Opinions, please! (Not flames - I HATE those)

Soon, I'll be the proud-ish owner of a PS2, and I'm giving serious thought to buying FFX as my first title.

However, I'm not oblivious to the considerable amount of bad press FFX has received. It'd be a pain to make a purchase that proves to be a waste of time and money...

So I'd be keen to hear some constructive opinions on FFX. What you liked, what you didn't like, and why.

To give you some ideas, I like FFVII's depth and complexity, of both its plot and characters. Human drama centering on believable characters is also a 'plus' in my books. Those of you who frequent the other FF threads might know my tastes...

Bearing those in mind, what do y'all think of the oft-lambasted yet widely loved tenth Final Fantasy?

However, please don't post any spoilers.

I'm not going to go all-out and defend or blast Final Fantasy X, but I would recommend playing it at some point if you're going to think about playing Final Fantasy X-2.

If you're wondering what I think of it, Final Fantasy X is a good game with a great battle system. This Final Fantasy finally eliminates the need for party splitting and annoying, useless characters; you, as the player, are encouraged to use all the characters with their strengths and weaknesses.

I know you from the other FF forums Big D.

I'm shattered at the moment so I can't be bothered writing much but I'd say go for it. There are interesting aspects and it's definately worth playing.

It's very cheap 2nd hand off ebay or something and it doesn't take that long to complete. If you find yourself bored out of your mind about 10 hours into it then just give up then because it won't get much better.

It's worth it if you like super challenges as it has the hardest boss in any FF game ever in - Penance (Japan/International version only. Not US).

I don't have anything to add in regards to a review for or against the game, but my suggestion is to rent it first if you aren't getting the information about the game that you're looking for. Since nowadays you own your memory card, you can rent FFX, and play it for a weekend and see what you think. If you don't like it, then you're only out a little money and you can delete the save on the memory card if you want. But if you like it, then you can buy it as planned, and continue from where your rented game left off.

Its an FF, plain and simple. Thats the reason I got it.

Honestly it has a lot of flaws. I didn't think much of the story either until very late in the game when I talked to a character I didn't have to and it changed my mind quite a lot.

I've played it twice, and got a lot of hours out of it, and I believe I'm one of the most heavily critical of the game in here. Take from that what you will.

Its beautiful. :)
What more can I say?

Well, after playing IX, I got so frustrated and fed up with what I considered 'crappy' FF games that I swore if X bit the big one I would never buy another FF game again.

But it didnt. In fact it blew me away. Set aside the graphics and the somewhat annoying unskippable cut scenes and you have a great story with very deep characters. And they do my absolute favorite thing anyone in a story can do. They grow. They change. They see faults in themselves. It's a very 'human' game, not full of a lotta nonsense. It's fun as heck, and the battle and sphere system are awesome once you get used to them. Blitzball is annoying, but oh well. The voices add a deeper side to the characters as well, again it makes the game more human. You see the softer sides of the harder characters, you see the wusses get a back bone. Prejudices are revealed and changed... to me, it's all very reminiscent of VI.

So give it a chance... if you lived close enough I'd lend you my copy.

Who grew? The only changes I can think of were very predictable, and a lot was left unsaid. I don't wanna put spoilers so I'll leave it at that.

Yuna (SPOILER)grew to understand the folley of her ways. She slowly started to become a more independant person, as is seen in 'Another Story' and X-2 I still think she's a very dependant character, but she did grow a bit

Tidus (SPOILER) finally finds out the truth about papa. Granted, not a lot of growth, but he did realize that all that hate (well most of it at least) was unfounded, and he learned to grow past that. It was hatred of Jecht that motivated a lot of his actions

Wakka (SPOILER) was obviously a deeply hateful racist. Or rather a bigot, as that's the correct terminology, but you get my drift. He learned that not all Al Bhed are these evil people

Lulu and Kimarhi (SPOILER)opened up a bit, and Lulu worked past that sense of failure she always had about the other two summoners she guarded

It's not a large amount of character growth, that's just not realistic. But it's better than most of the games when they focus only on the growth of the main character. VII had a certain amount, but left out a lot of people. The only one who changed in VIII was Squall. I havent played enough of IX to comment on that, though.

You're either going to love or hate FFX, or so it seems to me, some people hate the storyline and characters, others don't, personally, I thought the story was good, but the characters a little shallow, plus i thought it was way too short. Also, i loved the stat growth and battle systems, but hated that you couldn't freely roam from place to place. I definately agree w/ flying mullet, rent it first, you'll know whether or not you like it fairly early in the game.

Fair enough, I tend to argue that Yuna doesn't have a personality so I don't really register her as changing. But Tidus and Wakka were pretty predictable I thought. Fair points though.

ive had the game for about two weeks, and i recommend getting it. i got it at the same time as my ps2...about two weeks ago and its still the only game i own. it was pretty cheap too :)
the sphere grid and battle systems are really good, and the game feels alot more broad than any of the others in terms of character attributes and hidden stuff. and for what feels like the first time, magic isnt useless! X really accomplishes what i think they tried to do in IX and alot more. you acually use different people for different things, and can call them in and out of battle to do this.
though the plot isnt as strong as VII's, no other ff's is or will be i dont think.

I HATED FFX at first, but that's because I never even took the time to really try it.

After that though, I became addicted and couldn't turn my PS2 off as long as that disc remained inside of it.

