My first time was odd. I'd gotten the game used with my new PS2 (also used) after a couple year hiatus from the series (without a PS2, there was nowhere to go after IX). I had huge hopes, as the trailers and footage I'd seen made me feel like I was in for a beautiful and sublime adventure on par with my first go-around with VII.

At first I was astounded by the graphics and the smoothness of the battle system. The story really got off on a good foot, too, and Besaid Island was hard to not love (it's gorgeous). As the game went on I was enjoying it enough, but every time I'd go to turn it on, I'd get this niggling feeling that I really didn't feel like playing..

At around Mushroom Rock Road I started getting tired of the (what I found to be) dull environments, the straightish-ness of the maps, and the constant interruptions from party members. The now notorious laughing bit was painful, and it became a running joke between my cousin (7) and myself for a long time. The scene couldn't have fallen more flat. Square always had a certain badness in their dialogue (poor localization and what not), but the full-on VA really made it that more pronounced. After Guadosalam I almost put the game down for good not being able to get past how bored I was. I eventually toughed it out and found it to be not as bad as I'd thought, but still not very good. Over-all thoughts: lots of wasted potential.

I played the thing again a couple of years ago when I was doing a playthrough of all the post-VII games to get hyped for XII. Still didn't like it much, and still am surprised that Square would make the jump to the PS2 only to make X's adventure smaller and less interesting than its PS1 predecessors.