Final Fantasy X

Squaresoft - 2001 - PS2/PS3/Vita

See Also My Top 10 Final Fantasy Games List

I picked up the HD remastered versions of Final Fantasy X/X-2 on PS3 when they came out last month, and I replayed FFX for the first time in probably at least 10 years. I remember really enjoying when I first played it and I was worried my memory of the game would be greater than what the game actually was. But I enjoyed it quite a bit a second time around and it held up pretty well aside from the horrendous cutscenes. It's crazy to think about how Square just churned out hit after hit of amazing classic RPGs from this franchise in the 90s and early 00s and then to think about what garbage the FF series has given us since this game. 

A quick sidenote for those who never played a game in this series or are otherwise unaware: The stories and battle mechanics of each game in the Final Fantasy series are completely unrelated. Each game in the series has a completely new cast of characters and settings, and there's nearly always a different battle system with different battle mechanics and rules. The series has some common elements and reoccurring motifs; for instance there's usually magic or summon monsters and for some reason there's almost always a character named Cid that appears somewhere in the game. But you don't have to have played FF9 before FF10 or anything like that.

FF10 (or FFX for you Romans) follows the story of a young man named Tidus who is a star blitzball player from the futuristic city of Zanarkand. Blitzball is some kind of crazy combination of football and soccer, but played underwater. It also serves as FFX's primary minigame. It's kind of broken and clunky, but the football fan in me enjoys it despite its faults. Anyway, in the game's prologue, the Zanarkand blitzball arena is suddenly attacked by a massive whale-looking monster known as "Sin". Sin magically transports Tidus 1000 years into the future to another world called "Spira". While searching for a way to get back home to Zanarkand, Tidus learns about the world of Spira and befriends some of its residents. He learns that Spira has always been under constant torment by the same Sin monster he encountered in Zanarkand. Tidus soon befriends a young girl, Yuna, who is training to become a summoner in hopes to obtain a summon monster powerful enough to destroy Sin. FFX's main storyline deals with Tidus, Yuna and her guardian's journey across Spira and their quest to defeat Sin. 

I found the story and pacing for FFX to be both very good. Now the thing that's an absolute trainwreck and nearly ruins the game are the voice acting and cutscenes. Final Fantasy X was the first game in the series to be voice acted, and it definitely shows. Each cutscene is more awkward and cringe-worthy than the last. You may have seen the infamous laughing scene on YouTube before. Yeah, that's pretty much how all of the cutscenes in this game are. Now the actual story that is behind these cutscenes is pretty good. But oh man, those cutscenes. It might actually be better to watch them on mute. You have to try to focus on what the game is trying to show you, not how the game is showing it. If you can't do that, you'll probably find this game's story pretty laughable. No pun intended. 

Final Fantasy X's battle system is pretty tight and well balanced. Information like damage, status effects, and weaknesses are clearly communicated to the player during battle instead of having to guess which enemies are weak vs. which elements or try to figure out whether the status effect spell you just cast was successful based on what color a sprite is. If you equip your party with the proper "sensor weapons", you will even see strategies on how to defeat specific enemies, their HP, and what their weaknesses are. It's the kind of useful information the FF series always used to hide in the background instead of telling you straight up for some reason. There's a good variety of enemies that all have strengths and weaknesses to different members of your party. For instance flying-type monsters need to be taken down by a ranged fighter, while Tidus' sword is effective on smaller more nimble monsters. Still others may be weak to magic spells and require a Mage to defeat. It's a fun, strategic turn-based battle system that will have you rotating your party members in and out in order to try to exploit enemies' weaknesses.

FFX is notable for not having a world map to explore, which is normally a series staple for Final Fantasy. I was afraid this would be too much like FFXIII, a game which I hated for having linear corridor after linear corridor strung together as level design. But you never really get that feeling in FFX. The level design does a good job with divergent paths and interesting things to do and people to talk to in all of the areas to make you forget there's no world map linking everything together. The level design and pacing is pretty good in this game... except for the puzzle solving sections in stupid cloister of trails areas. People who have played this game before know what I'm talking about. Tedious, time wasting puzzles with random arbitrary logic that you have to solve by trial and error. Terrible game design. Whoever put these in the game needs to be smacked upside the head. 

Final Fantasy X also is notable for being the first game in the series that was not exclusively composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu. It was a collaboration between him and some other dudes. It's still a excellent soundtrack, but it sounds different than a lot of the other games in the series, and some of it sounds very un-Final Fantasy to me. Most of the soundtrack has a very electronic and synthesized sound. Still good, just different. Standout tracks include The Main Battle Theme (Nobuo Uematsu),  Rikku's Theme (Nobuo Uematsu), Battle With Seymour (Nobuo Uematsu), Besaid Island (Masashi Hamauzu), and Illusion (Junya Nakano). It's easy to hear each composer's different style and which tracks they contributed to the soundtrack. 

The soundtrack to the HD version was remixed, which I was a little disappointed in. Even though it had been 10 years since I played this game, I have the soundtrack on my phone and listen to it all the time, so some of the remixes were a little jarring to me. The HD remix soundtrack grew on me eventually, some tracks are more subtle and little less "in your face" than the originals and probably more appropriate in certain areas. But at least include the option for me to switch back to the old ones if I want!

Summary:

Overall FFX is a pretty solid game. Solid battle system, excellent soundtrack and good story. Terrible voice acting. I would actually recommend it as a good entry point for newcomers to the series if it weren't for those cutscenes. As it stands though, I'd probably tell Final Fantasy newbies to start with the masterpiece that is FFVII. It's may not be as polished, refined or pretty looking as FFX, but at least it doesn't have this in it.