Final Fantasy X, Random Thoughts

[JLaCroix]

Since I finally got a PS2, I had a chance to play FFX. I wasn't going to, but my wife picked it out and said I should get it, because I have all of the earlier games from Playstation and down.

I beat it last night, and I don't want to write a review or anything but I never had a chance to play it before. I know most of you have probably beaten it already.

My thoughts:

1. The graphics are beautiful, and is one of the best parts of the game.

2. I really don't like Tidus. He's okay and all, but it feels like I am playing as a Californian beach-bumb.
He really doesn't seem like a main character to me.

3. Yuna is a friggin powerhouse. With the 1-MP ability and Holy, you might as well consider the game beaten.

4. Lulu, while useless toward the end of the game (Because anyone can learn her spells, pretty much) is
very awesome character wise but gets very little screen time.

5. Wakka is annoying, ya? Weak in battle, ya? I didn't build him up at all, I don't like him, ya?

6. Squaresoft forgot to fix a MAJOR game error. The error in question is the lack of a world map.
This is absolutely excuseless and made the game a little less enjoyable. The programmers should have
paid attention during bugtesting.

7. The Cactuar trick. 400,000AP in one battle. Priceless and ridiculously easy to pull off.

8. The sidequests are purely tedious. I don't want to kill five of each monster. Nor do I want to play that
annoying chocobo game. Did anyone actually get all the Aeons and the Celestial Weapons? Not me.
I killed all the final bosses without a single pheonix-down, what's the need?

9. The music isn't great but it isn't bad, either. Nobuo doing death metal, now that's something...

10. Finally despite a few problems I really enjoyed this game. It can't beat FF8 because that will always
be the absolute best in my opinion, but I had alot of fun playing this game. What about you guys?

[Redneck 2000]

Wakka is voiced by Jon DiMaggio, aka Bender from Futurama. I have nothing else to say on the game.

[Alzar]

I liked the game, but I'd never replay it.

The only character I liked was Auron. Everyone else kind of sucked. Wakka was okay-ish I guess.

Still wasn't as good as Final Fantasy 6. One day maybe a Square RPG will be as cool as Final Fantasy 6 was relative to its time. I hope.

[Denmo]

The leveling system is a neat addition, but it makes everyone total powerhouses towards the end, even if you blow through it.

Blitzball is da bomb though. I want more Blitzball damnit.

[JLaCroix]

Final Fantasy 6 was great. If you notice it's usually the third game on every console that's spectacular. From what I know about FFXII, it could very well be the FF6 of our time.

The Sphere Grid I am not a fan of. I don't understand how moving spheres on a grid makes you a stronger person or makes you faster.

It was very good thought I agree but I also won't replay it. Maybe someday I will do the sidequests, probably not though.

[Denmo]

Every 3rd game on the system? Pshaw. Just look at FFIX.

But I guess that's purely opinion.



FFXII does look like it's gonna be a change, considering the introduction of real-time non-random battles. BUT A CHANGE FOR GOOD,


OR EVIL!?!

[Draygone]

The Sphere Grid I am not a fan of. I don't understand how moving spheres on a grid makes you a stronger person or makes you faster. Yeah, it's a lot less realistic than suddenly getting stronger in a few stats after defeating some high amount of monsters.

Myself, I liked FFX the first time through. I ignored most of the mini-games, I thought the sphere grid was fresh, the characters (though lacking in a few areas) were enjoyable enough, there was the graphics (OMG Behemoth Looks Awesome!), how the game had voice-overs (and how fun it was to point out the bad lip-synching during the next playthrough), the battles were challenging enough without having to resort to overpowering tactics like the 1-MP deal (which I don't think I got until I beat the game), and I really liked the story.

Too bad I couldn't play all the way through any time after that. Maybe not because I questioned it's quality (though I must say those were the worst mini-games I've ever seen in a FF game, save for Blitzball, which was great, especially when I was able to win during the story game that one time), but because for a while now I pretty much have to force myself to play all the way through a lot of games nowadays.

[Dreamknight]

With Vaan as the main character I can't say I have high hopes for XII.

