Final Fantasy X:
This Is My Story

Review by Chi Phan

Final Fantasy X is my first Playstation 2 rpg game and I'm glad it was. I was eagerly waiting for this game for quite some time when I heard that Square decided to go back to the FF8 approach. I didn't read much about it or heard much about it other than that it included lots of voice acting and a love story. I wanted this game to surprise me and it definetly has. See, while I did enjoy FF9, I was kind of disappointed that FF9 took a step back toward the old school tradition with fighting classes and fantasy drawn characters which is totally different than the realistic approach of FF8. I wanted to see Square take the next step with FF9 but they took a step back instead. Personally FF10 is what FF9 should be and that's taking the next step after FF8. FF10 presented to us with even more realistic graphics and detail character animation which includes voice acting and an even bigger movie style love story than FF8 ever did. How much did I enjoy this game?? You're going to have to find out and read on. Well you better read on or else I've type all this up for nothing. Bunch of losers you all are.

It all begins here....... The beginning of a new love Another new approach is the way the story is presented to us. First the story starts of with narration from the main character Tidus. For about 3/4 of the game, the story will consist of Tidus narration as this is his story. Unlike all previous rpg game where the story starts off from the beginning and goes all the way to the end. FFX takes a movie approach and actually starts the story near the end of the journey with the group at a camp site. Here Tidus starts to narrate the story and then the games goes back to his flashback as to how it all began. As I said a movie approach to things. Now onto the flashback on how the journey all began. Tidus is a star blitzball player from the city of Zanarkand getting ready to enter a blitzball game. Blitzball is an underwater sports that's a cross between soccer and dodgeball I guess. Don't ask me how these guys are able to breath underwater. Anyways moving on, during the game, the city of Zanarkand is attack by SIN. What is SIN? SIN is a monster. SIN basically looks like a giant mutated whale. That's just my opinion. During the destruction of Zanarkand due to SIN's attack, Tidus is sucked into SIN. Or near the source of SIN's frontal assault. As the next day comes, Tidus awakens to find himself in nearby village called Besaid. Here in this village he meets Wakka, Lulu, Kamahri, and Yuna. Tidus soon learned that Zanarkand had been destroyed 1000 year ago. Ouch. Time travel anyone? Nothing worse than waking up and finding yourself in the future. Not only that but Tidus soon learn of what SIN is. SIN is an evil monster that has appeared since the destruction of Zanarkand. To simply put SIN is a big bad monster that can't be killed. SIN can only be stopped for a short period where SIN is put to sleep for a time before SIN is revived again. This period where there is no SIN is known as the Calm period. How is SIN stopped?? With a summoner and the Final Aeon. I assume those of you who are reading this know what a summoner is. An Aeon is a guardian force like in all the FF games. Back to the summary. Yuna is a summoner and she and her friends are on a journey to acquire the Final Aeon to stopped SIN. It just so happens that the final place to acquire the Final Aeon is at the ruins of Zanarkand, Tidus home city. So naturally Tidus decides to come along with the group on the journey. Thus the story of FFX begins. Now along the way, there is some great plot developement as well as character developement. This is a good story with some really good plot twist involve and a very sad and unexpected ending. FF8 appeals more to the female FF gamers and I expect FFX will do the same. Personally I think the story would even be more of an emotional rollar coaster ride if the 2 key characters were alot better. Tidus and Yuna to me aren't very strong lead characters. They are alot better than whats his name with the tail and the princess but I don't think they will compare well to Cloud & Aeris or Squall and Rinoa. I'm a sucker for sad endings and I know it would even be better with stronger leading characters. Nevertheless I give it a 9.

No comment! In terms of character presentation and developement. FFX does this nicely. There are a total of 7 main characters. Each characters have their own unique background, personalities, looks, and voices. Unlike other rpgs where your characters meet up with one another on a long journey, here 4 out of the 7 characters all know one another from the beginning. Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, and Kamahri. It's a wonder how the details of each character shows and their personality. Especially when you have voices to go along with it. It help make them shine even more. From Rikku, youthfullness to Wakka easy going way. The developement of the 2 main characters are excellent. The only lack of key developement would probaby be Rikku as you really don't know much about her past. Everyone elses past are slowly played into the storyline as you advance further into the game. As a group these characters work well together. But individually none of these characters really stood out for me. Generally in terms of characters in rpgs, I like to really look for a character that stands out. Here none of the characters really did it for me. There wasn't really one character that I like to use over and over again in the game. I have the hots for Lulu but unfortunately having the hots for Lulu doesn't mean she's my favorite character at all. LOL. I say a 9 out of 10 is good.

