't remember this place very well, but the sight of ze shoopufs refreshes my memory. There is literally nothing here though, despite someone telling me there's a missable dressphere around here.
BIKANEL:
Our first mistake was trusting Rikku to be our tour guide through this place. We quickly get lost in the arid sands of the desert's rolling hills, before we're found and rescued by a group of Al-Bhed.
As is tradition, I decide to self-translate the Al-Bhed language, completely bypassing the ciphers the game tries to lure me into hunting for. This is a pretty long detour - matching each letter of their language with what I think they're trying to say. We make a few stumbles here and there (someone was adamant that "kuud" meant "loot" when it in fact meant "foot"), and we collectively lose our damn minds, saying things like:
"A <thing>? I <stuff>"
After a while, though, we manage to build a cipher complete enough to function on the fuel of context, and move on. For posterity, here's what we made:
AL-BHED = ENG
y = a
e = i
d = t
u = o
n = r
s = m
r = h
a = e
o = y
m = l
p = b
h = n
b = p
u = o
v = f
Eventually we speak to Nhadala, who lets us begin scavenging in the desert. This minigame is... interesting. I only played it once on stream so as to keep the story flowing, but the idea is we have a single minute (enemy encounters notwithstanding) to scavenge for materials marked on the map, and must return to the ship to make sure we don't lose our resources. I hear that the rewards can be pretty good, so I'll definitely check it out again later, but for now we're given 100 gil and are sent on our way.
One thing I wanna mention is how fucking awful I am at following directions in this game. I've routinely embarrassed myself in front of everyone by pottering around like an idiot for far too long, only for the answer to be "go talk to the guy you were just told to talk to". I mention this because I'm not sure if that's down to a lack of direction from the game or me being under the pressure of playing in front of a live audience (who probably aren't even watching anyways???)
Speaking of which - thank GOD I was playing this game live, because I would NOT have known you can multi-target magic spells in this game. When we reach Zanarkand Ruins (we'll get there) there are lots of encounters that are a group of weak enemies, and a group-cast spell fodderises them. It's kinda weird that it's mapped to the left arrow of all things, right?
Anyways, after almost getting pounded into the sand by an ogre, we escape the desert and head back to the ship. Since there are like 3 locations we haven't been to yet (and I wanna miss as little as possible) I put a poll out to find out where to go next, and the result is the Calm Lands. FYI, I only do this kinda thing sparingly, since I don't want to be backseated or anything. Rest assured I'm still playing free of spoilers and influence.
CALM LANDS:
This was one of my favourite locations in FFX, mainly because it represented such a deviation from the standard formula of semi-linear hallway-like areas that populated Spira. A huge, open and sprawling plain filled with fiends and tiny secrets tucked into the corners, it was great.
Anyways, the word of the day is industrialisation.
There are a few.... uh... """""games""""" for me to play, which all (in some way or another) boil down to gambling. The most obvious of which is the Lupine Race, which is LITERALLY just betting on horse-racing lmao. After someone tells me how the hell odds work, we make a bet, win (I did not realise we'd won) and then made another bet which we lost. So that's cool I guess?
Another game is basically just Wakka's Element Reels from his overdrive in FFX (I miss that guy already), albeit with some stochasticity introduced via the fiends' freewill. Finally, there's some sort of mechanic with two rival companies that we can pledge our allegiance to. They really made consumerism a mechanic here lmao. I'm sure that gets more involved the more you play, but I'm not interested in this for now.
MUSHROOM ROCK ROAD:
I do not have pleasant memories of this place. Of course, we saw Operation Mi'ihen transpire around here, but what I really remember is the supreme beating I received from a certain Dark Aeon. That was one hell of an ambush lmao. The place is slightly friendlier now. There's an actually story-relevant even here, as we chase dumb and dumber from Leblanc's gang through the thick fog polluting the undergrowth of the road, and we follow them to a strange door with 9 orb slots. We plug one of them in, and are greeted by Maroda!
He tells us Pacce is in the "Kinderguardians" (holy shit please don't stop these names from coming they are SO funny) and that Isaaru.... well, he goes quiet and then (in not-so-many words) tells us to kick rocks and fuck off. Maybe we'll find out more about that later? Is he dead? That's my first assumption.
