overdrive's Final Fantasy X review

Interesting take comparing this to FF13.

I have fond memories of FFX. I think a lot of it is due more to the game's aesthetics and plot/characters than anything. I bought a PS2 pretty much for this game right before it was released. It was only my second PS2 game. I was really big into JRPGs then and compared to PSX & Dreamcast RPGs, FFX's presentation was absolutely stunning. Beautiful graphics, detailed facial expressions, tons of voice acting. The actual gameplay wasn't bad, but it had some nagging annoyances I had back in the day. I didn't like how linear each environment felt. Combat was really easy; most enemies were killed with 1 hit throughout most of the game. I didn't actually get killed by a boss until Yunalesca. The Sphere Grid I felt was a bit of a wasted opportunity. It's pretty much the same as leveling up in that each character sans Kimahri is still restricted to a character class until the end game. Despite this, I still like the game a lot and I can't believe it's almost 11 years old now.

X and XIII are actually my favorites of the franchise, go figure.

I had a similar experience. I found X very mediocre when I first played it, then enjoyed it much more upon revisiting a couple of years or so later. Personally, though, I'd say XII is probably the last good Final Fantasy. I think it did a lot of things right that for some reason are usually ignored.

I loved X when I first played it and it's one of the few games I played twice in a row (especially nuts considering how long it is). Much like my experience between FF7 and FFX, I haven't enjoyed an FF game as much since. FFXII I found fun to play, but it lacked the depth of character development that was really the focus of FFX. In my mind, I compare FFX with FFIV, in that it really is about a character's pilgrimage.

I did go back and plug it in recently. I found that the game is no longer as fun as it once was and the graphics (of course) are less impressive. The voice acting throws me off, too; it's crazy how far voice acting has come in the last decade. The story is still engaging and, surprisingly, I find there's stuff I didn't even remember. There's so many little nuances and tangents to the main pilgrimage that it's easy to forget some of the side stories, especially as surrounds the religion, and Seymour.

Terrible name for a villain by the way. Seymour...

I think the depth of the story/characters is probably the best thing about FFX. Kinda thing that's tough to talk about in a review too much because of spoilers (if you can really "spoil" something in a hugely popular game released over a decade ago). When I first played it, I was newly married to my ex and things were so hectic that I think a lot of the depth went over my head because I really only had time to focus on the most obvious things (as in "OMG...I'm controlling a boy-band reject who's over-the-top obnoxious...SOMEONE KILL TIDUS SO THE REAL HERO CAN TAKE OVER!!!!").

This time, paying more attention, it's really neat watching things unfold. Noticing things like how his narration was a lot more beaten-down and cynical sounding, showing how the plot revelations affected him mentally, was neat. Things just seem to progress more genuinely story-wise than in either XII or XIII. Like, it feels like things happen because they happen in X, as opposed to happening because they needed to hammer in a plot point before the next boss fight.

Yeah, I really do think that's something a lot of people missed on their first time. People who didn't like X generally pointed to Tidus as the reason why. "He's annoying and pisses me off," was one complaint I heard a number of times. But, see, if that's true... then those people should LOVE Final Fantasy X, because it's pretty much about Tidus getting fucked over and over again in increasingly painful ways. He's a emotional wreck by the end of the game, though he gets points for keeping it somewhat together rather than totally losing it like Cloud.

And his over-exuberance is clearly compensating for a very cynical and upsetting past with his father. But haters of FFX didn't seem to get that, either. And I know this wasn't an isolated issue, because you aren't the first person I've heard say that they loved the game on a second playthrough, once they figured all that stuff out.

About the only character I hear complaints about from both haters and lovers of the game is Rikku, but that's a whole other story.

I guess I had the opposite experience in that FFX has become less impressive to me over the years. When I first played it I was captivated by the aesthetics of the world as well as the narrative. I also really liked most of the characters (though I always found Tidus irritating and didn't like Yuna's voice actress). But I think my praise of the game before had to do with it being my first RPG on the PS2. Once I went back to the older games on NES and PSX (save for FFVIII, which I found terrible) my opinion of FFX lowered.

Though I still enjoy it much more than Squeenix's last 5 FF games or so, and I can still pick it up and have fun leveling up my aeons and beating the optional bosses. I will always have a level of fondness for it since I received it as a birthday present when I was 13. It's probably the gameplay itself that makes me like it, whereas once you actually analyze the story it's kind of ridiculous, especially when it concerns Seymour.