Final Fantasy X (10) Developer: Squaresoft (Now Square-Enix) Publisher: Squaresoft Released: 2001 Players: 1 Genre: RPG Memory Card Space: 59+ System: PS2 Origin: Japan Rating: Teen for: Blood and Violence Square. What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Is it merely a shape? Or memories of epic storylines filled to the brim with drama, plot twists and romance as you try to save a world that's on the brink of ultimate annihilation? For any fan of role-playing games, the very name of Final Fantasy creator-company SquareSoft fills fans the world over with countless magical memories of the many wonderful worlds, universes and story's that this amazing developer has been able to consistently pump out for two decades. Square fans are an extremely devoted bunch that froth at the mouth for practically every new project Square-Enix comes up with. And with good reason. As Final Fantasy X demonstrates, it doesn't look like Square's quality of gaming will ever cease to be great. It's hard to imagine that Final Fantasy XII (12) could ever top a game as incredible as Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy X was released in 2002 and was the first game in the Final Fantasy series to be released on Sony's then new and mucho-powerful Playstation 2 console. The previous three games in the Final Fantasy series had set un-precedented benchmarks in storytelling, graphics, music, character development, et all and had established much lauded RPG battle systems, of which each game brought new changes to the table but kept the same overall system, which had started to wear somewhat thin by the final chapter in the Final Fantasy series on Sony's original Playstation console, Final Fantasy IX (9). Each game in the franchise however has had a self-contained story, which keeps the franchise going full-steam and brings so many new ideas to the table with each installment. Final Fantasy X is no different. And while it may have seemed that Square couldn't possibly top the beauty of Final Fantasy IX, Square has succeeded with flying colors like no one's business, creating a game that, believe it or not, evokes even MORE emotion from the player than any previous games in the series could ever hope for. The reason is because Final Fantasy X is the first game in the series where the characters actually speak audibly. There is still LOTS of text, but all the main characters, and many minor characters, speak out loud (always with subtitles), which gives the game an entirely new dynamic never before felt and lets you connect with the wonderful characters on whole new levels. It truly adds more impact than anyone would at first think it would, and it's just the first of many new additions to Final Fantasy X that not only separate it from past installments and give the game it's own unique identity, but that also manage to reinvigorate the series, making it feel completely fresh yet similar enough to keep Final Fantasy traditions alive and give the devoted fans that air of familiarity. The game's storyline focuses on main character Titus, who is a star player in a very unique underwater sport called Blitzball, which is played in a huge sphere of water at stadiums throughout the land. Blitzball is kind of like an underwater mix between soccer and football. During the opening movie scene to the game (which is one heck of an opener) the stadium is attacked by a mysterious entity known as "Sin". And thus Titus is swooped up in a grand tale that will consume at least 40 hours of your life, and probably much longer. Soon after the attack, and after Titus has met up with a mysterious character named Auron, and is sucked into "Sin", he will wake up in a strange world, and from then on meet up with many characters who, like with any good RPG, you will learn a lot more about and grow to love. Final Fantasy X has what are, in my opinion, some of the best characters yet; you will come to really feel for them, especially the main characters Titus and Yuna, whom the story is primarily focused on. Once you meet up with Yuna, the storyline will start to branch out and that's where you'll find the bulk of the gameplay. Yuna is a Summoner, and is tasked with traveling to temples throughout the land of Spira. Once at the temple she will go and pray to the "god" (called the "Fayth" here) who will grant her the ability to Summon massive creatures called Aeons to help fight and defeat Sin. Aeons will be familiar to anyone who has played the previous Final Fantasy games, especially the last few installments (VII, VIII & IX). The attacks of these Aeon creatures, just like in the previous games (where they were called different names ranging from simply "Summons" to "Guardian Forces") are some of the highlights of the game; certainly of the battle system. The storyline is very deep and very involved, and you won't understand it all until the end, which is good because it keeps you guessing and enthralled as you continue to find out more about what the heck is going on. Summoned beasts, of which there will be many familiar characters like Shiva & Ifrit, take on a greater role in FFX as once they are summoned they actually take the place of your group and you play as the Summoned character, who can attack with a regular attack, magic, a special attack and eventually pull-off their huge, extremely damaging, grand attacks (as in the other games) once their "Overdrive" gauge has filled up. These are the attacks that you've been