Final Fantasy X

The story this time concerns Tidus, a blond-haired star of a sport called Blitzball. While he is playing in a match, Tidus's city is attacked by an evil force called Sin, and everything is destroyed save Tidus and his guardian Auran. The adventure begins as the pair 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 nonplayer 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 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. The stunning effects are on display when you use magic in combat, summon gigantic monsters, and use fire columns to devastate your foes.

One new element is voice acting. The innovation yields predictably mixed results: it's wonderful to hear spoken dialogue rather than read 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

Pros:

• Gorgeous graphics
• Epic story line
• Voice acting

• Little innovation
• The voice acting is sometimes laughable

Features include voice-overs for the first time in the series (utilizing the Facial Motion System), high-polygon, motion-captured player characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura, and a camera that automatically adjusts its perspective to correspond with the movements of the characters--a feature now possible because the game is largely polygonal.

Character design still shows its heritage from Yoshitaro Amano, one of Japan's greatest graphic artists. In addition, the background and 'set' design is equally imaginative. Massive use of CGI work simply makes all this magic spring to life with movement and gesture. No less an effort has been spent on the game's sound and music, making the experience of the game intense, and sometimes even spellbinding.

Tidus, a young blitzball professional, is thrust, mid-catastrophe, into the world of Spira, where an incredible monster (Sin) is gradually destroying the world as punishment for its ecological missteps. He meets Yuna, who is a Summoner, capable of calling up Aeons as battle weapons. Yuna has begun a voyage from temple to temple, a quest that must end in a confrontation with Sin to bring peace to Spira. In typical RPG style, they and their companions follow a path of ever escalating monsters and challenges, culminating in a prolonged, exhausting final struggle.

The story and dialog are fine, with a few twists to keep player interest, but for the most part it is predictable. Since people come to this game looking for different things, the creators have tried to manage a difficult balance between narrative and play, and, for the most part, are successful. The dialog is sometimes silly and sometimes touching, but it is never unbearable.

This is an incredibly large game. It is possible to stick to the basic story line, minimum leveling up and barely make it through the game in 50 to 60 hours. A quick perusal of a good walkthrough quickly reveals that nearly half of the game is hidden from view, and that diligent playing can be very rewarding. My time using the walkthrough was 90 hours, and there were still possibilities left unexplored. Obviously, the game will stand up to replay.

I have to give the game five stars. I can quibble about storyline and some predictable gameplay, but there is too much that is simply outstanding. This will be considered one of the peaks of RPG gaming for some time to come.


Living the RPG -- Worlds in the PS2   December 11, 2001
Alan P. Zube (Maryland, USA)
43 out of 51 found this review helpful

I must say now, even though some amazing games have come out this year, such as Soul Reaver 2, Devil May Cry and the spectacular Metal Gear Solid 2, the defining game experience in the coming months will be, without a doubt, Final Fantasy X. No other RPG series has come close to the success and immense enjoyability that the Final Fantasy series has gained over the years. Although there have been some frustrating titles (FF VIII) and some sleeper hits (FF Tactics), Square has established a track record of produce the most realistic and moving story-based games on the market. Final Fantasy X will be no exception.

One of the newest and truly amazing features of this game is the life-size adventure system. In previous RPGs, the adventurer would explore a large outside world, but when entering a specific town or dungeon, the player would often have to walk up to a small icon and confirm entrance. In FFX, your character will be walking in the world from his or her own perspective, and will see oncoming castles or mountains in the distance. When encountering them up close, the scale is life-size in preportion to the character, that is to say, the mountains aren't going to be head hight, they're going to span up into the clouds. As an additional note, fights will now take place on the screen you are in, and not transfer to a pre-rendered background. This takes an amazing amount of effort on the game designer's part, and I want to thank them for making this such a realistic experience.

Another change is the battle time system, previously known as Active Time Battle. The fights now take place in CTB, or Count Time Battle. Instead of constantly waiting for action meters to reach an end, you will be able to use a character immediately on his or her turn and see the list of the next 4 enemies or allies waiting to act. The turns will proceed in sequence, as opposed to the old system of racing the enemy to confirm an attack. This allows for more strategy and twists in battle; a Stop spell could shake up the order of actions a great deal. (As veteran FF fans may notice, this is very similar to the time system in FF Tactics, Square's small unit battle manuvers RPG.)

As not to worry the long-standing fans of the series, some classic FF features will be returning. The special limit attack feature (limit break / trance) has been dubbed Overdrive. It's nearly the same as FF VII's limit break system, each character having a meter that raises when the character is damaged. Chocobos once again live in the environment of the game, as do summons (now called Aeons, and you even get to fight as them in battle!) A leveling up feature, the Sphere board, lets you custimoze characters nearly any way you want, almost like the Materia of FF VII and the Job System of FF V.

This game has so many virtues that it's hard to expound on all of them in a simple, one-page review. The beautiful graphics, amazing storyline, and wonderfully rendered characters (who speak, smile, and scowl) all combine to form one of the greatest RPG packages on any console to date. Kudos to the programmers at Square that spent years designing the most involved game I have ever played. If you only try one role-playing game in your entire life, make it this one.


Incredible   December 25, 2001
Justin R. Germino (Mesa, AZ United States)
215 out of 271 found this review helpful

My first impression of the game was that it would have a summoner type feel (which isn't bad, but not usual FF to me.) However, the game has a very well done story line. Good voice acting and it flushes out the characters so well that they talk to each other and goof on each other in battle. The graphics are very good, though a little jittering and jagged edges on the vector at times. The cutscenes however are superb, and almost movie like in quality.
The game has a great combat interface, though I am not sure yet if I like the sphere system for gaining skills and abilities.

The storyline seems good so far and I am approximately 10 hours in. The music is very good, but I still think the FF3 soundtrack is the best one ever. Overall this is turning out to be my favorite in all the FF series that I have played.


Final Fantasy X   December 20, 2001
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

I just bought this game yesterday ( Dec. 19th ) and its very impressive. I haven't made it into the game very far but from what I've seen so far this game won't disappoint. Everything about this game is good. The new battle system is AWESOME! The only thing I'm not really into is the Sphere Grid system. Its kinda weird but, like I said before, I haven't made it very far in the game so I'll eventually end up getting used to it. This is a great game. Coo bay.


It is possible to teach and old dog new tricks!!!   December 20, 2001
Ryan W. Schneider (Jerseyville, IL USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Final Fantasy is the ultimate Role Playing experience. From the first NES game to this Tenth Edition, every game has offered a new world to explore, new characters to fall in love with, and new enemies to hate. The Final Fantasy Series is what video games are about, and it is very rare to find such a series of games that offer something for every gamer that exists. Final Fantasy X continues this trend! It offers fresh ideas to the old format we have all come to know, and shockingly they are all for the best. With Final Fantasy IX, the gameplay was beginning to get rather stale, however Final Fantasy X, literally rejuvenated my love for the series. This game has everything, Voices!!!, Amazing Graphics (thanks to the Power of the PS2), and a new Battle and Leveling System; which are truly supurb! Final Fantasy X also has an outstanding game called Bliztball, which is basically the best parts of Soccer, Basketball, and Water Polo all mixed in one! This is the must own game for the Playstation 2. Every system has is own special franchise themes, Nintendo has Mario, X-Box has Munch, Sega had Sonic, Well the PS2 doesn't have one character, it has an epic! Final Fantasy! Final Fantasy X is the must own game of the holidays and the year!