Final Fantasy X

aka: FF10, FFX, Finalnaja Fantazija 10, Zui Zhong Huanxiang 10
Moby ID: 5673
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Description official descriptions

Tidus is a young athlete who lives in a futuristic city of Zanarkand - "the city that never sleeps". He plays blitzball, a ball game where players throw the ball while flying around. Suddenly, a terrible disaster happens. A huge dark wave engulfs the city, spawning monsters. Tidus comes in contact with the mysterious creature, and as a result finds himself in a different world, a thousand years into the future. The civilization he is used to doesn't exist any more. He learns that the world he knew was destroyed by Sin, a terrible being that is believed to be indestructible. Tidus meets a young summoner named Yuna, and joins her as a guardian on her quest to put an end to Sin.

Final Fantasy X is Japanese-style role-playing game set in a world somewhat similar to South Asia. Only individual locations can be physically explored; there is no "world map" in the game, and exploration is fairly linear. Enemy encounters are random; the game abandons the series' traditional ATB (active-time battle) combat in favor of a Conditional Turn-Based Battle system, in which the turns of the participants are determined by characters' stats and actions, with turn order displayed in the upper corner of the screen.

The game also departs from the usual leveling up system. There are no character levels in the game: instead, experience points received after battles can be allocated by the player directly to upgrade the characters' parameters. Each character has his or her special "sphere map", with straight or branching paths containing spots that increase the character's personal statistics, or teach him or her active and passive abilities. The characters are given distinct class attributes, and it is possible top switch between all the party members during the same battle. Monster summons (called aeons in the game) now behave like playable characters, have their own hit points (HP), and can fight for the party until defeated.

Conversations that occur during cutscenes have voice overs, for the first time in the series. The game features various mini-games, the most prominent of which are blitzball tournaments.

Spellings

  • Финальная Фантазия 10 - Russian spelling
  • ファイナルファンタジーX - Japanese spelling
  • 最终幻想10 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

561 People (537 developers, 24 thanks) · View all

Producer
Directors
Sound Producer & Music
Main Programmers
Image Illustrator
Program Supervisor
Battle Programmer
Menu Programmer
Character Designer
Chief VFX Programmer
Real-Time Graphics Director
Art Directors
Monster Designer
Chief Sub-Character Designer
Battle Motion Director
Field Motion Director
Scenario
Chief Art Designer
3D Map Director
Field Programmers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 92% (based on 53 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 237 ratings with 19 reviews)

It's good at being pretty

The Good
- The graphics. While they can't make a horrible game good, they can make a good game great. In the case of Final Fantasy X, it makes a fairly good game better. FMVs are better than ever, and even the in-engine cutscenes are visually impressive.

  • The ability to change characters and equipment during battle

  • Pokémon-esque side-quest.

  • The new sphere grid system of character improvement is an interesting addition, and allows the player to guide his character's development much more closely than most console RPGs to date.

  • CTB is a good system for battles, now if only they could divorce themselves from random encounters

  • The Fayth's sphere-swapping puzzles. They're not particularly challenging, but it's nice to have a few minutes of actually doing something in this game.

  • Summoned creatures are more than just super-magic-attacks as in previous titles, but are actual playable characters with their own stats and skills that the player can improve and customize.

    The Bad
    - FFX might as well play itself. Conversations are scripted and offer little interaction, monster/boss battles require some strategic input, but are generally quite simple, and there are really no chances for the player to feel like he is guiding the story toward anything but the predetermined conclusion.

  • Voice acting is almost always very good, but the lip-sync is set for Japanese, so the dialogue easily loses its dramatic edge for the same reasons Godzilla movies lose it.

  • 99% linear. The world map is gone, a mini-map shows you exactly where to go next, and Tidus and company are unable to return to previously visited towns until the latter parts of the game.

  • The story is interesting and told well, but some of the elements that make the story fresh and interesting are dulled to anyone with a history of playing console RPGs. FFX's inspiration seems to rely heavily on the Breath of Fire series.

  • Tidus isn't the sort of person most video game players would aspire to imitate.

    The Bottom Line
    Final Fantasy X is a forty-hour long movie (or longer) with some side quests and a few puzzles. It's worth playing through to the end once.

