Expectations are funny things. They're often hard to meet, even harder to meaningfully subvert, and very easy to poke fun at. When someone is disappointed with a game, it's never the game's fault; it just wasn't what they expected and they need to learn to accept that. And if the game is a universally acclaimed masterpiece? Well, they just didn't get it. And I very much did not 'get' Final Fantasy X.
That said, there are quite a few things I liked about the game. For one, the visuals hold up incredibly well. Even though I technically played the remastered edition with enhanced graphics, the aesthetics are phenomenal over 2 decades later. The music is also very nice, with each piece being nice to listen to and a good complement to its place in-game. Speaking of sounds, the voice acting's pretty good, and not just for the time. Even in its awkwardness, all the VAs give convincing performances that fit the characters well (insert line about the laughing scene being taken out of context that you've heard in every other review of FFX). Finally, I enjoy a lot of the core battle mechanics. They're easy to understand, yet have high strategic potential, and the game's boss fights do a pretty good job of bringing that potential out.
Unfortunately, the base combat mechanics are heavily bogged down by everything surrounding them. While the bosses are pretty varied and interesting, the bulk of random encounters are anything but. Up until the endgame, 95% of basic enemies are fatally weak to one specific character, turning that potentially interesting combat into a cavalcade of glorified rock-paper-scissors matches. Granted, some enemies later on do require a bit more strategy, as do some of the bosses, but the game also limits the strategic potential in a lot of these fights. Many stronger enemies and all the bosses are immune to one or more status effects, making interesting abilities like Tidus' slow, Wakka's ailments, and Auron's breaks completely useless. On top of all that, the random battles are painfully slow thanks to what is easily the game's worst design choice: Only party members who participate in battles gain EXP. In other words, playing optimally means switching out every party member, having them defend, and then finally defeating the enemies with the one party member they're weak to, making battles uninteresting and a slog.
Now, the combat being uninteresting might be forgivable if progression was fun, but this is another area where the game fumbles the ball. At first glance, the sphere grid is a behemoth of customization: a sprawling skill forest with tons of active abilities, passive abilities, and stat boosts available to every party member. Of course, looks can be deceiving, as a glance at the grid's actual structure reveals how linear it truly is before the endgame (I know the international sphere grid improves on this, but I'm reviewing the game I played). But hey, my favorite game of all time is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a game which takes about 20 hours to unlock the full scope of its (Absolutely fantastic) combat system. It's perfectly fine if the sphere grid takes a long time to open up, right? Well, that would be the case...if it was actually fun to use in the endgame. In another painful misstep, the late-game alternate paths on the sphere grid are locked behind incredibly rare items, and by the time you actually reach the ends of characters' sphere grid paths, you're already at the final boss. The equipment modifiers, another potentially fun source of customization, require those same materials, often in far greater capacity, just to give an ability to one character. Ergo, you can only really customize your characters by grinding for long periods of time in the endgame, either by fighting the same battles for hours on end, or by playing minigames.
Speaking of which, I've often heard people defend FFX's constant string of battles and 'hallway simulator' by pointing to its variety in gameplay. With how critical I've been of the game so far, I surprisingly don't really mind the hallways. I don't like the things you do in the hallways or the game's random encounter system (If you seriously prefer those to on-screen encounters I can only assume you're some kind of masochist), but by themselves, they're...fine. If nothing else, they're pretty. I do, however, strongly dislike the breaks FFX takes from its constant string of fighting. The temples are slow, boring puzzle segments with arbitrary mechanics that, at most, amount to small annoyances rather than fun diversions (although I did have some fun finding the bonus chests). The sidequests provide much larger, albeit optional, annoyances that gate far more of the game's progression than they should. The minigames are uninteresting at best and frustrating at worst, with the most notable one, Blitzball, being a simple case of "have the bigger number and hope the AI doesn't fuck up". The extra bosses, much like the customization, often make you capture multiple of every enemy in the game to unlock them, which leads to...more battling. I'll admit I liked exploring the towns, though. It was nice getting to see the different visuals, talk to locals, and learn more about the world and story.
And on that topic, I don't have much to say about the story. The characters are cool, if a bit shallow. The romance is nice, if very shallow. The actual plot is kind of interesting, if weirdly paced and a little too dependent on Seymour. It's good, just not one of the best things I've ever seen. And that's the thing: despite how much I've criticized it, I like Final Fantasy X. I just think I'd like it a lot more if I didn't expect to love it. I've seen countless people hail the plot as a subversive epic, the romance as the greatest love story ever told, the sphere grid as an unmatched progression system, the combat as timeless, and the game as one of the best JRPG's ever. Meanwhile, I simply scratch my head and wonder if we played the same game. Is it nostalgia? Am I just crazy? Or did I just expect too much? Whatever the case, I'm glad I at least played FFX. I regret playing it for an entire summer, but I'm grateful for the experience, despite my gripes. Because if nothing else, it taught me the internet can be wrong about things. Maybe I should stop believing the hype, keep my expectations in check, and realize that I do 'get' it. I'm just not a big fan.
