This is the Game's Story... erm... Review
Ahh! The 10th Final Fantasy game. Originally released for the PS2 before the Squaresoft and Enix merger. It is now released for the PS3 and PSVita (and soon on the PS4) as part of the FFX HD Collection. Can a great classic prove itself once more in this current gaming generation?
The story is about Tidus, well, because he and Auron says so. Seriously, the story is about Tidus being hurled 1000 years to the future by Sin and the party's pilgrimage to defeat it. Sin a massive entity that destroys everything on its path. Along their journey they will meet people, their culture and encounter enemies and fiends. The story and its world are rich in cultural, religious and regional references to the real world and presenting it in a fantasy setting. This themes alone makes the the world of Spira great and put in some very different and colorful characters in it and you get a wonderful story.
GAMEPLAY
No overworld map in this game, so the game's kinda linear but with backtrackings, exploration, random enemy encounters and hidden items on the field.
The battle system is turn-based like in classic Final Fantasy titles that doesn't have an ATB (Active Time Battle) system. But you can freely switch characters mid battle by pressing [L1] and all of participating party members will have AP points. AP points levels up the Sphere Level (S.lv) of the character. These S.lv's are needed to use the Sphere Grid. So in short: there are no EXP points and character levels.
The Sphere Grid is where you upgrade your characters. There are 2 types of Sphere Grids in this game's version, Normal and Expert (I'm using this one). You can move to one node by spending one S.lv. The Sphere Grid have lots of different nodes like Ability, HP, MP, and stat nodes that requires Spheres like Power, Agility, Mana, Ability spheres etc. The in-game tutorial tries hard to explain the Sphere Grid. I understand the tutorial, but I don't know if some people will. So I suggest that you upgrade your characters carefully. And all characters can have all the abilities, making them almost like copy-paste characters. The only thing that makes the characters unique (besides their equipment and base stats) is their Overdrive moves.
Overdrive is the Limit Break of FFX. Overdrive can be used if the Overdrive gauge fills up. At first, the gauge fill up every time a character gets hit, similar to FFVII and FFIX. During battles, the characters will learn different methods on how to fill the Overdrive gauge. You can set this up on the Overdrive menu. Now, performing Overdrives is different for each character. Tidus' Sword Play Overdrive needs precision and Auron's Bushido moves needs correct button presses in sequence for effective damage.
FFX's story revolves around the world of Spira, Sin, and lastly, Blitzball. Blitzball is a mini sports game that plays like football, dodgeball and hockey combined. You can play Blitzball by accessing the Save sphere. You can scout/recruit new different players around the world of Spira by pressing [Square] on those who mostly wear their Blitzball team uniforms. Playing Blitzball is a frustrating experience for me. The tutorial is really confusing, but I managed so score a goal by using [Manual A] option. A small tip: recruit new and better players and don't use the Aurochs members. Players gain experiences and learn Blitzball techniques from their marked enemies when they reach level 3. There are also other mini games in this game other than Blitzball
GRAPHICS
This is a great looking HD remaster. Everything looks sharp, crisp and colorful. The environment (2D and 3D), character models/textures, lighting and shadows have been improved. The shadows beneath of the characters now follows the character model's appearance not those black circular gradients, but no self-shadowing on the character models.
The main and other important character models are remade again with more polygon counts so that they will all look good and very detailed. Sadly the rest of the NPCs still looks PS2-ish, blocky and stiff looking. Because the main characters looks good, it makes their old motion captured animations look awkward. For example, running then sudden stop animation... you know what I mean. I wish SQEX re-work the motion capture and make the movements more realistic, but that will take time. The game have some wind effect going on, making some clothing parts and hair move and it looks odd. Oh! boobie jiggle physics for Lulu during victory poses!
MUSIC/AUDIO
The game's beautiful music is composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Every music in this game have been re-arranged, adding new instruments to make the music sound better. It sounds great but some fans prefer the classic version from the PS2 version. Sadly there are no option on changing the music
The voice acting in this game are the same, no new or edited dialogue. It's really good. The voice acting are mixed with different accents to reflect their race, culture and personality. I just wish they synced the characters' lips and their voices in this HD version.
REPLAY VALUE
The game lasts for more than 60 hours, that's long enough. The game will eat 100+ hours of your time if you're a completionist, The game is linear but each area is explorable and you can revisit them to find more hidden treasures and play mini games. And Blitzball can be very addictive.
CLOSING REMARKS
Those who have a PS3 that haven't played Final Fantasy X because they don't have PS2s in the past like me, this is your chance. Playing this game is great and very memorable. All my questions about this game has been answered (mostly about FFX memes). The game is really beautiful and impressive graphics-wise and gameplay-wise during its PS2 days, and it's still impressive even today. The HD remaster gave this game a phoenix down, giving the classic a new life for new generation gamers to play and nostalgia trip for every Final Fantasy fan.
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