Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster Review - Auron You Glad It's In HD?

[scorptatious]

I liked FFX. Not nearly as much as IX, but still, it was a very good game in it's own right. Although I probably won't get the HD version right now.

Also, normally, I'd be kinda annoyed at how they make it so that you need to download X-2. But then I remembered "Hey! I hated X-2! No big loss on my part!"

 

[RJ 17]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

While normally I agree with much of what you say and I do indeed thank god for you, this is one that I want to pick at. You mentioned in your review that you felt that FFX was the beginning of the downward spiral of the FF franchise...if you ask me, that spiral started back with 7. Not that FF7 wasn't a good game, I just don't think it was God's Gift to Gaming (that's a title you, good sir, hold ) that everyone says it is.

And while I'd love to get into a full-fledged debate over the merits and faults of FFX, I'd like to just pick at one thing in particular from the review since I'm certain you're a very busy man (though I'd be happy to get into a more extended conversation/debate about the game if you'd really like).

an engrossing leveling system

Please explain to me how you found the level-up system in FFX to be engrossing...and not just a big charade to over-complicate the usual linear leveling system that most RPG's have. Why bother with the sphere grid at all? Is it not just padding? It's not like there's an overwhelming amount of choice in the matter...you just following along with the path that a character is given. Sure, every now and then you get spheres that unlock paths into other character's territory but...for what purpose? Why not simply use the character that has already mastered all the Black Magic spells? Or maybe you just really can't stand the sight of Wakka's hair and as such would much rather have Auron using the skills in Wakka's tree.

Quite simply it's a gimmick. It makes you think you have choice, makes you think it's "engrossing", but really you're just leveling up along a set path...just like in previous FF titles.

Edit: Meant to also mention that the Sphere Grid is essentially no different than the Crystarium from FFXIII, which was the over-all point that I was trying to get at to go against you mentioning in your review that no other FF game has a system like the Sphere Grid.

 

[Antsh]

Wish I had a Vita. I would love to go back and replay this. Come to think of it, I may have stopped playing right before the final boss. Always had this bad habit with FF games, where I would get to the end, then go and try to do everything possible and get all the items first.

Closest thing I can think of that is similar to the sphere leveling, is PoE's passive tree.

 

[Seracen]

Man I hated this game. Still do really. I just couldn't enjoy this story, and disliked the main character. The only redeeming quality that Tidus had was that his death was actually well done. The idea that such a happy-go-lucky lead had a tragic ending was a dramatic point that served the story well.

Then X-2 came along and turned the women into Barbie dress-up caricatures worthy of DC's "New 52." So no, I am not breaking any doors down to play the HD remake of this game; especially considering it took me 2 years to muddle through them.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

FFX probably has the best combat in the entire franchise except, maybe, for Tactics. I really, really wish the ATB system had stayed dead, in place of FFX's system. The character-swapping added a lot of depth to the game, too.

Was never overly keen on its story, but it wasn't bad (on a minute-to-minute basis at least) and the game was so much fun to actually play that I didn't mind. I only wish the dungeons were a bit more interesting to explore. The temples were all quite fun, though; the puzzles weren't too difficult but were still satisfying to solve. It would have been nice to see some more of that in the combat-driven dungeons, too.

 

[Baresark]

Eh, I played this when it came out. It was never as compelling to me as it was to seemingly everyone else. It ends up just boring so often. The aesthetic was always bleh. But... now that this is out of the way, can I have a re-release of Final Fantasy XII now? That one is my second favorite of all time.

 

[Rattja]

Please explain to me how you found the level-up system in FFX to be engrossing...and not just a big charade to over-complicate the usual linear leveling system that most RPG's have. Why bother with the sphere grid at all? Is it not just padding? It's not like there's an overwhelming amount of choice in the matter...you just following along with the path that a character is given. Sure, every now and then you get spheres that unlock paths into other character's territory but...for what purpose? Why not simply use the character that has already mastered all the Black Magic spells? Or maybe you just really can't stand the sight of Wakka's hair and as such would much rather have Auron using the skills in Wakka's tree.

Quite simply it's a gimmick. It makes you think you have choice, makes you think it's "engrossing", but really you're just leveling up along a set path...just like in previous FF titles.

