Enjoyment - 10/10
Difficulty - 5/10
I first played Final Fantasy X from the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine (Issue 20, May 2002) demo disc. That experience was the first time a demo from a demo disc completely blew me away as a literal child.
Now, I am a grown man who fully completed his cherished childhood PS2 game on his PS4 with platinum trophy and all. No hesitation, 10/10 across the board.
đ
Difficulty - 5/10
I first played Final Fantasy X from the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine (Issue 20, May 2002) demo disc. That experience was the first time a demo from a demo disc completely blew me away as a literal child.
Now, I am a grown man who fully completed his cherished childhood PS2 game on his PS4 with platinum trophy and all. No hesitation, 10/10 across the board.
đ
After 111 hours of playtime and all achievements completed I think this is it, it's finally it... I think this is the greatest turn-based RPG I have ever played, Ya?
Now before anyone gets startled by what I first said I'm talking about the gameplay and not the overall story, I think this is one of the most fun turn-based RPGs to play.
For the sake of getting this review organized, I'm gonna separate each main topic into multiple categories.
The story
Now here's a tough one, I honestly think in all of Final Fantasy X this is its weakest point but it's not as bad as it sounds. I think the way Final Fantasy X tells its story works well because it overall just feels like a pretty basic adventure tale but is filled with charming characters making the whole experience really chill. I think this word would be best to qualify most of Final Fantasy X, I think this game is really chill, it never really gets tense or anything like that it's just a very sweet tale that feels more like a romance story if anything. The characters all fit together since they all share a common goal and the only way to reach it is to work together but even though they have to work together they all happily do it without any hassle since in the end, they are all Yuna's guardians and their main goal is to protect her on her journey. I think the main end goal is alright it's just about defeating the big bad guy who terrorizes the world, though, of course, it's much more complicated than that with the twist the story provides. I think the story is enough to drive you to the end of the game without getting too much if you only care about the story, it's definitely not as novel as how Final Fantasy 7 was but X's story is still great nonetheless. Do I recommend the game for its story alone? Sure I think this story has a lot to appreciate and it mostly comes from the characters themselves. I think each of the characters feels unique enough, I mean at this point it's kind of a Final Fantasy trademark to have rememberable characters now. I do like Tidus even though it's Tidus and he's not really for everyone... I actually don't know who is supposed to relate to Tidus since usually game protagonists are supposed to be slightly relatable to but Tidus? But Tidus is just a fun character and I like him that way. Yuna is great she's just a lovable girl that only wants to make others happy even if she has to sacrifice herself in the process, I find it interesting that Yuna even though considered a "Secondary main character" most of the story rolls around her and isn't really about Tidus's story at all. They both have interesting arcs which rely on each other with both looking to be as great as their fathers. Wakka is honestly one of my favorite "Bro"
trope he's just really fun and has a really silly talking quirk that doesn't get annoying like most talking quirks. I love my little Wakka even though he's a tiny bit racist toward Al Bheds. I think Lulu and Kimahri are the most forgettable characters of the party, I think it's mostly because they don't really talk much. I feel like they kind of become irrelevant once Rikku and Auron join the party. Though I do not dislike them I think Lulu has a great relationship with Yuna making her more like her mother so it's fair if she's a little more serious than the others. But Kimahri I can't help but not care about him, unfortunately, he barely speaks and his only development is when his brothers attack him in Mt. Gagazet but other than that he's just the silent bodyguard. Rikku is fine, I think she could've been a lot better but the way they reintroduced her into the story felt way too rushed like she just instantly meets up with Tidus and the party and joins it with no issues, and then she acts as if she has always been part of the party I think it's kind of odd. But other than that she's just a sweet girl and I find her adorable even though she doesn't really bring anything to the story. And my personal favorite, Auron. God he's so badass the very first moment he appeared I knew he was the coolest, his design is so good and he actually matters in the plot he's cool! Though he's kind of just the average trope of a "mysterious guy that knows everything but only reveals important info at the end" which is more common than you may think.
Overall like I previously said the whole party and story are just very chill and they all work together, this game feels like a real adventure with friends and that's what a lot of Final Fantasy titles are but this one does it really well.
The graphics
Like I previously said I played the HD remaster so it definitely looks better than the original on PS2 but I think both have charm so the HD version doesn't really replace the original but it's still a way better experience. So based on the HD remaster graphics I think the game looks really nice, it really has that early 2000 vibes and I think this is the most Tetsuya Nomura art style ever. I don't think there's a lot to say about the graphics themselves other than some models definitely looks a bit dated but design wise this game rules.
The Gameplay
Here's the most important part of the game, the gameplay. I think Final Fantasy X has the Turn Based RPG gameplay I have ever played and I'll explain why it works so well. First of all, I think the difficulty is on point throughout the game it never gets too hard or too easy, you might get some random difficulty spikes during gimmick bosses but other than that most of the game is kind of a cakewalk. I think it works so well due to how some of the fights work especially in the early game which definitely inspired Final Fantasy XIII's combat, I'm talking about the puzzles combat where almost all characters have unique abilities to defeat each type of enemy. This might sound confusing if you haven't played the game but if you did you know what I'm talking about, for example, Auron is great at dealing damage to characters with high defense so you'll make him attack them, and Wakka has a better aim so he's gonna attack flying characters, Lulu can deal magic damage so she's gonna deal with element enemies and so on. I think the way this game makes use of all characters is wonderful especially when the party is filled with 7 characters most normal players just play with one main party but this game forces you to switch characters and it's just great. Overall the only two characters in the party that ends up useless are Rikku and Kimahri since Kimahri's main gimmick is to be able to work off other's ability but it quickly gets useless once I'll be talking about the skill tree, and Rikku's damage output is just too weak when you first get her so I didn't bother maxing her stats till the very end of the post-game, her only quirk towards enemies is that she can instantly kill Al Bhed robots with her steal attack which definitely comes in handy from time to time.
Begone basic RPG levels said Yoshinori Kitase and introduced the weird at first but really cool at the end type of leveling stats called the sphere grid. This is why I think Final Fantasy X has one of the best Turn Based RPG gameplay ever, it's the ability to freely edit your character's stats and pretty much lets you be whatever the hell you want on any character. With this system, any character can become Healer, Fast DPS, Tank, Magic damage dealer, and whatnot, completing the sphere grid for each character is no easy task though it requires insane post-game grinding but if you want 99,999 damage output on each character? Go for it!
As for the combat in general this game I personally think is as smooth as it can be and I never thought it was too awkward to navigate through menus or anything like that.
And in good Final Fantasy fashion, this game has summons called Aeons and the only person able to use them is Yuna since she is a summoner. They are fully controllable and just serve as over-the-top beasts which are great to deal damage to bosses. We have the common Bahamut, Shiva, and others but the new ones this time are Anime which is my favorite one, Yojimbo with one of the most interesting hidden mechanics in Turn-based combats, and the Magus Sisters which are just weird I never bothered using them. Though the last three are new they are only obtainable at the end of the game and are pretty much just extra Aeons you can unlock.
What about world exploration? I think it works great even though 90% of the game is linear. Final Fantasy X is an examplar game in the way it tells its linear story, it is somewhat similar to how older JRPGs did it where you just walk forward and find a new city and location without the ability to go back, well not until the very end of the game but you get my point. I have seen people comparing both Final Fantasy X's story pacing with XIII saying that people were too harsh on XIII's story when X's pacing was similar. I will not tolerate this X's slander especially when XIII is incapable to create a sense of discovery when all of its stages are linear roads with no NPCs whatsoever and it all feels like a cover shooter. In X I feel like I'm exploring a world and I'm going to my destination, In XIII I feel like I'm going through a string of bad stages with barely anything linking them together.
One last this game offers are the temples where Yuna gets new Aeons to fight with, they are unlocked after doing weird puzzles about the sphere and whatever the hell it wants. It's honestly weird and doesn't really serve anything, they are not awful or pace breakers but it's just odd to have them here, if they remade the game and decided to cut them out of the game I wouldn't give a damn.
The 100% Completion
My god, this is... this is something else and it ruined my life. I think the true way to fully appreciate this game is to complete it to 100% or at least complete all super bosses and get all celestial weapons and fully upgrade them. The 100% completion is a road full of bullshit grinding and balls-shattering minigames, but even with all of that, I think it was worth it and I actually recommend it, completing this game is definitely a gaming achievement on its own. I'm gonna talk about each celestial weapon and then talk about the super bosses.
Wakka's celestial weapon is probably the longest one to get since you need to know how to play Blitzball, actually, you need to learn Blitzball because I doubt any human would want to play Blitzball after the forced match from the story. It takes about 24 Blitzball matches to get the sigil and the three unique overdrives for Wakka. This ruined so many hours of my life and I thought the 100% couldn't get any tougher and dear god I was so wrong about that.
Tidus's celestial weapon is quite tough to get with the Chocobo racing minigame, it's an unfair race with weird controls and you need to get to the finish line without taking damage and picking up enough balloons to reduce your score to 0:0 and it requires a perfect run and a bunch of RNG. It sounds awful and it is but it's far from the toughest one.
Yuna's celestial weapon is pretty easy to get, that is if you bothered to do the destruction sphere minigame in the temples, otherwise you'll have to go back to each temple and do them. The only issue with this is that you have to defeat Dark Valefort which appears once you reach the town in Besaid. Dark Aeons are secret bosses found in the post-game, there's a Dark Aeon for each Aeons in the game and they are really tough boss fights that are often referred to as super bosses in the Final Fantasy Franchise. They are only recommended to fight once you are done statsmaxing your party.
Lulu's celestial weapon is the infamous Lightning Dodge Minigame where you need to dodge 200 bolts of lightning in a row. This is both physical torture and mental torture as well, whoever thought this was a good idea probably loved the passion of the christ. The idea of forcing us to do a tight button press 200 times in a row with very strict timing actually blows my mind, what made them think it was a good idea? 100 times is already enough so why 200? Doing this is terrifying because you don't want to miss it, it gets tougher and tougher as you keep counting up to 100+ but damn if I wasn't happy when I completed it.
Kimahri's celestial weapon was honestly fairly simple it was just about walking from one point to another while catching the blue butterfly and avoiding the red ones under strict timing. It wasn't fun but it wasn't as unfair as the other ones.
Auron's celestial weapon is about completing some part of the monster arena. The monster arena is something you unlock at the end of the game located in the Calm Plain, it's used to refight certain monsters you captured for a small fee, you capture monsters with weapons that have the "capture" effect on them. This is pretty much obligated if you care about the 100% since the very last super boss is unlocked after capturing each monster 10 times and killing at least one time each special enemy you unlock in the arena. It takes a lot of time especially when you have to work with the random encounter RNG.