[RPGD]

I thought it was Ashe.

[SirTMagus]

Vaan is the fruit-eating pretty boy and Ashe is the bootylicious princess warrior. With the creators of Vagrant Story and the FFT games behind FFXII I am ec-freaking-static for it. NOW IF ONLY IT'LL COME OUT.

I also thought FFX was really good despite its babyish difficulty and bizarre direction. "Okay, let's have everyone act like stilted wooden monkeys and we'll have, quite possibly, the most embarrassing scene ever to be in a videogame... until FFX-2 comes out." I've said this a thousand times already but Square needs new writers.

However, I found the bittersweet/downer ending to be a very nice surprise.

[Redneck 2000]

Yeah, it's a lot less realistic than suddenly getting stronger in a few stats after defeating some high amount of monsters.

I know you were being sarcastic but I actually find that to be true. You do get better from practicing things.

[SirTMagus]

Do YOU get better or do your CHARACTERS simply get better?

I think there's a difference.

[highwind]

Playing the game for a second time really is a chore. It just shows you all the flaws. I don't feel like making an essay out of this so let's just say that I hated the sphere grid (tedious and annoying) found the game to baby the player along like it was sesame street (replenish HP and MP at every save point? and the CONSTANT tutorials like "wakka instantly kills flying enemies! use him NOW!) most of the characters were lame except Auron, lack of overworld map was bad, ummmmmm......blitzball sucked...

that's it for now.

[Draygone]

You do get better from practicing things. Gradually.Nobuo doing death metal, now that's something... Forgot to mention this earlier. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there two other composers who worked on FFX besides Nobuo?

[Big Rick Cook]

Yeah, but none of them had their hand in the death metal song, did they?

[Nixon]

I liked X alright the first time, but I wouldn't want to pick it up again. Auron was great. Tidus was so lame it hurt. His outfit has to be the most ridiculous thing I've seen up until the outfits in X-2. The voice acting/script was pathetic at points (HA HA HA HA HA. HA HA HA HA HA.) and the lack of a world map did p!ss me off.

The last "real" boss fight was very dissapointing after that other boss fight...

Also, I predicted the story and some key plot points way ahead of schedule, and so the game didn't have as much of an impact.

The plus side: Beautiful graphics, nice battle system (holy crap, I can switch out my guys all the time!) and I actually enjoyed the sphere grid.

[Loki]

Wakka was my favortie...

[The_Real_Crunk]

Did you guys end up going into the options and turn on that thing that cut all summons down to only 10sec long? I did that about 2 hours into the game.

One thing that happened to me allot in the game was when I equiped all my characters with weapons that let them instantly attack after they were attacked. That killed my team whenever I fought an enemy that could cast "berserk". On numerous occasions Aruon killed everybody.

[JLaCroix]

Auron wasn't that great to me. It was probably just the way I built him up, but with me my other characters would get 2-3 turns a piece before he got one turn. In my experience, toward the end of the game Yuna became the main damage dealer (With Holy, which always does 9999 damage in my experience) and my other characters just healed her when she got hurt.

And Auron holds his left hand like he's gay or something, what was up with that?

The very very very last boss was extremely easy, I just used a Candle Of Life on him, and he killed himself in three turns.

The main things that hurt the game was the linearity, (You seriously are going a straight line from beginning to end, without ANY sidetracking at all, literally), the fact you were only able to control the airship at the very end also hurt the linearity factor. Also, I already said it before but no world map, what the hell was the point of not having one?!!!

Anyway even though I am pointing out the flaws, it doesn't mean that I hated the game, the sole reason that I wasn't here in a long time WAS because of FFX, but it would have been one of the best FF games ever if they fixed the flaws.

[Vonwert]

I didn't like the battle system near the end of the game...since you always do the same thing....summon, summon, summon, summon, then when you are all out of summons....use what's left...

And the laughing scene really made Yuna look like an idiot.

[JLaCroix]

If all you are doing is Summon, summon, summon, that's not the games fault you built your characters that way. Summons were useless to me.

[Big Rick Cook]

I never used them, either. I hated summons.

