Final Fantasy X

Was looking for an RPG to fill the void Grandia 2 left me with, and decided to put this disc back in after nearly a decade. I have good memories of the game, though so far it's not delivering on them anymore. I feel I made a mistake going for the generic-spheregrid option this time around, as I had used Expert last time. Auron just joined the party again, so I'm not too far in.

I have to say I am amazed still by the graphical style of the game. On my CRT it looks absolutely gorgeous, to the point that if it would release today I'd still be impressed by a lot of its qualities. How it seemlessly switches between cutscenes and gameplay is very well done, especially for the era. Great OST too.

Any others here played this game? Takes?

I never liked it. My brothers did though.

One time in the school holidays my brother was doing that lightning dodge thing. You get a reward for 200 dodge or something. He only had one more to go but he got hit. I heard him scream 'FUUUUUCK!!!' followed by a huge crash. I ran into the room and found he had thrown the control at the floor which such force it had blown apart. It was the only control we had.

I never played X-2 but it looked better to me even though I hate Yuna. It had jobs.

I still haven't done that lightning-dodge thing, seemed so unreal. I've never played the 'semi-sequel' though, mostly since I like my RPGs slow and turn-based haha. Remember playing it a lot though as a teenager at a friend's house and liking it.

Just had that Gui(?) boss where you have to kill the arms, pretty cool fight. Looking up some of the challenge runs people have done in this game is unreal. Some fights lasting longer than 90 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V4TGR81obQ

Crazy stuff.

>like turn based RPGs

You need to play FFV if you haven't already, Roy. Check this thread if you want to see SBK and me talking about it (Skip to post 176):

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/718920-kingdom-hearts-iii/79234355?page=3

I'll create a dedicated FFV thread so people can talk about it there.

As for FFX, haven't played it, but I heard mostly good things about it. But one of the things that caught my attention was the relatively long abbreviation for the hardest challenge run: NSGNSNCNONENNENBB; which stands for No Sphere Grid, No Summoning, No Customizing, No Overdrives, No Escapes, No "No Encounters", and No Blitzball.

Final Fantasy X. I’ve played it through twice, and started it again several times. I love the environments and the music in the game, too. It was the first game I remember playing with that much voice acting. The combat is pretty straightforward, but there are some really fun fights later on. I enjoyed the story and the characters quite a bit too actually. It is what ultimately did drive me to play Final Fantasy X-2 thoroughly later on as well.

I also did all the ultimate weapon stuff, including the lightning dodge. I recommend not doing that until you have the ‘no encounters’ capability, it won’t be that bad...assuming you wanted to try. I honestly remember having more trouble with the fricken butterfly one.

One of the complaints I remember at launch was that there was no longer a world map to traverse directly...bit more linear. I remember missing it a little, but it wasn’t a big deal at all.

I hope you enjoy!

This was my first FF and I tried it last year. I am an SMT guy first and foremost, and the horrible voice acting and brain dead easy combat was an instant turnoff. I stopped after like an hour.
A shame because visually and story wise it was interesting.
I need combat difficulty in an rpg.

It was one of the first FF I played together with X-2. I love the combat system, it's simple but it's well designed, really like how you can manipulate the turn order and the boss fights are all interesting, having different gimmicks and strategies. The Dark Aeons especially are some of the best secret bosses in the series. I even tried to do a 100% run once, but I never got the secret weapons 'cause I got bored with blitzball and dodging thunders.
Fun fact, it was probably the first jrpg that got me interested in the gameplay aspect of the genre. I was like 10 ors so and stuck on a boss (the golem one iirc). I asked my cousin for help and he showed me how important stuff like Haste and Slow, were and after that my mind was blown and I started strategizing with buffs and debuffs instead of just attacking all the time.

I really need to replay it one of this days. Last time I played it was on the psvita and I remember being really annoyedby all the cutscenes. Does anyone know if you can skip them in the pc version? Maybe with a mod?

> FFV
Which version would be the better one, GBA?

