WK Plays FFX

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll be starting this soon. This is going to be interesting because I think the last time I played this game was before 2010, so let's see if time and the existence of the XIII trilogy is going to help me appreciate this fan darling of an entry. I do plan on playing the International version, so I will have some new things to surprise myself with.

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[Karifean]

Over 15 years huh, let's see if it'll hit you any differently now.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm planning on starting it tonight. Oddly, I'm reading the wiki a bit and while I picked up a few tidbits of the themes I'll take with me as I play through, I was a thrown off there is a huge section about the game having Gnostic themes and yet no mention of the Tale of Orochi of which I'm pretty sure FFX is almost a direct retelling of and fits with the idea of Kitase wanting this game to be Asian inspired. I'm mostly annoyed here because I find it a bit of a western bias to say that anytime we're dealing with a false god/religion, the influence is obviously Gnostic in nature. But Buddhism itself has a long history of dealing with false teaching, divine truth, and the true essence of the One Being. You could easily interpret the scenario of Buddhism vs. Hinduism if you wanted. Now the Aeons derive their name from Gnostic teaching, but the issue here is that's not what they are called in Japanese (召喚獣, Shōkanjū, lit. Summoned Beasts), so even that connection is kind of false. This game is far more Buddhist/Shinto to me than any western theology.

Now I have to debate on whether to add to the wiki to explain the Tale of Orochi connection and/or bring up my misgivings about the whole Gnosticism connection. But on the other hand, interpretation is subjective, so who am I to argue?

[Wolf Kanno]

So we've begun. Narratively, the opening to FFX starts really strong. We get the pensive opening with the party reaching Zanarkand and the beginning of our narration. Past Zanarkand looks a bit like the Jetsons, and I find it weird we have highways but no seems to drive cars. It was weird watching Tidus have to hoof it to the stadium by foot while listening to some Baseball announcer reminisce about bonding with his father over Jecht disappearing. It was weird as I said, but a nice touch. I also always forget how much I like Bahamut just randomly showing up to either use subliminal suggestions to coerce Tidus to do what he wants or to basically tell us the player about his hidden thoughts like Tidus crying on the anniversary of his dad's disappearance. He's being a real bastard and I'm here for it. The cool CGI scene of the Blitzball game and Sin absorbing the city while Auron appears like a badass is always a pleasure and probably my favorite cutscene in the game besides Anima's appearance at the Luca Game. I ultimately played up until I reached Besaid village. Gameplay was a mix bag and I'm debating about whether I'm going to just mess with character roles or just keep it familiar. I technically reached the cloister of trials but sort of screwed up and want get Yuna's upgraded weapon in the trial the first time. I usually make it a point to acquire the Cloister Treasure the first time around so I don't have to backtrack to get Anima.

Pros:

• Story-wise, the game hits the right balance of action, mystery, and intrigue to get you hooked. I've always found FFX to be sort of a bookends type game where the beginning and ending are the best parts and so far, I still find that assessment correct.
• It is nice to be back to a more traditional turn based combat system. While XII and XIII are certainly still part of the ATB system, it's just nice not to feel rushed in combat anymore because we need to appeal to the ADHD generations.
• Bahamut is a hoot.
• Auron is still the best character in this game.
• I will say this, the new arranged OST is okay, I was never a huge fan of X's OST, but they at least fixed the battle theme, it sounds so much better now that I don't have to listen to those awful MIDI Horn sections.
• The HD graphical upgrade has certainly helped the monster designs. A lot more detail can be seen now and I'm for it because Nomura usually has good monster designs. The backgrounds and water effects also look great.
• This game makes me always want to go to the pool since I don't live somewhere with a beach.

Cons:

• I can't say the same for the human characters. XII's art direction looks just damn crisper with the HD upgrade, but here, it looks like botched plastic surgery. First, I never realized how big and pouty Tidus' in-game model lips look Dude looks like he had a lip job done. The second thing is the eyes. They are way too vibrant on all the characters and it makes it more noticeable how much the models fall into some uncanny valley territory when you see their eye movements. Not helped here is that the white part of the eyes, especially on Tidus kind of look pinkish on my TV, so the guy looks like he's stoned as hell. Beyond that, the NPCs get it worse, including a few names ones who all look like head shaped objects with faces painted on them with little definition. It's very noticeable when the party members are next to an NPC.
• While XIII usually gets hell for having a ten hour tutorial, FFX is the OG of this phenomena. Battles are incredibly scripted and while I've had the option to heal, it's rarely necessary. The first two "bosses" if you want to call them that have gravity based percentile damage, meaning they can't actually kill you. All the scripted battles have some slow dripped tutorials going on as well and I know I have more to come.
• Not helping this issue is the save points. I was never a fan of the save points heal the party idea SE introduced with this game, but I find the issue here is that coming off of FFXII is that save points are just too plentiful in this game. There is a save point after the first two scripted battles, another before you fight the second "boss" a third in the room after that before Rikku joins, one on the AL Bhed ship and then another in the first room when you enter the submerged base with only a short path between them. The encounter rate so far has also been low, so it feels like I can do two battles before I actually reach a point that restores all my health. Like I get this was meant to be an intro title for people who don;t play the genre, but I can't be the only person here who thinks this isn't a little excessive and a bit patronizing?
• I always forget how whiny and insufferable Tidus is in the beginning of the game. Like his situation sucks but I'm getting tired of listening to him whine about being hungry all the time.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oy, didn't get a chance to update this morning so we get two days worth of gameplay to catch up with. I have worked up to Auron joining the team. I managed to acquire Jecht Shot on my first try and even won the damn tournament with a true Cinderella story. It was looking rough as the Luca Goers got a score in the first half and I couldn't score a point because the game won't let you set up the party in the first half, because Toriyama most likely because he pulled that trout all the time in XIII. Second half was tense, but I finally managed to get off Jecht Shot and score a point, but after that point I couldn't really do much because Tidus couldn't regenerate his HP fast enough to pull it off a second time, and then the story twist came in where he's replaced with Wakka. I figured I was doomed and was going to have to reset when I noticed Wakka wasn't a bad shooter and even starts with a special shoot move that game me a shot, and literally in the last fifteen seconds of the game, I get the ball to Wakka and he managed to score a goal, winning the game for the Aurochs. So some nice gameplay closure for the man. Anyway, onto the pros and cons list.

