Should I bother with Final Fantasy X?

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If you enjoyed the older ones, absolutely play it. The combat system is fantastic, one of the best I've played in a JRPG. It's fast and fluid, with a lot of tactical elements. Many of the the boss fights are nice and challenging. On the gameplay front, the game is quite solid. The game suffers a bit in the story department. The story isn't really awful in itself, but it has the Final Fantasy problem of long cutscenes of characters waxing philosophical about stuff that either doesn't matter to the story, has been gone over before, or both. They can run quite long and are unskippable so if you just wanna get back to the game you're kind of stuck. God forbid you get stuck at certain boss fights. The story itself has a lot of good stuff in it, but gets held back by the aforementioned cutscene issues and some rather bad voice acting. Blitzball is awful but you're only required to play it once.

So yeah, completely worth a play. Who knows, maybe the overwrought cutscenes won't bug you as much as they did others and you can enjoy them as well as the solid gameplay.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

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I would play it. The story is interesting enough, and it is easy to ignore the annoying characters in those sections. It may not be as all round good as say IX or VI but the gameplay more than makes up for it's failings. With all things like this approach it with an open mind and don't expect it to be one of the previous games.

You also only need to play Blitzball once in the main story if you aren't a completionist, and you don't have to do the mega hard fights if you don't want to against the 'dark aeons'.

The character-enemy matching is pretty good too, and the worlds are quite pretty. (It was also the start of the obsession with multicoloured swirls!)

I would go as far to say, if you find it cheap, try X-2 as well.
 

Saltyk

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Well, ignoring characters like Cait Sith and Quina, Tidus is probably my second most hated FF character. He constantly talks about how this is his story and every time I feel like replying, "No, this is Yuna's story, you idiot."

Beyond that FFX is probably the last well liked Final Fantasy game. The voice acting isn't nearly as bad as people claim it is (that laughing scene is supposed to be bad, that's the point). The combat is some of the best in the franchise and it introduces controlled eidolons that replace the party. You may love or hate bliztball (I actually liked it), but you only have to play it once[footnote]I feel the reason most people hate it is that the game you have to play has you at a serious disadvantage with some of the worst players. So you can replace the whole team with better players and actually win from then on.[/footnote]. And the story is about on par with any other Final Fantasy game.

You may miss the Overworld, though. And some of the extra content is pretty ridiculous. Trying to find and fully empower all the ultimate weapons is a chore (dodge 100 lightning strikes in a row, complete this challenge with a time of 0.00.00 and such)

Overall, I'd recommend FFX, though. I may not make this same recommendation for FFXII or FFXIII, though.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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Casual Shinji said:
Also, Tidus is voiced by Ratchet.
Wait... You mention Tidus' VA but fail to mention that Wakka is frickin Bender Bending Rodriguez? What is with you man?


OT: I loved FFX personally, it had cheesy moments and Tidus was annoying (but not as annoying as Vaan or any of the cast of 13, not even close). Overall though it was the last that followed the battle system fundamentals of the previous games and marked the last decent (IMO) Final Fantasy game by Square.
Defenitely fun to play, even better if you get the HD Remix solely for the Final Mix version that has the expert battle grid option (much better for leveling characters up).
 

Casual Shinji

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Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Casual Shinji said:
Also, Tidus is voiced by Ratchet.
Wait... You mention Tidus' VA but fail to mention that Wakka is frickin Bender Bending Rodriguez? What is with you man?
Eh, he's in everything. He's like the less prominent Nolan North.
 

Maximum Bert

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Up to you if you have bothered with 4-9 then you may as well if you enjoyed most of them. Everyone likes different entries in the series and dislikes others.

Personally X is my joint second favourite game in the series along with VI and only behind VII it also has the best in game combat imo of any game in the series and has a great levelling system. Cant guarantee you will like it of course but I cant see the harm in giving it a go after a few hours you will likely find if it is for you or not.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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If you liked VIII and the rest, you can easily love X. (I'm impartial to VII, but the story has many facepalm moments.) It certainly has the far out story themes (Anything regarding Yevon, anyone?) like VIII does and plenty of facepalm moments. Slumlord's character descriptions are spot on. Auron is the only redeemable personality (maybe Lulu as well, but that depends of how you interpret the reasons for her attitude), but overall, the characters are passable enough to enjoy the game.

