my rating is only for ffx, not x-2, as i didn't finish that game.

ffx is a game that is completely and utterly lost on me. though some people like it, i find the art "style" horrifically ugly, although i, somewhat controversially, like the character design-- i find it slots in extremely well into the world that's been created, which most (as i too) would agree is an excellent one. but aside from the general atmosphere of the game and the music, i don't like pretty much anything else. the graphics are atrocious, the characters range from boring to annoying, as a tales fan the story is completely and utterly unremarkable to me (i mean this with full sincerity, play tales of symphonia for a better version of this game in every single regard), unskippable blitzball sequences is a legit crime, the gameplay is EXTREMELY frustrating, the camera work is AWFUL, and the main draw of this game, the relationship between tidus and yuna, did not at ALL resonate with me.

again, play tales of symphonia for a better version of this game in literally every single regard. to illustrate what greater strides symphonia takes than this game, let me just say that ffx takes its entire runtime to tell a story that symphonia expresses in its first few hours.

as for x-2, i think people are unnecessarily shitty to it because it's a game with a female-only party. i played a little bit of it until the difficulty spiked really hard and i just didn't care enough to put up with it, but it was actually INSANELY fun. the job mechanic is both super stylish and super fun, and the game doesn't HAVE to be anything better than stylish and fun. y'know?

X: My first FF game after VIIR, and I loved it. The turn based combat is excellent, I really enjoyed configuring my party and switching them in and out for the right moments. The story is generally pretty interesting, and has some wonderful peaks, as you learn about the journey these characters are on, watch them love each other and learn what they have to sacrifice.

I liked the characters too. I liked Tidus and Yuna's relationship, the history with Auron, Jecht and Braska. It feels like there was missed potential with some of the party though, like Kimari and Lulu, but they're not bad.

The game does drag a bit towards the end, trying to grapple with the endgame sidequests was a needless frustration for me. Fair play if you like it but I found it convoluted and frustrating. And Blitzball was pretty naff. Overall this one sits just behind FF IX and VIIR for me, but not by much.

I will open with this; Final Fantasy IX is my favourite one. But after a long overdue replay of X? It's a much closer race than I realised. To think how close together they were released as well! Utterly spoiled in the early 2000s eh?

I didn't cane all the extra side stuff this playthrough, didn't even bother with Yojimbo, but even as a game you just march through from start to finish it's a masterpiece, and unadulterated top of its field standout. Love it. Adore it.

Being 11 and playing this game, I was a Rikku boy. In the intervening I thought I'd become a Lulu man. But apparently, the one I want most... Is a ride on ze shoopuff

For Final Fantasy X Only

It happens to be one of my all time favorite games to come out. Mostly because of two things; The characters and the gameplay. The characters also branches out to the plot as well, it is one of the best told stories to be told in an RPG game, let alone any game. But you have a rounded out group that are all memorable and likable in one way or another.
The gameplay does away with the battle system from the SNES and PSX era, with a more tradition turn based system. The difference is that you can see who goes next in the next few turns and it can change depending on what attack or skill that you use. Also you can change your party members on the fly in the middle of the fight, making for more versatile.
They also did away with the normal level-up system with a crazy grid! Once you level up you can make around on this huge board and choose what stat boosters and skill you can to unlock for each character, and with careful planning, you can make an OP Tidus or Yuna by the time you are ready to take on some of the more challenging bosses.
Speaking of bosses, this game has some hard or nails fights once you get into the latter half of the game, they really test out your knowledge of what you are able to do in the game in a satisfying and frustrating way. It may be frustrating because on the one major hiccup this game has, unskippable cutscenes. It can make or break you're playthrough if yo might be stuck on a certain fight.
The other hit or miss portion of the game are the side quests. Some of them are fun to do as you are nicely rewarded with awesome end game weapons that can obliterate the baddest of the bad, but some of these quest can potentially take you weeks just to get that one McGuffin and get that one weapon, do them at your own risk!
Regardless of the blemishes this game may have, it is still one of the best of the best that needs everybody attention and needs to be appreciated!

