Final Fantasy X

The Good
As the 7th from the series (only those series that have numbers, though) changed the world of Final Fantasy into fully 3D land, the 10th one changed not one big thing but many smaller ones bringing variety of teh same to the fans and an enjoyable experience to the newcomers. This game is without a doubt one of really-expected up to date of its release, so it was only logical to expect a lot from such a game. But guess Square didn't learn on mistakes made by some other company (Westwood with their Tiberian Sun, which ended up with game being loved almost only by the loyal fans of the series, yeah, like me, but in this case, I am no fan of neither Square nor Final Fantasy in general, but can't say I don't enjoy in moments of time).

The thing which I probably like the most in this game is the fact that you don't need senseless straying from the storyline to upgrade your characters, playing along the story is more than enough to upgrade your characters to needed strength for every incoming battle, and that includes raising your bahamut's strength to 99999 points of damage (yes, you heard it right, without training aside the main plot). Some battles are tricky but neat. It is all made to enjoy, so even newcomers to the series shouldn't have too much of the problem even with the toughest bosses (I suck at FF battles and I passed them all, so go figure the easyness :)

The upgrading scheme is completely new and consists of several types of spheres which upgrade your agility, strength, magic, and other stuff accordingly as you use them. This way there is no character level mentioned, but you will alone know how much did you upgrade someone by activating certain sphere slots.

The entire game shines gameplay-wise!

From the nice character movements, to the wonderful pre-rendered cinemtics that many of you probably loved (shame on me they didn't affect me as some of other games did, including Final Fantasy 8). For the first time, Square introduced voice-acting in the FF series which resulted in such a nice assemble with the characters, accents and tones marked them unique undoubtedly. On the contrary to all those dark-moody characters from previous FF series (I guess 9th one has exception, too), main character in this game, Tidus, is lively and funny as could possibly be, making the entire atmosphere rise in laugh whenever you may consider it boring ot too dramatic. He alone will never allow you to get bored, I assure you.

It is an overall nice addition that PAL version of Final Fantasy X comes as a Special Edition and includes an extra "Behind the Final Fantasy" DVD. There you can find comments by many Square's developers, and actors for the two main characters in the game. Plus some more nice additions, like music video of "Suteki da ne".

The Bad
Here comes something I never expected I will be writing for this game. In fact, I never expected to write anything against this game in general, and no matter I like its gameplay and wouldn't want Square to change it back to difficulty hard as the previous ones had, some things are still in the lack zone.

Ingame graphics are nice, but not something you would expect to see from SquareSoft, quality-wise. Having in thought this game came out almost simultaneously as Metal Gear Solid 2, and the fact that much more people are familiar with the Square than Konami title, it would be nice that Square prevailed with their game over MGS2 with the quality level, and not with their name. Well, that's their drawbacks, and although many players probably didn't play MGS2, the graphic of MGS2 beats the heck out of FFX's any effects used in the game. And for those who think that MGS2 has pre-rendered vides, you're wrong. That game doesn't have a single pre-rendered cinematic at all, everything is real-time and using ingame engine. However, it matches even the quality of Square's pre-rendered CG in FFX. But we just have to keep in mind that Final Fantasy does have the wider area of players hence must be playable even by little children, so the contents and graphic must use colorful scheme and not so realistic things, but hey, it has the fantasy word in its title, doesn't it?

The biggest disappointment, however, and don't hang me for this when I say it, is the story. Can't believe that I say it, but really, even story of obnoxious (by me, that is) FF7 is much better and more promising. But story as a story might pass for a short fairytale, but it has simply too many gaps and holes that are left unexplained and empty that it simply starts bothering. Maybe that's why Square's making FFX-2, maybe they got some objections so they're trying to fulfill the story, heh. Anyway, Final Fantasies are known to have touching story with many nice moments to encounter, yet this one simply lacks them. Maybe that's one of the changes too, but they just didn't manage to achieve the level FF8 or FF6 had to touch a player. What, a war against Sin, with heavy casualties on both sides, and now you go cry 'cos it's sad when everybody dies. Well, that's a crap. But I still like this game a lot more than most other Final Fantasies so I guess that gives me the right to criticize it a bit, too.