A moment alone.. The graphics in this game is revolutionary, reminisence of Final Fantasy VII for the Playstation. Without a doubt, Final Fantasy X will define the standards for future rpgs as to what graphics should be on the Playstation 2. The graphics used in the game is very similar to that of FF VIII. The characters are realistic looking with great facial details. The world consist of a beautiful color 3-D environment. The FMV once again are up to the usual Squaresoft standard. But while the FMV are similar to FMV from the Playstation. It's the gameplay graphics that stands out in this game. The gameplay graphics is the biggest improvement in terms of graphic transition from the Playstation to the Playstation 2. Here, story cut scene and gameplay scene are very realistic with fine details and almost on par with the FMV graphics. And this is still in the early stages of the Playstation 2 life. Imagine what future FF games would look like once developers become even more familiar with the Playstation 2 specs. There's no doubt that it is the strongest part of the game and Square made sure it is. I really can't say much more about the graphics as you really have to see it to believe it.

Chocobo Power! In the past Square always have a high standard for music in the FF series and there's no exception here. All the tunes in this game are excellent and played perfectly at the right moment. With some remixes added on from previous FF games. There's no doubt in my mind that lots of gamers will have favorites tunes from this game. My personal favorites are the Omega Weapon theme and Yuna theme. The Heavy Metal theme against the end game boss is also pretty cool and unique. I believe that this is the first time heavy metal music was ever used in rpgs. Note that Yuna theme is actually a remix of Aeris theme from FF7 which is why it will easily become everyone's favorite. If a game can give you some favorite tunes that you want to hear over and over again then the music director is doing an excellent job. Another high quality is the sound effects and the voice acting. If you listen carefully you will hear the fine details of sound effects from footsteps to birds chirping. Unlike previous FF games, FFX once again define the next step in rpgs by including high quality voice acting throughout the game. Of course what is consider high quality voice acting depends on your point of view but I believe most will agree that the voice acting is very well done. With this much voice acting from FMV sequence to story scene to battle gameplay, FFX feels like a high quality movie. I especially like the voices during the battle gameplay which ranges from cute to cool. It might take a while to get used to some of the voices but once you do, it's really good. The only downside is that the voice acting doesn't sync in with the lips of the characters but that's understandable since the game was originally made with japanese actors. Excellent quality overall.