@hedfone
The game has some hard fights, but not until the end-game. Ironically the game has a huge challenge running community and like most games in the series, can be beaten that way apparently. But you really have to get through it.

> skip cutscenes
There are mods in the work iirc @TaiTsurugi , but nothing too special yet. Such a turn off for replays for me imo in RPGs.

The GBA is basically the SNES version with some sweet additions. PS1 lacks those additions if I'm not mistaken, and the PSN version is based on that one. Mobile (and I think Steam) versions nerfed various interesting mechanics.

Go with the US version instead of the EU one if you want to try it. The latter fixed the encounter exploit, which means you can't force the best source of money and Ability Points to appear whenever you want, which is a rare encounter in itself. Playing on an emulator means you can frame skip story segments.

-----

Have any of you guys faced the Dark Aeons or Penance? If so, is it true that you need max stats and some form of strategy to beat them?

> Dark aeons
They've all been killed without leveling, though beating them as such requires immense knowledge and dedication from what I know. The video of someone beating Anima without Zanmato and leveling needed 90~ minutes to kill the boss of near perfect play.

> US version
Is the GBA region-free? I'll do my best to get my hands on it.

>whopping 90 minutes to kill a boss with near perfect play

Just... wow. I don't think I have the patience required to do that, haha. Imagine game-overing 70-80 minutes in. I've never thrown a controller or any other device out of frustration in my life, but that would probably give me enough incentive to do it.

>region free

To be honest, I'm not sure. I recall people saying that every Nintendo handheld prior to the 3DS was region free, and Google seems to confirm that.

DS is region free. I play US games on mine. The DS has a GBA slot so I assume it will play any region too.

Not sure about GBA, but original GB and GB Color were region free. I played Japanese versions of Pokemon on mine when I was in high school.

>90 min Dark Aeon fight.

Keep in mind that this only applies for the no sphere grid challenge. If you play normally, even without max stats they are more than doable in a timely fashion.

>no mods

Fuck! I really would like to replay it and maybe do the no sphere grid challenge too, but the cutscenes with that terrible dub and idiotic characters just put me to sleep.

There's something appealing to the cutscenes and voices imo, I think it's massive nostalgia though. But Tidus and Auron especially grew on me, as well as Wakka's extreme stoner-attitude haha. Only Lulu never really connected with me (despite other assets in her favour).

> mods
Did some more digging, but actually it does seem to exist! It isn't available on any nexus, but instead through SteamCommunity: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=683802394

This alone would make me want to buy this version lol after I 100% the PS2 version again. Would make it a great version for challenge runs.

I must say the Nexus page was quite a ... unique experience. I've never seen a game with so many "reduced nudity/ less revealing outfit" mods and not a single nude-mod. Made me wonder what galaxy I was living in.

I hated the characters like no other game. Tidus and Wakka were the worst.

Lulu and the blue lion man were my favs. Maybe because they were quiet. Auron was ok.

Guess this will be another on the list of PC games for when I finally get one.

I've seen one GIF that showed Tidus laughing. Never heard the laugh itself, but I saw people saying that it's one of the worst scenes, because of the context.

I know that scene, just past it again, but honestly it's pretty funny personally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXZhTb0eUqA

For context, Tidus tried to teach her to whisttle earlier on so he could find her if she ever got lost. Here they are trying to cheer each other up despite the recent attacks on the city and the monster Sin terrorizing the world.

It's just a bit of good fun honestly, the characters even laugh at their expense.

Honestly, this was one of the earliest franchise games to have full on voice dialog, and I thought they did a great job. There are some rough spots, but not terrible.

My favorite ‘fun’ line is early in the game with the old lady that states: “Staaay away from the summoner” in her old sounding voice. I remember making her say it over and over again for awhile.

The weirdest part to me was the twitching character models. I somehow had never noticed it even after a full playthrough, but a friend pointed it out one day. I couldn’t un-see it for awhile, but then I got over it again. This was on the PS2, though...unsure if the updates have it.

