So says Jim Berwick:

Concepts are only good if they are well-implemented.

Noted.

- Avenger

If by constant you mean a collective 15 minutes in a 30 hour plus game than yes
you are correct.

The sphere grid system was adapted into a much more complex "dressphere"
one, which is at least as deep as junctioning, but not as easy to 'abuse'
(see: 100 Curagas in the first three hours of gameplay using L-Mag RF,
potential 30,000 Demis from refining Diablos's card in the first Disc).
There's something of a job system, but you can change it in mid-battle and
without any delay or penalty, and as the game goes on there are more ways to
cross-breed your job class. you lay out the available jobs on a dressphere,
which is like a really tiny sphere grid, and you move from node to node in
battle to change jobs. Sometimes there are temporary stat bonuses from
moving between certain nodes -- put a magic class on one side of a
Strength+20% and a Warrior class on the other, and you gain an instant
strength boost when you change from mage to warrior.

The battle system is easily the most fun of the series. It's back to ATB,
but with a more interactive spin on things. Turns can be executed at the
same time, and frequently I've had a wolf enemy start to run towards me, and
was able to shoot him down with the Trigger Happy ability (press R1
repeatedly over a time limit, like Irvine's limit break) before he got to my
character to inflict any damage. There's something of a delay effect when
you select an attack, but once you get the general idea of the timing down,
you can use it to your advantage, stopping enemies dead in their tracks, and
setting up your characters to execute a chain attack, adding to the damage
you inflict.

The in-field gameplay is less exciting, but the jump aspect is not as
painful as you might think. There are certain areas where you can jump by
pressing circle, and Yuna will do it automatically, so you don't have to
worry about Xenogears-style platform puzzles. Other than that, it's FFX but
more episodic, as you can go anywhere at almost any time from hour one. If
you can put up with the at times nasueating dialogue and campy style (unlike
the underwater scene from FFX, at least they know they're being gay here),
it's a blast.

-Homyguy Z

Maybe this will answer your question.  Maybe it's just long.  I guess these
are some things I enjoy about FFX2.

Ability system
-------------------

You start off with 4 jobs (Dress spheres), and one Garment Grid.  Each
character can equip any of these jobs and they get different costumes etc
for each job.  The starting jobs are the three character's default jobs,
Warrior, Thief, Gunner, and the extra Songstress.  As you progress you
collect other jobs such as Black and White Mage, Gun Mage, Knight, Samurai,
etc.  (there are others).

You also collect more Garment Grids as you progress.  Some Grids have
special powers by default, bonuses to stregth, the ability to use abilities
from another job, etc.  Each grid has a certain number of nodes on it that
you fill with Dress spheres.  There are maybe 2 or 3 basic chapes that are
repeated a lot on the grids but there are a couple of special shapes as
well. We'll use the starting grid as our example.

The stating grid is sort of a three pronged star shape with nodes at each
end of the prongs and two at the base of each prong (corner nodes are shared
by each prong.  This gives a total of 6 nodes.

          1
         / \
       2 - 3
    /    \  /  \
   4 --  5-- 6

Hopefully that comes out.  Think "Triforce".

Something like that only more stylized in shape.  Each number is a node, the
lines are paths on the grid you can follow, similar tot he FFX Sphere Grid.
You may place any job you want in these nodes to create custom filled grids.
You can change the jobs on the grid if you need to as well, it's not
permenant or anything.  You can also reuse jobs in other grids but you may
only use a job once per grid (unless you have two copies of that job, which
you can gain during a New Game+).

Now, let's say the nodes are filled as so
1- Thief
2- Warrior
3- Songstress
4- Black Mage
5- Gunner
6- White Mage
Let's also say each girl is at thier default class (Rikku Thief, Paine
Warrior, Yuna Gunner).  Outside of battle you may change to any of these
jobs.  Inside battle you may only gollow paths on the grid.  Rikku is
currently a thief at slot 1, she may use one turn to switch to either
2-Warrior, or 3-Songstress.  She will require 2 turns to get down to the
other nodes.

However Pain, who is at node 2-Warrior may go to any of slots 1, 3 ,4 , and
5.  But she will need two turns to become a White Mage.  This creates some
strategy.  If You are primarily using a certain class for your characters,
you'd probaly want to place the pain classes on the central 2, 3, and 5
nodes (in this case anyway).  This allows for more flexability in battle.
Like I said, there are also a verity of shapes the grid can take.

One final note on Grids.  Sometimes the nodes are allready filled with
special attributes.  The above grid doesn't work for this point so let's
modify it slightly.

          1
         / \
       X   Y
    /          \
   4 --  Z-- 6

Now, the grid only has 3 nodes to fill with jobs but still has slots in the
missing nodes.  Let's sat each of these special slots (X, Y, Z)have the
following attributes as designated by the grid. (NOTE: This is a fictional
example set up).
X- Cast Cure on Party
Y- Caste Hastega
Z- Cast Flare
YZ- Ability to cast Wuto-Life

Now let's say Rikku is a node 4, then she moves to Node 6.  By passing
across Z, she will automatically cast the spell "Flare" on her enemies.
Next round she moves on to node 1.  By passing across node Y, she will
automatically cast Hastega (Haste on everyone).  However, passing across
both Z and Y has ALSO gained her the ability to cast the white  magic spell
Auto-Life.  This is not cast automatically but becomes a command.

