A first look at Final Fantasy X-2 HD

Square Enix released the first screenshots from the X-2 remaster, and they look impressive.

May 9, 2013 4:15 PM

Final Fantasy X-2 was quite the odd release. Lampooned for its odd title, the game now seems sensible after recent releases from the JRPG publisher. Time makes the heart grow fond, and it appears many fans are now eagerly awaiting the HD re-release of both X and X-2. It appears the upcoming HD bundle is no quick cash-in, either. Square Enix released the first screenshots from the X-2 remaster, and they look impressive. According to the publisher, not only have the character models been redone, but "the textures of the surrounding environment and backgrounds were also carefully redrawn."

Click to view the new screenshots

The remaster will be available later this year, bundled with FFX on PS3, and sold separately on Vita.

Andrew Yoon

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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May 9, 2013 4:15 PM

Andrew Yoon posted a new article, A first look at Final Fantasy X-2 HD.

Square Enix released the first screenshots from the X-2 remaster, and they look impressive.
- Grumbeld
  
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  May 9, 2013 4:19 PM
  
  Best Final Fantasy ever.
  - RikiTiki2
    
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    May 9, 2013 5:25 PM
    
    I dunno about ever, but the dress sphere system was pretty cool
- cetra00
  
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  May 9, 2013 4:22 PM
  
  Really hope they manage to get Last Mission in this for the West.
- eloader2
  
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  May 9, 2013 5:09 PM
  
  Can't wait for this to release, granted I am more in it for FF X, but getting X-2 included is smart. Now if only they would give us a release date. Wasn't this game announced before kingdom Hearts 1.5? And yet KH has an official release date and FF X doesn't? Seems odd to me
- k1ld0r
  
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  May 9, 2013 5:13 PM
  
  meh, FF died with 6.
  - pgharavi
    
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    May 9, 2013 5:18 PM
    
    IX was an awesome throwback and the last Final Fantasy I loved.
- Alpha Geist
  
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  May 9, 2013 5:23 PM
  
  Rikku looks like a young Mary Kate / Ashley Olsen on the lead screenshot.
  - jimvolk
    
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    May 10, 2013 2:45 AM
    
    Suits my purposes either way....
- DragonSire
  
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  May 9, 2013 7:05 PM
  
  Couldn't get past the crappy sphere system. That game has sat on my shelf, with hardly any progress, for years.
- tossitupdude
  
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  May 9, 2013 8:57 PM
  
  They'll give us a remastered version of 10, but tell the masses "no" when it comes to 7. What?
  - electroly
    
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    May 9, 2013 9:01 PM
    
    it's easier to spruce up a late PS2 game than a PSX game that already looked bad at the time
    - tossitupdude
      
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      May 9, 2013 9:28 PM
      
      100% Agree. Didn't they comment that they weren't going to release a remastered 7 though because they wanted to release their "master piece" FF game first? We can assume that 10 isn't amazing, because it's okay to remaster and re-release it.
      
      Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing it. I like 10, never played x2.
  - veras
    
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    May 9, 2013 9:31 PM
    
    X is already all 3d assets/engine, 7 isn't and would require basically rebuilding the game from the ground up
  - TwiLyght
    
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    May 9, 2013 9:49 PM
    
    7 is totally overrated and people love it for nostalgia cos it was the first ff game they played. When you look at the entire series 7 is no better than in the middle.
    - Derringer
      
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      May 9, 2013 11:29 PM
      
      Could not agree more.
    - electroly
      
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      May 9, 2013 11:30 PM
      
      having just replayed FF7 i dunno if i agree with that, but the graphics are REAL bad. i don't know if people remember just how terrible they are. they'd have to completely redo the entire game, nothing would be salvageable
      - bolneze
        
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        May 9, 2013 11:51 PM
        
        Then they should just redo the whole thing instead of 15 or whatever number they're on now, it would still do better than the new one in sales
    - thewindcriesmary
      
