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Final Fantasy X. Fuck me what a great game.

Madflavor

Member
Just need to gush about this game. I've been thinking about FFX lately, and how much of a fascinating case it is of a game that had a lot of bad characters and story elements, that were elevated so goddamn much by everything else. As annoying as Tidus comes off, and as ditzy as Yuna can be, the game still made so many people, myself included, cry at the end. The setting and music in the game is god tier. You've got your medieval, steampunk, future, and cyberpunk settings across all of fiction, but Spira is probably the most unique setting I've ever seen. It's hard to describe it, it's like an alien beachworld. Then there's the music, which I honestly think deserves to be in the Mount Olympus of greatest video game soundtracks. It's rich and diverse with so many different types of music that are catchy, emotional, relaxing, and heartpounding. The gameplay was peak Turn Based, what else is there to say? The graphics and cutscenes at the time were groundbreaking in so many ways. In terms of graphical leaps between console generations, FFX really showed the difference in power between the PS1 and PS2. Even towards the end of the PS2's run, FFX was still one of the better looking games on the console. As for the writing, for every annoying character there was, there was one that was likeable and cool. For every dumb story moment, there was one that was amazing or heartbreaking. Even almost 20 years later FFX holds up. It doesn't feel too outdated.




FFVII Remake certainly brought back some of that old school Final Fantasy magic, but for me FFX is still the last great game in the franchise. That isn't a knock on everything that came after, how good FFXIV can be. But X was the last one to blow me away and make me feel like I was a part of an amazing journey.
 

manfestival

Member
your thread title
tenor.gif
 

Gandih42

Member
Been thinking a lot about this one too lately. Was my first Final Fantasy game, borrowed it from a friend back in the day cause he didn't know what it was and wasn't playing it. I still have it to this day (don't worry, I offered to give it back but he doesn't want it).

It has some incredibly fun story elements, my favorite being people abusing how death works to be immortal. Great mini games too, I really got into blitzball. Once I get a hole in my backlog I'm definitely getting it on PS4 for a replay.
 

Fbh

Member
Yeah X is great.
Nice world, nice visuals and music and I really like some of the stuff they did with combat like being able to swap party member mid-battle and turning summons into more than just a strong attack with a lengthy animation. The story is also fun even if the actual writing is pretty bad.
It was the last great mainline FF IMO. XII was a good game but the story and characters weren't as engaging and I never liked the offline MMO vibe, XIII was shit and XV was pretty bad too.


I'm still not sure WTF that Tidus redesign in the remaster was supposed to be though:
kYXaRBI.jpg
 

OrionNebula

Member
your thread title
tenor.gif
Can’t do a FFX thread without this. Even 20 years later
More enduring than Rick-Roll

OT : I’ve been meaning to replay this (for the 9th time), but I’m against the idea of replaying this on ps4 since I heard of that mod that speeds up x2 battles. I’m enough of a slow gamer as it is
 

Oddspeak

Member
The world was interesting, CTB battle system is amazing, sphere grid is amazing, there's a ton of side content, the way summons worked was really cool (controlling them like team members), Rikku is cute, and Lulu is smoking hot.

FFX was my favorite FF for almost twenty years, until Shadowbringers came out. But it's still definitively my favorite non-MMO FF.
 

Gandih42

Member
I completely agree with you.

X was the last great one. The story was good, and the gameplay was fun.

I really enjoyed the sphere grid.

Man, the sphere grid blew my young dumb brain. It's kind of interesting how linear it actually is when you unfold it, for anyone who don't know it's illustrated quite well here :


Despite that, I think the way it is presented and the ability to warp to other characters grid later on provides enough flexibility to compensate for how linear it actual is.
 

DogofWar

Member
Replayed it (and finished it for the first time) earlier this year/last year (don't remember). And I have such mixed feelings about it.

I am a huge fan of FF IV - IX as well as many other RPGs from that era. FFX is a prime example of what I mean when I say that voice acting ruined JRPGs. Tidus sounds so obnoxious, even though I get "that" laughing scene and isn't really bothered by it. That said, the soundtrack, the gameplay and the overall story is really great. The final boss was a huge letdown gameplay-wise even though the sacrificing of your summons was kinda emotional, I had invested a lot into them and found it a great mechanic compared to the earlier installments.

The whole idea that this obnoxious spoiled brat who was unhappy even though he had it all came to this more primitive and harsher world is great though, and reminds me a bit about the idea behind Lost, one of my favorite tv-series of all time. Certain parts in the story was really great but sort of dragged down by the character design. I mean Seymour looks like... I don't even know but trance-Kuja pulsating in all his pink glory was badass in comparsion.

The optional super bosses was really fun as well, I liked the challenge, even though a lot of them remained undefeated when I finally finished the game. Which just gives me the incentive to one day replay it.

