THE ENDGAME: Final Dungeons of the Final Fantasy Series Part XI

Final Fantasy X-2: The Farplane

Shuyin, a man who really did exist in Zanarkand 1000 years ago, plans to awaken Vegnagun. Vegnagun is an ancient machina powerful enough to destroy the world, naturally, and it falls to the person largely responsible for saving Spira the last time to stop him. Why does he seek the destruction of the world? Is he mad with power? Is he going to claim the respect that is rightfully his? No, he died before getting the chance to bang his girlfriend, and now he’s pissed. To be perfectly honest, I’ve heard worse reasons

This threat is distinctly different from Sin in that it is not one that everyone knows about and lives in fear of on a daily basis. Except for Yuna and her acquaintances, no one knows. So X-2 takes us back to thankless heroics, but given that Yuna already received gratitiude and fulfilled her supposed fantasy of being a jpop star, it doesn’t seem that unfair.

The inside of Sin in Final Fantasy X disappointed, but unlike any other game in the franchise, it actually gets a second crack at the final dungeon. The Farplane is the destination of pyreflies(souls) after death. It is, for all intents and purposes, the Lifestream. Except it is an actual location with structure rather than a giant subterranean sea of goo.

How is this visit to the great beyond then?

All right, thanks Yuna! Come back in a few days everyone when I’ll be covering the Sky Fortress Baha–

…

Fine.

It’s actually not that bad. It is certainly an improvement over Final Fantasy X’s endgame, but only just. It is at least a whole dungeon this time, rather than walking on nothing for half of it. You climb down a criss-crossing set of slopes as in the concept art at the beginning of this post. There is some misdirection involved: if you take a wrong turn moving platforms can take you backwards and you must traverse a section again.

Furthermore, this dungeon even has a boss gauntlet! In fact, it can even be fairly difficult. Unfortunately, they just took the story gauntlet from X and made it a real one. You fight the remaining Dark Aeons. Ho hum. However, I shall forgive it because the battle system in this game is just so damn fun.

Incidentally, I find it odd how, for a game that wastes a lot of time on completely meaningless cutscenes, Yuna doesn’t seem at all disturbed by the appearence of the Dark Aeons, or having to kill them again. And then when the Bahamut fayth shows up and sincerely apologizes for not being able to prevent it Yuna cocks her head and cutely says “It’s all right.” Like, “Whatever, I killed you once I’ll kill you again, kthx!” In fact, when she then goes to complain to Sephir – I mean Nooj, she starts going on about how hard it was to kill her Aeons at the end of X! You know, the plan that saved the world from the tyranny of Sin. And a sacrifice the fayth not only willingly made, but proposed in the first place. That apalled her, but having to kill them again after being forcibly dragged out of their slumber and perverted by evil? “That’s all right.” And before you say it, I’m aware that she says remorseful things in the opening of the battles with them, but they devoted whole cutscenes to Rikku comparing boob sizes, people.

Okay, sorry, I’m breaking my own rules – it’s only about the dungeon. So the problem, once again, is where is the scenery? The Playstation era blew me away, show off your graphics guys!

There is that. But this is ONE screen in the middle and all it contains is a save point. And Yuna is not nude as she appears here.

Once you continue:

You’re on those things, whatever they are. There’s actually a puzzle here, so that’s two things they’ve recovered from previous games, but its rather uninteresting. Notes play when you stand on certain circles and you must echo them on pianos by gates that open passages. You don’t even have to remember them, the screen with the piano literally tells you what to play. All you have to do is find the tiles that play the note you have to copy. So it even admits it is wasting my time. And the ridiculously high encounter rate is back from X, so have fun with that while you learn your scales. (The piano theme carries from Vegnagun, who is controlled with an organ. …Yeah, apparently Elton John would really kick ass in Spira.)

And music, it’s there. I actually had to go back and check because I didn’t remember there being any. It’s pretty ambient, but when I paid attention to it, the music wasn’t bad at all. It is very tense, with crescendo horn blasts fading in an out. Eerie and ominous and it reflects the danger you are descending into; so points there.

As mentioned, I really love the battle system in this game, so I have always overlooked almost everything everyone hated about it because its just so fun to play. I think its the fastest a true turn-based system Final Fantasy has ever seen. Final Fantasy XIII’s is faster still, but different.

Unfortunately, Square missed two in a row. It is clear that Spira simply does not make for good final dungeons, which is perplexing considering all the beautiful places it does contain. Sticking it out may reward you if you’ve been holding out to see the old boy again (that is, if you got the good ending). If not, I’m afraid your greatest reward is that the battle with Vegnagun’s Core opens with:

Yuna: “It’s so big!”
Rikku: “Woohoo!”

Next up: Pharos and Bahamut, of the Sky Fortress variety!