HOT babe alert! What are you looking at? Game Information    Genre: Traditional Rpg    Company: Squaresoft    Disc: 1 Disc DVD    Memory: 64 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Vibration: Yes    Dual Analog: Yes    Digital Control: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: December 2001 The Ice Queen. Face to face with SIN Omega Gold (Nemesis) Leave it up to Square to always come up with something that's new and cutting edge for each FF game. FFX uses a gameplay system that is unlike any other. Things that are new: sphere grids, overdrive, customizing of weapons & armours, and bribing. Let's begin with the quest first. The quest itself is very straight forward. You really can't get lost. There's really no world map for you to journey on. What you have is a small navigational map that appears at the top right corner of your screen. Note that you can turn the small navigational map off but it's not recommended. The small navigational map gives you the layout of the area as well as to provide you with a red arrow pointing out to you on where to go next incase you get lost. The world consists of a 3-D environment but since there's no option to change your camera angle or rotate your camera angle, it's best to use the navigational map to help guide you. I think the only draw back on the movement of the game is the lack of ability to change your camera angles. Being able to rotate your camera angle would be nice. Another drawback is that this game utilizes a puzzle solving element when you need to acquire a new Aeon. I don't know about the rest of you but I find the puzzle aspect of the game to be very hard. The good part is that the puzzle solving element is very small to the overall game. Very small. Thank god for that. LOL. Now for the battle system. Battles take place in a random encounters. You can have up to 3 characters in battle with 3 characters in reserve. Now unlike previous FF game, you can switch party members in and out during battles. This isn't new to rpgs in general but new to FF games. This is a very cool feature that should've been used more in past FF game. Second is the way the game is set up. Unlike past FF game where gamers can just choose the 3 fighters they like to use the most, here you literally have to use all of your fighters depending on the monsters that you are using as each fighter has a uniqueness about them. For example: if you are up against flying monsters than the only fighters that only can kill them are magic users and long range attack fighter like Wakku. And if you are up against monster that are 4 legged and fast then you would use Tidus. For monsters with a hard shell then use fighters with piercing abilitis. So in each case, you will end up with a balance party. The developers are very smart this time around. Another unique feature is the ability to break your hp, mp and damage limit. In most rpgs and in past FF games, fighters hp limit are usually 9999 hp and damage limit to monster are set at 9999 Hp. But in FFX it's possible to achieve 99999 Hp with 999 Mp for fighters and do 99999 Hp damage to monsters. In other words it's very easily possible to achieve god-like status in this game. You will most likely need to achieve god-like status if you intend to fight the extra bosses in monster arena. This leads us to customization. Customization can range from weapons, armours to Aeons abilities & attributes. Weapons or armours can be brought at shops or dropped by monsters. Each weapon or armour will come with between 1 to 4 slots. Some slots will be empty while some slots with automatically come with an added attribute to them. These added attributes can range from auto-haste to HP+20%. Of course the key here is the ability to make your own weapons or armours with the abilities that you want on it. This is possible by acquiring a certain number of an items to unlock that ability. For example: inorder to get Break Damage limit on a weapon for your fighter to do over 9999 Hp to monster, you need to get get 60 Dark Matters. You can get items to unlock abilities in 3 ways, monsters dropping them when they die, stealing from monsters, or bribing from monster by paying them off with Gil. Now besides using these items for customizing weapons & armours, you can also use these items to increase the stats of your Aeons. Which brings us to the Aeons. As stated before, Aeons are your Guardian Force. Only Yuna, the summoner can summon Aeons. Unlike previous Guardian Forces, the Aeons are quite weak and mostly best used as cannon foddler to absorbs hits. In a game where your fighters including magic users doing 99999 HP damage to bosses with one swing, what's the point in having Aeons? You will find pretty early on in the game that your Aeons can die quite easily. Only much later on near the end of the game when you can get your hands on the Magus Sisters Aeon will you be able to really use an Aeon to your advantage. Stats of an Aeon will go up in 2 ways. Yuna's stats or by customizing their stats with items. As Yuna gets stronger, so do the Aeons. The strength of your Aeon is reflected on the strength of Yuna. You can also increase certain Aeon's stats attributes by acquiring the amount of items needed to increase that stat much like with customizing weapons. Well that's about it for the Aeons. Next comes the Limit Breaks. Or in this case the Overdrives. They might as well just call it limit breaks as that's what they are. Overdrives can be archieve in different ways. Your overdrive gauge will fill up base on the Overdrive modes that your fighter is set on. There are different types of Overdrive modes in the game and you will begin to learn the different modes as you progress in the game. An example of this. A fighter is set on Warrior Overdrive Mode. Warrior Mode means that each time a fighter does damage to a monster, his Overdrive gauge will fill up. Once a figher does enough damage and his overdrive gauge fills up, he/she can then unleash his/her limit break. Understand?? There are different Overdrive Modes available so pick the one that suites you. Note, that including all your fighters, Aeons also have Overdrive as well. This pretty much brings us to the last and biggest feature of this game. The Sphere Grid. What's a Sphere Grid?? I'll get to that in a minute. First off, unlike previous rpgs or FF games, this game doesn't use a level up system. Meaning that your characters don't level up nor do they have a level for you to judge on. "If they don't level up then how do they get stronger, you ask?" Sphere Grid. Sphere Grid is your way of leveling up or in this case making your character stronger. The Sphere Grid looks like a giant size board with bunch of spheres connecting to each other with roadways. After each battle, your fighters gain AP (ability points). As you gain more AP, you will then start to level up your Sphere Level. This is important as your Sphere Level determines the distance that you can travel around on the Sphere Grid. Once you have travel around activating the spheres to increase your stats, your Sphere Level resets back to 0 to the point where you cannot move around the Sphere Grid again. Then you have to start the cycle of leveling up your Sphere Level again. Now the kind of spheres grids that are on the Sphere Grid Map are Hp+, Mp+, strength+, defense+, and of course the various skills and magic spheres such as Ultima, Haste, ect. So basically each time you activate these spheres, you are increasing your stats. Hence a way to gain level up for your characters. Now inorder to activates the tiny sphere grids, you need spheres. There are 4 main type of spheres. Power Sphere for increasing hp stats, defense, and strength stats, Mana Sphere for increasing mp stats and magic defense, Speed Sphere for increasing evasion and agility stats, and Ability Sphere for learning fighting skills and magic. Of course there are more spheres than the ones I mention but those are the most commons one. You gain spheres from defeating monsters. Also note that spheres can also be used to increase Aeons stats as well. In the Sphere Grid Map, each of your 7 fighters are placed in different section of the Sphere Grid Map at the beginning. This doesn't really mean anything much as you can move your fighters anywhere on the Grid Map. But intially at first each fighter will be place in the area of the Grid Map that suites their style. Example of this is Rikku. Rikku is pretty much in the thief class so she is placed in the area where the Grid Map is heavily dominated with Speed Spheres as well as Abilities Spheres to learn skills such as Steal, Mug, and Bribe. Yuna would be place where there are lots of white magic spheres and so on forth for the other characters. As Rikku gain sphere levels, she can move about and learn abilities that other characters have as well. This applies with all the other characters too. So basically characters gain in stats by traveling around the sphere grids and activating each spheres. If you level up enough, and gained enough sphere levels, you can actually complete the entire Sphere Grid Map and create a god like character. That should summed up the Sphere Grid system. That's about does it for the gameplay. Overall this is one of the most intriguing, fun, and unique gameplay around. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. With the exception of the puzzle element. A major big thumbs up for me.