Pros:

• As much as I don't care for Yuna, she is involved in some of the coolest scenes in this game. I've always loved the Sending scene in Kilika and I've always been disappointed we never get another scene like that.
• While most of the optional content in the game is debatable in quality, I do enjoy the Cloister of Trials, the one in Besaid is a bit simple, but the one in Kilika was nice.
• I always forget about the Ochu fight, but it's a nice test to see how well you know the gameplay and proof you can cheese a lot of the bosses with Aeons.
• With everyone so close to Kimhari's part of the Grid, I've had the majority of the party spend some time trying to acquire Lancet before moving on from their paths. Useful for Yuna and Lulu, incredible beneficial for Wakka who has low MP.
• Yay, Tidus learned Warrior for Limit Breaks.
• FFX does have one of my favorite incarnations of Ifrit, so nice to get him on my team.
• I also managed to acquire Blast Ray for Valefor before leaving Besaid, so now I won't have to worry about fighting the Dark version to get it.
• Been slowly filling Oaka's coffers to get a discount later, though in hindsight, I'm not sure why I'm bothering since I rarely buy equipment in the game.
• Got Jecht Shot first try!
• Managed to win the Luca Tournament without resetting, and give Wakka his Cinderella story. Even more amusing is that the Aurochs largely did it by themselves without much literal help from Tidus.
• I made sure to recruit Biggs and Wedge for my team, partly because they are good, but mainly to keep them from being recruited by other teams. I just need to grab that goalie from the Al Bhed and we're gold.
• FFX has always had some mixed design for me. I'm not really a fan of the Besaid look that Wakka and his team use or even the Kilika one. But Yuna, Auron, and Lulu have fantastic designs in this game. It's always a bit weird how mismatched it feels sometimes.
• I will say, I am enjoying my time in Spira a bit better this time around. Though I would hold one's optimism off for a bit, because we are reaching the point where FFX begins to slowly lose me.
• In a game filled with crazy plot twists, I feel the twist about Jecht being Sin is the most impactful. It sets up a cool mystery, adds more intrigue to Auron's character, and finally gives Tidus a more personal stake in what's going on in the story. It works on a lot of levels.
• I've never been really bothered by the Laughing scene. I know a lot of people see cringe, but I find it to be a real nice bonding scene between Tidus and Yuna that doesn't involve Tidus' daddy issues.

Cons:

• While I have a lot of gripes with the game's CTB system, I think the one aspect that annoys me the most is oddly enough the fact the party only gets XP by participating. It just drags combat down so much and it also kind of shows off the weakness of having party members designed to fight specific enemies because then you get stuff like Yuna and Kimarhi who really don't bring as much to the battle system (Aeons excluded) to regular combat. My party is usually close to save point and status effects go away after combat ends, so Yuna as a white mage isn't really needed. Kimarhi has Pierce before Auron, but none of those enemies start appearing before he joins and in comparison to Auron, he hits a bit like a wet noodle. So now I have to actively find things for them to do in battle and it just drags every encounter out longer than necessary.
• FFXII:TZA has spoiled me, and I really wish there was a speed up button and the ability to skip cutscenes.
• I think one of the things that bothers me about FFX is the direction they took with Yuna. Like I get they are trying to be true to the Japanese version while also dealing with the annoyance of dubbing, but I feel like FFX might have been a victim of the otaku revolt about subpar dubs that stray too far from the original or try to Westernize it too much. But I just don't feel like Yuna works in this game with the English VA. Nothing wrong with Hedy Burress, like I feel someone in the localization process messed up here, and I don't know if it's the western side trying to stay faithful or the Japanese side being inflexible about changes. I get the feeling she would work better in Japanese for me. She just comes across very awkward, and not like she's just socially awkward, like more a foreigner trying to keep up with local customs.
• I wonder why so many people are just jerks for no reason here. Like Donna is such a bitch, and it's like sweetie, you should hoping someone else gets to be a High Summoner. Glory doesn't mean trout when you're dead. I can understand the Luca Goers being asses, but like it was such a mood whiplash coming after the Kilika destruction. Not helped that Donna and her partner are from Kilika, which is never directly stated but their clothing is coded as Kilika. The whole sequence just feels weird.
• For the life of me, I will never understand how people didn't pick up on the fact Yuna was marching to her death. Like that farewell from Besaid felt a bit too weird to be just a simple goodbye. This is another point where I don't envy the localization team because I bet this scene was even more on the nose because Yuna likely said Sayonara on the boat. Which translates as goodbye, but generally means goodbye forever.
• While not a major con, the fact Yuna lived on Besaid for a decade and didn't get the accent is a bit weird to me. Like I could see Lulu dropping it, especially since she's a bit more world traveled than Wakka, but I feel like it was a missed opportunity to give Yuna some adorkable points by having her slip into the Besaid accent when she gets excited. Like the accents are a nice touch, but very inconsistent. Sadly, this is pretty noticeable coming off XII where even NPCs tend to stick to their designated accents.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been meaning to update.

