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Final Fantasy X
by VGLN Staff
Friday, January 4, 2002
Squaresoft's tenth of the series continues a tradition of excellence built by nine previous superb titles.
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Title:
Final Fantasy X
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Platform:
Playstation 2 |
Publisher:
Squaresoft
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Developer:
Squaresoft
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#
of Players: 1
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Genre:
RPG
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Origin:
Japan
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Expected
Release: December 18th 2001
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Grapevine:
"Much like FFIX, summons are a crucial part of the story line as well. The game introduces a couple of new summons and the animation for the summons is just amazing, simply amazing! " |
Final Fantasy X is the story of a summoner named Yuna and her quest to destroy a mysterious force known as Sin who is also expected to live up to her father's name, the High summoner Lord Braska. She is accompanied by a colorful bunch who are trying to resolve their own quarrels with life. There is more to the story of coarse and it gets twisted as we go along but telling you more would mean ruining the story.
Ok now lets get down to the nitty gritty! What can Square do with the power of the Playstation 2? Some pretty damn amazing stuff actually. Lets start with the graphics. We all know that with the New-Genconsoles, graphics are looking for amazing then ever but I ever actually thought I'd be wondering if I'm looking at gameplay for FMV. The transition between the two is amazing as well. The loading is barely noticeable.
The dialogue system in the game also took me by surprise. I didn't expect audio with the text. When I get tired and sleepy, it does get a little annoying since the game has a lot of little spots where the dialogue can not be skipped.
Some more new features.....OK well maybe not really new, just revised. I love the new battle system. The old battle system was turn-based and so is this one but unlike the old system, there is no time bar for the characters.
The battle sequences are very fast and very intense. This game also allows you to switch party members in the middle of a battle. The Characters are given specific specialties and based on your enemies abilities, you can bring in and take out characters as needed. You can also switch weapons and armor in the middle of a battle too! Very revolutionary in the genre.
Another new feature is the sphere grid. Now this is a complete 180 from the previous styles the FF series have given us. Characters no longer function on AP. There is no such thing as levels anymore. During battle, characters still get Ability points but instead of gaining levels they gain Sphere levels which are used to move across the sphere grid. The number of levels you have in stock determines how many moves you can take. You also get Specialty spheres after winning battles along with items. These Specialty spheres are used to activate different nodes on the sphere grid. What makes this system better then what we had before? Well for starters, the game doesn't stop when you reach level 99. Before, you could only develop your skills until you reached level 99. With this system, you can develop your skills until the whole grid is activated. Initially, each character is started of in a certain part of the grid depending on their specialty. You don't have to follow the specialty, however. You can move the characters to different parts of the grid as you gain levels. Getting used to the system doesn't take long at all.
Much like FFIX, summons are a crucial part of the story line as well. The game introduces a couple of new summons and the animation for the summons is just amazing, simply amazing! Unlike previous games, however, summons don't just do a hit and run but rather, take over the battle for the players until he/she is either dismissed or dies. With summons being a part of the game, you can't miss too many of them, but of coarse, there are few hidden ones you have to find.
I think I just found a new Fav over FF7. One thing that does bother me is the lack of side quests. This seriously affects the game's replay ability. I will be be playing it over again just for the graphics but thats different.
Its going to be interesting to see what Square does to beat this game in FFXI although I think they got their work cut out for them.
--- Avish Chandra, VGLN Staff
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