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A Summoner and her Guardians: Final Fantasy X
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/63/1/A-Summoner-and-her-Guardians-Final-Fantasy-X/Page1.html
By Douglas Shepard (Editor in Chief, RarityGuide.com)
Published on 01/15/2009
 
From Zanarkand to Spira, waking from a dream and struggling to defeat Sin.

System: Playstation 2
Title: Final Fantasy X
Publisher: Squaresoft (now Square Enix)
Circa: 2002
Overall Rating:
83 percent


 title screen

Intro

One of the few Final Fantasy games to appear on the PS2, but one of the better ones for the system. Final Fantasy X (FF X) was decently well received, offering some different innovations to the methods of leveling up and combat. Graphically it was far superior to any Final Fantasy that had been released at that point.


Story

The story begins with the popular Blitz-ball Tidus, of the Zanarkand Abes, and son of the famous Jecht, the most renowned Blitz-ball ever, signing autographs when he meets a strange kid. He was talking with some girls saying that he wouldn’t be able to meet them after the game for reasons unknown. During the game the stadium is attacked by a strange water creature which begins to lay waste to the city. Tidus runs into Auron fleeing, who stands and fights with him, giving him his Father’s sword. Auron leads Tidus a distance then the pair of them are pulled into the creature. Tidus awakens near an island, meets Wakka and the rest of the story begins …

 
Cast:

Tidus: A man from Zanarkand, lost in the world of Spira, trying to find a way home. He fills the role of a quick striker in melee range, initial abilities and magic focus on speed or boosting physical statistics.

Yuna: A summoner on a pilgrimage, in the footsteps of her father, to save the world of Spira from the ancient evil known as Sin. She seeks to bring the Calm to Spira. She is the White Mage and Summoner of the group, the primary healer. Weak physically, her magical abilities aren’t to be taken lightly and neither are her Aeons.

Auron: A mysterious man, who was a friend of Tidus’s father. He had promised Yuna’s and Tidus’s fathers to help and protect them. A heavy melee hitter, and the most durable character initially. He focuses on supporting the party through “break attacks”, which significantly drop the enemy’s offensive or defensive abilities.

Wakka: The captain of the Beseid Auorchs, a Blitz-Ball team. A protector of Yuna on her pilgrimage. A devout man, he takes the teachings of Yevon (the main religion of Spira seriously), and has lost his younger brother to Sin. He functions as an accurate ranged fighter, throwing his combat ready Blitz-ball at foes. His abilities boost accuracy.

Lulu: A guardian of Yuna. A quiet woman but steadfast, if sometimes a little hot tempered. She lost her boyfriend to Sin (Wakka’s younger brother). She is the Black Mage of the group, dealing magical elemental damage. Her boost helps the magical end of the party.

Kimari: A Ronso guardian of Yuna, a giant humanoid lion (with a single horn coming from his fore-head). A disgraced Ronso with a broken horn he watches over Yuna and protects her to the best of his ability. He’s very quiet and only speaks a little, preferring to let his weapon do the talking. His is the “Blue mage” of the group, using his lancet ability to learn enemy’s attacks and then unleashes them through his overdrive. He is also the most flexible character, requiring some choices and planning for him to fit into whatever role is needed the most of your party.

Rikku: A young Al Bhed girl who helps out Tidus early in the game. She is very playful and energetic. She is the thief of the group, allowing you to steal from enemies. While a weak melee combatant, she’s faster than Tidus. Her overdrive Mix allows her to meet any situation that arises as it can be used offensively and defensively. Her abilties focus on luck.


Gameplay

In FF X, combat and leveling saw drastic changes that not everyone was happy with, mostly on the leveling end. This game offered weapon and armor ability customization as well and Blitz-Ball.

Combat was revamped with a display showing the “initiative order” of the turn based battle-system (playing tabletop RPGs, I don’t know any better way to put it), showing who would be attacking when and it was easy to see just how the different choices would impact the overall sequence of attacks. Strategically, this gives the player a huge advantage in knowing when to expect strikes for the most part (never included would be the countering). Knowing when to expect attacks allows one to anticipate when to begin buffing and when to just assault. The other feature added was the ability to change your team in battle. Before in the series you couldn’t change who you had out without being either in specific locations or using specific functions. While there’s a formation option in the menu to change people in advance, using the switch-in method offers a lot of advantages as well. It allows for a more dynamic party mechanism which could help one avoid accidently winding up with the wrong party members at a bad time or for some quick healing without exposing the healer very long to then change over to the battle mage or physical attacker. You also have the option of changing weapons and armor mid-battle at the expense of one turn. With some characters later in the game, this is a menial cost, but in the final battles and leveling stages of the game, this could make a big difference if someone is playing through without a guide or happens to make a minor equipment mistake. It’s a handy feature as well for some of the requirements of powering up the Ultimate Weapons, but more on that later. The last note in battle would be the Aeons, as the function differently than most summons in games. Yuna calls in the Aeon who will stand and fight in the party’s stead. These creatures are immune to most status effects, making them ideal in many cases where status has been a crippling factor. They have their own statistics which are loosely based on Yuna’s, but can be modified independently. Like any character, they have an overdrive gauge which can be used to unleash very powerful attacks. They attack slowly, but are generally at least decently resilient.

fight screen



Another feature in this game worth noting is the ability to customize not just your weapons and armor, but your summons’ abilities and statistics. This does allow you to block encounters (save for bosses and triggered fights), increase attack power and defense stats, add elemental properties to weapons as well as various status effects. The list is quite long and adds a delightful level of customization to each character as to what they can withstand and inflict. This extends onto the summons as well, letting you customize what character abilities they have access to as well as spells.