That said, there are quite a few things I liked about the game. For one, the visuals hold up incredibly well. Even though I technically played the remastered edition with enhanced graphics, the aesthetics are phenomenal over 2 decades later. The music is also very nice, with each piece being nice to listen to and a good complement to its place in-game. Speaking of sounds, the voice acting's pretty good, and not just for the time. Even in its awkwardness, all the VAs give convincing performances that fit the characters well (insert line about the laughing scene being taken out of context that you've heard in every other review of FFX). Finally, I enjoy a lot of the core battle mechanics. They're easy to understand, yet have high strategic potential, and the game's boss fights do a pretty good job of bringing that potential out.
Unfortunately, the base combat mechanics are heavily bogged down by everything surrounding them. While the bosses are pretty varied and interesting, the bulk of random encounters are anything but. Up until the endgame, 95% of basic enemies are fatally weak to one specific character, turning that potentially interesting combat into a cavalcade of glorified rock-paper-scissors matches. Granted, some enemies later on do require a bit more strategy, as do some of the bosses, but the game also limits the strategic potential in a lot of these fights. Many stronger enemies and all the bosses are immune to one or more status effects, making interesting abilities like Tidus' slow, Wakka's ailments, and Auron's breaks completely useless. On top of all that, the random battles are painfully slow thanks to what is easily the game's worst design choice: Only party members who participate in battles gain EXP. In other words, playing optimally means switching out every party member, having them defend, and then finally defeating the enemies with the one party member they're weak to, making battles uninteresting and a slog.
Now, the combat being uninteresting might be forgivable if progression was fun, but this is another area where the game fumbles the ball. At first glance, the sphere grid is a behemoth of customization: a sprawling skill forest with tons of active abilities, passive abilities, and stat boosts available to every party member. Of course, looks can be deceiving, as a glance at the grid's actual structure reveals how linear it truly is before the endgame (I know the international sphere grid improves on this, but I'm reviewing the game I played). But hey, my favorite game of all time is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a game which takes about 20 hours to unlock the full scope of its (Absolutely fantastic) combat system. It's perfectly fine if the sphere grid takes a long time to open up, right? Well, that would be the case...if it was actually fun to use in the endgame. In another painful misstep, the late-game alternate paths on the sphere grid are locked behind incredibly rare items, and by the time you actually reach the ends of characters' sphere grid paths, you're already at the final boss. The equipment modifiers, another potentially fun source of customization, require those same materials, often in far greater capacity, just to give an ability to one character. Ergo, you can only really customize your characters by grinding for long periods of time in the endgame, either by fighting the same battles for hours on end, or by playing minigames.
Speaking of which, I've often heard people defend FFX's constant string of battles and 'hallway simulator' by pointing to its variety in gameplay. With how critical I've been of the game so far, I surprisingly don't really mind the hallways. I don't like the things you do in the hallways or the game's random encounter system (If you seriously prefer those to on-screen encounters I can only assume you're some kind of masochist), but by themselves, they're...fine. If nothing else, they're pretty. I do, however, strongly dislike the breaks FFX takes from its constant string of fighting. The temples are slow, boring puzzle segments with arbitrary mechanics that, at most, amount to small annoyances rather than fun diversions (although I did have some fun finding the bonus chests). The sidequests provide much larger, albeit optional, annoyances that gate far more of the game's progression than they should. The minigames are uninteresting at best and frustrating at worst, with the most notable one, Blitzball, being a simple case of "have the bigger number and hope the AI doesn't fuck up". The extra bosses, much like the customization, often make you capture multiple of every enemy in the game to unlock them, which leads to...more battling. I'll admit I liked exploring the towns, though. It was nice getting to see the different visuals, talk to locals, and learn more about the world and story.
And on that topic, I don't have much to say about the story. The characters are cool, if a bit shallow. The romance is nice, if very shallow. The actual plot is kind of interesting, if weirdly paced and a little too dependent on Seymour. It's good, just not one of the best things I've ever seen. And that's the thing: despite how much I've criticized it, I like Final Fantasy X. I just think I'd like it a lot more if I didn't expect to love it. I've seen countless people hail the plot as a subversive epic, the romance as the greatest love story ever told, the sphere grid as an unmatched progression system, the combat as timeless, and the game as one of the best JRPG's ever. Meanwhile, I simply scratch my head and wonder if we played the same game. Is it nostalgia? Am I just crazy? Or did I just expect too much? Whatever the case, I'm glad I at least played FFX. I regret playing it for an entire summer, but I'm grateful for the experience, despite my gripes. Because if nothing else, it taught me the internet can be wrong about things. Maybe I should stop believing the hype, keep my expectations in check, and realize that I do 'get' it. I'm just not a big fan.
willn46
7 months ago