As for the music, well, fans, I understand you like Nobuo Uematsu, I like his music too, and I too have some favorite composers of mine. But still, don't you think there should be time to quit listening to the same stuff over and over again? I mean, themes are so similar and same-fashioned as those in previous of the series that it can't stop striking you that you heard it in some of the other FF games already. Exception goes to "Suteki da ne" which is really wonderful song, but hey, such themes usually differs. Maybe it would be time to finally change the battle theme and others, huh? Music as a music is perfect, but too similar to what we used to hear. I mean, take other game series, Gabriel Knight, WarCraft, Command & Conquer, they all have almost entirely different music score from each game in the series. Final Fantasy on the other hand, starts creating a powerful universe almost as powerful as Star Trek and Star Wars which also can't accept to change some of the songs that we all probably heard zillions of times, and will continu hearing them. Sure, soundtracks exist for that purpose, but let different games have different music. For sake, FF games aren't even sequels to each other. Why treating them as such.

Cinematics in FFX are most of time useless as graphic ingame doesn't differ that much. Well, for Tidus it does, but for most of others, not that much. Square should rather make the cinematics a bit longer than 2sec and use them at right needed moments, and not having them all over game you don't even know what's what.

This game isn't something that I expected it with so much joy to be - unique. (sigh)

The Bottom Line
Not the finest game that came out of Square, but could be considered finest in the Final Fantasy series up to date quite easily. It brought so much more to the FF titles, many differences and kept most of stuff still the same (enemy types which probably drag their way from the early FFs, like that giant tomato from hell... hmm, did Id took it from Square or was it vice-versa). On the contrary to prequels, this one is much more linear and even gives you the mini-map that constantly points your needed direction. Hardcore fans might not like that change, but many of you probably will. I know I do. The truth is that you cannot find too big of a choice for PS2 games as you can for PC, so this one can be considered among the top of PS2 games so far. If you would exclude some really creative PS2 achievements like Metal Gear Solid 2, Silent Hill 2, or a few more rare, this one would be on top of it all. And you probably should have it in your collection no matter whether you like Square or not. Personally, I ain't so attached to them, but they made one of my all-time fav games, Parasite Eve. Gotta love 'em for that matter.

The Good
- I like the change of the character's perception and characteristics as time passes. It seem to me that they earn and deserve a lot of respect for their determination to face their loathful environment to build a solid foundation of cooperation to create hope and changes. Otherwise, it could be said that they just have learnt to be a little more mature and emotional. - Some good music and theme (I love that 'Suteki Da Ne' and 'To Zanarkand'). - Emotional video clips. - Good blitzball game, which take a while or two fully understand. - Excellent graphic, only just sometimes the character look too realistic (clip show Tidus and Rikku look too Jap) may differ to the usual or intended character.

The Bad
The new layout, battle and leveling system of FFX is very different to FF8 and FF9. When i first play as that riff-raff, i was wondering if it is one of the fake products (that thought still give me a shiver sometimes). - The storyline is pathetic in the beginning as the setting is totally different to other FF. There is very little information given and I didn’t know what was going on or what to do. There are times where the storyline line then is lost in despair, draining our interest from the game. If it wasn't for my curiosity, to learn more about the characters, I would have gave up and play Kingdom Heart instead. And for that reason, i can't bare to play it again right from the beginning. –Some event in the storyline disappoints me. I was totally disgusted at the attitude and interaction between the characters. -The storyline is too short (i can't wait for dual-layered disc FF). –There are one to many features Squaresoft has changed, it’s not a good thing.