[SirTMagus]

And Auron holds his left hand like he's gay or something, what was up with that?
Way to be in touch with the Japanese culture, dude. That's a typical samurai gesture where they rest their arms inside their massive sleeves. If you've seen any Kurosawa movie you've seen it done there. That said, Auron kicked ass.

And I didn't mind Tidus or any of the characters really. Sometimes the dialogue just sucked balls. I like Nomura's harebrained designs, for the most part, and I think James Arnold Taylor did a fine job.

[Big Rick Cook]

Because they couldn't afford Michael J. Fox.

[Kefka Jr.]

Auron was Braska's gaurdian, so when Braska died he became a ronin. Like, with the sleeve and sake.

I did not miss the map screen at all until the very end.

FFX had a lot of cool moments. The only thing that ever ****ed me off, aside from the laughing scene and the totally unnatural pauses in the dialogue, was the sidequests. HOW do you figure half of those out without looking at a walkthrough?

[JLaCroix]

And, unless I'm mistaken, you have to beat five of every monster in the game to unlock everything. Geez!

[SirTMagus]

Yeah, the side quests are for if you wanna punish yourself. The Thunder Plains is a ****hole and it still is in FFX-2.

Oh, good catch, Kef, I forgot all about Braska.

FFX definitely has a lot of cool moments. The storming of Bevelle rocked the house.

[JLaCroix]

I'm playing FFX-2 now. I figured I might as well since I beat FFX. I am just an hour into it.

Does FFX-2 have any summons?

And, do the characters ever learn anything permanently?

So far I like the battle system better.

[SirTMagus]

Yeah, FFX-2's battle system is pretty rockin' and of course there are no summons.

What'd ya think of the (gay gay) opening?

[Big Rick Cook]

You have to give props to Final Fantasy X-2 for being the only RPG geared towards teeny-boppers.

[SirTMagus]

Gay, gay teeny-boppers who before FF7 and Tony Hawk would've had nothing to do with FFX-2.

[The Dark Jester]

was i the only one who felt FFX was way too linear.

[Big Rick Cook]

I know of 5 girls who never played RPG's before FFX-2, and played it only because it looked trendy and cute. The good thing is that they were introduced into the world, and have begun playing other not-so-flashy non-fanservice games.

[JLaCroix]

I already said that FFX was too linear.

[Draygone]

Yes the laughing scene was kinda stupid. But I understood what was going on. Been a while since I last played it, though, so I'm can't remember what that was. Something about laughing at life, I think, then Tidus did that lame laughing because he didn't feel like doing a real laugh, then Yuna joining in the lame laugh to make him feel better. At least they did a real laugh after that, with the rest of the gang looking at them like they're stupid.

[JLaCroix]

I just didn't like how some of the characters seemed useless. Like I said Lulu is great at first because she has black magic, but at the end everyone can learn her spells which makes her pointless. The summons were worthless, most of the enemies killed them in one hit.

I understood the laughing scene, I didn't have a problem with it.

What I really liked about it, was that they did a good job making you think that there was no way to defeat Sin, the feeling of hopelessness made itself apparent everywhere you go, making how they defeated him that much cooler.

[SirTMagus]

Yeah, I understood everything but that scene was still lame. If someone caught me watching that (or playing FFX-2: Pop Princess Extravaganza) I'd be embarrassed as hell. It might've worked better in Japanese (that scene, indeed, the game oozes with Japaneseness to a degree that's not in most RPGs) but in English it just doesn't belong.

For that matter the Suteki Da Ne scene didn't really move me at all, at least not nearly as much as the ending did. It was pretty to look at, definitely, but it didn't hold a candle to the Eyes on Me scenes in FF8, IMHO.

As for the hopelessness in the game's atmosphere, Square did a pretty good job of that and it really paid off in the end. Playing that game in the fall of 2001 was pretty interesting... I'll NEVER FORGET it.

[pinkymadigan]

Wow. Nobody mentioned the summons battle? The one where you have auto life on? The one that punishes you for building up your summons? The one that made the final battle in excess of an hour and a half for me, most of which was loading time between summons? That was clearly the worst thought out thing in the game. Why even have a battle if you get auto life for free every time you die? What a waste of my time!

