Review: Final Fantasy X

Every Christmas season brings with it a storm of new game releases, just in time for the gift-buying frenzy. This year however, marks the release of SquareSoft's first Final Fantasy title for the PS2. I was lucky enough to snag a copy soon after release and spend some time with it. Read on for my first impressions.

I expected a lot from Final Fantasy X, if only because it's Square's first RPG outing on PS2. Within the FF series, every time the jump to a new console was made, it resulted in either better graphics or gameplay, or in this case, both. Although fighting a battle in FFX initially feels like fighting a battle in one of it's predecessors there's been a significant amount of changes to the combat system.

I'm not going to discuss much in the way of plot or characters, because if you're like me, you'll want to discover that part on your own, since the plot is what keeps console RPGs moving.

What's New? Final Fantasy games have always been rather combat-heavy, and leveling up at different times had gotten mind-numbingly boring. In an effort to change that, there are many more options during combat. Characters can be swapped in and out of combat at any time, and they can perform moves as soon as entering the battle, so it's no longer a big deal when you have to fight the weak-against-magic monster and you forgot to include a magic user in the party. In the same way, summons (called Aeons this time around) remain summoned until one dismisses them, replacing the party in battle. When an Aeon's HP drops to zero, the party is brought back into battle, but the Aeon can also be dismissed before that. There's still random battles just like previous games in the series, but it feels like they turned down the frequency of the battles a bit, especially from last year's FF9.

What would be a new Final Fantasy without a new magic system? This time around, it's a little quirky, but it doesn't disappoint. Remember when I mentioned leveling up being boring? Well this time around there's no character levels. Instead, everything is determined by a large sphere grid, that the characters move on using points they accrue by fighting battles. At various points in the grid, characters can lay different types of spheres that enhance them with new abilities, increased character starts, or more max HP/MP. The result is a non-linear system which is more open ended than magic systems of the past, allowing for greater character customization. The trick is to guide a character to the places on the grid that will allow him/her to get the skills desired while using the least amount of sphere levels (which are essentially travel points). Backtracking on the grid is allowed, but is also counterproductive.

Now onto the most fun part of the game: the graphics! With the capability of the PS2 at its disposal, this is easily the best looking ever Final Fantasy title ever, and it's a beautiful world that's been painted. While walking around, the world really comes alive, as trees sway and grass moves as wind goes past. Many of the characters' facial expressions are done in realtime, and while the scenes aren't picture perfect, they are a far cry from the jagged polygonal models on Playstation as well as the two dimensional sprites from the earlier FF titles. The battle sequences look better than ever also, as characters move more fluidly, and enemies do as well. The already stunning realtime animations are augmented by amazing FMV sequences. My only small complaint here is that there's no way to skip the movies entirely. Since it's still my first time playing the game, I haven't wanted to skip anything, but I still feel sorry for the impatient. There is, however, a configuration setting to turn off the extended summoning animations, so there won't be a five minute wait for the huge Aeons enter from space.

Something else FFX features for the first time in a Final Fantasy game: voice acting! Although not every bit of dialogue is dubbed, the voices that are dubbed are done better than I expected. My only complaint is that the lips were synched to the Japanese dialogue, and never resynched during importing. However, that never stopped me from enjoying a Kung Fu movie, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the game either. Given that the game was released two months earlier than originally planned, I'll let this detail slide.

What's the Same? Although the magic system was overhauled, most of the spells are still the same. There's still three levels of elemental spells, and an Ultima spell, and so on. Also, it wouldn't be much of a Final Fantasy without chocobos, and they are featured yet again.

When Final Fantasy IX was released last year, it featured characters with the traditional Final Fantasy classes, like summoner, white mage, blue mage, etc. I think Squaresoft found that players enjoyed the return to these classes, and decided to continue the trend. Although each character is ultimately customizable into any class, they each start with suggest paths across the sphere grid that resemble one of the classes.

