Just finished FFX (spoilers perhaps)

My goodness, such a big deal was made out of the ending. I was told it was going to be shocking. Errmmm...where's the surprise!?!?!?!?! I mean, the game basically TOLD you what was going to happen (even explained it) during the ship/dream/Zanarkan sequence right after Mount Gagazet. Geez, I was avoiding FFX story discussions like the plague in fear of accidentally stumbling across a The Usual Suspects kind of a twister.

Anyway.

 

Heh yeah I wasn't that surprised since it foreshadowed the departures of both Auron and Tidus quite clearly. There is a debate though about where Tidus wound up exactly at the end, possibly off the pier where Yuna was whistling to him (thus being reborn), in the farplane, or perhaps somewhere else (back in Zanarkand?).

I'm interested in what people's impressions were of the game, since FF games are always a good topic of debate. My personal opinion is that, despite the graphics and voice acting, it was a relatively weak entry in the series. It reminded me in a way of FFVIII, since I was cursing both games most of the way through but when I finally finished them, I was like "Hmm that wasn't that bad." I liked a lot of the changes made, especially to the battle system, but in the end, the "walk around town/area, take long walk on road fighting battles, solve annoying temples" kinda dragged it down. That, and the characters weren't too interesting until near the end. Except for Lulu.

Edit: Hey, check out The GIA, they have a translation of the additional scenes in FFX International....seems to me that Tidus is alive somewhere after all. If they are indeed making a sequel, I'm lookin forward to it.

 

I thought FFX was okay at best. I was feelin' the the game until they started explaining the unsent nonsense. It was just a lame idea that detracted from the story. If I lived in FFX world the first thing I'd do is kill myself and come back as a stronger fiend. What was the disadvantage of being unsent? Anyway, here's what I didn't like:

Meaningless 3d graphics-Why in the hell would you make it 3d and have it play exactly like PS1 FFs?

Inconsistent graphics-Game Tidus compared to CGI Tidus.

Lack of character development-The story was too centered around Tidus/Yuna and everybody else was just there. It wasn't bad but I think they did a better job on older FFs.

Plot Quirks-Why the hell would Auron look older if he's been unsent for 10 years? They magically remember to send Seymour after the fourth time you fight him.

Cheap Factor-The game has some retarded style cheaps like shattering a pertified character. I also don't like the fact it's almost impossible to beat the game without a walkthrough. How would you find the "sidequests" needed to beat Sin and the last boss without a guide? How would could win without doing the sidequests?

Hella weak last boss-Nuff said.

Hella weak ending not worth the trouble to see-At least flip it to where Auron woulda stayed. To hell with the Farplain!

Lulu loses to Yuna-WTF?!

 

I agree with you. Alot of people are sayin that FFX is the greatest FF ever but , it really isn't. I prefered FFVII and FFVIII over it. The game was just really linear until you got the airship, and yes they focus WAY too much on Tidus and Yuna (who are both stupid as hell...). Its still a great game but in no way the greatest.

 

Yamcha:

LOL, you're right! Opinions are always divergent when it comes to the FF franchise. As for the Tidus thing, at first I thought it was a non-story related kind of an ending...you know, like a "Goodbye and thank you for playing!" type of a thing. I was pretty surprised by the FFX International side story as well...my guess is Tidus is still alive, otherwise why bother making a true sequel centered around his image.

American Pai:

I think the game is perfectly passable without a walk through! The only sidequests I engaged in were getting Yojimbo, Anima, and the Magus Sisters, and by the time I got to the last boss I was already far too strong. I didn't even use any of my Aeons or their overdrives!! I was saving them for the last boss, only to end up having to kill them off myself, grumble grumble. For me, Sin was far too easy. Have Yuna double cast Flare and get Luna to copycat...each Flare took off about 8000 points at the time for me. Towards the end, each Flare was easily doing 9999; I never bothered to get the ultimate weapons.


Anyway, some of my thoughts, in bite sized chunks:

Cinemas: I'm going to take the opposite track of Almaci here, but, there aren't enough of them!! FFX has very few FMVs in comparison to the PSX FFs; most of the cut scenes are in real time, and there is a very big disparity in quality between the two. Switching from real time to FMV for the same scene = not good. As American Pai also pointed out, some of the characters look really different from FMV to real time. Tidus and Yuna, for example, look really Japanese in the FMV. Rikku, I thought, was possibly the only character that looked better real time (not technically, aesthetically).

