Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (2013)

Final Fantasy 7 blew my mind back in 1997 and I put hundreds of hours into playing and replaying that game throughout middle school, high school, and even the first year or two of college. It remained my favorite game even after playing 8 and 9 on the PS1. I was super aware of FF10 and even had a roommate that played it at one point, but I never owned a PS2 and never personally had the opportunity to play it myself.

Fast forward to 2026 and I've had the remaster on my Switch for a few years but never gave it priority until one day I booted it up for my kids and they liked it enough that I continued to play it for them each weekend until I finally beat it today.

The game lived up to its reputation as one of the greats, IMO. As a huge fan of FF7, I can appreciate all the ways that this game was a big step up from what FF7/8/9 were able to achieve on PS1: the voice acting, the incredible-for-its-time graphics, the peak combat and bosses, interesting story and characters, games and side quests (though I personally didn't dive into this), and I really appreciate that the story didn't overstay its welcome.

I have to talk about the combat for a bit because I think this was the perfect fine-tuning of the older PS1 combat systems, but the ability to swap characters mid-battle added a layer of strategy that those older ones couldn't achieve. I had to plan and meticulously execute for some of the harder boss battled. Having played FF12 and 13 and seeing the evolution into much more experimental ideas (like the gambit system and its evolution to the Paradigm System), I appreciate that FFX didn't try to change the formula too much, but that added level of strategy sometimes made fights feel more like a puzzle to be solved, which made them more rewarding than the other games that felt a little more grindy, where characters had less of an assigned "role" and the fights could just be brute forced.

My goal was just to complete the game, so I was happy to find as the game went on that I was able to get by with just advancing the sphere grid naturally without the need to grind to defeat even the especially hard bosses. That is, until I faced the last true boss: Braska's Final Aeon. The difficulty spike on that one was such that my characters couldn't do it without some grinding. And unfortunately I ended up having to spend 4-5 hours just grinding the last area to get them to a place where I just BARELY eeked out a victory. Too bad about that, I wish no grinding had been necessary at all.

Speaking of the sphere grid, this is probably my favorite leveling system. I only wish it was less tedious, definitely room for some QoL without fundamentally changing how it works.

This game was a leap that matched the generational leap in hardware, the same as FF7 did for the PS1. Easily 5-stars.

Revisitar aquel juego que veía jugar a mi hermano hace más de veinte años es toda una experiencia en sí misma. Es imposible desligarlo de la nostalgia... Final Fantasy X sigue siendo una obra sólida, con una narrativa que se sostiene con firmeza y un sistema de combate y progresión que, incluso hoy, resulta ingenioso y adictivo.

Eso sí, su endgame no envejeció con la misma gracia: pocas cosas tan repetitivas como su contenido secundario. Aun así, FFX supo recoger el legado de sus predecesores y llevarlo un paso más allá. Apostó no sólo por la épica y una historia que se toma en serio a sí misma, sino también por algo más difícil de lograr: dejarnos una huella gracias al peregrinaje de Yuna y Tidus.

En parte no puedo dejar de rechazar FFX-2 porque echa por tierra parte de esa historia de sacrificio a cambio de un final feliz, en lugar de enseñarnos a vivir con la pérdida y valorar el camino.

4/5

Played about 70 hours on Switch.

This game slaps. It's interesting to me that this is my third attempt at playing it, and somehow, everything just clicked. I think part of that was playing it on the switch, where I think this game shines, but there were a few other factors as well.

I played along with the Resonant Arc podcast - which was great in terms of helping me understand the story as I went and I loved the thematic analysis that they went into. I also played with a GameFAQs guide, something I haven't done in years - which was excellent (thank you bover). It was just really satisfying to get everything during this playthrough and I could really appreciate the game design more this way. Lastly, I got really into the sphere grid system. I opted for the expert sphere grid this time around, and I loved that I could charge my characters down aurons path and make them yoked up early on. The game was still challenging despite this.

The gameplay here is fantastic, strong emphasis on buffs and debuffs, turn order, and stats. As I said, the sphere grid is an excellent character progression system as well. The mini-games, I actually got really into. I got the ultimate weapons for all characters which, while a chore, was really satisfying to do. Having said that the requirements should've been dialled down - I never want to play Blitzball again. There's even more optional content that I didn't get into this time around and might come back for someday - dark aeons, omega ruins, monster arena, the don tonberry trick. For now I've had my fill.

