Final Fantasy X 

“Waking up in a strange new world has never been so magnificent in all my life...”

All right I’ll be honest, not since Square brought us Final Fantasy VII have I enjoyed a Final Fantasy this much, I’m playing the game while I write this review as a matter of fact, I’m fighting Seymour (I’ll get to him) as I type, and quite frankly he is annoying me!

The Return to Final Fantasy.

One of the most amazing things about the Final Fantasy series is the overture at the beginning of the game, where you leave the game sitting and are treated to the credits and some great Uematsu music.  With 10, it's more like the starting of a revolution, As the highly dramatic “At Zanarkand” plays in the back ground, you see in full polygon goodness Tidus (TEE-DUS), Yuna, Wakka, Auron, Rikku, Kimahri, and Lulu all sitting around a poorly built camp fire, their faces down and solemn.  Tidus gets up and walks to Yuna laying a hand on her shoulder, at first you notice the hand shaking, sadly this is due to the collision detection (and highly fleshed out polygon texturing) of the game, although this is awkward at first it helps to know that you soon won’t care about it one bit.  As Tidus walks up a hill towards a cliff and gazes at the ruins of Zanarkand, you see his face shiver, again a polygon and video feed problem, and you also receive, if you’re like me, a cold shiver inside from the knowing that you aren’t watching a FMV, that it’s all real time. Everything; that isn’t a pre-rendered background in the distance it's fully 3D.  As he stares forward you see the screen fade and “Final Fantasy X” come into view and well that is that.  I was amazed and had yet to begin the game.

With that, you are ready to begin, as you hit start thinking that a FMV will begin and you’ll be treated to something normal for Final Fantasy games, you're left wanting...  It seems that Square left out the fleshed-out, graphically superior opening scene, and went right into the story.  You see a crowd; a figure comes running to them and they all leave, then a small creature runs out, in the next scene you see and take control of Tidus, he seems to be famous, a famous Blitz Ball player in his hometown of Zanarkand.  After signing Autographs and getting used to the new voices from each character, (By the way the game is done 98% with the voices) you will run off into a long highway like street, there Tidus looks up at a building with a man’s face on the side, that is Jecht his father, another famous Blitz Ball player who mysteriously disappeared years ago.  A commentator talks about Jecht and then goes into Tidus, his team the Zanarkand Abes, are tonight going to play in the Jecht Memorial Tournament.  As Tidus runs past the adoring fans and into the Stadium, a black screen and suddenly something beyond words meet you... The CGI used in the FMVs, is the exact same quality used in "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," and it is stunning to see that in a video game you can do something like that.  I would describe it but to be honest, I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone playing it or reading this before playing it.

Game play.

The first thing you’ll notice very quickly about this Final Fantasy is that there is now an over head map showing you where to go, this is extremely annoying to a veteran RPG player like myself, and will probably be turned off by most RPG players as soon as they get a chance.  Another thing is you’ll notice the battle system is no longer ATB (Active Time Battle) and it’s now CTB (Conditional Turn-based), at first it feels strange not seeing a time bar letting you know when your characters are up to attack, but you notice the bar on the upper right hand side of the screen that shows who is going and when, you’ll be able to scroll up and down using the R1 and R2 shoulder buttons on your controller.  This battle system is extremely more challenging and fun as the game progresses and you should take note that the battles in FFX are made to use all your characters strengths to your advantage.  Speaking of Characters, another enhancement is the fact that you can now use all your characters during a single battle, you can switch combatants by hitting the L1 button and selecting a new character, this may only be done when it’s your turn and the character you wish to take out of battle isn’t dead, petrified, or asleep. You’ll need to use this option to build your characters and levels for them, also some enemies are weaker to certain characters, for instance:  Wakka can kill flying creatures faster then anyone else, the reason is he is the only character that uses long range weapons (A Blitz Ball).

This game is linear, no I’m sorry extremely linear, it’s really just a straight forward narrative, with no real world map, and no getting off course to find your own adventure like the other games had, you’ll be guided on a strange funny feeling paper map that dots out the next place you’ll have to journey to.  This feels awkward throughout the entire game not just for a little while like I first imagined.