The mechanics are some of the best in the series. The CTB system allows for quicker battles than ATB, while keeping, in fact improving, your tactical options. Weapon and armor customization (though it comes in sorta late and the powerful abilities even later) offer even more strategizing variety. Summons are no longer a single magic spell. They now replace the party as a playable character during battle, and the party comes back ready to go if they fall in battle or rou dismiss them. The have overdrives like the other characters, and can learn spell or abilities and gains stats similar to the weapons customization process.

The sphere grid also is an interesting change up to the leveling system of old, although it does have drawbacks. Everyone starts out on their own path (basically a set job), but by endgame, you'll be deciding where to lead each character to build up their strongest stats even more or to improve lower stats that compliment their role. (The slow heavy hitter going down the nimble guy's path is a smart move, of course.)

Really, the only major flaws I see in X are the annoying protagonists (not as bad as their reputation on the net says), the obsession with blitzball,[footnote]It's mostly in the story, but there is one mandatory game early on, but it eats away 40 minutes and the rewards for winning are basic items you will be earning from battles within ten minutes.[/footnote] and it is the first main series game to be linear until 3/4 through the story. And, yes, everyone in the game who isn't named Auron, or a member of the religious order, will be dressed in the most ridiculous and/or revealing attire Square's drug fueled art department could dream up. (Also, Spoony's ass cam hit like, what? Over 50.)
 

Baralak

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I absolutely hated X. The characters are bland and none of them are relatable. Oddly enough, I love X-2. It's just upbeat cheesy fun the entire way through. I say just skip to 12. It's got a nice, political story with nice characters. Combat can take some getting used to. It's the same ATB from 4-9, but you can run around, you control one character, and the rest of your party is on a deeply customizable AI.

The 13 trilogy is good, too. They get a lot of hate, but the story is fun to get invested in, and the combat's top notch. 13-2 is my favorite in this sub-series.
 

silversnake4133

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Yes, yes you should. X was an awesome game even with its awkward moments. The combat is fast and fluid and the visuals are amazing. The story is convoluted, but it's still fun to follow and the characters are great. It's a very immersive game so don't be surprised if a lot of hours pass without you noticing.
 

Buffoon1980

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If you like 4-9 there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy X.

However, I'm someone who thinks that if you like 4-9 there's also no reason why you shouldn't enjoy XIII, so take everything I say with a grain of salt I guess.
 

Jimmy Donnellan

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X is my favourite, because I was too young to appreciate anything before it properly. Its graphics were pretty stunning for its time. Has aged well.

It's also the last FF I felt any kind of connect to.
 

Synigma

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At this point I'm just chiming in on the general theme of "if you liked 4-9 you'll like this one" but to be specific:

X is my 3rd favourite FF game, right behind VI and IV, because it did have the best combat system and I think the story is solid. I mean I did spend 100+ hours unlocking all the extra stuff because I enjoyed it so much. And Tidus isn't that bad, he's like an annoying younger brother but he kinda grows on ya.

But X is where I stopped. Square lost their way after that; I'm not saying the rest of the FF games are all bad... but they aren't FF games. VI will always be the best to me; amazing characters with an amazing sense of pacing that rushes you when it needs to but leaves you to explore and get to know the characters when it can.
 

Des-Esseintes

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Am I missing something about FFX's combat?

I've been back to it a few times and always get bored within a few hours because of the battles.

I feel like every random encounter is a chore because I have to religiously switch out characters for no reason so they'll pick up experience. What would normally just be boring in most FF games (just spamming attack over and over for anyone who isn't a boss) becomes plain annoying.

Am I doing it wrong or something? Never quite got it.
 

Mister K

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dscross said:
i recently rediscovered the series and played some of the old ones. I've played 4-9 and loved them all. However, I know the series changed a lot after that.

Question is, with me liking the styles of the older games, should I dive into the newer ones? Some insight into the way it plays for anyone who has stuck with the series from old to present day would be appreciated. :)
I say yes. Here are my reasonings:

- The thing that you see right after a few minutes of the game is that the setting is a mixture of fantasy, Sci-Fi and post-post-apocalypse. I always found a mixture of Sci-Fi/cyberpunk with magic to be appealing.

