I can't allow the notion that X was well written. It's really terrible actually and feels (to me at least) like a jr. high story rewritten by a college student. Yes it uses archtypes but most fail to move past their stock personas and become something new or original (something most of the other FF succeed in though perhaps not in grand ways). This in turn makes the plot horribly predictable and the characters flat and two dimensional.
Actually all of FF is fairly predictable. I had a feeling Aeris was going to die. And once she split, I knew she was the one for this installment that will be history. As they were killing off someone in each game for the past 3 installments of the series, at the time of 7's release (Tellah, Galuf, Leo and possibly shadow). I'm old, and wasn't a noob to the series with the release of 7. It's never anything new. They didn't stop the killing thing till 8. Even all of the fan bs rumor crap about resurrecting characters wasn't new. So much bs was written about how to resurrect General Leo in 6 long before anyone ever heard of Aeris. So even that repeats. As there's a thousand "so called ways to resurrect her" just like Leo.:mog: Morons. THEY'RE DEAD LIVE WITH IT! Both got stabbed.

My real problem with X is that its completely processed. Taking concepts and ideas used before but not allowing for any kind of growth or originality. The plot is straight out of Japanese mythology and happens to be a rather overtold story at that... Its cast are text book examples of literary archtypes whose only level of originality is shallow back stories and in the form of visual design. As far as personality goes, the writer chooses to never allow the characters to stray from their archtype and instead creates a bland and predictable cast.
I am of the opinion, that they don't move further or stray from their archetype because they DID rely so much on the characters. If the other games got into characterization as much as X did you would be saying the same thing about them. The thing is in other games the stories of 3/4 of the cast was told in a flashback sequence and we as the gamer are left to guess about the rest of their life and form our own conclusions. THEIR CHARACTERIZATION wasn't really presented very much. If it was, you might have hated them too. So yea, if you like it that way then you wouldn't like X. It's the type of person you are. I agree it's not original, but I say, who needs to be original. If it's not broke don't fix it. But I disagree when you say that they had no growth. Wakka for example had to accept that Yevon was false. I'd call that growth.



The whole thing feels processed and formulatic, lacking anything orignal outside of world design. Perhaps this is why so much focus of X is on the world of Spira as its the only truly original concept in the game. X never surprised me and it never moved me emotionally like previous FFs had. It was just shallow and mediocre. I'm currently playing through it a third time but I doubt I'll finish it cause I seriously don't care. Its in fact, one of the few RPGs that I dislike more and more each time I play it. Personally, I don't care if people like the game. We al have different tastes, I just wanted to add my :twocents: on the topic of X being well written or characterized.
Most FF come from some type of mythologies. Most of the summoned monsters and many of the weapons are from mythologies. The early games focused on balance of nature and the 4 elements. 6 was band of rebels vs empire (One of my friends that borrowed my SNES FF3 and commented to me that it's just Star Wars). 7 was just Shin Buddhism with all that lifestream stuff (gaia theory for the educated in here). 8 was quantum physics with time and alternate dimensions. 9 had a lot of philosophy based writing also mixed with the gaia theory. Which tied into Garland's plan and him screwing up the balance of the planet.. So if you think about it, no FF is really original. It's just how each installment puts a spin on the topic or theory they are writing about. X is no different than the rest. Most people that didn't like X, it was due to the linear play. Which I could see their point. Though sometimes straying from the story for an over powered weapon does get annoying to me too. I don't know which I prefer (on the border there) One thing I KNOW I prefer was being able to rotate combatants in battle. That has chapped my ass for the whole damn series. And it was about time they brought that feature into the battle system. So tired of having 3-4 level 70 characters while everyone else is at level 15. Unless you're playing 7 of course in which case your party was your materia and you equipped your character ON the materia, not the other way around. Even actual character level didn't matter because HP+ materia granted far more health than the level did. And same with Stat boosting materia.

Just thought I would point some stuff out, we all have different opinions. I do agree though that X isn't for everyone.