Into the Final Fantasy-verse (Part II)

My experience with Final Fantasy X, and my expectations from the rest of the series

I have so many memories and opinions about this franchise that I had to make this a two-parter (in true Final Fantasy fashion).

I can finally talk about the latest main entry I’ve beaten, which was the main motivation that got me writing this two-parter: Final Fantasy X. As I’ve said, I head heard a lot about the story, the setting and the characters. I knew who Yuna was before even starting the game (Monty Oum’s incredible Dead Fantasy videos were a great gateway for me so many years ago). My expectations were high, but I still tried to tamper them as I knew that it was an old game, and I was very used to new games with a lot of quality of life features.

Mild spoilers ahead.

Indeed, FFX proved to be fun, mind-bending, but frustrating at times. The characters were incredibly charming, the plot was confusing at first but blew my mind when I understood it. Seeing the awkward teenage romance blooming between Yuna and Tidus was adorably cringe-inducing. Auron was an immediate favorite. And I’ve seen a lot of people dunking on the voice acting, but I found it just fine, even charming. And the (in)famous laugh scene is not as bad as it seems. It is actually pretty good, since they both break out in sincere laughter right after. I genuinely found the dialogue in general pretty charming.

“They say Seymour went to Macarena Temple.”
“Macalania Temple.”
“Aye!”

Adorably goofy.

One of my biggest issues were unfortunately with the character animations. Like I said, I cut it some slack because I know how old this game is, but whenever I get into a scene and Rikku starts doing that weird movement with her hands, the immersion is immediately broken. These kinds of animations work much better when the characters are more cartoonish and chibi-ish. The more the character model resembles an actual human, the goofier these kinds of animations become, not in the best way. I understand the intentions but it still took me out of the game.

Gameplay & Themes

The gameplay was okay, I wasn’t mind-blown but it was one of the better systems. Some of the bosses frustrated the hell out of me (looking at you, Seymour Flux and Yunalesca). But the ability to switch characters at any moment was great, I was afraid I would be stuck with 3 characters in the battle while having a full party. Glad to see that wasn’t the case. The random battles are as annoying as ever, they were the bane of my existence in FFIV as well (and any FF title that features them, really).

The themes around the game is what made it a standout for me. This game’s relationship with religion was very interesting. Naming the main opposing force “Sin”, then later on making the player find out the current identity of the said force was a great choice. Spira’s relationship with Yevon and how the Aeons are obtained, how the summoners are treated… From what I understand, these themes are more inspired by the Japanese religions but I felt like they can be applied to Abrahamic religions as well. There is also a very interesting video by Moon Channel called “Why Do You Always Kill Gods in JRPGs?” that might interest you if you also find this topic interesting.

Characters

As I’ve said, Auron was an immediate favorite for me. As much as I loved watching Yuna and Tidus coming to terms with their feelings, Auron was the member who shined the most for me. I was immediately curious about the circumstances surrounding him: who was he? Why did he know Tidus? How was he in Tidus’ world at first and then appeared in Spira? Why did everybody in Spira know him?

And you can’t deny that slinging his arm casually from his sleeve while wielding a giant sword is cool. And he has a scar. But also, later on I found out that he is supposed to be in his 30s. Why is that in Japanese game developers seem to think when you hit your 30s, you have one foot in the grave? Not that Auron looks like he is about to keel over at any moment soon, but he certainly looks and acts older than 30.

Also he has quite possibly the funniest move in all of Final Fantasy history:

Doing this move without having any idea whatsoever of what was going to happen was an experience, to be sure. I momentarily thought I broke the game somehow.

Finally, it all makes sense

Many years ago, when I first finished FFXIII and I was looking for more FF material, I came across two scenes from FFX. The first was the famous underwater kiss and the second was the ending scene which I will not spoil here. I remember loving that first scene but a bit confused… why are they underwater? I remember asking myself. The logistics of it still don’t make much sense, but I can understand the circumstances much better after having played the game.

The second one had me super confused. I understood that it was sad, but didn’t grasp just how sad. After finishing the game… well, it was waterworks for me for sure. Now I understand why FFX resonates with so many people. This is Yuna’s story as much as it is Tidus’. Having them as deutoragonists and having them walking side by side the whole time, I felt a connection to them and I wanted to complete the journey with them.

And now I understand why just mentioning Zanarkand gets people tear up. I mean, listen to this:

Just hearing the first few notes is making me go back to Spira and relive the whole journey.

Incredible stuff.

Moving on to other entries

What’s next for me? Well, while I would love to continue with the latest entry, FFXVI I don’t have a PS5 yet and I doubt I’ll have one in the near future. Every time I see people talking about XVI, I am shaking with excitement but it got me like this:

If there will be a PC port any time soon, I'll be happy. If not, I'm gonna have to wait. I hear incredible things about this entry, and my expectations have definitely skyrocketed since its launch. I keep seeing art of Clive and Jill on my Twitter timeline (I’m sorry, on my “X” timeline…) and I can already tell I’m gonna love Jill. She reminds me of Stella Nox Fleuret for some reason (probably because of the rapier).

Until I can get my hands on XVI, I’ll have to do some catching up with some of the older entries and replay some others. I really want to replay IV, so after finishing my current playthrough of Persona 4 Golden, I’m planning to do that. Maybe until then, the rumors about the remake of FFIX will be confirmed and I will play it. Or maybe I will check out XIV as well because it might be one of the most praised FF histories I’ve seen and it blows my mind that an MMORPG can get such praise. I’m so looking forward to it, but I need to have enough time to dedicate to it, which is… well, not an easy task at my current state. We’ll see though.

Also, who is looking forward to FFVII: Ever Crisis? I am so hyped up about that game like you wouldn’t believe. It sucks that it’s gonna be mobile only, but maybe given enough time they will release it to PC and consoles as well. I have no issues with mobile, but reaching a wider audience through other platforms isn’t a bad idea. If they do this right, I genuinely believe that Ever Crisis is an incredible idea for a remake that stays true to the original. And the new trilogy of FFVII is a great medium for taking the story somewhere else, some sort of a “what if” scenario. I’m so excited about FFVII: Rebirth and what it will bring to the table. I hope other FF entries can get a similar level of love (though I know that hell will freeze over before games like FFIV can get this level of content…).

I don’t know if I’ll be finishing up P4G anytime soon, as it is shaping up to be quite a long game and I’m already kind of fed up with Kanji’s arc (I like Kanji, but his “issues” are handled not in the best way so far... not done with the bathhouse yet though, so we’ll see). Persona games are sometimes hard to handle because the devs insist on being questionable, but I really like their systems and how they handle the main themes so I want to cut it some slack. I might make a post dedicated to Persona in the future.

Until next time!

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