I was wrong about the party: Final Fantasy X

It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.
 
It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.
Dialogue definitely, but I disagree with the main story bring weak
 
Ive gone on record saying how I thought this and X-2 were hot trash. But, im currently playing XHD on PS4, and I have to say, I was wrong. My initial bad reaction was from playing these games at a very young age. Part in due to confusion over the systems, which im learning now are no where near as confusing as I remember them being, especially the sphere grid, which I now think is actually a really intuitive way to level up. Tidus isn't nearly as grating as I remember him being either. Narrarator tidus though, is far in a way better than in game tidus, with his near constant whining. The story is really interesting as well. I had forgotten most of it but going back in as an adult im finding it really intriguing. The characters, even though some of the english va is hit or miss, are all mostly very engaging. Its awesome to see wakka's inner struggle as the game progresses on. Anyway, the long short of it is that my basis for this game was incorrect and I can totally see why people love it so much! We will see how X-2 holds up for me, but right now, im eating crow on behalf of my 10 year old self.

Edit: I still hate blitzball

Tidus is as grating as I remember. It's especially bad when we had to endure his spiritual successor as Vaan in XII. The only non annoying party members were Auron, Lulu and Kimahri.
Plus, those cutscenes...just ugh.
 
It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.

I think the story is good, but some of the dialogue lets it down at times. Obvious limitations of the localization, hamper it too, but that withstanding, some of the characters just don't play as well to a Western audience, I feel.

The arc of Jecht specifically, is something beyond what you usually see in FF games. An abusive and neglectful father, who later can't fix his mistakes, but instead tries to make amends in his own, haphazard way. It's the same thing you see with Cloud, where his characterization has become so flanderized by the fanbase, that you tend to forget the actual reality of it. On the surface he looks like an aloof badass, but the more you glean from the story, the more you discover how much Tidus' constant bitching is entirely justified.

Dialogue definitely, but I disagree with the main story bring weak

I don't think anyone will deny this, haha!
 
It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.

In my eyes, the dialogue is sub par but the story is one of the very best in the entire FF series
 
Never cared much for FFX (though it's been years since I last touched it) but FFX-2 is one of my favourite games ever. Not just for the immaculate gameplay, but I also loved how it fully embraced FFX's goofier side. Like, let's be real here, FFX has no shortage of stupid shit going on. FFX-2 played all that up for maximum camp, and it was beautiful.
 
It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.

I would dissagree, I think the over arching narrative is so far very interesting. And though the dialogue isnt great, Im really growing attatched to my party members.
 
Thats silly. All of Spira is suffering and afraid, which makes the sacrifice of the summoners (basically holy celebrities) that much more grim. Most of the cast is dealing with the death of someone dear to them.

The characters who escape death are unnatural and are treated as such - its actually really important and plays into the role of summoners and their role in society.

They are all struggling with death
in a world where people can just decide to not die.
It is impossible for me to care at that point. It undermined all the stakes.

Look, you clearly thought it worked. That is great. Personally, I thought it was a tremendous error by the writer. One that sank the entire story.
 
They are all struggling with death
in a world where people can just decide to not die.
It is impossible for me to care at that point. It undermined all the stakes.

Look, you clearly thought it worked. That is great. Personally, I thought it was a tremendous error by the writer. One that sank the entire story.

This is just wrong though. For most people when they die, (according to the Yevonites anyway) if they are fortunate and a Summoner is nearby they get sent to the farplane, if not they reincarnate as fiends. Only rare, powerful individuals get to hang on as unsent - same way that everyone in earth spiritualism doesn't turn into a ghost when they die.
 
So many of this game's trappings are irritating or embarrassing - the clothes, the melodrama, Tidus, Blitzball. But, the game is great none-the-less, and, somehow, against all odds, the story is effective and engaging. I'm still not sure how it works so well....
 
Tidus is as grating as I remember. It's especially bad when we had to endure his spiritual successor as Vaan in XII. The only non annoying party members were Auron, Lulu and Kimahri.
Plus, those cutscenes...just ugh.

Vaan is a thousand times better than Tidus for the simple fact that he becomes a side character just 20% into his own game. He's just a kid along for the ride.
 