[SirTMagus]

I didn't think that was a big deal at all. At that time I just wanted to see the ending and finish it anyway.

[IRC]

I just didn't like how some of the characters seemed useless. Like I said Lulu is great at first because she has black magic, but at the end everyone can learn her spells which makes her pointless. The summons were worthless, most of the enemies killed them in one hit.

That doesn't make her useless. You can't even get those unlocks until the very end of the game, and only completest ****s like you go around unlocking every sphere for every character. By your logic every character is useless except for Yuna because all the other characters can learn each other's skills except for summoning.

[BeeZee]

I've only played X once through, but I thought its battle system was easily the sleekest FF battle system ever. I'm also glad they ditched the world map and went for a single, cohesive world instead. I'll admit that the game is linear, but they could've easily added exploration in just by having branching paths or something, so that's more of a design fault and not because of the lack of a map.

[JLaCroix]

IRC, with the hundreds of Black Magic spheres thrown at your feet, learning Lulu's spells isn't that hard to do. And the key spheres you get about halfway through the game, and at that same time its effortless to move other characters to her grid. You must have took the long way around to get to her spells.

And for the record, summons were useless too. :p

[Loki]

BZ, you forgot to mention that the "one time" you played was for more than 100 hours.

[IRC]

Single, cohesive world's scare me. I don't like them. I want a world map. With a world map I feel that there's actually a world that I'm exploring or whatever. Without it, it's just a bunch of random locations that are connected by me selecting yes when asked if I want to go to random town A or to the Dungeon of Terror 4.

I think that part of the appeal of RPGs is that you have this feeling of a journey. That you can go from continent to continent. With FFX it was like I was walking down a path.

Of course world maps and random battles and ATB battle systems are quickly becoming things of the past. Last time I checked into it, the battle system Final Fantasy 12(I use 12 instead of XII because I'm not very hopeful for it) involves controlling one character at a time and having the AI control the other two characters.

I hate innovation for innovations sake.

And you miss the point Lacroix. The point is that if you spend enough time on the game with all the customization possible with weapons and the sphere grid all the characters are equally useless. Yuna summoning(which can be weak as **** if you don't build on them, or your strongest attacks if you do) is an example of a skill that can't be learned by anyone else. As far as I can remember only Auron and Kimari can have piercing weapons so that's kind of unique, but I'm not sure if they are pierce exclusive. The point is each persons experiences with the game are different based on what they do.

In your game summons sucked and you had Yuna just blast everything with 1mp Holy. In other people's games they had the Magus Sister's blast everything or they used breaker equipment to be super powerful and have Tidus and Auron hit for +9999 damage. In my case I somehow managed to have Wakka do 5000+ damage with a normal attack by the time I reached the calm lands. I could have cruised through the game with his limit break.

That's really my biggest complaint with FFX, the balance is way ****ing off. If you know what you're doing you can do some really messed up stuff damage wise.

[Big Rick Cook]

That's how every Final Fantasy game is that afford lots of customization. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, you could manipulate the game if you knew what to do. And all that took was playing with the customizations.

As for Auron and Kimahri (however you spell it), they were the ones with the piercing weapons early on, but you could attach piercing to everyone else's weapons later in the game. I gave Lulu a piercing Cait Sith doll once. A doll. That could pierce rawhide and stone. And it was a doll.

[BeeZee]

I don't think a journey should have to span the entirety of a planet to be meaningful. And when the locations are strung together cohesively, as opposed to just being different specks on a giant map, I think that makes them feel more comfortable and believable.

[SirTMagus]

IRC, did you play Vagrant Story?

I'm worried about the whole "innovation" thing too. The battles in FF12 look really similar to FF11 and Knights of the Old Republic - y'know in that you only kinda control your characters - and that worries me. But goddamn, it looks like Final Fantasy XII: Vagrant Story 2 I can't help but be excited for it.

[Xeno]

Gay, gay teeny-boppers who before FF7 and Tony Hawk would've had nothing to do with FFX-2.

