Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: 89

89: Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Developer: Squaresoft (again)
Year: 2001

One of the last games to be developed by Square prior to their merger with the other Japanese RPG giant, Enix, Final Fantasy X marked a great change in the style and presentation of the Final Fantasy series. A number of huge leaps were made at the start of the PS2’s lifespan, and FFX was on the forefront, presenting upgrades in almost every aspect of game-making. Aside from character writing.

The story of FFX is actually one of its strong points, despite having some lame characters. The world of Spira is under attack by a giant aquatic beast called Sin. Of course, as is always the case with any world crisis, the church is to blame. Well, the church and the main characters’ parents. Both Tidus and and Yuna’s fathers are responsible – in a roundabout way – for the continually renewing crushing of the entire population of the world. Its kinda complex, so I won’t over explain it here, but let’s just say that the lamer characters are immediately overshadowed by their parents, every time.

The nice part, though, is that the story is presented in a way that was suddenly refreshing; gone were the background images, pre-rendered and flat, replaced now with full 3D environments that could be moved at will by the player. A map shows you everything you have around you at any time, too, giving you a slightly easier time running through the various boss lairs, towns, and dungeons, while still maintaining the scope and mystery of the games of old. Also new is the voice work that was applauded at first, but then – after people heard Tidus speak and laugh and go on and on and on about his “old man” – people kinda hated it, somewhat. To say it was a mixed bag is an understatement.

The best part, though, is the new battle system. Gone is the ATB (active battle timer), this time replaced with a far more turn based battle. Now, granted, the FF series has always been “turn based”, but by showing you the turns, in order, on screen, and how your actions shanged the turn display (some spells took two turns, so knowing your move could leave you more open may give you reason to rethink your actions) makes it that much  more interesting. And the summon feature has been altered as well, so now your summoned monsters stay on screen and do the battles for you. The best part, though, is that the character class system basically returns; a black mage, a blue mage, a thief, a summoner… you’ve got old school style FF gameplay, there.

All in all, FFX is hated by some for its differences, hailed by some for its innovations. But the fact is that its the game that launched the series into the last generation and it did so with little effort. Its looked good, the music was still fantastic (as it always is), and the CGI movies were breathtaking. And, despite the fact that I really don’t like Yuna and Tidus, they manage to do what they tried to do in FFVIII with Squall and Rinoa, and they did it with greater simplicity and immersion into the story; create a love story. Do I care about them? No. But it was a better attempt at it. That’s a plus. Also: Auron is bad ass.

Classic Moment:
You freaking kill Seymour, the game’s primary antagonist. Early. But, because Yuna doesn’t “send” him (basically telling his soul to GTFO of Spira) he spends the rest of the game running around and screwing everything up. He’s dead and wanders around unsent, killing people and pushing people into situations he knows are not for the best. He’s got a Magneto mentality (doesn’t think he’s a bad guy), but he’s dead. Dead dead dead. The cool part about this? Its revealed that Auron was dead the whole game, too. What is a bad ass? Someone who is dead but refuses to allow that to slow them down. This game has two of them.

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Added September 29, 2016
I’ve got an HD version of this and its sequel sitting in its box at home, just waiting for a spin in the ol’ PS4. I was planning on playing this game, next, but now we’re moving and all my games are packed up.
Last time I played over over-leveled (over-sphered?) Yuna so much that she could one-shot almost anything.
I’ll try to repeat the magic.