PAL final fantasy x-2 owners, a little help please?

[gossi the dog]

My friend used to think that borders were there because the game ran in widescreen as standard.

[karlidog]

i so totally agree with the sentiments here - i'm massively, monumentally pissed-off about this, but i can't think of anything i (or we) can do that'll make squenix sit up and take notice because (as you say) most people lap it up happily, not knowing it could and should look an awful lot better. i kinda wish i could stop noticing and just enjoy the game (the intro put such a big grin on my face, even in demo-pod bordervision), but i tried it when i bought PAL ffx and had the thing completely ruined for me.

of course, none of this means i wasn't tempted to take a roll of black masking tape and a pair of scissors down oxford street on saturday and add stupid great borders to all the ffx2 boxes i could find...

[Lyris]

Anyone who's recently bought the game can surely just return it to the store and let them know why it is being returned, no?

I can't believe people can think borders of any type are for cinematic effect. Surely the game is squashed?

[Saurian]

What I dont understand is this: The display mode on the PS2 is down to the hardware not the game - the PAL PS2 can display an NTSC signal without a hitch, for example you can get pirate version of PAL games with a PAL/NTSC select on startup. The FMV sequences etc should not make any difference to the display as they surely must be using identical code and video files as the NTSC version but the machine is set to display the game is 50hz.

I seriously swear down the only reason they havent included a 50/60hz option is that they dont care, I'm certain it has absolutely nothing to do with the game's media files or code (this doesnt make any difference between PAL/NTSC on any other games so what makes Final Fantasy so special?)

[karlidog]

lyris: yep, definitely, visibly squashed. wakka in particular (for some reason) looks kinda tubby in the PAL ffx, and when i was watching (and fuming at) the display-pod copy of x-2 running in HMV, you could actually see yuna's head warping when she turned around in the cutscenes. it's so weird that a whole lot of people seem not to notice.

...and saurian, yeah, that's the thing - if they'd optimised the movies for the PAL version, adding in the extra lines and so on, i'd understand this whole 'needing two versions for 50 and 60hz' thing (although there'd be no need for a 60hz option if they'd convert the game properly). the way things are, it makes no sense (my gf knows loads more than me about this sort of thing, and she can't come up with a reason, either). it's just such totally staggering laziness - usually they've gone back into the menu programming and added a few european languages and a selection menu before we see the game here, but they can't be ****ed to add the tiny little bit of code that tells the ps2 to output in one video format or another.

i'm so totally done with being disappointed by sony europe's ****tiness now. as soon as i scrape the cash together for a new, modded ps2 (minus however much i make selling my poor little v9), i'll not touch another UK release.