Leveling, something again that is new to this game is the new Sphere Grid and Sphere Level system, no longer do your character actually possess Levels, now they accumulate Sphere levels, every time one of your characters achieves a level they may use it to moves there elemental icons inside a massive grid, each node on the grid is full of skills, spells, stats, locked entries, or empty nodes.  The Empty nodes can be filled with a stat when you receive a special sphere for it, the locked nodes can be unlocked to reach new areas of skills and stats.  When your character moves along the grid you will use Spheres gained through combat to power-up each node that you want to use, as long as your character is either on top of the node, or next to it in some form, thus you may power-up more then one node at a time if you have the right spheres and right positioning.  Each character starts on the same grid, but in a different area on it.  As you progress you’ll notice you can take a character into a whole new direction of combat, where Tidus starts as the average hero, you can go down the grid and make him a healer or mage or up the grid to make him more defensive, or even to the left towards Auron’s starting position and create an extremely strong yet slow warrior.  The thing is you create the character in this Final Fantasy, from abilities learned to fighting style, whether Tidus is a black mage, or Auron is a healer, or even Yuna a warrior, in a way it’s your decision.

After you’ve gained a new level and moved the character your levels go back to zero, and you have to gain more levels, the characters have no solid set in stone Level, they just grow to how you see fit.  I love this new system, it reminds me of the job system yet not as complex.

Limit Breaks of FF VII have returned, in a bigger and brighter way!  Deemed “Overdrives” these new attacks come with many ways to charge them from the Stoic mode, where the more damage you take the more it rises, to the Warrior mode where the more damage you deal the higher the bar rises, all in all they make battle fun and later in the game become a big asset to have lying around especially Yuna’s “Grand Summons.”

Summons...  Yuna is a Summoner, we’ve established that, but just what about the summons in Final Fantasy X?  Visually you’ve never seen summons like these, stunning in all respects from Ifrit’s fiery explosions from his stone and flaming cage, to the stylish Shiva’s toss of her icy cloak to Yuna, each is magical and I’ve yet to get annoyed seeing them over and over.  If however you do get annoyed you now have the option to turn the visuals off and shorten the summoning length to nice and short, but who would want to?  Now called Aeons they take your entire three man battle party’s place in a fight and you can now use them to fight with manually, no more quick casts and leaving, they have HP, MP, Stats, Spells, and Overdrives also, they overdrive is where you see the big affects of having them in battle, from Ixion’s Thor’s Hammer, to Valefor’s Energy Ray, they give your enemies a reason to run from battle.  You must use items and skills to boost your Aeons stats and abilities as well now, if you don’t like them dying in battle so much, now you can raise their HP, MP, etc to create whatever force your heart desires.  They are fun to use and a major investment to train for the future battles that appear later in the game.

Lastly, I almost forgot!  Mini games, in Final Fantasy X there are two major mini games and one somewhat mini game.  Blitz Ball is the ultimate Mini games to end all mini games, not only do you get to play it at almost every save point, but you can travel around the world and pick up new players sign contracts renew team contracts and bargain for players, creating the ultimate team is the key to become the great champion!  It’s so much fun when you pick up some characters you’ve known and loved throughout Final Fantasy, for instance: Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Garland, Boko, Bartz, and other hidden named characters.  Chocobo Training, this mini game is more of an annoyance that any real fun, it’s heart is in the right place but I saw myself wanted to play the game then waste time on small mini game with a Chocobo, if you’re into it then more power to you, I just didn’t enjoy it.  Finally there is a monster battling part in the game where you can train your characters by battling monsters you’ve capture from all over using special equipment from some old man hidden on the upper right side of the “Calm Plains.”  I didn’t exactly call this a mini game for a reason, it’s fun but it’s not really like the Battle Arena in Final Fantasy VII, so it’s not exactly something you can do for leisure time.  All in all the mini games could have gone a bit deeper, Blitz Ball excluded.