Edit: Meant to also mention that the Sphere Grid is essentially no different than the Crystarium from FFXIII, which was the over-all point that I was trying to get at to go against you mentioning in your review that no other FF game has a system like the Sphere Grid.

Sounds like someone didn't try the expert grid..

There may not be an "overwhelming amount of choice" in the normal one, but there is some choice. Let's say you went up to hastaga with tidus, then used a friend sphere over to Lulu to grab the more powerful black magic nodes (that she has been working her way over to) to have more options during battle.
Sure you can follow the path that is kinda there, but you can also jump around and make whatever you want. Like sending Yuna up the Auron path because... can. Slapping someone with a staff and dealing 9999 damage is quite funny.

Also I want to point out that there is a rather notable difference between the grid and Crystarium systems. You can jump around on the grid, change nodes and tailor to your needs, you can't do that in FFXIII.
Also the Crystarium is heavily tied to your story progress, as it gives accsess to more after boss fights. This also is true for the 1-4 Key Spheres, but you are given a choice as to what you want to use them for.

They are similar, sure, but saying they are the same is a bit of a stretch imo.

 

[Vivi22]

The pun war at the start of this thread is honestly better than FFX was.

 

[Quiotu]

an engrossing leveling system

Please explain to me how you found the level-up system in FFX to be engrossing...and not just a big charade to over-complicate the usual linear leveling system that most RPG's have. Why bother with the sphere grid at all? Is it not just padding? It's not like there's an overwhelming amount of choice in the matter...you just following along with the path that a character is given. Sure, every now and then you get spheres that unlock paths into other character's territory but...for what purpose? Why not simply use the character that has already mastered all the Black Magic spells? Or maybe you just really can't stand the sight of Wakka's hair and as such would much rather have Auron using the skills in Wakka's tree.

While it might not completely undo your points, you should consider that this remaster also includes everything from the International version, which includes the Expert Sphere Grid. Characters start off a lot closer on the grid, and the locks between the grids are reduced and makes it much more open. So it's not really the Sphere Grid you probably played originally.

 

[Tanis]

It's a shame you reviewed the Vita version, do you know if the PS3 version is a download-only code for FFX-2?

The whole reason I buy these collections is NOT to have to download shit.
-I live in a small town that only in the last 6 months got one of them fancy 'traffic lights' for the MAIN 3-Way!

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Please explain to me how you found the level-up system in FFX to be engrossing...and not just a big charade to over-complicate the usual linear leveling system that most RPG's have. Why bother with the sphere grid at all? Is it not just padding? It's not like there's an overwhelming amount of choice in the matter...you just following along with the path that a character is given. Sure, every now and then you get spheres that unlock paths into other character's territory but...for what purpose? Why not simply use the character that has already mastered all the Black Magic spells? Or maybe you just really can't stand the sight of Wakka's hair and as such would much rather have Auron using the skills in Wakka's tree.

Quite simply it's a gimmick. It makes you think you have choice, makes you think it's "engrossing", but really you're just leveling up along a set path...just like in previous FF titles.

Edit: Meant to also mention that the Sphere Grid is essentially no different than the Crystarium from FFXIII, which was the over-all point that I was trying to get at to go against you mentioning in your review that no other FF game has a system like the Sphere Grid.

Sounds like someone didn't try the expert grid..

There may not be an "overwhelming amount of choice" in the normal one, but there is some choice. Let's say you went up to hastaga with tidus, then used a friend sphere over to Lulu to grab the more powerful black magic nodes (that she has been working her way over to) to have more options during battle.
Sure you can follow the path that is kinda there, but you can also jump around and make whatever you want. Like sending Yuna up the Auron path because... can. Slapping someone with a staff and dealing 9999 damage is quite funny.

Also I want to point out that there is a rather notable difference between the grid and Crystarium systems. You can jump around on the grid, change nodes and tailor to your needs, you can't do that in FFXIII.
Also the Crystarium is heavily tied to your story progress, as it gives accsess to more after boss fights. This also is true for the 1-4 Key Spheres, but you are given a choice as to what you want to use them for.

They are similar, sure, but saying they are the same is a bit of a stretch imo.

Not that guy, but the Sphere Grid was overall inferior to the Crystalithium. The Sphere Grid had no sense of grinding or accomplishment. Yeah FF13 had a linear grid, but normal leveling up is very linear (lv 1-100). Bleeding the Sphere Grids together didn't really help either because you were just left with a boring system that was tacked on just like the Lithium Orbs in Tales of Xillia.

