Final Fantasy X (2001)

Final Fantasy is a series that means a lot to me. It has been in my life since I was a child. I was introduced to it through Final Fantasy 10-2. It is so funny to me that I played the sequel to this game first before ever playing the original. Over the years I would go on to correct that and finish this game for the 4th time just recently. It got me to look at other games in the series and really cemented JRPG's for me. The vivid memories of climbing the floors in 10-2, the dark aeons in 10. This game really does just hit the most for me. Lets get into why I think this game is the quintessential JRPG.

You play as Tidus who becomes a fish out of water in his own home. You meet Yuna and go around the world of Spira on a Journey to stop Sin. It feels like I have just thrown a lot of proper nouns but it does make sense by the end. This final fantasy is about a lot of things. My favorite things that I took away from it this time was how religion can coddle us and keep us captive to thinking things will stay the same and that's just how it should be. We should accept Sin as a part of our life and never strive to make a change or break the cycle. I definitely picked up more about familial and generational trauma as well from how Tidus is treated by both of his parents, not just Jecht. I think this game has a lot to deal with grief and how it handled as well since it surrounds not only Tidus but Lulu and Wakka.

The characters in this game are just some of the best in the series. I love seeing Tidus and Yuna grow so close together and come together to defy destiny. I am of the opinion that Romance in Final Fantasy actually makes them better than some of their contemporaries. Really sinking my teeth into 10 and appreciating the romance this time around has made me want to replay and reevaluate Final Fantasy 8. Its why I adore 16 because i love Clive and Jill. Playing this game has made me want to go and play Final Fantasy 4. Romance makes this series better in my opinion. While Tidus and Yuna are the main show, we cannot forget about Wakka and Lulu who feel like two great sub main characters who go through their own arcs and come out the other side as grown individuals who have dealt with some of their issues. I just don't want to spoil anything that happens. Khimari is a person searching for and finding belonging with this group and his story hits a nice sentimental part later which made me really happy for them. I think Auron might be the weakest for me. I love him and think his design is amazing but I feel like he gets the least to do. Rikku is just a great sister type who is the first person to come and help Tidus when he first shows up in the game. You definitely see her less but she is great. I adore all of them and their interactions. This might be my favorite JRPG party though I would have to do some searching in order to make a ranking for that.

As I have been playing more older games like this and Silent Hill, there is something that I have come to realize. Voice acting has gotten so much better over time. I won't say that the voice work is bad or anything here. To me it just helps Tidus feel more out of place and in an actual fantasy. Much like how people talk in the Silent Hill games causes it to add to the effect of place that Silent Hill is just some foggy out of time and place town. I won't knock anyone who doesn't like it and I don't love every single moment but it is something that I have been grappling with going back and playing them.

The game play is truly the best final fantasy has felt to me. It feels almost effortless to move from screen to screen and decide what you will want to do. I love the weakness system involved and kind of forgot that it was even in the game. It was great to make and customize weapons that could handle almost every scenario. I want to end this by saying that it is one of my favorite stories because of what Tidus does at the end. I don't think it falls under poor writing to have him forgive his abuser but he realizes that he needs to break the cycle or else it will perpetuate and the journey will be for nothing. I would say that even their conversations in the end don't out right state forgiveness but this story is just beautiful.

The sphere grid is the best party leveling system in JRPG's. I feel so strong about this system every single time I play it. It just feels flawless and I love that you can pick where people start. It just asks you experiment with it and make characters super strong within it. Just a perfect system.

My only real knocks that I have against the game is how brutal the endgame can feel. Not just from the enemy encounters but just doing all of the things like grabbing celestial weapons or dark aeons. It was a lot and while I certainly didn't do all of it this time, I did enough and just wanted to stop. Dodging 200 lightning bolts and capturing all the fiends just to do some of these were so maddening. I'm sure that people know about blitzball and I won't repeat anything here.

