Spank the monkey. Final Fantasy X-2 continues.

Luck be a lady. Question is,
was she born a lady?

So I have finally beaten Final Fantasy X-2. The first play through was deliberately minimal as I wanted to unlock new game plus ASAP. I ended up getting 55% on story percentage. Clocked about 30 hours, with Yuna at LV20, Paine at LV30 and Rikku somewhere in between. Surprisingly long considering how much of the contents I've skipped. I also completed about 30% of creatures.

The hardest fights were Dark Yojimbo and the final fights. Dark Yojimbo was nasty as it was in the middle of chapter 3 and I haven't yet discovered using Wring with creatures for Flare abuse. So I ended up doing the fight with very under levelled YRP. Tried a few strategies while getting my arse kicked. When I eventually beat him Yuna was a Festivalist (whom spent most of the time using items), Rikku as Alchemist (with no abilities learned) and Paine as Berserker. I had Paine Berserked for as much of the fight as possible, and Yuna/Rikku doing the healing. Occasionally, Yuna would fire off a clog (worthless) and Rikku mixed a 3-hit elemental concoction for some additional damage, but sometimes I'd have them just chain with Paine with their regular attacks.

The biggest problem with Dark Yojimbo was its Zanmato which reduced HP and MP to 1, so MP

Lulu. Working the maternity leave
campaign for the next election.

based skills were useless. Also its dagger attack would inflict poison, which would kill a girl after Zanmato. So I gave 2 of them accessories to prevent Poison, and had Rikku use Antidote on Paine. After about 30 minutes I managed to whittle down its 22,000 HP.

The other bosses were easily dispatched with some Flare abuse with creatures. I made sure to obtain the Meggido Garment Grid, which gives Flare and Ultima as gate abilities. I've used this in the past to quickly get past the final bosses so it was my go to strategy.

I had some trouble with the last series of bosses. Had Yuna (LV20) as Black Mage (after a gate change on Megiddo to get Flare) with Wring and Minerva Plate. Rikku was Alchemist (with Item LV2 and Chemist) with the accessory for Auto-Haste, and Paine as Thief for some free items and Key to Success for high HP. She's my tank, whom would survive hard hits. Yuna had insanely low HP, about 350, as both of her accessories lowers HP.

So for the tail it was no problem. Paine would survive its initial attack and bring Rikku back to life, whom then revives Yuna and the Flare nuking would begin. Wring is freakin' ridiculous! Super fast Flare charge time with no recharge, so she was able to nuke super fast.

When I got to the next fight, the leg, was when my troubles began. My strategy was sucky. I was going to get Yuna to change jobs 4 times to get Ultima to nuke all 4 targets, but took way too long. After 2 changes I had Yuna and Rikku dead and Paine petrified.

I want that one.
Yuna shopping for new bras at Spira-mart.

So the next time I tried, I decided to stick to Flare with 1 gate change, and Rikku threw a quick Star Curtain for reflect. It reflected Break and Flare back to the orbs while Yuna took care of business. The rest of the bosses were a breezy after that.

So after beating the game the first time, I did a super short run to get an Enterprise in chapter 2 and then after to start another game. This game to get 100% getting all side quests. Now I didn't end up getting the Garment Grid from Argent the first time, so I will have to do another game after this to get the Open Air Grid.

So far I have cleaned out almost all chapter 1 and 2 creatures. I am at about 55% creature completion. I left YRP at their starting levels, using exclusively creatures to do all fights, as its easier to level them with low levels. So far I am at the end of chapter 2, just done the monkey match maker quest. About to proceed with the story quests. Still enjoying the game.