Final Fantasy X (PS2)

The story this time concerns Tidus, a blond-haired star of a sport called Blitzball. While he is playing in a match, Tidus' city is attacked by an evil force called Sin, and everything is destroyed save Tidus and his guardian Auran. The adventure begins as they are somehow transported to another world. From here on, it's standard Final Fantasy gameplay: fight battles, manage experience points, learn new powers and recruit a motley crew of non-playing characters to join your quest.

The graphics, however, take things to a new level. They are amazing not only for their realism, but also for their imaginative art and design. The world these heroes inhabit is breathtakingly beautiful, flowing and full of inventive surprises. You haven't lived until you've surfed cables high in the air, or ridden a graceful airship through the clouds. There are stunning effects on display when you use magic in combat, summoning gigantic monsters, fire-columns and more to devastate your foes.

One new element is voice acting. The innovation yields predictably mixed results: it's wonderful to have spoken dialogue rather than subtitles, but as with most games translated from Japanese, the acting is mediocre and sometimes unintentionally hilarious. Still, the game's new graphics engine and solid gameplay are sure to please fans of the series waiting to see what Square has in store for them. While Final Fantasy X doesn't offer much innovation, it also doesn't disappoint. And fortunately, with Final Fantasy XI already in development, the title is still a misnomer. --Andrew S Bub

The game starts off following the adventures of a young blitzball (underwater football) player named Tidus. His homeworld is being destroyed by a great water-like sphere named SIN when the game starts, and you soon find yourself being transported 1,000 years in the future after the short tutorial. He meets a young summoner named Yura, and many other characters that join your party and soon the player is sucked into the vivid storyline with Tidus on his quest to rid the world of a huge evil.

Those who are new to the final fantasy series will find the controls and the games battle system a little daunting at first- as like all the final fantasies nothing is very simple. FF veterans, however, will get to grips with the game rather quickly despite the obvious (and rather large) changes made. One of these is the new experience 'sphere grid'. This maze like grid allows you to spend experience points, which you earn by defeating enemies, on spells and stat upgrades of your choice. This includes HP (health) and MP (magic points).

There are seven characters for Tidus to find that play on your team. In the random battle encounters that occur in isolated areas or on the world map, you control four of these characters at one time to defeat the monsters you are thrown against. While battling, however, you can exchange characters to suit your needs. Characters can cast magic, special attacks or use items while in battle, and different characters use different tequniqes. For example- the heroin Yuna can 'summon' huge beasts, which can be controlled like a team member, but no other person can. 'Controlling' summons is yet another thing that is new to final fantasies.

There are three gameplay modes in final fantasy ten. The 'Field screen'is where you run about talking to people and buying items. While bystanders and villagers have written dialog when spoken to, like usual, the PS2 allows the main party members and important characters to talk in full English, which a year or so ago would of been considered as a huge privilege in RPG's- and still is, so I hope we see more of this in future role playing games. What I don't want to see is the way the characters' mouths move- this really isn't a good Japanese conversion at all. Tidus is also 100% American, which isn't too "awesome!!" or "cool!" The world map is your chance to walk about the fully 3D world where Tidus lives. It's basically the area in-between two destinations- so you come out of one village, travel across the world map (while fighting random battles along the way) until you come across another village you can enter. The Battle screen is the third gameplay mode and is where you fight monsters with attacks, skills, magic and summons. Monsters will attack back with similar moves until one side (you or the enemies) die. You cannot control the movement of players, only their actions.

There are also some mini games in final fantasy ten, just like all the other final fantasies. Three main ones include Chocobo racing (Final fantasy seven, anyone?) which involves the player racing huge ostrich-like yellow birds that surprisingly cannot fly. Earlier in this review I mentioned underwater football, or 'blitzball' as it's called. This is played in a giant ball of water, suspended in air. Players may control either Tidus or wakka (another one of your party members) when playing this early on. Later on though, you may recruit more skilled players and enter in the Blitzball league. Finally, there is a monster arena where you battle monsters to the death, except when you first arrive there are no monsters- so you are asked to capture some with some special capture weapons. These mini games are a refreshing break from the strong storyline, but they don't capture the player's attention for long as the novelty soon wears off.

So the verdict- 9/10, a well deserved score for a game that deserves to be in your collection. The graphics are mind blowing, the gameplay is seriously addictive, the game will take ages to master and with 30+ hours of gameplay, its definitely one too spend your money on. And if you are a fan of RPG's, this game will be one of your all time favourites. The trouble is the speech is just too glitchy as the characters lips don't move well with the script. The same problem goes with the bodies as they shiver a bit (who left the air conditioning on? brrrr!). The presentation can be a bit annoying, as the entire game requires a widescreen T.V. for it to look good. Without one you'll be watching two big black lines at the top and bottom of your screen. But to be honest, it really is hard to find anything bad to say ... it's well worth the money. Buy it. Now.