There is a reason that this game tops my list of JRPG's Ranked. It just feels as if it is the most pure. I know that it really all comes down to taste but this game is amazing, its story very sentimental, its game play and systems terrific and all of those things combine together to make this My favorite JRPG.

I liked nothing about this game besides the combat, the characters, and the story. That's right, the rest of the gameplay added nothing to me. The grind for the best abilities, the grind for extra spheres, very rare items, the Blitzball tournament, ultimate weapons, etc. somehow feel more like a slog than they feel like a rewarding experience.

I've played Final Fantasy VII and VI, Dragon Quest VIII 3DS and some other mainline Dragon Quest games, yet somehow they don't feel like slogs. In Final Fantasy X, even with emulation speed on 400%, some sections just felt too tedious to do.

It's more of a 7/10 for me, giving it a benefit of the 4 stars. The cinematics, characters, story, and especially the ending are worth the experience alone. But it is slower paced even compared to VII and I wouldn't recommend it if you're not that much of a patient person.

Oh, and don't get me started about the X/X-2 PC "Remaster". Good God, talk about a massacre. Try to run it without mods and you know what I mean.

Okay, I do not care if the game "Becomes good" later on because it's first impressions are horrible, this is coming from someone who has beaten 6,7,8, and 9. I had putting 10 off for a long time but this is PAINFUL, this is genuinely painful, the game cannot stop interrupting itself from cutscenes every 10 seconds.

5 hours have passed and every single person is like "You're still in like the tutorial...." how?! How does any Final Fantasy X fan whole-heartily tell me "You are still in the tutorial" 10% into the game, how is it that 5 hours in the game is boring as shit and has nothing interesting to offer.

Here`s what happens in the first 5 hours:

• Tidus is a sci-fantasy soccer superstar, he is attacked by Aliens called Sin (metaphor of some sorts) and is teleported 1000 years into the future
• Tidus finds himself in a post apocalyptic wreck (kinda interesting) and is used by pirates that re-use old technology they call Machina, after this linear segment (everyone can breathe in water, listen man everyone is like fish-people I guess) you go into a linear underwater base which looks like something straight out of Star Wars Episode 1
• After that you wake up on the shore of an island of these religious folk that show some very very simple-minded world building consisting of Summoners, Guardians and people waging war on Sin for 1000 years, Wakka likes you because you do soccer! Soccer is like a religion and shit
• Also due to you being from the past you just lie that Sin affected your memory and gave you amnesia but if you talk to random NPCs later on you'll see that is a thing
• You continue on the religious island and get tagged along a summoner called Yuna where you basically are just gonna be part of the so far main quest (besides defeat Sin) which is be a body guard for Yuna and help her go across all very baby-mind puzzle dungeons, like the most linear simple puzzles you have ever seen in a Final Fantasy
• You go by boat and leave that area that had one of the best songs in the game, while on the boat you fight a Sin boss, after that a pier village gets destroyed, after that more soccer drama happens and more temple visiting happens where Yuna gets another summon, listen things just happen and we're just tagging along Yuna
• So, after the second temple, you are gonna participate and help Wakka in their little soccer championship, anyways Blitzball is kinda boring it's not really the best mini-game I've seen in the series you really just compare numbers and choose based on that, BUT anyways Al Bhed is back! And Al Bhed are like terrorists that use technology and technology is evil and against the religious people (this is sorta hinted at)
• After the soccer game, there is a Sin attack and the Sin attack is stopped by what is obviously going to be a villain later on (I Mean look at their hair that is clearly like a Sephiroth), also that guy who was there when you got said 1000 years into the future is back! He doesn't say much except say that your asshole dad that thought you'd never amount to anything is Sin (the big bad alien force that has been destroying the cities)

This is 5 hours in. The dialog is bad, the plot is non-existent and if it all relies on a huge twist than that is not an interesting plot, that is simply stalling for something interesting to be revealed WAAAAAAY later, I have 0 personal stakes with any of the characters, they kinda all are lame but the worst offender here is that I feel as if every Final Fantasy game 5 hours in had more going for it than this does.