The Music

This was the highest criticized Final Fantasy ever, when it came to Nobuo Uematsu’s score, joining him this time were newcomer composers Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano.  While the soundtrack was somewhat different and slower then the others in the Final Fantasy Series, I’d have to say none the less they did an amazing job, from “At Zanarkand” to “Suteki da ne” I bought and love listening to this soundtrack no matter what other critics say.  It just suits the game, given Uematsu can do better, this is still one of the most heart warming emotions albums to come out of Final Fantasy.  On a side note, the Vocal Arrangement, “Otherworld” sounds a lot like an old Metallica type piece, or some other older heavy metal band of that time, but then again it suits the theme in that part of the game to a T.  You have to understand Uematsu was going for ambience and not over the top Orchestrated explosions this time, and many have called it bland and horrible where as I see it as ever still powerful and graceful.

Character Development.

Another huge change here, unlike the other Final Fantasies where our main hero is doubtful, shy, dark, or just plain aggravating, Tidus comes off with boyish charm and with wild upbeat sense, he enjoys life and although his situation is confusing he makes the best of it cheering up those around him, his voice can sound a bit whinny at times but it’s all in good taste.  The second character you’ll meet is by far the “coolest” character ever to be put in a video game let alone a Final Fantasy, Auron, his brash and cold nature, makes you wonder throughout the beginning of the game if he is good or evil, and his calm casual attitude towards battle is a welcome in the series where characters usually are against brute force.  Speaking of brute force, he shines here, he’ll be the strongest character no matter how you develop him, and he’s also the wise one of the party...

Rikku is the next you’ll meet; she is Al Bhed a people who speak in a strange language, that all threw the game you’ll be trying to decipher and learn yourself.  She comes off young and innocent, still happy and Yuffie/Selphie-like.  You’ll notice how closely she resembles both of them as the game goes on.  Wakka is the next you’ll meet, his voice sounds forced and ending most of his lines in “ya?” becomes disturbing later in the game, but over all he’s an interesting character, an island native and excellent Blitz Ball player, also one of Yuna’s three Guardians.

Lulu is the next you’ll see, she’s beautiful, dark, cruel, cold, and mysterious, the black mage of the group and another creative thing about her is that fact that she uses Final Fantasy Icons during battle, whether it be Moogle, Mumba, Cactuar, or Cait Sith, she is always holding her dolls close while casting, it’s really fun to see if you’re a die hard fan.  She says comes off as harsh at first but later in the game she’ll deliver the longest conversations out of the group of 9.  The next you’ll meet is Yuna, the Summoner, and also the somewhat true main character, for her job is to defeat “Sin”.  Yuna is young and sweet, her character is gentle and later in the game saddening to watch in her feeble attempts to remain strong after going through what she’ll endure.

Lastly you’ll meet Yuna’s third guardian the massively familiar looking Kimahri Ronso, familiar because if you look at his face you’ll notice how similar it looks to one Red XIII’s.  This big blue silent lancer uses blue magic as an Overdrive and kicks major butt if developed correctly!  These are your main characters, and they are something else, not since Final Fantasy IX and VII has a cast of characters been so personal and straight forward with the player and active, once again a change for Square and a move in the right direction for Final Fantasy.

For the Villains I wanted to point out, a name I said earlier, Seymour Gaudo, a freaky looking Half Human/Half Gaudo (a race in FFX with freakishly huge hands and long slim bodies) with great looking blue hair and a face charming yet revolting he quickly becomes a major pain in the butt for gamers, he just doesn’t seem to die!  He brings back the style of Sephiroth, the insane dreams of Kelfka and even the nightmarish tendencies of Golbez.

The Last Word.

In closing this game really revived Final Fantasy in my book, the characters, game play, graphics, music, and everything you’ve come to love about Square shines bright here, sometimes a bit too bright in some areas, and darker in others, still as a whole this game had 1 flaw...  I beat it in 6 days!  That’s not the best way to treat me but still I haven’t played a game with this much enthusiasm since well, Final Fantasy VII, this game takes the top spot on my Favorite Games of al time list now, and I would love to see something top it, seriously I would.  If you’ve read this far, I got one thing to say honestly... Go buy this you won’t be disappointed if you love Final Fantasy, if you love RPGs, if you love PS2, if you love games...  you have to play this!

Gohan’s Good Points:  Graphically amazing, the new game play is a treat, and the music is wonderful!

Gohan’s Bad Points:  Too short, much too linear and straightforward, not enough mini games, not enough secrets, NO WORLD MAP!!!!! 

Final Score:  5 out of 5 - It’s just that damn good.  The flaws honestly don't take away from the final score.