| Bristow9091 said: You must tell me what you thought about it! |
Eh, well, I know I generally have the "unpopular" opinion when it comes to FF games, so brace yourself if you read things you don't agree with.
Before starting to play X, I knew several plot points. That's what so much time on the internet eventually does to you, no matter how well you generally try to avoid it. I went fully knowing that for some reason Tidus is not real, Tidus' father is the final boss of the game and some other minor details. Outside from that, though, I didn't know anything about X itself save for the infamy over X-2, so all things considered it was a fresh start. The fact that I knew some of these key details made me actively see how the game would build-up to them. I was fairly surprised to see that the antagonist is revealed very early in the game.
That being said, there's several things to highlight. For the sake of convenience, I'll just break down toward simple categories: story, characters, gameplay and music. I'm going to get rid of the final point fairly easy: the soundtrack is sublime. I love when I can't get tired of the standard battle theme. Bosses battle go from good to great, being Seymour's theme my favourite battle ost from the whole game. I didn't like the song between Yuna and Tidus much, though.
Story...story was great, for the most part. It has some really weird moments, like that dumb "we got caught but instead of killing us they basically let us go with our weapons, kill some monsters and be free". Let's just not mention how throaway the game itself erases the Ronso, without delivering any emotional punch or anything save for some awkward Seymour laugh and Khimari raugh; this thing isn't even brought up anymore after it, so it was there to provide some drama that really goes nowhere. The religious themes that emanate from the game are a worth and unique angle, and the theological paralellisms that can be drawn from many of its sequences are both interesting and bold. The way the game narrates itself through a more hardened Tidus, even if this was accidental like the voice actor admitted, gives insight to plenty of moments that do require a second thought added to them, and thus makes them more complex. The underlined message through them all is fairly simple, but I have to admit I was attached to this random group of people who tried to protect one person that at the same time tried to save her world from despair. Everything escalates from something simple (a freakin' blitzball match, for fuck sake!), to defying the very core of their beliefs. Ending was weird, but as far as ending goes, it provided clossure, which is something that I like, unless it's some kind of open-ended affair that manages to come-up with a sequel that rival its greatest strenghts. The way Eternal Calm displayed the "post-ending" makes me fully ignore it and just focus with what X gave me.
Characters...I loved some, the others were meh. This is an observation from both a story and mechanical sense. Tidus was annoying at first, but I managed to enjoy his perspective and ultimately rooted for him. Rikku was cute, despite her being irritable at times. Khimari looks cool, and his background is very nice, but he's the literally expression of "meaningless" if I'm basically forced to pick a path for him rather than having his own when leveling up (played Expert Sphere, so he really stands in the middle of nowhere). Auron is strong and stoic and provides a good offense/defense, but he's a weak character that doesn't really evolve save from the time lapse, and that uses a very very loosely defined concept in this game (Death) in his advantage, almost making it seen that it really doesn't matter if you die because you can basically come back and be yourself. Lulu was beautiful-looking and really didn't have much in the sense of a background, but I enjoyed her insights and magic nonetheless. Yuna was a weak character too, probably my least liked party member; she was basically clueless most of the time, entirely depends on Auron almost the whole game asking him what to do and what not to do, and holds vital information to herself that ultimately puts the whole party in danger just because...she suddenly don't trust Auron and the team, or whatever. It's never specified why she doesn't go to the group when certain events happen and it's not like anyone cares. Worst part is that she doesn't get any sign of regret at all from doing so. Some people tried to tell me that I shouldn't be too hard on her because of something that would happen; I could pretty much guess she was supposed to die because the game is blatantly subtle about it (like that scene where Tidus say "we'll come back!" and no one replies back). At that point, I still have to say she's weak and the way she's displayed didn't make me care much about her at all. Mechanically wise? I fucking hated having to put her in a battle, defend and waste a precious turn because otherwise she wouldn't get AP. At one point I just stopped caring about her, and she lagged behind everyone else terribly, but ultimately it didn't matter because I didn't need her at all. I think I called summons a total of ten times in the game (not counting final battle), three are story-forced and the others were either trying them out with a single monster or fighting that other Summoner lady. Then there's Wakka. I absolutely loved that character. He was goofy, he was strong and the developer was bold enough to make him a blatant racist to the Al Bhed, which shows up the duality of seeing a good-willed, bening laid-back hero who's probably the most dependable of them all being an incredible jerk and asshole in poignant moments. His character development is fascinating and I, for once, admire that a hero could be such a bastard sometimes because of his devotedness; something that he eventually manages to fight, ask forgiveness to Rikku and Cid and move on. I also loved the chemistry between him and Tidus, being basically best-friends after that arbitrary meet on the beach and establishing that Tidus and Wakka couldn't be more different to each other (Tidus is close-quarters fighter, Wakka is ranged; Tidus despise the authorities, Wakka lives for them; Tidus is irresponsible, Wakka follows the code religiously). It's that kind of Red Oni Blue Oni trope that I love watching so much, because it's always amusing when two extremely different people manage to be so close to each other. Also Wakka was basically my best party member at one point, dealing massive amount of damages, fast enough so that nothing could hit him and destroying any enemy with his Attack Reels.
And now the final point, gameplay: I really dig the classic, 100% turn-based aspect of it. I don't really have much to say it, it felt simple enough that I could grasp the basics pretty easily, and deep enough that there's plenty of place to be extremely strategic. There's also that good relationship between what character should tackle what enemy (though it's rendered bit of moot when you're overleveled), and bosses provided some fun and challenging matches. Overall the game is easy, with the random spike of difficulty (hated Yunalesca, owned me six times and I had to sit through that damned sequence every single time). Blitzball...was a good minigame, but the way it's incorporated is just terrible. It breaks the pace of the game too much because 10 minute matchs are just way too long. Worse yet when you have Wakka's overdrive and Celestial Sigil hidden behind it. I couldn't care about most minigames, though. Avoiding 200 lightning strikes in a row (which I actually did) was a stupid decision and whoever came up with it should be fired. And I would gladly punch in the dick whoever came up with doing the stupid butterfly minigame, too. This game sometimes feels like a guide is required, because I wouldn't have discovered most of its secrets without one, and I consider that I explored a lot when I play. On a side note...this is a very linear game! I was surprised at just how many maps are simply linear halls with just tiny branches on them from time to time. The way the game progresses doesn't really make this point matter much, but it's still an interesting point.
Overall I'd give the game, if a score was needed, an 8.5/10. Which is pretty impressive for a game that came 15 years ago, really. It has hold up extremely well.
