Like many, I was quick to write off Final Fantasy X-2 as a gimmick-laden exercise in overblown fanservice. Though positive impressions from trusted sources ultimately swayed me into buying the game, the overwhelmingly negative Internet reaction to seeing Yuna trade in her summoner’s staff for a pistol and a pair of hot pants had already tainted my perceptions. I quickly abandoned the game only a few hours into it. X-2 was too different from its predecessor, too different from the rest of the series. Too much had changed between X’s bittersweet finale and X-2’s bubbly opening, and I was unable to change my expectations accordingly.

When Final Fantasy X-2 was first released in 2003, two years had passed since Yuna, Tidus, and company had saved the world of Spira from Sin. Squaresoft had merged with Enix and Final Fantasy X-2 would be both the last Final Fantasy title released under the Square banner in Japan and the first game in the series published by Square Enix in the United States. Though Square had lost its independence, the people of Spira had gained theirs, free from the threat of Sin and the overbearing religion of Yevon. Spira didn’t lay dormant for those two years; it changed along with our own world. X-2 was born of this change, a game “about the ‘changes’ that [occur] from the chaos after gaining … independence.”

The first direct sequel in series history, X-2 is unlike any Final Fantasy game before it. Though it’s firmly rooted in series heritage, it diverges wildly from the epic cadence and measured linearity of past Final Fantasy games. Like Final Fantasy VI’s World of Ruin built up and stretched out to form a standalone game, Final Fantasy X-2 is an open-ended, freeform affair that resembles a Bioware, Bethesda, or Black Isle title in pacing and structure more than a traditional Japanese console RPG.

Freedom comes with Independence, so it’s no surprise that from the onset all of Spira is open for exploration. You begin with an airship and a world map, able to hop quickly to any point of interest. You’ll visit the same locations that defined Yuna’s pilgrimage in Final Fantasy X, all of which have changed in some way in the preceding two years. Exploration yields tremendous rewards as every town, temple, or travel agency plays host to old friends and new allies, all coping with a changing Spira. Randomly choosing any point on the map leads to some activity worth pursuing – a subquest, a minigame, a cinematic – and just when you think you’ve exhausted this wealth of available content, venturing to clearly labeled “hotspots” moves the main storyline forward, opening up new, world-changing chapters.

The various sidequests build in tandem with the main plot down through these chapters. Each subsequent chapter advances not one plot, but dozens, effectively shifting all of Spira forward and ultimately building towards satisfying conclusions for all the various plot threads at game’s end. And best of all, it’s all optional. Help deter escalading violence between the Guado and the Ronso, prevent the ruins of Zanarkand from becoming a gaudy tourist attraction, assist the Al Bhed in their quest to improve Spira with machina, or not. Final Fantasy X-2 instills the series with an unprecedented amount of choice. There are no moral choices here, however; there is a correct solution to every situation and choice merely comes down to whether or not you pursue an activity, not how you pursue it. The entire experience plays like a meeting of Eastern and Western RPG philosophies, incorporating the best values of each. You get the open-ended, exploration-heavy gameplay of a Western title and the rich, predetermined linear story of an Eastern RPG, ultimately carefully balancing overwhelming freedom with strict linearity just right.

In fact, this ability to balance two competing extremes is Final Fantasy X-2’s greatest strength. The game is initially very silly. Yuna and Rikku have joined up with newcomer Paine to form the Gullwings, a trio of fun loving sphere hunters with girl power to spare. The game opens with Yuna performing a J-pop concert in a packed stadium, a trio of bumbling villains, and a loud, cheerful joy, and it ends in somber reflection and the possibility of hope. It strikes a delicate balance between elaborate Scooby Doo jokes and moments of quiet longing. The music signals tonal shifts and ensures we laugh when we’re supposed to and not when we’re not. The most bombastic brass band ever recorded blasts cheerful theme music and easily shifts to quieter, moodier pieces. Additionally, voice acting that’s much improved over Final Fantasy X’s stilted performances brings dialogue to life, lending X-2 a heightened air of credibility. Final Fantasy X-2 wants us to feel the sheer joy of Spira in the Calm – a Spira safe from all danger – but builds a narrative that does not discredit or undermine the poignancy of Final Fantasy X’s conclusion.

