Final Fantasy X

Okay, so I actually am getting kind of tired of how elongated and ridiculous some of these Final Fantasy reviews can get but I assure you it is way less ridiculous than what these games stretched far out to. We continue with our tenth entry of the series and by this time, almost every Final Fantasy game out there has been remastered, remade, and/or ported to every console and PC out there. The availability of the series astounds me that it's hard to keep it back in the past where old school fans look back at it as either a shameful time or a golden age in the genre and gives access to newer fans of the series. Final Fantasy X, to me is a breaking point in the series where I stopped loving the series for what it was initially especially because the formula for the most part was broken up or down and it was a time where different developers and ideas were being mixed until the dreaded time where the thirteenth entry came to life, but we will get to that later on another review.

To be brutally fair, Final Fantasy X was a great time for me but in the long run it does not live up to its name nor does it live up to its writing when compared to other games of the series. I wouldn't have reached to this conclusion without actually playing through the whole game and coming up with a fully constructed conclusion of the said experience. Mind you it was after several times of beating the game, so you can imagine I had fun. Final Fantasy X puts you in the shoes of a nameless character who is no silent, although if he was a silent character much like Chrono Cross for example, they would have done a huge favor to us. He was probably the most annoying protagonist to ever come across the genre and I totally get how sweet it can be to have a romantic entry much like FFVIII. In fact, they may have done it better than the eighth one but I couldn't care any less. Anyway, this nameless character who is never named by his companions through his journey goes through an adventure or a pilgrimage with a summoner called Yuna who must travel the world in search of wisdom and eventually find out that in order to save the world from the brink of inevitable destruction, she must sacrifice her own life. Depressing, I know. Spira is one of the most depressing worlds created in the Final Fantasy universe. Those who die in it, could end up as lost souls or monsters and if they die and are still attached to life, they could still be alive next to you if they were not properly "sent" to the afterlife by a summoner. Right, this is already getting convoluted and ridiculous sentence by sentence but really, it's this bittersweet nature I like about how far JRPG writers go. Anyways, you end up with this summoner for whatever reason they accept your crazy ass and you eventually go through trials and tribulations protecting the summoner from harm all over Spira, eventually finding she could be the only soul that is not dead and is not mentally ill or even a figment of your imagination. To those that haven't played it, they wont get it but it is a spoiler so meh.

The battle system to FFX was the most enjoyable part for me, turn based battle system as usual with a slight twist where instead of you having the choice of choosing 3 party members out of 8 o 9 with specific skills, you don't actually get much of a choice in FFX where the whole party is essential to get through dungeons and some bosses. Yes this might sound wrong initially and yes this might sound counter productive and less fun than a typical game where you get to choose what you want, but the way it was developed was better than most RPGs where the whole party gets experience if they actually just participate even if it was a minor action and eventually your whole party levels up together just by switching them back and forth and none of them is better than the other. Mind you, this only applies to the main campaign of the game and once you get to the optional bosses and tough ones, you have the choice to choose on who you are more comfortable with. The way they did this is Tidus can neutralize specific enemies with more damage more than other characters and Auron can kill enemies that have a hard shell, or when Lulu can kill enemies resistant to physical attacks with her black magic, everyone gets XP just by participating and even if Yuna heals with her white magic. Regardless of that, I think it's a great idea because the party members you see in the story can also contribute in battle and are not just some forgotten side characters from a writer's standpoint. In a more general perspective on combat in FFX, the fights were standard and grinding felt necessary at times due to some late bosses where it was tough to overcome them without proper grinding. Other than that, I am sure you will enjoy its combat.

The upgrade system was great for the most part where the player has the choice to level up the characters level by level and node by node, where each node represented either a stat or a skill and eventually you can customize a character out of their required "class" so for example if tidus is an attack based character, you could unlock a path to a mage's path and eventually teach him to be a hybrid class that attacks and casts black magic. It opens a door of opportunity for some players but I was not interested to explore that until late game when I actually finished their trees and was only left with extra stats to upgrade. My personal opinion is that Tidus was made as a support class for the most part so he was the character that was more open to be a hybrid but to have a fully functional party, one needed to have these characters stick to their required class.

Final Fantasy X was a beautiful experience for the most part with questionable moments in terms of the writing, the music was great and it had all the requirements for it to be a Final Fantasy game. This entry with its Blitzball mini game and things often get ridiculous when you want to get the final weapon for a character so bad, you'd have to go to the Thunder Plains to avoid 100 consecutive lightning bolts and then question your life's choices when you are on lightning bolt 92 and fail the challenge only to get back on it blindlessly. It was a time I greatly enjoyed and I remember that overwhelming feeling I got when I got access to the airship and could travel any where. There were various points that make it a memorable experience and I would easily recommend to play it at least once if not more than that for your sanity's sake.

I've been Ahmed Jadaa with you on another Final Fantasy review, and I'm going to skip Final Fantasy XI because I am not a big fan of MMOs and even though I got desperate with purchasing the game simply for the card game imported from FFIX, I didn't actually manage to create an account and play the actual game so I'll see you for a Final Fantasy XII review.