On my Twitter account, I mused about not having the drive to write about an in-depth RPG with a lot of ground to cover. Welp, as it turns out, my brain likes putting my thoughts into words whether I like it or not. So here, a very disjointed set of points on what I thought of FFX, my first Final Fantasy.

STORY THOUGHTS:

People believe in the Fayth because they desire something to believe in, to work towards and better themselves. They work to absolve themselves of Sin, even if it hasn't affected them personally. Even if they're only inheriting the Sin of the generation before them.

That's what I find so fascinating about Tidus's presence in the story. He has no stake in these preconcieved notions, and while his actions are frequently impulsive and self-indulgent, he's only doing what he believes is right. From what I've inferred, I think Tidus gets a bad rap. He can be a bit obnoxious with how energetic he is (not helped by his VA also being responsible for voicing Johnny Test), but it's juxtaposed with how he gives a retrospective monologue to the player about what he's thinking. It helps me understand him better, and form a strong emotional connection.

People joke about Wakka being racist (which he totally is lmao), but being completely devout can give someone tunnel vision to other perspectives; moreso when there's already bad blood from previous experiences. He gets his comeuppance though; the man has his entire worldview overkilled multiple times over the course of Yuna's pilgrimage. Cut him some slack.

Auron goes further than being a simple mentor figure by having a personal history with Tidus's old man, having been on the pilgrimage that brought the previous Calm. He knows this world's history, he was a part of it. He also hits enemies like a truck. Seeking out the holo-spheres he left behind gives him, Jecht, and Braska some much-needed screen time. This is particularly true for Jecht, who feels particularly underdeveloped if you don't see his spheres (most of which I didn't see until I did a much shorter "victory lap" playthrough on my Vita).

Yuna has the strongest resolve out of anyone in the whole cast (as far as I'm concerned, this is her story). Which is why it hurt to see her gradually being swayed by Tidus's ideals. As she marches towards a fate that she inherited from her father, she doesn't have the heart to tell Tidus what awaits her at journey's end. Tidus gives her the desire to protect the people closest to her, which only makes the prospect of letting go more difficult.

Rikku and the Al Bhed are an interesting case of worshipping the same fayth and retaining similar values, but approaching those beliefs in a way that seems blasphemous to everyone else. They insist on using the forbidden Machina, tools that supposedly brought Sin into their world to begin with. They seek a way forward that's not tied to the teachings, as opposed to the Guado, who just want this cycle to continue forever.

On the topic of the Guado, I wish that Seymour felt like more of an actual character. He refuses to die so often that he reached "cartoon villain" status pretty quickly, which overwrote the diplomatic perspective of keeping peace in Spira. The idea that Yuna marrying Seymour could being peace, no matter how performative, is an interesting topic that doesn't get dwelled on for very long due to Seymour being a power-hungry creepo.

I don't remember much about Lulu and Kimarhi. The latter doesn't get too much development until near the very end of the game, and the former just comes off as "the adult in the room". Lulu is a top-tier design though. Yes, the excessive quantity of belts is completely necessary. We do not question Nomura's vision in this household.

AS A GAME:

-Yuna is my favorite character, Summoner is up there as one of my favorite RPG classes I've ever experienced. Building up Aeon overdrive meters and unleashing them one after another is a really cheap tactic that I used to cheese a boss or two, but I'm also really happy that the game gives you the freedom to just do that.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm so sorry Kimarhi, but I found no use for you whatsoever during my journey. Maybe you're better after your entire sphere grid has been filled, but that wasn't happening anytime soon.

-Being able to quickswap between characters on your turn opens the door to a cavalcade of creative strategies, and works phenomenally with this game's role-based combat/enemy matchups.

-I feel mixed on the Sphere Grid system. I'm pretty much used to having RPGs dole out the stats for me when I level up. It takes a while, but after a certain point, the beauty of the sphere grid begins to shine through. As long as you have the right resources, the game basically gives you the opportunity to branch off and build characters however you want. Each character is initially designed to fit into a certain role, but it can be fun and useful to have characters acquire skills that they wouldn't have otherwise. But god damn, you spend a lot of time just manually selecting every little thing on the board. This is a cool twist on levelling up, and yet I don't think I want to ever see it again outside of this game.

-I like the dynamic camera angles of the battles. I see what they did there when they sometimes frame it like a classic FF battle. That being said, constantly changing camera angles also cause the selection controls to constantly change. I'm constantly having to guess whether pushing a certain direction is going to move to another enemy or highlight my party members instead. Drove me absolutely insane for all of my 55 hour playthrough and beyond.

-This has been a constant since their PS1 FMV days, but Square's CGI team is fucking cracked. The humans can look a tad uncanny, but the environmental design inside and outside of cutscenes is nothing short of timeless. It also rules how they near-seamlessly swap between in-engine gameplay and FMVs for certain scenes. Segments like them flying in on the airship to crash the wedding at Bevelle will always make my jaw hit the floor.

-I love what Blitzball represents story-wise. I've never been a big sports guy (being required to play pep band in high school can do that to you), but having a pasttime that lets people of different backgrounds put aside their differences for the sake of friendly competition is good, especially when it helps the people of Spira take their minds off their woes.

HOWEVER.

FFX introduces Blitzball with a (thankfully skippable) infodump tutorial, only to make your first match one that's almost unwinnable by design. That's one of the worst impressions left on me by, well, anything. That's not even taking into consideration the long stretch of non-Blitzball gameplay between the tutorial and actually playing said real match. You can play it at almost any save point, including right after Sin wipes out an entire army of Yevon, bodies still toasty on the beach! Have some tact, FFX! Needless to say, I didn't touch Blitzball once after its introduction on my initial playthrough. At least the music goes pretty hard.

-The Cloister of Trials sections just kinda suck. Slow trial-and-error puzzle solving using bullshit logic. Just a lot of putting balls to the walls. I sure do love looking up video guides for things like this, only to see view counts as high as 600k on the more obtuse ones.

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS

-I'm glad I played the NTSC PS2 release because getting blocked off or blindsided by superbosses at every turn during the postgame in the PAL/Remaster versions of the game actually sounds like hell.

-Love the coastal world design. Personal favorite area has to be Lightning Plains, partly for the music, and partly because I think its gimmick is funny. (No, I'm not dodging 200 lightning bolts in a row) Macalania Woods is probably a very close second.

-Collecting the Al Bhed Primers and gradually being able to fill in the blanks of what the Al Bhed are saying is extremely cool. It nails that feeling of being a stranger in Spira really early on too, since a group of Al Bhed are the first humans you meet.

-For how hard it's been memed on the internet, discovering that the "Tidus laughing" scene is actually really emotional was a nice surprise. Even if I do still like it as a meme, without context.

-No one in this game says "Tidus" out loud, although there is a canon pronunciation. I prefer "tide-us", simply because most of FFX's locales are coastal or aquatic, I think it fits quite nicely. If you call him "tee-dus" then I'm gonna sacrifice you to become the next Final Aeon.