The Tidus laugh is supposed to be awkward and fake, like Roy said it works in context. It's really strange that everyone uses that as an example of bad acting, as it's the only scene that was actually supposed to be "bad".

Birdman wrote:I hated the characters like no other game. Tidus and Wakka were the worst.

Same, I can't stand them. Tidus especially, and I hate the fact that both him and Wakka are 2 of the best characters in the game.

hebass wrote: “Staaay away from the summoner”

Bad dub or not, this is still one of the best lines ever.

>Mods

Fantastic, as soon as I find it on sale I'm gonna get the pc version then.

Ha, I know exactly which line that is. Lovely how over the top it is haha.

> twitching models
It's really early era I feel. When you place it in context, it works, but it does have rough spots. One thing that takes me aback, even now, is how MUCH voice-acting there is. Unlike a lot of modern RPGs nearly everything is voiced, even random conversations and NPC conversations. Pretty cool.

Gameplay-wise I am curious: Standard or Expert Grid?

Now that I watched the context, I don't think it's quite as terrible as everyone claims it is. Kinda reminds me of a personal experience I had once. But when taken out of context, I could see how that laugh could put someone off if they haven't played the game.

Yeah the scene is quite harmless honestly, within context.

Played a lot further. The game is still pretty sweet, I like how broken Rikku is with her Overdrive haha. Just melts bosses if you have a nifty guide with all the combinations (no way in hell I'd ever figure that all out by myself). I *am* getting pretty annoyed by its savesystem though. Some sections have one every 5 seconds, others not a single one for 30+ minutes straight. Makes it really hard to just 'play for a bit'.

Like in my last few runs I'm finding it hard to find a usage for Kimahri though. Anyone else have this?

The only use I found for Kimarhi is that he's pretty close to other's characters sphere grid, so you can make him reach Tidus and have another users for stuff like Cheer or Haste or Rikku for Steal and Use. You can also do the same for black or white magic, but he'll be weaker than Yuna or Lulu.
And if you just want stats, Wakka grid is the best iirc.
But in general he's still pretty underwhelming from what I remember.

Yeah right now he's becoming Titus 2 for me haha, a backup with more MP. I admit I don't really use Rikku's "use", I save the items for her Overdrive. Is that a mistake on my part?

Did read a fun setup that you can teleport Yuna to Auron's sphere. Apparently her summons benefit from these stats a lot, making them hit 9999 very fast.

Until you get access to the Stars and the Tonics in endgame, you should be better off going for overdrive. Especially if you have a list of all the combinations.
There are some setups with grenades and some of status ailment inflicting items, but I don'r remember the specifics.

What do Stars and Tonics do exactly?

Also managed to snag the TKO for Wakka which is just a beast of a weapon. Decimates enemies since it has a high chance to petrify. Fun stuff!

Stamina and Mana tonics double max Hp and max Mp of the party respectively. Twin star reduces the mp cost to 0 for 1 character and Three Star does the same but for the entire party.

TKO is absolutely fantastic for the early/mid game, super fun to petrify everything that moves.

Did the Seymour Flux fight yesterday, which tends to be lauded as the hardest fight in the game barring sub-bosses. Was surprised to actually wipe twice before figuring him out. Very interesting boss design where he is basically two enemies, one doing the setup and the other the actions.

Seymour will for example give a party member Zombie (healing damages you), while his other part will cast a healing spell on you. If you manage to heal the Zombie status you're set. Later-on he'll cast reflect on himself and cast a strong attack spell to hurt himself, which is then reflected to you. Dispell his reflection and you'll be able to let him attack himself.

Lots of little patterns in the fight. Also like him casting Dispell before doing his AOE attack, forcing you to plan ahead.

On my third try I got him in a nice loop and nuked him with Kimari who has a STR+ bonus in this fight for lore reasons. Made him hit for 5-8K which was nice.

