Final Fantasy X recap
Aug. 31st, 2010 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darcencielFinal Fantasy X was the game that I played directly after finishing Final Fantasy VI (literally like 2 days after putting down the DS I was picking up the PS2 controller - read my recap here) and it has the honor of being my first PS2 game. I played VII and VIII on the PC, and played VI after that, so I had never touched a Playstation before (we didn't have consoles when I was a kid, and after I left home I only played computer games so I never bought a console).
Coming from the world of 2D sprites BACK to fully dimensional characters was jarring, but was the VOICE ACTING ever so jarring! And...I have to say, the voice acting in X could be a lot better. Yes, I know it was the first. Yes, I know the game is "old." I don't fault it. I just think it could be better - generic statement. I can see sometimes why the actors sounded so stilted, as in a scene where Japanese Yuna would respond "hai!" but a simple "yes" would sound really strange in English, so Yuna would have to say "all right!" or "okay!" and it would sound like she was mumbling in order to keep up with the lip movements. I am glad they changed this for FFXIII.
I think Final Fantasy X is the most beautiful game I have ever played and the most beautiful story I have ever heard. This even goes for me after XIII came out - I haven't actually played that game, but I watched Shane play it, and although the graphics are completely amazing and the voice acting is spot on and everything is so perfectly crafted, I don't think it compares to Final Fantasy X by any means. The characters of X were very real to me and still are. The ending of X made me cry so bad, I think I was curled up on the couch crying like 15 minutes later. I felt kind of lame, but no one was home so it was okay =P
As with previous FF love stories, I found the Tidus/Yuna story to be really wonderful and rather lacking at the same time. I understand that in j-rpgs, there are so many characters that you can't really squish a fully-realized romance into every conversation, but I did feel like after the scene at Macalania in the lake, Tidus/Yuna was never really spoken of again, and there were only one or two scenes with them interacting. Yes, Tidus kept speaking of "finding a way to save Yuna" but wasn't the whole party worried about that? Rikku was just as worried. This was my beef with the Squall and Rinoa love story as well, but I still enjoyed it, and I enjoyed Tidus and Yuna.
I absolutely hated the linearity of X, and that was what really kind of killed the game in parts for me. I can deal with the game telling you where to go, but I really couldn't deal with having no true world map or the ability to fly over the continents manually with my airship, That's always my favorite part of any Final Fantasy. The fact that I could NOT do that with this one - that it wasn't even an option - well, it upset me a great deal, more than I expected. Also...too much grinding. I usually don't mind level grinding, but sphere grid and aeon and Blitzball and ultimate weapon grinding wore me out. The only ultimate weapon I got was Wakka's, and that is because Shane played 100+ hours of Blitzball for me to get it. I never touched Blitzball except for that one game you have to play in Luca to advance the storyline.
One thing that I did like was the fact that the save spheres restored full HP and MP. Yay! No more buying thousands of potions!
Probably one of the most wonderful things about this game are the costume designs. I love myself some Nomura, but sometimes I get tired of black leather and belts and buckles. The character designs that Nomura pulled out for X really stunned me, and I am still kind of in awe of how perfect each outfit is for each character, even the NPCs (actually, especially the NPCs!). I really believe that these are the best designs that he's done for any FF game so far. A game like X with such a primitive/tribal fantasy feel really needed costumes to complement it and make it believable, and Nomura did wonderfully.
FAVORITE CHARACTERS
I have to admit that I was expecting to pick a character like Auron as my favorite. Instead, my absolute favorite in this game was Kimahri. I find that very few people actually like Kimahri and use him in their party, and even fewer tend to involve him in any way outside of the game in fandom, which saddens me. I have a soft spot for blue mages, and the sphere grid in FFX really made me start salivating when I realized that here was a way I could just completely go nuts with my blue mage and make him the most powerful character in my party. Things didn't go quite as planned, because it took me about 1/3 of the game to actually figure out what I wanted to do with Kimahri, so he ended up probably the 3rd most powerful character in my party. I did like Auron as well, and surprisingly, I came around to feeling pretty good about Rikku, who I didn't care for in the first half of the game. But she gradually grew on me.
Isaaru was probably one of my favorite NPCs and I am very sad that he didn't get more screen time. I also really like Belgemine.
LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTERS
Can I say Tidus? There. I said it. Also, Seymour's voice actor drove me insane. I sadly also didn't really care for either Yuna or Lulu, at least battle-wise within my party. I moved both of them along the "appropriate" tracks on the sphere grid, which obviously levelled them to white and black mage respectively, and I really dislike using mages. Yuna's voice actor also talked. like. Captain. Kirk.
I like Yuna tons better in X-2 (in fact, she's my favorite character of that game) but I'll do a X-2 recap post separately.
I intensely disliked Dona. Dislike. For no other reason than she seemed to me the very stereotypical "foil to Yuna" character. Did we really need that?
