Introduction
Well, Square has gone through some hard times and good times, but they have
finally reached a record. Ten games. Think about it. After many quarrels and
Square ditching Nintendo, the RPG giant has made arguably the best Final
Fantasy yet.

Gameplay
Final Fantasy X is a must-buy, especially if you’re new to the series,
because you can learn pretty quickly. I’ve had some first hand experience by
playing and beating the eighth FF, which was quite disappointing I’m sorry
to say. Final Fantasy X introduces many things that weren’t in the previous
FFs. One is the voices. Before, all of the talking was centered around text,
for example, when Squall wanted to talk, a gray test box would appear and in
it would say: Squall: I don’t think so. Quite a lot of reading. Now FFX
introduces voices, which aren’t that bad, really. Yuna’s voice really creeps
me out, but Wakka’s voice is pretty cool, with that accent and all.

Fun
So far, FFX has one of the most complicated stories ever, excluding FF7. The
game and the story wind together quite snug. After playing it for a couple
of hours, you’ll get absorbed into the story too. To get the Aeons, you have
to enter these dungeons which have puzzles in them, which Square puts out
quite well. After battling and running around, you can actually blow up your
brain by solving these medium-hard puzzles.


Story
RPG’s are considered not worth it because of how the story ends after some
time, barely any mini-games, not multiplayer, blah blah blah. These RPG
haters obviously haven’t seen FFX.

Graphics
Another change is the battle system and the Sphere Grid. The battle system
is different because instead of having a time gauge, the battle goes by turn
based, which makes that battle a lot quicker, or slower. You can take as
much time as you want to make the right decision on a move, which you
couldn’t do in the other FFs. Also, you use the Sphere Grid to make a
character learn an ability for battle, like Haste or Charm. Though the
Sphere Grid isn’t new, it fits well with the game.

Sound
Finally, the story. FFX is about a blitz ball player named Tidus (Blitz ball
is a weird sport played underwater!). He hated his father, even though he
was a blitz ball player himself. His father went somewhere and is now
proclaimed dead, which Tidus is glad of. When he is playing blitz ball, Sin,
a powerful monster that occasionally attacks cities, attack Tidus’ hometown.
Tidus barely lives and fights his way through a crowd of monster with the
help on Auron, his father’s friend. The story gets complicated from there.
Later, Tidus meets up with Yuna and several other people who are her
guardians, because she is a summoner. She is sworn to defeat Sin, but before
that, she must collect all of the Aeons, which are creatures to summon in
battle. Tidus joins her on her journey and learns much about his and his
father’s past.

Conclusion
The graphics of this game just have gotten better and better. The cut-scenes
are amazing, with the characters looking just like real people. Square needs
to work on real-time models, but never less, they are still pretty good.
It’s amazing. When I compared FF8 to FFX I was shocked. When I first played
FF8, I thought that the graphics were good. I hope Square continues to make
the great graphics. My mouth was drooling. Literally. But Square can improve
the body language and how the characters move. Like in the other FFs, the
characters constantly do repetitive moves, which can get annoying at times.
Also, some of the lip-sinking can’t keep up with the voices.

Sound is pretty good too. As usual, Square makes a great soundtrack that
will absorb the players mind. I loved the piano music during the intro scene
so much that I downloaded it. Square also put in some rock music into the
mix, which isn’t BAD, but different. Square probably will make the best
soundtrack ever. The voices ain’t bad, but the graphics can’t keep up with
it, which is when you see Tidus mouth moving, but he’s really not saying
anything at all. Isn’t major, but something that you notice.

This game lasts a long time. About a 40+ hour quest, plus playing blitz
ball, which is strangely addictive, and play with the Chocobo (Yah, the
chocobo are back!). Also, you may want to play the game over again to get
all the weapons, or to do something or so. Also, at any time, you can play
the dungeons over again, which is somewhat addictive.
At the end, FFX is a great game, a must-have for RPG fans and PS2 owners!