I've reached Djose Temple and managed to get through the awful Mi'hen Highroad, the boring Mushroom Rock, cool Operation Mi'hen, and even a Blitzball Tournament. I decided to save Jassu this time because I always keep Gotta alive since it felt thematically more appropriate, and hey I managed to see this guy actually raise his voice for once. I also got a lot of levels, probably more than I should have... I also gave Oaka his 10,000 gil to get his discount, but we'll see if that's worth it. I didn't get the Moon Ring from the Crusaders, mainly because I didnt feel like grinding that kind of cash, and because I looked up what it did and that felt a bit like highway robbery, especially since I got the more useful Echo Ring by beating the undead summoner girl. We were also introduced to a lot of new characters in this segment.

Now that I've had some time with the Expert Grid, I would say it's more weird than anything. Like it is super easy to fall into someone else's "path" which is nice, but it still has an obvious path for each character, though it does sometimes feel like a randomizer. I think the issue I see here is that while the freedom to add a more personal customization touch is much appreciated, FFX is also a game designed around specific roles for the team, so it's hard to really take advantage of it because yeah, it sounds neat to teach Tidus some low level Black Magic spells early, but it also sucks when he gets one-shotted because he spent too much time down a squishy mage path and now you don't have your speedy Warrior anymore. The character who potentially can get a boon from this new system is like Kimarhi since he always wound up being just a second string version of another character, but now he has an easier time being the master of none Red Mage he was sort of envisioned as.

Pros:

• Auron is a fun powerhouse and he adds some much needed intrigue, snark, and a voice of reason to the party that was really needed.
• Oh hey, you can Scan party members and get fun info about them, just like In FFVIII.
• As much as I complain about Yuna and Tidus, I will say their relationship is pretty solid. Game does a good job of giving them some nice small moments to help sell the fact they have feelings for each other. It will be interesting to compare this one to Squall and Rinoa later.
• Oh hey, I unlocked the 9999hp attack trophy thanks to Valefor and the Blast Ray Overdrive.
• While I don't care for Seymour as a character, I do always enjoy being able to use the villain as a party member for a bit. Though it was a bit of a slog to see his Overdrive.
• I'm going to be honest. I am failry ambivalent with the characters of Shelinda and Clasko. As characters, I'm not exactly in love with them, but what saves them is the fact they are both voiced by Tenchi Muyo! alumni Sherry Lynn (Sasami Jurai) and Matt K Miller (Tenchi Masaki) and that adds just enough nostalgia to make them actually charming to me. Have I mentioned that I'm excited to watch Legend of the Crystals again because both of them as well as Washu's VA are in it?
• I managed to beat the Chocobo Eater, though I didn't get the extra reward for knocking it off the cliff because it died too soon.
• While the build up is excruciatingly annoying, the actual cutscene of Operation Mi'hen holds up pretty well.
• I really missed having cool animations for different level spells. While FFX has never had the best ones, the fact it's more noticeable has me excited for the entries to come.

Cons:

• The Mi'hen Highroad is generally the point where my opinion about FFX begins to change. While there are certainly some questionable issues with the plot, gameplay, and pacing from the beginning up to the end of Luca, it mostly feels nitpicky since we're still working on the setup. But once we finish the climax of the tournament, moving onto Operation Mi'hen is a bit of drag. The road is boring, mainly serves to dump seven new characters on your lap, who all quickly keep popping up throughout the road so we can have some minor character development to make you allegedly attached to them before the trout goes down, and said interactions are not always great. The road is visually dull and boring, the encounter rate finally gets normal making walking down this boring straight line more annoying, and the music theme for it is awful. It might be the worst track Uematsu composed for the game, and I daresay the arranged version might be more annoying. This section of the game is pace killer with the only highlights being the summoner duel and the random Chocobo Eater boss fight. Not helping is that Mushroom Rock is right after, and it is also bland and boring as well. It's times like this I miss having a world map, because the Mi'hen Highroad could have just been that, and maybe we could have put a bit more effort into Mushroom Rock or just have us skip to the Operation Base.
• My other gripe with the combat system is that is has the same problem as a lot of 3D games with pre-rendered backgrounds, but oddly enough, I've been noticing that the controls for toggling between opponents/allies changes depending on where the camera is positioned. It's kind of annoying, and I don;t remember if this was an issue in the other PS1 entries but now that's I've noticed it, I'm going to have to pay attention more.
• Kimarhi is the worst Blue Mage in the series. In fact, I'm going to be honest, he's the most superfluous element of the game so far. I feel like the team was trying to make him into another Red XIII character and he is so flat as both a character and party member. I would not bother using him if it wasn't for the fact he has a mandatory solo boss fight towards the end of the game and I will not experience that annoyance again. Great thinking Nojima and Kitase, you made this funky cool looking non-human character and made him the one who barely talks. That worked so well for Amarant. Also Blue Magic as a Limit Break is an awful idea. and diminishes the whole concept. You wouldn't tolerate your black mage or white mage having their spells locked behind a limit break.
• I kind of forget how much of an ass Oaka is.
• I think the thing that kind of bothers me about Operation Mi'hen is a lot of the hindsight issues of the game itself. Sin, is not a difficult boss mechanically. Now, that's true of a lot of FF story bosses, they are not terribly tough by design some of the time and this instance is no different. I think my issue is that narratively, Sin has a weaksause weakness, of which if the Crusaders and Al Bhed had simply known at the time, this operation may have partially succeeded. And that knowledge sort of diminishes the fact this whole sequence is designed around showing off how overwhelmingly powerful Sin is and driving home the false idea that the Final Summon is the only means of beating Sin to the player.
• We've reached the point where combat is a bit of a chore now. Part of the reason I don't like the "Character A can fight Monster A" design is that it makes combat feel incredibly formulaic but in an annoying way where I still have to partially use some brain power to get through fights despite the fight being incredibly easy regardless. Like I can't wait until I get closer to the end of the game and can just steam roll everything with anyone, but even there, I'm still stuck with the annoying rule that only participating characters get XP, so combat is just artificially drawn out and boring to me.
• Can we discuss the fact Valefor is just plain broken? Like it might be the most physically frail Aeon with the lowest physical abilities, but the fact it's a flying Aeon in a game where enemy monsters have no options for dealing with it besides magic (which Valfor is strong against) is just kind of messed up. I was trying to charge up it's Overdirve for future use, and kept running into issues where enemies just couldn't do anything against her, and so I could only get Overdive gauge by killing them because it kept skipping the monsters turns.
• Blitzball is a chore. I get the feeling that a lot of the people who like it probably play actual sport games but this game is sssllllloooowwwwww. It's annoying I have to spend ten minutes every time I have to do a game of it. There should be a rule that makes it so the match ends automatically if a team reaches a certain score.
• My other issue with Blitzball is how unbalanced it is. The Luca Goers are probably the only team that doesn't have some issue. The Kilika Beasts are purposely made weak so you can practice against them, the Ronso and Guado have opposing weakness that are easy to exploit, and the Al Bhed Psyches are just bulltrout with unnaturally high stats at ridiculously low levels. Like I curb stomped every team except for them because despite being similar levels, they have like five extra point in almost every stat. I only began to start winning against them, because they dropped a member and replaced them with a non-Al Bhed player who was low level and has bad stats early on. So I just kept exploiting this team member to get around the rest of the team's bulltrout but it's still annoying I can only score goals if Tidus or Wedge are literally on top of the goal and use a special move. Once their goalie get cut lose, I'm hiring him just so no other team can use him.