Complete change from when I originally played these on release. Back then, I am pretty sure I though X was fine and X-2 pretty great. This time around I really enjoyed X and the story hit way harder, guess that's just a life thing, whereas X-2 I found it hard to stick with. Just seemed disjointed. X though, liked the battle system and loved most of the story. And as a package it certainly isn't lacking in gameplay hours. I just watched the cutscenes from Final Mission, Rogue games not for me really, and the story itself seems, fine I guess.

Review Parte X:
Fifa fazendo eu usar hulkbuster de novo. A história é belíssima, tem uns momentos esquisitos de roteiro mas acho que são consequência dos outros problemas que ele tem. Música, padrão fifa também, To Zanarkand é sensacional e outras ao decorrer que não vou lembrar o nome agora.

Personagens ótimos, em especial, obviamente, os protagonistas, afinal a história é deles.

Infelizmente, não é um filme, livro ou série, é um jogo, e por ser um jogo sua função principal é a gameplay, que é realmente o ponto que o jogo peca, E MUITO. Grind é algo extremamente arriscado de se colocar, e geralmente, sempre deixa o jogo pior. Esse foi o caso. O sistema de leveling é esquisito e por mais que você "upe" ainda sinto que vou precisar de 20x mais pra chegar ao valor aceitável.

Outro aspecto é o HP das coisas, nunca mais chamo nenhum jogo de esponja, pq é insano comparar com esse.

Outro ponto importante, os puzzles, fruta que partiu nunca vi puzzles mais idiotas e mais forçados na minha vida, foram colocados para, junto do grind, estender as horas de jogo de maneira considerável.

É uma pena gigantesca um jogo que facilmente poderia pegar um 4.5 ou até 5.0, perder tanto por causa de aspectos implementados de maneira proposital para fazer durar mais. Se você está penando e joga a versão remaster, use os cheats, estará fazendo um favor para seu tempo, e para o próprio jogo, pois sem ele, talvez tivesse dropado na metade.

Review parte X-2:
Não existe. Acabou no X.

X is by far my favorite Final Fantasy game. Such a great story, characters, and gameplay. Easily worth the price by itself.

X-2 is not as good but consider it a kind of post game extra and it's a nice bonus addition. Play if you want more but X is perfect standalone.

Last Mission is really boring IMO but it's literally such a insignificant extra that it's not even in the title. :P Don't bother playing it.

I have played many a Final Fantasy...

Final Fantasy I gave me patience...
Final Fantasy II gave me nothing...
Final Fantasy III gave me boredom...
Final Fantasy IV gave me confusion...
Final Fantasy V gave me interest...
Final Fantasy VI gave me a beautiful storyline...
Final Fantasy VII gave me stunning 3D beauty...
Final Fantasy VIII gave me utter unplayable dogshit...
Final Fantasy IX gave me the 2nd best storyline...
Final Fantasy X gave me nothing but tedium for hours unend...

Two great games, one great collection.

This collection features two games both previously released on the PlayStation 2. Final Fantasy X originally released in the UK in 2002 and it's sequel Final Fantasy X-2 which was originally released in 2004. These games have been remastered with improved visuals at a higher resolution and full trophy support for both titles. In addition the majority of Final Fantasy X's music has been rearranged and both versions of the games are the international versions. (For the UK it means we got an additional gameplay mode for FFX-2 called Last Mission as well as some mini games for it).

Here's my breakdown of both games:

Final Fantasy X.

SquareSoft's (Now Square Enix) first Final Fantasy game on the PlayStation 2, the first game in the series to be full 3D with no prerendered back drops and also the first game in the series to use voice acting. Though a little linear and with occasional awkward dialogue Final Fantasy X is an otherwise gorgeous and engrossing game.