No seriously, it could very much be because this came out in 2001 and it was the weird project where it's like "Oh we have a new system, we can run a lot of cutsenes and do good graphics on this so let's derail everything and make it just corridors and corridors, cutscenes, and throw in some basic Final Fantasy combat." Say what you will, it does give you basically the entire party of Final Fantasy 7 immediately at the start, but there's nothing really that interesting about the combat even if it has the ability to switch out characters in your party, or that they directly took the LIMIT mechanic from 7, there is a new mechanic which is moving in certain battles but it's nothing special.

The leveling up STAT system (The grid wheel) is very strict at the start and all it has to offer is just "Do you want this generic ability" or "Upgrade HP" and "Upgrade MP", I'm sure it opens up a little more but 5 hours in this game has not opened up and the dialog is dry and boring and nothing really interesting is happening, it's just edging something, Final Fantasy 8 with all of its faults (Drawing as a mechanic is terrible, I will never forgive drawing, fire whoever thinks it was a good idea to have spells act like they're used like Items) has the premise of basically a soldier hogwarts and one of the first things you do is save the president from terrorists from a subway that is going to explode, Final Fantasy 9 starts with a HUGE festival, FF7 is back to back PURE ACTION, I could go on about how the pacing of this entry leaves a lot to be desired but let's talk about what happens 5 hours in.

5 Hours in:

• All NPC dialog is lame,
• all maps are linear with the exception of 1 path that goes to a treasure chest (WOW)!
• Items and weapons are scattered across random NPCs that make you talk to every NPC to discover which one sells weapons and items, thus you have to talk to them and the NPC dialog is not fun or quirky
• I've been told there is no overworld until 80% into the game which is INSANE, every single Final Fantasy of this kind had an overworld almost immediately
• The acting is bad, the game wants to be Shenmue SO MUCH
• The combat is overly simple even if it gives you a full party fairly early in
• AGAIN this is LINEAR as fuck

I kept asking a girlfriend who considers this game one of their favorite games of all time when does it get good, but they never told me, and they failed to convince me to continue playing because so far I have hated everything the game had to offer 5 hours in, and please PLEASE Do not be one of those people blinded by nostalgia and try to tell me that is excusable, how in the hell is 5 hours of nothing good (with the exception of the graphics and wonderful score by Nobuo Uematsu) excusable?

Didn't people hate Final Fantasy 13 for the same reasons? At least in that game the combat is fluid and faster, this is a RETRO-LIKE Final Fantasy game with none of the benefits of the retro Final Fantasies (Stores, Inns, Overworlds, Flexible RPG mechanics, a proper adventure that allows you to BREATHE rather than force you in a streamlined corridor of cutscene after cutscene)

Even Persona 4, 1 hour in after it remembers it is not a Visual Novel, at least gives you a proper dungeon, there is no proper dungeon in the first 5 hours of this game. You play a RPG like Bravery Default, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, those games give you a proper dungeon immediately, also, the entire Final Fantasy series included.

So before you say anything about Final Fantasy, know that there are only 2 games in the entire mainline series that are like this: Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XIII, these are the only 2 entries in the series with level design that consists of just a corridor and a little chest if you go down a secondary path, everything else is either like Final Fantasy VI or trying to be a single player MMORPG like 12 or 14 (and 14 isn't even as good as Xenoblade Chronicles) so this entry is SUPER Unique for being one of the last "TRUE RETRO Final Fantasies" but could not convince me to continue playing 5 hours in.

Onto the next JRPG, this one is trying too much to be a PS2 movie.

While this release is well remembered and cherished by many, I found it to be a slog to play through that took away the key elements that I found essential to the Final Fantasy experience. In essence, Final Fantasy's debut on the PS2 with FFX marked a departure from the explorative elements of the previous games that put the player in control. Instead it aims to more emphasize a theatrical experience with full voice acting and cutscene followed by cutscene followed a short gap that forces the player to move a step or talk to someone next to them to trigger the next cutscene. Exploration is limited and greatly reduced to keep the player within the guardrails of the curated journey.

