No, your characters are back at level 1. But if you've mastered any dress spheres, they're still mastered.
I say play it. Maybe rent it or get it off a Gamefly before you buy it? I really have fun with it, but I also don't really consider it to be the "conclusion" of FFX. In my mind, FFX ends at the end of FFX. FFX-II is like really bad fan-fiction. And it's ruined by Tidus (possibly) coming back at the end of X-II.
As many people have already said, Yuna's completely different, and if you look at it as a continuation it's a butchered J-Pop version of FFX. But if you look at it by itself, it's a fun, lighthearted game. Because of the mission set up, you can play the game and not really be committed to it. Or, if you only have a few hours a week to play games (like myself) you can do so, and still feel like you're accomplishing things.
Bookmarks