X-2 has its problems. Man, even trying to play the first 15 minutes in front of my boyfriend was rough. He had so many questions, and having him watching me play was like seeing the game through fresh, embarrassed eyes. He laughed aloud when they said Garment Grid for the first time, and berated the awful jazzy music. It's so weird coming off of FFX.
That said, here are the things I love about X-2:
- The combat; greatest ATB-type battle system in an FF, bar-none IMO. I only loved XII more, and XII is basically a version of what they developed for X-2 with free-roam/MMO sensibilities built in.
- The hyper-non-linearity; it's like a wild 180 switch from FFX. It's actually fascinating to revisit the world with that massive change from X's linear pilgrimage to X-2's open exploration.
- The revisitation of Spira AFTER the events of X. It's fascinating to see what's changed. It's almost sad to see how some areas have evolved into tourist attractions, and how new structures have been built to fill the various voids that X's events created.
- The speed. Between faster battles, options to skip cutscenes and battle transitions, and airship travel available from the start, it's a far breezier game.
It's a really interesting game, even moreso if played directly after finishing X. Try and appreciate it for all the things it gets right.
X's battle system is nice and quick itself; there's something nice about how responsive and tight it feels....that said, CTB/turn-based is just plain dreary to me with all the other entries in the series being active. There's no pressure. No sense of tension. To actually SEE the turn order on the right takes so much drama out of it. I enjoy choosing heavier attacks and bigger spells knowing they'll take longer to cast, something that actually gets visualized with longer time bars in X-2 and XII. It's just plain less complex in X, as far as I'm concerned.
And don't get me started on the Rock Paper Scissors crap. Yes, there's an odd satisfaction to derive from Wakka OHKO'ing a flyer, or Auron OHKO'ing and slicing right through an armored creation, but it gets so fucking dull after awhile. You just match each strength to each weakness, and bam. Granted, that RPS gameplay goes away the further into the game you get, but I prefer the greater ambiguity in other FFs. It's just too straightforward in X.
But yeah, the greatest sin for me is the full wait mode/turn-based system. No tension. No true drama. You can sit and sit and wait on making a decision forever. Boring.