[Karifean]

I think the thing that kind of bothers me about Operation Mi'hen is a lot of the hindsight issues of the game itself. Sin, is not a difficult boss mechanically. Now, that's true of a lot of FF story bosses, they are not terribly tough by design some of the time and this instance is no different. I think my issue is that narratively, Sin has a weaksause weakness, of which if the Crusaders and Al Bhed had simply known at the time, this operation may have partially succeeded. And that knowledge sort of diminishes the fact this whole sequence is designed around showing off how overwhelmingly powerful Sin is and driving home the false idea that the Final Summon is the only means of beating Sin to the player.

Bit surprised to read this considering that I feel FFX goes out of its way in basically every way to sell it and does a good job of it. You only fight Sin itself while it's being massively nerfed with an extremely specific weakness to the hymn, and like 30 minutes after you beat it down it has already regenerated (and forming wings this time, showing it can reshape and adapt to its threats) so like no even if the Al Bhed HAD known about the weak spots on its fins and managed to tear it off with their cannon the same way we do later with the airship, they would have ultimately achieved nothing, even less than a summoner sacrificing their life. Couple that with the fact that Sin is the only enemy in the game (series?) whose overdrive is completely impossible to survive by any means whatsoever and is pretty close to causing severe world devastation *while* this fight is ongoing and it comes down to that you're basically just trying to get in as fast as possible while it's still nerfed. To me it really shows just how far beyond anything else this being is and it's only an extremely specific set of circumstances that allow us to even fight it, obviously those circumstances have to exist so we can have a game/story at all but yeah. But I guess it's all down to perception of how well the game sells these things through game design; curious if you still feel that way once you get to that point of the story this time.

The whole party members having to participate to gain AP is a bit rough, as while I enjoy swapping characters around dynamically a lot myself and find fun uses for everybody, I still often find myself in a situation where only 5-6 characters would get AP unless I force bring in a final character and just defend with them and maybe take another enemy attack in the process. Yuna in particular tends to be the offender in this since I don't enjoy using aeons and out of combat healing is entirely punishment-free in this game so it often feels a bit much to do it in combat just to have something to do. I imagine it was done to encourage swapping around a lot but the game already does encourage that with its enemy design in general so idk. Maybe it was also just still in a time where the idea that only participating party members get EXP was so much the norm that the concept that you can just give everyone all the EXP all the time just wasn't on their minds, it's only FF13 where they finally did that in the end. Certainly something they could have fixed up with the HD version though.

[Wolf Kanno]

Bit surprised to read this considering that I feel FFX goes out of its way in basically every way to sell it and does a good job of it. You only fight Sin itself while it's being massively nerfed with an extremely specific weakness to the hymn, and like 30 minutes after you beat it down it has already regenerated (and forming wings this time, showing it can reshape and adapt to its threats) so like no even if the Al Bhed HAD known about the weak spots on its fins and managed to tear it off with their cannon the same way we do later with the airship, they would have ultimately achieved nothing, even less than a summoner sacrificing their life. Couple that with the fact that Sin is the only enemy in the game (series?) whose overdrive is completely impossible to survive by any means whatsoever and is pretty close to causing severe world devastation *while* this fight is ongoing and it comes down to that you're basically just trying to get in as fast as possible while it's still nerfed. To me it really shows just how far beyond anything else this being is and it's only an extremely specific set of circumstances that allow us to even fight it, obviously those circumstances have to exist so we can have a game/story at all but yeah. But I guess it's all down to perception of how well the game sells these things through game design; curious if you still feel that way once you get to that point of the story this time.