The lead character is a man named Tidus, he is a star blitzball player for a team called the Zanarkand Abes. One day after a game the city of Zanarkand is attacked by a city sized monster called Sin, Tidus is drawn into it during it's attack and wakes up to a world he does not recognize. Lost and extremely confused Tidus ends up helping a local summoner called Yuna and her guardians on their pilgrimage to defeat Sin while trying to find his way home. It's quite a nice little story with some really nice emotional payoffs as the narrative unfolds.

Where Final Fantasy X shines though is the gameplay. It's a traditional turn based Japanese role playing game so as you travel from place to place you will get into random battles. During each battle you can use three characters to fight with, but, and this is what makes FFX stand out, you can swap any of them out with the other four characters on their turn meaning you can change tactics depending on what enemies you face. This is especially important early on in the game as certain enemies are weaker to certain attacks such as magic or piercing weapons etc. so taking advantage of this will help you through battles as each character specializes in certain things at first. As you level up from fighting monsters your characters gain higher stats and new skills using a large sphere grid. Each character starts on a different part of the board and by leveling up you can travel around it unlocking new spheres with the upgrades. Eventually if you unlock the whole board every character will have equal stats and skills but that takes quite a long time.

The graphics to Final Fantasy X still look really superb, colourful and detailed. The new resolution and enhancements make everything seem really crisp visually and for such an old game it really holds up against some modern releases surprisingly. The voice acting was always something that impressed me originally and it's still pretty solid going back to it, there are some cringe inducing moments here and there (Tidus's laugh scene, I'm looking at you) but all in all the values are still impressive. The big difference between the original and the remastered release production wise is the music. While exactly the same tracks they have been rearranged with fresh versions and slight differences. I have seen mixed opinions on this but I thought the new versions of the tracks were excellent and Final Fantasy X always had good music anyway.

Depending on how you play, Final Fantasy X can take between 30-60 hours. It's a very linear game where you go from place to place however there are a lot of minigames, hidden collectables and things to do anyway. If you are going for the platinum trophy you have to do almost everything including all Dark Aeon hidden boss fights so you are looking at over 100 hours.

In addition this collection also has a very short epilogue movie called The Eternal Calm. It doesn't add a lot but it's certainly worth the watch if you're a fan of the game.

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy X-2 was the first ever direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game. It's generally got pretty mixed feedback. I personally really enjoyed it due to it's excellent battle system and upbeat music. It's not without flaws though as it has very few new areas, pretty much the entire game is in the exact same locations as X and you visit them multiple times. It's also unbearably cringe inducing at times, like vomit inducing, but if you can ignore that then you should very much enjoy FF X-2.

Final Fantasy X-2 takes place after Final Fantasy X but this time focuses on Yuna. No longer a summoner Yuna has joined with her cousin Rikku and another woman named Paine in a group called the Gullwings. They are sphere hunters, they look for ancient spheres to try and unlock Spira's past and are rivals with the Leblanc Syndicate, another sphere hunting faction. The tone of the second game is a lot different to the fist, a lot more upbeat though it certainly can have emotional moments as Yuna tries to find herself.

The battle and level system has been completely overhauled from Final Fantasy X. The battle system is based on some of the older games in the series that had a job system. Each character uses "dresses" which totally change how the characters fight and how they look. Change into a warrior dress sphere, hit things hard, change from that into a white mage and you can heal. Each character gains experience with each dress unlocking new attacks and abilities as they use them more and can be changed on the fly so some fights are surprisingly tactical. It's a great system with a good dozen dresses to get, some of which are quite well hidden and possible to miss. As this is the international version, Yuna Rikku and Paine are no longer the only characters you can use as you can capture fiends as well as some other NPC characters who you can then use in battle should you wish. (Not something I really dabbled in).

The game plays over several chapters where the Gullwings will keep revisiting the same areas on missions and seeing cutscenes showing how much Spira has changed. Each action you do increases the percentage bar of the game. Reach 100% and there is a chance for the true ending but it is very hard to do. Much like X this game is a good 30 hours with over 100 if you are going for all the trophies (took me 116).