When the Gullwings discover the recording of a man who appears shockingly similar to Tidus, they get caught up in the escalading tensions between The Youth League and New Yevon – two groups wresting for control of Spira’s destiny – and set off a series of events relating back to the Machina War a thousand years ago. Before too long, ancient weapons of ultimate evil arrive on the scene, coming as no surprise to anyone who’s ever played a Final Fantasy game before. With Spira rapidly changing, the characters must decide if they will change with it, and look to the past for answers while avoiding its seductive nostalgia. In this way, Final Fantasy X-2 openly tells us how to best approach and understand it. It’s a Final Fantasy game in mythology and systems, but something wholly different in tone and structure. In order to enjoy it we must change any preconceived expectations we have for a Final Fantasy title and appreciate what X-2 does well – incorporating new mechanics with series mainstays.

While the overall structure of the game varies heavily from past entries in the Final Fantasy series, much of the core gameplay remains largely unchanged. Combat plays as it always has; triggering random battles leads to turn-based combat. However, in X-2 combat comes at breakneck speed. At the default settings, ATB bars refill nearly instantly and enemies continue to act as you cycle through menus to select available options, providing you with barely enough time to act, let alone think. Unless you’re a certified genius with the thumb speed to match, dialing down the overall combat speed is highly recommended. Still, even at its slowest settings, combat in X-2 plays faster than in any previous Final Fantasy title, and it’s a good thing too, as battles come often.

The game also incorporates a version of the fan favorite job system. Tried and true job classes like black mages and thieves return alongside new offerings such as the gunner and lady luck. Each job is highly specialized, focused on doing a single thing and doing it well. Black and white mages, for example, lack any sort of basic attack and the songstress is unable to do anything but sing. As such, you’ll be changing jobs often to fulfill the shifting needs of battle. Rather than equip a character with a single job, you instead equip a garment grid which, besides granting some sort of passive bonus, contains a predetermined number of empty job slots. As long has a job is assigned to an equipped garment grid, the character can switch between jobs at any time. Combat, overall, is very easy, but customizing Yuna, Rikku, and Paine with the various jobs is a great deal of fun, just the same.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the enemies and bosses are reused from Final Fantasy X. Though some of these enemies, and especially some of the bosses, have changed in interesting ways since the last time we saw them, spending another 40 hours rebattling the same monsters is redundant and disappointing. In fact, the entire game looks little different from Final Fantasy X, despite the dramatic changes the world has undergone. Tetsuya Nomura returns as character designer, and once again, his designs are hit or miss. Many of the job designs merge the unique style of the character wearing them with the iconic imagery associated with the base job class in clever ways, but nearly all of the supporting cast is flamboyantly overdesigned. Visually, X-2 feels more like an elaborate mod or expansion rather than a full-fledged sequel, and the frequent, if unobtrusive, framerate hitches don’t do it any favors. While the reused graphic assets allows the developers to better draw attention to the areas where Spira has grown or changed, they make the game feel cheaper than it should.

Despite all the controversy surrounding the game and its broad changes to the Final Fantasy formula, at its heart Final Fantasy X-2 is a love letter to fans of the series. The positive fan reaction to Eternal Calm, a short movie included with Final Fantasy X International detailing the fate of Spira after the events of the game, served as the kernel of inspiration for this sequel. As such, X-2 tugs at the heartstrings of longtime fans at every opportunity. Characters named Shinra, Biggs, and Wedge show up over the course of the narrative and in X-2 we learn more about Cactuar ecology and society than we ever thought we needed to know. For the first time ever, you can replay the game with all of your items and skills using a new game plus feature, and with five different endings, there’s plenty of incentive to do so.

As the world’s premiere RPG franchise, a Final Fantasy title comes with 20 years of history. Because the series is renowned for reinventing itself, players expect a certain level of innovation with each new entry, but condemn a Final Fantasy game that strays too far from the established path. For many, Final Fantasy X-2 seems to wander too far from time-honored series conventions, earning itself mostly negative fan reactions and just over half the worldwide sales of Final Fantasy X. A closer inspection, however, reveals that X-2 manages to balance the narrow tightrope between fanservice and complete reinvention, melding the brand new with more traditional fare. Like the Gullwings themselves, players must free themselves from their memories and accept the change X-2 brings with it. The game categorically succeeds, and if you’re willing to toss expectations aside and take a chance on X-2, you’ll find that it’s a change for the better.