FFX-2, the first true sequel to a FF game. Play the first and then this amazing Part II.
I waited a few months after the game came out before I bought the game and decided to give it a chance. Here's what I thought: This game ties in so much with the origanal FFX. Trust me, if you didn't play the original FFX all the way through then you'll be lost in this game. It's amazing how Sqare made the events from FFX tie into this game so much.
Now for the battle system. As you already know, the battle system changes on almost every Final Fantasy game. On this one the characters use dresspheres (jobs) and they can change jobs during the battle. The combat is non-linear, which means multiple characters can attack all at once to increase damage. There's no more attack-be attacked-attack patterns. Another huge difference is the absence of aeons. Believe me, once you get into the game you won't mind there not being any aeons. The ATB system has also been brought back to FFX-2.
As for the storyline I have to honestly say that it's incredible. Almost as good as FF7 and FF9, and directly worthy of FFX. Yuna becomes a sphere hunter and starts on a journey to find Tidus. The great thing about the story of this game is that so many different things can happen depending on what decisions you make. In Chapter 2 of the game you will make a decision that will determine most of the events to occur in the rest of the game. There's also a completion percentage in the game and you can view various endings depending on how much of the game you completed.
As for the sound, it's slightly above average. It's not as good as FF7-10 but it's not nearly as horrible as FFTA. Some of the tunes are nice while others are annoying.
The replayability of this game is one of its biggest assets. This game is designed so that different events occur depending on the decisions you make. You can play the game more than once to experience different outcomes. This game also lets you start a "New Game Plus". This means that you can carry over the items, gil, accesories, dresspheres, abilities, etc. that you had in your first game. Oh yeah your levels don't carry over to your new game, so don't think you're going to get god-like characters that easily. I've beaten it once and I'm definitely playing it again to get all the things I missed in my first game.
The sidequests/mini-games in FFX-2 are immense. This game has more mini-games than ANY other FF title before it. That adds a lot to the overall plot of the game and this game has a challenging 100-floor dungeon called Via Infinito for veteran FF players. Believe me this place IS A REAL CHALLENGE. I still have yet to beat it. There's so many various rewards and great accesories to be acquired by doing the sidequests.
Overall this is a great game. I saw some of the other 1 sentence reviews where people said this game sucks because Tidus isn't here. You can tell that they obviously haven't played the game and show their ignorance with those simple-minded reviews. I recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of RPG games. Also you need to play FFX if you haven't already or else you'll be confused with this game.