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of Spira, laying waste to
cities, causing everyone to live in fear. Joining her are six guardians who act as bodyguards to her. First there is
Tidus, the lead
protagonist, who was ripped from 1,000 years in the past, next we have
Wakka and Lulu who have been training all their lives to be guardians
and have known Yuna since she was a child, after this we have Kimahri, a
beastly Ronso who doesn't say much, Auron, a guardian to Yuna's summoner
father, and Rikku, a member of the technologically advance Al Bhed
civilization, an ensemble cast if ever there was one, but dripping with
poor characterization and possessing more than a few archetypes. The
story moves along at a decent pace, but the plot twists just don't move
smoothly. The whole "relationship" between Yuna and Tidus is
very forced, often when new information comes to the party that has a
serious impact on their quest it hardly phases them, they simply accept
it, and some parts of the plot, mostly at the end of the game, you can
see coming from a mile away. Now it's not so bad as to insult my
intelligence, but the ham-fisted delivery of the story is frustrating. I
kept expecting things to get ironed out as I neared completing the game,
but I saw the "The End" on the screen and sadly that never
happened. What would have gone a very long way in helping make this a
little more tolerable would have been if there wasn't a cutscene every
30 minutes or so, it just brought too much story line, continuously
reminding me of how weak and disjointed it is.
Oh, but that's not the end of my rant on this game's narrative, no sir!
There are some big, big problems I have with some of the characters in
Final Fantasy X so I'll get down to it. Right off the top, Yuna seems to
bend over backwards to find new and exciting ways to irritate me to no
end. First she has got to be the most amazingly naive person ever,
EVER! She trusts in everyone entirely too much, and is completely driven
by a blind sense of obligation, and all of this results in her getting
the party into a lot of trouble time and time again. If it wasn't for
her guardians she would have been dead a long time ago, yet they keep
saving her. After several hours of playing the game I was hoping beyond
hope that I could find a way to just have her killed and take the
guardians and have them kill Sin on their own. The game's story even
says that Summoners need to pass a test before they go on their
pilgrimage, so my question is how could someone as amazingly incompetent
as Yuna have become one? Ugh, she is easily one of the most annoying
characters ever in a video game. Coming in a close second we have Rikku.
Now thankfully she is only a tertiary character, so you don't have to
deal with her too often, but I swear, if I ever have to hear her
asinine, "You know..." once more I think I may just go insane.
This girl doesn't serve much use in the party, she contributes nothing
to the party's conversations, to put it bluntly she doesn't need to be
in the game. Nobody would miss her. This girl is only really here to
introduce the Al Bhed related parts of the story into the game, but we
don't even need her as a character, yet there she is subjecting us to
her inane prattle. Equally unneeded is Kimahri. While I'm all for the
strong silent type, this guy is a real let down. Early on in the game
you get the sense that this lion-like beast will be one hell of a bad
ass, but he hardly says a word, and the further you get in the game the
less you need to use him. Again, why is he here? To add the bit in the
story about the Ronsos? I think so. This guy is a very stale, all around
filler character. On the other side of the coin, the rest of the party
is actually quite likeable. Tidus, for the most part, is a very
energetic character. While he may do a little too many disturbing hand
gestures for no good reason in his soliloquies, he's still largely a
cheery chap who plays off of everyone else quite well. Most notably is
his interaction with Wakka, as they horse around in an almost brotherly
way. Wakka himself is easy to accept as well, he's easy going, takes
time to smell the roses, and just brings a fun loving calm to the cast,
despite his imposing, brawny stature. Adding a moodier counterbalance to
all of this are Auron and Lulu. While Auron just does a good job of
being the bad ass (maybe even better than Solid Snake in MGS), it's Lulu
that comes off extremely well with her generally negative attitude.
Usually when you have a brooding character they turn out all whiny, and
grumpy, and that's about it. With Lulu, she comes off as genuinely being
in a foul mood, which later turns into a general unwillingness to put up
with crap (other than Yuna's stupidity of course). But after balancing
out the idiosyncrasies of the members of the party, the ones who are
actually likeable go a long way to helping forget about the irritating
characters.
And now that I've gotten my seething rant out of the way I can talk
about the stuff I do like about the game, first and foremost being the
way that characters level-up. It isn't just about getting
experience points and every so often you'll have accumulated enough to
get all your stats raised at once. Instead a Sphere Grid is used
and as characters gain experience in time they will gain Sphere Levels
which can be spent to move along the grid so when you land on a new
circle there will often be an attribute there that can be opened up
with the appropriate Sphere (you earn spheres from fallen monsters in
battle). At first you're pretty much stuck on a set path as you traverse
the grid, but with time it opens up and you can go just about anywhere
you want. But the real draw is that it gives a real sense of progression,
far more than what is traditionally found. Instead of wandering around
for an hour trying to level-up and only going up a few levels, in this
game characters will go up sphere levels very rapidly, but only be
able to up one or two stats at a time, be it hit points, defense,
strength, or learning a new spell. Granted this is largely smoke
and mirrors to make the normally tedious leveling-up process disappear,
but it gets the job done. Don't be surprised if you see something similar
show up in other RPGs, not necessarily a sphere grid, but at least
incremental, but frequent level-ups. This isn't the only way to enhance
your party either, as weapon and armor customization will play a part in
improving a character's performance to a lesser degree as they can have
status immunities, or strength and magic enhancements, among other
things, added to their equipment which will prove very important in
battle.