And the last one is Rikku's celestial weapon. It's just a dumb hide-and-seek minigame with Cactuars based on cryptic hints. Just use a guide for this one otherwise it would be a pain, it's not hard at all it's just boring.
After getting all of the celestial weapons I started maxing out my stats to become almost invincible to most enemies and able to kick the ass of super bosses. After killing the last Dark Aeon you unlock one last final boss which is strong as Nemesis (the monster arena super boss) and blam you are done with the game. There are a few other noticeable extra achievements such as getting all 5 treasure chests during the Chocobo race at the temple which is really frustrating and my personal least favorite achievements that stole many hours away of my life, Perfect Sphere Master which is about completing the Sphere Grids for all main characters and this is a long and tiresome grind.
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack is amazing in this game, especially the HD remastered soundtrack which pretty much remade the whole soundtrack with real instruments and not weird Playstation 2 Soundfonts. Here are some of my favorite tracks of the game:
- Movement in Green
- Auron's Theme
- The Splendid Performance
- Battle Theme
- Tidus's Theme
- Prelude
- To Zanarkand
- The Trials
- Brass de Chocobo
- Thunder Plains
Now before anyone gets startled by what I first said I'm talking about the gameplay and not the overall story, I think this is one of the most fun turn-based RPGs to play.
For the sake of getting this review organized, I'm gonna separate each main topic into multiple categories.
The story
Now here's a tough one, I honestly think in all of Final Fantasy X this is its weakest point but it's not as bad as it sounds. I think the way Final Fantasy X tells its story works well because it overall just feels like a pretty basic adventure tale but is filled with charming characters making the whole experience really chill. I think this word would be best to qualify most of Final Fantasy X, I think this game is really chill, it never really gets tense or anything like that it's just a very sweet tale that feels more like a romance story if anything. The characters all fit together since they all share a common goal and the only way to reach it is to work together but even though they have to work together they all happily do it without any hassle since in the end, they are all Yuna's guardians and their main goal is to protect her on her journey. I think the main end goal is alright it's just about defeating the big bad guy who terrorizes the world, though, of course, it's much more complicated than that with the twist the story provides. I think the story is enough to drive you to the end of the game without getting too much if you only care about the story, it's definitely not as novel as how Final Fantasy 7 was but X's story is still great nonetheless. Do I recommend the game for its story alone? Sure I think this story has a lot to appreciate and it mostly comes from the characters themselves. I think each of the characters feels unique enough, I mean at this point it's kind of a Final Fantasy trademark to have rememberable characters now. I do like Tidus even though it's Tidus and he's not really for everyone... I actually don't know who is supposed to relate to Tidus since usually game protagonists are supposed to be slightly relatable to but Tidus? But Tidus is just a fun character and I like him that way. Yuna is great she's just a lovable girl that only wants to make others happy even if she has to sacrifice herself in the process, I find it interesting that Yuna even though considered a "Secondary main character" most of the story rolls around her and isn't really about Tidus's story at all. They both have interesting arcs which rely on each other with both looking to be as great as their fathers. Wakka is honestly one of my favorite "Bro"
trope he's just really fun and has a really silly talking quirk that doesn't get annoying like most talking quirks. I love my little Wakka even though he's a tiny bit racist toward Al Bheds. I think Lulu and Kimahri are the most forgettable characters of the party, I think it's mostly because they don't really talk much. I feel like they kind of become irrelevant once Rikku and Auron join the party. Though I do not dislike them I think Lulu has a great relationship with Yuna making her more like her mother so it's fair if she's a little more serious than the others. But Kimahri I can't help but not care about him, unfortunately, he barely speaks and his only development is when his brothers attack him in Mt. Gagazet but other than that he's just the silent bodyguard. Rikku is fine, I think she could've been a lot better but the way they reintroduced her into the story felt way too rushed like she just instantly meets up with Tidus and the party and joins it with no issues, and then she acts as if she has always been part of the party I think it's kind of odd. But other than that she's just a sweet girl and I find her adorable even though she doesn't really bring anything to the story. And my personal favorite, Auron. God he's so badass the very first moment he appeared I knew he was the coolest, his design is so good and he actually matters in the plot he's cool! Though he's kind of just the average trope of a "mysterious guy that knows everything but only reveals important info at the end" which is more common than you may think.
Overall like I previously said the whole party and story are just very chill and they all work together, this game feels like a real adventure with friends and that's what a lot of Final Fantasy titles are but this one does it really well.
The graphics
Like I previously said I played the HD remaster so it definitely looks better than the original on PS2 but I think both have charm so the HD version doesn't really replace the original but it's still a way better experience. So based on the HD remaster graphics I think the game looks really nice, it really has that early 2000 vibes and I think this is the most Tetsuya Nomura art style ever. I don't think there's a lot to say about the graphics themselves other than some models definitely looks a bit dated but design wise this game rules.
The Gameplay
Here's the most important part of the game, the gameplay. I think Final Fantasy X has the Turn Based RPG gameplay I have ever played and I'll explain why it works so well. First of all, I think the difficulty is on point throughout the game it never gets too hard or too easy, you might get some random difficulty spikes during gimmick bosses but other than that most of the game is kind of a cakewalk. I think it works so well due to how some of the fights work especially in the early game which definitely inspired Final Fantasy XIII's combat, I'm talking about the puzzles combat where almost all characters have unique abilities to defeat each type of enemy. This might sound confusing if you haven't played the game but if you did you know what I'm talking about, for example, Auron is great at dealing damage to characters with high defense so you'll make him attack them, and Wakka has a better aim so he's gonna attack flying characters, Lulu can deal magic damage so she's gonna deal with element enemies and so on. I think the way this game makes use of all characters is wonderful especially when the party is filled with 7 characters most normal players just play with one main party but this game forces you to switch characters and it's just great. Overall the only two characters in the party that ends up useless are Rikku and Kimahri since Kimahri's main gimmick is to be able to work off other's ability but it quickly gets useless once I'll be talking about the skill tree, and Rikku's damage output is just too weak when you first get her so I didn't bother maxing her stats till the very end of the post-game, her only quirk towards enemies is that she can instantly kill Al Bhed robots with her steal attack which definitely comes in handy from time to time.
Begone basic RPG levels said Yoshinori Kitase and introduced the weird at first but really cool at the end type of leveling stats called the sphere grid. This is why I think Final Fantasy X has one of the best Turn Based RPG gameplay ever, it's the ability to freely edit your character's stats and pretty much lets you be whatever the hell you want on any character. With this system, any character can become Healer, Fast DPS, Tank, Magic damage dealer, and whatnot, completing the sphere grid for each character is no easy task though it requires insane post-game grinding but if you want 99,999 damage output on each character? Go for it!
As for the combat in general this game I personally think is as smooth as it can be and I never thought it was too awkward to navigate through menus or anything like that.
And in good Final Fantasy fashion, this game has summons called Aeons and the only person able to use them is Yuna since she is a summoner. They are fully controllable and just serve as over-the-top beasts which are great to deal damage to bosses. We have the common Bahamut, Shiva, and others but the new ones this time are Anime which is my favorite one, Yojimbo with one of the most interesting hidden mechanics in Turn-based combats, and the Magus Sisters which are just weird I never bothered using them. Though the last three are new they are only obtainable at the end of the game and are pretty much just extra Aeons you can unlock.
What about world exploration? I think it works great even though 90% of the game is linear. Final Fantasy X is an examplar game in the way it tells its linear story, it is somewhat similar to how older JRPGs did it where you just walk forward and find a new city and location without the ability to go back, well not until the very end of the game but you get my point. I have seen people comparing both Final Fantasy X's story pacing with XIII saying that people were too harsh on XIII's story when X's pacing was similar. I will not tolerate this X's slander especially when XIII is incapable to create a sense of discovery when all of its stages are linear roads with no NPCs whatsoever and it all feels like a cover shooter. In X I feel like I'm exploring a world and I'm going to my destination, In XIII I feel like I'm going through a string of bad stages with barely anything linking them together.
One last this game offers are the temples where Yuna gets new Aeons to fight with, they are unlocked after doing weird puzzles about the sphere and whatever the hell it wants. It's honestly weird and doesn't really serve anything, they are not awful or pace breakers but it's just odd to have them here, if they remade the game and decided to cut them out of the game I wouldn't give a damn.
The 100% Completion
My god, this is... this is something else and it ruined my life. I think the true way to fully appreciate this game is to complete it to 100% or at least complete all super bosses and get all celestial weapons and fully upgrade them. The 100% completion is a road full of bullshit grinding and balls-shattering minigames, but even with all of that, I think it was worth it and I actually recommend it, completing this game is definitely a gaming achievement on its own. I'm gonna talk about each celestial weapon and then talk about the super bosses.
Wakka's celestial weapon is probably the longest one to get since you need to know how to play Blitzball, actually, you need to learn Blitzball because I doubt any human would want to play Blitzball after the forced match from the story. It takes about 24 Blitzball matches to get the sigil and the three unique overdrives for Wakka. This ruined so many hours of my life and I thought the 100% couldn't get any tougher and dear god I was so wrong about that.
Tidus's celestial weapon is quite tough to get with the Chocobo racing minigame, it's an unfair race with weird controls and you need to get to the finish line without taking damage and picking up enough balloons to reduce your score to 0:0 and it requires a perfect run and a bunch of RNG. It sounds awful and it is but it's far from the toughest one.
Yuna's celestial weapon is pretty easy to get, that is if you bothered to do the destruction sphere minigame in the temples, otherwise you'll have to go back to each temple and do them. The only issue with this is that you have to defeat Dark Valefort which appears once you reach the town in Besaid. Dark Aeons are secret bosses found in the post-game, there's a Dark Aeon for each Aeons in the game and they are really tough boss fights that are often referred to as super bosses in the Final Fantasy Franchise. They are only recommended to fight once you are done statsmaxing your party.
Lulu's celestial weapon is the infamous Lightning Dodge Minigame where you need to dodge 200 bolts of lightning in a row. This is both physical torture and mental torture as well, whoever thought this was a good idea probably loved the passion of the christ. The idea of forcing us to do a tight button press 200 times in a row with very strict timing actually blows my mind, what made them think it was a good idea? 100 times is already enough so why 200? Doing this is terrifying because you don't want to miss it, it gets tougher and tougher as you keep counting up to 100+ but damn if I wasn't happy when I completed it.
