It's hard to figure out how to start even a short review for this game because there is just so overwhelmingly much to talk about. For one, Final Fantasy X is probably the most difficult game I've ever played in my life. I would be surprised it isn't one of the most difficult games in anyone's experience unless you grind like crazy, something you'll rarely catch me doing. Probably 20-30 of the 60 hours of this playthrough was just desperately trying to beat the game's insane boss fights. I've never seen boss fights in an RPG quite like this before (yes, maybe I haven't played enough older RPGs) where you just have to use almost everything at your disposal, even if you don't know about it at all, to have a chance. For example, I could not figure out how to stop the Sanctuary Gatekeeper from healing itself until I saw someone mention using reflect, something the game does not even hint at at any point, which is weird because it is pretty much impossible to beat without using that. Anyways, wow the fights in this game were hard, the final boss was genuinely impossible for me until I learned what Triple 999 was; I legitimately could not do it without that.
Apart from the difficulty, FFX is another one of those essential, huge scope JRPG experiences that is absolutely one of the best games in the franchise and one of the more important JRPGs of all time. The combat system might be my absolute favorite turn-based combat system of all time; the ability to switch out between all of your party members without wasting a turn, as much as you want, opens up an incredible amount of freedom that I always want in RPGs with more party members than are allowed in battle. It lets you use essentially everyone at once, making this probably the only game where I didn't have a truly underutilized party member in combat. I honestly loved this system more than the ATP system and loved it even more because of how good the main battle theme is.
The story when wholly put together is an incredibly well thought out piece of fiction. Throughout the game there are a couple minor plot-holes but the concept as a whole is so incredibly interesting. It is such a strong narrative when you think about it all together that it made every important moment, particularly the conclusion to the game, significantly more impactful to me. Thinking back on the truth of the story in retrospect is still so fascinating to me, and is something that I never could have thought of myself in a million years. The characters are great too; Tidus and Yuna show a lot of development as the game goes on and Auron is honestly one of the best and most memorable characters in any RPG that I have played.
The scope of the FFX is honestly overwhelming and I am still baffled at the level of endgame content that exists. Certain endgame bosses require hundreds of hours of dedicated grinding and very specific strategy, often using aeons as sacrifices or needing to have maxed, uncapped HP while doing max, uncapped damage. I never did anything of this sort in the game myself but was utterly fascinated by all of this, as I've never seen anything like this in a game that was not an MMO.
FFX was the first Final Fantasy game on the PS2 and was an extremely important evolution of the franchise. The world is big, the story is big, the scope is grand and the game succeeds in making the most important moments feel truly impactful. I felt extremely engaged throughout this game despite my frustrations with a few things. The only truly egregious and honestly unforgiveable part is the inability to skip cutscenes, making the most brutally difficult bosses all the more awful because you have to listen to the same dialogue on repeat, with some cutscenes pushing over 5 minutes long. The fact that they didn't add an option to skip this in the remade version of the game is pretty embarrassing, and it's enough to take some "points", if you will, off of the game. I wasn't a big fan of some of the Cloister of Trials puzzles either, I'd say the majority of them were really annoying and took so much time that I was always dreading when they'd come up. The game is far from perfect and can be overwhelming at times with the commitment that is required to complete it, but putting in that effort is absolutely all the worth it to experience one of the most beloved RPGs of all time its entirety.
8.5/10
Apart from the difficulty, FFX is another one of those essential, huge scope JRPG experiences that is absolutely one of the best games in the franchise and one of the more important JRPGs of all time. The combat system might be my absolute favorite turn-based combat system of all time; the ability to switch out between all of your party members without wasting a turn, as much as you want, opens up an incredible amount of freedom that I always want in RPGs with more party members than are allowed in battle. It lets you use essentially everyone at once, making this probably the only game where I didn't have a truly underutilized party member in combat. I honestly loved this system more than the ATP system and loved it even more because of how good the main battle theme is.
The story when wholly put together is an incredibly well thought out piece of fiction. Throughout the game there are a couple minor plot-holes but the concept as a whole is so incredibly interesting. It is such a strong narrative when you think about it all together that it made every important moment, particularly the conclusion to the game, significantly more impactful to me. Thinking back on the truth of the story in retrospect is still so fascinating to me, and is something that I never could have thought of myself in a million years. The characters are great too; Tidus and Yuna show a lot of development as the game goes on and Auron is honestly one of the best and most memorable characters in any RPG that I have played.
The scope of the FFX is honestly overwhelming and I am still baffled at the level of endgame content that exists. Certain endgame bosses require hundreds of hours of dedicated grinding and very specific strategy, often using aeons as sacrifices or needing to have maxed, uncapped HP while doing max, uncapped damage. I never did anything of this sort in the game myself but was utterly fascinated by all of this, as I've never seen anything like this in a game that was not an MMO.
FFX was the first Final Fantasy game on the PS2 and was an extremely important evolution of the franchise. The world is big, the story is big, the scope is grand and the game succeeds in making the most important moments feel truly impactful. I felt extremely engaged throughout this game despite my frustrations with a few things. The only truly egregious and honestly unforgiveable part is the inability to skip cutscenes, making the most brutally difficult bosses all the more awful because you have to listen to the same dialogue on repeat, with some cutscenes pushing over 5 minutes long. The fact that they didn't add an option to skip this in the remade version of the game is pretty embarrassing, and it's enough to take some "points", if you will, off of the game. I wasn't a big fan of some of the Cloister of Trials puzzles either, I'd say the majority of them were really annoying and took so much time that I was always dreading when they'd come up. The game is far from perfect and can be overwhelming at times with the commitment that is required to complete it, but putting in that effort is absolutely all the worth it to experience one of the most beloved RPGs of all time its entirety.
8.5/10