Final Fantasy X

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.

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
*Note: Reviewer has only played Final Fantasy 8 before playing this game.

Catchy title, eh? Must think, who in the hell is this egghead? Doh.

Well actually, I really don't have anything bad to say about Final Fantasy X, regardless of the one-line summary. What I DO have to say is that because games like Final Fantasy, other games out there become REALLY BAD in comparison, I mean really bad. I think it was the words of ol' Unicorn Lynx that said "with games like Final Fantasy, you'd wonder what all the other games are for?" True, so true. AND because of games like Final Fantasy, those crappy games out there, don't become "mediocre" or "all right", they become "dang that's an 'orrible game" or "didn't the developers who made this RPG ever played Final Fantasy?".

Don't you just love a good outlet before a getting into a review? Hahaha.

O.K. About Final Fantasy X. Considering the only other Final Fantasy game I've played was FF8, that's the only game I can compare it too. Final Fantasy is an odd exception. You can't compare it to other RPG's, because it CAN'T be compared. Even other hit games can be compared with other games of the same genre, but not Final Fantasy. It stands in its own league...its own legend.

First things first. The story was incredibly way better than FF8. At least that's what I think. More depth, more feel, more emotion. Which is probably why I love and hate it too (I'll explain the hate in the BAD section). Although I really wonder why all the FF movies suck, considering the games have such imaginative and visionary storylines. I won't get in the story, you can read other reviews for that.

The second is the combat system. I don't know about you, but I immensely enjoyed it. The fact that you can trade heroes at any point in battle makes a lot of new possibilities, as you try to get all the heroes to act in combat for experience purposes. It's nice that you don't have to get stuck with a certain type of combat possibilities because your heroes have different fighting styles.

The third. Acting. Egad, I know its eye candy but I do respect the level of detail they put in the body movements. Most of the dialogs are well put (underline most, not all...next, bad section). I really enjoy anything Waka the blitz player says in a dialog, that bloke cracks me up with his Polynesian style of speech and funny dialogs. Auron is always "mister serious", Lulu is...uh, don't quite notice the dialogs...you notice everything else though! Yuna is this nice conservative girl. The type you want to bring home and introduce to your parents. Basically "nearly" all the heroes have excellent balance in role and dialog, which makes you more acquainted and closer to the story.

Fourth. The music ahh...the music. Some shoot me because the music hit me through the heart and it never healed. More on the music in the bad section. And no, I'm not going to say the music's bad...it's something else.

Last but not least. B L I T Z B A L L!!! Go Aurochs. Dang it, I've never liked sport games. But half of the time I played Final Fantasy X, I was playing Blitzball! He shoots, he scores! Goal!! My personal record is 9-0. Dang my players are good and mostly all of them are original Aurochs. Even Waka is in my team. Though the blitzball section needed some major upgrades, especially in the configuration department, but considering it's just an "add-on" for fun (of which the fun part did very well), I ain't complaining.

The Bad
Hmm. There are several things that bothered me in the game. Not in any particular order, I'll start with Aeon, the Guardian Forces of FF8. As I recall, one of the "brands" of Final Fantasy were the summoned monsters that are really tough. In Final Fantasy X, the Aeons are wimps. Seriously, wimps. You know that because in the middle to the end game, you hardly use the Aeons as your heroes are powerful enough. At the end game (sorry, possible spoiler), you fight your Aeons. I defeat each of them with one hit. Even by my weakest hero, that is Rikku (Yuna can cast Holy). So much for the mighty summoning monsters. Wasn't surprised they got rid of it in FF X-2. The Aeons were much more like a spell than the title they rightly should deserve.

In regard to the Aeons, your heroes get too powerful too quickly. Which is probably why you don't use your Aeons. The reason why you use those Aeons is because usually they're the only ones that can reach the 9999 damage limit (or more). But when each of your heroes can do that in a single turn, plus they have more moves and abilities than your Aeons, the poor monsters don't have much use anymore. I would go as far to say that you can play Final Fantasy X without even using a single Aeon to win the game. Now something's wrong there.

A lot of the Aeon abilities were also useless, or I missed something. With spells like Life that can be taught to an Aeon, I though there were parts in the game where your heroes and the Aeon could fight together. Obviously, Life has no use as you can't use it to the Aeon (though I never tried it to a KO'd hero though). As I said, I could've missed something.

My harshest critic for the game refers to the fact that the games is incredibly EASY! Compared to FF8, this game is mother goose! The monsters are also quite unbalanced in the game. I was expecting Sin and all those bosses in the end game to be extremely difficult. They were child pickings! What gives? The monsters in the ARENA could kick Sin the behind easy! Now how can the monsters in the ARENA be tougher that Sin and the gang? I don't get it. I really don't.

Though the story is good, the story-line is somewhat bothersome. It's that quick to finish the game if you want to. After you control the airship, it ends pretty quickly unless you do something otherwise. The game is very short compared to FF8. I expected 30-40% of the game to be finished when I controlled the airship...not 60-70% of the game! (100 hours of game play is still short in my RPG book).

The Acting. The acting was good for MOST of the heroes/characters. Except of our leader (what's his name?) and Yuna. All the other characters were perfect. The leader is this adolescent kid that talks and acts too much. Probably because of the market, though some of his dialogs are quite "grown-up" most of them are really childish. Yuna is nice when she's being a not-so confident shy girl. She get's really corny and acts really bad when she tries to become the "hero" tough-girl. Though many of her body gestures were really good on her defense.

Lastly, the music. Dang I hate the composer, not because the music's bad. But because it's really good. Though they're weren't as many good tracks compared to FF8, the few that did were much better in "quality". Some of those songs really stabbed me in the heart and soul. They carried the essence of some of the truest forms pain and sorrow I've experienced in my pathetic form of existence. When I finished the game and listened to the song, I cried for hours. Like downpour crying...it is a true work of heart. But it touches closer to home, more than one would like it to. Maybe some people out there get my meaning...

But regardless...Final Fantasy says "IN YOUR FACE OTHER RPGS!"

The Bottom Line
The gameplay of Final Fantasy X is divided into 3 major sections:

1. 35% Playing FF X the RPG.

2. 35% Playing Blitzball

3. 30% Drooling over Lulu.