Kimahri's celestial weapon was honestly fairly simple it was just about walking from one point to another while catching the blue butterfly and avoiding the red ones under strict timing. It wasn't fun but it wasn't as unfair as the other ones.
Auron's celestial weapon is about completing some part of the monster arena. The monster arena is something you unlock at the end of the game located in the Calm Plain, it's used to refight certain monsters you captured for a small fee, you capture monsters with weapons that have the "capture" effect on them. This is pretty much obligated if you care about the 100% since the very last super boss is unlocked after capturing each monster 10 times and killing at least one time each special enemy you unlock in the arena. It takes a lot of time especially when you have to work with the random encounter RNG.
And the last one is Rikku's celestial weapon. It's just a dumb hide-and-seek minigame with Cactuars based on cryptic hints. Just use a guide for this one otherwise it would be a pain, it's not hard at all it's just boring.
After getting all of the celestial weapons I started maxing out my stats to become almost invincible to most enemies and able to kick the ass of super bosses. After killing the last Dark Aeon you unlock one last final boss which is strong as Nemesis (the monster arena super boss) and blam you are done with the game. There are a few other noticeable extra achievements such as getting all 5 treasure chests during the Chocobo race at the temple which is really frustrating and my personal least favorite achievements that stole many hours away of my life, Perfect Sphere Master which is about completing the Sphere Grids for all main characters and this is a long and tiresome grind.
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack is amazing in this game, especially the HD remastered soundtrack which pretty much remade the whole soundtrack with real instruments and not weird Playstation 2 Soundfonts. Here are some of my favorite tracks of the game:
- Movement in Green
- Auron's Theme
- The Splendid Performance
- Battle Theme
- Tidus's Theme
- Prelude
- To Zanarkand
- The Trials
- Brass de Chocobo
- Thunder Plains
As I write this review I struggle to put into words why Final Fantasy X didn't click with me. It's a game where all the pieces are assembled to achieve a special outcome, but they never quite fell into place for me enough to coalesce into something I truly enjoyed. I know a lot of people hold this game in high regard and I was hoping to find something during my 40-hour playtime to elicit those same emotions in me. But, as the credits rolled, I walked away more frustrated than anything else.
Honestly, I had a whole host of notes taken for what I wanted to say about this game, but I'm not sure I have it in me to tear too much into a two-decade-old PS2 staple that is still looked back on quite fondly. I do think it's interesting that, in a bizarre way, FFX feels like it's aged a little worse than its PS1 predecessors, as you can tell they were a little uncertain with their footing on the more powerful hardware of the PS2. Final Fantasy XII would eventually show how much more ambitious games in this series could be during that generation. On top of that, a LOT of things about this game's presentation held it back, notably cutscene direction, a lack of exploration, and some truly awful voice acting. That's probably where a big part of the disconnect came from.
That, and to be honest I never really fell in love with the game's story. It's not terrible, and they built a very unique and interesting world (especially for the time), but the crux of the narrative falling on the shoulders of both the relationship between Tidus and Yuna and the relationship between Tidus and his father was not a strong enough foundation for me to gain real investment. With the former, I never felt their chemistry truly develop; Final Fantasy X was a bit ahead of its time in being an isekai where the main girl falls for the MC with little prompting. It certainly didn't help that I had just come off playing Final Fantasy 8, another game that featured a love story central to its events, but it felt much more compelling there.
As for the latter, I think I outright reject the bridge they attempted to build between Tidus and Jecht. From the outset, your character's father is portrayed as an alcoholic, emotionally abusive figure. The game REALLY pushes you to believe he wanted what was best for his asymmetrical doofus of a son; he merely didn't know how to show it. And you know what? With a bit more care taken in the writing, that could have easily worked. Hell, you didn't even need to go with the angle of his "tough love" approach; they could have simply had Tidus resent his father for disappearing and that would have done the job swimmingly. But instead, they chose to portray Jecht in the worst possible light before trying to walk it back, and considering this forms the emotional throughline of the ENTIRE story, you can see why that not working for me did a number on my investment in Final Fantasy X.
Okay, well I ended up tearing into this game a bit after all, huh? Let me reverse it by saying the saving grace in all this was FFX's battle system, which might be one of the best in any RPG I've ever played. It baffles me they ditched it after a single outing because it was such a welcome change from the ATB system and I love how quick and fluid swapping your entire team in and out was. The sphere grid was also a remarkable system in keeping progression through the game well-balanced and the overall challenge of the game reasonably high. The less said about the endgame slog, the Cloister of Trials, and the side content, however, the better.
I think it's important I acknowledge I ultimately did have some fun with Final Fantasy X, with the core gameplay carrying a huge chunk of that, but I did finish my time with this one wishing I connected with it more. Whereas I described FF8 in my review of it as being profoundly weird, I would describe FFX as being profoundly awkward. They were clearly getting their feet wet conceptualizing what a new generation of Final Fantasy might be, but for my take, this game sinks about as much as it swims.
Honestly, I had a whole host of notes taken for what I wanted to say about this game, but I'm not sure I have it in me to tear too much into a two-decade-old PS2 staple that is still looked back on quite fondly. I do think it's interesting that, in a bizarre way, FFX feels like it's aged a little worse than its PS1 predecessors, as you can tell they were a little uncertain with their footing on the more powerful hardware of the PS2. Final Fantasy XII would eventually show how much more ambitious games in this series could be during that generation. On top of that, a LOT of things about this game's presentation held it back, notably cutscene direction, a lack of exploration, and some truly awful voice acting. That's probably where a big part of the disconnect came from.
That, and to be honest I never really fell in love with the game's story. It's not terrible, and they built a very unique and interesting world (especially for the time), but the crux of the narrative falling on the shoulders of both the relationship between Tidus and Yuna and the relationship between Tidus and his father was not a strong enough foundation for me to gain real investment. With the former, I never felt their chemistry truly develop; Final Fantasy X was a bit ahead of its time in being an isekai where the main girl falls for the MC with little prompting. It certainly didn't help that I had just come off playing Final Fantasy 8, another game that featured a love story central to its events, but it felt much more compelling there.
As for the latter, I think I outright reject the bridge they attempted to build between Tidus and Jecht. From the outset, your character's father is portrayed as an alcoholic, emotionally abusive figure. The game REALLY pushes you to believe he wanted what was best for his asymmetrical doofus of a son; he merely didn't know how to show it. And you know what? With a bit more care taken in the writing, that could have easily worked. Hell, you didn't even need to go with the angle of his "tough love" approach; they could have simply had Tidus resent his father for disappearing and that would have done the job swimmingly. But instead, they chose to portray Jecht in the worst possible light before trying to walk it back, and considering this forms the emotional throughline of the ENTIRE story, you can see why that not working for me did a number on my investment in Final Fantasy X.
Okay, well I ended up tearing into this game a bit after all, huh? Let me reverse it by saying the saving grace in all this was FFX's battle system, which might be one of the best in any RPG I've ever played. It baffles me they ditched it after a single outing because it was such a welcome change from the ATB system and I love how quick and fluid swapping your entire team in and out was. The sphere grid was also a remarkable system in keeping progression through the game well-balanced and the overall challenge of the game reasonably high. The less said about the endgame slog, the Cloister of Trials, and the side content, however, the better.
I think it's important I acknowledge I ultimately did have some fun with Final Fantasy X, with the core gameplay carrying a huge chunk of that, but I did finish my time with this one wishing I connected with it more. Whereas I described FF8 in my review of it as being profoundly weird, I would describe FFX as being profoundly awkward. They were clearly getting their feet wet conceptualizing what a new generation of Final Fantasy might be, but for my take, this game sinks about as much as it swims.
Today Iâm going to be reviewing Final Fantasy X out of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remastered. Final Fantasy X is a JRPG that originally came out in 2001 on the Playstation 2, but the remastered version released on various platforms throughout the years starting on the Playstation 3/Vita in 2013 and finally hitting Xbox One and Switch in 2019; the PC version released in 2016.
The remastered version was largely handled by the Chinese studio Virtuos whom received some assistance from Square Enix - who also handled the publishing. The original version of the game was developed by Square. From my understanding, aside from upgraded textures and enhanced graphics, the remastered edition contains content that was previously only available in the international versions.
I happened to play the PC version. I never had any crashes and it was a stable and bug free experience for me. One thing I found interesting is that on Steam it has its own launcher and you have to select between X, X2, or the after stories, and then the game proper launches.
I have a lot to unpack here with this game, but before we get started, I feel that I have to say that Iâve never been so on the fence about whether or not to recommend a game. It was such a mixed bag for me. Because of that, Iâm going to start with the huge elephant in the room, the difficulty.
Difficulty wise, this game is really hard. Iâve seen a lot of members of the Final Fantasy community claim that not only is it the best, or one of, but also the easiest game in the franchise. I honestly canât attest one way or another whether this is true as I have only played this entry, 14, around half of 13-1, and a small smattering of X-2 back when I was a kid, but it is anything but easy if itâs your first time playing it and you go through it blind.
Iâm actually pretty convinced that most of the people who comment that it is an easy game are doing so with the hindsight of having beaten it before, got the items that allowed them to easily cheese the bosses in a few hits, or they are REALLY used to building fantastic character builds.
Actually, speaking of cheesy items that allow you to beat bosses in a few hits, thatâs sort of my main gripe with this game. To elaborate, whenever I hit the metaphorical wall on boss enemies and struggled, and anytime that Iâd google, the general answer was âgo make such and such awesome item that will give you an immunity to x status effectâ.
Thatâs all well and good, except the part of the explanation which often gets left out is the fact that said items are usually only gotten through stealing off of monsters and the most effective way is to complete a side quest where you have to capture a number (think it was 10?) of each monster which will open up an arena that will then allow you to do so. Either way you are looking at a multiple hour grind there.
Me being my naive self, opted to just grind more levels each time I struggled instead of grinding out those items and doing the side quest because I wanted to get on with the story, and I mean, why would I need those items, the game is easy, right? I always persevered through it; until the final boss.
To backtrack a bit, I did once try some optional content that was highly recommended by a large segment of the community. Thereâs this powerful creature you can get to help you called Anima and I had done all the prerequisite stuff to unlock it. But as it turns out, it is blocked by a monster. The monster in question is low on health and pretty weak, but you are forced into using three specific characters for it (which is normally fine in and of itself), however said monster has a one hit kill that turns you into stone and makes said party member shatter so they can't be revived. I tried 7 separate times against it, but thereâs only so much you can do when it kills your party members in one hit and they are non revivable.
