Hope is comforting. It allows us to accept fate, no matter how tragic it might be.
Final Fantasy X was released 17 December 2001, in my final year of high school. At the time, I didn’t have a job or a PlayStation2. My senior year was quite expensive, and the budget just couldn’t handle a console purchase.
Chris got one for Christmas 2001. It marked his first non-Nintendo purchase ever. I think he had a Sega Game Gear, but that’s it. Anyway, he got the game for Christmas, so I took the first opportunity I could after he got home from his grandparents’ house in Houston that year. I think I went to his house the MLK holiday weekend to check it out.
Other than the fact there was voice acting and it was on the PS2, I wasn’t very impressed with what I saw. He played all the way to Kilika and I had a hard time getting into the game. He loved it (and still does), but I didn’t. In fact, while I still believe Final Fantasy II is the worst game in the series, FF10 is my least favorite. Not even a contest. I mean, I think Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the worst thing ever made with the Final Fantasy name on it, but that’s extended series and not main line. FF10 sucks ass.
I loathe the majority of this game. I mean, I like the combat and leveling mechanics, but the story and characters piss me off. The game already has a plot that’s so ridiculous I can’t take it seriously, but has some of the most annoying characters in the series. Seriously, I only like Lulu and Rikku. And only somewhat.
Anyway, when I got to college in the fall, I did something stupid. I bought a PS2. With the refund I got on my federal student loan. Yep. My first semester of college, I blew all the money I was supposed to spend on books to buy a console. I couldn’t even afford to buy the game and I had to borrow money from a girl in my dorm-Samantha-to get a memory card. Good grief, I’m an idiot.
A guy down at the end of the hall named Bernard-his last name (we all went by our last names in the dorm)-let me borrow his copy of the game until I could buy a copy of my own.
The characters never got any better in my eyes. The plot never made sense to me. I hated everything about playing this game. Except for the 90 hours I poured into getting all of the celestial weapons and attempting to max out everyone’s sphere grid. God, the stat system was amazing. Compared to the rest of the game, it's like finding a dime in a dog turd. I made a comment in my FF2 review about how stat ups were flawed, and that FF10 definitely perfected the model. I still believe this. So amazing.
Normally I don’t like free-form ability growth, but the game did a good job of restricting things perfectly until the end. That’s when the fun truly begins. The replay value of this system is almost infinite. I can’t speak highly enough of it. For this same reason, I love the crystarium system from Final Fantasy XIII, but not quite as much. I never liked the idea of capping out your development against your will at certain points in the game.
I eventually got a copy of the game for myself. Shortly after, I got an on-campus job working for the natural history museum. I earned enough money to buy a GameCube and Metroid Prime. Then shortly after, Bernard sold me a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
To be perfectly honest, if you could take the story from the sequel and merge it with the combat and stat system from the first, you’d have the perfect RPG. Yes. I like the sequel more than the original game. Well, there’s some nitpicky things I dislike about the sequel, but I think, overall, the story is better. Mainly because Meg Ryan isn’t in the game. Good lord, I hate that laughing moron.
I got the HD remake of the game when it came out in March. I only had to wait a week to get it because I was almost done with Final Fantasy IX and I wanted to transition straight into the game. What makes me sick is that I was kind of excited to get the game for PS3, but it ended up being the same disappointing pile of dog crap it was in the first place. Plus the delay between my controller and the television made a lot of precision abilities almost impossible. Even things I never had issues doing on the original-like chocobo racing-were impossible.
Just whatever. I know this is a very unpopular opinion, but I’m glad I’m done with it so I never have to play it again. Ever. Ugh. Just thinking about how much I hate this game makes my blood pressure rise.
Bernard. The night before we moved out our freshman year.
Breakdown:
- Order played: 8 of 12
- Order completed: 7 of 12
- Place among my favorites: 11 of 12
- Number of times completed: 3
- Versions completed: PS2, PS3 Remaster
- Versions attempted: PS2, PS3 Remaster
- Definitive version: PS3 Remaster
- Favorite track: Besaid Island theme
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