Highly Defined Final Fantasy X

This week's news that Final Fantasy X is getting a HD re-release was obviously going to be met with many reactions of "why not Final Fantasy VII?" The answer is most likely that it's just a lot more simple. Many PS2 games are getting upgraded to 1080p for a re-release, but how many HD remakes of PSOne games have we seen? I fully expect Final Fantasy X HD to be exactly the same game I played 9 years ago (wow, really?), just a lot prettier. Final Fantasy VII, on the other hand, would need to be built from scratch, which sounds like quite the mammoth task.

My reaction was a lot different. As soon as the news popped up on my twitter feed, I let out an audible gasp of joy. Final Fantasy X was one of my favourite games in the series, and probably the last one that truly gave me that Final Fantasy feeling; the feeling that drives you to sit down on Saturday morning, just to play for a couple of hours before you get on with whatever else you had planned for the day, and the next thing you know, it's June.

Today I'm going to reminisce, and talk about a few of the things that made Final Fantasy X so enjoyable to me.

Keep Calm and Cast Haste

Square-Enix (or Squaresoft, as they were known at the time), decided to move away from their staple Active Time Battle system to try something new for the tenth game in the series. Rather, battles were played out in true turn-based style, with each character and enemy getting turns in a sequential order determined by their individual speed. The faster characters had more turns, while the slower characters had less. On display at all times was a summary of the upcoming turns, which allowed for some real in-depth planning to take place.

Generally, slower characters like Auron could deal a larger amount of damage with one attack, and break through otherwise sturdy armour. A good strategy, then, was to use the faster characters to prepare, by casting buffs, debuffs or top-up heals, for the slower, harder hitting characters to reach their full damage dealing potential when their turn came around. Similarly, when an enemy's turn was coming up, it was a good time to prepare your party to survive any attacks. Say, for instance, a boss had a physical attack that dealt a hefty amount of damage, it was a good idea to cast damage reduction buffs, such as protect and shell, before the enemy's turn came around. 

Sometimes, a few extra mechanics would be thrown into the battle that would require even further thinking ahead. One such battle had you fighting on the deck of an airship, in which you could bark out orders to have the ship moved closer to or further away from the boss. With a set number of turns passing in between the order and the ship actually moving, you had to carefully plan ship movements in order to avoid certain attacks while still dealing sufficient damage to the boss. There was a lot of tactical decision making about the timing of your actions in Final Fantasy X, and it resulted in a very engaging battle system. 

Finally, a Limit Break System That Works!

Following on from the disaster that was the trance system in Final Fantasy IX, which always activated during a random, run-of-the-mill encounter that you really didn't need it for, Square turned the whole system around to great success with overdrives, in which you could actually choose when to unleash its devastating attacks. Accompanying it was the option to choose how each character's overdrive bar would fill up, which allowed you to specialise for more frequent overdrives. For instance, the default setting of the bar filling up when taking damage wasn't really suitable for Yuna, the healer, as it was good practice to have her take as little damage as possible, being as fragile as she is. The mode that allowed her bar to fill up through casting heals was much more appropriate.

"The wind... it's nice."

Yes, Final Fantasy X had excruciatingly bad voice acting, but it was the first time a Final Fantasy game actually included it at all. Returning to a Final Fantasy game released before this one now has an initial uneasy adjustment to all the characters being mutes. It really added a lot to the characters, as it gave them manerisms, as well as a voice that wasn't just a variation of your own internal voice that reads text for you. My internal voice had real trouble figuring out what Quina Quen sounded like.

Why Not Try a Holiday in Spira This Year?

I love Final Fantasy's futuristic/fantasy hybrid style, and I think the PS2 did wonders in bringing some colour to it. Despite the world being constantly ravaged by the beastly Sin, it's a bright, luscious world. It's probably because of the lack of technology that there's so much of the landscape that can be seen, rather than the bustling cities that would usually cover them. Don't get me wrong, I think the city of Esthar in Final Fantasy VIII is amazing, but it was nice to be traversing a more natural world for once.

A Matter of Life and Death

The story of Final Fantasy X is an interesting one, with a heavy emphasis on the theme of a circle of death. Spira, the world in which the game takes place, is stuck in a cycle whereby the giant monstrosity Sin brings destruction to settlements when they've begun to advance too far in technology. The only way to defeat Sin is by sacrifice of a summoner; more death. The worst part is, Sin eventually returns and the whole thing starts all over again.

It has a real effect on the characters and residents of every town you visit, as the whole world is putting a brave face on things. No-one could be happy living in a world where every morning could be the beginning of the day in which your home is destroyed. And how disheartening it would be to enjoy a short period of peace before the fear returns to cast a shadow over everyone. What else could you do except pretend that everything is fine and find as much distraction as possible to forget just how miserable your existance is? That's what the people of Spira are doing. They fight to keep the one city they do have which plays host to the sport that lets everyone escape the madness for a while. I genuinely felt sorry for these people. Thanks for making me feel, game!

The End-Game - So Many Bosses

I mentioned this as one of my unconquered mountains, but one of the things that really made this stand out in terms of replayability was how much there was to do after completion of the main story, specifically the amount of optional bosses to fight. I'm hoping that the HD remake includes the extras that the international and european releases of the original game did, as this could be a good opportunity for me to have another crack at those dark aeons that previously eluded me. I imagine that there'll be trophies/achievements, which could be all the encouragement I need.

And finally...

This is how it opened. That's going to look good in HD.