This time there were two solutions offered. One was go grind out a minigame called Blitzball to get a character an awesome ultimate move (weâll get to Blitzball in a few ranty paragraphs) or, âGo build a set of armor that blocks petrificationâ, which required grinding a specific item.
Anyway, I said nah, Iâm not going to bother and started the endgame content with the final bosses. Which, wouldnât you know it? The final boss of the game has the same exact move as that earlier boss, just reskinned. It was at this point at 52 hours in I decided to give up on the game entirely. Final Fantasy X is a difficult game, but only because a lot of the boss fights have really cheesy, cheap 1 hit kill mechanics.
One other thing worth noting, is that you cannot skip cutscenes. You can pause them, but you CANNOT skip them. So if you die at a boss with a long cutscene a lot, then you are going to end up with some of the gameâs dialogue seared into your brain.
Disregarding the 4 or 5 boss fights I temporarily got stuck at, Iâd say that the rest of the game is easy.
Well, other than the optional minigames. I had read and heard that the Chocobo Racing Minigame was such a hairpulling, RNG filled chore that I honestly just decided to avoid it entirely. Thereâs also a lightning dodging minigame thatâs pretty hard to time. If you dodge 200 strikes of lightning in a row you get a prize! Then you have Blitzball, which is a sports minigame somewhat similar to football where you have two teams trying to score goals. Everyone on both teams have levels and level up the more you use them in matches. At one point in the story you are forced to do a match and you can choose to read up on how to play it. I did the tutorial for it (which is broken up into chunks) and still struggled to understand it. I ended up winning the match, but only after going into overtime with the butt-clinching score of 0 to 0.
I guess these donât really classify as minigames and more as puzzles, especially since you are forced into them as part of the main story, but you have these trials you have to complete which are puzzles that revolve around moving spheres around and placing them in proper spots as well as occasionally moving blocks around. The first one was simple enough with trial and error. The others required a guide for me to complete. Funnily enough, I am of the belief that is why those puzzles are in the game, to help sell the gameâs strategy guides because back in 2001 when it was on the PS2, there was no YouTube or any other real alternative to help out and no one will convince me otherwise.
I think thatâs kind of my other problem with the game, all of the optional content just isnât, at least in my opinion, fun.
Those personal grievances of mine aside, I think itâs a decent game with an amazing story. I found the story to be very engaging and unique. Most of the time I experience the story of something, whether it is in a book or a game, it shares similar beats with another story I have experienced before, but that wasnât the case for me with Final Fantasy X.
I really loved the overall theme of having to decide whether to adhere to or let go of tradition.
I also found the companion characters to be some of the best companions out of any game Iâve ever played. They all had their own complete arcs, unique designs, distinct places in the story, and were just really pleasant. Plus, the voice acting for them, in the English Dub at least, fit them well. The voice actors really brought their A game. Iâm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but one of the characters, Wakka, is voiced by John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) and it took me well into 20 hours into the game to realize that, and only because he sort of slipped into his Bender voice when the character got angry.
Thereâs a lot of strange mechanics at play in the game as well.
Leveling up has this sphere grid mechanic. Each character has their own place on the grid and you have to move around and select which spheres to unlock. So like, if you want to raise a characterâs attack then you need a power sphere to place on the attack slot, but in order to move on the grid you need a level. One level equals one movement, and it costs to move back over places youâve already been on the grid as well. The grid is massive and would take ages to entirely fill as each charactersâ grids intersect. Thatâs not a bad thing tho, as that means any character can learn any other characterâs moves.
There are two equipment slots for each character. One is for a weapon type that is unique to them and the other is for an accessory type that is unique to them. As you get farther into the game, youâll eventually unlock the ability to customize certain pieces of equipment which allow for the adding of status effects that you can inflict on enemies.
There are also tons of hidden systems at work behind the scenes. I donât really understand it all, and not a lot of people do, if even anyone properly does at all; as there are tons of spreadsheets of data for a lot of things. For example, thereâs a hidden creature that you can recruit which can instant kill any enemy, even bosses, at the cost of you paying it money. But the amount of money it takes to do the move with that chance to instant kill is based on a hidden unseen metric of how much it likes you which also ties into how much youâve offered it each time for doing that move.
Thereâs also a specific scene where you get to ride a snowmobile with a companion and which companion you ride with is based on which one likes you the most, but that metric is hidden from you.
Some of the boss battles allow for what is called trigger commands. Trigger commands are specific to characters. I found this to be creative as it sometimes allowed for an alternate way to handle a boss, like by activating a crane and crushing it for example. However, I also found trigger commands to become frustrating as for certain battles youâd need to do trigger commands to move away from a bossâs attacks and that trigger command would take your entire turn. I realize Iâm being a bit vague there, but Iâd rather not spoil anything.
On the flipside, you can switch between companions who are on the field and who arenât without it costing you a turn. You can also always see the turn order which is a really nice touch, so thereâs never any confusion about who moves when.
So⊠Would I recommend playing Final Fantasy X? That depends on you. Itâs a game, not a book - and the farther into the game I got the more sour I became because I largely wanted to experience the story above all else. If you like challenges and grinding to break the game, then Iâd say itâs definitely worth it. If you donât like grinding, then Iâd say maybe give it a pass unless you are dying for something to play with a REALLY good story (although there is a rumor of a Remake being released in 2025/26 so you might want to hold out and see if that is any easier).
The remastered version was largely handled by the Chinese studio Virtuos whom received some assistance from Square Enix - who also handled the publishing. The original version of the game was developed by Square. From my understanding, aside from upgraded textures and enhanced graphics, the remastered edition contains content that was previously only available in the international versions.
I happened to play the PC version. I never had any crashes and it was a stable and bug free experience for me. One thing I found interesting is that on Steam it has its own launcher and you have to select between X, X2, or the after stories, and then the game proper launches.
I have a lot to unpack here with this game, but before we get started, I feel that I have to say that Iâve never been so on the fence about whether or not to recommend a game. It was such a mixed bag for me. Because of that, Iâm going to start with the huge elephant in the room, the difficulty.
Difficulty wise, this game is really hard. Iâve seen a lot of members of the Final Fantasy community claim that not only is it the best, or one of, but also the easiest game in the franchise. I honestly canât attest one way or another whether this is true as I have only played this entry, 14, around half of 13-1, and a small smattering of X-2 back when I was a kid, but it is anything but easy if itâs your first time playing it and you go through it blind.
Iâm actually pretty convinced that most of the people who comment that it is an easy game are doing so with the hindsight of having beaten it before, got the items that allowed them to easily cheese the bosses in a few hits, or they are REALLY used to building fantastic character builds.
Actually, speaking of cheesy items that allow you to beat bosses in a few hits, thatâs sort of my main gripe with this game. To elaborate, whenever I hit the metaphorical wall on boss enemies and struggled, and anytime that Iâd google, the general answer was âgo make such and such awesome item that will give you an immunity to x status effectâ.
Thatâs all well and good, except the part of the explanation which often gets left out is the fact that said items are usually only gotten through stealing off of monsters and the most effective way is to complete a side quest where you have to capture a number (think it was 10?) of each monster which will open up an arena that will then allow you to do so. Either way you are looking at a multiple hour grind there.
Me being my naive self, opted to just grind more levels each time I struggled instead of grinding out those items and doing the side quest because I wanted to get on with the story, and I mean, why would I need those items, the game is easy, right? I always persevered through it; until the final boss.
To backtrack a bit, I did once try some optional content that was highly recommended by a large segment of the community. Thereâs this powerful creature you can get to help you called Anima and I had done all the prerequisite stuff to unlock it. But as it turns out, it is blocked by a monster. The monster in question is low on health and pretty weak, but you are forced into using three specific characters for it (which is normally fine in and of itself), however said monster has a one hit kill that turns you into stone and makes said party member shatter so they can't be revived. I tried 7 separate times against it, but thereâs only so much you can do when it kills your party members in one hit and they are non revivable.
This time there were two solutions offered. One was go grind out a minigame called Blitzball to get a character an awesome ultimate move (weâll get to Blitzball in a few ranty paragraphs) or, âGo build a set of armor that blocks petrificationâ, which required grinding a specific item.
Anyway, I said nah, Iâm not going to bother and started the endgame content with the final bosses. Which, wouldnât you know it? The final boss of the game has the same exact move as that earlier boss, just reskinned. It was at this point at 52 hours in I decided to give up on the game entirely. Final Fantasy X is a difficult game, but only because a lot of the boss fights have really cheesy, cheap 1 hit kill mechanics.
One other thing worth noting, is that you cannot skip cutscenes. You can pause them, but you CANNOT skip them. So if you die at a boss with a long cutscene a lot, then you are going to end up with some of the gameâs dialogue seared into your brain.
Disregarding the 4 or 5 boss fights I temporarily got stuck at, Iâd say that the rest of the game is easy.
Well, other than the optional minigames. I had read and heard that the Chocobo Racing Minigame was such a hairpulling, RNG filled chore that I honestly just decided to avoid it entirely. Thereâs also a lightning dodging minigame thatâs pretty hard to time. If you dodge 200 strikes of lightning in a row you get a prize! Then you have Blitzball, which is a sports minigame somewhat similar to football where you have two teams trying to score goals. Everyone on both teams have levels and level up the more you use them in matches. At one point in the story you are forced to do a match and you can choose to read up on how to play it. I did the tutorial for it (which is broken up into chunks) and still struggled to understand it. I ended up winning the match, but only after going into overtime with the butt-clinching score of 0 to 0.
I guess these donât really classify as minigames and more as puzzles, especially since you are forced into them as part of the main story, but you have these trials you have to complete which are puzzles that revolve around moving spheres around and placing them in proper spots as well as occasionally moving blocks around. The first one was simple enough with trial and error. The others required a guide for me to complete. Funnily enough, I am of the belief that is why those puzzles are in the game, to help sell the gameâs strategy guides because back in 2001 when it was on the PS2, there was no YouTube or any other real alternative to help out and no one will convince me otherwise.
I think thatâs kind of my other problem with the game, all of the optional content just isnât, at least in my opinion, fun.
Those personal grievances of mine aside, I think itâs a decent game with an amazing story. I found the story to be very engaging and unique. Most of the time I experience the story of something, whether it is in a book or a game, it shares similar beats with another story I have experienced before, but that wasnât the case for me with Final Fantasy X.
I really loved the overall theme of having to decide whether to adhere to or let go of tradition.