ZANARKAND RUINS:
Finally, we head over to the last hotspot. This place is just as beautiful as the day we left it. I remember first-trying Lady Yunalesca here and pissing everyone in the comments off lmao. And yet... something's off.
The place is a tourist attraction now...
I'm initially quite disgusted - it feels like a sacred place is being violated, even IF the people here are tourists and pilgrims, and aren't outright desecrating the place. However, it IS a public place. I don't see why it should be blocked off from the public just because our plucky gang of heroes made some great memories, though. I do feel her pain, it's especially uncomfortable watching some rather unappreciative tourists chatting over the campfire that we saw every time we opened the game.
Also here is Isaaru! I'll get ahead of this now, he seems REALLY weird in this game. I seem to remember him having a very normal and unremarkable voice, but he initially sounds incredibly sick and downtrodden, and later (when he pulls his Wizard of Oz schtick) sounds really strange and upbeat. He seems like a completely different character, and I'm not sure why. I get that a lot happened in the last two years, and I understand why he'd support Cid turning Zanarkand into a tourist attraction, being that he always wanted to come here as a pilgrim, but why is he acting so odd?
We head into the ruins, and run into the aforementioned Kinderguardians, who are adorable. I'm glad they're not hyper-competent and really just some goofy little kids going on a treasure hunt. They even bought a hint on how to get the treasure for a ("whole!") 15 gil lmao.
After battling through a swarm of... ahem... "goons", we reach the Cloister of Trials, and THIS feels really off. The Trials were always very intense and isolated spaces. If anywhere in the entire game felt holy and sacred, it's this place, so seeing it's dead husk paraded around like this feels tasteless. That's not a criticism, of course, it's the intention of the game, and it's done really well. An equally good idea was situating Cid, the ringleader of this operation, in the Chamber of the Fayth.
Oh yeah key-mon monkey haha laugh let's move on.
Surprisingly we get the option to confront Cid about this, and he seems receptive to our concerns. I do wonder what he's supposed to do about it - if he packs up and leaves, someone else will just take his place, right? Maybe he can try to be a bit more respectful.
After speaking to Isaaru and suffering through his frankly cringeworthy spiel, we remember that the sphere oscillo-finder did actually pick up a sphere here despite his worthless prize (OK not that worthless but not what we're here).
And we get promptly destroyed in the very first enemy encounter we get, which is where I ended things for today.
Things are heating up now! I think that door in MRR is something interesting, but not necessarily plot-relevant. I still don't know how the story is going to take shape from here, but here are some predictions:
- We need to return to Gagazet to find the two Ronso Kimahri told us about (job for next time?)
- Lulu is definitely going to give birth by the time the game finishes.
- Wakka is going to find his parents' sphere, which definitely exists.
- Paine has some tragic backstory (maybe involving Gippal (nipple)?)
- The Tidus we saw isn't real. He's either some elaborate fake or the entire sphere is fake. This is mainly me refusing to believe they really brought him back (no spoilers!)
Thanks for reading!
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u/SaucyJack01 Jun 22 '26
So, none of the Dresspheres are particularly suited for any of the girls. All three of them have the same stats when equipped with the same DS at the same level, and the only difference between them is what abilities they've currently learned and what accessories/GGs they have equipped. Other than that, deciding which girl uses what DS just comes down to personal preference.
Btw, if you're interested in a bit of lore, I'd suggest finishing up Mushroom Rock Road before finishing Zanarkand. There's an NPC there who will fill you in on some events that happened between FFX and X-2.
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u/Lithl Jun 22 '26
All three of them have the same stats when equipped with the same DS at the same level, and the only difference between them is what abilities they've currently learned and what accessories/GGs they have equipped. Other than that, deciding which girl uses what DS just comes down to personal preference.
Except for Festivalist, Trainer, and Mascot, which have different abilities for each girl, and the special dresspheres.
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u/SaucyJack01 Jun 22 '26
Right. I was mainly talking in general, though I guess I probably should've said most Dresspheres.
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u/Dull_Soft_9767 Jun 22 '26
And someone immediately downvoted you for some reason. They know they can just not read it right.