Battles too have received an overhaul in how they're played out now.
Taking a note from the battle systems of Grandia, the battles here in
Final Fantasy X are based on time more than ever. Each character
and monster has a place in the order of attack shown on a bar on the
right-hand side of the screen. It develops an appreciation of speed in
combat and makes you realize the importance of hitting the monsters hard
before they hit you. There are some attacks that, if properly executed,
will push enemies back in the battle order, but what would have been
particularly nice would have been if just a normal, but extremely
powerful, attack could send the monsters back in the order instead. On
top of all this is the ability to swap characters during a battle, not
just in between them. This has to be one of the most helpful
things to ever hit a Final Fantasy game, it's just so nice to know you
can call up a mage when you come up against an elemental beast or other
such magic-sensitive baddie. What really struck me for a loop was
that status ailments actually play a strong role in battles, far more
than any other Final Fantasy. Getting poisoned or turned to stoned in
past games was mildly annoying, but here these things can mean certain
doom if not handled correctly. Zombie, poison, and confusion can really
do a number on your party, throw in berserk and you might as well hit
reset, because your party is likely toast. Now that's what I call status
ailments, delivering a rich, full-bodied blend of pain, not the
"Mommy! Mommy! I have an owwie!" wimpy, whiny pain that
darkness, poison and the like usually inflict. Also overdrive attacks
are in the game once again, but the interesting thing here is that there
are multiple ways to increase the overdrive meter that characters will
learn as the party progresses, such as through healing others, hitting
enemies or being hit by enemies, killing enemies, et cetera. Pulling off
the moves varies from person to person too, some just have to be told
and they'll act, others need to hit a point on a meter correctly, or
match symbols like in a slot machine, or pull off button combos under a
time limit in order to get the best effect out of their attack. About
the only one I didn't like dealing with was Lulu's Fury overdrive, which
allows her to cast a spell multiple times at no magic cost. What
bothered me was that you needed to rotate one of the analogue sticks as
fast as you can for the best result. The way I was going I was worried
that I'd break my controller I was spinning it so fast. My only qualm is
that when things do get tough, the answer is always leveling-up. I hit a
boss near the end of the game that was mopping the floor with my party,
so I said, "The hell with this!", leveled-up my party six ways
to Sunday and they obliterated it. Unfortunately my characters were so
strong that all I needed were Auron, Wakka, and Tidus as they all had
8,000+ hit points, inflicted 9,999 hit points per attack, could cast
group Haste, and had an ability to hit quickly (called Quick Hit) that
enabled them to do several attacks per turn. With tanks like this I
bowled over the end boss of the game in two and a half turns. That just
cheapened the whole experience for me. I thought bosses were supposed to
be tough, yet my party makes minced meat of them. The only way I could
have made the game harder would be to not level up, but why should it
fall upon me, the player, to bring about the challenge? That's the
developer's job, not mine.
The other part of battles everyone loves, though, would be the magic and
summoning. There aren't as many spells as in the past, but this works
out to be an advantage as it cuts down the clutter of piles of
absolutely useless magic that you'll never use but wind up getting
anyway. Instead a lot of the magic is based on Aristotelian elements for
the most part, being comprised of Fire, Water, Lightning, and Ice in the
game. They all have a pecking order, and cancel each other out if used
properly. It's understanding and acting on this system that is most
emphasized in using spells, at least in terms of black magic. For white
magic things are more conventional with curative, protective, and status
enhancing spells being the order of the day. Then there's the other
faction in the Final Fantasy magic system, the summonings. Players will
eventually be able to collect a little over a half dozen of these beasts
in their travels, using them for the usual assortment of incredibly
powerful attacks, and can even customize and enhance the creatures'
stats eventually in the game. In the past Square has given us long,
drawn out animations for when an animal is initially summoned. They
still do and don't exist here, as there is an option to shorten them,
but unless you accidentally stumble across it you'll miss it.
There's no mention of it in the manual, and all you get in the
configuration screen is "Aeons" with the choice of default and
short, no mention of it being to control the animation, just an
incredibly vague sub-category. I didn't even notice it until
someone pointed it out to me it was so non-assuming.