Fuck dodging 200 lighting bolts though, seriously fuck that.
 

kiphalfton

Member
Yeah X is great.
Nice world, nice visuals and music and I really like some of the stuff they did with combat like being able to swap party member mid-battle and turning summons into more than just a strong attack with a lengthy animation. The story is also fun even if the actual writing is pretty bad.
It was the last great mainline FF IMO. XII was a good game but the story and characters weren't as engaging and I never liked the offline MMO vibe, XIII was shit and XV was pretty bad too.


I'm still not sure WTF that Tidus redesign in the remaster was supposed to be though:
kYXaRBI.jpg

Meg Ryan then and now.
 
Agreed. The hate Tidus gets is similar to the hate Raiden gets in that it's completely unfounded and shows people cannot handle characters that aren't cool or bad ass, and make an attempt to have character growth, even if not quite perfectly executed (though Raiden is damn close).

And also like Raiden, the voice direction isn't the greatest, so some lines end up sounding really weird and contributes to the reaction they have gotten.
 

zettacroix

Neo Member
FFX still is my favourite final fantasy. The voiceover alone was enough to blow me away back in the day, and the battle system is my favourite across all final fantasy games.
I especially enjoyed the chill vibes of besaid island and beyond. One of the greats for sure.
 

wipeout364

Member
Didn’t like the story at all, overall narrative didn’t make sense to me. I really liked the combat and the leveling system. I also really liked the art direction and many of the characters were great.
 

NahaNago

Member
The game had lots of touching and awesome moments and was very beautiful at the time. It being linear was annoying.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
It was the last good FF (until FF7R), but it also was the FF that introduced the things that would kill FF for 2 generations:

1. Removal of the world map (the worst single choice ever done to the series)
2. Bad VO acting for the English actors (FF7R is the first one to really fix that)
3. Linear to the extreme (everything is one giant tunnel) Thats still not been addressed even with FF7R (but here is hoping with FF7R2!)
4. Towns started taking a backseat to linear tunnels, idiotic choice.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Can’t do a FFX thread without this. Even 20 years later
More enduring than Rick-Roll

OT : I’ve been meaning to replay this (for the 9th time), but I’m against the idea of replaying this on ps4 since I heard of that mod that speeds up x2 battles. I’m enough of a slow gamer as it is

It's so worn out by now. These numb nuts don't seem to get it's awkward and weird intentionally. "Bad acting!" they laugh, making fools of themselves.

It's honestly an pretty sweet scene, if you bothered to pay attention.
 

Whitecrow

Banned
Agreed. The hate Tidus gets is similar to the hate Raiden gets in that it's completely unfounded and shows people cannot handle characters that aren't cool or bad ass, and make an attempt to have character growth, even if not quite perfectly executed (though Raiden is damn close).

And also like Raiden, the voice direction isn't the greatest, so some lines end up sounding really weird and contributes to the reaction they have gotten.
Tidus is an amazing character. It's a clueless whiny kid that cant keep quiet, and it's suposed to be that.
 

Bolivar687

Banned
Probably the last true Final Fantasy. I couldn't get into it last time I played it, but I want to chalk that up to it being on Vita, that this game is meant to be played on the big screen with surround sound.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
It took me more than 10 years to finally get interested enough in FFX to actually finish it.

First impact with the game was absolutely meh. PAL version issues apart, I found the VA and the character designs really, really jarring. Auron is the only character I didn’t want to strangle each time he opened his mouth. Almost all the main characters, heroes and villains alike, just look too outlandish to be taken seriously, and that typically Japanese body language applied to such fine poly models really breaks the immersion for me. All of this was fine for the graphical capabilities of the PS1, but on PS2 it looks ridiculous.

I was never into the gameplay, too. I made the bad mistake to start the game with the advanced Sphere Grid (again, PAL version) and I probably got myself into a corner regarding character development, but the original Sphere Grid wasn’t really that much better, just easier to follow. The real gamechanger was when I got some of those spheres who let you jump to another place on the grid - got Double Cast and black magics on Yuna and instantly turned her into the most powerful character in the party, destroying everything in the final stretch of the game. It’s embarrassing how puny Lulu is at her own game compared to Yuna, lol.

My main gripe with FFX is that the game wants you to delve quite deeply into its mechanics if you want a fair chance in the final part past the Calm Plains, but to do that there’s simply too much to do. The game was clearly made to sell strategy guides. There’s a subquest and an upgrade path for basically everything, from weapons to Aeons to character “levels”. Kimahri is a totally useless character, yet he has a solo fight past the Calm Plains and if you (understandably) never bothered to waste your time with him before that, well... it’s gonna be rough.
So much stuff is locked behind some seriously janky minigames, too. I guess FFX alone has more secrets and side content than all the PS1 FFs. And Blitzball. Oh god, Blitzball.