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      May 10, 2013 12:41 AM
      
      i disagree, i have played most FF games and 7 is still my favourite. I even just replayed it again on PC and it still holds up. The story is still really, really good.
    - Vincent Grayson
      
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      May 10, 2013 3:24 AM
      
      Having played every game in the series in order (for US releases, anyway) as they were "contemporary", I can still say FF7 is one of my favorites. I certainly put it above all but maybe 6 and 12.
    - [deleted] 1789559702
      
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      May 10, 2013 3:26 AM
      
      [deleted]
    - daggot
      
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      May 10, 2013 7:49 AM
      
      I got turned off near the middle when Aerith was killed. Sunk a lot of time building her up and gearing up for nothing. Bleh. Graphics sucked on the PC version too. Would have been awesome if we were still back in the days of EGA.
      
      I might pick this up just to finish the story. Otherwise I think FF III(US) may still be my fav; mostly because of the Atma Weapon and the Genji Glove :)
      - electroly
        
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        May 10, 2013 7:52 AM
        
        well, let's not exaggerate here. EGA? it was better than that. do you know what the color palette on EGA is? come on.
        
        also the graphics on the PC version were better than the PSX version because the characters were rendered at your native resolution
        
        daggot
        
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        May 10, 2013 8:06 AM
        
        EGA was 16 colors out of a palette of 64 when using a res of 320x200. You could go higher but it drops downs to 4 colors. Yeah, I'm old.
        
        I don't remember the polygons rendering to native res. I know the bitmap stuff looked way worse than the PS version. I want to say the polygons were low res too. But, I'll admit my memory is fuzzy going that far back.
        
        electroly
        
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        May 10, 2013 8:12 AM
        
        the bitmaps were identical to the PSX version. it was the exact same bitmaps. your eyes deceived you. they were scaled up, but not in a way that would degrade the quality.
        
        i both remember the original PC port vividly and also replayed it a few weeks ago
        
        electroly
        
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        May 10, 2013 8:13 AM
        
        i'm guessing the reason you thought the bitmaps looked worse is because you thought the rendered characters were the same as PSX and then you compared the bitmaps with the rendered characters. when in actuality the bitmaps were the same, and the characters were better
        
        daggot
        
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        May 10, 2013 8:16 AM
        
        More likely it's comparing low res bitmaps on a tv (analog SD tv back then) vs a much sharper monitor; also sitting a lot closer to the monitor vs the tv in the living room.
        
        Shadowdane
        
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        May 10, 2013 10:17 AM
        
        yup the the only thing that was worse was the pre-rendered cutscenes as they got encoded with some horrible noisy compression. Well that and the horrible MIDI music.
        
        electroly
        
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        May 10, 2013 10:59 AM
        
        good call on the midi music. that's the one place where the original PC port was legit worse than the PSX version. on the 2012 remake you can substitute .OGGs with the actual PSX music which fixes the issue
        
        daggot
        
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        May 11, 2013 9:41 AM
        
        Oh man, totally forgot about the midi music. Even my GUS couldn't save it.
      - TwiLyght
        
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        May 10, 2013 8:10 AM
        
        I remember that I didn't build up Aerith, but she was in my party as the healer. That was annoying. But otherwise I had no attachment to her. The story in FF7 was ridiculous, surpassed only by the ridiculousness of FF10.
  - Vincent Grayson
    
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    May 10, 2013 3:24 AM
    
    IIRC, they claim to not even have any of the original assets any more.
    
    If we ever get a remake, it'll have to be built from scratch, basically.
- electroly
  
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  May 9, 2013 8:59 PM
  
  looks really cool. wish i had a PS3. i wouldn't buy one just for this but it looks really good. love the costumes in X-2
- mayooms
  
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  May 10, 2013 7:58 AM
  
  yay i can't wait to play as Yuna again! i really enjoyed the battle system on X-2
- darthfusion
  
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  May 12, 2013 9:02 AM
  
  It would be cool if there was some way to transfer your old save files.