Finding words to describe the latest chapter in the story-based Final Fantasy series is a bit short of impossible. Everything is perfect; graphics, sound, gameplay, replay value, storyline, everything, and best of all, it's topped of with a nice juicy "Teen" rating so that most of the world can enjoy it. Squaresoft couldn't of done a finer job. Final Fantasy X puts 50+ hours of gameplay, side quests, mini-games, an engrossing storlyine, hidden locations, tough bosses, magical abilities, sweet weapons, unforgettable charachters, 100s of items, and lots of gil. all in your pocket. All to dispose of at your will. Let's not forget those litterally awesome Aeons (creatures you can summon), and their mind-blowing attacks. What more can you ask? Maybe online play, or a two-player mode. But heck, who cares, FFX is good enough. Honestly in my opinion it's the best game ever.
With hours of cutscenes, FFX's storyline can be compared to that of Metal Gear Solid 2's awesome storyline. I will give you my full garuntee that the storyline will capture your attention and keep you wanting more. It is so complex and exciting, that it is just too irresistible. With the race to save the land of Spira from the wraith of Sin, Spira's punishment for, obviously, thier sins. And along the way, expect plenty of nasty twists in the plot.
Gameplay, being the weakest part of the whole game, is still extremely good. The all-new battle system rocks, probably making it the funnest battle system ever. Also, there are hundreds of monsters and dozens of areas, so you won't get sick of the guy over and over again. FFX also offers a few mini-games; butterfly catching, Chocabo riding, Blitzball, and a red light green light type game, but Blitzball would be the biggest one. Basically Blitzball is an under water sport where you pass the ball around and try to through it through the hoop. So in other words, soccer with hands. Depending on your tastes, you may like it, you may hate it. I personnaly feel that it's allright. Giving you the options to have tournaments against other teams from all around Spira, and a few others, it's pretty deep. But it's completely optional after the first tournament at Luca. With about 50 bosses, give or take a few, you will always have someone to try and beat, and beating them is no easy task, each one has it's own unique style. But I will admit that the final boss dissapointed me a bit. It was lame, and too easy. Oh, and I almost forgot, the Cloister of Trials, a puzzle solving area you have to complete to get the Aeons, are fun too, that is unless your no good at puzzle solving. Once again, you either hate them or you love them. Overall though, gameplay rules.
Shocking...dazzleing...vivid...sweet...highly detailed... just a few words I can think of to describe FFX's better than PS2 quality graphics. Never have I seen such awesome and superior graphics on any system before. With real-time facial expressions and complete 3D envioronments your jaw will drop. It's utterly amazing how well a job artists, heck even the developers, did.
Sound quality gets an A+. However, in the Japanese version I am sure everything is correctly timed, but in the English version, the lip movements of the charachters don't match up with the words coming out of them. The biggest glitch in the game. And it's something the developers obviosly knew about, but were too lazy to fix. Other than that, the charachter voices are similar to MGS2's awesome quality (kinda makes you wonder if Hideo Kajima's team had something to do with the production... probably not, just another group of highly talented developers). The backround music, sound effects, and everything else are perfectly timed, and excellent sounding.
Final Fantasy X is yet another quality game in the series from the developers we've all come to love. Unlike other RPGs, Final Fantasy X is a game you may come back to play again and again, whether it be for Blitzball or to capture monsters for the guy in the Calm Lands. I am positive this won't be a game that will sit and collect dust... that is until FFXI or XII comes out. |