Fair enough. I think the issue for me is that I've seen Sin metaphorically bleed from something mundane, so that tells me it can be beaten without the Final Summon and instead the real issue at play here is the control of information surrounding Sin. I think the other issue at play here is that we don't really ever get to see Sin take on a Final Aeon, so the assumption is that the Aeon just wrecks Sin's physical body and then Yu Yevon absorbs it. which to me tells me that that Sin's physical form, while pretty damn indestructible against conventional weapons, is still vulnerable to force. But that's the issue, this is just assumptions. For all we know, if Yu Yevon senses a Final Aeon, it lets all of the current Sin's guard down so it can be destroyed and the new body absorbed. The other factors we don't know is whether the Final Aeon is always strong enough to beat Sin? Like it would be interesting to know if some Summoners did make it to Zanarkand and made the sacrifice only to learn the bond with their sacrifice wasn't strong enough and the Final Aeon got destroyed by Sin. I was thinking about that because while the temples have statues of all the high summoners, there are other statues of people, but they are less distinct, so I'm curious to know if they represent failed summoners or if it something more boring and just represent specific Maesters? It would be interesting to know if Sin and the final boss Machina from X-2 would be evenly matched power wise, but I kind of doubt that.

It would have also been interesting to see Sin go up against a humanity closer to the Bevelle-Zanarkand War just to see how Sin fared against a more advanced military force. Likewise, I wish we got a flashback of Braska's battle with Sin. It would be interesting to know where it even was. Likewise, and perhaps this is due to stuff going on in One Piece, but I also wonder if Spira was bigger in the past? Like was there more landmass in the world and it was just slowly annihilated by Sin over the thousand years?

The whole party members having to participate to gain AP is a bit rough, as while I enjoy swapping characters around dynamically a lot myself and find fun uses for everybody, I still often find myself in a situation where only 5-6 characters would get AP unless I force bring in a final character and just defend with them and maybe take another enemy attack in the process. Yuna in particular tends to be the offender in this since I don't enjoy using aeons and out of combat healing is entirely punishment-free in this game so it often feels a bit much to do it in combat just to have something to do. I imagine it was done to encourage swapping around a lot but the game already does encourage that with its enemy design in general so idk. Maybe it was also just still in a time where the idea that only participating party members get EXP was so much the norm that the concept that you can just give everyone all the EXP all the time just wasn't on their minds, it's only FF13 where they finally did that in the end. Certainly something they could have fixed up with the HD version though.

I agree that's why the rule exists, but also, it's weird you can switch party members out, but not dead ones. I vaguely remember that being a feature in XII people were happy about. But yeah, prolonging conflicts to get even XP is annoying, and I still have one more party member to gain too.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update

I've finished up to the Moonflow and have my full party. Now I need to prepare myself as Yuna takes all the good will she's fostered with me up to this point and throw it all away because of a stupid half Guado dude. Because fighting a Doomsday Whale was apparently not exciting enough for Nojima, Toriyama, and Kitase.

Pros:

• Djose Temple Cloister of Trials was amusing. Though I did get temporarily stumped on how to use the Destruction Sphere because I didn't realize there was a second floor.
• I have Rikku now and thus a thief. I must say, the Thief/Chemist combo is a very smart move and I do use this combo in FFV a lot.
• I can finally customize equipment!!!
• One of the last weapons I bought was a weapon for Wakka that had Stonetouch attached, and it has turned out to be a good investment as Wakka was destroying Ochu's so efficiently I had to start bringing him in last to give the rest of the party a chance to gain XP.
• I totally forgot about random chests appearing in battles once Rikku joins. Funny enough, the recent Eiyuden Chronicles uses a similar idea though in it's case, the chests can be opened by anyone, and the chests are designated to certain areas and are finite.
• The sequence at Djose temple where everyone is teasing Yuna was amusing.
• Playing this game again after playing FFXI, it's actually amusing to see how many animations and camera angles XI re-used from this game. One scene at Operation Mi'hen really felt like an XI cutscene because it like using this low angle looking up pan of a group of people, and XI loves using those angles for cutscenes to add dynamic visuals while not moving the character models. It's neat to see what later game's re-used and honestly makes XII feel a bit more impressive since it doesn't seem like it re-uses as many assets for some reason.

Cons:

• Oof, I definitely feel like Ixion is the weak link of all the summons in this game. He's surprisingly frail for a summon and Aerospark doesn't feel as useful as Meteor Strike and Swift Wings. He really feels like a summon that needs you to use the new customization system to make any use for him.
• I feel one of the problems with the last three areas I've been in the game is that they are all visually boring and largely have a very obvious "road" design that really makes the world feel small to me. I had a similar issue with FFXIII's map design as well, but we can see where the seeds for that design first took root. Now granted, this was the first FF game for the PS2, and FFVII is the exception, not the norm if we make comparisons for the first entry on a new console vs. the last entry on the previous console. It's kind of a shame too, because reading some interviews and behind the scenes talk, the original intention of the game was to be expressed closer to what we got in FFXII than here. Anyway, I find it interesting how back in the day, people whined about FFXII looking "not fantasy" enough like FFX, but frankly, fantasy settings are not that common in the game. Like the Moonflow has the one area with the pyreflies and the other with the Shoopuf, but it's mostly just a regular road. Like three screens. Mushroom Rock is similar. The least that one could have done is do what Besaid has and have the camera pan to the left so eventually you see that your team is by the stormy ocean or something. Instead it's just brown rock everywhere.
• While it is nice that Customize is available, like XIII's equipment system after it, this isn't going to get as much love until I get the airship towards the end of the game. Most of the skills available to me at the moment are not exactly game changers, and a lot of the equipment I win or find tend to have equivalent skills. Like XIII later, this is a mechanic I feel the devs should have introduced much earlier, just give it to Oaka or something so you can only use the feature when he or other shop keepers are around and then when Rikku arrives, you can finally do it at the menu screen.
• One of the other kind of weird design elements that is certainly subjective opinion is the idea of NPC traveling with you. Granted they are not party members, but X has a knack for introducing characters and then have them show up at every location to give their two cents. While I can see how some players may find this enjoyable as it really drives home the game's central theme of Journey to have other travelers you meet on the road, I feel like it would work better if more of them had personal goals. Like Maechen serves as functional purpose being the lore dude, but the Chcocobo Knights are sort of just screwing around and Shelinda feels even more aimless at this point. I may change my opinion when I go further and we see their character arcs get some resolution, but so far it's just been "hey how are you doing?" ~ "Oh me? I'm just doing the same thing I was doing the last two times you asked in the previous two zones".
• Maechen is a character I have a very ambivalent relationship with in this game. On the one hand, his VA Dwight Schultz is phenomenal and give this guy a nice regal but fun personality. Likewise, I do appreciate the lore drops as well. The issue is that his nature in the game gives it a very Tour Guide feel that really takes me out of the story. This is exacerbated by my complaint above in how he's just following you around so he can tell you what to look at. I was hoping a few years of Dark Souls and VaatiVidya would have softened my stance on this but I think the years of childhood trauma being stuck on guided tours while on vacation runs too deep for me.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

We've reached Macalania Temple, technically. I haven't gone to the the actual temple yet. Once the Jecht Sphere's unlocked I decided to head backwards and collect them before the Dark Aeons appeared and make this sidequest a chore. We're now thick into the Seymour Guado subplot, and as I feared, my goodwill towards Yuna is beginning to evaporate as she drags the party into this nonsense. We did get some fun with the Thunder Plains and the Macalania Woods, which are two of my favorite locations in the game. I stopped just before we get to the roller coaster ride that is trying to get out of the Macalania Temple.

Pros:

• While I know a lot of people don't care for the Thunder Plains due to its various gimmicks, I've always liked the place. Tha Quactaur lore is amusing, I like how the lightning keeps you on your toes, the area just looks cool. It's also rare to have a Thunder elemental themed area in this time frame of the RPG landscape.
• The whole thing with Rikku being afraid of it was also amusing, especially since her reasoning wasn't some heavy story reason but really just a simple mistake.
• I love the Jecht Spheres, I never felt like FFX needed a sequel, but a prequel about Braska's journey would be something even I would check out. The chemistry between the three is amusing and really helps you to like Jecht since up to this point we've only seen Tidus' subjective view of him. Even more amusing is that going backwards from Macalania Woods and picking them up in the reverse order you came to the location back to Besaid gives you a fairly good timeline of events, with only Auron's Sphere likely happening before most of the events.
• I also appreciate the fact the NPCs still have unique dialogue for backtracking, because depending on where you are, either you're hearing about the wedding between Yuna and Seymour, the failure of Operation Mi'hen, or surprisingly the sheer disbelief that the Aurochs won the Blitzball Tournament.
• Despite being my newest recruit, I've already managed to get Rikku's stealing achievement. Told you I liked thieves.
• Yeah, this is definitely my favorite incarnation of Ifrit. Amusing that his Meteor Shot move is essentially a toned down version of his fire attack from FFVIII and his actual Hellfire Overdrive is just brutal. Valefore's Overdrives are also neat, but her form and their animations really remind me of BoFIV'S Aura and Astral Dragon Forms.
• I forgot to mention that FFX's Chocobo Theme is pretty good, especially the arranged version in the HD version that sounds more like a proper Big Band rendition.
• Auron is definitely the best character in this game so far.
• Did I just get a Macarena reference? Would probably annoy a purist, but I laughed, especially when Tidus even did the Aye part.

Cons:

• This whole sequence concerning Seymour and Yuna sort of reminds me of this anime Fushugi Yugi I watched back in the day, which also entails a young girl with guardians going on a journey to save the land, and this girl Miyaka also made the most stupid decisions based on acting on her feelings which ultimately caused like 80% of the plots problems and drama. Now Yuna is not nearly as bad as Miyaka is since she only really does this once (though Yuna definitely falls into the "go big or go home" attitude in terms of scale), but unlike Miyaka, who is technically more of the Tidus character in that show and thus is just a fifteen year old school girl who is completely out of her depth in the fantasy world she found herself in. Yuna has lived in this world her whole life and should smurfing know better. Which is why it still irritates me. I'll leave my thoughts on Seymour until we reach Mt. Gagazet.
• I am not a huge fan of the game's equipment system. I really get a nice dopamine fix from going out of my way to find a hidden treasure with cool loot, or grind a certain enemy to get that rare drop, and this game's ability system sort of just undermines all of that. I can't tell you how excited I will be to get back to a more traditional treasure/equipment drop system in IX, before I have to deal with this nonsense again in VIII.
• I am a little annoyed that switching equipment is no longer a free action. Learned this the hard way when I realized Tidus was doing crap for damage because I have him still equipped with the Brotherhood and everything in the Macalania Woods is water resistant.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update

I got a real late start, so I only really managed to get to the first Seymour fight (1/4) and I saved afterwards because I remember this Cloister Trial being quite the doozy, so I figured I should tackle it when it's not 3am.