I also found the companion characters to be some of the best companions out of any game Iâve ever played. They all had their own complete arcs, unique designs, distinct places in the story, and were just really pleasant. Plus, the voice acting for them, in the English Dub at least, fit them well. The voice actors really brought their A game. Iâm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but one of the characters, Wakka, is voiced by John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) and it took me well into 20 hours into the game to realize that, and only because he sort of slipped into his Bender voice when the character got angry.
Thereâs a lot of strange mechanics at play in the game as well.
Leveling up has this sphere grid mechanic. Each character has their own place on the grid and you have to move around and select which spheres to unlock. So like, if you want to raise a characterâs attack then you need a power sphere to place on the attack slot, but in order to move on the grid you need a level. One level equals one movement, and it costs to move back over places youâve already been on the grid as well. The grid is massive and would take ages to entirely fill as each charactersâ grids intersect. Thatâs not a bad thing tho, as that means any character can learn any other characterâs moves.
There are two equipment slots for each character. One is for a weapon type that is unique to them and the other is for an accessory type that is unique to them. As you get farther into the game, youâll eventually unlock the ability to customize certain pieces of equipment which allow for the adding of status effects that you can inflict on enemies.
There are also tons of hidden systems at work behind the scenes. I donât really understand it all, and not a lot of people do, if even anyone properly does at all; as there are tons of spreadsheets of data for a lot of things. For example, thereâs a hidden creature that you can recruit which can instant kill any enemy, even bosses, at the cost of you paying it money. But the amount of money it takes to do the move with that chance to instant kill is based on a hidden unseen metric of how much it likes you which also ties into how much youâve offered it each time for doing that move.
Thereâs also a specific scene where you get to ride a snowmobile with a companion and which companion you ride with is based on which one likes you the most, but that metric is hidden from you.
Some of the boss battles allow for what is called trigger commands. Trigger commands are specific to characters. I found this to be creative as it sometimes allowed for an alternate way to handle a boss, like by activating a crane and crushing it for example. However, I also found trigger commands to become frustrating as for certain battles youâd need to do trigger commands to move away from a bossâs attacks and that trigger command would take your entire turn. I realize Iâm being a bit vague there, but Iâd rather not spoil anything.
On the flipside, you can switch between companions who are on the field and who arenât without it costing you a turn. You can also always see the turn order which is a really nice touch, so thereâs never any confusion about who moves when.
So⊠Would I recommend playing Final Fantasy X? That depends on you. Itâs a game, not a book - and the farther into the game I got the more sour I became because I largely wanted to experience the story above all else. If you like challenges and grinding to break the game, then Iâd say itâs definitely worth it. If you donât like grinding, then Iâd say maybe give it a pass unless you are dying for something to play with a REALLY good story (although there is a rumor of a Remake being released in 2025/26 so you might want to hold out and see if that is any easier).
if auron has a million fans, then im one of them
if auron has ten fans, then im one of them
if auron has one fan, then that is me
if auron has no fans, then that means
i am no longer on earth
if the world is against auron, then i am against the world
if auron has ten fans, then im one of them
if auron has one fan, then that is me
if auron has no fans, then that means
i am no longer on earth
if the world is against auron, then i am against the world
No me ha gustado tanto como la gente lo ponĂa, pero ha estado bien.
Eso sĂ, la banda sonora tiene probablemente algunas de las composiciones mĂĄs tochas de toda la puta franquicia.
Eso sĂ, la banda sonora tiene probablemente algunas de las composiciones mĂĄs tochas de toda la puta franquicia.
without a doubt, the best game i have ever played. narrative left me in tears, OST is BANGING and the gameplay is not too shabby either. Tidus and Yuna's story is definitely something i couldn't live without experiencing at least once. also JECHT BABY HES SO COOL HES LIKE THE BEST BLITZBALLER EVER
people die and yuna dances
Yes, the game is extremely linear most of the time
But it throws so many different things at your face all the time that makes you forget that it's just corridor after corridor
But it throws so many different things at your face all the time that makes you forget that it's just corridor after corridor
"I want my pilgrimage to be full of laughter."
I can definitely say I see why this game is so beloved. Going through these trials with this cast was such a good time. Wakka and Auron are two I'd say are on my all-time list now. I felt a great connection with them, and the story overall hit hard.
The fantastic music only enhanced my experience, and the combat was mostly enjoyable.
Most of the things I had issues with can be chalked up to age. I found a lot of the puzzles to be overly tedious and the grid system to be a bit dated, but I appreciate what they were going for.
The final stretch is one of the best I've experienced. Great game.
I can definitely say I see why this game is so beloved. Going through these trials with this cast was such a good time. Wakka and Auron are two I'd say are on my all-time list now. I felt a great connection with them, and the story overall hit hard.
The fantastic music only enhanced my experience, and the combat was mostly enjoyable.
Most of the things I had issues with can be chalked up to age. I found a lot of the puzzles to be overly tedious and the grid system to be a bit dated, but I appreciate what they were going for.
The final stretch is one of the best I've experienced. Great game.
Hot take: out of all the Final Fantasy games, this game and X-2 have aged the worst. They're essentially PS1 games that don't look like PS1 games, so it kind of messes with your brain a little. The highs are still high (Yuna's sending scene, the underwater date, the ending etc.) but the game has plenty of issues. The voice acting is awful, the pacing is weird, the writing isn't the best and it overall just feels really, really janky. I'm gonna be honest and say if it weren't for the nostalgia goggles I'm wearing at the moment, I'd probably rate this a little lower.
Yojimbo the GOAT
FFX is a refreshing reminder that JRPGs used to be the weird kids at the lunch table. A story with a head-spinning amount proper nouns and rich with allegory is complemented by a script for our main cast that feels as if it covers more ground than many like it, while simultaneously being far more focused than those that attempt to cover less, which shows the pristine craftsmanship on display. The HD remaster offers a revitalized soundtrack that elevates the experience in ways remasters often donât, even if the uncanny nature of characterâs faces didnât perfectly translate onto modern graphics technology and high resolutions.
FFXâs combat elements are handled extraordinarily well compared to shit-at-the-wall approach that other JRPGs can devolve into. The sphere grid offers unique ways to customize and grant meaningful power to party members. Level ups are very frequent while maintaining a challenging but fair level curve, and random encounters often feel more akin to mini-bosses with less fluffy, grindy nonsense even when the map layouts can resemble straight lines. FFXâs biggest detractor is that it unfortunately does not escape the JRPG curse of sluggish third acts. Multiple, lengthy, consecutive puzzle segments, division of the party, and story elements that feel inconsequential or could use a trim; FFX is yet another in a long line of games that kill their momentum a tad as soon as the going gets good. That being said, FFX is a flourish of talent, passion and competence not often seen by the genre.
FFXâs combat elements are handled extraordinarily well compared to shit-at-the-wall approach that other JRPGs can devolve into. The sphere grid offers unique ways to customize and grant meaningful power to party members. Level ups are very frequent while maintaining a challenging but fair level curve, and random encounters often feel more akin to mini-bosses with less fluffy, grindy nonsense even when the map layouts can resemble straight lines. FFXâs biggest detractor is that it unfortunately does not escape the JRPG curse of sluggish third acts. Multiple, lengthy, consecutive puzzle segments, division of the party, and story elements that feel inconsequential or could use a trim; FFX is yet another in a long line of games that kill their momentum a tad as soon as the going gets good. That being said, FFX is a flourish of talent, passion and competence not often seen by the genre.
As part of my attempt to get more into the franchise, I decided to give one of the most acclaimed ones a shot and see how I felt about it. What I got was an enjoyable, yet sometimes tedious adventure with a fun story and a (mostly) solid cast of characters.
Let's get it out of the way: the minigames in this game often range anywhere from mildly annoying to downright frustrating. I personally didn't care much for Blitzball so I mostly stayed away from it, and the assortment of games aside from that (Chocobo racing, butterfly catching, lightning dodging, etc.) were basically all duds for me. I'd imagine it was a combination of baffling design and old-game syndrome but playing them in a modern gaming content just felt miserable as most felt like they were made specifically to frustrate the player and make it nearly impossible to win until you've given them a fair few attempts.
As for the combat, I think it was mostly solid. Outside of a few encounters (one late game boss in particular was NOT IT) and some various cheap tactics from enemies, I felt like the turn-based battles played out in fun ways and I appreciate the on-the-fly character switching. Having to make sure every character acts in a battle to get AP (the game's experience equivalent) was kind of a drag but I got over it pretty quickly. The Sphere Grid system that enables characters to upgrade stats and learn skills was a bit odd at first but I grew to appreciate what it was going for over the course of the game, with my main complaint being the availability of some of the "lock" spheres needed to unblock paths to some of the more impactful moves the game has to offer.
As I said, this is one of the handful of FF games I've played and as such I felt the story was an overall solid experience. Tidus and Yuna's relationship was fun to see grow (albeit with some rather outdated voice acting/character movements) and I felt the core cast all gelled well with one another. Some got fleshed out less than others (Lulu specifically felt somewhat dry and lacked much of anything interesting plot-wise outside of a sidequest or two) but overall they did well with what they had and the narrative kept me playing and curious to see where everything was headed.
Overall I liked my time with Final Fantasy X and can see why it's such a beloved entry in the series. I had my qualms with it and it's by no means perfect, but as a JRPG fan it's hard to argue that it wasn't influential to games that came after it in the space.
Let's get it out of the way: the minigames in this game often range anywhere from mildly annoying to downright frustrating. I personally didn't care much for Blitzball so I mostly stayed away from it, and the assortment of games aside from that (Chocobo racing, butterfly catching, lightning dodging, etc.) were basically all duds for me. I'd imagine it was a combination of baffling design and old-game syndrome but playing them in a modern gaming content just felt miserable as most felt like they were made specifically to frustrate the player and make it nearly impossible to win until you've given them a fair few attempts.
As for the combat, I think it was mostly solid. Outside of a few encounters (one late game boss in particular was NOT IT) and some various cheap tactics from enemies, I felt like the turn-based battles played out in fun ways and I appreciate the on-the-fly character switching. Having to make sure every character acts in a battle to get AP (the game's experience equivalent) was kind of a drag but I got over it pretty quickly. The Sphere Grid system that enables characters to upgrade stats and learn skills was a bit odd at first but I grew to appreciate what it was going for over the course of the game, with my main complaint being the availability of some of the "lock" spheres needed to unblock paths to some of the more impactful moves the game has to offer.
As I said, this is one of the handful of FF games I've played and as such I felt the story was an overall solid experience. Tidus and Yuna's relationship was fun to see grow (albeit with some rather outdated voice acting/character movements) and I felt the core cast all gelled well with one another. Some got fleshed out less than others (Lulu specifically felt somewhat dry and lacked much of anything interesting plot-wise outside of a sidequest or two) but overall they did well with what they had and the narrative kept me playing and curious to see where everything was headed.