Later-on redid the fight and had Yojimbo kill him OHKO for fun, then redid the fight again to get an Overkill finish on him for some added XP which is a fun mechanic imo.

Really enjoying my time with the game I have to say. Might go for 100% completion, or at least all the bosses.

Nice! Yah that fight messed me up the first time I played the game for awhile.

But agreed on the overdrive mechanic. I rather enjoyed trying to defeat the bosses with it, even when not necessary.

Yeah it's just a nice little bonus to strive for and it's recognized in game with quite a lot of bonus XP - fun design! Been a while since I've enjoyed an RPG so much, might be worth diving into some other FF games afterwards. I've always wanted to try some of the PS1's library (for as far as they released here....)

>Later-on he'll cast reflect on himself and cast a strong attack spell to hurt himself, which is then reflected to you. Dispell his reflection and you'll be able to let him attack himself.

Does this require some sort of timing, or he will always hit himself regardless of when you use Dispel?

>I've always wanted to try some of the PS1's library

You never played them? If not, I would be interested to know a 'modern' input on these games, as you put it elsewhere.

Also Roy (or anyone else), how's X-2, if you played it? I read that it has even more similarities to V than X did (i.e. more than just Mix being present)

>X-2

I played this game to 100% completion. I think, that if you really enjoyed X for the story and the environments/feeling, you would likely enjoy X-2 just to get more of the world and its characters. What happened to so and so after the X events?, etc.

As for combat, yes, it is similar to V in that you have a dress sphere which ultimate is like changing jobs and leveling them up. One of the differences is that you can do it mid combat (at the cost of a turn if I remember correctly), making for interesting strategies and you only have 3 characters to use at once (and for the whole game) which will make you want to change often at times.

The game does a decent job of adding all sorts of extra mini-games and puzzles. Some of them are a little infuriating to be honest, but some of them are pretty fun for a side-quest to get more lore, etc. You don't have to do any of the sidequests, yet they all contribute toward your % completion...which ultimately drives the ending you get. It has a NG+ that allows you to continue to play through toward elements you may have missed, either purposely for the playthrough or just by mistake. Some of them are 1 time only events.

>changing Jobs mid-combat

Oh, that is interesting. Might have to try this, but first I want to play the prequel.

> dispel
There's a bit timing involved, but generally speaking if you dispell on time he'll nuke himself which is good fun.

> PS1 library
Completely went me by at the time, as I didn't have cash for it or a N64, so I missed out on most of those games.

> X-2
Never played it yet!

Finished the Butterfly minigame, twice. First time I overshot grabbing the last one and exited the area, forcing a redo (terrible design imo). Still don't understand how the mini game works, apparently the butterflies are just pre-defined hitboxes and their actual animation is a complete farse. I've run straight through some to no avail while others I avoided by a huge mile, only to have them trigger a fight.

Glad it's over. Already have Tidus and Kimari's Celestial weapon's maxed. We'll see how the rest ends up going.

Really enjoying the Monster Arena monster fights the most, they're tough, but not unbeatable and don't have these over the top "imma 9999999 damage the entire party" stuff going on. They just have fun and quirky patterns and mechanics to them that make them interesting to fight.

Played some more, this time in the Omega Ruins. Fun fights to be found there! Currently working on getting some good equipment i.e. Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect and Auto-Phoenix for my party.

Tried my hand at some of the game's super bosses but they do feel a bit overtuned, though they are probably just end-game content so that's fine. Most would kill me completely before it was even my turn which was a bit...dumb imo haha.

Decided to first capture all the enemies in the world 10 times (a bit of a chore) before going for the endgame. Think it will give me a lot of good items and it's pretty relaxing to do in between my other hobbies.

Not liking the end-game one bit to be honest. As it stands I'll probably just beat Sin and call it a day. Tried my hand at Dark Valefor for a few hours and he'll randomly just do Energy Ray which deals 9999 to your entire party. Which you can tank with auto-life (instant revive), only for him to do it immediately again, wiping your attempt.