Pros:

• Easily my favorite incarnation of Shiva in the FF series, I think only FFXV might come close. I really love the Hindu goddess aesthetic with the dreadlocks, and this is one of her strongest incarnations that I've played next to FFXV.
• I never noticed that Seymour's entourage were partying in the other room, and I got a bit more lore about him. I knew he was a summoner, but not a monk. Though it was a bit weird the order of explaining his life makes it sound like he was a summoner before becoming a Maester, when we learn later he did the Pilgrimage when he was still a child.
• Despite being sort of designed to be annoying, I really like Brother for some reason. Like I never thought much of him in this entry, but he's one of the few returning characters in X-2 who managed to worm his way into my heart, the dopey glam rock buffoon. It was nice seeing him when he tries to kidnap Yuna using the anti-magic Mana Cannon Machina.
• I found one more Jecht Sphere I almost missed. Kind of scary to think Braska likely started his Pilgrimage with Bahamut. Like once again, it would be interesting to see the three of them in action.
• Hey, Ixion actually proved useful in the Mana Cannon fight. You're not useless after all.
• Got to tell Clasko to go follow his dreams.
• You know, the fact Seymour only seems to be able to summon Anima despite making it all the way to Zanarkand on his pilgrimage makes me wonder if he actually bothered visiting the other temples? His dialogue when Yuna summons Shiva makes it sound like he can't summon her and we only ever seem to see him summon Anima. I wonder if he made it there by just bee lining to it, and perhaps this explains why Anima is not a true Final Aeon since he skipped most of the ritual?

Cons:

• I absolutely hate the Seymour side plot. Like this is just Yuna grabbing the idiot ball and running with it, and while I don't think it's out of character for her to want to set right a wrong, there is a part of me that feels like this whole situation would have been made more interesting had Tidus been the one to find the Jyscal Sphere instead of Yuna, because this level of stupidity is a bit more on brand for him seeing how he doesn't quite grasp nor care of the gravitas of the situation the party fell into. But Yuna, what the hell? Why were you hiding this from your Guardians? You know, the people who swore to protect you? Even if you managed to kill Seymour on your own, all of them would have been likely branded traitors and hunted regardless due to their association with you. And if she failed? Same thing. Or assuming she didn't get killed, Seymour would have just held them hostage to make her go through with the wedding. Like there was no real scenario here where justice was going to be served and everyone was not going to get involved and branded a traitor, so it was foolish of her to hide this bombshell information and play along with Seymour's demands from the get go. Like how can you be so stupid?
• I've been kind of holding back on this, but today is where we have to address the fact Wakka is your token racist coworker. It's a good thing they spend the first third of the game building goodwill with him, but he's finally becoming the insufferable teammate with the racist views and the weird fundamentalist religious bent. While I feel it's fine that all of this stems from his trauma of losing Chappu, and like I get he turned to Yevon and the bigotry it teaches to find someplace to channel all that grief, but it doesn't really change the fact his arc makes him a bit insufferable at times. It does make me wonder if he was this religious before Chappu died? Because Lulu, and even Chappu from what we know, seem fairly progressive by Spira standards considering they both seem chill about the Al Bhed.

[Karifean]

I assume you got the snowmobile ride with Lulu?

[Wolf Kanno]

I assume you got the snowmobile ride with Lulu?

Yep. I usually get Lulu because she's usually the least likely behind Kimarhi to activate a story flag.

Very Minor Update Time!
Macalania Temple is finished and I got the item as well, so I just need Bevelle and Zanarkand to get Anima when the time comes. Currently, we're semi-lost in the Bikanel Island desert.

Pros:

• Al Bhed Potions! Woo!
• I've always had a soft spot for the Zu enemy ever since FFIV.
• The Abyss Worm is also amusing to fight.
• I'm noticing that I am getting close to the end for a few characters Sphere Grids, and with the Calm Lands opening up soon, we can finally access the "fun" part of the game.
• Tidus and Rikku have a fun relationship.
• It was also kind of sentimental when Tidus was trying to talk to Jecht.

Cons:

• I think the other reason why the "stop Seymour" plotline irks me is that I really feel like Yuna got off too easily by the party. Only Wakka seems annoyed, but the rest of the party are okay. I kind of wished Yuan would get more of a reprimand from Lulu and Auron.
• The transition to the desert sections is one of the game's most awkward "and now for something completely different" moments. Like this isn't new for FFs, and the more I go into the earlier entries, the more common this gets, but it is weird to be like "of snap, we're on top of Sin" and now we're in a desert. Feels a bit left field, but again, this isn't new to the series.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

A lot to cover because I'm on my way to Mt. Gagazet but detouring a bit to collect monsters, levels, and screw around on the Calm Lands. I will say, we've pretty much hit the point where FFX pretty much loses me on the story front. Like there are some neat ideas here, but some of the execution just doesn't do it for me. On the other hand, I can see more clearly now how this game was the brainchild of the same team that worked on FFVIII as the summon system especially feels like an evolution of the Guardian Forces. I can also say that the jump to the Calm Lands from the rest of the game's linear nature works better than FFXIII.


