It suddenly dawned on me, as I opened my CD case to find Final Fantasy X, that I had arrived at the stage of the 1001 list where I'd start to know a lot more games a lot better. The PlayStation 2 wasn't the first console I'd owned, but may well have been the most used. I'm at home when playing on Sony hardware, even when using Microsoft peripherals and community created emulators to play its games.
My first interaction with Final Fantasy X was back when I bought Final Fantasy VI for the PlayStation. Its European release was a year or so into the PS2 era, and it included a demo for FFX - mostly the reason I bought FFVI, to be honest - but I remember absolutely nothing about that demo.
In the years since I've only seen clips of the game. I could tell you what characters belonged to the game based on the art style, I suppose, but that's about it. FFX is uncharted waters for me, like most of the FF series, I guess.
Time to change that, I think.
Fun Times
FFVI opens with Mechs in the snow. Instantly awesome. FFVII starts with a raid on a reactor. Action heavy, I like it. FFVIII begins at school. Not so amazing, but slowly gets there. FFIX takes us to the theatre. Unexpected but captivating. FFX... FFX has lead character Tidus signing balls for his fans. Incredible.
How do they do it? How has there been this much variation in the look, the feel, the setting, the character of each Final Fantasy title? They're all about saving the world by slowly slapping bigger and badder opponents in the face in turn-based combat, right?
FFX's already good graphics are intercut with even smoother FMV scenes, where we learn that Tidus and his Blitzball are huge in this world, where not a soul in the city is to be found not enjoying the sporting event, save for one Auron, a mysterious robed warrior watching the city getting utterly destroyed by a sphere of water. Because Final Fantasy, I suppose.
We are more or less thrown into the story of FFX, learning as we go through the shortest of dialogues. The voice work isn't fantastic - Tidus is a little tedious in places - but it has absolutely swept me up and dumped me into a fight already.
The system is familiar to all by now, it seems. Pick an action, pick a target, do the activity, wait in line for the next opportunity to do something. I don't know quite how the timing works yet, and what determines when you act, but in all honesty, I'm just admiring the graphics at this point.
It's not a new experience for me to be wowed by the graphics of games. Even in previous entries of this blog, I've been caught by surprise by some of them, but for some reason, FFX had me in awe. I don't know why. I think it was probably down to the realisation that this was the first proper PS2 game on the 1001 list, and when compared to Vagrant Story from the PS1, the differences in power between the two consoles were night and day.
Whatever the case for my excitement at playing FFX, I was eager to see where this story would take me. Will I ever play Blitzball again?
Characters have special attacks which are accompanied by quick time challenges to get the most out of them. I failed, what with trying to capture screenshots at the same time, but it still looked great, so I'm not complaining. These things were going to take a beating whether I pulled the fancy moves off or not.
What on Earth was happening? It's all kicking off here, wherever we are. I'm a passenger. Blitzball player turned unlikely hero. I'm the only one trying to save the city it seems, except that I'm dangling in the air getting warped into some kind of wormhole or something. I'm going to need to up my game if I'm to save the world from Sin.
Awakening in a strange place, we set out to find some signs of life, which will hopefully offer up an explanation of what just happened. I think the minimap looks a little out of place with its pulsing triangles and computery blue tones, but I'll follow it until I see something obvious that I need to do.
Falling into the water introduces me to the notion that Tidus can hang with the fishes, treating underwater activities with the same ease as we'd treat walking on dry land. There's not even an oxygen meter in sight. This is a joy! It's still turn-based, and you're locked in place until you do something, but it feels effortless to get stuck into these fights, wherever they happen.
This one, however, is about to be interrupted by something more sinister than some weird-looking fish.
Does this action never cease? Where are we this time?
Frustrations
Clearly a master of survival, Tidus knows what he needs to stay alive in a strange place, and our first proper task of FFX is to wander around this small area to look for flint and tinder to light a fire. You can't really fail, but it was during this point that you really notice how the stage is set out.
By that, I mean that you're not walking around this place so much as walking on top of it, in areas rigidly defined by the developers. Invisible walls put up by the smallest of pebbles are everywhere, funnelling you this way and that. You might think you can go somewhere, only to watch Tidus run on the spot like a video game character.
As minor irks go, this one is pretty darn minor, I'll admit, but it was a bit of a shame to see.
Further Fun Times
My fire is interrupted by another monster, and our battle is interrupted by the arrival of some mostly-masked unknowns bursting through the door. The action just doesn't stop in this game, it's incredible.
Grenades are pretty powerful. Who knew? And to my surprise, this was actually the first fight I'd completed in FFX, despite starting five of them at least. I've not yet been introduced to the nitty gritty levelling mechanics in play here, save for a popup before playing asking whether I wanted the basic version or the advanced one. Knowing what I know about various FF mechanics, I accepted the basic version without questioning it at all.
After being kidnapped and kneed in the balls, I awoke on the deck of a futuristic ship of colourful characters speaking gibberish. Apart from one, Rikku, who conveniently interprets our conversation. It looks like we've no choice but to work for these fine folks, and to do that, it seems I need to know how the Sphere grid works.
I... think I've got all that. Yeah? How big is this grid, anyway?
Oohhh fffffuuuuuudge... for multiple characters, you say? Okay. Ok.
Going on a deep dive into the unknown, we turn on some kind of underwater facility and end up unleashing some sort of octopus, ready and waiting to slap us around with all of its tentacles. I wonder how well grenades work under water?
Quite well, indeed. That's good.
Swimming away and out of range, FFX then teaches us that in some fights, there will be opportunities for specific situational actions. I can chill out and recover, waiting for this beast to return, for example, or I can execute a pincer attack and continue the beatdown.
Soon enough, we emerge victoriously and return to the surface for some plot progression.
Whaaaaaaaaat?
Final Word
Ok, that's it, I gotta pause here, or I'll be playing for hours. I thought Final Fantasy IX was the unexpected favourite that I couldn't play any more of until I'd found a better way to play it, but that might just have been overshadowed by time-travelling Tidus here.
There was seemingly nothing you could do wrong for the first hour of the game, and it was jam-packed with action set pieces and glamourous cutscenes. I took to movement like a duck to water. It's incredible how easy it is to move anywhere when you don't dawdle like a tank...
I've hardly explored the other buttons on the controller. X for confirming actions and opening chests, something (Triangle?) to open the menu. I've not even explored the menu yet. I also haven't tackled the Sphere grid outside of the tutorial, so there may well be some room for grumbles down the line.
Everything I've seen so far points to a great game. Previous entries in the series have obviously also been great games, but they've felt very firmly like complex RPGs. So far, Final Fantasy X is doing well to hide the RPG side of things, and it feels much more like an action adventure title. I'm sure that I'm just yet to see the thick end of the spreadsheets concerning magic spells and summons or whatever, but if it's as easy to pick up as the rest of the game has been so far, then I'm all aboard.
The first impression of a video game is key to sticking with it, especially when we've got hundreds of games to choose from on just as many systems. FFX has knocked it out of the park with its first impression. I have no idea if it'll continue to hit home runs, but I'm definitely going to find out.
Fun Facts
FFX is the first in the series to feature not only voice acting, but lip syncing and motion capture too. When it came time to translate the months of script writing and voice recording, translators had to try to match English dialogue to Japanese lip syncing, and to keep the lines the same length, otherwise, the game would crash. It was described as trying to write four or five movies-worth of dialogue in the form of haiku's, which then had to be voiced and acted in English. No wonder Tidus sounds a little off.
Final Fantasy X, developed by Square Product Development Division 1, first released in 2001.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2002, via emulation.