Douglas's game until I stop being lazy: Final Fantasy X
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:23 am
You've probably read nothing but Positive reviews for Final Fantasy X on the internet and gaming magazines, so I thought it was better than Final Fantasy IX, and it certainly looked good from the screenshots, so then I played it.
I really like the graphics in this game-The character designs are really sweet, and I like how the characters are life-size like they were in Final Fantasy VIII. The serious designs of the characters showed that the game will be a serious game. Kudos to whoever designed Auron and Lulu.
Some of the music's a more or less "whatever". The Regular battle theme is good at first but after listening to it a million times, I found it a bit on the annoying side. The Boss themes and the special themes are probably the best in the series-The Battle music when you fight Braska's Final Aeon is probably some of the best ever, and same with the music that plays while you're fighting the Aeons. Some of the background music is okay, some is catchy, but it does have Voice Acting-The first Final Fantasy to do so. Unfortunatley, that opens the oppritunity to make Tidus the WORST RPG character EVER. You thought Algus was bad? Compared to Tidus, Algus is Rambo. Tidus's annoying whining voice SEVERLEY pissed me off.
On the other hand, I liked the other voice acting-They seemed to fit the character models perfectly.
This leads us to the BIGGEST drawback of Final Fantasy X-Tidus. How can I describe Tidus without being too cruel? Well, Tidus was a conceited son-of-a-(edited for you sanity) and (Also edited for your sanity) and (Again, edited so I won't be demodded). In most scenes, I wanted to take his sword and shove it up his ass.
The controls respond pretty well. No delay or anything. Tidus moves pretty fast when he runs, but you can also hold the O button when you want him to walk. This also leads us to the Funny walk-Repeatedly hit the walk button when he's moving. For some reason, that just cracked me up-And I also ran into a million fiends(sp) while doing the funny walk.
The storyline is okay-It doesn't have any jokes, it's all serious. Sure, I've seen the post apocolytpic setting a dozen times, but I like how it combined it with some Time-travel and a pilgrimage. I had to deal with like 20 hours of Tidus whining, but the plot was okay. I didn't like how it made Tidus and Yuna the centre of attention a bit of the time. I wish some of the other characters would get a bit more characterization, and the "Tidus has a problem with his Father" thing has already been done a dozen times.
The second biggest drawback of Final Fantasy X is the Sphere Grid. You get the spheres after battles, and sphere levels allow you to move in the sphere grid and activate spheres that raises your stat and teaches your character abilities. This doesn't really sound bad written down, but I personally was annoyed when I spent half my sphere levels going the wrong way, and then in the next boss battle, they were shredded like fruit in a blender. Still, the sphere grid makes your characters super-powerful and that they can learn other abilities, like how you can teach Yuna to steal.
The Battle system is unique-No ATB here, combat is turn-based and involves some strategizing-Like if you perform one specific action, your next turn may be delayed, and you can see who will act next. There are several ways to increase your overdrive metre, such as by getting hit or by dodging attacks. When you summon an Aeon, they no longer just attack, but they fight in the battle. I like how they did this, but I sorta had a few problems leveling up the Aeons. (And one other thing-WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU BAHAMUT?!).
Blitzball was pretty fun, though a bit confusing at times.
Overall, Final Fantasy isn't the best Final Fantasy, nor is it the worst, but it certainly is one of the most overrated. I felt it was just a step above Average because of Tidus, the ineptitude of some aeons, the sphere grid, some of the boring musics, and some overused elemnets in the plot. If they took those out, then you've got the Final Fantasy X most gaming magazines/websites described-I think they might have played a different version. 5.85/10
Pros:
-=Some great graphics and character models=-
-=Some of the best battle musics ever=-
-=Blitzball=-
-=Some good voice acting=-
-=The plot is sometimes interesting=-
-=Auron and Lulu=-
-=They really try something new with the Aeons=-
-=The overdrives are cool=-
Cons:
-=Tidus=-
-=The Sphere grid=-
-=Some aeons are completley inept near the end while the later ones mow down everything in their path=-
-=A bit hard to level up aeons=-
-=Some of the plot was used a dozen times already=-
-=Tidus's annoying whining=-
-=How hard some bosses are if you aren't a master of the sphere grid=-
-=The battle music gets a bit on the annoying side=-
(oooh am I gonna get flamed and bashed for this)
I really like the graphics in this game-The character designs are really sweet, and I like how the characters are life-size like they were in Final Fantasy VIII. The serious designs of the characters showed that the game will be a serious game. Kudos to whoever designed Auron and Lulu.
