Tiamant said:
What are the differences between vanilla X-2 and International? I know about the extra dresspheres and Last Mission but are there any tweaks in the gameplay like FFXII Zodiac?
The are a few tweaks and changes mainly so catnip+iron duke isn't totally game-breaking (puts you in berzerk mode if I remember right) and similar small changes. As you mentioned there are new special dress-spheres and some new garment grids (very cool ones), but the big change is the whole monster rancher sub-game.
Essentially you place "traps" via the world map on the airship and capture and breed monsters and NPC's in an arena. Combat between monsters is pretty simple, you simply have a sort of throttle-system where you can push your character towards a more defensive or aggressive style of fighting. Kind of like Chocobo racing.
If I remember right you also have some straight battles between your party and created monsters in the arena, because there are definitely some unique monsters that cannot be found anywhere else.
The big change though is any monster or NPC (pretty much every major NPC in the game from Baralai to Trema is capturable) you "own" can actually be added to the normal party during gameplay. Most are pretty basic, but some have special attacks that may be unique to them.
My memory is kind of fuzzy because its a long time ago when I played it, not to mention I played it in Japanese with an extremely limited understanding of the language!
I do vividly remember the monster capture thing took me 40 hours to complete by itself! So its a pretty substantial addition by any standards.
EDIT: There's a comprehensive FAQ of changes at
Gamefaqs, just had a quick look and holy crap... there are a LOT of changes/tweaks/additions.
As I'm on the ground, I'm laughing hysterically at what just happened - while listening to the entire song. I have failed you, Hamauzu 
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