The Crystalithium was integrated into the leveling up system and provided a sense of grinding. It also made you feel like you were accomplishing something and that you were making the character level up instead of just filling in the blanks like the Sphere Grid. Each character was able to have their own unique attributes instead of just interconnecting everybody's like FF10 did.

It was because of this that I wound up spamming Holy throughout the last part of FF10, where in FF13 I was utilizing much more like buffs and debuffs, lesser magic to build up the stagger meter and changing the different job classes.

 

[crono738]

It's a shame you reviewed the Vita version, do you know if the PS3 version is a download-only code for FFX-2?

The whole reason I buy these collections is NOT to have to download shit.
-I live in a small town that only in the last 6 months got one of them fancy 'traffic lights' for the MAIN 3-Way!

PS3 versions have X and X-2 on one disc.

 

[GabeZhul]

I wonder how many people will bring up Spoony's reviews here...
*looks up*
Oh, lookie. They already did. Well, I'm late to the game, I suppose.

As for the game... I never played it. I played practically all the FF games up till FFIX, but I never had a PS2 so everything after that was lost on me. Most of what I know of FFX comes from the aforementioned Spoony reviews (or rather rippings), so I do not make a judgment on the game since he gave the same treatment to FFVIII as well, which happens to be one of my old nostalgic favorites and I could see him completely misunderstanding basic characterization and plot-points in that game to the point where I am actually not taking any of his "reviews" seriously and treat them as what they are: caustic entertainment shows.

So yeah, FFX... If it comes out on PC, I might think about playing it, otherwise it's really not on my radar.

 

[IrenIvy]

I never played FFX but Sphere Grid sounds a bit like grid of progression for Path of Exile characters.

Also I wish the review featured a picture of updated HD PC talking to non-HD NPC, because in words it is quite hard to imagine the gap between those.

 

[Kekkonen1]

I haven't played the VITA-version but I did buy and play the Japanese versions of X and X-2 a few months back and I must say that I was blown away, this is by far the best HD-remake I have seen. Usually they just up the resolution and leave it at that, but here the faces of main characters have undergone noticable but subtle changes that anyone that spent enough time with the originals will discover immidiately. At first I thought it was kind of jarring but I soon got used to it and grew to like it, the game really does look gorgeous even today thanks to this HD-remake.

Also, at least on the PS3-version, the music has gotten a major overhaul. Now I am no expert when it comes to music, but I do not think it is the same music with a higher bitrate but instead I think they have somehow re-recorded it as there are harmonies played by instruments that I have no recollection of being present in the original.

Anyway this was for me the first HD-remake I was really really pleased with after buying. Sure the HD-remakes of Shadow of the Collossus or MGS2/3 was good, but those were just a resolution changer. This game has really had some work done on it to make it look and sound great even in this day and age.

 

[Kinitawowi]

FFX is a largely terrible game, and improving the graphics to HD, while ironing out one of its problems (the fact that the ingame graphics were so off-model compared against the prerendered cutscenes), completely fails to address the rest.

The writing is terrible. The localisation is worse. I still don't get why I was supposed to like Tidus. The Sphere Grid is... okay, you can have that one, the Sphere Grid is legit awesome. But this FF game, while pretty good for gameplay, failed hard at characters and story, and those aren't things that a HD remake is going to fix.

(FF7 fails all three, for the record.)

 

[Alistair_Darkheart]

I might actually get a chance to finish the game then, while playing it on my PS2 originally my PS2 box, games, memory cards and all vanished somewhere in transit and never got around to replaying it and as such never played X2.

So I'm somewhat looking forward to this.

 

[Brian Tams]

I would love to get this game, but honestly, I'm still suffering PTSD from those goddamn Chocobo races.

I'm sorry, you want me to finish a race in 0.00? Are you fucking psychotic?

EDIT-Am I to assume that redone character models means Tidus no longer has the puffy chipmunk cheeks?

 

[VoidOfOne]

This would be the ONE reason for me to get a PS3!

Sadly, it would be the only reason, as I can't seem to find another game on the PS3 that I care about getting. Unless FFXV comes out on PS3 as well...