Ya know, being gay myself... I'd have to say FF-X 2 does NOT intrest me. Anyway.. how is a game starring 3 scantily clad women geared towards gays? And the guys... guh... I mean... ook at their HAIR.

[IRC]

IRC, did you play Vagrant Story?

Why would I play that crap?

[Xeno]

Vagrant Story was fun.. But FF12 looks more like .hack episode 5 than an final fantasy game. Square's been doing the "Innovation for innovations sake" for the last 8 years. I miss the dyas when buying a new weapon meant something.. Reaching a new town, and going to the armor and weapons shop had a purpose. FFX, i'm noticing, was at least good at making everyone's experince, mostly unique. For me, Summons were the best. I got Auron, Tidus and Lulu were my powerhouses. Auron got better when I gave him stone touch, and Tifus I gave Zombie touch. I'd pull Wakka out for air creatures, and status effects, and Yna for healing, and finally Rikku for robots... and a free heal.

That said, Auron was cool. Rikku was the only character I actually kinda liked. And as far as FFX-2.... The opening was better in japanese.... but bearable in english.. it had cool action... what was painful is the beginning of the second chapter where Yuna is singing on the air ship... "Lalalalalala" and it was the real una voice actress... not a singer. That was painful.

And FFX-2. has my absolute favorite battle system.

[SirTMagus]

FFX-2 has about the lamest presentation, dialogue, story, direction, acting, what have you, ever. Imagine Powerpuff Girls but without the wit or... whatever it is that makes Powerpuff Girls good and better than FFX-2

BUT YES. I will agree, it was fun to play. The battle system was groovy. I just wouldn't want anyone catching me play that.

And IRC, for that remark, I got some tasty balls here for you to lick.

[BeeZee]

I always thought that weapons and armor that didn't do anything except change stats were kind of... artificial. Your stats go up, the new area has tougher monsters to compensate for that, and then the gameplay is more or less unchanged as a result.

[JLaCroix]

Pretty much. But when you get that ultimate weapon its all over.

[Draygone]

But you had to buy new stuff because the monsters ahead were tougher.

I kinda like the older FF games for their exploration and their simplicity. Gain levels automatically by defeating monsters, learning spells by simply battling, buying them, or equipping a simple item and once more learning by battling. And the exploration aspect came in as you travelled around the world map. The places might not have been much to look at, but each place seemed somehow unique in their own way. Except in FF6, where about every town seemed to be the same as the last, save for places like Zozo. Even in FF4, each town seemed somehow different from the last. Otherwise, I dunno, there was something fun about travelling around the world, discovering new places. For some reason, that feeling doesn't seem to be there in the more recent FF games, or not as prominent (Wukai in FF7 was a nice for example, but a bunch of other places were just...there.)

What Square needs to do with their next game is make a game with some nice graphics like what they've been doing, locals as varied as they seemed in FF9, and back-to-basics battle mechanics like what's seen in the SNES FF games (okay, I wouldn't mind having that job system from FF5 thrown in). And gosh darn it, give us back the world map. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem they'll be doing any of that (besides the graphics) with FFXII, so I'll just have to hope someone makes a really great RPG on RPGM/2.

[JLaCroix]

As far as my understanding of FFXII goes so far, I like how they are going to be doing the world map. It appears like it will be as it was in Ocarina of Time, where there is no selecting options with a airship, but everything connected together and more realistic.

I guess what I am trying to say is the entire game is a "world map" of sorts with no transition in between villages and exploring, you see a village in the horizon and walk closer to it. Hard to explain, but I am pretty sure that is how they will do it.

I don't think Final Fantasy should go back to the way things used to be. The series is evolving, and to de-evolve it would be disasteriffic. I think they should continue to evolve it, and come up with new ways to recapture the old feeling, rather than re-use outdated systems. The way I see it, if you want the old style, there are at least six FF games that you can play to relive it.

[SirTMagus]

Agreed!

FF12's gonna be two DVDs long last I read. And it's delayed and still in development!!!?!?!?///1 IT'S GONNA BEEE HUUUGE.

