While it should be enough to say that in talking about Final Fantasy X-2, I will spoil story and plot points from its predecessor, Final Fantasy X, but I will add this warning: I will be spoiling both games. Knowledge of the plot is recommended but not necessary for understanding why this approach to the game matters.

 

You brought the Eternal Calm, a period of peace and start of prosperity for many, to the world of Spira. You fulfilled your role of High Summoner with the upmost dedication, even turning over a thousand year tradition just to conclude your responsibility. You are Yuna. You are the hero. But you are also your worst enemy.

 

Welcome to Sympathy for the Devil, a series where I show you that villains are not always evil, just often misunderstood.

 

In a nutshell, Final Fantasy X-2 is about roles in life, society and the pressure to measure up to expectations.

 

 

Yuna, having co-lead a group to vanquish Sin in the previous game, wants to live a quiet life on Besaid but is pushed again into adventures by the promise of meeting Tidus, who collapsed into pyreflies along with Sin at the ending of Final Fantasy X, by Rikku bringing a video of a man with a resemblance of Tidus being held against his will. This becomes the central conflict of the game: should she follow her own will (see Tidus again at all cost) or live in the present (take up arms with the political groups who are fighting over Spira)? 

 

She spends the game getting mixed messages about where she should fit into society. 

 

Some want her to be the hero again. New Yevon, a party wanting to stay with the old beliefs, fights against the Youth League, those wanting to abandon all old beliefs. Both ask for Yuna's help and, even when she chooses one over another, the game forces the player again and again to save both of them throughout events in the game.

 

Others, like Wakka, Lulu and Kimahri, suggest that Yuna should follow her heart. If she wants to be with Tidus again, even if they do not believe it is possible, they think she should do all she can toward this goal. Even Rikki and Pain, companions for the whole game, push Yuna toward this end. They continue to put forth the idea that her love will conquer all.

 

The player, having control over Yuna, becomes both the hero and the villain. If she spends time in the public eye, it is assumed, she will lose her chance at meeting Tidus again. Yet, she is also pulled by her past responsibility as the last High Summoner and one of the few people all groups on Spira will listen to. What model should you follow: past or present?

 

Added to this confusion is the battle system of the game, Dresspheres, which emphasizes using different roles in battle. At any time, a character can switch between being the healer, damage dealer or protector. And even within those boundaries, more options exist. If Yuna cannot win a battle against herself from just a story point of view, how much more does role confusion in battle add to this?

 

She is against herself. 

 

 

The game ultimately avoids any extended choice on the player’s part and unites every group and all options by linking the journey to finding Tidus in one giant concert where the two parallel story lines converge for nearly the rest of the story, up to and including the final battle.

 

It is only after the battle, when Yuna faces the Fayth once again and is given a choice if does she wants to see “him” again, does the real choice between being protagonist or antagonist takes place. If the player has been choosing a new future for Spira, by giving up the past relationships and roles, then chooses to see Tidus again, she gives up her work and new role. That part of her wins. If she has been clinging to the past but gives up her final chance to see him, she minimalizes the other path. 

 

In either outcome, she was lying to herself or, in the worst case, she was lying to everyone she met throughout the space of the game.

 

Just by giving the choice, the game allows Yuna to be her own worst enemy. In that choices dwells the heart of the entire game, past or present, and if choosing either after working towards its opposite, she becomes the villain of her own story, both against herself and the new world she helped to shape.