The music to FFX-2 takes an almost Jazz type beat to it during battles and scenes, it has some poignant moments though, I especially love the song played on the title screen Eternity: Memory of Lightwaves. A fantastic piano piece. To my knowledge, X-2's music has not been rearranged and is identical to it's original release. The visuals are much the same as X's, colourful, crisp and brought up to more modern standards.

The biggest addition though to this version is "The Last Mission". It takes place three months after the end of FFX-2 (It also assumes I might add that you got the 100% ending, I have warned you) This is a completely new game in itself and is a grid based roguelike where you pick between Yuna, Rikku and Paine and explore an 80 floor tower. This is, imo, really quite hard. You start off with just one dress sphere and have to explore each floor for more as well as items. Dress spheres have their own hit points and act as shields for your health, if they break, you lose them completely (though they can be found again.) As you progress, you can combine spheres of the same type to increase their hit points. Depending on which combination of spheres you equip, you get different skills and abilities which make a big difference because if you die, you go back to the start.

It's a really challenging mode at first though once you experiment with spheres and abilities you can find strong set ups to progress. It took me a good 15 hours to finish though. It was fun and added some insight to the girls lives after FFX-2. The original English voice actors have also returned to reprise their roles which was nice.

In summary this is a great collection. I've always been a Final Fantasy fan so to have these remastered to look their best, include all content for both games previously not released outside of Japan and with two full trophy sets was fantastic. Well worth the price.

+ Upgraded visuals and resolution look gorgeous.
+ Great value collection with two big RPGs and Last Mission.
+ Both games are fantastic fun with excellent battle systems.

- FFX-2 can be a little cringe inducing at times and retreads too many of X's locations.

(Review based on FFX only)

What a weird game - for better and for worse. The pacing of the early-game is absolutely brutal, frequently interrupting the actual gameplay with an incoherent story that doesn't hook you.

I'm glad I didn't drop it, because the combat and progression system are the best of any FF game. The story picks up about 20% of the way in and the characters become much more endearing (despite some of them being a touch underdeveloped), to the point that I really cared about them by the end.

A must-play for any JRPG fan.

FFX/X-2 HD Remaster is a good remaster. Streamlines menus, upgraded visuals and music, and a few bonuses thrown in. I’ll be honest though, I only played X for the first few years of having this collection. That game is one of the highlights of the series easily, because of the story, the (beautifully done) romance, and the monumental shift it represented for the series, going into 3D. It holds up remarkably well despite being over twenty years old and has aged gracefully. The battle system is very simple but it works well, settling into a robust turn based system that accommodates the new Aeon summoning system nicely. The Sphere Grid mechanic is really fun, though tedious and contrived sometimes with the locks. Playing it on Switch meant there were a few game cheats that couldn’t be used, like skippable cutscenes, et cetera. Apart from that the only gripe I have with FFX HD is that you have to have a party member deal damage to an enemy for them to get experience. Meaning when grinding I have to swap out each one to deal damage. Fantastic game and an easy recommend to any FF-fanatic.

FFX-2 is an unorthodox sequel by comparison but worth it all the same. I loved seeing the evolution of Spira after two years, torn between a new world and pure anarchy, taking a pop concert type approach with the music. The story went to some interesting places and the gameplay was engaging enough, with some good performances from Tara Strong in particular as Rikku.

These two games probably have the best combat systems in FF, even if X is entirely turn based while X-2 uses a really fast paced version of the ATB system. X was pretty linear, but I ended up really liking the story and the summon system was fun to mess around with. Yeah X-2's story is pretty dumb and a lot of people will probably be put off by the shift in tone, but the mission-based structure and focus on side content made it really enjoyable for me. I'm also a sucker for job systems, and X-2's mid-battle job changing is great.