FAVORITE LOCATIONS
Macalania!! *__* so pretty. Bevelle was pretty awesome too except for that stupid sphere puzzle part. And I really enjoyed Kilika with its beautiful island scenery, basically felt like something out of a travel brochure for the South Pacific.
LEAST FAVORITE LOCATIONS
Uhhh the Bevelle sphere puzzle -_______________- Okay, basically any of the temple sphere puzzles. I am NOT a puzzle person and they took me forever to solve even WITH the walkthrough, which just sounds impossible, but it's true.
BEST MUSIC
Where do I even start with this? I seem to really love the scores to the even numbered FF games (at least IV, VI, VIII, and X). X marks the first game in which Uematsu did not singlehandedly compose the score all by his lonesome, and I really think it was a great idea to collaborate with some other composers. Many people have reviewed the X soundtrack as either being too "boring" or "disjointed" or somewhere along those lines, but I personally think that the collaboration between the 3 composers really enhanced Uematsu's style. The tracks flow very seamlessly together and sometimes I have to listen carefully to notice who composed what. Of course, there are dead giveaways for tracks like "Eerie," that are basically ambient noise and were clearly composed by someone not-Uematsu, but those tracks work well for the parts of the game they were written for.
"To Zanarkand" of course needs to be my top pick for best music, and I don't know anyone who doesn't like this song. I even really love the vocal version of it by the Black Mages. I also enjoy the Al Bhed/Rikku's theme, which perks me up. Suteki da ne is simply stunning, even though I didn't like the singer at first. Something else I didn't like at first was Otherworld, but it grew on me...and yeah. Final boss battle. w00t!
Also, Hymn of the Fayth. Yes. IEYUI.
There are a lot of location pieces that I love as well. The thing about FFX having such a linear setup is that there is no generic "town theme" like in other Final Fantasies, but every location has a unique sound. The music for Macalania is so haunting and eerie and beautiful. Besaid has a summery feel to it that relaxes me. And can I get three cheers for Luca?? YEAH
Conclusion? Hmm...I don't really like to rank FF games because them it seems like I'm playing favorites and I really really love every single one I've ever played! But I suppose that my ranking right now would be like this for all the ones I've finished: VI, VIII, VII, X (I have like 4 more that are in various stages of completion so I don't feel I should rank them if I haven't beaten the final boss.) Again, this in no way means I didn't like the game, because obviously I liked it very very much. I just found it got repetitive toward the end, and the grinding for the ultimate weapons was ultimately (hahaha) too much for me.
I have other FF recaps that I've written after (re)playing the games:
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Coming from the world of 2D sprites BACK to fully dimensional characters was jarring, but was the VOICE ACTING ever so jarring! And...I have to say, the voice acting in X could be a lot better. Yes, I know it was the first. Yes, I know the game is "old." I don't fault it. I just think it could be better - generic statement. I can see sometimes why the actors sounded so stilted, as in a scene where Japanese Yuna would respond "hai!" but a simple "yes" would sound really strange in English, so Yuna would have to say "all right!" or "okay!" and it would sound like she was mumbling in order to keep up with the lip movements. I am glad they changed this for FFXIII.
I think Final Fantasy X is the most beautiful game I have ever played and the most beautiful story I have ever heard. This even goes for me after XIII came out - I haven't actually played that game, but I watched Shane play it, and although the graphics are completely amazing and the voice acting is spot on and everything is so perfectly crafted, I don't think it compares to Final Fantasy X by any means. The characters of X were very real to me and still are. The ending of X made me cry so bad, I think I was curled up on the couch crying like 15 minutes later. I felt kind of lame, but no one was home so it was okay =P
As with previous FF love stories, I found the Tidus/Yuna story to be really wonderful and rather lacking at the same time. I understand that in j-rpgs, there are so many characters that you can't really squish a fully-realized romance into every conversation, but I did feel like after the scene at Macalania in the lake, Tidus/Yuna was never really spoken of again, and there were only one or two scenes with them interacting. Yes, Tidus kept speaking of "finding a way to save Yuna" but wasn't the whole party worried about that? Rikku was just as worried. This was my beef with the Squall and Rinoa love story as well, but I still enjoyed it, and I enjoyed Tidus and Yuna.
I absolutely hated the linearity of X, and that was what really kind of killed the game in parts for me. I can deal with the game telling you where to go, but I really couldn't deal with having no true world map or the ability to fly over the continents manually with my airship, That's always my favorite part of any Final Fantasy. The fact that I could NOT do that with this one - that it wasn't even an option - well, it upset me a great deal, more than I expected. Also...too much grinding. I usually don't mind level grinding, but sphere grid and aeon and Blitzball and ultimate weapon grinding wore me out. The only ultimate weapon I got was Wakka's, and that is because Shane played 100+ hours of Blitzball for me to get it. I never touched Blitzball except for that one game you have to play in Luca to advance the storyline.