PlayStation 2 · by MA17 (252) · 2002

A game that never ends (like we want it to)

The Good
1. Graphics, I nearly fainted when I saw this, a world away from the cartoon style of FF IX (9).
2. Side quests, in all Final Fantasy games it would not be complete without free roam of the map to explore and find hidden treasures.
3. Battle tutorials, I like to make the characters argue by dong the wrong thing. Lulu gets miffed easily.
4. The sphere grid system, this way you can power up your characters any way you want, it's great. (tip: send all through Auron's bit, there are more strength increase spheres than you can shake a stick at)
5. They talk, yay no more reading though loads of text, that's what put me off FF8, though they do go on a bit.
6. Changing characters in the middle of battle, I love this feature, it allows nearly dead characters to be replaced with fresh characters, or to put a weak one out first, replace with stronger one but they still get experience points.

The Bad
1. Hours and hours of gameplay, but when you save and come back and can't remember where you are there are few hints.
2. They play a ball game underwater, I hate it with vengeance, It's called Blitzball. But it's the only way to get secret items, you only need to play one match in the storyline though. The control is horrible to get to grips with.
3. Nothing else.

The Bottom Line
Classic RPG adventure thrills, spills, laughs and a bit of romance. Battling is fun. Collecting translations orbs is great so by the end of the game you understand Al Bhed, the funny in-game language.

PlayStation 2 · by Gemmalah (6) · 2003

I'm at a lost for Words. It's That Good.

The Good
I loved Final Fantasy the moment I laid my eyes on Final Fantasy on the PlayStation. It's been years since then and Square could still do the magic they could.

Right from the beginning of the game, you are introduced to the whole group. (Of course you can't see all of their faces or know their names) You hear a narration of someone telling you "This may be our last chance" and that can draw you in instantly. The game begins on a ship and there are people all waiting for you. You take the role of Tidus, a star player in the game of Blitzball. You begin to sign autographs and such and then the first FMV comes on and you are blown away.

The FMV's look amazing. Every little detail is there. From all the faces in the crowds down to the drops of water on Tidus' eyes. The rock music in the back is a nice touch. I have heard that Nobuo Uematsu wrote the piece and he does a terrific job at making it a rock song. You watch everyone play Blitzball and then you see a man in a red coat standing where you couldn't normally stand facing this HUUUGEEE thing coming out of the water. He begins to walk towards the stadium where Tidus and everyone is playing. Well wouldn't you know, everything begins to fall apart. Statues are broken, blasts are fired, people are running. Everything is just truly detailed. It just blew me away.

After all the commotion, you wake up on an island and someone throws a ball at you. (The nerve of some people huh?) You meet up with some interesting characters and is introduced to the island of Besaid. Some time afterwards, you are introduced to your first puzzle to solve. It's not hard but believe me there are harder ones. You are introduced to some more characters who will be your allies and begin a pilgrimage to stop the all evil Sin.

What I like about the game so much is the story. Tidus is this mysterious character where you as the player, don't know much about him. How did he get to where he is, who are his parents are just some of the questions I've asked so many times. Sometimes the story is just so good I just can't stop smiling and going "Yes Yes Yes!!"

The graphics are something I couldn't take my eyes off. They actually have facial expressions now! Yes a character can look sad or happy and you can tell! It shows how much Square is pushing the PS2. For once, for ONCE the characters can actually talk! Yes TALK!! This makes the game a lot more fun because you can see if they have an angry tone in their voice or a happy one. The voice acting isn't that bad either. It's actually pretty good.

The enemies are another thing. Some of them are just so cool you want to be like them. Seymour especially, is one of them. He doesn't look threatening, doesn't seem threatening, doesn't sound threatening, (And would you expect someone so respected to be evil?) and next thing you know, you're against him. It is truly amazing. Some of them only have small roles and yet they have such an impact on you. One enemy in particular you meet for about 5 minutes and battle her. You think you wouldn't know much about her in 5 minutes but you know as much as you know about Tidus and the crew. It is truly amazing. Even Sin is interesting. He seems unbeatable and is feared throughout Spira and here is a group of people who say they can take down Sin and make him stay away forever. It is truly suspenseful.