Overall I liked my time with Final Fantasy X and can see why it's such a beloved entry in the series. I had my qualms with it and it's by no means perfect, but as a JRPG fan it's hard to argue that it wasn't influential to games that came after it in the space.
Same with OG X, enjoyed a lot, never finished, maybe one day.
What about duh teachins mk II
What about duh teachins mk II
An otherworld awaits me in my dreams HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH
Eu realmente nĂŁo estava preparado para FFX.
Uma montanha russa de emoçÔes.
O jogo tem um combate por turno com algumas coisas interessantes por exemplo cada personagem do grupo tem suas peculiaridades que os ajudam a enfrentar inimigos especĂficos, por exemplo o Auron Ă© forte contra inimigos de armadura, o Wakka contra voadores e etc.
A histĂłria Ă© boa, bem emocionante, tem todo um tom de despedida a todo momento e tem bons personagens.
Uma montanha russa de emoçÔes.
O jogo tem um combate por turno com algumas coisas interessantes por exemplo cada personagem do grupo tem suas peculiaridades que os ajudam a enfrentar inimigos especĂficos, por exemplo o Auron Ă© forte contra inimigos de armadura, o Wakka contra voadores e etc.
A histĂłria Ă© boa, bem emocionante, tem todo um tom de despedida a todo momento e tem bons personagens.
there's this moment early on where tidus just straight up jumps on a sailor and like breakdances on him and it was so fucked up
Auron can do whatever he wants to me
This review contains spoilers
"My father... I loved him. So I... I will live with my sorrow, I will live my own life! I will defeat sorrow, in his place. I will stand my ground and be strong. I don't know when it will be, but someday... I will conquer it. And I will do it without... false hope."
Not only is Final Fantasy X one of the best games I've ever played, it also has one of the best stories I've ever experienced. For a game that I've been so heavily spoiled on, knowing most of the big twists in advance, it's amazing how quickly and relentlessly this story captured me, never letting go until the very end.
I was first introduced to this game through NintendoCapriSun's LP over a decade ago. I was immediately captured by the isekai premise (first time I'd experienced it outside of Narnia), the unique tropical setting, and the pretty hopeless tone with the inevitability of Sin. I watched his LP up until Yuna's sending in Kilika Island, and... for some reason never continued, despite loving it until then. I guess I intended to actually play the game myself, but didn't own a PS2 and never got around to it?
Going back into this game, I suspected that I wouldn't love the intro as much as I did when I was younger, and might end up feeling disillusioned. Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all! The intro to FFX is really really good and offers so many good hooks: Tidus getting thrown into a world he knows nothing about, everything surrounding Sin, Yuna's journey as a summoner (the purposes of which are shrouded in secrets), and just a lot of really good world building that quickly establishes the culture, politics and general mood of the people who live here. I also love the tropical vibes, I was actually kinda sad to see them going later on hahaâgranted it was effective in setting the tone.
Let's get one of the elephants in the room out of the wayâFFX is VERY linear, with most areas being simple corridors without little to no exploration. Considering all FF games before this not only offered more exploration, but also had expansive world maps, this is a pretty daring change. And does it work? I might be biased, as I prefer more linear games, but I genuinely think it does and adds a lot of immersion to the game. Yuna's pilgrimage is incredibly railroaded from a story perspectiveâshe isn't given any decisions for a while, only the choice to follow a predetermined path, or simply give upâand there's a big thing over how each time she visits a place, it will be the last time she'll ever see it. Of course, this changes in the final act of the game, but I did really appreciate how strongly they tied the gameplay experience with the themes of the story.
That's not to say it's all perfect, of courseâwhen the game opens up a little, the Calm Lands aren't all that fun to wander about (so much empty space), and once you gain Celsius it does feel a bit tedious revising all these corridors and trying to find secrets you missed. The international version of the game (aka what the HD remasters use as a base) also makes an utterly baffling decision to block certain areas behind superbosses, denying you the ability to go back to get certain missables, unless you want to grind to the point the final dungeon will be a joke. However, these issues weren't enough to take away from my experience too much (though I totally understand why they're a deal breaker for some).
In terms of the gameplay, battles feel much faster than the PS1 games (especially IX...) and I wasn't too bothered by the lack of turbo/speed up. Each character has their own 'job' and you're constantly encouraged to switch them in and out of your party mid-battle to exploit enemy weaknesses efficiently. On top of this, the character growth system is genuinely one of the best I've experienced in an RPGâthe sphere grid system is ridiculously cool. I love how it lets you pick your own path in building your character, and due to the minor stat increases in this game, each boost you get is fairly significant and noticeable. There's also an option to play with a special sphere grid that lets you develop your characters into whatever role you want (e.g. you can make Lulu a DPS god like Auron, and make Auron a white mage), which seems amazing for replay value. Once you've finished everyone's initial path and sent them onto the spheres of others, your party does end up becoming a little too homogenous for my tastes, but that's more for superboss/postgame stuff.
Moving onto the main cast, let's go through them one by one. Wakka is the typical bro character, which works, but he also has a really good arc surrounding his racial prejudices against Al Bhed, which I thought the story did a really good job at handling. Once he's confronted with Rikku being Al Bhed, he reacts very poorly and says some super racist shit, and it takes him a fairly long time to own up to his behaviour and apologise. While this doesn't do any favours for his likability, I found it a lot more believable that he'd take a while to self reflect on his deep-seated hatred for Al Bhed. Speaking of which, it was quite cool how the game presents them in a negative light at first, before slowly unravelling why they do what they do, and how generational prejudice from a certain nasty religion has hurt their society. Overall it's a surprisingly nuanced analysis on how racism can occur, and people that are otherwise good end up with unfortunate racist beliefs.
Speaking of which, Rikku is quite good herself. Her bond with Yuna is explored pretty well, and it was easy to connect to her desire to save Yuna and stop her suicide quest, before slowly accepting there really wasn't much she could do. She provides us with a good link to Al Bhed beyond Wakka being... y'know, and ends up adding a lot to the party dynamic.
Kimahri is a bit of a weak link as far as the cast is concerned, but he still has his place in the story. He gets a good mini arc that resolves itself well in the Mount Gagazet storyline, also giving us a good glimpse into Ronso culture and how he's a bit of an outcast there.
Lulu I would be tempted to call a weak link as well, but she does have a pretty strong sidequest in the Yojimbo dungeon. As a guardian following her third summoner, she's obviously dealing with a lot of pain watching Yuna go on this awful journey she's all too familiar with, but forces her feelings down and attempts to act as a mother figure to her. Of course, sometimes her emotions slip out, such as during the confrontation with Yunalesca, and these make for some really good moments and show us how Lulu really feels deep down. Her romance with Wakka is sweet and I did like how things resolved between the two of them.
As for Auron, the big man himself, he's a fantastic mentor figure, what else is there to say. One of the better examples I've seen of a character who intentionally hides things from the partyâhe's always good at revealing the hard truths when the characters are best placed to deal with them, pushing them down the right path so they don't make the same mistake he made many years ago. The spheres you can find throughout, detailing his past journey with Braska and Jecht, provide really cool insight into how he's changed as a person after harsh experiences, and honestly there's enough material to make an entire prequel there if they wanted to.
Tidus, considered the protagonist of this game, has a pretty engaging arc. I liked the complicated father-son relationship he has with Jechtâwhere Jecht clearly loved him but was terrible at expressing itâand how Tidus slowly accepts throughout the game that while his resentment for Jecht isn't necessarily wrongly placed... he also needs to accept that he loves his father as well. Their final moments together were pretty heart-breaking ;_;. I do wish Tidus' mother had a place in the story, but unfortunately mother-son relationships tend to be pretty overlooked like that, which isn't exclusive to this game at all. The twist of Zanarkand's true nature was ofc super cool and provided a good existential arc for Tidus, with the ending being really sadâhe accepts he needs to disappear, for the sake of Yuna's world. He also works great as a romantic partner for Yuna, relating to her struggles due to similarities in their upbringings, and providing her with exactly the support she needs. That scene when Tidus finds out Yuna is going on a suicide mission, and everyone hid it from him... hits so hard.
Anyway, let's talk about the REAL main character of this game. Yuna might not technically be the protagonist, but she is absolutely the central figure of this storyâin fact, I'd argue this is really her story at the end of the day, with Tidus' being secondary. I'll be entirely honest here: out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played so far, from 1-9 and 16, she is easily my favourite character in the series. Her arc is absolutely incredible. She starts off willing to follow the path to death as her father did to provide the people with a mere few years of safety from Sin, always putting others first before her own wishes, resolved to fulfill her duty to the very end. Yet she's not some flawless hero, as she has her own doubts, insecurities, and lessons to learn. But, she changes, slowly. A big impetus of this is Tidusâan outsider who offers a new perspective, and is more critical of the system she and the others were raised in, that they accept as normal.
As a victim of religious indoctrination, Yuna at first accepts that Yevon is correct and she must follow their principles. However, throughout her journey, she begins to doubt their ways, which all comes to a head when she learns the organisation is quite literally ruled by the dead. She also frequently has her resolve and ideals tested by Seymour, who wants to claim her as a wife in order to bring peace to Spiraâsomething they both at first believe to be an ideal outcome. However... slowly, Yuna puts herself first, and starts to fight against Seymour's wishâshe's only truly in love with Tidus, after all. The wedding scene is one of her best moments in the game, as despite being captured and forced into what is basically NTR marriage, she somehow never has her agency deprived of her. This is because enters the marriage willingly, in order to send Seymour when he lets his guard down. When her friends are threatened, she makes the choice to sacrifice her pride in order to protect them, and when Seymour orders them killed anyway, she threatens him with her own life. And when she jumps off, the one to save her is not Tidus, not Seymour, not the rest of the party... but herself! Because at the end of the day, Yuna doesn't need to rely on the male protagonist to be savedâshe is very strong on her own, takes a proactive approach to situations, and the narrative never forget how powerful of a summoner she is. She's allowed to be both vulnerable and strong. Imo, this is really impressive for a 2001 game, and puts even many modern games to shame in how they write their women (yes I'm looking at you FF16).
The Suteki Da Ne scene absolutely lives up to its reputation, it's so beautiful and portrays both Yuna and Tidus' characters as well as their relationship super well. It was so painful watching Yuna fantasise with Tidus about going to Zanarkand, before bursting into tears... because, at the end of the day, she isn't going on this journey out of obligation. Nor because she feels forced to. She's doing this to save the people she loves, if even for a few short years. And while he doesn't accept her fate... Tidus still accepts Yuna for who she is, for all her struggles and vulnerabilities. It's really quite beautiful.