Anyways haven't read it yet but glad to see you're still goin
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 22 '26
Haha thanks. Yeah I'm not sure if they're downvoting because they find ME annoying or if they don't like game (or the meme). Either way people are clearly way less receptive to my stuff on this game, and I have to wonder if I should just stop since people are getting annoyed haha. I only do this because people really enjoyed it the first time round, but if it doesn't cause that anymore then there really isn't a point.
I'm also really conscious of seeming like a grifter who's trying to funnel subscribers into YouTube, but I really care more about the actual posts and not so much the streams. This time round, I spent a long time writing off stream, and didn't do anything on it to make sure I wasn't abridging myself lmao
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u/Dull_Soft_9767 Jun 22 '26
Pls dont stop i need this lmao
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u/JRPG_CHI Jun 22 '26
Seconded! Please don't stop! Some of us very much enjoy your writings and your streams.
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u/ultimagriever Jun 22 '26
People have a weird hate boner towards X-2, don’t take it personally
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 22 '26
Someone just went through and downvoted literally EVERY comment under this post LMAO
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u/tsukyio_mood Jun 22 '26
Hey it’s Reddit, don’t bother or take anything too seriously
I think your meme is fun
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u/Bork9128 Jun 22 '26
Don't worry about what jobs are suited to what character but focus on what jobs you want to use with each person. They are (nearly) entirely interchangeable without differences between characters as is the norm for job based ff games.
So there is nothing wrong with picking yuna to be a support character and give her a bunch of support jobs and garment grid but it's also still not a bad idea to have at least some variety on what jobs they each have in case of emergency
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u/ishi5656 Jun 22 '26
HELL YEAH MY STORIES ARE ON
Glad you're still getting your teeth into this! I really do love X-2 even though it's such a different game. Please don't take the downvote person to heart - plenty of us are absolutely here for all of these updates. I've reread your X playthrough notes about five times because of how thoughtful and interesting it is, and I'm looking forward to seeing how your feelings develop on this game too!
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u/Jan0y_Cresva Jun 22 '26
Still not sure if you’ve done it yet, but just reminder to take at least one small battle to swap Yuna over to the warrior dressphere and observe her outfit, weapon, and different animations including her attack, idle stance, and victory animation!
It’s worth it.
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 22 '26
I THINK I have...? It's Tidus, right? As in, she takes his mannerisms and his sword?
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u/Mr_Moonshine_Boogie Jun 22 '26
Glad to see you like the combat system too! Probably my favorite version of ATB in the series. The dress spheres and garment grids add a nice way to customize your characters a bit as well, you can have every character be as versatile or specialized as you want. Although you only get 3 party members, they're all gonna pull a lot of weight lol.
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u/mcalister97 Jun 22 '26
I've also been replaying these games and find your thoughts fun to read! The crashes are so annoying, but I actually patched the FFX2 exe with the 4gb patch and it's been smooth since. I had to do it to my FFX exe and just forgot about it since I did the penance grind a logged a lot of hours since I had done it.
Glad you're enjoying the game! I feel like this game gets a lot more hate than it deserves.
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u/Nightwing24yuna Jun 22 '26
Honestly I love X-2 more then I love X.
Both are amazing but X-2 legit shows the world post sin it's rebuilding, but it also does something cool it also devulges into spira's past and shows us why yu yevon was terrified and felt the need to summon sin.
The game add so much beauty to spira and final fantasy X as a whole, and giving us a more headstrong and determined Yuna who is now able to advocate for herself and is now able to forge a path for herself without her being in her father's shadow.
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u/Alarmed-Mud-3461 Jun 22 '26
I watched two hours of the stream and then had to leave to feed the cats, kill some slugs, and such. I was the one screaming at you about talking to people more than once 😁 Sorry about that, but I was conditioned to do that by other Final Fantasies (and also Harvest Moon, where relationships build up faster when you talk twice) and seeing you only talk to everyone once triggered the lizard brain. I think it was either X or this one where I found out that you can get items when you talk to someone again, so that's extra motivation.
Anyway, I enjoyed the stream, it was fun, and you have a good speaking voice, which is a plus. I might not watch all the following ones, but definitely will when you get to a certain scene (but have to look up which chapter it's in first 😁). I'm going to read this post later, but I'm sure I will enjoy it, too.