Some of the music's a more or less "whatever". The Regular battle theme is good at first but after listening to it a million times, I found it a bit on the annoying side. The Boss themes and the special themes are probably the best in the series-The Battle music when you fight Braska's Final Aeon is probably some of the best ever, and same with the music that plays while you're fighting the Aeons. Some of the background music is okay, some is catchy, but it does have Voice Acting-The first Final Fantasy to do so. Unfortunatley, that opens the oppritunity to make Tidus the WORST RPG character EVER. You thought Algus was bad? Compared to Tidus, Algus is Rambo. Tidus's annoying whining voice SEVERLEY pissed me off.
On the other hand, I liked the other voice acting-They seemed to fit the character models perfectly.
This leads us to the BIGGEST drawback of Final Fantasy X-Tidus. How can I describe Tidus without being too cruel? Well, Tidus was a conceited son-of-a-(edited for you sanity) and (Also edited for your sanity) and (Again, edited so I won't be demodded). In most scenes, I wanted to take his sword and shove it up his ass.
The controls respond pretty well. No delay or anything. Tidus moves pretty fast when he runs, but you can also hold the O button when you want him to walk. This also leads us to the Funny walk-Repeatedly hit the walk button when he's moving. For some reason, that just cracked me up-And I also ran into a million fiends(sp) while doing the funny walk.
The storyline is okay-It doesn't have any jokes, it's all serious. Sure, I've seen the post apocolytpic setting a dozen times, but I like how it combined it with some Time-travel and a pilgrimage. I had to deal with like 20 hours of Tidus whining, but the plot was okay. I didn't like how it made Tidus and Yuna the centre of attention a bit of the time. I wish some of the other characters would get a bit more characterization, and the "Tidus has a problem with his Father" thing has already been done a dozen times.
The second biggest drawback of Final Fantasy X is the Sphere Grid. You get the spheres after battles, and sphere levels allow you to move in the sphere grid and activate spheres that raises your stat and teaches your character abilities. This doesn't really sound bad written down, but I personally was annoyed when I spent half my sphere levels going the wrong way, and then in the next boss battle, they were shredded like fruit in a blender. Still, the sphere grid makes your characters super-powerful and that they can learn other abilities, like how you can teach Yuna to steal.
The Battle system is unique-No ATB here, combat is turn-based and involves some strategizing-Like if you perform one specific action, your next turn may be delayed, and you can see who will act next. There are several ways to increase your overdrive metre, such as by getting hit or by dodging attacks. When you summon an Aeon, they no longer just attack, but they fight in the battle. I like how they did this, but I sorta had a few problems leveling up the Aeons. (And one other thing-WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU BAHAMUT?!).
Blitzball was pretty fun, though a bit confusing at times.
Overall, Final Fantasy isn't the best Final Fantasy, nor is it the worst, but it certainly is one of the most overrated. I felt it was just a step above Average because of Tidus, the ineptitude of some aeons, the sphere grid, some of the boring musics, and some overused elemnets in the plot. If they took those out, then you've got the Final Fantasy X most gaming magazines/websites described-I think they might have played a different version. 5.85/10
Pros:
-=Some great graphics and character models=-
-=Some of the best battle musics ever=-
-=Blitzball=-
-=Some good voice acting=-
-=The plot is sometimes interesting=-
-=Auron and Lulu=-
-=They really try something new with the Aeons=-
-=The overdrives are cool=-
Cons:
-=Tidus=-
-=The Sphere grid=-
-=Some aeons are completley inept near the end while the later ones mow down everything in their path=-
-=A bit hard to level up aeons=-
-=Some of the plot was used a dozen times already=-
-=Tidus's annoying whining=-
-=How hard some bosses are if you aren't a master of the sphere grid=-
-=The battle music gets a bit on the annoying side=-
(oooh am I gonna get flamed and bashed for this)