Voice Acting: OMG, I hated Tidus' voice during the game (not narration). The nasal, whiny dialogue really made it difficult to get to like him. I realize that it was done on purpose to show a progression in his maturity, but it's a little much. Yuna's dialogue is a little awkward, but I attribute that primarily to the difficulty in dubbing. Yuna is a very "Japanese" character, especially in terms of her mannerisms, inflection, and speech patterns. Overall, FFX did a pretty good job on the voice acting, and I thought Seymour's in particular was brilliant. His voice is very unsettling, and it's the kind of voice where you just know something isn't kosher.

Story: The first 12 hours were by far the best, and it was what got me hooked and propelled me to finish the game. Spira was well realized and the interplay between Tidus and Yuna was fantastic, despite several weird moments. As a whole, I would peg the story as only "OK." I don't know why, but it felt like nothing much happened after those first 12 hours...and the story somehow became standard RPG fare. True, there's perhaps nothing normal about "being in a dream," but I was expecting a "quirkiness" of that sort and so the story didn't hold any pleasant surprises for me.

Gameplay: The battle system is definitely a step in the right direction, and vastly improved over FF8 (I skipped FF9, couldn't take the graphics, heh heh). My one biggest complaint is that the entire party should be able to get AP experience, regardless of whether they participated or not. Battles were drawn out unnecessarily long just so that I could rotate everyone in and defend. Further, IMO, far too many random battles!!! I also don't like the equipment system much...I kinda missed weapon and armor stats. I remember the rush I would get in previous FFs when I got a new weapon...in FFX I rarely switched weapons or armor once I found and customized something that I really liked. I also like how they made magic a more prominent part of the gameplay...my Lulu was actually casting stuff as opposed to doing nothing, which is what my MP-limited magic casters usually did in previous FFs. One balancing issue: Aeons and their Overdrives are FAR too strong.

Linearity: Some people complained about FFX being linear...in a way it is, but I will also argue that it isn't really any more linear than previous FFs. I mean, sure, past FFs will have a big overhead map in which you can wander around in, but there's usually only one appropriate destination anyway. While you walk there, you still get random battles. Same thing in FFX, when you walk from one location to the next, except at least the environment changes and is more interesting. However, I will concede that the lack of the overhead map traditional in older FFs somehow doesn't feel as satisfying, and the inability to actually fly the airship around demonstrates that most. Being able to jump to only one save point and then walking to where you want to go is not fun, although the No Encounters ability alleviates that to some degree.

Puzzles: At first I hated the temple puzzles as the "system" seemed rather arbitrary for the first couple temples, and I was basically going through it by trial and error. However, after Ifrit's temple I began to understand the developers' logic, and subsequent temple puzzles became somewhat enjoyable. I think they are a great addition, as they provide a break in the rhythm of "town-walk-fight" cycle.

Graphics: Overall, very, very good. People perhaps don't give enough credit to how wonderfully realized FFX's environments are...definitely on par with Shenmue (better looking of course, but somewhat proportional to hardware strength perhaps). The village in Besaid looks fantastic!! Trees actually sway in the background. Some of the scenes are bitmaps, but they are usually well integrated. The only problem is that there is quite a bit of shimmering, and most egregarious of all, there is slowdown in many non-interactive real time sequences...! I also agree with American Pai that they could've made the game a little more "true" 3D, though I understand why they fixed the camera angles.


Anyway, from reading all this, I'm probably giving off the impression that I didn't even like FFX. Far from it, I enjoyed the game a lot, and it's one of the better RPGs that I've played. I liked it better than FF7, FF8, or Grandia 2. It's a tough toss between Skies of Arcadia and FFX though...SOA had more personality, while FFX is more "polished" and high production.

If you like RPGs, FFX is worth getting. Oh whoops...I guess if you're reading this and don't have the game yet, you're probably put off a little with some of the minor spoilers here and there. Sorry!

 

ice-9: I'm saying that it's really hard to beat Sin (the timed one) without some super powerful shit you'd find from doing the subquests. How could you find the subquests without a walkthrough? However, I did beat the game by only catching most of the monsters for that quest. I didn't get any extra summons or ultimate weapons so maybe I'm contradicting myself.

 

Yeah managed to beat the game quite some ago, I think I did it in about 23-25 hour or so. Didn't do any side quest, didn't even went to that monster farm.

The only problem I have was battle with that Sin where its time, and the last boss, all my characters weren't developed much, it was kinda fun developing all the strategy to beat the boss. I mean I didn't have Flare, doublecast, holy and other stuff, didn't even have bribe. I didn't even try to customise the weapon. Escape most battle.

But the last boss was defenitely annoying the way it heal himself.

 

should have cast reflect like me and it would heal you instead.

 

I didn't even have reflect either /versus/images/icons/frown.gif

Most of my character were not develop, since I escape most battle.