Side Quest #12: OPERATION MONKEY Location: Zanarkand Ruins The matchmaking Gullwings help preserve Zanarkand from tourists! Objective: Pair up the monkeys with their proper partners. This one is simple. Head to the Zanarkand Ruins in Chapter 3 and talk to Isaaru. He'll tell you about the Monkeys, which will start this Mini-Game.

Ffx 2 Monkey Quest 2

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/FinalFantasyX2

Go To

Ffx-2 Monkey Quest

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Here.
• Angst? What Angst?: Gippal has considerably less angst about his past than the other three Crimson Squad members. He isn't flippant about those events, but you can tell there was a lesson learned. He's the only one who acknowledges Paine when he meets her: He excitedly says 'you!' but plays along when she pretends they've never met.
• Anticlimax Boss: Vegnagun, which can be taken down almost effortlessly if the characters' levels are even slightly above average (e.g. you sought 100% Completion or partook in even a few of the game's countless sidequests). Afterward, the Final Boss is a piece of cake in comparison.
• Awesome Music: As with all games in the series.

  Advertisement:

  • Just try to listen to 'Kuon: Memories of Waves and Light' without shedding one tear. Same goes for '1000 Words'.
  • 'The Zanarkand Ruins'.
  • 'Real Emotion'.
  • 'Yuna's Ballad', which is used as the battle theme against Dark Bahamut and is basically an instrumental version of her theme song 'Kimi He' (To You).
  • The final boss theme 'Their Resting Place,' especially when you notice the Dark Reprise elements of '1000 Words.'
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Yuna, due to how her personality evolves in this game. Then there is the hotly-debated audio drama Final Fantasy X -Will-, wherein she breaks up with Tidus out of nowhere by claiming there is somebody else she loves, which caused some fans to lose all respect for the character (while others would rather not acknowledge it at all). The audio drama does have its defenders, though: Some have claimed that Yuna's infidelity is blown out of proportion after actually listening to the damn track and noted that there is plenty of evidence to suggest that she made the whole thing up.

  Advertisement:

  • Chuami from the audio drama. You either like her for how direct she is, or... not. And that's without addressing her claim that she's Auron's daughter.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Some people dismiss this as that game where Yuna and Rikku gain much skimpier outfits, Yuna ushers in world peace via J-pop, the hot springs scene, and the scene where a disguised Yuna has to give LeBlanc a back massage and LeBlanc sounds really into it.
• Contested Sequel: The Lighter and Softer tone contrasted sharply against Final Fantasy X. Probably the rest of the series too, aside from Final Fantasy V, anyway (which it shares gameplay similarities with).
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Rikku/Gippal is a popular pairing even if there’s only a bit of Ship Tease canonically. There are numerous shipping videos, and the majority of fan art of Gippal depict him as Rikku's boyfriend.

  Advertisement:

  • Paine/Baralai has some traction too, which is surprising since there's absolutely no hint of it in the game! The logic seems to be that as Yuna's Single-Target Sexuality is for Tidus, Rikku is busy with Gippal and Nooj is (begrudgingly) tied to LeBlanc; Baralai and Paine are the only two members of their respective trios not paired up.
• Fanon:
  • Yuna somehow being a reincarnation of Lenne is a popular theory. This is mainly due to Shuyin mistaking Yuna for Lenne even though the two look nothing alike. The in-universe reason is that the Songstress dressphere has Lenne's outfit and her memories imprinted on it; it's also implied that Yuna sings with Lenne's voice. (This is better-represented in the Japanese version, where Lenne's speaking and singing voice are provided by Koda Kumi.)
  • There is some confusion as to the age of the Crimson Squad members. Baralai is mistakenly thought to be the youngest, possibly due to being voiced by Rick Gomez's younger brother Josh. Gippal is actually the youngest, only being eighteen, while Baralai is twenty. It's All There in the Manual.
  • Rikku and Gippal being an Official Couple is mostly Fanon. While there are definite hints in the game, it's entirely a Maybe Ever After situation.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • The game being a sequel to X is enough for purists to pretend it doesn't exist. Others disliked how cheery the setting has become, or how Yuna and Rikku have gotten “too ditzy“ to the point of their personalities being erased for the sake of fanservice.
  • The abominable audio drama (included in the HD remaster) re-ignited the fan base. Yuna breaks up with Tidus because he is supposedly cheating on her, and then she claims to be in love with someone else, despite the fact that this comes completely out of nowhere. A new character made specifically for the drama claims to be the daughter to Auron purely on the basis that her mother told her so. Lastly, Sin, which was eliminated for good, comes back into the picture just because someone or something wished it back. Needless to say, a lot of fans prefer to ignore the audio drama and preserve what they liked about the characters, thank you.
• 'Funny Aneurysm' Moment: One of the Fiend Tales depicts a Bomb pretending to be a blitzball to encourage a little kid (his best friend in the fiend's human life) to train hard. The audio drama has a scene of Tidus getting blown to bits by a grenade he thought was a blitzball.
• Game-Breaker: Here.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: Although it received positive reviews upon release, the game has a sizable hatedom partly due to being marketed to women, especially when compared to other Final Fantasy games.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: George Newbern voicing a soldier who went mad from his war experiences becomes kind of funny, since he was picked to be the voice actor for Sephiroth in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
• Les Yay:
  • There's quite a bit of it between YRP, particularly during the hot spring scene in Gagazet. Rikku checks out both Yuna and Paine, making it clear that she's commenting on their boobs/butts. The girls proceed to have a bit of a playful Cat Fight until Brother interrupts them with his horniness.
  • A later scene has Rikku compare herself to Lenne's dead lover, Shuyin, by recounting how she once tried to save the one sheloved; complete with holding Yuna's hands.
  • There's a Mini-Game where Yuna has to straddle LeBlanc and give her a massage, complete with suggestive moans of pleasure. When she falls asleep at the end, Yuna peers at her magic fingers and remarks with awe about how 'good' she is.
• Most Wonderful Sound: When you change to Lady Luck mid-battle. 'Ladies and gentlemen!'
• Narm Charm:
  • 'WHO THE HECK IS LENNE!?' Yuna's aversion to swearing is indicative of the game's Lighter and Softer tone, but her VA manages to sound genuinely pissed off.
  • Yuna's, 'I don't like your plan. It sucks.' Unintentionally funny for some (everybody present recoils as though she just uttered a string of raunchy expletives), but it precedes a Rousing Speech about how she’s tired of people sacrificing their lives for a hollow victory, and how she will make sure Everybody Lives this time around. She manages to get the Machine Faction, the Youth League, and the LeBlanc Syndicate on the same page, along with perpetual Death Seeker Mevyn Nooj.
• Nightmare Fuel: Shinra fusing withand separating from Omega Weaponin the International version
• Older Than They Think: X-2 is often credited as 'the first direct sequel' to a mainline Final Fantasy, forgetting that Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals predates this game by nine years.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Not everyone was keen on the direction of the game relative to its predecessor. However, most agree that X-2 features a great implementation of the Active Time Battle system, with characters performing multiple actions all at once (which befits the theme about teamwork) and allowing players to switch classes on the fly during battle.