- The story is great. Yes, it has some cliche moments (I mean, arrogant, self-centered protagonist who later becomes altruistic was done at least once in FFVII) but is still well-written and has a few nifty plot twists.

- It has one of the best character casts in my experience. Some are weaker, sure, but I found all of them to be dear to my heart: Tidus, who starts off as self-centered shmuck but later becomes... Well, he matures. Yuna, who is to this very day is my favourite female character, who has great design and whose decisions and development still make my eyes tear a bit. Auron, who is one of the badassiest badasses I've ever seen (can't say more because of spoilers). Wakka, a guy who may not be the brightest bulb in the group, but still serves as an example of the fact that sometimes you have to think and not believe blindly. Well, other 3 (Kimahri, Lulu and Rikku) fill the roles of No-emotion sentinel, no-nonsense woman and cheerful young girl, but they are not boring.

- Part VI has Keffka, Part VII has Sephiroth, part X has... No one. And I don't mean that the bad guy/gal is bad. I mean that there is literally no actual bad guy. I don't want to spoil the story, but in short, even the guy you fight most of the time I personally consider more of an evil rival than actual bad guy. It is quite an interesting concept.

- Combat I found to be enjoyable. It is fully turn-based, unlike your usual ATB system and, well, I like full turn-based combat. Also, it has hands down THE BEST iplementation of Limit Break system out of 4 games that had it (I mean FF games from VII to X included).

- Rather flexible development system. Yeah, most of the time people will stick to the roles that characters are supposed to have, but you can still swich it around. For example, people who are doing speed run of the game switch Yuna from being White mage to being Black mage right of the bat because she has the highest Magic stat.

- Don't listen to others, Blitzball is fun, or at least not as boring as some make it out to be.


Sure, it has flaws (Tidus looks like shit, Kimahri doesn't have his own development path, Blue magic is messed up with all of blue magics being limit breaks) but it is to this day one of my favourite games.
 

happyninja42

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SlumlordThanatos said:
coldorangejuice said:
SlumlordThanatos said:
Depends on your tolerance for stupidity.

Except for Auron and maybe Lulu, the main cast is...well, mentally challenged. Titus is insufferable, Yuna is just plain dumb, and Rikku acts like a sex object despite being fifteen. I really couldn't stand the fact that my hero is an insufferable idiot who thinks he's the shit when he's actually being carried by the infinitely more awesome Auron.

Still, if you ignore Blitzball, the game plays well and is filled with stuff to do. But if you ask me, you don't play a Final Fantasy game for the gameplay.
INC SPOILERS DONT READ THIS IF U DONT WANT SPOILERS.

I had to register so I can reply to this one. I'm gonna 99% disagree with everything you just said.

Tidus isn't my favorite character, but I did enjoy the ballsy nature of his character. I mean, he thinks he is hot shit, and ofc he does, he is/was a celebrity for gods sake, and a playboy at that. I don't know if he is an IDIOT, I agree that he is not the most intelligent hero ever, but his heart way mostly always in the right place and that I can respect.

Yuna is an AMAZING protagonist to me. She starts off as a sheltered girl who has no free will and always follows the law and rules, doesn't question anything and just follows the path that is laid in front of her. But throughout the game, with the influece of Tidus (and Rikku) and his '' I do what I see is best '' attitude, Yuna changes, grows and matures, and gets courage to question things and follow her own feelings, of course with the help of others. Now that's what I call character development.

Rikku is definitely not a sex object. How does she even act like one?! She has one suggestive scene in which she strips her bodysuit and that's it. Lulu is the one who is basically just a mindless tits-on-toes character, hell, she isn't really even important to the story! She gets no real development and is just there to look down on Tidus the first quarter of the game.

Now Auron... ugh... I can't believe people are putting him on the pedestal. He is just another cliche, cheesy, unoriginal badass character who delivers SiCk BuRnS and knows everything and is always one step ahead of the enemy, always has the answers, is the stoic silent kind and never does no wrong, and once in a bluemoon he'll show some emotion and then everyone is like WOOOOaaAAaaaAAhhhHHH he showed emotion OmGggGGggg this guy has EmOtIoNSssSSS so baDAssssss!! I understand why people like him, but his character is just so uncool that it makes me cringe. It's just trying to make an effortlessly cool character but it's so obvious he was made to be just that, that it makes me kinda facepalm myself in embarrassment.