waiting to see, and all of them are extremely cool and oh-so satisfying to use. Most of them don't seem to be as long as in previous FF's (with a couple exceptions), although you can shorten them nonetheless in the options menu. The battle system in FFX has been given a huge facelift and is completely different from the previous installments. Normally in FF games, your characters gain "Experience Points" after battles that accumulate and eventually "level up" your character. When a character levels up, their stats for attack, defense, speed, magic, etc. increase, thus making them stronger and more efficient. In Final Fantasy X the standard has been tipped on its head. Instead of leveling up normally, you gain "Sphere Levels" with experience from battles. The Sphere Levels can be used on what is called the "Sphere Grid". This is where you will spend a large part of your time customizing your characters. The Sphere Grid is like a big game board, and you move your characters around it. Each character starts on a different position on the board, and around them are many different kinds of spaces, these spaces can be activated by using different types of spheres (most of which you collect from battles) which give you whatever that space represents, from stat increases to special abilities to white and black magic. You can zoom in and out on the board, and thus you can plan ahead to move your characters on whatever track you wish, so that they can learn whatever abilities and upgrade whatever stats you desire. Certain Abilities in the game are blocked out by locks, but as you play you'll eventually earn spheres to break the locks, so if you battle enough, you can theoretically have your characters learn any ability you desire on the board with no limits. In addition, you'll earn special spheres that have unique properties, such as teleporting you to any previously activated sphere, or letting you learn any black or white magic previously learned by an ally, etc. This Sphere Board system is really unique and makes battling in FFX fun, as you'll want to keep fighting so that you can get to the board and level up your characters how you see fit, instead of all the abilities being pre-determined as in most other RPGs. The battle system itself has also changed. The previous three FF games all used what was called an "Active Time Battle" system. The fighting was turn-based, and every character had a bar that once filled, would allow you to attack, cast magic, summon a monster or whatever else. In Final Fantasy X, the fighting is still turn based, but the ATB has been completely done away with, and instead, turns are simply laid out, and the moves that you choose to use can effect how frequently your turn comes up, etc. You can see the turns of your enemies and each of your characters, as well as how your next move effects the turn-rate, so it adds some strategy. Also, in previous games you could only control three or four characters in battle at once. In FFX, only three characters can be out at once, but you can swap any of your other characters in at any time with no penalty. This mixes things up by allowing you to attack with the right character for the situation. You can also freely swap equipment, weapons and armor mid-battle. Amazingly, this doesn’t make the game easier as would be assumed. Weapons and armor also take on a different role in FFX. In previous games they would usually increase your stats and sometimes add new abilities. Here stats aren't increased, but instead each one has unique innate abilities that effect battle (such as making you immune to fire attacks or letting you cut the MP cost of magic in half, etc.). Later on in the game you can even customize them with abilities that you want (each weapon or armor has a number of slots that dictates how many abilities you can add) depending on how many of certain items you have collected by defeating or stealing them from enemies, or finding the items in chests, etc. Some of the best abilities in the game can only be attained by customizing your equipment. While the battle system has made many welcome changes that add a lot of depth to the game, it is still similar enough so that veterans of the series will catch on really fast and it's arguably even easier to understand than some of the more complex systems in Final Fantasy VII & VIII, that could be confusing at times. So Final Fantasy X is a good place to start for newcomers to the franchise who have never played a previous FF game. That being said, if you didn't like the previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X likely will not change your opinion of the series, especially as far as the battle system is concerned. Battles are still frequent and stand by the old Japanese RPG convention of switching to a separate battle screen for the fights, not giving you any leeway to avoid battles (though this should be expected going into the game). Of course, you don't exactly play an RPG for the battles. You may enjoy the battle system, but you stay for the story. And what a story it is! Final Fantasy X easily stands up to and possibly exceeds the storyline of any of the previous FF games. Although it'll of course differ depending on your tastes, but ten's storyline is highly satisfying and emotionally charged from beginning to end. And it all culminates in what I consider one of the greatest endings to any game ever. You'll be hard pressed to not get teary-eyed at some point along the