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Pretty much every Final Fantasy game since the series made the jump to 3D with FF7 has had action figures based on it so it’s no surprise we’d get some from FFX-2. In the past, Bandai has gotten the task of producing FF based figures. These figures come from a different company called Play Arts, and as such they are quite a bit different from previous figures we’ve gotten over the years bearing the Final Fantasy name. There are three figures in this series, Yuna Paine, and Rikku, the three playable characters from the game. I have no idea if there are any future assortments planned. They can be found at a variety of places online for a wide range of prices from 15 bucks a piece to 40 bucks each. I picked mine up at a Gamestop for 12.99 each. That’s probably as low as you’ll get with these figures; even if you could find them for a little less online you’re still going to have to pay shipping costs. I’ve been to several Gamestops recently though and only one of them had any of these figures, so you may have trouble finding them.

So enough introduction, time to get to the meat of this review. These are great figures, especially compared to the previous Final Fantasy lines. Each figure stands around 7” tall, though there is some height difference, Paine is the tallest of the three with Rikku coming in slightly shorter than Yuna. Rikku actually comes off as too large overall, the scale just doesn’t feel right. She would look jut right if she were say, 5% smaller all around. Actually Paine could probably stand to be a little larger. I suppose the designers wanted all three figures to be the same size so you wouldn’t feel ripped off on Rikku, I can’t really think of any other reason, there isn’t any recycling of parts so they didn’t have that excuse.

The sculpting on these figures is very well done. They all look just the way they should to match the source material. Rikku’s hair stands out as probably the best area from all three. She has a regular round head but on top of that is a lot of rubbery spikey hair and dangling ponytail. The overall effect really captures the look of the character and gives the hair a lot of layers and dimension. Rikku also has some rather elaborate bows running down each sleeve on her arm. Her skirt is also a separate piece of rubber wrapped around a sculpted and painted bikini bottom. This allows her to have regular hip articulation without ruining the look of the figure since the skirt covers up the joints. In the meantime, the rubber skirt allows the joints to move freely. Really Rikku has the most impressive all around sculpt of the three.

Paine comes in at a distant second, though she is still good. Paine’s hair has some similar rubbery feathering done to it but the gray color makes I look less impressive than Rikku’s doo since everything tends to blend together. Her shirt top is similar to Rikku’s skirt as well in that it’s a rubbery material wrapped around a sculpted undershirt, thing. The rubber allows her arms to pose freely, something that couldn’t have been done if the shirt was made of hard plastic.

Yuna is definitely the worst all around of the three in terms of sculpting. There is definitely something off about her face. The ruffles on her waist and her belt pouch also don’t seem as crisp as they could have been. Also, honestly, her breasts seem a bit too large. Sure this is “anime style” and all but both Paine and Rikku are reasonably sized. Yuna’s arms are a bit too long as well, though it could be a side effect of them being skinny then ending with huge ass guns in her hands. There is also a completely unnecessary yet very noticeable cut through the top of her skirt.

Speaking of the guns, each figure comes with a few accessories. Actually, the only accessories are some stands and interchangeable hands. All of the weapons are permanently attached to a set of hands. This is actually good since the hand + weapon looks a lot better than an empty “gripping hand” and a loose weapon would have looked. This is a minus point because you can’t give the weapons to anyone else, each girl is stuck using their own weapons. Paine actually comes off worse on this matter as well since she is often shown in the game holding her sword “upside down”. Since the hand is part of the sword’s hilt you can only have Paine hold it one way. Anyway, Rikku includes a set of dagger hands and a set of open fingers hands. Yuna has 2 pistol hands, and a set of neutral hands. Paine has a set of neutral hands, one outstretched left hand, and one right sword hand. Also Paine’s hands are actually her entire glove, not just her hand. The sculpting and paint on the weapons is great all around. Rikku’s non-weapon hands are actually really nice since they strongly resemble the way her hands often look in cut scenes. I guess the best I can describe it, if you’ve played the game, is when Rikku would get excited about something or other and sort of wiggle around with her hands out in front of her.

One final area to touch on here is articulation. Most of the previous Final Fantasy figures had nothing below the waist, and while the arms were decent, you could easily pill the joints apart since they pegged together pretty loosely. These figures go well beyond that, though they still aren’t “Super Poseable”, there is almost enough here that you won’t care. All three girls have universal shoulders, hinged elbows, wrist cuts (Paine’s are at the edge of her gloves), bicep cuts, neck cuts, hinged hip joints (Yuna has a mild “V Joint”, fortunately the others do not; in fact Rikku seems to have ball jointed hips though it’s very restricted), and hinged knees. Yuna and Paine also have waist joints. Yuna also has hinged ankles, Paine has ball jointed ankles, and Rikku just has cuts at the top of her boots. Also Yuna has cuts at the bottom of the shorts on each leg. These figures can make a ton of poses though there are a few problems. Rikku’s lack of leg joints all around mean she can’t really make a good “hunched over battle pose” like from the game. Paine’s ball jointed ankles make her a bit hard to stand up since the joints are very loose. Yuna’s leg joints are also a bit funky though I’d say some of the problems with keeping her standing upright stem from balance issues surrounding her half skirt. One final joint, I’ve just noticed and remembered, Yuna also has some funky shifting joints in her feet. This allows her to stand with her legs farther apart yet still keep her feet flat on the ground. I guess its kind of appropriate that the order of these figures in terms of sculpt is reversed when it comes to articulation. Yuna has the most joints with Rikku in last.

Overall these are really great figures. The biggest downfall is the price. I’m not sure if these are import figures or not, the package doesn’t include much if any Japanese. Thirteen bucks each is still a little high for a 7” figure with hardly any accessories, but then again the sculpting and paint on these is very well done. Still, I wouldn’t pay more than 15 bucks apiece for these, including shipping unless you’re extremely hardcore on your FFX-2.