The reason FFX is so grim compared to previous FFs is because the project started out as an original concept, titled "Seventeen: Angelic Impact X Devil's Shock" and unrelated to the FF series. It was conceived by Yusuke Naora, the art director.

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When the project became FFX they toned down the heavy Moebius influence and integrated Sakaguchi's Gaia philosophy in the world setting, but the story is still very different than anything they did before in the series.

FFX is my favorite and I had no idea about this. That is so cool, thanks!
 
FFX's story is surprisingly grim.

A large chunk of the characters throughout the game are
unsent dead people
.

I dont know if this should be considered spoiler, but
nearly every random enemy you face was once a human being. Remember what Lulu said during the sending in Kilika? that's why pyreflies are flying around after you kill them..
 
Vaan is a thousand times better than Tidus for the simple fact that he becomes a side character just 20% into his own game. He's just a kid along for the ride.

True, you can drop him off at the babysitter's if you really want, not too far into the game, but he's still a reminder of Tidus. Both characters are annoying. But hey, I guess at least they aren't Hope though right (who is yet another iteration of Tidus, taken to the extreme)?
 
Your child self was not wrong about X-2.

Also if you're a weeb, Japanese voice track for FFX is great and gets rid of all the complaints about the English voice acting.
 
OP, how can you hate Blitzball? It's like the best Final Fantasy Minigame after Triple Triad. D:
FF X was actually the first FF I beat and that was mainly because X-2 was announced (which, of course, I didn't beat). I also think X has the best battle system. God, I loved it.
 
People like calling Tidus whiny, but he's easily the most human of the modern FF protags. He's not a brooding super soldier or an ace hotshot student.

He's a (popular) athlete with parental issues thrown 1000 years into the future, far away from anything he's ever known. If that doesn't allow for some whining, I don't know what will. We get to follow his growth to become the character we know to be the narrator. I thought it was a very well-done character arc.
 
People like calling Tidus whiny, but he's easily the most human of the modern FF protags. He's not a brooding super soldier or an ace hotshot student.

He's a (popular) athlete with parental issues thrown 1000 years into the future, far away from anything he's ever known. If that doesn't allow for some whining, I don't know what will. We get to follow his growth to become the character we know to be the narrator. I thought it was a very well-done character arc.

Zidane is very human.
So is Vaan, but vaan is shit anyway.

FF "modern" protags (narrators) goes like this:

Ramza > Zidane >>>>>>>> Tidus=Vaan > Cloud > Lightning > Squall.


I actually liked Serah&Noel, too. LR Lightning can go to hell along with X-2's yuna.
 
Sölf;198287859 said:
OP, how can you hate Blitzball? It's like the best Final Fantasy Minigame after Triple Triad. D:
FF X was actually the first FF I beat and that was mainly because X-2 was announced (which, of course, I didn't beat). I also think X has the best battle system. God, I loved it.

Definitely a great battle system, though I think X-2's system is still the pinnacle. If it had been in a better game I think there'd be more consensus on that.
 
Ramza > Zidane >>>>>>>> Tidus=Vaan > Cloud > Lightning > Squall.

I can't tell what I am reading here. Is this considered a "progression" order, or is this a ranking of what you consider best to worst? Because Squall is definitely better than Tidus or Vaan, and I think for the tone of the game Zidane is perfect.
 
I hate Zidane. He's a prick that's too full of himself. Zidane is actually the whiny one when there's a late game revelation, not Tidus.

Tidus > Terra > Cecil > Cloud > Zidane > Van > Lightning > Squall > Buts or Bartz
 
It's a good game, I'd rank it around middle in all FFs but I think it has one of the weakest stories in a FF game. It feels like it's written by a child at times.
I'm curious which Final Fantasy stories you think are better. And really think about what happens in the stories in those games before you post.
 
Zidane is very human.
So is Vaan, but vaan is shit anyway.

FF "modern" protags (narrators) goes like this:

Ramza > Zidane >>>>>>>> Tidus=Vaan > Cloud > Lightning > Squall.


I actually liked Serah&Noel, too. LR Lightning can go to hell along with X-2's yuna.
I don't agree with Zidane, and Vaan was too much of a blank slate imo.

However, yeah I did like Serah + Noel. They were a nice duo that almost made having a 2 person party work.
 