Now this slaying evil beasties business is all fine and dandy, but we
need areas to do it in, and this is the other true weakness of Final
Fantasy X. First off, there is no
overworld in the game, it's just one area connected to the next, that's
it. There aren't even dungeons in the game, they're just paths that you
have to follow. Save for a couple of areas near the end of the game
there is almost no regions in Final Fantasy X that can truly be
explored, there is no sense of discovery, wonder, or curiosity, players
are simply led by the nose through the entire game destroying any sense
of exploration, an absolute key quality of a role-playing game. I know
Final Fantasy titles have never been a bastion for non-linear play, but
this is completely ludicrous. Bigger, more fleshed out dungeons that
actually need to be learned, and searched out thoroughly are greatly
needed. I want to be relieved to see the light of the exit of the
dungeon, feeling safe after being hounded by all manner of beast in the
dank depths my party is about to leave behind them, but that is not here
in this game.
Oh, by the way, did you know that the game has really good graphics?
Yup, it sure does. The visuals are right up there at the head of the
line in terms of what has been presented on the PS2 to this date, even
the in-game stuff is right up there, sometimes even putting to shame
some of the CG work of other titles on the system. But it is the CG
cutscenes that are where the visuals really look good here, often
bordering on photo realism. What is most important in the visuals,
however, is the design, the look of the characters, the look of the
monsters, and the look of the environments. These are all done very
well, each character looks very distinguished with details that separate
them in terms of personality just as much as their demeanor, monsters
are typically over the top with plenty of little quirks so that at least
a few will stay in players' memory for some time, but it is the levels
that are most magnificent. The "sets" have all the wonder and
grandeur one would expect from a fantasy film, they're big, they're
magical, and they're a sight to be seen.
Right up there with the visuals, the sound is equally good. Sound
effects, be they the wooshy-swooshy sounds of magic being cast, or more
subtle, ambient environmental noises like footsteps or water drops,
are all of exceptional quality. The music too is quite well done, far
better than that of the last couple of Final Fantasy titles, though
still not as good as the sixth installment in the series. While there
are a couple of tracks that just felt wrong, like a metal track dripping
with "Hot Guitar Licks" like something out of a Super Hits
from the '80s extravaganza, and an uninspired tune for the random
battles, most of the soundtrack is very well done, with some
surprisingly good instrumentation compared to that of older games in the
series. One thing that seemed extremely odd is that there was no
pronounced sign of the arpeggiated harp piece that is the unofficial
theme of the Final Fantasy games, it didn't pop up once, yet the victory
tune and chocobo song make an appearance. Very strange.
Also in the audio are voice actors. For the first time in a Final
Fantasy game there are actors actually handling the dialogue, and for
the most part they did a good job. The acting itself is decent, but
what sometimes hurt it is that some of the lines the actors have to say
are so corny that you can't help but cringe. Helping add some
weight to the bullpen of voices in the game are a number of accomplished
actors who have done a lot of work adding their voicing to video games
in the past, such as the Baldur's Gate games, but the most notable of
the lot would have to be Rikku, whose voice was handled by Tara Strong
(Bubbles of the Powerpuff girls) and Wakka, whose voice was done by John
DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama). All in all, the voices are more than
adequate in this game. In rough, questionable moments, it's not the
acting that is poor, but the script.
This leaves us
with a few little details that must be discussed in the game. First off
there is the mini-game of Final Fantasy X, called Blitzball. Essentially
it is underwater water polo with special attacks and an RPG
sensibility. I won't get into the details as to how to play the game
because it's too long and convoluted to talk about here. What's
important is whether or not the sport is fun, and for the most part it
is. After going through the tutorial and playing a few exhibition games
it's not hard to get the hang of the game and start enjoying it. While
not the most complicated game, it does have enough tension to provide a
nice break from the quest itself, and is a necessity if you want Wakka
to learn new overdrive attacks. Second are optional quests to get super
powerful weapons and such for the game. The problem here is that the
only thing these quests will challenge is your patience, as most of them
are simply time consuming to complete. These are here for the cream of
the Final Fantasy diehard crop, all others need not apply. Lastly
I should address the puzzle solving, which has a very strong presence in
this game. Almost exclusively spatial in nature, these things can
be somewhat frustrating unless you take a deep breath and sit down to
take a good hard look at where everything is and understand how it all
works. The puzzles in the game are by no means pushovers unlike
other RPGs, they're in multiple rooms with a number of devices being
needed to operate them. They really remind me of some of the stuff
in the Myst games, only not as complicated.
Despite all of my ranting and raving this is still a very fun game. The
overhaul to the battle system and the way the characters progress are a
real breath of fresh air to the series, and the visuals and sound
are all grade A goodness, but I can't overlook my absolute seething
hatred of the storyline and certain characters in the game, it is just
too poor and they are too annoying to let it pass. This plus the ease of
the game through leveling-up and the utter lack of any exploration just
leave too much of a bad taste in my mouth to give the game a higher
score. At the end of the day this is a good RPG, but it's not that
good.
- Mr. Nash
(January 20,
2002)
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