• The Scrappy: While Brother was likable enough in X (partly due to how useful he was in Blitzball), here his incestuous and childish tendencies grated on the nerves of more than one player. Brother also suffered from being a Replacement Scrappy for Cid.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer:
  • Sphere Break. And possibly the Calms Lands agencies.
  • Choco-Digging!
  • Creature Creator in the international and HD editions: Being able to recruit nearly every fiend out there and have them join your party instead of YRP. And every single one of them have their own capsule bio. That's not even going into the tournament-style Fiend Arena, which grants you incredibly valuble items in later tournaments, and the requirements needed to unlock certain fiends and tournament cups. There's just so much to do, you can spend hours in creature creator without even progressing in the main story.
• Special Effect Failure: The most notorious instance is Rikku's calling out 'Monkey!', which is accompanied by so many lip movements that it looks like there was meant to be a whole line of dialogue there.
• Squick: Brother being madly in love with Yuna...when you remember that they're cousins. First cousins, at that!
• Strangled by the Red String: A variation. Since X ended, Lulu and Wakka are now together and expecting a baby. There were approximately two scenes in the first game which hinted at a possible romance between them: The first being Lulu comforting him during the Blitzball finals, and the second being Tidus suggesting she hook up with him (which she flatly refused). Although it's entirely possible for them to make a love connection in the two year Time Skip.
• That One Attack:
  • Pernicious Powder is an overpowered attack used by Mushroom Cloud, an enemy found in the deepest levels of the Bonus Dungeon Via Infinito. It's an unavoidable, party-wide, immunity-bypassing debuff which lowers the Strength, Defense, Magic, and Magic Defense of its victims to a mere one-sixth of their usual values! In addition, it inflicts a bunch of status ailments (much like the Malboro's infamous Bad Breath) including Petrify, so there's a chance this attack can simply kill you outright if you're not protected against that ailment. Mushroom Cloud also knows Ultima, so good luck surviving it with just 1/6 of your normal Magic Defense!
    • Also an enormous Game-Breaker in the International and HD versions. You can capture your very own Mushroom Cloud as soon as the Via Infinito opens up. And yes, he can use this exact same attack, with no downgrade in power whatsoever, on your enemies. Pernicious Powder's stat-lowering effect works on every enemy in the game (even foes normally immune to such debuffs), and it will trivialize the game's Bonus Bosses.
  • Black Elemental's Ultima. Coming from a mob with 250 Magic, it spells Game Over even with Shell on—and it cannot be Reflected.
  • Paragon, basically Nemesis (X's bonus boss in all but name), has kept his Apocalypse attack, here renamed Big Bang. It does 99999 damage more often than not, and you can't have more than 18000 HP in a vanilla game. (You have the option to HP-boost creatures in the HD/International version.) It is only used when special attacks are used on Paragon, but that kind of limits your options against him.
  • The Delta Attack Overdrive by The Dark Magus Sisters. It automatically drops the HP of all your characters to 1. Worth noting that if you do the math, it did a LOT more damage when used against fiends in X; considering it can only harm your HP cap, the Dark Sisters' version is actually quite handicapped.
  • Yojimbo's Zanmato does the same thing, with the added 'bonus' of depleting all of your MP. Oh, but keep in mind that he uses an attack which Poisons, so either guard against that or heal it, or you're in deep shit: At 1 HP, the Scratch Damage from Poison will kill everyone. Yojimbo is an optional boss, but of course he's required for 100% completion.
  • Azi Dahaka has an annoying attack which knocks off 50% of your max HP. Not current; max. It hits everyone at once, so it can catch you off guard if you haven't been healing.
  • Heartless Attack, which drops your HP to 1. It's only encountered with a few enemies outside of the Monster Arena, but a lot of the exclusive enemies in the arena use it, to the point where L-size monsters are useless beyond Grand Cup: Hard.
  • In the Den of Woe, Nooj's Lightfall. It does 5000 unblockable damage on the entire party, in a game where the maximum base HP at Level 99 is around 6600. Thankfully, he uses it only when he Turns Red, so cutting him down to size before he uses it is quite doable. Unfortunately, Lightfall is Nooj's opening attack in the Fiend Arena, and after that, he pulls it off at random intervals.