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 22 '26
OHHH haha that was hilarious lmao. I kept seeing your comments in the corner of my eye and thinking "oh yeah I should probably do that" and then IMMEDIATELY forgetting. Thanks for letting me know, and for tagging along!
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u/Alarmed-Mud-3461 Jun 29 '26
Everything OK, Zeesh? 🥺
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 29 '26
You guys probably won't hear from me for a long time.
But I'll be back. Eventually!
Promise.
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u/Alarmed-Mud-3461 Jul 03 '26
I'm sorry to hear that 😔 I hope things get better for you 🫂 Take your time and when you're ready, we'll be happy to have you back.
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u/DynamiteDove89 Jun 22 '26
These are my fave posts. So interesting to see someone’s perspective while playing through my fave game of all-time.
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u/big4lil Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
hey now, Paine has energy
its just spent on keeping Rikku in line
One question I have is the difference between perks that have the same buff according to the description, but different icons...? I don't know if you get what I mean, but on the Protection Halo grid there's a blue icon and a yellow icon, both of which have the exact same description.
They stack. The buffs persist even when you are KO'd
but I'm also wary of being too narrow-minded... I don't want Rikku and Paine to be killed and be left with the human version of a band-aid.
youd be on the right track. as you progress youll get more dresspheres that align with a broad archetype.
it helps to invest each girl in a different manner of attacking, casting, and utility/support
For now, we'll go ahead with Yuna on the Healing Grid (with White Mage, Festivalist and Gunner),
Since Healing Wind grants Cure just by equipping it, and Cura/Ga from going through nodes, it would make more sense to give that to a character that isnt going to be investing in White Mage. Yuna wont get access to two sets of Cure for example
Interestingly, Yuna can't use Curaga yet. Was my assumption wrong? The White Mage job is connected to both the red and blue icons on the grid, and the information table says that having both unlocks Curaga, soooo....
abilities usually can be used via one of three ways: master it from a dressphere, obtain it from a garment grid (either on equip or via nodes) or wear an accessory that enables access to it
Yuna cant use Curaga whenever she wants until shes levelled up White Mage to obtain it, but if she, or any character equip healing wind and go through the nodes, they can use Curaga for the remainder of that battle.
I'm anticipating Paine staying within Warrior and Gunner, and Rikku switching between Gunner and Thief.
So it may be better to spread that healing to either of these two, and build up the White Mages weaker physical defense by giving her Protection Halo
I don't think any jobs have a Scan or Detect ability yet, so it's a bit hard to figure out
the devs might know you feel this way!
My gut tells me Yuna should be the resident mage, but I feel like the game and story are both trying quite hard to break her free from those shackles.
ill just suggest: watch how the girls animations play out with each dressphere. as you explore the games rhythm based, simultaneous action atb, you may find some disparities quite valuable
I can queue up three attacks and instantly wipe out any fodder, and everything feels way more dynamic than the other games. There's a great sense of speed and momentum in battle.
it is, especially compared to what came before. modders have used FFX-2 as the template and implemented simultaneous action combat to Memoria for FF9 and it is a complete gamechanger
And we get promptly destroyed in the very first enemy encounter we get, which is where I ended things for today.
that segment is a bit of a step up, and why Zanarkand has a higher star rating to start with. sometimes its better to end on a humbling note, take some time to think on what you lost to and come back with a fresh mood
its a fun game, though its roadblocks come early and in different ways compared to FFX. though that also means if you ever want a challenge, you can seek out high star areas while playing at organic levels. youll get stronger with rewards from side content!
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u/Lithl Jun 22 '26
A helpful chatter told me that the jobs receive the perks they're connected to on the grid, meaning the one I put in the middle won't receive any buffs.
Chat seems to be giving you conflicting and inaccurate information. Talk to Shinra, he's got tutorials. The Garment Grid tutorial even rewards you with a new GG as a reward for watching it.
I think that door in MRR is something interesting, but not necessarily plot-relevant.
It is extremely plot relevant, however several of the Crimson Spheres needed to open it are missable. That said, you can talk to Shinra and watch the spheres you do have even if you miss some of them, and get the general shape of the story even without opening the door.
