A Great game for the PS2 and a superb follow up to the Playstation games before it.
With the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII and the follow ups being largely successful themselves Square Enix had a very stressful job in putting out a game that was worthy of the name 'Final Fantasy' for me, they did that job good.
With the power that the Playstation 2 has it was quite obvious the graphics where going to take a huge upturn in fortunes. The opening sequence for Final Fantasy X simply draws you into the game and from then on in your hooked.
There are traces of Final Fantasy VII in this game, and yet again Square keep to the original mehtods of having numerous characters going around a massive world trying to stop some kind of evil from taking over the land. The game is focused on Tidus (or whatever name you decided to give him) and Yuna. Yuna is a High Summoner who must use her powers to summon Aeons (Many of which have been in previous instalments of the game but with different names, for example in VIII they where called GF's) and together with her Guardians they fight the forces of evil that are trying to control and reak havoc among Spira.
One of those Guardians is Tidus, who comes into the game from another world 1,000 years before the current Spira after being sucked up by Sin, a massive creature that has been causing pain and misery around Spira for centuries. Together Tidus and Yuna, as well as various other characters along the way have to stop Sin from causing any more suffering and save Spira.
The game goes to into great detail about Spira, Tidus, Yuna and the other characters lives and stories more vividly and visually than any previous game due to the PS2's power. The cutscenes between certain places are awesome and include sound! Another new concept to FF.
The rest of the game is basically similar to previous installments with the battle system being three characters at once in a battle at any one time with the options to attack, use magic or use an item. However only Yuna possesses the power to draw out Aeons, which is a bit of a drag.
The Limit Break system changes somewhat as well, with a power gauge underneath the name of one of the characters that fills up when hit by a monster and leads to a devastating move. Characters can also be changed midway through a battle to keep things fresh and use various different tactics.
The Sphere Grid is something that is implemented into this game. Everytime a character has a battle and gains experience it leads to levels that can be spent on the Sphere Grid. The Grid itself allows a character to make a move to another spot on the Grid and learn various new abilities & increase their magic and strength etc . To learn abilities a character must use and Ability Sphere on the position in front of them, and use other Spheres such as Speed Spheres to increase Speed. These are obtained in battle and if you work your way around the Sphere Grid you can learn all kinds of new attacks to enhance your characters abilities.
There are very little flaws in this game, the only ones I would pick out are some of the more cringeworthy cutscenes that you dont want to see. Tidus is a much nicer and laid back character than previous counterparts such as Squall and Cloud and he and Yuna have a more lovable relationship which sometimes leads to some rather mushy love scenes.
I also really didnt like Seymour. I found him to be a weak character who was created to be similar to Sephiroth but fails to bring across that persona, whether he was meant to be a more placid version Im not sure but I didnt like him. The whole concept of the game with Tidus, his father, Yuna and Sin is great and is almost a more perfected version of VIII in that sense.
This is a must for any RPG nut.