Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster on Nintendo Switch 2 is even more of a no-brainer than you might think, as the convenient features and sharp visuals make this a peak port of some of the most beloved Final Fantasy titles. There are a couple of tiny omissions that seem a bit odd, but they’re nowhere near enough to make this release worth missing.
It’s no stretch to say that the Final Fantasy series is one of my most beloved things. Since I was a kid, I’ve played countless mainline entries, spin-offs, and even mobile games, as my passion for the franchise seems pretty boundless. One of my very favorite installments is certainly Final Fantasy X, which was a defining game for me in my teenage years, so I was thrilled to give these remasters a go on the Switch 2 over two decades after both X titles were initially released. As with most of these recent rereleases, this is certainly the best way to experience these unforgettable classics.
Final Fantasy X
I’ll say right out of the gate: I love Final Fantasy X quite a lot. The ending still makes me emotional, the soundtrack is constantly on my mind, and I’ve even had a Tidus figure on my shelf for the better part of 20 years. It’s a brilliant game that perfects turn-based combat and features a story that expertly examines weighty ideas like the nobility of needless self-sacrifice, the massive societal weight of dogma, and the impermanence of pretty much everything. Just as it did all those years ago, Final Fantasy X still provides a heart-wrenching story led by a fantastic cast of characters, and it remains a title I consider an essential experience in the medium of video games. If you’ve never played it, I cannot recommend it enough.
On the Nintendo Switch 2, the game runs pretty flawlessly (as you’d hope for from a visually updated PS2 game), and you’re provided with options to tailor the experience more to your tastes. For one, you can choose to use the Expert Sphere Grid instead of the original PS2 one, which allows you much more freedom in terms of tailoring your party members’ stats however you choose. I appreciated this, as having fewer restrictions and more customization options allowed for more experimentation than the original game did right off the bat, and, with me being older and (hopefully) wiser than I was as a preteen, I found this freedom more fun than it was dangerous to my progression.
You can also choose whether to use the original soundtrack or the newer arranged version created for the remaster. While I think there are some excellent arrangements in the updated version, I found some of the songs lost a bit of the specific emotion or vibes that they had in the original, which made them so well-suited to their locations or narrative beats. You can swap it around in the settings if you’d like to go back and forth, which I appreciate as someone who finds stuff to love in both versions.
On the other hand, the character models are still a little odd-looking in this release of the remaster, giving the cast a “porcelain doll” sort of look that they didn’t have in the original game. The locations and creatures look excellent though, so it’s primarily the humanoid figures that stand out as a bit peculiar.
Final Fantasy X-2
I’m actually a little less experienced with Final Fantasy X-2 than with its predecessor, as, given the age I first played these games, I was concerned a parent would come in to see me playing a title with scantily clad women and ask me some awkward questions. (I certainly do not miss being a preteen.) I played bits of the game but never went all in at the time.
I remember finding the tonal shift between Final Fantasy X and X-2 to be jarring when I was younger, as X is rather solemn and heavy, while X-2 is far more peppy and silly from the get-go. Now, I think this is tonally fitting for each game’s narrative and the characters that star in them, and I can better appreciate the completely different vibes these two titles have. Seeing Yuna try to discover who she is outside of a summoner, alongside Rikku and new character Paine, is moving in its own way – plus, it’s generally just pleasant to see Yuna get to have fun (and search for a certain someone) after the trials she had to push through in the original game.
The gameplay of Final Fantasy X-2 is completely unlike the game it follows up on, embracing the, at the time, more tried-and-true ATB system of the mainline games from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy IX. It mixes things up through the addition of the “Chain” mechanic, which rewards well-timed simultaneous attacks by multiple party members with damage multipliers. This, combined with the additional quicktime events required to perform certain skills, makes quick-thinking much more essential to X-2, further separating it from what came before.
The Dressphere system is another brilliant addition to the game, making for an extremely fluid take on the Job system. Jumping between roles in the midst of combat is thrilling and likely one of the most creative and enjoyable systems in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, and with the convenient gameplay modifiers added to this remaster collection (more on that in a moment), it’s easier than ever to get into the flow of this vastly different combat.
The Overall Collection
Both games feature some extremely handy new boosting features to make playthroughs or replays go quicker than before. You can speed up the game by 2X or 4X on a dime, change (or even eliminate) enemy encounter rates at any time, supercharge your characters to be super powerful, and even make it so that your party auto-battles without your input. These are wonderful features for speeding up a subsequent playthrough or providing accessibility to others, though the fact that the ability to skip cutscenes hasn’t been added is a bit of a head-scratcher.
Not being able to upgrade or transfer your save data from the Nintendo Switch 1 version of this remaster is a bit ridiculous, however. Given the fantastic additional QoL features provided by the Nintendo Switch version, I feel it’s pretty unfair to existing fans that they’re shut out of experiencing the best version of this remaster.
The little included bonuses are pleasant additions, from the small bridge between the two games (Eternal Calm) to the intriguing playable epilogue to X-2, Last Mission; it’s great to have the full Final Fantasy X narrative available in one convenient place. The, well, regrettable audio drama Final Fantasy X -Will- is also included, but I wouldn’t recommend listening to it if you value the narrative of the two games.
Great
The Final Word
Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD is better than ever on the Nintendo Switch 2, and I’d be remiss to not encourage anyone who has yet to play these games to do so on the Switch 2 thanks to its helpful gameplay features and sharp visuals. Though the lack of ability to upgrade from the Switch and the inability to skip cutscenes are a bit disappointing, this is an otherwise magnificent collection of two all-timer RPGs, and I hope its extra features somehow get patched into the other versions of the remaster.