I think Final Fantasy X has a bad reputation from some because it's linear and because it was the first Final Fantasy game with voice acting. To me, it has a great romance, a really well rounded cast, some complexities to the characters and world and lore. It's still goofy and over the top at times, but quite frankly every Final Fantasy has that.

I get why some people dislike Final Fantasy X, but there is definitely a double standard. I think it's great.
 
I think Final Fantasy X has a bad reputation from some because it's linear and because it was the first Final Fantasy game with voice acting. To me, it has a great romance, a really well rounded cast, some complexities to the characters and world and lore. It's still goofy and over the top at times, but quite frankly every Final Fantasy has that.

I get why some people dislike Final Fantasy X, but there is definitely a double standard. I think it's great.

Voice acting is fine, even though sometimes it can skew one's opinion of a character depending on how it's handled. The problem with X wasn't even that it had voice acting, and that the cutscenes were so fucking long. It was like "What is this shit? Am I playing a game, or an interactive movie here?". But at least with most movies, you can forward through the scenes if you want. It was novel with FFVII and FFVIII, but it was just insanely over the top in X.

But hey, at least it wasn't MGS4 right?
 
Im the opposite from the OP... i played X and X2 as a young teen and though they were great. I tried them again when the HD remasters came out and it now gives me the same reaction as watching Twilight.
 
X is my favorite FF. I loved it when it first came out as a kid, and I love it even more now. Tidus is one of the very best FF mains. He starts off so grating and annoying and selfish but undergoes quite the transformation. The party is very memorable too.
 
I can't tell what I am reading here. Is this considered a "progression" order, or is this a ranking of what you consider best to worst? Because Squall is definitely better than Tidus or Vaan, and I think for the tone of the game Zidane is perfect.

Ramza is best, Squall is worst.

Zidane stays whiny for two hours of a 60h game, in a massively emotional moment.

I never tolerated tidus, even if i think my enjoyment of FFX cannot be put in discussion. I wear that on my sleeve : )
 
I only really wish the post game was better. Minigames and sphere grid vacuuming and monster arena over and over and over just really aren't very fun.

But as a whole, a really great game and one of my favorites.
 
Quick question: can I transfer my PS Vita save to my PS4 if I grab the PS4 version?
Also Blitzball is always gonna suck
 
Zidane stays whiny for two hours of a 60h game, in a massively emotional moment.

But that was like the first bad thing that happened to him. He's just aloof the rest of the time.

Wait, there was the moment where he thought Garnet was leaving to go run the kingdom, and he cried in a bar about that.
 
Ramza is best, Squall is worst.

Zidane stays whiny for two hours of a 60h game, in a massively emotional moment.

I never tolerated tidus, even if i think my enjoyment of FFX cannot be put in discussion. I wear that on my sleeve : )

Squall starts out badly, that's for sure, but over the game, he has some of the best character development for a character in a FF game ever.
 
My favorite is how people like to use that scene with Tidus and Yuna laughing as proof the game has shit voice acting seemingly missing how the whole thing is supposed to be them forcing themselves to laugh despite the dire situation they're in.

I love FFX, it is fantastic.

Yup.
 
This is just wrong though. For most people when they die, (according to the Yevonites anyway) if they are fortunate and a Summoner is nearby they get sent to the farplane, if not they reincarnate as fiends. Only rare, powerful individuals get to hang on as unsent - same way that everyone in earth spiritualism doesn't turn into a ghost when they die.

Okay, so death is optional if you really, REALLY don't want to die. Or, if you are a total beefcake, you can just opt out of death.

I am being silly, but that is essentially how it feels to me.

Either way, once death is optional for one person it compromises the severity for death as a whole. That is just how I feel about it, dude. Once again, I just can't take the story seriously anymore. The stakes have been diminished.

I know you don't see it that way. I get that you are completely sold on it; you thought the story justified that aspect nicely. I didn't.
 
Ramza is best, Squall is worst.

Zidane stays whiny for two hours of a 60h game, in a massively emotional moment.

I never tolerated tidus, even if i think my enjoyment of FFX cannot be put in discussion. I wear that on my sleeve : )

Weird. I really liked Ramza and Zidane, but I also thought that as far as the "modern", broody/whiney protagonists go, Squall was by far the least offensive. I definitely wouldn't consider him the worst by any means. He's better than Cloud for sure, unless you're not just counting the games.