One thing that I did like was the fact that the save spheres restored full HP and MP. Yay! No more buying thousands of potions!
Probably one of the most wonderful things about this game are the costume designs. I love myself some Nomura, but sometimes I get tired of black leather and belts and buckles. The character designs that Nomura pulled out for X really stunned me, and I am still kind of in awe of how perfect each outfit is for each character, even the NPCs (actually, especially the NPCs!). I really believe that these are the best designs that he's done for any FF game so far. A game like X with such a primitive/tribal fantasy feel really needed costumes to complement it and make it believable, and Nomura did wonderfully.
FAVORITE CHARACTERS
I have to admit that I was expecting to pick a character like Auron as my favorite. Instead, my absolute favorite in this game was Kimahri. I find that very few people actually like Kimahri and use him in their party, and even fewer tend to involve him in any way outside of the game in fandom, which saddens me. I have a soft spot for blue mages, and the sphere grid in FFX really made me start salivating when I realized that here was a way I could just completely go nuts with my blue mage and make him the most powerful character in my party. Things didn't go quite as planned, because it took me about 1/3 of the game to actually figure out what I wanted to do with Kimahri, so he ended up probably the 3rd most powerful character in my party. I did like Auron as well, and surprisingly, I came around to feeling pretty good about Rikku, who I didn't care for in the first half of the game. But she gradually grew on me.
Isaaru was probably one of my favorite NPCs and I am very sad that he didn't get more screen time. I also really like Belgemine.
LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTERS
Can I say Tidus? There. I said it. Also, Seymour's voice actor drove me insane. I sadly also didn't really care for either Yuna or Lulu, at least battle-wise within my party. I moved both of them along the "appropriate" tracks on the sphere grid, which obviously levelled them to white and black mage respectively, and I really dislike using mages. Yuna's voice actor also talked. like. Captain. Kirk.
I like Yuna tons better in X-2 (in fact, she's my favorite character of that game) but I'll do a X-2 recap post separately.
I intensely disliked Dona. Dislike. For no other reason than she seemed to me the very stereotypical "foil to Yuna" character. Did we really need that?
FAVORITE LOCATIONS
Macalania!! *__* so pretty. Bevelle was pretty awesome too except for that stupid sphere puzzle part. And I really enjoyed Kilika with its beautiful island scenery, basically felt like something out of a travel brochure for the South Pacific.
LEAST FAVORITE LOCATIONS
Uhhh the Bevelle sphere puzzle -_______________- Okay, basically any of the temple sphere puzzles. I am NOT a puzzle person and they took me forever to solve even WITH the walkthrough, which just sounds impossible, but it's true.
BEST MUSIC
Where do I even start with this? I seem to really love the scores to the even numbered FF games (at least IV, VI, VIII, and X). X marks the first game in which Uematsu did not singlehandedly compose the score all by his lonesome, and I really think it was a great idea to collaborate with some other composers. Many people have reviewed the X soundtrack as either being too "boring" or "disjointed" or somewhere along those lines, but I personally think that the collaboration between the 3 composers really enhanced Uematsu's style. The tracks flow very seamlessly together and sometimes I have to listen carefully to notice who composed what. Of course, there are dead giveaways for tracks like "Eerie," that are basically ambient noise and were clearly composed by someone not-Uematsu, but those tracks work well for the parts of the game they were written for.
"To Zanarkand" of course needs to be my top pick for best music, and I don't know anyone who doesn't like this song. I even really love the vocal version of it by the Black Mages. I also enjoy the Al Bhed/Rikku's theme, which perks me up. Suteki da ne is simply stunning, even though I didn't like the singer at first. Something else I didn't like at first was Otherworld, but it grew on me...and yeah. Final boss battle. w00t!
Also, Hymn of the Fayth. Yes. IEYUI.
There are a lot of location pieces that I love as well. The thing about FFX having such a linear setup is that there is no generic "town theme" like in other Final Fantasies, but every location has a unique sound. The music for Macalania is so haunting and eerie and beautiful. Besaid has a summery feel to it that relaxes me. And can I get three cheers for Luca?? YEAH
Conclusion? Hmm...I don't really like to rank FF games because them it seems like I'm playing favorites and I really really love every single one I've ever played! But I suppose that my ranking right now would be like this for all the ones I've finished: VI, VIII, VII, X (I have like 4 more that are in various stages of completion so I don't feel I should rank them if I haven't beaten the final boss.) Again, this in no way means I didn't like the game, because obviously I liked it very very much. I just found it got repetitive toward the end, and the grinding for the ultimate weapons was ultimately (hahaha) too much for me.
I have other FF recaps that I've written after (re)playing the games:
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
