Today I purchased Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster. Instead of musing aloud, I decided to muse aloud and make notes. These notes will then inform my updates here as I play through the game. I considered merely jotting these down in a Word document for use later, but I figure it might create some discussion and I might use it to write things for EoFF so why not make a thread. Plus, alliteration is awesome.

So, let us begin!


The introductory screen is nice. Cool to see that I have other things to try for the first time! Of course, I will start at the top and work my way down, because that is the natural progression and I do not wish to ruin this narrative by placing it out of order. I catch myself thinking, "okay, Square Enix do remakes okay," until I remember Final Fantasy VI for Android. "Remake bundles," I amend, highlighting the start screen of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix in my mind. Also, they are terrible with names.

The opening cut scene plays. Rikku's hair looks like crap. So does Kimahri's. Wakka and Lulu's looks alright from this distance though, so that's a plus. I can definitely see graphical improvements, and the music is nice. "Why is Kimahri's ponytail thing so... trout, though?" I wonder. Alayna points out that it happens in anime too; hair is gravity defying.

"YES BUT," I say, "his little hair band thing that makes his hair shoot out is great, but the end would drop. It would still be 'pointy' but this is just pointlessly incorrect." I know too much about having long hair, I realise. Maybe I should get a hair cut.

Yuna and Tidus also have strange hair. It is probably nicer, but the crisper detail on the rest of the body makes the hair look awkward and plastic. I like Tidus's face, and then he does that weird half-open mouth thing that I remember from one of the trailer videos and I tell him to close his stupid mouth. His eyes are amazingly blue though, which makes him significantly more attractive. This is good. The title card comes up and it is nice, then it is joined by the HD Remaster crap and it is severely less nice.

Sakaguchi gets his Executive Producer credit and I cannot help but smile. Even when he is gone, Square Enix are still using him to turn a profit. Or, at least, try not to go insolvent. I don't think he would complain; he loved the work he created and no doubt feels something inexplicable towards the company as a concept.

Suddenly I am faced with a choice between New Game, Load Game, and Data Transfer. Data Transfer? I try it, but nothing. Maybe I need one of those wacky things to suck my PS2 save file out of the memory card, or whatever. I don't care either which way so I go back and hit new game. I get more loading screens.

Have I mentioned those yet? I have not. The loading screens are gross. I hate them. Why? Mostly the blue. Mostly the text. The language of Spira is not decipherable that easily. It's not English. Loading is written in some weird amalgam of Spiran and English. That is gross. Also the blue is kind of gross. Otherwise, I don't mind it. Have a black screen with spinning Jecht symbol, that is fine. Get rid of the rest.

Then the second intro plays. Not second as in "it has another," but rather, it plays again. I just saw this. I was forced to watch this before I could choose to play the game at all. Why would you do this? Pressing start only pauses it, prolonging my despair. Ugh.

It takes a while. I wonder why Tidus, Yuna, and Wakka would put their weapons in some kind of weird monument shape. Maybe it is explained later. Maybe it is for marketing. Probably the latter. When Tidus stands, I noticed the hood on his shoddy (shirt/hoodie crossover) moves. Now that is cool.

I remark "shouldn't you be speaking" approximately half a second before he starts. Okay, so I was almost right. The title card comes up again and I realise the font is not quite the same, but I dig it anyway. There is a weird juxtaposition between the kind of traditional setting they are in at this opening shot and the futuristic, clean, sans-serif font though. Slightly unnerving, but not likely to bother a normal person.

And then we start listening to Tidus's story. Hoo boy, here we goooooo!