Realizing now Final Fantasy X-2 probably wasn’t from-scratch an idea to make a sequel, playing enough of the smaller-name Square games in the PS1/2 era and seeing how like, systems were iterated across various series in combination with others (for example, Parasite Eve makes “upgrading your weapon” the key to equipment in terms of allocating finite resources to customize, then Vagrant Story goes absolutely nuts with it as part of a “randomized loot has very many variables and attributes” thing, then FF8 does it in terms of gating power boosts to progression and encouraging off-rails exploration)–

It just seems like one of Square’s staff designers was like “well, we have an idea for a job system game” and someone was like “eh, this doesn’t really feel rich enough for a real numbered entry in our flagship series, but you could reuse the characters from the last one and make it girl power dress-up themed, LOL”