Yet in spite of all that, third time was the charm for me. The third time I started FFX, I got to the ending and it was kinda worth the effort. But I never learned to actually like the game, and haven’t touched it since. I remember on that fateful third run, turning off the game after the first few hours and thinking, “OK, this movie isn’t that bad after all”. Yeah, I actually thought the word “movie”. The gaming part of this game was never really fun to me. I probably spent more time on my first FF9 run than on all my three FFX runs combined, to put things in perspective.

FFX is when my love spell with JRPGs abruptly ended. I tried to hold on to the genre for a few years longer, but never really liked another as much as the 5th gen JRPGs before Xenoblade Chronicles. Strident English VA, tons of bloat and Nomura getting off his leash with character designs was a lethal trifecta for FF’s charm.
 
Final fantasy X is up there in my top 5 Final Fantasy games. I played the game a couple months ago for the first time in about 10 years. Not the best acting but I had a blast reliving the game. Still think the Sphere Grid was a great idea. Lots of options for how to improve character stats.
 

E.T. Waifu

Member
FFX doesn't even have the best story(Shadowbringers does) or characters(I'll give that to FF7) and yet I believe it's the best one. I can't even put to words what exactly makes it so special, but it sure as fuck is. Every time I even just think about it, it puts a smile on my face, it's just that good.
 

Arachnid

Member
It's one of the FFs I haven't played so I bought the X/X-2 pack for Switch not too long ago. So far, I LOVE the setting.
 

Belmonte

Member
I agree. FFX is the last true Final Fantasy for me also. I like FFXII a lot but it doesn't feel it belongs to the series. FFXI, FFXIII and FFXIV even less.

Gorgeous and very original art style, the combat system have more layers than the typical FF, stats are more customizable the more you play, lots of side quests, great party and cool story. I don't get why people hate Tidus so much. I like how he matures along the journey.

The linearity is not as bad as people remembers. Definitely is not as bad as FFXIII. Yeah, you can't go everywhere like past titles but there are NPCs, vendors, side quests along the way. Everything very well made.

The biggest cons for me are the temples. The puzzles are not as interesting to justify its existence.
 
I loved the world design, and deeply respect how they decided to base their architecture on south east asian styles rather than the overdone medieval european styles you see in most fantasy games. I found Zanarkand mind blowing at the time, both the real and dream versions. And there were so many other cool visuals; Baaj, the Besaid temple, Luca theater, the Al-bhed home, the assault on Bevelle, and so on. The story was also crazy enough to be engaging. I say if you're making a fantasy game crazy is the one thing you want to strive for.

The voice acting didn't bother me when I first played it. Since I didn't understand english back then I couldn't tell how bad it was. It would probably bother me today though, which is one of the reasons why I haven't bothered replayed it. That and because my tolerance for turn based combat has also significantly decreased since those days.
 
I love this game so much and it is the last of the great and classic Final Fantasy titles. It's combat system might be my favorite of all FF games.

The title screen and it's music is just magical. Especially on the remaster.

I've been playing the remaster on Vita and it's still so good until... the fucking chocobo minigames. I have to have the Sun Sigil but I just can't do it. I didn't remember it been that hard as a kid.
 

Graciaus

Member
Replaying 12 now then 9. Want to get the x/X2 collection eventually. Only played both once but I enjoyed them. I remember X2 had one of the best battle systems. Hated the puzzle temples in x as a kid. Might feel different as an adult.
 

kretos

Banned
Played the remaster for 4 - 5 hours and tried to like it to see what's all the praise was about but couldn't stand the boring turn based gameplay and dropped it
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Yeah it’s a great game. Combat is so amazing. Shame about Blitzball and the temple puzzles, those knock it down a few notches for me. But it’s still a wonderful game.
 

Komatsu

Member
Absolutely fantastic. CTB is the best battle system the franchise ever had and the game's plot is very interesting up until almost the very end. Coming from VIII, seeing that game on the PS2 absolutely blew my mind.



How can people dislike it? Because of a couple of cheesy scenes? Surely they haven't played VIII or VII or IX, which are choke full of hammy dialogue.
 
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Stilted execution in some ways don't detract from the work as a whole. Excellent narrative, great world-building, and one of the 3 best soundtracks in the franchise.

That said, the warning signs were clear about what was going to happen to the design approach for that franchise in FFX. And sadly, S-E is still figuring out how to right the ship.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
This is incredibly contradicting.

If one game is enough to say 'Im done' then you never loved the series in the first place...

Disagree highly, you can love the series up to a point and then hate its new direction. I feel the same as him except for me it was 12. You could see Square was going in a different direction with how they did things. It took FF7R to bring me back, and we can only hope they learned a ton from it and apply it to 16
 
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