Final Fantasy X is Squaresoft’s first installment in the long running
Final Fantasy series to grace the Playstation 2 generation. With the
change to a new generation, Final Fantasy X deviates from the
traditional Final Fantasy formula, changing it in a number of ways. For
instance, you play as young Tidus, a star athlete in Final Fantasy’s
underwater soccer/basketball sport Blitz Ball. However, unlike in
previous Final Fantasies where the main character was silent and only
communicated through small actions on occasion, Tidus is both very
vocal and the game’s narrator. In other words, he speaks a lot.
Another change Final Fantasy X brings to the table is your characters
no longer advance in base level. Instead, they advance in sphere level.
How this works is character advancement is controlled by this massive,
and at first very daunting, board called the Sphere Grid. The Sphere
Grid is composed of several nodes, or spheres, which are all connected
by lines. Each sphere level a character acquires allows you to move
them from one node to the next. Some nodes have abilities you can
learn. Some boost your stats, and some are empty and contain nothing.
You use spheres acquired from treasure chests, people, or killing
enemies on the nodes to activate them and gain the respective ability
or stat boost for the character that is activating it. There is only
one sphere grid, but each character has their own individual copy of
it. So, technically it’s possible for each character to learn
everything and have them all be the same. However, accomplishing this
goal is no easy feat, because the grid is massive and moving around it
takes time. Each character starts pretty far apart from the others in
terms of starting location on the grid. For instance Yuna starts in the
area containing all the white magic while Lulu starts in the area
containing all the black magic. By the end of the game you should have
some mixing going on with some characters crossing over into the
starting areas of other characters on the board. However, unless you
are ready to invest hundreds of hours into grinding enemies so you can
keep advancing your characters around the grid, it’s unlikely that you
will have characters that know all of the same abilities other
characters in your party do. The biggest advantage this new system has
over the old base level system is it allows players to customize their
characters as they see fit. Gone is the old system linear predetermined
character advancement. Gone, and good riddance. If all of this seems
confusing, don’t worry, because it’s not. Final Fantasy X features a
full blown tutorial regarding the system early in the game, and you can
refer back to it at any time if you need to.
Final Fantasy X’s story starts with Tidus playing in a big Blitz Ball
match. This is one of the many mini games featured in Final Fantasy X,
and it’s quite popular in the games world. Shortly after this the giant
monster known as Sin attacks the city. Tidus is saved from certain
death by the mysterious character known as Auron, but before he can
escape from the city, Tidus is some how transported to the land of
Spira. Here he finds himself among a strange group of people known as
the Al Bhed, and meets Rikku, a cute and perky girl with an interest in
machina (machines). After a short adventure with them, Tidus once again
encounters Sin and is sucked away into the Sea. The waves dump him on
the isle of Besaid where Tidus meets Waka, the summoner Yuna, and the
rest of the cast. After the rest of the cast hears his story, and Waka
learns of his amazing Blitz Ball skills, Tidus is permitted to join
them in accompanying Yuna on her summoner’s pilgrimage, and to say any
more would be saying too much.
In Final Fantasy X there is no over world for players to wander between
destinations. Instead, there is a map that tracks your progress with a
dotted line, as you explore and move across Spira. This makes the game
much more linear than its predecessors. However, it’s not a bad thing
since there are plenty of wide open fields for you to explore, and by
eliminating the over world time players never leave the action. You
will encounter a large cast of likeable characters who play roles both
large and small in the games world. You will encounter random battles
in typical Final Fantasy fashion. When this occurs the screen changes
to show the three characters that are fighting on one line and what
enemies they are fighting opposite them on another line. Things play
out here like they do in all the previous Final Fantasy games with menu
driven attacks and commands. In Final Fantasy X, summons act much like
they did in Final Fantasy VIII. When a summoned creature arrives on the
battlefield it replaces your party and you have full control of its
attacks and abilities until its HP is reduced to zero, or you dismiss
it. The animations and still drawn out, but notably less so when
compared to those of previous Final Fantasies, such as Final Fantasy
VII, VIII, and IX. Spell graphics have also been toned down, but become
more boisterous, flamboyant and impressive with each new level of the
spell you acquire. The one very welcome change to the battle system
present in Final Fantasy X is the ability to call in reserve characters
and have them replace a character currently fighting on the front line.
This gives a new twist to the old battle system and makes many things
easier, such as advancing your characters on the sphere grid and the
games harder battles. Don’t think that Final Fantasy X is a push over,
because it’s not. While things are ridiculously easy early on, the
games difficulty evens out with plenty of challenges mid to late game.
In fact, players will find that much of the games “optional” content,
such as the monster arena, omega ruins, and quests for the optional
summoned creatures and ultimate weapons really aren’t optional. If
players attempt the final battles and final dungeon without them, they
will have your work cut out for them. It’s possible to beat Final
Fantasy X’s story in twenty to forty hours if it’s all you focus on.
However, by depriving yourself of the games added content, you will
have quite the challenge on your hands by the end of the game.
Realistically, Final Fantasy X should last most players a good forty to
eighty hours, which is quite a hefty allotment of time, and noticeably
longer than several of the other Final Fantasy games.
Graphically, Final Fantasy X presents mixed reactions. Some of the
characters and environments look phenomenally good, while others look
phenomenally bad. The good out weighs the bad here without a doubt,
both in number and frequency. However, when players come across the bad
they will know it, because it’s glaringly obvious. For instance, some
of the crusader avatars such as the captain and her squire look like
they were ripped right out of one of the Playstation 1 Final Fantasies.
The pre-rendered cinemas return in Final Fantasy X as well, and look
better than ever. The only problem with them as that it’s obvious they
were done by a completely different group of artists than the ones who
created the in game character models, and as a result the characters in
the cinemas look very, very, very different from the in game character
models you will be playing with.
Final Fantasy X’s audio presents equally mixed reactions. The cast is
all fully voiced, and the voice actors did a superb job. Unfortunately,
it becomes obvious by the end of the game that in several instances
where a character is saying something that was said before, such as
“ok” that all the sound engineers did was set the only recorded “ok”
sound bite to play when that line comes up for that character. This
works pretty well most of the time, but there are several instances
toward the end of the game where it doesn’t work at all and really
detracts from the experience, because of the lack of feeling it
creates. Final Fantasy X really only has one theme. It is beautiful and
you will hear it over and over throughout the game. However, as great
as the theme is, by having only one theme it creates a lack of variety
in the game’s music, despite how many times it is remixed, and it wears
itself out by the end. There are a couple other fully voiced songs that
play during key moments of the game though. They all sound truly
fantastic, and as a whole the audio is nothing short of memorable.
Overall, Final Fantasy X is a must play. As the first in the Final
Fantasy series to arrive on the Playstation 2 it is a superb debut for
the franchise. Final Fantasy X comes loaded with extra content that
will keep players busy long after they have beaten the games story. It
features a quirky, likeable, and truly memorable cast of characters, as
well as a fun gaming experience ripe with challenge and something for
everyone. Final Fantasy X is without a doubt one of the best titles in
the Final Fantasy franchise. It brings many changes, all of which are
very welcome, and yet manages to keep the old distinct flavor and feel
that is Final Fantasy. If you own a Playstation 2, or are a Final
Fantasy fan, you owe it to yourself to play this title, or at the very
least have it in your collection.
