Review: Final Fantasy X (PS2)
You might say I’m a little late to the party, having just now finished a game I started when it first came out in December 2001. I would say, “No, you are!” in a childish manner and then run away. As it turns out, I have a very bad habit of starting games, getting really far in the them, but never getting around to finishing them.
Around the time I got my PS3, I decided to pick up “Final Fantasy X” again. I debated starting over, but the last time I had done that, I found that I was only a few plot points from the end, and this save file was even farther than that one had been.
So how does the game hold up by today’s standards?
Surprisingly well.
From a game so early in the PS2′s life cycle, both the in-game and pre-rendered scenes still look good. They might not have all the flash of the upcoming PS3 “Final Fantasy XIII”, but to expect so would be insanity. The voice acting is just as horrible as you remember it, and while the plot is decent, most of the actual characters tend to get on my nerves. This can, at least partially, be blamed on said voice acting.
"Pre-Rendered Scenes Still Look Good"
The plot revolves around Sin, a giant monster that appears every few years, and the pilgrimage of summoners in their quest to learn the “final summoning”. This allows them to temporarily defeat Sin at the cost of their own lives. The overall tone of the game is very dark and gloomy, and probably the main reason it’s sequel, “Final Fantasy X-2″ is so chipper.
What holds up the best from this game is definitely the battle system. Many games still copy aspects of it today. You have a total party of seven characters, only three of which you can have in battle at a time. There is a display in the upper corner that lets you know the current order that both your party members and the attacking monsters will take their turns in. This dynamically changes when you use spells or items that effect a characters speed.
"An Example of the Battle Screen"
You also have the ability to tag out to any of your other party members as often as you’d like during battle. This was a big innovation at the time, as it made your entire cast of characters readily available for the entire game. You never have “I don’t know who to pick” syndrome, where you spend hours trying to figure out what combination of characters to use as your main kick-butt team.
Instead of the traditional leveling system of older FF games, there is what is called the Sphere Grid. All party members start at different points on the grid which is all interconnected. Theoretically, you could max out every character with every stat boost and ability… if you are a crazy person.
While this leveling system is fun and unique, it does have a strange side effect. Through the normal course of the game, Yuna, your white mage, can and most likely will acquire black mage abilities. Once she does, it renders Lulu, the character set up to be the black mage, useless. This is due to Yuna’s starting area providing her with significantly better stat boosts on her part of the Sphere Grid. By the end of the game, I found that I was only ever using a three man party, because those three had learned everything useful that the other four would normally do. The up side is, it saved me a lot of time normally spent on grinding.
If you are looking for a good RPG for the PS2 and missed this one the first time around, I would still recommend it. Like most Squaresoft RPG’s (yes, this is from when they were still called Squaresoft), it still holds up in all the areas that matter. Ignore the infamous “laughing scene” and enjoy a fun battle/leveling system wrapped around a decent fantasy storyline.
Tags: emo, final fantasy x, final fantsy x-2, JRPG, ps2, rpg, Squaresoft, yuna
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:I really enjoyed this game. Beat it in late ’04. The battle system was great and the sphere grid was interesting. Even some of story was interesting, but unfortunately I hated the world it took place in and all of the characters except for Auron. Ah well, still a good game.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Dali says:I still love this game. The story, although often taking some weird twists and inconsolable turns, had endearing characters.
And it had Blitzball. BLITZBALL!
August 6th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Jeffrey Abt says:I still haven’t beat this game. I was at the end (near when you’re in the room with those crystals) and I let someone borrow it. I never got it back, so I never beat it. That was about two years ago.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Jonah "spambot" Gregory says:Crazy. That room with the crystals is the last room before the final boss fight. If you still have your save, you should definitely finish it off.
In other FF News, my save game on FFV Advance was magically erased for the second time when I went to play it last night. I’m wary of starting it up again because of that.
I might try out FFIX instead, as Jesse and several other friends are telling me it was their favorite.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
shaolinjesus says:FFIX’s Vivi is made of adorable magic, so there is that to consider.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:I named Vivi “Dr. Crazy” and then the knight guy called him “Master Dr. Crazy”
August 7th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Russ "The Bus" Walsh says:Bleh. Didn’t really like Final Fantasy 10. Its one of those JRPG’s that feels so… overproduced. It just lacks the heart or charm of something like Chrono Trigger or Mother 3.
I just can’t warm up to something that’s so clinically Final Fantasy.