So I gutted my way through FFX, and it was in fact a real slog. An enjoyable slog (is that a thing?), but it is a really heavy, slow game. Absolute banger nü-metal intro song. Last time I played it I was a forlorn college student. X-2 came out while I still had access to a PS2 but I passed on it, it seemed goofy. But!...
Actually I'm really digging X-2. If FFX was intentional, methodical, a meditation on death with a water-polo minigame, soaring instrumentals punctuated by metal, then X-2 is entirely the opposite. I heard it described as Final Fantasy: Charlie's Angels, and well, not wrong! But there's nothing bad about a fun adventure with a banger J-Pop intro song (and sequence), a gambling minigame, and heist movie music and aesthetics.
All this to say, sucks that I was a chauvinist hater back then, this game owns.
🏴