Hated FF X so it's the game that put me off final fantasy for good. I regret not playing 12. I heard good things about it.

It's the easiest to replay today. It also helps if you can snag the IZJS version and patch it with the English text from the US release.
 
I once went through a phase where i convinced myself that FF7's hype was mostly just rose tinted nostalgia goggles. Could never get past disc 1 on emulator, but I bought the PsOne classic on my PS3 and for some reason, on a TV+Console i blew through it in a few days. Turned out the game was actually far better than I actually remembered it was as a child. I then promptly bought FF8 and FF9 and found a new, stronger love for the PSX games I already knew i loved.


I was emotionally in love with FFX when it came out and was older on my initial playthrough, although my recent playthrough of FFXHD actually lowered my initial opinion of the game a bit. I still think Spira was one of the best worlds Square ever did for an FF game, and that FFX's cast are my favorite of Nomura's designs. But the voice acting grated me in ways that it never did back on PS2. Also, I never remember feeling this way before, but the linear flow of FFX didn't sit as well with me on my revisit, which is odd because I dont remember feeling that way on my first play through. However, the story, the battle system, the sphere grid, the aeons and the customization are all significantly better than I remember them to be. You are in full control of your character growth, and the game does a great job of making your entire party feel relevant. Still love blitzball, even if it feels a bit clunky in 2016. Overall, Final Fantasy X is the most replayable FF game to me. The kinds of challenge runs you can create for yourself are amazing, and the game is still deep enough to allow them to be entirely possible, as seen with "No Sphere Grid" runs.


In replaying FF7-FF10, I always found something I could only really appreciate while older, and Tidus was that thing in FFX. People call him whiny, and he was. But there is something really neat about how they handled him. The balance between his "superstar" persona, his displacement in Spira, and his feelings of inadequacy due to his emotionally abusive father (whom he simply CANNOT escape the gravity of facing, no matter where he goes or what happens), and how he deals with it regarding Yuna is just really interesting. The way he narrates the story is also kind of a great foreshadowing towards how it changes him. Jecht and Tidus probably have the most interesting relationship out of Final Fantasy characters i can think of offhand, and FFX-2 focusing on Post-Sin Spira instead of Braska, Auron and Jecht is probably the biggest missed goldmine from Square.


And, regarding the HD Remix, I was in for a beautiful surprise when I ran into
Omega Weapon. I expected him to die in 4 hits like when i fought him on PS2. It took me what felt like a full hour of struggle to beat him (and i was terrified to die because i had captured like 15 monsters before getting to him)



Also...something regarding the story I wish i knew during my first playthrough.
I wasn't aware that the "Dream" Zanarkand that Tidus originates from is actually a physical place in Spira that exists concurrently. I was always under the impression that Sin just kind of ripped him out of a place that didn't exist....which created alot of odd situations when Yuna/Rikku would consistently ask to go to "Your Zanarkand" well after Tidus already saw the ruins of the real one.
 
Im the opposite from the OP... i played X and X2 as a young teen and though they were great. I tried them again when the HD remasters came out and it now gives me the same reaction as watching Twilight.

This soo much. I'm trying to play through the game now as an adult and the dialogue and voice acting makes it an absolute cringe fest. Some scenes are absolute torture.

I mean, Yuna and Tidus dialogue is just so awkward all the time. I would desparately like to see an interview with the actors to hear them talk about how it could go so horribly wrong.

Also, the fact that everything was originally timed for Japanese makes the timing in most scenes completely off with weird pauses where there should be none.

Gah... I love the battle system and the waterworld setting (agree with the fashion being moronic though) but I don't know if I can muster up the strength to listen through all this crap.
 
I played it on release and then replayed again for the HD release recently. It's a good game but I still feel the earlier entries were far and away more enjoyable. Maybe VIII a little less so, but 9,7,6 and 4 were gems.
 
They are all struggling with death
in a world where people can just decide to not die.
It is impossible for me to care at that point. It undermined all the stakes.

Look, you clearly thought it worked. That is great. Personally, I thought it was a tremendous error by the writer. One that sank the entire story.

Considering that most of them turn into monsters and kill people, I'm not so sure.
 
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