[Dreamknight]

Don't forget the addition of OMG CEILINGS

[RPGD]

FF finally has more stuff that can fall on people. I love ceilings.

[Draygone]

The way I see it, if you want the old style, there are at least six FF games that you can play to relive it. Yeah, but until FF3 finally comes out here, all those other worlds I've already explored once. But I guess you're right, the series has to continue doing new stuff in order to stay fresh. At least there's always Dragon Warrior to fall back on if I ever miss the old ways.

[JLaCroix]

My opinion of FFX-2 so far:

First, I'd like to say that the gameplay in X-2 is what X should have had. The battles are faster, ATB is back finally, and the way you learn spells in X-2 is my favorite way of learning them, job classes. They aren't called job classes but they might as well be. The gameplay is top-notch and alot of fun.

Second, too bad the story (so far) isn't up to par with the great gameplay. It has the whole "Charlies Angles Fantasy" thing going on. I keep hoping that the story improves but I don't want to get my hopes up.

How fast you learn spells seems unnatural. I have about four hours logged on so far. Yuna has learned every white mage spell already. It seems kind of unnatural to learn Full Cure when my HP hasn't even reached 1000 yet.

Now I need to know how this works, when I master a spell, did my character learn it permanently? Or is it only when she uses that particular sphere? Or, possibly, if that sphere is on the same Garment Grid, then she can use the skills she's learned? How does that work?

[highwind]

Am I the only one that hates RPGs where any character can learn anything and mix and match crap? I don't want my strongman to learn white mage spells. It completely defeats the purpose of having a party of unique characters.

I understand it enhances player customization but screw that if it sacrifices unique characters and their unique ablities.

[JLaCroix]

I prefer that. Why should I have the game control what I do with my characters? If I want to develop a good Attacker that can Cure, I should be able to. If you limit this, you are also limiting playability and customization.

I think there should be one or two special skills that no other character can learn, but everything else should be learnable by everyone.

[Kefka Jr.]

My favorite RPG battle systems are the ones with a pool of skills that every character can learn, along with a bunch that are character-specific.

*Licks the Grandia games*

[Caciss]

X was okay.

But, I've never really liked Final Fantasy... except Tactics and IX.

[IRC]

My favorite system was FFIV where each person had a job and set skills for that job. It was only years later that I learned that each was a job from FFIII, and that made it that much cooler.

[Garr123]

I don't really have a preference, meh. As long as the games good what the characters can and cant learn really doesnt matter to me.


rpg's suck lately anywho. *plays FF7, breath of fire 3, and suikoden 2.*

[IRC]

I agree about the learning of abilities but the fact that Cecil wasn't just a guy but he was a Paladin really appealed to me. Tellah isn't just and old man with magic he's the Great Sage Tellah(tm) and Yang is a Kung-Fu guy.

[JLaCroix]

FFIV's system was okay, but I really didn't like how it was pointless to level up until the very end, and the characters were leveled up on a straight line. Everything else about that game was damned cool.

[SirTMagus]

rpg's suck lately anywho.

OH YEAH. Got that right. There were like 5 or 6 (MORE?!?!) new RPGs out last year and none of them appealed to me at all. Except maybe Paper Mario but I didn't even play the first one yet... :shot

So yeah. I be playin' Suikoden II and Vagrant Story now.

[Draygone]

Am I the only one that hates RPGs where any character can learn anything and mix and match crap? No, but I'm not one of them. Having characters that can learn the stuff other characters learn means I don't have to focus on leveling all my characters at once, unless I'm afraid that the story will eventually force me to use them. But then, there's nothing wrong with having each character have one unique skill along with the ability to learn a bunch of other skills that others can learn, like was done in FF6. Granted, some character-specific skills were kinda useless (Morph was nice, but didn't last nearly long enough to get much use out of it, sometimes none at all), but otherwise it worked well.but I really didn't like how it was pointless to level up until the very end I don't like power leveling unless it means I'll be able to afford that new piece of equipment. Even then, here's hoping the equipment isn't too expensive. I didn't like how I got whooped by Zeromus until I had to level up some, and find that it only helped my Curing keep up if I killed off two of my party members before I used the crystal.