  • Almighty Shinra's Clione, which deals 10 hits of damage to random targets. It is usually Almighty Shinra's opening attack.
• That One Boss: Far too many of the bonus bosses than should be healthy.
  • Nooj deserves special mention. Not only does Lightfall drain MP, but it hits your HP pretty heavily, too.
  • Azi Dahaka, a skippable boss. His normal melee attack is actually several attacks done in one turn (so you can't stagger him at all), and it drains your HP. Meanwhile, his Damocles Photon drains 50% of your max HP. The best part is that it's Permanently Missable if you don't try to encounter it in the final dungeon.
  • The Experiment machina at Djose with all of its stats at level five can wreck even a high-level party with ease. The (mercifully rarely used) Lifeslicer does damage equal to its target's max HP. Unless you're using a Sphere Grid or accessory with Break HP Limit, you WILL die.
  • Mega Tonberry. It does not appear outside of the Monster Arena for good reason. It has strong attacks and moves quickly, along with other nasty side effects if you survive it.
• That One Level: The Thunder Plains New Cave is unlocked after completing the quest in Act 5. A veritable maze with non-sequential doors that unlock by adding up certain numbers (fiends encountered, gil earned, etc.) that are given to you throughout. Have a pen and paper with you, as the combinations of later doors often involve the codes from previous doors! (It also helps to wear a Charm Bangle to prevent random encounters, because you'll have to keep track of the amount of gil you've earned since entering the dungeon.)
• That One Sidequest:
  • The matchmaking/publicity sidequests, which require you to walk up to random NPCs and pick from a list of five sales pitches, which will prompt either a positive or negative response from the NPC. The problem is, without an FAQ or guide, you're given no clues whatsoever as to which statement to pick for which NPC. And if you want the best results for either sidequest (which is required for 100% completion), you have to be near-perfect. Pure sadism! You're thus reduced to either consulting a guide, Save Scumming to oblivion or blowing all your money at the Calm Lands building to boost your rep the slow way. Even if you DO consult a guide for it, it's a game-spanning quest!
  • Sphere Break against Shinra if you're bad at math. If you're not, it still requires a bit of luck, because his core tends to generate 1s, which is likely to break your echo chain combos. You must beat him if you want to acquire the Lady Luck dressphere.
    • The new Sphere Break opponents in the International/HD remake have quotas starting from 300 and go all the way up to 600. There's a reason they reward you with end-game gear.
  • The Chocobo Ranch. The only useful thing you can reap from it is a few Bonus Dungeons, a few Garment Grids and access to the Central Expanse for digging. Aside from that, you'll get tons upon tons of trash. And locating one of those dungeons is completely obscure.
  • Did you hate the Cactuar Sidequest to power up Rikku's weapon in the previous game? Well, you'll be thrilled to learn hunting 10 Cactuars to complete a quest, including playing minigames with them, is required for 100% completion. However, this time they are spread all over Spira, so good luck decoding cryptic messages to find them all. Oh, and the final Cactuar is a pretty nasty Marathon Boss.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some people dislike the changes to the blitzball mechanic, becoming a coaching minigame of sorts rather than an active sport.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • While dealing with the groups who emerged in the political fallout of the last game made for an interesting last act, some people think that the game would have been a lot more interesting if that was the plot of the main story.
  • The Good and True endings, for some. There is no buildup or reason (except one vague line from Bahamut) to explain why Tidus revives two years after the events of Final Fantasy X, or how Shuyin's incident is related to him.
  • Brother's relationship with Yuna. It's stated that he learned the common language so he could communicate with her, which could have been a decent subplot about Yuna and Brother bonding as cousins after they were prevented from doing so as children. Instead it was used for a widely-disliked Running Gag about Brother's blue balls.
• Uncertain Audience: Some male gamers were turned off by the sassy female leads and the dress-up aspect, while some female gamers were weirded out by the blatant fanservice.
• Vindicated by History:
  • After the novel was released, a lot of people are praising the game for not having the same shoddy quality!
  • Years later, longtime fans look back warmly at the gameplay, even considering it to have one of the best battle systems in the series.