Fynn's top 10/bottom 5 FF list!

[Fynn]

Click here to listen to my most controversial statement yet...

#2: FINAL FANTASY X

Dear God, save me.

I apologize to ToriJ, Karifean, Pike, and probably about 90% of the FF fanbase who still consider this game to be awesome. I am sorry. I am not one of you.

I used to love this game as a kid, I really did. But then it just didn’t hold up in my view. What I used to consider a fun and strategic battle system now just seems boring, slow and repetitive, even with the Expert Sphere Grid. I used to love this story and thought it really had great depth, but the more I think about it, the worse it gets…

How can you write a story about the tragedy of death when it is made clear that the afterlife is not the end? You can visit your dead quite literally whenever you want to, and yet it’s still considered a huge loss. Even if you argue that those may just be illusions made by the pyreflies, there’s like a whole crapton of people walking around that should be dead but aren’t. There is undeniable evidence of the afterlife in this world – how is the fear of death still a thing? Say what you will, but for me, it really cheapens the impact of Sin and the destruction that it causes.

Another thing I don’t like about this game is how they go about religion. I’m really okay with religion being portrayed as corrupt and such – Xenogears and Final Fantasy Tactics are among my favorite games. I just feel that here the church of Yevon is painted as this purely, one-dimensionally evil entity, with people following religion only because they were stupid enough not to think about it too much. I’m all for giving us corrupt churches that use people to their own ends. But when you tell me I have to be completely ignorant of everything to even consider religion a valid option, well, things get personal.

The story is also virtually identical to Grandia II, which came out only a short time earlier, though, so I doubt this is a case of plagiarism. What Grandia II did well, though, is that it didn’t treat itself so seriously. Final Fantasy X is joyless and tries to present itself as something meaningful and deep, but none of that pretense can mask what I consider to be a really shallow story with paper-thin characters.

I’ve also recently replayed this game on the Vita, and while I can see it’s not that bad a game, I couldn’t get myself to finish it. It failed to grip my interest and the excessive grinding that needs to be done by the end really didn’t make it any easier.

The reason why this is so high on the list, despite not being nearly as bad a game as Final Fantasy XIII, is that I simply hate how much hype it gets, especially compared to other FFs I consider vastly superior but get overlooked way too often. People continue to gush about a story they consider amazing, and yet I can’t help but feel that I’ve outgrown it. Final Fantasy X was cool when I was a teen. Not it’s just… meh.