The story is interesting. I like the concept, I like the characters mostly, and the writing is okay. I think the scene direction and camera work is horrific and undercuts most of the game. A lot of people call attention to the Home sequence as fantastic but it was so ugly to watch I couldn't take it seriously. There are some strong notes at the end of the story that really landed for me as well. I ended up really enjoying Tidus as a protagonist.

I'm really glad that this game proved me wrong.

It's rare that I would stan a remaster this much. However, this game included the extra bosses and aspects that the North American edition I had played when I was young did not include. My friend bought this for my husband and me as a wedding gift, along with a gold PS4 and controller and FFXV and a Mortal Kombat and a couple other games he knew we would like. What an amazing (and over-the-top) wedding gift.

When I was young, I gave FFX-2 an earnest shot but didn't get as into it. Now, with the advent of trophies, and me always being a completionist, I was motivated more than ever. Mind you, it helps that I used multiple guides to ensure I would get 100% completion in FFX-2; it's one of those games where, if you miss something simple, you could be denied 100%, and I see that as a valid fault of the game. After playing FF5, I much more enjoy the class system that is alike FFX-2's. In fact, I absolutely loved the battle system of FFX-2 on this playthrough, and thoroughly enjoyed maxing out all the classes.

The audio of both games are excellent. I was very frustrated that the Platinum Trophies included the dungeon crawl tower-based game at first, but even that game grew on me considerably. In fact, sometimes that side game pops into my head just as much as FFX/FFX-2.

FFX had always been my favorite Final Fantasy, more so because it was released at the right time. FFIX was tied with it, but the storyline of FFX was so capturing for me and then Kingdom Hearts further solidified FFX in my heart. When I was young, I thought finding the final boss easy was a feat. Now, as an adult, I spent, what, over 200 hours or something maxing EVERY character, EVERY single node of their sphere grid replaced with +4, etc. Modified weapons and armour to absolutely shred, etc. I love the endgame of FFX, maybe others would find it too easy since you basically just rely on Wakka and Tidus's overdrives and can deal constant 9999's or w/e if I recall correctly, but I find that fun and rewarding: you worked hard grinding that Cactuar King or w/e it is that gives the insane AP loop, etc. The extra bosses from the Japanese version were fun and exciting. Just everything about this game is so perfect for me, in many ways it defined my tween/teen idea of games and therefore my adult appreciation of games. The only equally important games for me I can think of might be Legend of Dragoon, FFIX, Tomba, Crash 3, and Super Mario World.

If you are a completionist like me, and enjoy turn-based RPGs, but want to take on an initially frustrating but eventually rewarding dungeone crawl side game, definitely pick this up. You wont regret it.

The tragedy of all this babbling? My husband accidentally deleted the PS4 profile this file was on lol. Not that anybody I know IRL would care about my tremendous platinum trophies and that I went even above and beyond the platinum trophies, but still. Something I always dreamed of as a kid and I finally achieved, but now lost. I hold no grudge though; now that means in 10 or 20 years, I will devote another few days of my life to maxing out these thoroughly fun, engaging, simple-enough but challenging-enough, expansive games. (Oh, and when I say few days, I mean few days actively playing the game, not a few days in total haha. Probly months for that.)

Games like FFX are responsible for videogames being taken seriously as an art form. The narrative is soaring, at times heartbreaking. The extra graphical and musical polish of this remaster are perfectly judged. There are thought-provoking moments of introspection throughout. Spira is rich in character and exposition.

FFX-2 is a lot more light-hearted, but it's another solid action adventure in a familiar world.

There's a minimum of sixty or seventy hours of vintage JRPG gold here. Enjoy.

I realized that I wrote this as a status when I first joined the site, but never actually wrote it as a review. I'll add more to this eventually, but honestly, what I said before covers my love for it:

I own FFX/X-2 on PS2, PS3, PS4, and Vita. I have the Collectors and Limited Editions on PS3, standard on Vita, and the Limited Edition on PS4.

I've played through X at least 5 times, but have only completed X-2 once (with a second playthrough nearly completed before I ended up starting up some other games).

FFX is my favorite game of all time, so I have no shame.

So I spent something like 3 hours fighting Ghosts in the arena just so I could get a piece of No Encounters gear. I finally got one, so it was totally worth it. I used that gear to go get the Sigil to power up Rikku's celestial weapon because I'm super cool :)

If it wasn't for the lightning dodging to get Lulu's weapon powered up, I might go for a platinum trophy in this game. I don't know if I have the anger management to handle that one.