Fainaru fantajî X

It's rare to hear a video game being compared to a piece of literature, but Final Fantasy X reminds me of nothing so much as Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES. (Perhaps it more accurately compares to Dan Simmons HYPERION, but since HYPERION was loosely based on Chaucer, well...)

A summoner and her six guardians embark on a holy pilgrimage whose lofty goal is to save the world from suffering, if only for a short while. The closer they get to their destination, the more treacherous the way becomes as forces gather to divert or destroy them before they can achieve their goal.

Along the way, the stories of the seven are shared: where they came from, how they became a part of this journey. We watch as their individual stories combine into an epic tale of love, camaraderie, sorrow, sacrifice, and triumph.

In a business filled with shoot-em-ups and car crashes, it's wonderful to see a series that tries to stretch the form in ways that resemble art and literature, truly exploring the possibility of video game as an art form.

As to the voice work that so many people complain of, I can only believe that these people were looking for big-name Hollywood stars to provide the voices of the characters--take a look at the resumes of the actors who provide voices for FFX and you'll find a history of American animation for the last 10 years. Check your own expectations before you criticize and you may find, as Shakespeare said, that "the fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Probably half of the people complaining here never made it past the first ten hours, which are, undoubtedly, as slow as can be. Out of that ten hours, it feels like you fight ridiculously easy battles for maybe an hour of it, walk for two hours of it, and sit through cinematics for the other seven hours. I don't know if that is completely accurate, but that is what it feels like.

But if you can survive past that, the game becomes more engrossing. The game doesn't stop as often and you fight far more regularly. You have to, otherwise you won't be powerful enough to move forward. I don't know why people complain about the Sphere Grid. Sure, you may no longer have hit points, but the Sphere Grid has its own unique challenges. And the weapons and armor? Again, it is no longer as easy as to look at your menu and see numbers rise just to know that your weapons / armor are better. You are just forced to plan better.

All in all, I would not complain at all about this game, except for that very tedious first 10 hours, but, considering it took me 60 hours to finish the game--including the main quest and all side quests--you definitely won't feel like your experience is cut short, as a result.

FFX is my favorite Final Fantasy and my favorite game of all time. I've been playing video games ever since the NES and I still play this game almost every year, it simply holds up well.

The graphics were a leap forward for its time and the HD versions still look surprisingly good in 2021 for a game that is 20 years old. The voice acting is also solid though some recording issues (sped up dialogue) creep through during multiple scenes - what can I say? They were still figuring out voice acting with games back then. The turn-based combat is fun, strategic and holds it's own candle to the traditional ATB style. Spira is vibrant, colorful and unique - wonderful artwork and concepts.

However, what really makes this game unique to me is the story. Themes of religion, change, individual thinking and forging one's own path are heavy topics for a popular video game and are handled very elegantly. The story is captivating, unique, and full of twists. I will say the whole idea behind the Fayth's dreaming and how reality intersects with it can be a little convoluted and contradictory at times but I try not to take it too seriously.

Overall, this is a wonderful game that ages well, is fun to play, and has an engaging story with themes I have grown to appreciate more and more as I grow older.

Final Fantasy, considered by many to be the greatest video game RPG series ever, hell even having been one of the first and defining ones, makes the jump to the Playstation 2 with it's God-Knows-How-Many bits of power. Video game RPGs were once known for sacrificing graphics in favor of a lenghtly story and intricate combat system; however, the final fantasy series has been gradually defeating that steriotype with each new game. And now, the tenth installment of the series succeeds in creating a long and engrossing gameplay experience while producing some of the finest graphics seen to-date. Not only that, but the design of these graphics are nothing short of beautiful (Although at times in odd taste. I mean, just look at Tidus' outfit!)

Graphics aside, Final Fantasy X dwelves into new territory previously unseen in any FF game: Voice acting! While this may frighten purists, you will be glad to hear that the voice acting in this game is very good for the most part. The principal characters are all handled quite proffessionaly, especially Wakka, as performed by John Di Maggio.

The story of final fantasy is also quite complex and engrossing, as Tidus, the cheery Blitzball player of the futuristic fantasy land of Zanarkand is transported a thousand years into the future by an entity called "Sin." He finds himself in a quasi-medieval world of Spira, where machinery is outlawed by the religion of Yevon, and the land is ravaged by Sin as a punishment for mankind's missdeeds of the past. The only means of defeating Sin is for a Summoner, a person who can summon montrous spirits of the dead called "Aeons", to embark on a pilgrimage to the ruins of Zanarkand to receive the "Final Aeon". With the Final Aeon, a summoner can defeat Sin and Spira will be at peace for a few years before Sin rises again. Wanting to see his homeland of Zanarkand, Tidus joins Summoner Yuna, the daughter of a summoner who defeated Sin ten years ago, along with her guardians to defeat Sin. However, as Tidus travels forth, he discovers that there is much more to Spira, Zanarkand, Yevon, Sin and even his own purpose for being there than he initially finds.

Gameplay-wise, it's roughly the same menu battle system as in previous games, except that a chart shows you who's turn it's going to be next and the others after that. (Of course, depending on the choices in battle, that chart could mutate, so it's not too simple or easy.) Leveling up is also much different than in previous games. In battle, characters earn "AP" which gives them "Moves" on the sphere grid. The Shere grid is like a board game. As a character moves along, he can activate "nodes", which boost different abilities, using spheres earned in battle.

Overall, Final Fantasy X is a big change from previous FF games, while also retaining familiar aspects enough to be a FF game. In spite of the changes, or perhaps even because of them, FFX is probably the best RPG available on the PS2 at the moment, and will follow the suit of previous FF games as "Classics."

This game really pulled me in. At first I was like, this is just going to be another video game. But I started identifying with the main character Tidus and his feelings for Yuna. I really liked how this game made me laugh at times and made me emotional at other times.

Final Fantasy X is in my opinion, a brilliant combination of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the Golden Compass trilogy of books. It's like a romance novel for straight men.