I first played Final Fantasy X two years ago, and while I try to be as positive as I can be in life, I always end up complaining about the game. Lack of detail in the NPCs, bad lip-syncing, sometimes poor voice acting, linear world map etc. It's rather an odd thing to do consider the game is my fifth favourite Final Fantasy game, and I adore the series. It would definitely make it into my top 20 games of all time, if not top 10.

I made a lot of new friends this Summer Holiday, and one of them (Lee), while not having played Final Fantasy X, adores the song "To Zanarkand" which he was shown by one of his friends he met online. A lot of the time when we hang around in town, he will steal my iPod and open up the Dissidia soundtrack just to listen to the song. However, yesterday, I finally invited him round my house so he can start playing the game and I decided that it would be a fantastic opportunity to take a second look at the game.



For an early PS2 game, the graphics, especially on the main characters, look amazing. However, as I mentioned before, the graphics of the NPCs are far less detailed and it creates a huge disconnect in the game. The lip-syncing is off a lot of the time and look especially bad close up on NPCs where their mouths just switch between a couple of low polygon textures. The voice acting is still cringe worthy in places - one of the girls Tidus flirts with at the beginning in Zanarkand has the most high pitch, screechy voice in the world. However, I was reminded and just how solid the voice acting was in other places - namely, the main characters, where it is needed.

While all my complaints about the game still remained and I was reminded fully of them, I was also reminded of everything fantastic about the game. The art style and character designs are great, as is the music. For the first time, I was playing the game on a decent sized TV with a relativity good audio set up which made even the simplest background music sound terrific. The TV also helped show how fantastic the FMVs still look.

While the game is much more linear than previous Final Fantasys, I was reminded of what a God-send the map in the top left corner of the screen was - I am currently replaying Final Fantasy VIII and it is INFURIATING when you cannot see where to, or even where you CAN go. The very tactical CTB battle system is also one of the most solid and enjoyable battle systems in the entire series.

It was a great experience to watch someone play through the beginning of the game (and play occasionally). It was myself, Lee, our friend Sidd and her boyfriend Brandon. It goes without saying that I am a huge Final Fantasy fan and Brandon is a relatively big fan too, Final Fantasy X being his favourite game in the series along with X-2. So essentially it was three guys watching the game, absorbed in the experience, completely geeking-out over Final Fantasy while Sidd sat playing with her phone.

Then after we finished, we continued to watch some Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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I finally decided to play some more Killzone 2 and completed the game. Everything I said about the game still stands. I would blog about my continued impressions but I really have nothing else to say about it, unless I decide to compare it to other first person shooters this generation. I've also continued playing a little Chrono Trigger and might continue Final Fantasy VIII or the original Phantasy Star a bit later on today.



The Summer Holidays have finally ended as I returned to school today. One of my friends visited Japan during the holiday and brought me back the AMAZING gift of the first volume of the Phoenix Wright manga! Sure, it is in Japanese and I cannot read it but it is AWESOME to have. Furthermore, as I have finally gone back to school, I can start filming my new film "Rebound" and I hope to start next Monday! I would love to get some last minute constructive criticism on the script so I may post it here later on today. As if anyone is interested.

Oh, and I started a blog on Japanator. I really need to finish watching the last two episodes of BECK so I can blog about my impressions...

DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY IS OUT TOMORROW IN EUROPE! I hope I can scrape enough money together to buy it!

Dim.