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Final Fantasy X. Fuck me what a great game.

Astral Dog

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
Left one looks better
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
i played X after playing 12

yeah should not have done that...
fuck ff X
 

Whitecrow

Banned
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
One game doesnt show any direction. A few maybe. But not one.
 

Dthomp

Member
One of my favorite FF Titles. Something about the overall package just clicked for me more then so many other titles. I loved the characters, the world, the Soundtrack, the battle system. All of it. Easily...I think one of my top 3 FF games
 

Bombolone

Gold Member
I remember there being a lack of a overworld map a big hoopla at the time. I miss that part of FFs tbh, but what a game.
Just has that Square magic. The romance, the feels, colour palette, characters.
Then X-2, Charlies Angels vibe.
Great package of games 👍
 

EruditeHobo

Member
It does some things right, and other things... not right. I'd argue it's very middling in terms of the disc-era FF games, and I don't count any MMO since they clearly aren't FF games in terms of everything that category means.

The combat system is a fun twist on a classic, the use of summons is great, the sphere grid is cool (better than many FF leveling systems), and the characters are pretty well drawn overall. The world is... okay. I think the intra-personal stuff among the party is, with a few exceptions, among the weakest in the series, the villain is also easily among the worst, and no overworld map is an awful thing to integrate so soon after the series apex of FF4, 6, 7, & 9. It completely harms the overall experience of the game in a massive way.

Those 3 things are key pillars of what defines an "FF experience" to me, even moreso than turn-based combat, and because of that it's pretty low on my list. XIII & XV being so bad paint it in a great light compared to where it could/would be if Square had transitioned to the modern idea of what FF "is" more adeptly.
 
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Airola

Member
This is incredibly contradicting.

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

Huh?
That game took away a lot of what I loved about the older games. Overworld, a sense of openness.
And the games that came after that didn't bring it back.

I have to say though that around that time I got almost fully out of modern gaming. Didn't care for PS2, Xbox, GC or DC. I've always said FFX was the final nail in the coffin. Was looking forward to that if it would want me to get a PS2 after being gradually losing interest in new games. It didn't.

In retrospect FFX really was the game that ended my interest in future Final Fantasy games. Ok maybe you can say it can't be true if I had even a slight interest to see if FFXI continues that direction, but I don't think so. With FFX I still had actual interest in the game. Like, interest was maybe 8-9/10, it was that high. With FFXI my interest to see if it has gotten any better was down at 1/10. And with FFXII it was 0/10. Didn't even read reviews. I just wasn't interested even a bit. I was completely out of modern contemporary gaming when XXII was released. Didn't read new game magazines anymore. Game review shows on television bored me. Played with my Commodore 64, NES and PS1 + old and newer indie games on PC. For a while I thought that's how it is for me now. Whatever I saw and heard about any future Final Fantasies didn't bring back my interest one iota. When I got myself somewhat back to modern games in 2008 or so (thanks to Wii Sports) and I started to watch E3s and game news shows, new Final Fantasies remained just as uninteresting.

Up to FF9 the games had offered me pleasant overworld exploration (even though I think the overworlds in 8 and 9 weren't that great), progression that at least felt non-linear (none of the FF games aren't really that non-linear, but at least they felt like it). So there I am, watching a friend playing FFX, walking a linear path after a linear path, no overworld anywhere to be seen. My interest towards playing the game went to zero. I don't care how good the story might be. If the gameplay loses the things I love in these games, then I'm out. The new generation of gameplay in video games just wasn't for me.

The number one thing that got me interested in RPGs was the idea of an overworld. The second is the sense of freedom. The third is the experience points. The fourth is turn-based fighting. There's a bunch of other things, like looking for treasure and grinding, before characters and story appears in this list. Even music comes before characters and story. So no matter how good story or characters FFX might have, it couldn't get me interested in the game when it misses several of the things I like the most on RPGs. So if FFX is the game where I lost all interest in the game for the first time and the following releases didn't even manage to get me interested into taking a look, then of course I say FFX was the one that ruined it to me. I can still play all of the earlier mainline Final Fantasies and have a good time.

If I would go and play some Final Fantasy game that came after FF9, it would probably be The After Years and I'm not sure if I'd really want to play that either.

As a side note, I think I saw the first signs of me losing interest in how games are presented and where they are going already when FF8 came. I liked the game and it's the last time I've been stunned by new graphics and animation, but looking at the back cover got me wondering what's going on. Screenshots showed only effects and cutscene pictures. Even in gaming magazines the screenshots of games felt increasingly more dull and confusing. I liked the game still though. Barren overworld but I had fun playing it (Triple Triad was great addition). With FF9 I started to see a bit of a decline in game design. Maybe it was already somewhat present in the earlier games but for some reason I started to notice the game going forward quite predictably. It felt fairly linear and I got better in predicting when the next boss appears. It got a bit tedious, but I still overall loved it (the card game was a huge disappointment though but I loved the Chocobo treasure hunt). Overall I think Final Fantasy 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are my favorites (not in that order). The rest are still good. But for X and beyond my interest is completely gone.
 
IMO it, along with Grandia 2, has one of the best turn based battle systems in JRPGs before retro inspired games like Octopath gained popularity.
 
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I'm pretty mixed on it.

There's a lot that's great about it that I remember fondly - I'd say the soundtrack is best of all FF games, which is extremely high praise given their lofty standards.

But other things like the false choice of the preposterously linear sphere grid really agitate me.