way while playing through this grand tale, and as previously stated, you'll probably wind up liking every main character in the game. Graphically, while the in-game graphics look a bit outdated by now, the game is still mighty fine and will hardly get a complaint as far as in-game graphics are considered. The CG movie scenes however are a massive tour-de force, with some of the most impressive and memorable Final Fantasy scenes yet. Not only are they really mind-blowingly cool at a lot of parts, but FFX has some of the best romantic and just flat-out beautiful scenes ever pressed to a game disc. Some scenes will likely stick with you as great memories long after the game has been finished and is collecting dust on your shelf or sold away. The music in Final Fantasy X is great and perfectly fitting, as has always been the case with Final Fantasy games and Mr. Nobuo Uematsu's great soundtracks. And thankfully, the voice acting is about as spot-on as could be hoped for. It's far from perfect, but it's not annoying or unfitting as in many other games. Each character’s voice fits just about perfectly, and Square deserves props for getting it so right the first time, as bad voice acting, especially in an RPG, is something that could have seriously ruined the experience; thankfully it simply adds to the emotion and uniqueness of each character here. Final Fantasy X is a long game, longer than the previous games in the series. My only real wish is that there were more mini-games. The main mini-game is Blitzball, which you can optionally play after taking part in a tournament at save points, and it kind of replaces the card games from FF's VIII & IX. Which is all well and good, but outside of Blitzball there aren't many mini-games and most of them aren't even playable until the very end of the game. I never did get into Blitzball, whose rules aren't clear in the least and where once again Square goes out on it's "learn by trial and error with no real help" (besides a tutorial which seems helpful until you actually play the game) type deal like it did with the previous card games, which just dampens the experience and makes it even harder to get into. Luckily the game is 100% optional (after said tournament), so it doesn't matter much. You won't miss out on anything important to the storyline by not playing it. One cool feature in FFX is the "Al Bhed Primers" which are magazines you'll find lying about that gradually reveal letters in the mysterious Al Bhed language that's spoken to you by a group of outcast humans at many points throughout the entire game. The more primers you find the better you'll be able to understand the language, and the primers can be saved if you re-play the game. So you can replay it once beaten and be able to understand everything that is spoken to you by the Al Bhed, which you couldn't understand previously since you didn't have the primers. It's a pretty cool feature. But outside of that, there aren't a whole lot of reasons to replay the game once you've beaten it, except of course to relive the awesome movie scenes, storyline and romantic moments. But unlike in the previous games, there is no world map in FFX, so there's not much exploring going on, it's the most linear game in the series yet. Luckily the environments are well made and the lack of a world-map eliminates the problem of frequent back-tracking that many games fall into. However, when all is said and done, FFX is what I consider to be Square's best work yet. I loved almost every minute of playing through the game, and I amazingly spent more time playing it than any previous FF game (about 170 total hours by the end), which is quite a feat considering that I've spent over 100 hours with every previous FF game. Final Fantasy X plays the romance card more so than any previous game, and due to the great voice acting, the incredible graphics, the mind-blowing movie scenes, the likeable characters and the extensive character customization, and the extremely satisfying ending, FFX has shot into my top 10 games of all time list. If you are in any way a fan of the previous Final Fantasy games, or even if you've never tried a FF game or an RPG before, you owe it to yourself to check out FFX. It just proves even more how effective the video game medium can be in telling a story and getting you emotionally attached to the characters, and does it just as well as any movie or book. Though those other poor mediums don't give you the luxury of obliterating giant boss monsters with your customized character by Summoning an unstoppable Beast monster who performs whatever mind-blowing attack you select. ;) Final Review Score: Fun Factor: 9.5 Graphics: 9.0 Music: 9.0 Replay Value: 7.5 Reviewer’s Tilt: 10 Overall Grade: 10 (Yes, I loved it that much. It deserves it, IMHO) [yes, differs from the GS score. That's my personal score] Copyright - Josh Romero, 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Other Helpful Reviews for Final Fantasy X (Mega Hits!)
It is agonizingly difficult for me to review a game such as this. Final Fantasy X simply defies easy summary, analysis, and categorization. Actually, scratch that: it nullifies the dictionary and invalidates the thesauru... Read Full Review
STORY Final Fantasy X starts off in a futuristic metropolis where Tidus a star Blitzball player is signing autographs and preparing for a Blitzball game(Blitzball is a very popular sport on their world) and all of a s... Read Full Review
