Alright, let's get this started.

- We open on that iconic shot of the sword in Zanarkand Ruins. Beautiful landscape, beautiful music, it really sets an atmosphere right away.
- And then the game immediately completely rips us out of it with that insanely jarring transition to Zanarkand, a futuristic city as opposed to solemn ruins. Also god this upbeat version of the FF Prelude. Talk about a complete 180 mood shift. Not that I'm calling this bad, no it's a pretty damn effective way of making Zanarkand immediately out to be the 'odd place' here.
- Was surprised to see pretty much all the NPCs here having lines of dialogue for speaking to them twice. I'm learning new things about this game already.
- Immediately we see Tidus as he flirts with girls, has everybody cheering for him, has kids looking up to him, gets envied for his cool floating house. People sucking up to him, offering him dinner, being super excited to be his pals or anything, it feels almost ridiculous how much he's living the high life.

- Apart from Tidus' ridiculously high life we also get a lot of establishing Jecht's hovering influence over him here. He's constantly compared to Jecht, but doesn't stand in his shadow too much to be appreciated on his own merits. Jecht is doubtlessly the bigger celebrity and Tidus is pissed off at this, but it doesn't truly ruin things for him or anything. Especially had to gasp at the line in the image above, lol...
- Otherworld is such a goddamn metal opening song. I kinda love how it plays again at the end of the game, but more on that then. Also Zanarkand is freaking HUGE. Makes sense to consider that it's essentially the whole world to its inhabitants.
- I love this opening movie. It seamlessly transitions from a hype, violent and active sporting event to the destruction of the entire town without selling any part of it short.
- Sin is consistently shown as a highly gravitational force as everything near it just gets sucked up towards it. There's a lore behind it sure but it's also just damn memorable and immediately conveys just how smurfing dangerous and destructive this thing is when structures and everything falls apart essentially just by being near it.
- We run into Auron who seems like he could hardly care less about what's going on. Given he's an unsent I doubt he's physically capable of forming an emotional attachment to Zanarkand anymore, as the entire reason for his continued existence is, well, Tidus, and nothing else. Also interesting to note that while this scene definitely establishes Auron as a smurfing cool badass, it's really likely only because he understands exactly what's going on here. Down the line he does lose his cool on more than one occasion when things get out of hand.
- This time stop scene seems oddly superfluous. It kinda foreshadows things and the fact that Zanarkand and this kid are smurfing weird I guess but it really doesn't do much. IDK maybe I'm just stupid, do tell me what you make of this scene.

- Auron may be a badass but my favorite part about him is his sarcasm. "I hope you know how to use it." I can see how he could be a sort of friend/guardian to Tidus, given the guy is absolutely more motivated to action by challenges, rather than praises, which remains how Auron essentially interacts with Tidus throughout the game. Also the sword from Auron being from Jecht makes me wonder if Sin just spat it out lol. Either way it makes clear that Tidus does not despise his father as much as it may seem at first.
- The difference in battle poses fits the two of them so well. Tidus is an athletic hyperactive sports pro so he keeps constantly in a rhythm while Auron remains in a rather relaxed but ready for a big swing at any time.
- We get a rudimentary introduction to some components of the battle system, the turn order, targeting, priority targets, techs, and overdrives. The overdrive minigames are pretty nicely conveyed without any sort of grandiose tutorial IMO. In general the system is so intuitive you need almost no text splats explaining anything at all.
- Save spheres recover you completely in this game. I guess compared to the older games it just means you get to save gil on tents and the developers can be sure you won't go into a boss fight with a hellishly beaten up party and die to the first round of attacks. Would be curious though if other more old school players had some other feelings about this change.
- Auron appears to know everything but really he probably doesn't know a lot himself outside of grasping the fact that Jecht wants to take Tidus to Spira. And really that's all he needs to know.
- As they get sucked up, Auron says the cryptic lines of how this is Tidus' story and this is where it all begins. Makes me really wonder what Tidus' life in Zanarkand must have looked like to Auron. He goes into it a little bit in an endgame conversation I recall, but I don't remember fully, so I'll have to check then. In any case it ties into Final Fantasy X's larger theme surrounding the point of Jecht and Tidus' existence and life.
- We get a preview of the final area of the game and a hints towards the connection between Jecht and Sin before the scene fades out with Tidus' endgame narration, speaking of him having a 'dream of being all alone'. He did just have his entire world falling apart in front of him, but it also feels almost poignant considering how he eventually comes to feel far less alone in Spira as compared to Zanarkand overall.

Well, hope you enjoyed this little segment. Next time we complete the transition from the futuristic luxurious world to the one plagued by suffering for a millenium.