Final Fantasy X

For: Playstation 2

Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy game I've played, and I'm not that familliar with the others. Because of that, I was not that interested in playing this game. After playing it, however, I saw just how great this game is. It is the best game I've ever played.

In the game, you play as Tidus. He is the star player of the Zanarkand Abes, a blitzball team. He gets transported by a being called Sin, to a world called Spira, where the game takes place. Tidus joins the guardian group of the summoner Yuna, whose mission is to defeat Sin. To do so, Yuna muist complete a pilgrimage, that takes you all over Spira. Thats how the story starts out, but it gets much more interesting. I don't want to reveal much about the story, but i will say that this game has one of the composed stories, and if you play it, you will be hooked. The characters are interesting, and there is plenty of conflict along the way.

The fights in this game are turnbased. I think everyone knows what that means, but in case you don't, it's fighting in which you take a turn, and then your opponent does. Similar to the Pokemon Stadium games. At first, I thought this would not be as good as action-style fighting, and in my opinion, it varies. The turnbased is okay, but sometimes I want to beat the crap out of enemies by just pummeling them. Turnbased involves more strategy, but power is definetely a factor.

During the battle, you control three characters. each character has a turn, and then the enemy does. Clearly, this would not be as good [or posstible?] if the fighting wasn;t turnbased. Each character has different skills, and they gain more as the game progresses. Of course, the more they fight, the more they advance.

Aeons are monsterlike creature that fight alongside you in battle.If you summon an aeon, you can only fight with it, except if it dies, or is dismissed. In these cases, the battle returns to 3 char combat. Only Yuna can summon aeons [hence, the summoner title], and you get more aeons as the game progresses. If an aeon dies, the fight continues. If all of your three chars on the field die, it's game over. You continue from the place you last saved. So, if you don't have a memory card, I doubt you'll get far.

FFX has cool graphics, especially during the story clips. This gives the game a real edge. I mean, it doesn't have the best graphics, but it has better ones than a lot of other games. The controls are easy enough, and there is no significant problems there. As for the length, this game delivers, even if you're like me, and play up to 10 hours a day. And there are plenty of hardass enemies ready to give you a challenge. This is a very detailed game, so take the time to check around. Otherwise, you might miss out on some things.

The problems of this game are minor. For one, saving may trouble you, because, as I previously mentioned, yuo can only continue from the place you last saved. And, since you can'y save everywhere, you have to go the distance. My advice is, don't worry about it. Also, sometimes the character voices aren't in synch with the character's mouth movements. However, this has little to do with the gameplay itself, so no real worries.

Overall, this is one awesome game. I strongly suggest to every gamer out there to play this game, if they haven't alredy [in such case, play it over]. Final Fantasy X will surely keep you entertained, interested, and challenged, with little dissapointment. Truly, a work of art.

Rating: Great