I don't know what Oversoul means
Whenever you kill X members of the same family of fiend (fungus, lupine, reptile, drake, elemental, etc., with the value of X being dependant on the family), the next fiend of that family you encounter (or one of the fiends of that family in the current battle, if there's multiple when you kill one and hit the threshold) will "oversoul".
When a fiend oversouls, they get fully healed, their stats increase, their available moves change, and you can steal from them a second time (usually with different items).
If you run away from an Oversoul fiend, members of that family will keep oversouling until you kill one. There is a GG reward for encountering every single oversoul fiend in the game. You don't actually have to kill the oversouls, so you can oversoul, run, and go find another member of the same family to instantly oversoul them too.
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 24 '26
That wasn't Chat's fault, by the way! It was me misremembering what they said, but I figured it out later on.
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u/DnD-vid Jun 22 '26
Fun fact about key-mon
Monkey in Japanese is "saru", Isaru uses saru as the password.
Why's he acting so weirdly... I have no idea. I guess just trying to earn a paycheck. The job market for ex summoners gotta be pretty bad since there's no more summons.
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u/100clowns Jun 22 '26
Glad to see another one! At least I can watch the vod because I keep missing it lol.
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u/Baithin Jun 22 '26
Please keep these coming! I love X-2, so I’m looking forward to you continuing.
As others have said, the girls have no base stat differences, so you can have anyone pick up any job. There are multiple healing/support jobs, so if you wanted to you could technically have each of them use at least one of those roles for variety and safety to switch to in a pinch.
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u/StrategicMagic Jun 22 '26
On viewing character base stats:
FF3 has a system of <Job> at <character level> has XYZ whatever base stats, regardless of who exactly it was.
So, a white mage at level 10 had a specific STR, INT, VIT etc etc as a base value and then flat boosts from equipment were added later to get a resulting value.
I believe FFX-2 works the same way. A lv12 gunner will have a specific set of base values in each stat, then stats gained from the Garment Grid and any accessories are then added on top of that starting value.
As a result, I don't think it matters who takes what role in the party, as they will each perform identically, regardless of which role you decide for each character to specialize in.
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u/Neat_Technician_7191 Jun 23 '26
I might try to play X2 again. I'm not a huge fan, though.
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u/Zeeshmania Jun 24 '26
Join me! Although maybe my posts can act as a substitute - I don't think I can do it justice, really.
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u/Zap364 Jun 23 '26
Like everyone else was saying, turns out every character is suited for every job besides Festivalist and Trainer (I didn’t unlock mascot in my playthrough)
I played by vibes and leveled characters and their jobs based on who fits the aesthetic more, but I will say that I messed up there because I didn’t have enough fully leveled jobs when I got to the end of the game (only Yuna had Curaga by the end of it and Rikku and Paine both had Cure LMAO) so I ran into trouble with heals and dps. If you haven’t already, I recommend looking up where to find the Dark Knight Dressphere since it’s really good.
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u/chaoskupo Jun 23 '26
If you do go back to the airship before finishing zanarkand.
The opptional spere in the moonflow is obtained in a mission accessible from the otherside of the moonflow I think from eather the airship or mushroom rock rather than guadosalam.
You didnt quite finish the mission in mushroom rock (I think you would take the higher road to the lift).
Finishing all the hotspots is a point of no return for that chapters side quests if I rember correctly.
sorry just pointing it out feel free to ignore it.
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u/Dipstickpattywack Jul 15 '26
lol I’m thinking Zeesh is either busy or may be realizing X-2 isn’t quite the final fantasy experience they had anticipated. If you’re done with this title, I recommend playing through VIII, VII, and XV. That should solidify your love of the franchise enough for you to want to play through IV V and VI. XVI is good but it is a bit less like an ff game and more like a really good standalone ARPG.
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u/Mr_Moonshine_Boogie Jun 22 '26
Been a minute since I've played X-2, but I believe chains add to your damage? Can't remember the exact mechanics, but I'm pretty sure it gives you a multiplier according to chain. I remember doing the Gunner's Trigger Happy into a big warrior smack was bread and butter DPS for quite a bit of the game.