I’m in the middle of playing the 100% playthrough of Final Fantasy X-2 on Twitch. And I can tell you — it can sometimes be to both my and my audiences’ dismay. When I have spent the entire stream on just Gunner’s Gauntlet or just getting the Ribbon accessory at the end of Chapter 2, you may begin to wonder — how long does it actually take to go through FFX-2?
When I played FFX-2 for the first time, I played without assistance and got the ‘normal’ ending, which felt sad and lackluster. I had done no side quests and probably only put about ten hours in the game if that.
But according to HowLongToBeat.com, FFX-2 takes approximately 30 hours to beat normally and 113 hours to get 100% completion. Those numbers are contested and don’t sound exactly right to me as someone who has played this game multiple times.
In this article, I’m breaking down the amount of time each game takes by type of playthrough.
How Long Speed Runs Take in FFX-2
If you’re aiming to get through FFX-2 in the shortest time possible with Any% completion, you can expect to get your time under 6 hours.
With Any% complete, you can get your percentage as low as about 25%.
The record-holder according to speedrun.com is CaracarnVi, who streamed on Twitch a 3:41:49 playthrough. You can see his playthrough in this recorded Twitch vod, titled “Final Fantasy X-2 RTA (PS2 / NA) – 3:41:49“.
In this playthrough, there is first heavy use of the Thief dress sphere for all three girls when they start, but they adopt the Dark Mage and the Dark Knight dress sphere when they become available. The girls then exploit the ‘charon’ ability — a move where the girls sacrifice themselves for high damage. The girls also boost their power with ‘focus’ and traverse through the garment grid for greater stats.
How Long the ‘Normal’ Ending Takes in FFX-2
A ‘normal’ ending is essentially an Any% complete. In other words, a speed run gets a ‘normal’ ending.
If you don’t follow a guide or do the work necessary for the ‘good’ ending, you get a ‘normal’ ending by default.
A ‘Normal’ ending would likely take you 6 to 10 hours of gameplay or upwards, depending on how relaxed you are with the playthrough.
How Long the ‘Good’ Ending Takes in FFX-2
The ‘Good’ ending is what most people aim for. You have to do specific side missions, select specific dialogue options, and mash a button over and over while you’re in the Farplane (no spoilers in this post).
FFX-2 is a game that really requires a walkthrough guide, or at least something to reference so that you don’t miss key pieces for this ending.
The good ending for most players takes approximately 20 hours.
How Long the ‘Perfect’ Ending Takes in FFX-2
This is the reason numbers are so inaccurate when you search for how long this game takes. While many gamers are not completionists inherently, many of us are fans of FFX and we want all of the content we can get out of FFX-2 — even if that means getting 100% so we can see the perfect ending.
I am still on my quest to get the perfect ending on Twitch, having poured in 30 hours and 44% completion.
Estimates show that the ‘perfect ending’ takes upward of 100 hours — perhaps 80 hours on the low end.
How Long Completionists Take in FFX-2
It is possible to do more than get 100% in FFX-2. There are those who continue to play the game, completing all the extras including maxing out character stats. This type of gameplay can take upward of 200 hours.
How Long with New Game Plus
To get the most out of FFX-2, you may want to do a natural first playthrough where you explore and do the quests you want. With a new game plus you keep your percentage, items, and dress spheres, so you can play the game again with the assistance of a guide to pick up pieces you missed that you now want to see.
This is how I played FFX-2 when I first picked up the game in the mid 2000s, and I assume this is the experience of many gamers. In this case, it’s fair to estimate that you will put around 50 hours into the game, easily.
Is FFX-2 Longer than FFX?
FFX had two years of development time with a staff of 100 while FFX-2 only had one year and half the staff. However, FFX-2 had the benefit of reusing many of the same assets of FFX.
The answer: FFX has a much more powerful and longer story with 12 hours of required cut scenes alone. FFX is also a game you can pour hundreds of hours in, whereas you would definitely lose steam with FFX-2 around 200 hours.
Overall though, for what FFX-2 is, it still delivers on a lot of value, although I advise for your sanity to take the FFX-2 story far less seriously.
And if you are still unsure about FFX-2 and want to give it a try, join me on Twitch and let’s talk about it.
