Final Fantasy X

It's been nearly a month since I last posted, but that's understandable. In the time since, I have completed by far the longest game I've ever beaten, the nearly 50 hour Final Fantasy X. In all likelihood with my extra deaths, the game was probably more along the lines of 60 hours. So yeah, I excuse myself for this lack of posting. The next few won't be nearly as long, I promise. Anyway, Final Fantasy X is the fourth game in the series for me, and I have to say it trumps all of the previous entries pretty easily. First off, the graphics. The game came out nearly ten years ago and still looks gorgeous. Also noteworthy is that this came out pretty quickly after Final Fantasy IX but the difference in graphics is monumental. Credit that to the step up in power from the PS1 to the PS2. The characters aren't messy blobs, but look like real people; they also fit in perfectly with the environments, which were more dynamic this time around rather than feeling like static pictures to walk around in. The story here was also perfectly paced. While I was a big fan of the stories is IV and IX (story was non-existant in FFI), by the time each reached their third act, things got way too out of hand and seemed to have nothing to do with the original and much more endearing stories. Seriously, going to the moon? And I can't really explain anything from IX after you get Eiko. Final Fantasy X however had a story that never seemed to explode into something entirely different. Your main character, Tidus, is somehow pulled 1000 years into the future in a seemingly fish-out-of-water type story. Tidus learns of the new machinery fearing culture that has arisen in the past millenium, during which a new evil has emerged- Sin, an invincible beast that society can't stop, and can at best contain for a few years. The story gives some lightweight commentary on religion and even racism, but this was hardly distracting. The meat of this story is the band of travelers trying to defeat Sin. Kudos to Final Fantasy X for not ending the whole thing with a random fight with God, or death himself, or some other vague idea that would make a shitty final boss. My only real beef with the story- the tacked on shitty love story between Tidus and Yuna. Cecil and Rosa had a normal, healthy relationship in FFIV, and I'd say Zidane and Garnet's story never got boring or bad in FFIX, but Tidus and Yuna was really just painful. Scenes like the forced-laugh, the J-Pop lake make-out, and the random sphere toss towards the end made the whole thing mostly confusing. I wouldn't bring it up if a friend hadn't specifically told me "the game''s a love story!" Why couldn't it just be about a group of friends defeating a great evil? Eh whatever. Finally, a comment on the combat- I was a little disappointed that this was CTB instead of ATB (which just means you don't get the little timers next to everyone's name)- I feel like this system is a bit more random and means less strategy. But the battles were still quite fun and every time I died I learned something new that made it easier on the next try. One particular one stands out- facing one bosses final form, you're often turned into zombies, at which point you can't increase your HP in any way. You can remove the zombie status and heal after that, but the boss quickly uses an attack that instantly kills anyone NOT in zombie status. This resulted in a fight filled with sacrifice and lots of planning ahead- hallmarks of a great boss fight! Leveling up was also completely overhauled in FFX- the sphere grid, a genius idea, allows the player complete control of how a character improves his or her stats. It starts off guided, but by the time you get the hang of it you can really do whatever you want. Turn your black mage into a powerful physical attacker. Make your expert swordsman a healer. There were so many options, I loved it. So yeah, overall, this was an excellent entry in the series and a perfect way to start off on a new console for both Square and myself. That's right, I bought a PS2 for this game, my fourth console this year. Yikes.