Blitz-Ball, is a game in itself within this game. True to fashion of Final Fantasy, Blitz-Ball is tactical with some luck involved and very intricite in terms of play. The tutorials though do a good job of explaining how to figure in all the numbers and make some suggestions in terms of strategy. This underwater sport is something of a hybrid between soccer and football. The ball is pass from player to player in short quarters. It's a full contact sport where your players will be tackled and possibly inflicted with various status aliments. Much like in the actual game, these have a big impact on your character's abilities, decreasing their shooting ability or increasing the HP drain from "dribbling". It’s something to do when you are tired of the standard game and want something different to play for a while. This game is used to gain Wakka’s additional Overdrives and his ultimate weapon. It’s a nice touch for the most sports inclined group and am sure its fun to play.


blitz start


The biggest change with leveling was the introduction of the Sphere Grid. The game has a good tutorial for the basic functions and use. The basic form of it is as you play through, your characters gain AP (not experience points) and these give you Sphere Levels (Sp. Lvls) which you can then use to progress your characters around the Sphere Grid. This offers a surprising degree of customization with some characters later in the game and allows for some surprising combinations (I personally have Yuna and Lulu BOTH with Flare and Ultima). Ultimately, this means there is no maximum level that the characters can achieve over the course of game-play just that everyone can get all abilities and perfect statistics with enough game play. Once someone gets the hang of this system though, it allows for each character to fit into more than just their default mold (as shown with my earlier example).


sphere grid


A key feature of the end game portion of any Final Fantasy is the acquisition of the Ultimate Weapons for each character. Sometimes this involves some questing, sometimes hunting and killing specific enemies either for a (chance) drop or treasure guarded. The Ultimate Weapons here, called the Celestial Weapons, prove to be frustrating and annoying to get in cases. The weapon quest for each character is divided into 3 parts, the Acquisition, the Boost and the Awakening. When the weapon is initially received it has the detrimental ability [No AP], however at the boost (done with the appropriate Crest) the weapon gains one additional ability and, in most cases, allows a summoned creature to break the 9999 damage cap. The Awakening is the weapon coming into its full power with the right Sigil, removing the [No AP], normally replacing it with [Double AP] and various other abilities. This also lets your character break their 9999 damage cap while the weapon is equipped. Many of the quest to gain the sigil are tedious and time-consuming (in terms of real-life time needed) unless one is either an incredibly quick learner or just extremely lucky.


Multiplayer

None.


Controls
This game takes full advantage of the Dual-Shock 2 controller. With the option to use either the D-pad or the thumb stick, it offers something to both traditionalist and modern gamers. The various buttons functions as well explained and very easy to learn, still, as it is an RPG, it takes a little bit to get used to the general feel. Once one is used to the game, it’s a snap to remember and very easy to pick-up and play again after an extended break (too many RPGS are on my To-Play list)


Graphics

Very life-like characters can be found in this game. As mentioned earlier this was the most realistically rendered Final Fantasy of its day. The game boasts of facially expressive characters and delivers. The cinematic of the game are honestly quite breath-taking for this generation of consoles. There are also many minor in-game graphics that are very remarkable, such as visual manifestations of the elemental properties of the various weapons and multiple skins that are used to show the different weapons and armor.




Sound Effects & Music

Nobuo Uematsu is famous for his work in the Final Fantasy series, so there’s little surprise that this game again as a beautiful soundtrack. It does pain me at times to overlap its soundtrack with mine, but sometimes in the farming phases of the game, it’s needed. This was also the first Final Fantasy to feature voice-acting (to my knowledge). The sound effects in-game are decent, with various calls from the monsters and quick lines from the characters on the rare occasion. It makes it so this device isn’t overused, if anything it’s a small occasion when it is used.


Obscurity

Final fantasy is decently known within and without, but the specific games are still local to just the gamers.

Summary/Author’s Take

This was definitely a very different style of Final Fantasy. I have to say I liked it better 8, but less than 7. Nevermind I clocked up less time in this game than I did in the others, opting to skip over 2 character’s ultimate weapons because I just wanted to beat the game! While somewhat slow initially, the game gains steam fast and hooks you into playing. Later in the game, it becomes very easy to get caught up in it (I only meant to play until 12 am and stopped at 4 and I had yet to start my review of the game as well). It’s a good RPG for a more seasoned player, but beginners will find it very rewarding to play as well given time to run through the tutorials or read the manual.


Story

90 percent

Deep and rewarding.

Gameplay

80 percent

Approximately 65 hours for the main quest.

Multiplayer

N/A

N/A

Controls

80 percent

Many parts take time to get used to.

Graphics

93 percent

Delicious Eye Candy!

SFX and Music

87 percent

FF is known for music for a reason!

Obscurity

60 percent

Kind of in, but not really. It's more than a movie!

Overall

83 percent

Good game with its flaws



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