I'm sure this wont change your opinion on anything, but I think you are a bit unfair when you judge these characters. It seems that you're just throwing them out the window just because they are not just like Auron. But I digress.
Just...watch these videos and you'll see where I'm coming from. Spoony does a better job of explaining my dislike for it.
Spoony FFX reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRaHDe3DDyyv1JUW-i7QJXa62RaI9wvd1
Ah, Spoony's evisceration of FF 10...*happy sigh*...good memories. There were bits of the game I enjoyed, other bits felt like a real of ARCAAAANE TORTURRRE!

OT: If you really like JRPG's, then you will probably enjoy it. It's got some major flaws in it, most of which are well pointed out by Spoony, in a very comedic way. But I still love the cutscenes, and will stand by my love of the two with Yuna in them, near the beginning and climax of the game. Everything between is....eh. It hasn't aged well for me personally.
 

Fox12

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SlumlordThanatos said:
Depends on your tolerance for stupidity.

Except for Auron and maybe Lulu, the main cast is...well, mentally challenged. Titus is insufferable, Yuna is just plain dumb, and Rikku acts like a sex object despite being fifteen. I really couldn't stand the fact that my hero is an insufferable idiot who thinks he's the shit when he's actually being carried by the infinitely more awesome Auron.

Still, if you ignore Blitzball, the game plays well and is filled with stuff to do. But if you ask me, you don't play a Final Fantasy game for the gameplay.
I thought the gameplay was painfully average in that title anyway. Not as convoluted as 8, but incredibly simple and boring. Which would be fine if the story carried it. But... I'm not sure. There were some cool ideas, and gorgeous visuals, but those were weighed down derpy characters and cringeworthy moments of dialogue.


It's also extremely linear. Almost as linear as 13 was. Overall it's a decent game, but not as good as the classics, I think. Auron was at least interesting, and the religious plot was a nice change of pace. Worth the price of admission, basically, but not a masterpiece.

Just don't play the sequel. I consider X-2 the worst Square game ever produced. Far worse then the infamous FF13.
 

SlumlordThanatos

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Fox12 said:
I thought the gameplay was painfully average in that title anyway. Not as convoluted as 8, but incredibly simple and boring. Which would be fine if the story carried it. But... I'm not sure. There were some cool ideas, and gorgeous visuals, but those were weighed down derpy characters and cringeworthy moments of dialogue.

It's also extremely linear. Almost as linear as 13 was. Overall it's a decent game, but not as good as the classics, I think. Auron was at least interesting, and the religious plot was a nice change of pace. Worth the price of admission, basically, but not a masterpiece.

Just don't play the sequel. I consider X-2 the worst Square game ever produced. Far worse then the infamous FF13.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: A story is only as good as its characters, and the Final Fantasy series since IX are shining examples of original and interesting stories being sunk by terrible characters. I could count the number of characters that I like in those games on one hand and still have fingers left over. All the rest are met with indifference at best and hatred at worst.

But...yeah. X-2 is nothing more than concentrated fanservice bored directly into your brain. Avoid it, that game is the bottom of the Final Fantasy barrel.
 

Azure23

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Hell yeah FFX is worth your time. Production values that hold up today, a perfectly balanced battle system that enables a new focus on tactical combat and utilizing the entire party, hell even Spira as a setting is pretty damn cool. Blitzball is a twenty minute section of the game and you never have to touch it again unless you want to, also I kinda like it.

I started playing the hd version for the ps3 and I'm really loving it so far, from the small character moments to the music, it's great stuff. And I understand if I'm in the minority here, but I actually like Tidus. I think he's a pretty complicated character and the game does a good job of exploring his perspective through his inner monologues and hindsight narrative. I started playing this game when I was maybe thirteen, and before then, no game story had hit me with that impact. I wasn't familiar with bigotry or religious zealotry as things that videogames could explore, it was a turning point in my career as a gamer.

FFX deserves to be up there with the FF greats. And it deserves to be played by any fan of the series.
 

Drathnoxis

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Play Final Fantasy X?
(I know someone already posted the laugh video, but I don't care because this is my story!)​


How does it even work?!

In conclusion.
"Praise be to Final Fantasy X." That's what I would have said, if I was a fan of Final Fantasy X.