Some good features are the Battle System, Sphere Grid, Magic, Character Development, Voices, Blitzball, Aeons, Side-Quests, and Weapon Customization. =]

I loved the game, I still count it as the best all time FFX i've played so far. The points i like about it are:

The music: Most of the music in the game are from the same 2-3 tunes but remixed. The quality of the sound and the way the music goes with the background is very enchanting. There are certain points in the game (SPOILER)When Yuna leaves besaid on her pilgrimige for example Where i just stop playing and listen to the beautiful music.

Mini games: Ok fair enough blitzball does get rather annoying after a while but on the only game you actually have to play it can be very exciting trying to beat those bloody luca goers. Other than that you have chocobo training. You have to dodge certain obsticals while running down a path etc. With the jazzy chocobo theme in the background i personally love doing it. Then you get the option to race a chocobo trainer person. It's rather easy but can still be fun.

mini quests: Mostly all of these can be extremly annoying but first time through it was quite a fun challenge to me. You have to accomplish things like dodging 200 thunder bolts to get the ultimate weapons to full power etc.

Conversation: This was one of my favourite things about FFX, the conversations in battle. In all other FF games you may get the odd programed scene where they talk in battle but in FFX there's a little bit of speech each battle. Depending on where you are and who you fight with it can be rather funny (Tidus: Don't break any bones old man!:
Auron: Hmmph)
Also whoever casts the last blow in a fight says some form of victory thing (Auron: that's how it's done!)
This gives battles a very nice feel and makes you feel warmer towards the characters.

Battles: As i said the speech but also the overdrive system (limit break sortof thing) Instead of just getting it automaticly you have to complete some form of trial first, at the start this can be tricky but you get used to it and it adds some fun to overdrives. The variation of techniques and magic etc learned. You can make characters move in any direction on the sphere grid you don't have to go their chosen path, the sphere grid is the levelling up system, basicly you get sphere levels instead of levels up, using the sph.levels you move around on this grid gaining things like "Tidus's attack raised by 3" or "tidus's hp raised by 200" On the grid you also learn magic and skills "Wakka learned dark buster" or "Yuna learned curaga" Using this system you can make different people learn different things for instance Lulu is the original black mage but yuna is actually stronger with black magic than Lulu so if you make yuna go in Lulu's path once she reaches the "agas" then lulu becomes rather useless or second choice. Every character in high use will end up completing their own sphere grid path.

Landscapes: Beautiful, simply beautiful. The ocean moves realisticly, the tide moves slightly in and out if you watch for a while, the grass sways in the wind, these little touches make it look so much more real.

Characters: Some people think Tidus a little whiny or Yuna to soft but i think you just have to look past that. No voice actor is perfect and i think they've done a pretty good job. In this game it's designed to make you closer to the characters, it's to make you nearly in tears when (SPOILER)yuna is supposed to die And you are! Without knowing it you do get attached to the characters and because of this the amazing FMV's and storyline make you laugh and cry. It's rather an emotional game.

Storyline: Very original, it has it's own religion ^.^ The storyline has many twists to it and many of them will surprise you the first time through, plus if you play it again you always notice something new playing it. It is very emotional and the ending sequence WILL make you cry, no denying it...no wait you can deny it, it made me cry though ^.^

Gameplay: Fast loading times, amazingly detailed landscapes and FMVs Realistic character movement, lip sync almost correct ^.^

Final rating: I give it 10 out of ten, i say definatly buy it, or as mulet says rent it.

Well, when I first played FFX I was a bit sceptical, mainly because of the way Tidus looked and the people right at the start, but the moment I saw the first cutscene (the Zanarkand Blitzball) I loved the game, not only was it possibly the best cutscene in the game, but it really gets the game rolling.

I loved the main storyline, there are a few difficulties but if you level up a little then you are sure to get past any bumps in your path.

But that's not all, if you complete the game you haven't really done the whole game, there are still Aeons (summons) to find, overdrives to get, legendary weapons, blitzball games and loads of other things!
I do recommend though if you get the International version (PAL version) then you should do everything you can in the cloisters of trials with the destruction spheres, you do NOT want to have to go back lol.

Blitzball I actually find pretty fun now that I have a decent team for it, granted it could have had a little more done to it to make it 'flow' a bit better (no pun intended :)) but it is a very easy to learn and fun game as soon as you sign on one or two good players.

But all in all I love the game, the plot is solid the characters good and the graphics are the best yet (you expected less?)

It good am. The plot ruled, I liked teh characters and the sound is wonderful. There is some bad acting here and there, but It's still great. All the characters develop, but the inability of characters to say Tidus's name and teh butchering of Yuna's lines screws it a little. I haven't played any mini-games except for Blitz. Blitz is OK, but you wouldn't want to play it nonstop. I'd still advise renting it though, because I've heard lots of bad "reviews" of it on this board.

Hmm. Thanks for the input, everyone, it's been really helpful.:)
In spite of a few reservations, I'm actually looking forward tp FFX quite a bit. I've got the demo that came with the FFVI re-release, so I'll give that a whirl before committing any hard-earned cash to the game itself.

You can't just borrow it from someone? I don't even own a PS2, Abominatrix let me borrow her PS2 and FFX.

No chance. Out of my immediate group of friends, I'm the only one who's ever played a Final Fantasy title. Rental, though, remains an option.

Hmm. Looks like this thread's done it's duty... time for a bit of closure.

Thanks once again to everyone who replied here!:)