FINAL FANTASY X FIRST IMPRESSIONS

If you don't already know, Final Fantasy X released ahead of schedule! That came as a shock to me, as I was not expecting the game until 2002. I was able to pick up the game the first day it released at the electronics store where I work. I have been very busy during the holidays but I have managed to put some time into the game, and what an amazing impression this game delivers. This game is incredible, truly a new benchmark for the series. As soon as I started the game I was mesmerized by what I saw and entranced by the experience of playing the game. As I have been playing, I am seeing that this game may very well be the best Final Fantasy ever made.

You begin as the primary character Tidus, a blonde haired, extroverted, teenager (A certain departure from characters like Cloud and Squall). He acts as narrator telling as it would seem his own life. He is a "Blitzball" player from the machina city of Zanarkand, he plays for a team called the Abe's and is a very popular player. The game begins as we meet him as he is being hounded by fans wanting his autograph on their blitzballs. Wow, is that the Final Fantasy Prelude? It has a very upbeat dance sound to it. The city itself seems to be wet and flowing with water from buildings and structures. Once you enter the stadium, the game trasitions to incredible visuals of this sport of sorts in progress. Blitzball occurs within a giant sphere of water held up by some kind of repulsor field. I've never seen anything like this concept before, truly innovative. However while this is going on, there is a guy, Auron, overlooking this stadium and then there is this distant bulge of water coming from the ocean near this city and this massive tsunami approaches the city, and then starts washing everything away. As fate would have it as Tidus is jumping dozens of feet into the air he catches himself before everything beneath him is wiped out. He joins back up with this Auron guy, and they begin fighting. Auron gives Tidus a sword, and they fight monsters. This is basically a training period. He and Auron eventually destroy a bridge during a battle and after doing so they are both sucked into this wormhole of sorts. The visuals here are indeed stunning. Things just keep getting trippy from here on as Tidus thinks his dad is inside this sphere of water he's floating inside. From this point on the story is laid out, and kind of like Chrono Cross his is thrust into the totally different world in the future.

The style and appearance of Final Fantasy X is in many instances breathtaking for a video game. There's just so much that has been done here, so much imagination in the landscapes, the characters and the environments, and the style. The 3-D environments are so much more alive than their prerendered predecessors. Wind blows leaves, sand looks like sand, views have distant horizons, there's so much to see visually. The characters are very well created, it truly shows what the next generation of gaming is doing for the RPG genre.

The music is greatly improved in terms of being clear and multiharmonic. And it's not as lazy as in Final Fantasy VIII and IX. There are themes and music which are definitely not something familiar to the series. Some of the music has a very contemporary feel, while some of it retains the ambient melodic sound that has dominated the series. The addition of spoken voice to the characters is a welcome addition. Some would say that the characters don't sound sincere, but to be honest, it's far better than a lot I've heard in video games. The voice acting is right along the lines of Metal Gear Solid 2.

The Battle System in Final Fantasy X seems simpler than the previous games, but one thing I do like is being able to extange characters in mid fight. If someone is low on HP you can simply, send Yuna in and cure him, or if a certain enemy is vulnerable to a certain flavor of magic then you can extange your current character for Lulu and use that corresponding magic against it. However, I must say that the enemy variety is less than innovative in the early parts of the game. It seems there's always a certain set of appearing enemies each with a weakness toward a certain character or type of magic. Most of these enemies are one hit wonders, getting nocked off just by mashing the "Attack" command with the right character (or in Lulu's case, casting the opposite spell). The Magic system is kind of simplified from the multiple spell types of the previous games. It's back to the old "cliched RPG" four elements theme, however I can't see why they chose Water and Ice as separate elements considering both are the same damn thing in a different state, but whatever. And then their the logic behind water vs. lightning. I can understand the logic of water shorting out electrical, however I can't see lightning negating water. Sometimes they repeat the same kind of bad guy monster only make him a different color. Really the battle system is quite easy to understand, and there's little excuse for you seeing the Game Over screen. I only died once so far, and that's because I wanted to see what happened when you did die.

Final Fantasy X's leveling system is unique in the series. It reminds me of FF7's materia, but it's not at all the same. All your upgradable abilities, spells, statistics, etc are laid out on this grid of circles and interconnecting nodes. It looks like the surface of an integrated circuit. As you defeat enemies in battle you collect these Spheres, that allow you to advance one space on the grid, and you use other Power, Ability, Mana, and Speed Spheres to activate abilities adjacent to the place you are at. What's interesting is that you can overlap the grids of other party members. It almost looks like your character would become invincible if you could fill the whole board.

I've gotten about 17 hours into the game now, and the game truly improves as things go along. This is an incredible game. I suppose this article could almost be a final review on the game, considering the detail I go into, but I am almost sure that this game will continue the trend it's on. You should go get this game, it is the best RPG of the year. What disturbs me was how few copies of it sold, and how many were still on the shelf on Christmas Eve. Some players just don't have respect for a truly great gaming experience and instead would rather wallow in thier content ignorance playing a Boxing Game.