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Something I just noticed as I was typing this: my tenth review happens to be Final Fantasy ten. Can you say, "Huh."? Anyway. This game has most definitely changed the way I looked at Final Fantasy as a series. Not saying that the others were bad, (not saying that at all, FF8 had to have been one of the most underrated, and FF7 was not overrated) but FFX had to have been one of the best roleplaying games I've ever played. With that said, onward!

Graphics: 11/10

I know, I know... how could I give an 11/10? Well, my reasoning for this goes as follows: the developers gave 110% when they pushed the PS2 graphics to the very freaking limit. If you played another PS2 game, then played FFX for the first time, you would be incredibly wowed to the point of convulsing in a drooling seizure of ecstasy. OK, maybe not THAT good, but I must say I was very impressed by the graphics of FFX.

Audio: 9/10

Voice acting was OK. Only gripe was dubbing... granted, you get used to the fact that the character's mouths still move as if they are still speaking in Japanese, but that should've been... rectified at least a LITTLE bit upon porting to America.

Music is nothing less than what you'd expect out of a Final Fantasy game.

Difficulty: 10/10

Surprisingly, in FFX, not much time is consumed in character development. You could feasibly go through the entire game without spending some time powerleveling. Granted, it's a good idea, but with some new "spheres" that you'll acquire as you advance through the game, you could easily come up with strategies to make up for lack of levels. Won't go too much into spheres, as it's fairly confusing if you don't see it for yourself.

Final boss is, quite frankly, a bitch if you don't plan ahead. I like bosses like that. Some of the bosses were very difficult, being as they could kill your entire party in one blow. But like I said, prepare and strategize, and you will be perfectly fine.

Storyline: 10/10

If I had to explain to someone why ANY (well, maybe not ANY) Final Fantasy game deserves a 10 for a storyline, they deserve to be slapped in the head... unless they haven't played any FF game, then they should be dragged out from under their rock and forced to play FF7, 8, or 10.

Gameplay: 8/10

Puzzles aren't excruciatingly difficult, which is a definite + in my book.

Battle sequences are well done, with a good amount of strategic value, now made easier with the battle... (can't find a name for it) script? Pretty much, it goes like this. On the right hand side of the screen, you see a little bar. You see your characters pictures and monster A, B, C, etc. Whoever is at the top, goes first. Then the next one down goes next, etc. It continually cycles according to character's or monster's speeds/actions. Using items takes less time than using magic, but you don't have a virtually unlimited supply of items... As a result, if you use an item or other quick item, it is quite feasible to say that you could still then attack before the next character or monster's action.

One reason I deducted a point: number of battles. Before you get a particular item with an ability, you will fight a lot, almost as much as in Kingdom Hearts (in which there IS no item in which will reduce or eliminate enemy encounters). But, until then, the battles are necessary if you do not want to power-level. When you finally get a no-encounter item, then you can do sidequests, etc so that you can build up your character's gear, without having to worry about being smacked down by some very tough random enemies.

Another reason I deducted another point: Mini-games. They might be fun at first, but after a while, they just get annoying. Most of the mini-games ARE for sidequests/celestial weapons (a character's ultimate weapon), but the fact that they make the final battle SO much easier, it's hard to pass them up. Eventually, I passed up two weapons because of 2 mini-games.

One being a butterfly run. Run into a line of blue butterflies in a fairly complicated line and you win. Do this twice (once in one area and another time in another area) and you get a sigil, in which you use to get a weapon. You are under a very tight timelimit, in which if you fail, you have to start over. Easy, right? Nope. If you run into violet butterflies (they say they are red, but I'd swear I'd run into one, positive I saw a touch of blue), you have to do a battle. Not too bad, right? Well, the 2 seconds you lose from that encounter is very crucial, plus the loss of your momentum, can easily lead to a failure.

That one was nothing compared to the infamous 1,000 lightning bolt dodge. Hit X when the screen flashes and you dodge. Easy, right? Nope. The fact that if you mash the X button, it's detected, so the game proceeds to throw 2 at once, thus striking you. "That's not THAT bad!" Did I mention you had to dodge 1,000 CONSECUTIVE bolts? That's right! If you mess up on 999, you have to do it all over! From guides online, I've read that it takes quite a while of undivided attention. However, I am human and I DO have to blink. You are able to pause it, but that does not help me at all, as it completely breaks up my rhythm.

That being my only REAL gripe about the game, onto the end!

Overall Rating: 10/10

Even though my hate for two of the mini-games was VERY much apparent in the above bitching, I can't deny the fact that I still enjoyed the game a lot. Having spent about 80 hours total exploring and questing, I still did not get everything I could have. That being said, the replayability of the game is obviously large.

Can't really say too much more about FFX, other than if you haven't played it already, and don't plan on doing so, you are sorely depriving yourself of an escape into a very detailed role-playing experience.

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