Actually, Tidusx Yuna is my favorite pairing in Final Fantasy. I didn't find it slapdash at all. Formulaic . . . meh. Tropes Are Not Bad, and the game did a good job of showing the progression. Unlike other games where you've got blatant cases of Love At First Sight (Locke & Celes) or Strangled By The Red String (Squall & Rinoa), Tidus and Yuna do a good job of showing a relationship that goes from mutual interest/attraction —> respect/admiration —> friendship/growth —> love.
Dude, he didn't like the sphere grid, the weapon/armour system, the ending or story tone. His opinions are obviously very different from other people and such he can like FFX-2 for those reasons if he wants. He's even right, it is a 'fun' game, that's just not necessarily a good thing
I'm not sure where people stand on the Tidus/Yuna thing but I guess that complaint is the most reasonable (apart from the voice acting, and I am the weird one here because I really didn't mind it at all, the laughing scene was painful, but since that was the whole point of it and the actors prove they can laugh normally at the end of it, it passes)
EDIT: Ah all understood, you've watched The Spoony Experiment Final Fantasy X-2 pt1 right? If not you obviously have similar taste, I was surprised then to find out he didn't like the Sphere Grid too, it's generally thought of one of the best levelling systems they've included but I guess there's some mainstream dislike too
The Sphere Grid is great until you realize you have to check and re-check it after every single battle. Well, you don't have to, but it's encouraged. X-2 is a bit of an improvement since you learn skills instantly, but you still have to move menus around to ensure you don't learn something useless. And the convenience is mitigated by all that garment grid juggling. Ugh.
I'm a skeptical squirrel
First off, I think X >>>> X-2, so I disagree on that crucial point.
However, while I didn't find X-2 to be good, I never thought it was bad either. It was just one of those OK sequels to a far stronger original. The graphics and music were still good, the new battle system was fun, and most of the plot was fairly interesting.
The J-Pop aspect is really the only thing I hate about the game. The friggin' High Summoner who saved Spira from Sin for all eternity is now a music idol? Too surreal for me.
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Why this game is actually pretty good
As a veteran of every game up to XII, I have to say I like this game.
FFX was painful. It had gameplay elements I found painful (the sphere grid), idiotic complications to the weapon and armor system (admittedly, customizing all your stuff was a cool idea), painful voice acting (over half of it was narm save for Auron, who got all the lines that DIDN'T suck), and the general story tone was depressing. The ENDING was so much of a downer I wonder why I bothered playing.
FFX-2 was fun. The gameplay was familiar, simple and streamlined (Leveling, yay!). Also, thogh I like collecting weapons and armor, the dressphere system was very intuitive (though the ingame justification is shoddy at best), the voiceacting, while narmy, was more amusing than facepalm worthy (considering the tone, I believe it was on purpose), and all the dramatic scenes actually seemed dramatic (some of FFX's early scenes were just horrfying to watch, at least for the first third of the game, where the narm was highest). Also, the story largely removed the bad taste of the Neon Genesis Evangelion style "why did I even bother with wishing for hope to prevail" ending.
Bonus points for confirming LOTS of stuff hinted about in the backstory, at the fact it all fit, not to mention a love story that didn't feel forced.
(No offense to TidusYuna shippers, but the romance was pretty slapdash and formulaic in it's setup, and I largely consider FFX-2 to be the Authors Saving Throw in regards to salvaging it.)
My love isn't total. It had some lazy cutscene animation (Rikku in Zanarkand Ch.1 is a good example), and sometimes Yuna picked up the Narm Ball Tidus seemed to be carrying, and while I loved the gameplay, it had a tendency to be TOO easy (unless you were in the bonus dungeons)
However, when compared to FFX, it's not so bad, and while I wouldn't call it outstanding, it was at least decent to above average, and I don't regret buying it.
As for the fanservice, I'll be blunt:
This complaint is pointless! If you took a good look at FFX, it had a lot of fanservice too, it's just FFX-2 decided to throw in a lot more, and I just considered it bonus eyecandy for those into that sort of thing, and I personally liked it not just because I'm male, but because it does look aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well.
In short, it was a good game.