The Bottom Line
Warning: It seem true that people spend too many time on this game as other reviews and people stated. I, myself, spend 20 hours playing non-stop once, before feeling too tired and slept for 4 hours before spending another day on it. No, i didn't eat or did anything else except no.1 and no.2. It was fortunate that the gameplay only last around 40 hours, i mean i can't last any longer.

The Good
The most noticeable aspect of the game, right from the start, is just how beautiful the game looks. The project took years to finish, and you can tell a good part of the time was spent polishing the character models and making the world feel real. Then again, ever since the games moved to 3D graphics they have always had a very real feel to them... it's something to expect when the name "Final Fantasy" is put on the label. Don't forget how great the video clips are, too.

It is also important to note that, while it has already had nine games before it, not including the handheld incarnations or Tactics, Final Fantasy X still maintains a very fresh and fun feel. Most other franchises that have managed to hit the tenth game have all failed in this aspect considerably, Might and Magic 10 gets an (dis?)honorable mention here. For example, instead of making miniscule or NO changes to game play, Square ditched the Active Time Battle system it has had for the longest time and used a turn-based system instead.

While on the topic of the new battle system it is important to point out that I did not welcome the idea of a turn-based battle system from the start. "Turn-based? How lame!" Instead of being a boring and simple system, it's very well thought out and fun. You also have monsters that have weaknesses to specific characters and while you can only have three characters active in battle, the game allows you to swap an active character with one of the ones that are sitting out. As for the summoned creatures this time around, they're called "Aeons" and instead of existing as flashy versions of spells they are actual controllable characters during battles complete with spells and abilities.

The characters in this game are also characters that you grow to care about as the story progresses. They have depth, the voice-actors who portray them do an excellent job most of the time, and you rarely have difficulty believing the characters would do/say what they do. This is a nice change from Final Fantasy 9, where the only character I could say I grew attached to was Vivi. As far as experience levels and making your characters more powerful goes, the old experience system has been changed slightly. Now you gain "ability points" and at certain amounts of AP you gain "sphere levels." With each sphere level you gain, you get to move the character along a grid and activate abilities as you go. It sounds restrictive, but there are several ways you can hop on to a different grid or activate "hidden" abilities.

The story is also enjoyable and keeps you interested, although it could have used a little more fleshing out and back-story.

The Bad
The thing at the top of the "don't like" list is the very small amount of side-quests in the game. Those side quests themselves are small, or consist of doing very tedious things... like dodging 200 lightning bolts to get a special item. A lot of those tasks also don't have any clues giving you reason to do them, and I only know to do them because of playonline.com, Square's online strategy guide.

Resulting partially from the lack of several side quests, the game is also incredibly short. When you get to the final battle after only 40 hours it is sort of disappointing... not to mention the final battle is totally anti-climatic. Meaning, so easy it is impossible to lose. Fortunately you have plenty of difficult ones just before it.

The musical score gets a minus as well in this game, because there are a lot of themes that any Final Fantasy fan will recognize as simple remixes of previous games' music. Some songs were original, but enough of the music was remixed to make me disappointed.

Another minus, although it's not a big one, is that when you finally get the airship, the way you fly anywhere is by selecting the destination from a list. There's no soaring through the air with fun music going on in the background in this Final Fantasy... although I get a feeling it could primarily be because of budget and time constraints more than design.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the many RPGs any RPG fan will want to add to a collection. Final Fantasy fans will not be disappointed either. It has enough of the old mixed with the new to make existing fans happy and to create new ones. The voice acting is above average, everything is very pretty, and it rarely gets boring.

You can expect to see the same recurring names as in the previous games, familiar monsters, Shiva (who has never looked better!), and a multitude of other things fans like me will be looking for. These familiar things are combined with enough new things to keep Final Fantasy alive and kicking, unlike most other franchises that hit the double-digits.

Go get it, play it, and get ready for the next one... because if the next one is going to look any better I can't wait to see it.