😵 The TOUGHEST Final Fantasy Game to 100% Will Break You! 😵

I’ve battled through almost every Final Fantasy game, but this one pushed me to my limits! 🕹️

It’s not just hard—it’s a soul-crushing gauntlet of challenges, from brutal superbosses to maddening sidequests. Even diehard fans struggle to conquer it all! 😱

Which game is the ultimate test of skill?

👉 Find out here:

I’ve beaten almost every mainline Final Fantasy game – one hundred percented most of them – and the hardest one to beat is often overlooked. Final Fantasy games range greatly in the amount of content included. Although they’re all big, and almost all open world (at least in the main series), some simply have more to do than others, whether it’s in mini-games, optional dungeons, or ultra-tough superbosses, some games are just bigger than others.

However, few players saw the biggest and hardest-to-beat Final Fantasy game coming. It’s not open-world, it’s not all that difficult, and, strangest of all, it’s a sequel. That’s right: Final Fantasy X-2, the first true direct sequel in the mainline FF series, is by far the hardest game in the franchise to 100%. There are several reasons why, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the way the game is structured, and the hyper-specific requirements it has if players want to see the entirety of its story.

What Makes FFX-2 So Difficult?

Mini-Games & Missables

 

There are many reasons why FFX-2 is so hard to 100%, but to begin with, let’s talk about the mini-games. The simple fact of it is that FFX-2 has a ton of mini-games, and you have to first unlock all of them, then beat them sufficiently, along the road to 100%. Some of them rely pretty heavily on the player’s luck, too, like Gunner’s Gauntlet and the excavation mini-game, so you can’t rely completely on skill.

But really, as long as you have the time to put into them, FFX-2‘s mini-games aren’t the hardest part of a 100% run. No, what really makes it nigh-impossible (at least without a solid guide) is the staggering amount of missable content. FFX-2 has lots of sidequests, and they’re incredibly easy to miss. Simply fail to exhaust a certain NPC’s dialogue, or choose the wrong option, and your run is ruined. Of course, you can always go back for it on New Game Plus, but even then, a 100% run is just so exceptionally easy to mess up.

Final Fantasy Games Generally Aren’t So Hard

100%-ing Other FFs Is A Different Story

 

Custom Image by Bruno Yonezawa

Lots of Final Fantasy games are hard to 100%, but FFX-2 is a different story. Usually, when we talk about what makes an FF game hard to complete, it’s the optional superbosses that get you down, or grindy mini-games. But in truth, these can all be completed with a sufficient investment of time. Some FF games even have missables, but these are rarely (if ever) related to the platinum trophy. Usually, they’re little treasures, or one-off story moments that, while they add to the experience, are definitely not necessary to it.

FFX-2 is downright cruel in how it withholds information.

Even the original FFX, which requires players to jump through all kinds of hoops to obtain its Ultima Weapons, is very much beatable, as long as you have a lot of patience. And if you don’t 100% complete it, so what? You don’t miss out on much but the platinum trophy and the best weapons in the game, which, again, are nice to have, but wholly unnecessary with a decent loadout and enough leveling.

By contrast, FFX-2 stands out – not just in the sheer amount of missable content and required sidequests involved in getting the platinum trophy, but also in how unfair it is about revealing them. Sure, every FF game has its share of secrets that you have to dig to find, but FFX-2 is, at least in places, downright cruel in how it withholds information about them, burying them in the most obscure possible places with arcane requirements few players will ever even try. And, to make matters worse, it gates an important piece of story content behind them.

FFX-2 Hides An Important Story Scene Behind 100% Completion

You’re Expected To Play Multiple Runs

If you really want to see the entirety of FFX-2‘s story – including an important epilogue that resolves an otherwise very ambiguous plot point – you basically have to achieve 100% completion. I won’t spoil the details, but suffice it to say that the game has its own completion meter (separate from the platinum trophy), and you’ll have to fill it up to see the true ending.

The idea is that FFX-2 requires multiple playthroughs to see everything – you can carry over your completion progress from run to run, as long as it takes to hit 100%. It’s an interesting concept, but gets tedious very quickly, especially considering the arcane requirements of certain scenes. Thankfully, this unique 100% challenge is something that Final Fantasy hasn’t tried to replicate since.