Score: 10/10

I have to go, Yuna If you're looking for extras then this game got it all. Lots of stuff with lots of things to do. I can easily say that the amount of time you spend on the extras is probably the same or greater than the actual time you spend playing this game. There's side quests for you to do inorder to get some really cool Aeons. Then there's the Celestial weapons (your characters ultimate weapons) sidequest. But going on the side quest to get your weapon isn't enough. After gathering all the weapons, you then have to go on another sidequest gathering the materials needed to activate your Celestial weapons. This is very time consuming and some of these mini games quest to get the materials to activate your weapons are extremely very hard and frustrating and require lots of luck. There's also the monster capturing game which if you choose, can do but note that it is extremely time consuming. You can pretty much capture all of the monsters that appear in the game. The amount of monster you capture will get you cool items to use to customize your weapons with. Plus capturing monsters can open up over 20 hard bosses for you to fight in the Monster Arena. I'm talking about extra bosses from 1 million HP to 10 million HP. Now if that's not enough, there of course is the blitzball game. Spending numerous hours on blitzball will net you Wakka's Overdrives as well as one of the material needed to activate his Celestial Weapon. Lastly there's also the sidequest to fight Omega and Ultima Weapons. So as you can see, you can spend well over 30 hours of extra gameplay on all the extras available. The only downside to all this is that it's too time consuming and some of the mini games are so frustratingly hard that it drives you nuts. Everyone will have one mini game that they hate the most. Some would say the stupid chocobo racing game, others would say dodging lightening 200 times straight, but for me, it's the stupid butterfly game that drove me nuts the most. There are of course other smaller extras but you get the idea of how much this game offers in terms of extras. There are no multiple endings or extra game mode so the replay value will come from whether or not you enjoy the game enough to play it again. Overall a 9 out of 10. I'm knocking 1 point off due to some of the extremely hard mini games. Mini games are suppose to be fun, not frustrate gamers. Hence the term mini games.

In the long run, how will FFX be place among the FF series, who's to say but it definetly is a step up to the previous FF game which is the somewhat disappointing FF9. FF7 change the revolution of what the next generation of FF games should be like after the old school age. FF8 took it a step further and gave us a movie love story feel to the game and made it the biggest selling FF of the Playstation. FF9 gave us the old school feel and didn't sell as well as FF8 as most of today's generation FF gamers didn't warm up to the game. It's understandable why FFX then went back to the ways of FF8. FFX as a game is great and unique and offers much to gamers. I really had a good time playing this game. The only thing I didn't like about this game is probably the overall cast of characters. There wasn't one that I really took a shine too. In FF7 I fell in love with Aeris and from this day regards her as my favorite female rpg character. FF8 had Laguna as the guy that I related to and felt sorry for. FFX cast of characters are more like FF9 in a sense that not one individual stood out but as a group worked well together. Sure I think Lulu is hot but that's a different thing from a favorite character as I honestly don't have a favorite character in this game. The ending is a very moving ending and I really enjoyed it. It's not often where you get an ending where it's more realistic instead of the usually happy theme in all rpgs. Final Score: 9.8/10 Time to complete: 100+ hours for a complete game including side quests Difficulty: medium to hard Favorite character: Wakka? Least favorite character: Kamahri Hottest FF babe: Lulu. She's so hot!!! Most useful Aeon: Magus Sister Least favorite Aeon: Yojimbo Best magic to get: Ultima or Holy Best fighting skill: Quickhits Best Advice: Learn Haste and Quickhits Also try: Final Fantasy VIII Up next: Grandia 2

STORY A narrative storyline with good plot twist and a very good ending. More of a movie story than an rpg story.	9
CHARACTERS A good cast but not great leading characters. All with unique personality of their own.	9
GRAPHICS By far the best rpg graphic today. Nothing comes close to it from any other rpg game around.	10
MUSIC Overall it can't get any better. One of the best musical selection around.	10
GAMEPLAY A unique and interesting gameplay system that's never been used before. A truely fun game to play.	10
EXTRAS/REPLAY Excellent value for your game. Numberous side quests and extra bosses to be had. Total gameplay spend on side quests and hard bosses can be over 40+hours.	9