I'm not sure quite why I've decided to do this, but somehow this idea popped into my head after an incredibly lazy day at work..

Before I start, I'll point out that these are entirely my own musings and I'm absolutely not saying that FFX is a terrible game and anyone who likes it is wrong.. but I am very interested to hear people's opinions in a non gamefaq "zomg ur a rtrd" way.

I like to think of myself as a huge fan of the final fantasy series, having played (almost) every game with "Final Fantasy" in it's title, on every format that they've been released in. Squaresoft was easily my most favourite RPG developer and, although it has taken a long time, Square Enix is clawing its way back into my heart.

But I digress..

Just about everybody I talk to who has played Final Fantasy X loves it. Adores it. Claims it to be the best even.. But personally, I think it's easily one of the worst FFs to grace my TV screen with a shallow story, unmemorable characters and voice acting skills bad enough to make one's ears bleed. I must also admit that I have a personal bugbear with Tara Strong's ubiquitous presence in everything ever.
Also: Careful.. here be spoilers:



Firstly, the voice acting. Okay, Auron and Lulu were bearable, but really what were they thinking with Tidus and Yuna? Yuna especially sounded like they'd dragged someone off the street and made them talk in to the microphone under the guise of voice acting. That whole "ha ha ha" scene was truly the nadir of any voice acted game; easily out-doing that very particular mid 90's way of voice acting as seen Grandia and Silver. Yuna especially sounds like everything was recorded syllable by syllable and then strung together at the end.
The battle spiel was also irritating and at times mind numbing... Surely Rikku should know that flans aren't edible after a hundred battles. Yuna's casting chants were particularly irksome. "veil of light, fix this shite" would have been a bit more apt.
Plus, why did they give Seymour Winnie the Pooh's voice? Very bizarre..

I have a huge issue with the story too... something just wasn't right by the end.
The opening segment blew me away and seemed absolutely amazing, but this facade quickly fell away, replaced with a dull religion obsessed Spira inhabited by losers and weirdoes.
The whole Jecht story seemed unnecessary (why did they chose him for dissidia =( ? )and I think Seymour should have had more of a central role at the end. Yu Yevon as a last boss (A boss you literally couldn't die on if you'd made even the slightest effort to fill your sphere grid) was just inexcusable. When you spend 40+ hours on a game, you do NOT want to be greeted with a tick as a last boss! The love story aspects seemed terrible forced too.
However, Tidus 'dying' at the end was much appreciated, even if it was cheapened in X-2.


The battle/experience/general system is somewhat of a love-hate relationship. I adored the different take on the limit break and thought that the sphere grid system was rather refreshing, even if it did mean everyone was the same at the end. But, being able to swap your characters in and out made things a bit too easy and it was way way too simple to break the damage limit and never get a scratch as a result.
The loss of the overworld area in the FF series is still something that ires me to this day.
As much as I hate to say this, it genuinely felt like a massively dumbed down final fantasy, overly reliant on graphics.

Just to counter some of this though, the music was generally excellent, with Auron's theme and Seymour battle being particular favourites of mine and some of the field areas did look stunning. Learning Al-Bhed was pretty fun and there were an absolute crap-load of extras to do if you found the last boss way to easy. Plus, Lulu's plush weapon's were a stroke of genius - it was nice to play "spot the mascot" throughout the game!
I just feel particularly strongly that the negatives detract heavily from making this a great or even memorable Final Fantasy game with only one other FF ranking lower in my list of personal FF favourites.


If anyone cares to debate, please give your thoughts!