So, playing this Final Fantasy was a loooong time coming. A bit of history, I remember hearing about this game for years that it was everyone's favorite and was the best Final Fantasy. After years of hearing this I slowly grew to resent hearing about it so much and then when I played Dissidia Final Fantasy...I honestly wasn't a fan of Tidus in that game, add all that on top of me not having a PS2 back when the original game released and you can see why it took so long to ever play this.
The one thing I didn't think I'd like about the game was the setting, I had seen screenshots and media about the game and kinda figured it would mostly take place in a more nature type setting, but as I hear people talking it seemed to have a religion vs technology theme to it. Back then, this didn't sit too well with me, but now after having played it, I really should have just jumped into this game sooner. The setting and the story is very well done, I love it's paced, I love how focused it was.
The characters are what really sell the game, this has to be the first Final Fantasy ever that I absolutely loved every character in your party. I was hooked from the very start, the game kinda gave me this Tales of Abyss feel, that it took me a while to really understand what was going on, which since you play the role of Tidus who is outside his element is very fitting to the story being told. It was quite a ride from start to finish.
I was actually kinda shocked at the gameplay, I was expecting it to sort of play like the other Final Fantasy games either of the past or one of the recent ones, but it actually doesn't exactly. Sure it has attack, spells, items, blah blah, but the game has a sort of turn ladder system where it shows you when each character takes a turn, so it's no longer set on a bar timer, if you've ever played Lord of the Rings: The third Age, it's exactly that. Also there's a sort of rock, paper, scissors going on that you have like Tidus who can take down nimble enemies that most everyone else would miss, and more like that with other characters but that would make this too long.
I wish I could say more about the music, it's amazing, probably the best soundtrack in the series, I think I would still put Final Fantasy 6 over it but that's about it. The voice acting is actually pretty good, it's got some weird lines and hiccups in places, but for Final Fantasy's first voiced game they did an amazing job.
If I had to talk about the flaws of the game, I can't really thing of many, the only thing I kinda don't like and it's sort of a barrier to entry, back when I talked about gameplay, the character's get spells and abilities from a sphere system, if you're familiar with a skill tree, it's something like that accept think of giant webs and circles and that's how you get any kind of skills, it's a neat system, but it's thrown at you with little explanations and since levels are no longer in the game, this is leveling system so it can't be ignored. That's honestly about it besides it being possible battles can feel same-y since you're just matching your party make up to what kills that formation faster, but even that isn't as bad to me.
I can't stress how much of a great time this game was, it's sits VERY high on my favorite Final Fantasy games.
The one thing I didn't think I'd like about the game was the setting, I had seen screenshots and media about the game and kinda figured it would mostly take place in a more nature type setting, but as I hear people talking it seemed to have a religion vs technology theme to it. Back then, this didn't sit too well with me, but now after having played it, I really should have just jumped into this game sooner. The setting and the story is very well done, I love it's paced, I love how focused it was.
The characters are what really sell the game, this has to be the first Final Fantasy ever that I absolutely loved every character in your party. I was hooked from the very start, the game kinda gave me this Tales of Abyss feel, that it took me a while to really understand what was going on, which since you play the role of Tidus who is outside his element is very fitting to the story being told. It was quite a ride from start to finish.
I was actually kinda shocked at the gameplay, I was expecting it to sort of play like the other Final Fantasy games either of the past or one of the recent ones, but it actually doesn't exactly. Sure it has attack, spells, items, blah blah, but the game has a sort of turn ladder system where it shows you when each character takes a turn, so it's no longer set on a bar timer, if you've ever played Lord of the Rings: The third Age, it's exactly that. Also there's a sort of rock, paper, scissors going on that you have like Tidus who can take down nimble enemies that most everyone else would miss, and more like that with other characters but that would make this too long.
I wish I could say more about the music, it's amazing, probably the best soundtrack in the series, I think I would still put Final Fantasy 6 over it but that's about it. The voice acting is actually pretty good, it's got some weird lines and hiccups in places, but for Final Fantasy's first voiced game they did an amazing job.
If I had to talk about the flaws of the game, I can't really thing of many, the only thing I kinda don't like and it's sort of a barrier to entry, back when I talked about gameplay, the character's get spells and abilities from a sphere system, if you're familiar with a skill tree, it's something like that accept think of giant webs and circles and that's how you get any kind of skills, it's a neat system, but it's thrown at you with little explanations and since levels are no longer in the game, this is leveling system so it can't be ignored. That's honestly about it besides it being possible battles can feel same-y since you're just matching your party make up to what kills that formation faster, but even that isn't as bad to me.
I can't stress how much of a great time this game was, it's sits VERY high on my favorite Final Fantasy games.