Do you fancy taking a couple of weeks out of your life as you become immersed in a fantasy world and it's inhabitants battle for survival? If the answer is yes, then maybe it's time for you to pick up the gauntlet and take the mantles of Tidus, and his comrades as they battle Sin, in the hope of bringing long hoped for peace to Spira.
This is the tenth in the Final Fantasy (FF) series, and the first produced for the PS2. That's not to say, it's the tenth that I've played, in fact I was rather a late starter to the series and began my adventures in the seventh instalment. Having completed that adventure I moved onto Final Fantasy 8 (FFVIII), was very impressed with the obvious improvement in both gameplay and graphics and then strangely moved onto number six, now a complete addict.
When FFX first hit the shelves, I really wanted to buy it, there and then, but sadly my finances and common sense held me back, after all £40 is an awful lot to spend on what is still just a game. As soon as the game went platinum, I gave in to temptation and purchased it on one of the buy two games for thirty pounds offers, and have never regretted it.
From the opening sequence, I found myself blown away my the vast improvement in graphics. Everything looked so spectacular, from the detail in the characters faces to the beautifully rendered backdrops.
Graphic-wise there is a vast improvement from the previous games, but unfortunately this does lead to some long loading times, that can occasionally become annoying.
As with all RPGs (Role Playing Games), there is a fairly simple storyline to follow and for the first half of the game, this has to be followed in strict order, but once this basic section has been completed you are allowed to roam freely throughout the whole of Spira. But perhaps you'd like to know a little about the storyline, well I'm not going to tell you very much about the plot, the fun of a game like this is that the story unfolds as you play. However, as the game opens the main character, Tidus, is preparing for a blitz ball game (sort of like football, but under water). As the game is about begin a huge monster attacks and a face from the past (or is that the future), Auron, appears. As Tidus and Auron fight for their lives, Tidus gets sucked into a whole new world, and now it's time for him to not only survive but discover where exactly he is .all in all the storyline is reasonable, with a few mysteries that unravel as it progresses.
As well as the vast improvement in graphics, there is also a new set of method of levelling-up (making your characters more powerful) to master. Gone is the materia of the previous games and it's in place there is a sphere grid. As you fight, and more importantly win, battles against the various fiends (that's monsters to you and me), you will gain APs (Ability Points), and these will allow you to move your characters around a grid. Then at certain points on the grid there are nodes that can be activated to increase a characters different statistics (Health, Power, Speed, etc). Although it took me a little while to get used to this method, I soon found it was far easier and more intuitive than with the previous games. So much so that, when I discovered there were two levels of difficulty for the grid, I was chuffed to discover that I when I restarted the game I had to give the more difficult option a chance.
Another major difference in gameplay is the control system, which has been vastly improved. The creators seem to have realised that using the O as the action button, made getting used to the controls difficult, and now the X does all the work, this means I make far fewer mistakes, even when I've been playing a different game immediately before continuing with this. The final major difference is that instead of every character being able to use the aeons (powerful guardians) you are limited to only Yuna being able to summon them. This isn't really a problem, in fact it makes the game slightly more interesting as it can be a little harder to defeat those nasty bosses.
Which brings me nicely on to the variety of battles, there are quite a number of different monsters to face, but there's not that much actual variety. Many of the monsters belong to groups, and while they do get steadily more difficult to defeat, there does seem to be a lot of repetition. And talking of repetition, the actual score soon starts to become annoying, I must admit I play this with the sound turned down, otherwise I get driven to distraction. Another thing that annoys me are the cut sequences, which are very nice to look at the first time around, get extremely frustrating when you have to watch them, yet again, after dying, all they would have needed to do is add a way to skip them and it would make my playing time that little bit more enjoyable. Oh and while I'm having a whinge, the aeon sequences, while dramatic are a little on the long side.
As I said before, completing this game takes hours, in fact if you are going to complete all the side quests, then be prepared to spend at least 100 hours. Although a lot of that time will be spent levelling your characters up, which is a process that can become a bit tedious. I would imagine it would take far less time to complete the basic story, but the nice thing about this game is there is so much more than that to do. You are able to take part in blitz ball championships, train a chocobo or even capture one of every monster. The game while never impossibly difficult, does have some challenging areas, and is occasionally frustrating, especially when you've spent 20 odd minutes progressing and die a few steps before the save point.
So who is this game suitable for? A good question, my 10 year old enjoys the battles, but finds the puzzles to difficult, so perhaps that's not quite the right age group. I, however, love the game and am on my second journey through Spira. Even though I'm occasionally frustrated, I find the satisfaction of massacring the various monsters, levelling my characters up and completing the sub-plots strangely addictive. So much so that I sometimes find that it's gone midnight and I still want "just one more battle". So this game is for those that prefer thinking about the game they're playing than those who simply enjoy "button bashing" and of course those that have plenty of time to truly complete the story.
Available for : £19.99 in most stores, or often on offer at 2 for £30
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Final Fantasy X-2is the first-ever direct sequel to appear in Square's legendaryFinal ... more
Fantasyseries of role-playing adventure games. Here the emphasis is placed squarely on the all-female trio of adventurers who make up the player's role-playing team. ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Amazing graphics, good soundtrack, plenty of lifespan Disadvantages: A mediocre tale of unremarkable characters, linear, no explorable World Map
tom1clare 03.06.2007 (03.06.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Advantages: PS2 = Great selection of games XBox = great power Disadvantages: PS2 = easily breakable XBox = no FFX not as good selection of games as PS2
Organics 06.01.2004 (08.01.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Microsoft Xbox
Jul 26th, 2005
exceptional by (2%):
very helpful by (98%):