The top 10 reasons to buy Final Fantasy 10   March 9, 2004
lotrrr
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

10. The price (if you're buying from Amazon). For such a great game this is a bargain and a must-have for your collection!

9. Being able to switch characters in the middle of a battle. Great idea, makes life much easier and you get to use all the characters equally.

8. Linear story and no world map. Okay, so it's a little less adventerous, but places are easy to get to and you don't spend hours hunting for towns and villages!

7. Summoning. The summon monsters in this installment of the series are strong, and can be controlled like regular characters. Better than having to just watch a sequence you've seen over 100 times already!

6. Blitzball! After two games with that annoying card collecting, 10 has a much more exciting and fun mini-game.

5. Awesome graphics, especially the cut-scenes/FMVs. They'll blow you away!

4. The music. I have yet to play a Final Fantasy game where the music has disappointed me, and 10 has one of the best soundtracks yet.

3. The loveable characters! Bubbly Rikku, the mysterious Auron and the evil Seymour.

2. The brilliant and not too confusing storyline will keep you playing on the edge of your seat.

1. It's a landmark for the series, being the first in the series on PS2. You've just gotta buy it!

(And now, just a few flaws to point out...)
* The boss battles are the hardest yet. I'm talking impossibly hard! Most will take you a week or longer!
* The voice acting, while I'm sure worked well in Japanese, is not so good with the talentless American actors.


Final Fantasy X   May 30, 2002
13 out of 17 found this review helpful

FFX IS Greater Than All Other Final Fantasies...

...in lots of ways. For a start, how they crammed all that onto one disc beats me. The game is huge, the graphics are awe-inspiring, your party members and other non-party members now speak, both during cut-scenes, during battles or when you just click on them, and the storyline spans 1000 years. All on one disc.

Then there's the accessibility to the RPG genre. SquareSoft have done a great job of easing in new players to this traditionally specialised type of game with a simple start, gradually building up and providing ingame tutorials at the crucial jumps in the learning curve that inevitably occur during FF games.

The clincher for the argument as to why FFX should be the greatest of all its predecessors is the 'tweakiness' factor: you can customise virtually every aspect of your party, from the armour, weaponry, abilities, spell strengths, growth of party members, individual battle moves for certain characters, right down to being able to assign your Aeons (known as Guardian Forces previously) with extra abilities depending on what items you have available. For the novice this can all be ignored, because once you get to grips with the new Sphere Grid which you use to increase your party members' abilities you can just push on without having to think about the tactical implications. (Although at the later stages of the game you may find some of the bosses a struggle).

Your main character is Tidus, a Blitzball star who plays for the Zanarkand Abes. During one match, the city of Zanarkand is attacked by the mysterious and deadly Sin, but Tidus is rescued by an old friend of his father who whisks him away to a strange land, where Tidus must discover the fate that awaits him. Along the way he meets Yuna, a Summoner, who's mission is to defeat Sin at all costs.

For anyone looking for a cracking RPG, Final Fantasy X has it all. Great story, as much depth as you want to take it too, loveable characters, fantastic landscapes and scenery, exploring, fighting, mini-games, in fact everything a good RPG should include.

For followers and fans of SquareSoft's series, you'll find that this installment has many improvements over previous outings, with particular note to the cinematic presentation, finely crafted CGI sequences, customisation options, and characters that once again make you root for them as you progress through the epic narrative.

There's now more of a puzzle element to some sections, the multitude of mini-games are included again, some of the more powerful battle moves require some deft fingerwork to pull off because they now involve following onscreen prompts within a time limit when activated, Cid the Navigator makes a welcome reappearance, and some of the Aeons will look and feel familiar to the GFs of old. (You can cut short the Aeons' introductions as they are summoned to cut down battle-time too!) The musical refrains from the previous outings of Final Fantasy have had the full orchestral rearrangement and as always fit the mood perfectly.

The main mini-game this time around is Blitzball, a massive improvement over trading cards. Think Pro Evolution Soccer underwater, with player customisation and the option of signing more players to your team as you discover them.

As for value for money, this game has more replay value than any other I've seen. Because of the customisation options, no one battle will ever be the same once you start forming a party, how you customise your weapons and armor will never be the same two games running and the game is littered with conversation turning points (even during battles) that fork the following conversations and outcomes, meaning you'll be playing this game well in excess of the 50 or so hours that it will take you to complete it the first time.

A word of warning, I clocked up 23 hours of play in the first 2 days of buying FFX, it's THAT addictive.