Final Fantasy X

The Good
I loved the fact that, despite the then-prevailing trend to make RPG combat a twitch-fest, the combat is turn-based with interesting tactical choices. I loved that you could switch team members during each fight so that everybody got experience - one of the bad traditions of console RPGs is presenting you a palette of interesting playable characters but forcing you to concentrate on only a subset. The "grid" for character development was original and interesting, but very confusing at first. The subgame was interesting but optional, both as it should be. The graphics were very pretty, the storyline interesting (if as predictable and over-foreshadowed as always in console RPGs).

The Bad
Like the other FF games (and really, nearly all console RPGs), the plot is too linear and you are more-or-less forced to follow a specific path. The only choices of path involve whether to pursue optional side-quests that become available late in the game.

The story is not in the league of Grandia or Breath of Fire III, but nor is it as unsubtle and formulaic as most of the genre.

The Blitzball subgame is an interesting idea; in actuality it's basically a soccer game, which fails to live up to the interesting 3D game it's supposed to represent. OTOH, a good interface and implementation of that 3D game would be hard to learn and use, and occupy way too much space for a subgame.

The Bottom Line
One of the best console RPGs I've ever played, ranking right after the classic Grandia mostly because there are no surprises in the story, and because while there are at least as many meaningful character development decisions, they only become available very late in the game. Most of its flaws are common to the genre, and it's a lot of fun.

The Good
First off let me say that I've never played ANY of the previous Final Fantasy games before. I have no clue how they worked, or how this one matches up to the previous ones.

I do know that after playing FFX for a day or two, that it is the most gorgeous, intense, and incredible game I've played in a while.

The plot of the story encircles Tidus - the star Blitzball player from the Zanarkand Abes. After the being known as "Sin" attacks Zanarkand, Tidus is thrown 1000 years into the future - to a land known as Spira. He eventually ends up with a beautiful summoner named Yuna, and is then wrapped up in her quest to defeat Sin.

The graphics in this game are breathtaking. The movements of the characters are fluid, and ultra-realistic. The Aeons summons alone are enough to make our jaw drop. But what I found that set the game apart, is that in most cases, you can't tell when the pre-generated cutscenes stop and the in-game engine takes over. The cutscenes' quality is equal to that of the FF movie that was released last year, and the transition between cutscene to in-game in flawless.

The sound is fantastic. This is the first FF game to feature full audio voice for all the main characters, and the localization team did a top-notch job with the translation. Although I find Tidus' voice a little whiney, I think it sounds great. The music, although repetative in the battles, is great as well.

The controls, once you learn them are extremely intuitive. You can either use the analog joystick or the D-pad to control you character.

The gameplay itself is a blast. One of the newest features to the series, is the ability to "hot-swap" your characters while in combat. This makes for more strategic planning of your battles and allows characters with healing abilties to jump in - heal your wounded - and then jump out as well.

Another interesting change is the sphere grid. Gone are the days of experience points. It's little complex but the jist of it is this. You have a HUGE grid of spheres, that allow to you branch out and level up your character. You advance in spheres by defeating creatures in battle, and you level your characters up by collecting spheres that you collect at the end of each battle.

Overdirve stirkes are also done well. In most cases and Overdrive strike happens when you've battle enough creatures to fill you Overdrive bar which unleashes a very powerful attack. But the way the attack are done is cool. Instead of just hitting a button, you have to do a certain pattern on your controller. For instance when you use an overdrive attack with Wakka you have to line up 3 colors on a slot machine type display. The quicker you line them up the more damage you do. Or with Kilmarhi's attack you have to do a certain sequence of button pushes, and the faster you complete the sequence, the more damage it does. I find this technique is very cool. I means that overdrive attacks don't automatically hit your opponent with your full strength, the same as real life, your strongest attacks might not do the damage you hope for.

The Bad
Not much so far. It's an awesome game.

The Bottom Line
Bottom Line: If you've never played an RPG before and you happen to own a PS2, then this game is for you. If you've ever seen screenshots, they don't do the game justice. The plot, controls, graphics, sound, gameplay, are so finely tuned, that it's impossible not to like the game.

A must-buy for any RPG lover.

The Good
First things first, I have to let everyone know that I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series, so some of my points might not exactly be impartial.

The graphics...pretty good. Most people rate a game very heavily on its graphics, but I could really care less. If it has bad graphics, I dont care, as long as the game is good. If the game is good, and has good graphics, then more power to you.

Pertaining to random encounters... many people think that random encounters are bad, but I think they are very good. Every so often, I admit, they get annoying, like when you need to save the game, but keep getting attacked, but without random encounters, you would see the enemies coming and therefore would have 1: a set number of battles during the game and 2: you could avoid every battle, which would not make for a fun game.

The sphere Grid...very clever and innovative way to level up, allowing for complete customization, which i love very much. First time I have seen anything like it.

The characters...some can be seen from previous characters in FF7 or other FF games. there are, in my mind, 4 good characters: Wakka, Auron, Lulu, and Kimarhi. Wakka was cool and goofy, with a funny Hawain accent. Auron was just plain cool (Vincent). Lulu was the only good female character in FFX, mainly because she was the only one who didn't annoy the crap out of me(Tifa simply because of the man-made breasts). Kimarhi was a good character just because he was a ronso, and ronso's look cool (RedXIII anyone?).

Blitzball...cool minigame, but it gets old

The Bad
The storyline....not very original, but it wasn't too bad.

The characters... Tidus is a whiny little punk who even Rikku could beat up, which brings me to my next point...Rikku whiny little kid (like Yuffie from FF7)...Yuna was too caught up in that religon to ever do anything cool (Aeris)...

The game was WAY to easy though, and it only took me about 25-30 hours to beat with most of the sidequests

The Bottom Line
FF7 was better, but if you have already played that one, go out and pick up FFX