"Perfect in almost every aspect"

Square first got their fame back in the 80's best known as SquareSoft (the company Enix joined and made them change their name at a later time). They were makers of a much popular RPG called Final Fantasy. Because of the success with the first game, they decided to make a sequel called Final Fantasy II. However, it was first at the release of Chrono Trigger (1995) and Final Fantasy VII (1997) that Square gained international popularity. These were games that in many ways defined the genre of traditional role playing games. Much because of the huge and well written plots, up to date-graphics and addicting fighting-systems.

The Final Fantasy X-project started in 1999, and began to get serious in 2001. They decided that Sony and 'the world of PlayStation' still would be the company to get the main Final Fantasy titles. After eight months of intense work, Final Fantasy X was finished in 2002.

Personally, I got the game together with my PS2. I wasn't too exited about earlier Square-games (with an exception of Final Fantasy VII) and didn't play it more than a couple of days before I decided to play some Gamecube games instead. Funny thing actually. Now I can't think of a single Gamecube game that gave me such a high quality of gaming as Final Fantasy X did. And that includes both of the Zelda games (which might be my favourite game series ever). After approximately a month of playing Smash Bros: Melee and Time Splitters 2, I decided to continue my FFX adventure, which I'm very glad I did. It was first after all this time I finally noticed how well made and, in almost every aspect, perfect this game was, and still is. This is without a doubt one of my favourite games ever. Let me explain why.

The game story is as we expect of the best Final Fantasy games out there. Extremely deep and well written. Full of love, anger, politics and character development. The only negative thing about it I can find (which also is totally subjective), is that the main character, Tidus, at some parts seems a little too noobish and stupid to me, and that overall, the plot wasn't completely as catchy as I think it was in Final Fantasy VII. But as mentioned, this is as subjective as it can get. Also, the "noobish" behaviour might as well count as a positive thing, so that the player more easily can relate to the character in the game. I don't want to get too detailed about the actual plot. But in short, you control a young man called Tidus on a quest to kill a giant monster (Sin). On this adventure you meet a young summoner called Yuna and a fine bunch of cool, strange, and different personalities. Lots of unique plot twist makes FFX one of the most original games, plot-wise. The great voice acts makes it all even more interesting. The plot in FFX is extremely catchy, huge, emotional, and well written. Without a doubt a ten out of ten story-wise.

Graphically FFX and Gran Turismo were the two best games I had played at a time. Even to this day, there isn't actually anything wrong with FFX, visually. With lots of different, colorful and realistically detailed environments, FFX has one of the most beautiful game atmospheres I've ever seen. The FMVs in Final Fantasy X is actually stunningly good looking, even to this day. Even Final Fantasy XII doesn't directly "surpass" it. In battle, the special effects looked better than in any RPG when FFX first launched. And finally, the game doesn't run in pre-rendered "pictures" anymore (like it does in the earlier FF-games). The only negative things I can pick on, graphically, is that the character is running somewhat slow and a little unnatural to me. And that the camera regularly doesn't run ina normal 'third person view' like in Zelda and Dragon Quest (which I prefer). But now I'm being ridiculously picky.

As in most RPGs, FFX consists of one big world with lots of towns, caves etc. The overall gameplay is more linear than the PSX-Final Fantasies, and you don't get as much "freedom" as you do in most RPGs. But you do have the opportunity to choose if you want to backtrack for secrets and side questing, and later you get to control an air ship which makes it easy to go anywhere you want. Other than that, the gameplay is both addicting and extremely deep at the same time. The level and upgrading system is, for me, only surpassed by Final Fantasy VII. In FFX you use something called a sphere grid. You gain levels and sometimes spheres by defeating enemies. Spheres are used on the grid so that you can choose different "routes", depending on what you want your character to focus on in battle. The battle system itself consist of the old traditional random battle-system, but works more balanced and less irritating than in Final Fantasy VII and Pokemon for example. The battle itself is based on the traditional turn based-style. Which means that the time you get to use an attack depends on your characters agility compared to the agility of the enemy you're fighting. In Final Fantasy X the summon system works better than in any RPG I've played. You actually get to control and even train up to ten summons (Aeons) in battle. Each with a special overdrive-skill and lots of fancy tricks on the side.

There are lots of different and extremely well made enemies and bosses in the game. The difficulty curve is as perfect as it possibly can get. It's extremely easy at the beginning of the game so that you can get used to how everything actually works, and gets challenging like hell at later parts. Also there's a huge number of extra bosses from the monster arena and omega-cave, and in the European version you get to fight the Dark Aeons and of course the almost impossible Penance-monster. Who is known as one of the most difficult RPG-bosses ever.

During the game, you'll have to complete some unique temples which consist of well made and challenging puzzles. Nothing compared to the Zelda-temples, but still something fun and extra that contributes to the originality and greatness of this game. In Final Fantasy X there are as much mini games and side questing as there is story-wise. There's the Chocobo racing games, lots of monster arena fun, the quest for the celestial weapons, the butterfly catching game, and of course the famous Blitzball games. Blitzball is the biggest, most advanced and unique extra game I've ever seen. You get the opportunity to customize and in different ways train your team consisting of characters throughout the world of Final Fantasy X.

As mentioned earlier, this game contains lots of brilliant voice acting, and both realistic and unique sound effects which does something great to the atmosphere of the game. The good thing about voice acting in general, is that things such as character emotions and personalities automatically gets much better expressed than it would with plain text. Of course you don't need to "endeavour" to keep up with the plot. I've noticed that some people actually argue about "the bad voice acting in FFX" and such. This isn't true. The voice acting is superb compared to what average games have to offer. And I've played several games with respectable voice acts. Musically, Final Fantasy X is the only game I've heard of that has actually been played on the radio. Each tune composed by the most well known game music composer ever, Nobuo Uematsu. A legend at what he does. Suteki da ne might be the most beautiful love song I've ever heard. To Zanarkand and the Cloister-music is what defines "game atmosphere" to me. In short: without a doubt one of the best track lists I've ever heard in games.

Overall, the game takes between 50 and 80 hours to finish without side questing. As mentioned earlier, secrets and side quests takes as much time to complete as the story-part itself. If not more, that is! Personally, I've played FFX over 220 hours at a single game file. And I don't really separate too much from the average rpg-player. I've heard of people with playing files of much more than 300 hours. This game is huge!

So. Should you buy this game? The answer to that is simply yes. Final Fantasy X consist of beautiful surroundings, superb soundtrack, emotional and realistic characters development and as expected: lots of fun. It's hard to find anything that FFX doesn't technically score perfect at. And still there's no word big enough to describe the wonderful gaming experience I got from playing it. Final Fantasy X is without a doubt worth buying a PS2 for. If you don't really like RPGs, this might as well be the game to turn your opinion. The second best Final Fantasy-game out there in my opinion, and one of the greatest games ever made. No matter the price, FFX is probably worth the cash.

Summary:

Plot: 10/10
Graphics: 9,7/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Lifespan: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/03, Updated 05/25/07