Conclusions Well, if my synopsis of the game didn't sound glowing already, let me reiterate. This game is fun! I had more fun playing the first few hours of FFX than I have had while beating other games. After seeing the character designs for the game, I was worried it might degrade into a "Dude, Where's My Water Sword?" kind of angst-ridden adventure, but instead it's just been fun, and lots of it. On a ten point scale, I give this game a nine, and although it's a little early to call, it may be my favorite Final Fantasy yet. Battle is integrated well with the plot, and with the tutorials placed within the game itself, I'd even recommend this game for those who may not necessarily be RPG fans.

Comments

What the...?

[Rogerborg]

• Given that the game was released two months earlier than originally planned

And in other news, our weather reporter mounted on a flying pig advises all you denizens of Hell to wrap up warm, because there's a cold snap coming on.

Actually, it's not that surprising. I'm about to embark on a port of some software for the Japanese market, and I've been told to multiply my estimate by 3. I mean, pad it as much as I usually do, then multiply by 3. The Japanese market habitually underpromises and overdelivers, in stark contrast to marketing driven North America and Europe. How quaint!

Re:Suggestions for Total FF Newbie?

[cje]

My opinion (and I stress that this is my opinion .. if you annoy particularly sensitive FF fanboys you run the risk of having them come after you with machettes) is that Final Fantasy VII is the best of the bunch, but I haven't played FFX yet.

My allegiance to FFVII is probably because it was the first FF game for the Playstation platform, and it represented a quantum leap forward in terms of technology. I remember playing through this game for the first time, watching wide-eyed in near-disbelief as the "camera" panned over such surreal sights as the floating city of Midgar, Rufus' airship, the mountains near Nibelheim, and the missile launch at Rocket Town. Sure, we take intricate FMV sequences like this for granted now, but this was 1997 and nobody had seen anything quite like it before.

I really liked the magic system (materia) in FFVII. It wasn't all that complicated, and it allowed you to experiment with spells and abilities and elementals and combine them in all sorts of fun and interesting ways. It is far superior to the absolutely dreadful "junctioning" system of FFVIII. Thankfully, Square went away from that and back to a more traditional system for FFIX. The combat system in FFVII is simple enough to get a handle on it quickly, and it works well enough to carry itself through the rest of the game (as long as you're prepared for a lot of combat!)

FFVII also has (again, IMHO) among the best music in the series. (Sound of machettes being unsheathed.) This is a subjective observation, of course .. excellent music has always been a hallmark of the FF series, and pretty much all of the games have their share of it. The melodies from FF7 just happen to have stuck with me longer. The haunting theme from Cloud's dream sequences, the throbbing drumbeats at Cosmo Canyon, the whimsical tropical theme at Costa del Sol, the grandiose rendition of the theme music that is played on the World Map .. all are far above par for video games of this type.

I think that FFVII's biggest selling point, however, is its replay value. All of the games (particularly the later ones) have a certain amount of "side quests" that are not necessary to complete in order to win the game, but FFVII has a lot more than any of the others. There are two completely optional characters that you can get in your party and develop (with storylines and quests of their own.) There are lots of "in-game games" that you can play, such as the attractions at the Gold Saucer. You can embark on a career of Chocobo raising with the eventual goal of raising a Gold Chocobo that will allow you to visit every corner of the planet and unearth some magic materia of unspeakable power (Knights of the Round, anyone?) You can take some time at the end of the game to try and defeat the all-powerful Ruby and Emerald Weapons. And that's just scratching the surface.

FFVII is also not without its weak points. The storyline, while easy to follow on a broad scale, is often confusing and muddled when the details are revealed. The story is not as good as the one in, say, Final Fantasy IV, but it definitely holds its own. The main character, Cloud, is maddeningly obstinate and at times you wish you could reach through the television and give him a good clean punch to the gut. In many places, the combat is far too frequent (though this is not just a complaint about FFVII!)

At any rate, that's my take; I like FFVII the best because of the nostalgia and the fond memories of how much it captivated me the first time I played through it. To a large degree, it continues to do so. The bottom line is that all of the games in this series have something to recommend them; this one just happens to be my favorite. Your mileage may vary. Please put your machettes away. Thank you.