Final Fantasy X and X-2’s HD remaster has been ported to just about every modern system under the sun at this point, and the Switch 2 joins this illustrious list this week. I’ve played both games multiple times over the past 25 years, and both of them hold up incredibly well. I still argue that if you’ve never touched a Final Fantasy, the original FFX is one of the best entry points, with its elegant marriage of the series’ turn-based roots and modern melodramatic sensibilities. But Tidus and Yuna’s pilgrimage gets all sorts of love every time its anniversary rolls around. What really deserves a fresh look is Final Fantasy X-2, the Yuna-led sequel that, 23 years ago, was a bit jarring to a lot of fans as it dropped the original game’s more traditional fantasy set-dressing for a J-Pop-bumping girls’ trip. Now that these two stellar RPGs are out on yet another platform for FFX’s 25th anniversary, I am once again declaring that if you were put off by Final Fantasy X-2 more than 20 years ago, you should come back to it now with wiser eyes. It is a perfect sequel to Tidus and Yuna’s story.

Final Fantasy X-2 starts off by quite literally setting the stage for its tonal shift. We see Yuna (or someone who looks like her) shedding her Summoner’s garb for a far less modest Songstress outfit and then singing an absolute banger for a stadium of adoring fans. 

Square Enix could not have concocted a bigger contrast to the opening of Final Fantasy X if it tried. Where Tidus starts the original game in a stadium playing the underwater soccer game Blitzball as it is attacked by a massive, living symbol of religious guilt, Yuna’s sequel kicks off with her removing the garb she wore as a sacrificial lamb for a corrupt, deceptive system meant to keep society shackled, to reveal that she is instead wearing something that shows she has liberated herself from those expectations. Yes, out of context, it feels like an odd pivot to go from a more buttoned-up fantasy world into one where women dress in skimpy outfits and sing J-Pop songs, but stop and think about it for a second. This is exactly what a sequel to Final Fantasy X should look like.

The entire premise of Final Fantasy X is that Yuna and her guardians have toppled an oppressive religious system that deceived and controlled the populace through lies. Is the next logical conclusion not that she and those who are no longer at the mercy of this regime would be spreading their wings, swinging to the other end of the pendulum, and finding out who they are when freed from the shackles of Yevon? X-2’s opening image of Yuna removing the Summoner’s garb from FFX in favor of the Songstress dressphere isn’t subtle. It’s not just an introduction to a mechanic that will define X-2’s experimental battle system; it’s a statement. This world is changing, and so is its heroine.

This newfound freedom isn’t just seen in the game’s aesthetics and story; it’s baked into every design decision in Final Fantasy X-2. Where FFX was widely considered to be one of the series’ most linear games, X-2 allows you to go anywhere in the world of Spira right off the bat. Yeah, you might get your ass beat by high-level enemies, but you’re free to do so if you want. The battle system also integrates the idea of self-discovery and experimentation that runs through X-2’s veins.

© Square Enix / Kotaku

The Dressphere system allows each member of the party to change between different classes on the fly. No one is spec’d in a specific way such that you’re beholden to certain jobs based on any artificial base stats or movepool. Yuna was once a White Mage; what if she was instead a sword-wielding Warrior or an item-mixing Alchemist? Paine is initially presented as the damage-dealing tank of the trio, but she can be the group’s healer if you want her to be. Rikku was one of the more frail characters in Final Fantasy X, but in X-2, you can spec her to be a powerhouse the likes of which would have made Auron proud. 

Final Fantasy X-2 is still arguably the most cohesive sequel Square has ever made in this series, and that’s because it’s so different from its predecessor, not in spite of it. You don’t take down a fascist religious institution and then just pick up where it left off. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of the dismissive attitudes toward Final Fantasy X-2 were ultimately rooted in misogyny and the feeling, among men who were uncomfortable playing a game featuring a party made up entirely of women who sing, dance, and take things less seriously than they once did, that the sequel’s poppy, Charlie’s Angels-inspired girls’ trip was “too girly.” But I implore you, if you haven’t gone back to the game in over 20 years, the Switch 2 port is a great excuse to give it another shot and interrogate your younger self’s internal biases. Try to view those drastic shifts in tone through the lens of what they mean for Spira at large, and how the woman at the center of this world best exemplifies a bold new era, even when she’s dancing and singing on stage or wielding twin pistols.