Pros:

• I find it hilarious that Rikku has you follow her through Bikanel's desert despite it not being difficult to figure out where Home is from using the mini-map.
• I remembered to get the Al Bhed Book in Bevelle, so I won't be locked out of learning the whole language. Though I do feel it's weird this game let's you transfer this data to a new file but there is no NG+.
• Though it having to be spelled out to you is not my style, I do like the Spiral of Death theme and the revelations about Maester Mika. I am curious to know what Mika's lingering attachment to the world was?
• I have to laugh now because Tidus and Yuna's water makeout sessions is basically the modern equivalent to Maduin and Madonna getting it on in FFVI. Made funnier when it's heavily implied Kimarhi watched, the cheeky devil.
• I will give credit where credit is due, I will commend the team for doing a great job selling me Tidus and Yuna's love story. It will be interesting to compare to Zidane X Garnet and Squall X Rinoa because I know a lot of fans like to argue which one of these is the best.
• I managed to get Tidus' Sun Sigil in Chocobo Catcher!
• I also got my Cloudy Mirror and turned it into the Celestial Mirror, then backtracked to pick up Kimarhi's Celestial Weapon. I also picked up Yuna and Tidus, but I won't have all the pieces to unlock anything until after Zanarkand.
• YOJIMBO!!!!
• Nice to give Lulu some more backstory. I think it's interesting that she has more of a real backstory than say Wakka and Rikku. I wished the game explored Lulu's backstory a bit more, but beggars can't be choosers.
• Tonberry's and Malboros Oh MY!
• Triple Foul is such a game breaker for Wakka.
• Finally got my -aga spells, and while they are tame in design compared to earlier installments, I still feel accomplished.
• We have officially reached the point in the game where the devs finally kick the difficulty level. Enemies are spamming so much instant death magic and multiple debilitating status effects you would think we were playing FFI or III.

Cons:

• For the life of me, I feel like the devs switches Yuna and Lulu's Sphere Grids in all versions. Yuna get ways more Magic boosts, despite being a White Mage, while Lulu gets all the defensive Magic Defense and Evasion nodes. I really feel like this should be reversed because Lulu just feels underpowered for a Black Mage. Not helped that her Overdrive is useless.
• I know the revelation for Tidus about the true finale of the Pilgrimage is supposed to be a big bombshell revelation, but I find this scene funny, because I felt the game telegraphed this so hard. So for me, the scene sort of just shows how much of a cluless dolt Tidus is while simultaneously kind of making the rest of the party look like jerks. Speaking of...
• I find it amusing that people call out Citan from Xenogears for being a jackass who knows way more than he's telling and just purposely letting the cast stumble into the truth, yet no one calls out Auron for the same bulltrout.
• The whole wedding sequence is pure cringe for me. Like I know part of this is supposed to be a power moment for Yuna, but I honestly think her scene questioning the Maesters was more powerful for her character. It just felt a bit contrived and why I've heard some fans loving the scene where she jumps and summons Valefore, I really don't count this scene as a highlight for her.
• Yuna, bro killed his own father, which is how this whole mess got started. What made you think he would keep his word?
• The dungeons in Bevelle are terrible in terms of making you believe anyone would actually die here. Yuna's dungeon is a few twisty rooms, but you can essentially just walk out of it. Meanwhile, Tidus' dungeon is only a threat because a fiend version of the dragon you killed shows up. I mean even realistically, Yuna is goddamn summoner, she could just summon Bahamut and bust her way out of Bevelle.
• I don't understand why Yuna doesn't try to send Seymour after our second battle with him? You beat him and then we just fade to black out and say we escaped Bevelle. Like I imagine they had to escape quickly, but you would think we would try to send him after the battle. I guess I was expecting a scene where she tries and then the Bevelle guards catch up and they have to flee.
• I don't really get why Seymour killed Kinoc, like I get the guy didn't trust him, but he's so power hungry, someone like Seymour should have find it easy to play him. Likewise, I don't understand why Maester Mika does trust Seymour? Not sure if it's just Unsent code of honor or what.
• I don't really understand why Yuna is so crucial to Seymour's plan. Much like a few other FF villains we'll get to eventually, I feel his obsession with her ultimately doomed his plan. This guy could have just as easily ditched her and teamed up with any other Summoner and likely completed his plan, especially once he becomes an Unsent. I mean his plan is dumb anyway up until Yuna and the party kill Yunalesca. Still, he could literally watch his end goal unfold by just enjoying his Unsent life as a Maester and keeping the system going.
• Chocobo Catcher is a bitch. In the end it really does come down to some RNG shenanigans.

[Karifean]

I find Yuna's naïvité and Auron's general secrecy to kinda go well together because they both center around the same thing - which is that even if you get told something, you don't understand it until you experience it yourself. Even if Yuna hears Jyscal confessing Seymour killing him, she doesn't process what that means about Seymour, it goes so against both everything in how she herself lived and even the values she made herself be an embodiment of. It's IMO tragically quite realistic how much of a mental block and stubbornness she has towards facing Yevon being filled with not just one but several maesters who have nobody's goodwill at heart and have zero intention of seeing justice done, it's completely counter to everything she believed in.

Auron understands this kind of thing very well, which is why he chooses what he says outright very carefully and more than anything just lets them experience what he knows awaits them on their own terms and drawing conclusions themselves based on that. He himself also knows Braska will eventually die but never processed how much that actually happening bothers him until the eleventh hour, either. The one time he kind of oversteps is at the bottom of Macalania Lake where he's already saying "we'll defy Yevon if we must" but the party is still far behind processing that this is where things are headed and dial it back several gears. And lo and behold, they experience it directly and are led to the same conclusions, but now they actually understand why they must.

I love this kind of thing personally, I think it's all written in a really believable way. Though overall I do think the whole Bevelle section is somewhat contrived on an event-to-event level, and Seymour is the one part of the game's story I actively dislike, with him only getting worse past Bevelle as well. When your own party's response to every one of his frothing rants is "man this guy's smurfing crazy" you should know you haven't written a compelling villain with interesting motivations providing a different perspective.