Presenting, A Holy Judgement Production:
Final Fantasy X: The Review
Game Synopsis:
“Spira was home to highly developed civilizations until 1,000 years ago, when Sin first appeared. Sin is a trespasser, a scourge upon the land. It falls only to rise again, bringing chaos and destruction to Spira’s technological advances.
“A group of travelers from different tribes and walks of life will set aside their own set of beliefs to save their crying world. Together they will guard a young Summoner determined to defeat Sin at all costs.
“The party journeys to the very ends of the world, visiting temples and bonding with Aeons. As the Summoner gains new strengths, she prepares to receive her ‘Last Summoning,’ the only power that can defeat Sin and save the world.” (FFOnline.com)
Brian’s Review
Seeing I am the world’s biggest Final Fantasy (FF) fan, I thought it would only be fitting that I review an FF game. There is only one word that can do justice to this game and that one word is: PERFECT. FFX is the first FF game for the PlayStation 2 game console. OK, so it isn’t quite perfect, but it is close enough to perfect as a “prototype” game.
The first thing that you notice when you play FFX is the characters ability to speak. Yes, that’s what I said, the characters speak now, and English at that! And it’s not only the main characters that speak, but many of the support characters have been given voices as well. Squaresoft pulled out all the stops when casting the voice actors for the main characters. The voice of Tidus is played by James Arnold Taylor who has done voice acting work for many feature films and television shows such as Stuart Little, Monster’s Inc., and Futurama. Mad props to Square for scoring Taylor for Tidus’ role.
The newest feature to the FF series is the revamped battle system. No longer are you as the player restricted to using only the traditional three or four characters every round, but now you can “tag-team” any character not on screen to join in the battle. Why travel all the way back to your airship to switch characters when now the feat can be accomplished with the simple press of the L1 button? Pretty sweet if you ask me.
FFX does not support the “experience gaining” task to level your characters up anymore. In FFX, the only reward your characters receive at the end of a battle are ability points (AP). You use your AP points to build up “sphere levels” so you can move your characters along the “sphere grid” to advance their abilities and stats. It sounds confusing at first, but the wizards at Squaresoft built in a handy “Sphere Grid” tutorial to help you progress throughout the game smoothly. Once again, I must insist on giving mad props to Squaresoft.
The graphics in FFX are beautiful. I would even go as far as to say they are exquisite. Square was able to utilize the processing power of the PS2 in just the right way to create a game that is visually stunning. The graphics truly bring out the “Fantasy” of the game. One scene that totally took my breath away was a scene where Tidus and Yuna were playing in a pond at night. The water moves in real time and the reflection of the stars and moon and fireflies react to the ripples in the water. It is impossible to put into words how beautiful this scene really is. You truly have to see it to believe it.
The music, as in every FF game, is spectacular. One might even say it is Spectacular Spectacular! A live orchestra was used to bring the stunning majesty of the game as a whole to breath-taking compilation of one of the greatest games ever conceived.
Honestly people, I cannot think of a more perfect game. Sure, as a prototype game, it has some minor flaws. But, can you name one game that doesn’t? Hmm? Can ya? Can ya? Can ya? Huh? Huh? Huh? Anyways, that wraps it up for this entertainment editor’s review. Please, do yourself a favor and rent or buy this game. If you do not own a PlayStation2, GET ONE DAMN YOU and play this phenomenal game. Final Fantasy X gets 10 out of 10.
And Squaresoft...God bless you.
Brian | June 2002
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