Platform: PlayStation 2

Release Date:  July 19, 2001

Developer:  Square

Publisher:  Square Electronic Arts

Genre: RPG

Nerd Rating: 8 out of 10

Reviewed by Dovahkyle

“Final Fantasy VII is the best RPG ever” -everyone I’ve ever talked to about FF series.

I have never played this “perfect RPG” they keep talking about, but Final Fantasy X is pretty close when it comes to party type RPGs and really the last real turn based RPG I’ve seen. The cut scenes are ungodly real looking, things like hair and water droplets, stuff you would never see on a PS2 game. I liked the story allot, but even more was the fight scenes, much like a pokemon game, I wander through the open world to be stunned by fight music and a battle scene that shocked me with the variety of “Fiends” or creatures I would have to fight to the death.

The fiends are essentially a culmination of spirits from the dead, they would gather together to create different monsters. So killing them really just released the spirits back into the world. Now that I think of it, maybe I was just fighting the same group of spirits over and over, hah. The battle scenes were not timed, I could just sit there for as long as I wanted, strategically planning my next move. For the air monsters you want to use someone like Wakka, a crazy volleyball like enthusiast, who uses a magically infused ball to throw at enemies. For high defense enemies you want to use Auron, a real heavy hitter with a giant sword. These are the kind of things I had to think about as I battled countless amounts of foes. Unlike the Pokemon series, this game actually made fighting a pleasant experience, very entertaining at least.

The main character, Tidus, is a real feminine little blonde kid. He is a blitzball(an underwater ball game) champion, who gets sucked into a heck of a world war by a being called “Sin”. The setting is a world called Spira, a landmass divided into three sub-continents surrounded by islands. The lands feature climates from freezing cold mountains and hot deserts to tropical beaches. Through the journey of the game, the player will meet many people with different abilities that can become party members. The party is comprised of 3 characters ready for battle at a time. These characters can be changed out for equal leveling or not, your choice. I would suggest keeping a good array of them leveled, because at one point in the game your party gets split up, and the characters your left with is all you have.

One of the main party members is a summoner named Yuna, she has the totally awesome ability to summon her own “Fiend” called Aeons, these aeons are gigantic creatures, of Kaiju stature, with super strong abilities. The many aeons she can gain, like Shiva(a frost aeon) and Bahamut(non-elemental), are found throughout the game, there are even some secret and extremely powerful ones to find. As you defeat enemies with your Aeons, they charge an Overdrive meter, when this is full, they can perform and overdrive move, total devastation.

FF: X, like the others in the series, are based around elemental fighting. So strategically, when battling fiends, the player must pay close attention to the element of the creatures fighting. Some creatures are weaker to certain elemental attacks, while some creatures can change their base element in the middle of a fight, while some fiends are non-elemental all together. The weapons range from sword, staff, ball, grenade and gun attacks, to every color of magic you could dream of.

One specific character a blue dude called Kimahri Ronso has what’s called Blue Magic, this was new to me, maybe not to the FF series, but still coolness. I really enjoyed the petrify, whether spell or blade enchantment, when you strike an enemy with it there is a chance they could be petrified, then shatter like glass, sweet. Not even half way through this game I had more moves per character than I could count, I was really glad the battles weren’t timed, as I would be sifting through a long menu of moves every time I had to strike. I still love this, sure there might be a little much, but it kept things interesting.

The leveling system was effective, and original. When I leveled up I received “Spheres” which I could in turn use on the “Sphere Grid” on my menu to level myself, like boost my HP or MP or learn new moves or upgrade moves I already learned. Really fun, I would spend hours just rolling around the sphere grid dreaming about the new moves I would soon learn. O.K. maybe not hours but I would definitely take my sweet time. Then as soon as I got done with the sphere grid, I’d take it out for a spin and clean the floor with some fiend face.

The replayability of this game is almost none, if you ask me. Definitely a good once through, with an average of about 100+ hours of game-play, I’d say that’s pretty good for a game I’m not going to play again. I’m not saying I haven’t played it twice, because I have, I had to do it again to get the secret Aeons, definitely worth it. I actually still look for this game because I loaned it out ages ago and, surprise, surprise, I never got it back. I would highly suggest this to anyone who loves the old school, turn based, battle systems and party building type games. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this game, so thanks Squaresoft for being creative once again.

PS- I will not even justify Final Fantasy X-2 with a review because that game was a disgrace, totally disgusting in every way, let me sum it up for you, X-factor meets tinker bell, that’s about it, sorry.