When the cast reach Zanarkand, and there's still no solution for Yuna's fate in sight, it really starts to sink in... that Yuna isn't going to be with us for much longer. This gets even worse when we meet good ol' Yunalesca, and learn that not only does Yuna need to be sacrificed, but also one of her guardiansâand that Braska sacrificed both himself and Jecht to seal Sin away, turning Jecht into the next Sin. And this... is when Yuna changes her mind. Up until this point, she was perfectly willing to sacrifice herself, but having to sacrifice one of the people she cares about? She doesn't even consider the idea. Forced to accept that her father had been wrong in his decision, she takes a stand against Yunalesca, and we get the amazing quote from her that I put at the start of the review, along with some super good line from other characters (especially Auron). The Yunalesca fight itself is absolutely brutal and what I found to be the hardest fight in the game, which is fitting considering they are literally defying a fate that has been repeating itself for one thousand years.
Of course, Yuna's challenges don't end there. She has to send away Jechtâa close friend of her fatherâand sacrifice each of her Aeons, one by one, giving a pained expression each time before moving onto the next. And then, finally she sends the parasite Yu Yevon, breaking the thousand year curse and freeing the planet from Sin, sacrificing Tidus in the process. Her speech at the end is icing on the cake, and honestly I'm happy she got her own sequelâshe deserves it, and there's definitely more of her story to tell now that she's free of her burdens.
In terms of antagonists, I've mostly covered them, but they're all really good. A highlight is of course Seymour, who is interesting in how he genuinely believes he's doing the right thing for Spira, and if you manage to get Anima, there's some really sad reveals on his past that explain how he became what he is today, along with heart-breaking dialogue when you summon her against him near the endâlosing the only ally he ever had, his own mother. Sin/Yu Yevon are more force of nature villains, and they're really effective at what they do, with Yu Yevon being a memory of a destroyed society that won't let go, clinging to the present like a parasite. FFX really nails its theme of how the dead must move on to make room for the living, and how we need to accept death rather than let it consume us with regret and a desire to bring back the past. Momento mori is the core idea of the story here, and its integrated into every facet of the world, characters and narrative.
Last but not least, the soundtrack of this game is absolutely incredible. Uematsu, Hamauzu and Nakano all contribute their own unique musical styles, and they mesh together brilliantly, giving the game such a vibe ngl. It's easily my favourite soundtrack in the series, though it is a bit of a shame how inferior the HD Remaster version of the soundtrack is. Ah well, at least it gives you the option to switch between them!
There is so much more I could say about this game, such as the really great character content when get in sidequests, but I'd be here all day praising this game if I kept writing this already excessively long review. Needless to say, Final Fantasy X is easily my favourite Final Fantasy out of the ones I've played, and now one of my favourite games of all time. In fact... it's the 10th game I've given a perfect score on Backloggd! Pretty much every aspect of this game knocked it out of the park for me, and it tells one of the most gripping, emotional and thoughtful stories I've seen in a video game.
Not only is Final Fantasy X one of the best games I've ever played, it also has one of the best stories I've ever experienced. For a game that I've been so heavily spoiled on, knowing most of the big twists in advance, it's amazing how quickly and relentlessly this story captured me, never letting go until the very end.
I was first introduced to this game through NintendoCapriSun's LP over a decade ago. I was immediately captured by the isekai premise (first time I'd experienced it outside of Narnia), the unique tropical setting, and the pretty hopeless tone with the inevitability of Sin. I watched his LP up until Yuna's sending in Kilika Island, and... for some reason never continued, despite loving it until then. I guess I intended to actually play the game myself, but didn't own a PS2 and never got around to it?
Going back into this game, I suspected that I wouldn't love the intro as much as I did when I was younger, and might end up feeling disillusioned. Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all! The intro to FFX is really really good and offers so many good hooks: Tidus getting thrown into a world he knows nothing about, everything surrounding Sin, Yuna's journey as a summoner (the purposes of which are shrouded in secrets), and just a lot of really good world building that quickly establishes the culture, politics and general mood of the people who live here. I also love the tropical vibes, I was actually kinda sad to see them going later on hahaâgranted it was effective in setting the tone.
Let's get one of the elephants in the room out of the wayâFFX is VERY linear, with most areas being simple corridors without little to no exploration. Considering all FF games before this not only offered more exploration, but also had expansive world maps, this is a pretty daring change. And does it work? I might be biased, as I prefer more linear games, but I genuinely think it does and adds a lot of immersion to the game. Yuna's pilgrimage is incredibly railroaded from a story perspectiveâshe isn't given any decisions for a while, only the choice to follow a predetermined path, or simply give upâand there's a big thing over how each time she visits a place, it will be the last time she'll ever see it. Of course, this changes in the final act of the game, but I did really appreciate how strongly they tied the gameplay experience with the themes of the story.
That's not to say it's all perfect, of courseâwhen the game opens up a little, the Calm Lands aren't all that fun to wander about (so much empty space), and once you gain Celsius it does feel a bit tedious revising all these corridors and trying to find secrets you missed. The international version of the game (aka what the HD remasters use as a base) also makes an utterly baffling decision to block certain areas behind superbosses, denying you the ability to go back to get certain missables, unless you want to grind to the point the final dungeon will be a joke. However, these issues weren't enough to take away from my experience too much (though I totally understand why they're a deal breaker for some).
In terms of the gameplay, battles feel much faster than the PS1 games (especially IX...) and I wasn't too bothered by the lack of turbo/speed up. Each character has their own 'job' and you're constantly encouraged to switch them in and out of your party mid-battle to exploit enemy weaknesses efficiently. On top of this, the character growth system is genuinely one of the best I've experienced in an RPGâthe sphere grid system is ridiculously cool. I love how it lets you pick your own path in building your character, and due to the minor stat increases in this game, each boost you get is fairly significant and noticeable. There's also an option to play with a special sphere grid that lets you develop your characters into whatever role you want (e.g. you can make Lulu a DPS god like Auron, and make Auron a white mage), which seems amazing for replay value. Once you've finished everyone's initial path and sent them onto the spheres of others, your party does end up becoming a little too homogenous for my tastes, but that's more for superboss/postgame stuff.
Moving onto the main cast, let's go through them one by one. Wakka is the typical bro character, which works, but he also has a really good arc surrounding his racial prejudices against Al Bhed, which I thought the story did a really good job at handling. Once he's confronted with Rikku being Al Bhed, he reacts very poorly and says some super racist shit, and it takes him a fairly long time to own up to his behaviour and apologise. While this doesn't do any favours for his likability, I found it a lot more believable that he'd take a while to self reflect on his deep-seated hatred for Al Bhed. Speaking of which, it was quite cool how the game presents them in a negative light at first, before slowly unravelling why they do what they do, and how generational prejudice from a certain nasty religion has hurt their society. Overall it's a surprisingly nuanced analysis on how racism can occur, and people that are otherwise good end up with unfortunate racist beliefs.
Speaking of which, Rikku is quite good herself. Her bond with Yuna is explored pretty well, and it was easy to connect to her desire to save Yuna and stop her suicide quest, before slowly accepting there really wasn't much she could do. She provides us with a good link to Al Bhed beyond Wakka being... y'know, and ends up adding a lot to the party dynamic.
Kimahri is a bit of a weak link as far as the cast is concerned, but he still has his place in the story. He gets a good mini arc that resolves itself well in the Mount Gagazet storyline, also giving us a good glimpse into Ronso culture and how he's a bit of an outcast there.
Lulu I would be tempted to call a weak link as well, but she does have a pretty strong sidequest in the Yojimbo dungeon. As a guardian following her third summoner, she's obviously dealing with a lot of pain watching Yuna go on this awful journey she's all too familiar with, but forces her feelings down and attempts to act as a mother figure to her. Of course, sometimes her emotions slip out, such as during the confrontation with Yunalesca, and these make for some really good moments and show us how Lulu really feels deep down. Her romance with Wakka is sweet and I did like how things resolved between the two of them.
As for Auron, the big man himself, he's a fantastic mentor figure, what else is there to say. One of the better examples I've seen of a character who intentionally hides things from the partyâhe's always good at revealing the hard truths when the characters are best placed to deal with them, pushing them down the right path so they don't make the same mistake he made many years ago. The spheres you can find throughout, detailing his past journey with Braska and Jecht, provide really cool insight into how he's changed as a person after harsh experiences, and honestly there's enough material to make an entire prequel there if they wanted to.
Tidus, considered the protagonist of this game, has a pretty engaging arc. I liked the complicated father-son relationship he has with Jechtâwhere Jecht clearly loved him but was terrible at expressing itâand how Tidus slowly accepts throughout the game that while his resentment for Jecht isn't necessarily wrongly placed... he also needs to accept that he loves his father as well. Their final moments together were pretty heart-breaking ;_;. I do wish Tidus' mother had a place in the story, but unfortunately mother-son relationships tend to be pretty overlooked like that, which isn't exclusive to this game at all. The twist of Zanarkand's true nature was ofc super cool and provided a good existential arc for Tidus, with the ending being really sadâhe accepts he needs to disappear, for the sake of Yuna's world. He also works great as a romantic partner for Yuna, relating to her struggles due to similarities in their upbringings, and providing her with exactly the support she needs. That scene when Tidus finds out Yuna is going on a suicide mission, and everyone hid it from him... hits so hard.
Anyway, let's talk about the REAL main character of this game. Yuna might not technically be the protagonist, but she is absolutely the central figure of this storyâin fact, I'd argue this is really her story at the end of the day, with Tidus' being secondary. I'll be entirely honest here: out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played so far, from 1-9 and 16, she is easily my favourite character in the series. Her arc is absolutely incredible. She starts off willing to follow the path to death as her father did to provide the people with a mere few years of safety from Sin, always putting others first before her own wishes, resolved to fulfill her duty to the very end. Yet she's not some flawless hero, as she has her own doubts, insecurities, and lessons to learn. But, she changes, slowly. A big impetus of this is Tidusâan outsider who offers a new perspective, and is more critical of the system she and the others were raised in, that they accept as normal.
