Final Fantasy X-2 Story

Spoilers

Taking place two years after the events of Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 focuses largely on the reconstruction of Spira in the wake of Sin (the malevolent creature who rampaged across Spira for 1,000 years) being destroyed in Final Fantasy X. With the passing of the great beast, the era known as "the spiral of death" passed into a new era: the Eternal Calm. The present day story revolves around three young women: the returning characters Yuna (the high summoner who defeated Sin along with her guardians) and Rikku (Yuna's Al Bhed cousin and one of Yuna's guardians from Final Fantasy X), and a new character named "Paine."

The story begins as Rikku arrives with a video sphere found by Kimahri Ronso, which contains a recording of someone who looks very much like Tidus confined to a prison. She then convinces Yuna that she's done her duty to the world and deserves to seek out the truth behind the sphere, and learn if Tidus is still alive.

The game is punctuated by a narration of Yuna addressing Tidus, as though she's recounting the events of the game to him as they occur, a style reminiscent of Tidus' own narration in Final Fantasy X. Though Yuna's quest and purpose in joining the Gullwings, a group of sphere hunters is to find clues that may lead her to Tidus, the main storyline of the game follows the clash of the various factions that have established themselves in the time since the coming of the Eternal Calm, as well as the uncovering of hidden legacies from Spira's ancient history.

This central plot begins with the death of its main antagonist, Shuyin. One thousand years before Tidus and Yuna's time, Shuyin was a famous blitzball player in the highly advanced machina (machine) city of Zanarkand. He was the lover of a popular songstress named "Lenne," who was also very talented in the arts of summoning. Unfortunately, they lived during the time when Zanarkand was at war with the powerful city of Bevelle. During the course of the war, Zanarkand ordered all summoners to the front lines, separating the couple. Believing that she would die in battle, Shuyin decided that the only way to save her was to activate Vegnagun, an enormous machina weapon buried beneath Bevelle that is said to be unable to distinguish friend from foe once online. He believed he could use Vegnagun to end the war and bring Lenne safely back to him. When Shuyin first reached the massive machina, he was caught and jailed. Determined to use the behemoth machina, however, Shuyin escaped and ventured out again to activate it. However, wishing against the loss of so much life for her sake, Lenne went after Shuyin, and when he arrived at Vegnagun for the second time, he had just began to play the organ atop the giant machina, the machine's control panel. Vegnagun began to stir and its massive cannon protruded from its mouth, but it was at this time that Lenne called to Shuyin to stop, which he did. Tragically, a group of Bevelle's soldiers arrived a moment later and aimed their rifles at the young couple and fired. Their bodies fatally injured, they fell to the floor beside one another, with Lenne attempting to tell Shuyin that she loved him before they died. Sadly, Shuyin never heard her words.

One thousand years later, when Yuna falls into the Farplane during the course of Final Fantasy X-2, Shuyin mistakes her for Lenne and is relieved at being "reunited". He describes how he awoke after they died, alone and unable to find her, and expresses anger that people have not yet come to understand the futility and wastefulness of war. Shuyin then reveals that he developed a plan to use the old, but still functional Vegnagun to destroy all of Spira, thus ending the possibility of there ever again being a war like the one that cost he and Lenne their lives (Believing that he will be doing the world a favor in "fixing it"). He believes that he will then be able to "fade away" with his beloved Lenne and be at peace.

A significant portion of the game's events are actually unnecessary for completion of the main storyline, but much of the depth of the story, such as character backgrounds are featured in the optional content, which generally follows how each part of Spira is healing in the time since the passing of Sin. The themes of the game include searching for identity, coming to terms with loss and change, the notion of personal responsibility and the idea of learning from past mistakes. Like other second-time saviors, Yuna comes to reject the notion that sacrifice is the only way to solve problems.