Blitzball is one of those games you got to get into to have a good time. I got into it and DOMINATED. Once you begin to play Blitzball it is a little complicated but if you continue playing and signing new players on your team you'll love the game.

Final Fantasy X is just one of those games you couldn't stop playing. It just keeps drawing you in and in.

The Bad
There were some things that bugged me.

The story of how Tidus got to where he was and how he came to exist is just plain confusing. I couldn't follow at all. There is one particular thing you have to do in the end and I never knew why I had to do it. This is another problem I had that concerns Tidus, they should've never given the option to change Tidus' name at the beginning. It would've caused less confusion among the gamers. I have heard COUNTLESS people pronounce Tidus' name Tee-dus.

The sidequests are just too much and too complicated. To get the Sigils and Crests for your characters' Celestial Weapons is very complicated. You actually have to get something to start collecting the Sigils and Crests! You also have to find the Celestial Weapon to power it up with the Sigils and Crests! How complicated is that?! You can find the crests in treasure chests in Spira which is easy but the Sigils are tough. Tidus, Wakka's, Lulu's, Auron's and Riku's were so complicated and frustrating I actually threw my controller at the floor. I won't spoil it but I'll say this, be good at Blitzball, have a controlled temper, be good at dodging lightning bolts in the Thunder Plains, and learn how to find things you wouldn't normally find.

Bliztball is one of those games that is tough in the beginning. I thought I had the worst team in Blitzball and everyone dominated us. Somehow, I managed all that and began to beat everyone. I found one player who helped us out a lot. Some things that I found weird about Blitzball was how did they stay that long under water? Is the water fake or something? They never really explained it.

The game ending is a bit over dramatic. At many points at the end I rolled my eyes A LOT.

The Bottom Line
Final Fantasy X is just one of those really cool games you can't stop playing.

PlayStation 2 · by NightKid32 (39) · 2005

[ View all 19 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Stealing from robots St. Martyne (3648) Sep 11, 2009
Favorite character Jacob Gens (1115) Feb 16, 2009
Favorite song of FFX Jacob Gens (1115) Oct 15, 2008
Mystery photographer Jacob Gens (1115) Mar 6, 2008
Thunder Plains Donatello (466) Dec 26, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Final Fantasy X appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Al Bhed language

During the course of the game you have to learn the "Al Bhed" language. The language in actuality is a simple substitution cipher. All the vowels equal other vowels (to make actual pronunciation easier), and the rest are the normal letters. Anyone that can do cryptograms can decipher the language right from the beginning of the game, without find all the Primer books. But finding the books makes it a lot easier to read the subtitles.

Cut content

There is an un-intended sequence at the beginning where you can defeat the monster that chases you into the ruins. Obviously they had a change of plans when developing the game. You can view this sequence by using a PS2 Gameshark and enabling high stats.

Music

Final Fantasy X is the first game in the (main) Final Fantasy series where the music is not exclusively composed by Nobuo Uematsu, only a modern remix of the prelude is present (not the actual prelude) and there is no trace of the traditional "a a a a a a g g" battle theme baseline. Although the battle theme of Final Fantasy VII & VIII does not start by this baseline, there is trace of it in songs herd during some important boss battles.

Also, it's the second game in the series where there is no presence of the Final Fantasy theme since Final Fantasy II.

References

While in the Besaid Village the first time, go to the Crusaders Tent. Talk to the first character in the door, and he'll tell you "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in". Obviously a few of the programmers were Beatles fans.

World map

As of 2002, Final Fantasy X is the only Final Fantasy game that doesn't have a world map with a character moving around. The world map is actually a menu with a locations to choose and a "search" option, that allows you to go to any location on the map.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – Z.Flo Award (for Yuna)

Information also contributed by Aaron A., Bregalad, Unicorn Lynx

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Syed GJ.

Additional contributors: Chris Martin, Unicorn Lynx, Exodia85, Bregalad, DreinIX, —-, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, FatherJack, A.J. Maciejewski.

Game added January 25, 2002. Last modified March 4, 2024.