SUMMARY:
I'll say this about FFX-2, it succeeded in altering my favorite RPG from FFX to well... Xenosaga or KOTOR. FFX-2 lacks in so many ways it was disappointing from beginning to end. It starts with Yuna singing and dancing in a pop concert with holographic faggies as dancers and ends with such cliche and cheese I cannot begin to describe it. Below I will list my top 10 reasons on why Final Fantasy X-2 failed in my books.
10. Unoriginal - I'm starting to get sick of the cactuars, moogles, chocobos, and even Cid characters to a degree. Final Fantasy games are incorporating way too many trademarks from past titles and it's becoming repetitive. They need to either drop a few labels or relegate their roles to something supremely minor. No more riding giant chickens, no more Moogles, Ifrits, or Shivas. Repeating the same old aspects 10x in every game is getting old. I've already spent 8 hours raising those goddamn birds from Final Fantasy 7. I already spent hours looking for Al Bhed primers from Final Fantasy 10, I'm not into coaching Blitzball i want to play it. There are just so many little things that add up on this.
9. Terrible Mini Games - Nobody wants to spend their free time sorting out simple math problems. This combined with the fan service clearly markets the game for geeky chessclub nerds.
8. Multiple Endings - I wasn't too hot on the idea. Especially considering how you have to labor for hours performing boring quests so you can witness that "perfect ending". It just wasn't worth it. Something like this is best left to Surival Horror games and the like.
7. Limitation of Abilities - I liked some of the abilities and outfits a lot, but there were too many dress spheres for too short a game. Great designs and decent abilities for each one. But something like that would have been better left for a MMORPG.
6. The Hypello - Final Fantasy's answer to Jar Jar Binks and all things annoying. They're almost as annoying as Brother, who easily takes the spot for the character whose ass you would most like to frag, revive, and frag again.
5. Chapter 4 - You spend a 1/5th of the story watching other people in different places doing jack all other than pushing the X button. Great way to bore you to tears.
4. No real danger - You fly around in an airship from beginning to end, able to pick any spot you want to go to. The story isn't linear which would be fine for a new FF title. However, FFX-2 was the first sequel and was supposed to explore unanswered questions from the first one. Instead I found myself performing mundane tasks that bored me out of playing. I don't find PR for some company to be very entertaining work. Nearly every quest was of unimportance bearing no relation to the storyline. It was a terrible 1st attempt at non-linear gameplay.
3. Immaturity Content - Before I bought the game, I remember reading a review about it in a gaming magazine. It quoted the story to be "light hearted until halfway through the game ... some parts actually made me laugh out loud which is a good thing." I wish somebody slapped that author silly for those words. The lines and acting were so terrible I actually cringed in some parts. The whole YRP thing was stupid too and was made to be so Charlie's Angels like it was sickening. BTW - did anybody tell Square that CA: Full Throttle sucked ass? I guess not.
2. The *bleep* - Maybe nobody told the writers the connection between Brother and Yuna. Brother being Rikku's blood sister makes him Yuna's first cousin. Hence, it's just not quite right for brother to go love crazy for his own cousin. Every scene with Brother not only made me cringe, it disgusted me at the same time. Pretty gross.
1. There's no climax - Every Final Fantasy that I can remember has had some sort of pinnacle in the story. Something which is so creative and amazing it simply leaves the player awestruck. Examples are usually found in CG cut scene's like FF7's Aeris Death Scene or FF8's Balamb Garden Assault. FFX's Red Carpet Crash being my favorite of the bunch. FFX-2 has no such point in the game and that was what I found most disappointing. I can forgive some cheesy acting and scenes but leaving out great moments which square writers are capable of making is unforgivable.

In conclusion, you might like this game if your into dancing and singing or really REALLY like Yuna and Rikku (Paine was actually my favorite of the three, certainly the most tolerable)0. You also might like it if your 10 years old and don't mind the whining and immature humour associated with it. Much of my criticism is on the storyline and depth of the game. The fighting and "game" aspect is pretty decent and earns high marks. But because Final Fantasy is all about story-telling which has no doubt brought about most of its success, that critical point is where this game fails most.