I also hate the extreme late game. I'm a completionist who likes to go and defeat the secret side bosses in games and the way that Square starting doing extreme late game stuff with FFX is just the least fun way it could possibly be done. I could never figure out how to craft those otherwise useless superweapons on my own without looking them up in a guide and even when I have a guide it feels like a tedious slog. Although FFXII might be even worse in this regard, going through that mapless crystal maze where every room looks the same was next level trash.

But hey, Auron is cool.
 

Shifty1897

Member
I don't know if it's worth playing in 2020, but I replayed the Vita version several years back and it was fine.
 
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Madflavor

Member
Recently found out it's the most popular Final Fantasy game in Japan. I thought for awhile it was FFVII, but according to a recent poll with over 460k voters, it's X.
 

ZZZZ

Member
Recently found out it's the most popular Final Fantasy game in Japan. I thought for awhile it was FFVII, but according to a recent poll with over 460k voters, it's X.
It's back and forth honestly, but yeah it's either X or VII.
 

Sign

Member
FFX is not my favorite FF, but it is the one I have the fewest problems with.

- One of the best turned based battle systems.
- Great story / world / characters.
- Great music.
- Interesting upgrade / equipment systems.
- Great art style
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Best FF for me.

I love the setting, bosses designs, and Aeons.
 
Liked it a lot it for a few hours then it dawned on me how insultingly linear it is, it was very boring just running in a straight line and fighting an enemy every 15 seconds. I lost all interest in the writing and characters. The character design was atrocious too, everyone looks like a 1990s "candy raver". The music tracks by Junya Nakano however are fantastic. Overall though FF 4/6/7 were miles better.
 
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mcz117chief

Member
I played X after going through the entire XIII series and I find them very similar. I enjoyed them both a lot, they are all fantastic games, with a great cast of characters and story. The only thing that I didn't like about X is Wakka, he is just so annoying and that idle battle animation...wtf is that supposed to be?
 
IMO, it is the best of the traditional TB FF games I've played (FF1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 otherwise). I like it when all abilities have a use in games, like in SMT games, and 10 really shines with that, especially in its boss battles. Of course, there are some things which are overpowered (weapons with the max stone ailment mainly) but overall the combat is as close to SMT-like as the FF-trapping allow - fast, strategic, and kind of rhythmic.

I think FF12 is the perfect evolution of that speedy, strategic combat as well, but for TB FFX's system is fantastic.

The only knocks I have on it are the obtuse minigames and some secrets. Fuck the lightning dodging bullshit bigly.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
It was OK. A bit too linear for me. Definitely the last great of the Final Fantasy series (I would say FFXI was great, though).
 

ZZZZ

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.
Well said.



dcd5d8a818448e180a6f4dce1844e63b--edward-elric-edward-cullen.jpg





Good game, but some of the design choices was the start of the downfall of the series.
 
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vypermajik

Member
It was actually the last new FF I played and beat. Maybe times were different but I also really enjoyed it.
I give it a shoopuf out of ten.
 

VanEs

Member
Last enjoyable (non-remake) mainline FF game. Despite its cringe, linearity and cutting of features we became accustomed with in previous FF games.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
All I can think of when this game is mentioned is the terrible PAL port on the PS2 (German version ran like slow mo) and the bloody, supped difficulty spike at Mount Gagazet. Gave up because of that on the PS2. Replayed it on the PS3 but again gave up on the final boss because he again was an insane difficulty spike. So I had a choice: Either go back and grind for countless hours or watch the ending on Youtube.

It was not a hard choice to make.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Because of a couple of cheesy scenes? Surely they haven't played VIII or VII or IX, which are choke full of hammy dialogue.
The other games left the delivery of that dialogue to my own imagination. FFX’s didn’t give me that luxury.

It’s hilarious how so many people still think the complaining about FFX’s VA is all due to the laughing scene and pretend that the overall delivery of the dialogue in the game is good. There’s so much cringe beyond the laughing scene (which is supposed to sound cringey, yeah, but feels over-the-top forced anyway). I wish there was a way to silence Wakka, for example, and Yuna sounds like she’s speaking through a tp roll tube for a good part of the game.

Replaying FF9 a few weeks ago reminded me of how much more I appreciated JRPGs when dialogue was completely written. I can recite the dialogue in my head the way I like it, make the characters speak the way I would make them. We’ve come a long way since FFX, but English dubbing of JRPGs remains mostly awkward to this day. See Trials of Mana, which sounds like a game straight from the PS2 era.
 
It's an amazing game.
The combat system in that fucking game is so fun!

I only see it mentioned these days when people criticize FFXIII for its linearity. As in "X was just as linear".

Yes, it was, but at the same time it wasn't just a mess of unrelatable characters covered by a mess of jargon.
You always knew your party and you always got a hint of where they were going, and why.

It's a story you can follow. It's linear.
Linear is not a bad thing as long as you enjoy the ride!

EDIT: OH! It has Auron as well. That's a plus in my book.
 
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Kev Kev

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.

i think the difference is the VAs. 7, 8 and 9 makes you use your imagination, while the music an body language gives you cues. ive come to realize, after playing through 7 remake, that FF using your imagination to come up with their voices and tone is much more enjoyable than the b level VAs we have been getting for the last 20 years or so

ff7 remake VAs were very well done, but even still, they are very B level and bad when compared to actual cinema, and i kind of hate it. i want them to get rid fi VAs and just go back to dialogue.
 
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