Moving on...

Learning abilities isn't nearly as complicated.  Each job has (I think) 16
abilities.  Not all abilities can be learned initially.  For example, White
Mage's "Cure 2" only becomes available after learning Cure.  Gunner's Lv3
Trigger Happy is only available after Lv2 Trigger happy is learned and so
on.

You learn skills by gaining AP in battle.  Cure may take 20 AP to learn,
"Cure 2" may take 50.  The AP is not cumulative.  You would need 70 AP to
learn both spells in this example.  I've found on average it takes 1000 AP
to "Master" a job.  As far as I can tell there are no real benefits to
mastering a job.

You can only use abilities from one job at a time unless you have a special
Grid or Accessory equiped that allow otherwise.  Generally at most you'd
only be able to manage abilities from 4 jobs at once (One Equipped Job, Two
Accessories that give you job abilities and one special grid that gives
abilities.  This does hav the effect of limiting "Uber characters".

Gaining abilities from other jobs in this way may not be as beneficial as
you might think however.  Jobs also have stats relevant to themselves.  A
Warrior using a Grid that gives White Magic abilities will not cast Cure as
effectively as a White Mage casting cure due to a low Magic stat.

In place of limits there are also character specific "Super Dresspheres".
These are activated by draveling to all nodes on the Grid in a single
battle.  In the above grid it would take 6 rounds to travel to each node
before you could use the "Limit".  (NOTE: The "round time" for changing jobs
is pretty short and 3 or 4 changes can be done in a "standard battle round".
More information later under "battles".)

I find overall the system is easy to use and limited in a good way.  Your
warrior can't cast magic, but that Black Made node might be one turn away.
The only part I really dislike is the lack of benefit for mastering a job.
I would have much prefered that mastering = permenant learning of abilities,
but that would have been unbalancing.

Battles
----------

The battles in this game are quick.  Incredibly quick.  You may not even
realize you fought them quick.  Boss Battles tend to be a bit longer but you
can finish a random battle in a few seconds pretty easily if you're strong
enough.  Everything happens in "real time" and everyone moves around the
battle field (to some extent).  There are a few area effect attacks that
won't hurt characters if they aren't in the path of the attack.  This gives
ranged classes like Gunner a lot of use.  The moving effect isn't as
dramatic as say, FFT.  It's not done manually or anything.  Your characters
just end up wherever after an attack sometimes.

There are also a somewhat interesting chain effect to attacks.  Attacks to
more damage the more you have in a row.  This creates a lot of strategy in
timing.  It's better to have a gunner attack with Trigger Happy (10+ hits in
a row) THEN have the warrior run in and strike than to have the warrior
strike first.  The first example will give the warrior the 11th hit on a
chain and will cause them to do greater damage than if they hit the first
hit.  If you're REALLY GOOD it's conceivable you could chain three Gunner
together indefinitely with Trigger Happy.

Perhapse it's beneficial to talk a bout about Trigger Happy.  It's one of
(if not THE) most interesting and useful abilities in the game.  It works a
lot like Irvine's Limit in FF8.  You get a timmer.   You pound the L1
trigger.  Each press does one hit.  It's a lot faster than Irvine's limit
too.  You can level up the ability to gain a longer timer as well.  This job
is crucual for getting high level chain hits.  See the number of hits resets
if there is a break in the attack.

Other than Trigger Happy there are a ton of other abilities due to all of
the classes.  Magic users are very streamlined, ex. Black Mages cast the
basic 3 level element spells plus a couple of other magics.  Gunner has a
bunch of different types of specilized shots, the Warrior cas special sword
techniques.

Other
--------

Well this is getting long so I'll just rouch on a few other points.

The plot is campy as hell though I thought it was rather fun and
entertaining.  Each Chapter has a series of missions for each area you can
visit.  There is a bit of crossover but mostly each area has it's own
storyline to follow from the Ronso's wish to war against the Guado to Wakka
and Lulu's baby, to preventing Cid from turning Zanarkand into an amusement
park.  Frankly I found the side quests to be more interesting than the main
plot.  The overall feel however is a very character and sub-character driven
storyline rather than a plot driven storyline.  You follow and learn the
quirks and peronalities of the people of the world and observe the after
effects of the collapse of thier religion.

Yuna is a lot less lame than in FFX.  I hated Yuna in FFX.

Paine seems to come completely out of nowhere initially but as you travel
along you'll learn more about her past and how she is indeed tied to the
storyline.

Though the plot is mostly character driven, the story did have a few
interesting twists.  Elements that I didn't expect to be important ended up
being crucial.  The final area and modivations of the characters had a good
overall feel but I didn't care for the presentation.  Perhapse Yuna was
reverting back to her old annoying self a bit.

New Game+ is great.  The 100% ending was dumb.

Etc.

Anyway make up your mind about it.  This group is probably mostly split in
the subject.  This game is definitely either you love it a lot or hate it
absolutely.
--
Ramen Junkie

http://www.lameazoid.com

Bah, the game is all about characters.  Just because they aren't angst
ridden save the world types.
--
Ramen Junkie

http://www.lameazoid.com