I was feeling pretty frustrated with this game around the endgame and final dungeon, unfortunately, and I don’t think it would have been quite as tough to get through in the original PS2 release. I’ll get to those problems later, but I gotta say, the banger final boss sequence through the last cutscene really carried it through to me. Final Fantasy X is just a good ass story! Who knew a story about a pro sportsball player getting isekaied into some kinda death cult continent would be so solid?? I am not afraid to admit that I cried several times. Some aspects weren’t total bangers in that regard—I feel like Seymour was handled a little weirdly and Kimhari could’ve used more focus. Also letting the player name Tidus was a deeply weird and awkward decision, and while the actors were doing the best they could with the bizarre voice direction they received, some of the delivery is a little weird. Fortunately, it all comes together pretty nicely and I feel like it’s definitely worth experiencing!

The battle system is pretty neat, though there are definitely flaws in my opinion. I like that it’s actually pretty worthwhile to use status effects on your enemies and Christ Haste is so useful! However I wasn’t too hot on the weapon/armor customization system, personally. It felt like it induced some real choice paralysis and equipment hoarding, which is really bad when you have a limited equipment inventory… I think I would’ve preferred the old system of accessories and normal armor/equipment upgrades more. Still, it was an interesting experiment, and I understand why people would like it a lot. I prefer the sphere grid in terms of weird customization shit, even if the exp system made random encounters pretty tedious by the end. I feel like it was intended to balance the fact that you can switch out your party members at any time, along with the fact that you game over if your front line dies… but it’s really weird from a ludonarrative perspective that the rest of the party just goes “guess I’ll die” if three people bite it. Come on guys Dragon Quest had this figured out on the NES. Then again it sounds like this game is held together with spaghetti code based on the unskippable cutscenes, so maybe I shouldn’t hold it against the devs.

Speaking of things I actually hold against the devs, wow, the weapon sidequests are uhhhhhhhh. Well I did Rikku and Auron’s, with Auron’s being way more useful and turning him into a murder machine, but man, I do not want to play Blitzball. You show me a fast-paced game in three dimensions in the cutscenes and you just make it a slow soccer sim in practice? C’maaaan. I did really enjoy the quest about tracking down Jecht’s road trip spheres because it’s some incredible dudes rock content. More of that, less chocobo racing, please.

Also the fact that this is based on the International Version made the endgame even worse due to the presence of the Dark Aeons. As a narrative element, I like them, and I have to kind of admit that the way they were implemented makes sense on a narrative level… but who decided to put two unavoidable superbosses in front of two places the game strongly encourages you to backtrack to? If you don’t 100% Besaid and Macalania’s shitty sphere puzzles your first go and you want to see Seymour’s backstory and get Anima then lmao, git gud idiot. I guess it’s cool that people outside of Japan get access to the International Version after all these years though.

God do you remember that shit? When Square Enix would release a game in Japan, then add additional content for the international release, and then re-release the international release in Japan with even more added content that no one else in the world would get access to unless they knew Japanese and had a region-unlocked system? That was a bullshit, anti-consumer business model, right? Speaking of bullshit, anti-consumer business models, don’t buy a physical version of this game used! Don’t be like me. I mean, unless you don’t want to play FFX-2, which I did! And I straight up cannot get FFX-2 because of some anti-consumer, anti-resale bullshit that requires a unique code. I guess that’s on me for not doing research but that sucks ass!! I think there’s even an Asian markets only Switch version where all the content is on the cart so it’s not like they couldn’t do it, they just did it the other way to be greedy assholes!

Also the HD models are weirdly stiff and not as expressive as the PS2 models which is bizarre. It also makes the disparity between party members and NPCs considerably more stark because you have these HD looking motherfuckers talking to guys whose faces are flat textures. Then again that’s hilarious.

Anyway even if the last three points really soured my experience and lowered my rating, game still good. I think unless you are a true hardcore gamer you should try and play the PS2 version honestly… that’d be a good 4.5/5-5/5 experience.

0/10 too much water





Has a slow start but ramps up really fast. The world they live in is fucked up but so beautiful at the same time. Twist's and turns that you don't really see coming. Characters are very fleshed out and of course the music is beautiful and classic.

+1000000 points because Yojimbo is cool as fuck in this game

(as for X-2 I never completed it all the way through .....)