As a victim of religious indoctrination, Yuna at first accepts that Yevon is correct and she must follow their principles. However, throughout her journey, she begins to doubt their ways, which all comes to a head when she learns the organisation is quite literally ruled by the dead. She also frequently has her resolve and ideals tested by Seymour, who wants to claim her as a wife in order to bring peace to Spiraâsomething they both at first believe to be an ideal outcome. However... slowly, Yuna puts herself first, and starts to fight against Seymour's wishâshe's only truly in love with Tidus, after all. The wedding scene is one of her best moments in the game, as despite being captured and forced into what is basically NTR marriage, she somehow never has her agency deprived of her. This is because enters the marriage willingly, in order to send Seymour when he lets his guard down. When her friends are threatened, she makes the choice to sacrifice her pride in order to protect them, and when Seymour orders them killed anyway, she threatens him with her own life. And when she jumps off, the one to save her is not Tidus, not Seymour, not the rest of the party... but herself! Because at the end of the day, Yuna doesn't need to rely on the male protagonist to be savedâshe is very strong on her own, takes a proactive approach to situations, and the narrative never forget how powerful of a summoner she is. She's allowed to be both vulnerable and strong. Imo, this is really impressive for a 2001 game, and puts even many modern games to shame in how they write their women (yes I'm looking at you FF16).
The Suteki Da Ne scene absolutely lives up to its reputation, it's so beautiful and portrays both Yuna and Tidus' characters as well as their relationship super well. It was so painful watching Yuna fantasise with Tidus about going to Zanarkand, before bursting into tears... because, at the end of the day, she isn't going on this journey out of obligation. Nor because she feels forced to. She's doing this to save the people she loves, if even for a few short years. And while he doesn't accept her fate... Tidus still accepts Yuna for who she is, for all her struggles and vulnerabilities. It's really quite beautiful.
When the cast reach Zanarkand, and there's still no solution for Yuna's fate in sight, it really starts to sink in... that Yuna isn't going to be with us for much longer. This gets even worse when we meet good ol' Yunalesca, and learn that not only does Yuna need to be sacrificed, but also one of her guardiansâand that Braska sacrificed both himself and Jecht to seal Sin away, turning Jecht into the next Sin. And this... is when Yuna changes her mind. Up until this point, she was perfectly willing to sacrifice herself, but having to sacrifice one of the people she cares about? She doesn't even consider the idea. Forced to accept that her father had been wrong in his decision, she takes a stand against Yunalesca, and we get the amazing quote from her that I put at the start of the review, along with some super good line from other characters (especially Auron). The Yunalesca fight itself is absolutely brutal and what I found to be the hardest fight in the game, which is fitting considering they are literally defying a fate that has been repeating itself for one thousand years.
Of course, Yuna's challenges don't end there. She has to send away Jechtâa close friend of her fatherâand sacrifice each of her Aeons, one by one, giving a pained expression each time before moving onto the next. And then, finally she sends the parasite Yu Yevon, breaking the thousand year curse and freeing the planet from Sin, sacrificing Tidus in the process. Her speech at the end is icing on the cake, and honestly I'm happy she got her own sequelâshe deserves it, and there's definitely more of her story to tell now that she's free of her burdens.
In terms of antagonists, I've mostly covered them, but they're all really good. A highlight is of course Seymour, who is interesting in how he genuinely believes he's doing the right thing for Spira, and if you manage to get Anima, there's some really sad reveals on his past that explain how he became what he is today, along with heart-breaking dialogue when you summon her against him near the endâlosing the only ally he ever had, his own mother. Sin/Yu Yevon are more force of nature villains, and they're really effective at what they do, with Yu Yevon being a memory of a destroyed society that won't let go, clinging to the present like a parasite. FFX really nails its theme of how the dead must move on to make room for the living, and how we need to accept death rather than let it consume us with regret and a desire to bring back the past. Momento mori is the core idea of the story here, and its integrated into every facet of the world, characters and narrative.
Last but not least, the soundtrack of this game is absolutely incredible. Uematsu, Hamauzu and Nakano all contribute their own unique musical styles, and they mesh together brilliantly, giving the game such a vibe ngl. It's easily my favourite soundtrack in the series, though it is a bit of a shame how inferior the HD Remaster version of the soundtrack is. Ah well, at least it gives you the option to switch between them!
There is so much more I could say about this game, such as the really great character content when get in sidequests, but I'd be here all day praising this game if I kept writing this already excessively long review. Needless to say, Final Fantasy X is easily my favourite Final Fantasy out of the ones I've played, and now one of my favourite games of all time. In fact... it's the 10th game I've given a perfect score on Backloggd! Pretty much every aspect of this game knocked it out of the park for me, and it tells one of the most gripping, emotional and thoughtful stories I've seen in a video game.
Replay.
A lot of it still holds up really well, love the battle system and sphere grid, the story is thematically rich, the world feels very well considered and alive despite being very linear. Auron hot.
I am choosing to overlook the typically terrible Final Fantasy mini-games.
Did you know Belgemine was Cree Summer??
A lot of it still holds up really well, love the battle system and sphere grid, the story is thematically rich, the world feels very well considered and alive despite being very linear. Auron hot.
I am choosing to overlook the typically terrible Final Fantasy mini-games.
Did you know Belgemine was Cree Summer??
I remember thinking as a kid that the beginning of the game was so boring I should just quit. Luckily, it ends up picking up a lot with a pretty decently emotional story, good music, and a crazy mindbending conclusion that I didn't see coming.
It's fine. I liked the battle system a lot. Soundtrack ofc is amazing and the graphics was mindblowing (still pleasant for this day, still). The story and characters not that much, but towards half it finally got me and that ending made me emotional.
Exploration and minigames? Hell fucking no.
Exploration and minigames? Hell fucking no.
çŽ æ”ă ă
Lovely game still Auron best dude.
Ending still hits like a ton of bricks refuse to play ffx-2 again despite how fun the gameplay is.
Lovely game still Auron best dude.
Ending still hits like a ton of bricks refuse to play ffx-2 again despite how fun the gameplay is.
Esse jogo tem o Auron, ele automaticamente jĂĄ Ă© uma Masterpiece
I went into this game with so many great expectations, this game is praised so much, some even say it's the "Best RPG of all time" while I simply think it isn't entirely true. But I can understand where they are coming from, it's a heartfelt journey with a really well done love story.
Is the Story good : Yes I think it was amazing, the connection the characters had, the journey they endured together, it was awesome. Especially the Underwater Date Scene
Is the Music good : Of course it is, the music reflects well on areas, characters, and story moments.
Is the Gameplay good : HONESTLY it was not that great, they even added Boosters and Cheat Unlocks in the Menu, it just shows how grindy this game is, it has the outdated RPG gameplay with random encounters and inflated enemy HP bars. So don't go into this game expecting exciting gameplay.
Overall, if you are an avid Final Fantasy Fan, or want to get into the series & experience a great story, then you should play this game for sure! Probably will cut down your playtime if you disable random encounters.
Is the Story good : Yes I think it was amazing, the connection the characters had, the journey they endured together, it was awesome. Especially the Underwater Date Scene
Is the Music good : Of course it is, the music reflects well on areas, characters, and story moments.
Is the Gameplay good : HONESTLY it was not that great, they even added Boosters and Cheat Unlocks in the Menu, it just shows how grindy this game is, it has the outdated RPG gameplay with random encounters and inflated enemy HP bars. So don't go into this game expecting exciting gameplay.
Overall, if you are an avid Final Fantasy Fan, or want to get into the series & experience a great story, then you should play this game for sure! Probably will cut down your playtime if you disable random encounters.
a masterpiece of a story with strong gameplay heavily diluted by one of the worst first halfs to an rpg ive ever played
it was worth playing through it though, very glad I didnt get the big twist spoiled for me
it was worth playing through it though, very glad I didnt get the big twist spoiled for me
I really, really like this game's cast and worldbuilding. Compared to other FF games I felt like this game's party dynamics were super strong. Very good characterization all throughout, but my favorites were Yuna and Auron.
I was not crazy about this game's combat. The sphere grid system is really cool, but most fights in the game feel slower than they should be. This is partially because of how party members are required to participate in a battle to get AP, and partially because once you get to the late game the damage cap becomes a very real obstacle in terms of killing things in a timely manner. Also, a lot of the endgame optional content seems to require a lot of grinding to improve sphere grids, and if it's not grinding, it's some ridiculously hard minigame like lightning dodging or frame perfect butterfly catching. The monster catching is similarly grindy. tl;dr, a lot of the gameplay in FFX is stuff that is cool on paper but kind of sucks to actually do. Also, shoutout to the remaster version for adding a bunch of superbosses to the map that makes running around in late game way more annoying than it was in the original.
However, the boss fights in this game are generally very cool. They require strategy and are the points in the game where I always feel like the choices I made on the sphere grid are tested the best, which leads to a lot of satisfaction. There are, of course, some puzzle bosses that are not very fun, but generally these are outnumbered.
Overall I liked FFX a lot and can see why it has as good of a reputation as it does.
I was not crazy about this game's combat. The sphere grid system is really cool, but most fights in the game feel slower than they should be. This is partially because of how party members are required to participate in a battle to get AP, and partially because once you get to the late game the damage cap becomes a very real obstacle in terms of killing things in a timely manner. Also, a lot of the endgame optional content seems to require a lot of grinding to improve sphere grids, and if it's not grinding, it's some ridiculously hard minigame like lightning dodging or frame perfect butterfly catching. The monster catching is similarly grindy. tl;dr, a lot of the gameplay in FFX is stuff that is cool on paper but kind of sucks to actually do. Also, shoutout to the remaster version for adding a bunch of superbosses to the map that makes running around in late game way more annoying than it was in the original.
However, the boss fights in this game are generally very cool. They require strategy and are the points in the game where I always feel like the choices I made on the sphere grid are tested the best, which leads to a lot of satisfaction. There are, of course, some puzzle bosses that are not very fun, but generally these are outnumbered.
Overall I liked FFX a lot and can see why it has as good of a reputation as it does.
I understand this game was one of the first video games that had voice acting and I still somewhat enjoyed the story but man, whenever a line got that goofy ass speedup which was pretty often, it just took me out of the scene, especially the emotional ones.
That really is only the major flaw I had with the game but everything else is solid to great, the music (the original one), the gameplay are rock solid and the visuals too, even if it was remastered still looks really good.
That really is only the major flaw I had with the game but everything else is solid to great, the music (the original one), the gameplay are rock solid and the visuals too, even if it was remastered still looks really good.
Um jogo que traz uma linda mensagem por trås de diversas metåforas à crenças e religiÔes e um romance muito bem desenvolvido
tenho medo de jogar o X-2 pq o final desse jogo é tão bem feito que nem precisava de continuação
tenho medo de jogar o X-2 pq o final desse jogo é tão bem feito que nem precisava de continuação