FFX marks Square's intention and trend towards putting presentation over gameplay and it shows throughout the game's design and layout. The vast majority of the experience is a string of hallwaylike areas that are bookmarked with cutscenes. These areas maintain a high encounter rate to make sure the player gets enough battles in before advancing as there is usually little exploration to be done. Most puzzles are dedicated areas that boil down to tedious trial and error rather than anything else.

The game does try some interesting ideas that play out with mixed results. A sport called Blitzball replaces the card game mini games of FF8 and FF9 but it is setup in a way that can be difficult to enjoy. You'll generally either figure out a way to cheese victories in it or just avoid it altogether.

Battles and the combat system are a high point as when coupled with the game's leveling system, the sphere grid, allows for the player to choose whether to keep characters in their designated roles, or branch out to be more versatile. The late game does gatekeep a lot of the spheregrid behind rare or very limited items however, diminishing your options unless you are referencing a guide.

The setting and world building is perhaps the most interesting and fun aspect of this entry, but the story is a bit convoluted. It is muddled further by some awkward writing and some poor or lacking explainations for a number of ways in the which this world works.

Overall, your enjoyment of this entry in the Final Fantasy series will likely depend on just how engaged you are with the story from the start, and whether you enjoy games that take control away from you to tell you a story, rather than letting you feel as though you are experiencing the story as you play on your own terms.

VERY VERY fun battle system. Also, gorgeous art and music. It was a cultural moment. I don't know if Final Fantasy has ever really reached this level of ubiquity since. Like, we're talking wall-scrolls-in-every-anime-store-in-America levels of saturation. Bootleg backpacks in every Chinatown. Fan art in every 2001-era high school sketchbook. I can prove that one personally. This game also sold me on a little console known as the PlayStation 2. Good stuff.

Working my way backwards in the series from here really made me realize how much this game simplifies the classic Final Fantasy gameplay formula and increases the production value. It was never really the same once they added voice acting and took out the airship.

I was going to beat the final boss of a certain game, but I stopped playing the game at that point. I don't know why, but some Japanese people (especially RPG players) tend to stop playing a game just before finishing.

I have played a lot of Final Fantasy titles but completed few. I should not have done that because "time" is a limited resources. In general, I don't need to play the same game twice.

Like other Final Fantasy titles, I spent a lot of time enjoying Final Fantasy "X" on PS2 and stopped playing just before the final boss battle. And then I lost the memory card that had stored my save data.

After about ten years, I was going to complete the HD remastered version on PS Vita, but I finally decided to watch the final sequence on YouTube. Although FFX was a great game, I didn't want to waste so much time on it again.

Recently Final Fantasy titles have fairly strange characters and complex stories. But, "X" is relatively simple. I enjoyed a long journey with my characters. The Early part of the journey was slow and relaxing. But, little by little, the journey approaches the end. The player knows their destination from the very beginning. So the player and the characters know when/where the journey ends. I felt the same emotion as going on a real journey. It may be a reason why I stopped playing this game --- I wanted to keep the journey unfinished.

The combat system is good. If you haven't played X yet, imagine Atlas' RPGs like Persona. The system is turn-based, but the order is flexible. A player needs to control who will act and when. Also, the player tries to take measures against enemies' strong attacks and poke their weaknesses. Combat is a short period, but there is enough strategy.

My favorite Final Fantasy. Why? Because of the loving characters and the fantastic story telling and of course, one of my favorite main protagonists, Tidus, he's different from the others main protagonists, he's not a incredible swordsman or a wizard, he's a amazing BLITZBALL player! The soundtrack is beautiful, the theme of Besaid Island makes me cry, and cry.

Just play this masterpiece.

10/10