The Final Fantasy series has never had a sequel before, and in my opinion, it should have stayed that way. I had a chance to play Final Fantasy X-2 today, and what was laid out before me was just wrong.

Let's start with the outfits. It must be extremely warm in Spira, because the outfits of the female characters leaves little left to the imagination. Combine this with the larger party in the demo being almost entirely female, including the three in the battles. During these battles, I had Yuna change a class to become a warrior. With some quick lighting tricks, she changes her outfit right in the middle of the battle. It zooms in just in case you were going to miss it. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I found the whole aspect demeaning. It's bad enough that RPGs usually lock females into magic/support roles, but to use them entirely for sex appeal... Blah.

The battle engine has changed quite a bit. While Active Time Battle (ATB) was removed in Final Fantasy X, it makes a return in X-2. Square Enix has also added something found in almost all RPGs these days: bonuses for multiple hits. Since there is a delay for special attacks, it becomes really advantageous to wait until the delayed attack goes off, and then striking the monster for extra damage. While the method is not a new idea, bringing it into Final Fantasy seems almost obvious with the continued use of the ATB system.

The developers have also added actions to exploring the world itself. Yuna has to jump over chasms and climb over obstacles. While this is another idea that is not new to RPGs, having it in Final Fantasy seems like a cheesy attempt to add something to the game that wasn't needed.

Overall, Final Fantasy X-2 is a big disappointment so far. While I am a huge fan of what Final Fantasy X brought to the series, it seems X-2 has been designed only to abuse the characters and the engine, and created only to test out ideas no one ever wanted in a Final Fantasy game to begin with.