Can't find a single way around it except "just get higher stats lol" which isn't to my liking at all.

EDIT: this is even more frustrating when looking at challenge runs, only for this 'no spheregrid' run to plonk out a 40.000 HP Shiva that hits for 99.999 since they upgraded her for 400 hours.

Skimming through this, I think my opinion is the same as yours. Love the game, great art and music, fun battles and bosses, even an intriguing story, but I hate the endgame. Grinding monsters, fighting everything in the same arena, doing this lame mini games, ugh. Still want to try X-2 one day.

Yeah I gave it a few more shots, same with Dark Shiva, and it really just boils down to "how high is your accuracy, agility and strength stat" as opposed to playing smart and well, which I really don't care for. Going to do Sin this week and shift to another game!

>shift to another game
Do you know what game that should be?

Beat the final boss. Due to wanting to prepare for the Dark Aeons I was so insanely overleveled I nuked every boss in a single turn which...kinda took the fun out of it. Also still miffed that they dared put the final boss after a pretty annoying mini-game that you can't skip AFAIK.

> what's next
Luigi's Mansion probably. Also playing Ryse now through GamePass.

Wrong answer.

I'm still way ahead of you in terms of games I've played that you recommended compared to games that you've played that I recommended. You first.

Touche!

Will look into it.

GoW 1&2
Ninja Gaiden

Anything else?

NG2 is probably at the top, same with GoW1. Also recommended Yakuza to you I think (Zero), but can't be sure. Of course Golden Sun. Did you play Death Stranding?

Played a few Yakuza games. Not my thing.

Got Golden Sun Dark Dawn. Bought it on your recommendation. It's great but don't have time for it at the moment.

Played DS until to snow area before I felt exhausted. Really like the first area and the mechanics overall though.

Probably not going to play NG2. Hate setting up the 360 and the slowdown pissed me off. I have great interest in trying vanilla NG3 and RE on PS3 though. I'm actually looking for used copies right now.

On topic, saw the remaster of FFX/X-2 today and felt like grabbing it for X-2. Need to check if it has cutscene skipping.

> Not going to play NG2
Then don't hold it against me that Knack2 remains unplayed for a while longer

I assume you don't have an Xbox One?

> vanilla NG3
In god's name why? You have a trillion games and versions to play and you pick the only one that's so bad it made me drop the series for years.

> NG3RE on PS3
You hate the slowdown of NG2 in the 360, so don't do this. NG3RE on PS3 is laggy as fuck and also has a dropped inputs problem.

At this point it might be better if you would get the upcoming trilogypack. Though the Xbox One versions will remain the defacto releases imo. Or just play Black (IIRC you had that one right?)

> Yakuza
Which ones?

> Dark Dawn
What is it with you and wanting to play the most garbage iterations of my recommended series hahahaha. Dark Dawn isn't...bad. But it is a significant step down.

> death stranding
Didn't answer that one. Other recommendations would be Samurai Jack, Astral Chain. Did you play Vanquish and MGR:R? I don't recall. Max Payne 3 was interesting too but very different than the rest of my recommendations.

EDIT: to note the lag in NG2 doesn't become a factor until Master Ninja imo, which is 3 playthroughs deep.

>Knack 2 on hold
Knack 2 doesn't have shitty versions though so you can't use this against me.

>why vanilla
Because everyone hates it and I want to see why. The more you hate it the more interested I become.

>NG3 on PS3
Guess that's not happening then.

>new pack
Not supporting trash.

>X1
Optimal but can't afford a new console right now.

>Black
If anything it'll be this.

>Yakuza
2, 3, Kenzan, Kiwami.

>What is it with you and wanting to play the most garbage iterations
A lifetime of people saying games I currently like are ultimate trash.

>didn't answer
I did.

>Samurai Jack
Was ok but not enough to keep playing.

>Astral Chain
No Switch but I have the game.

>Vanquish and MGR
Extensively. I always go back to MGR.

>NG2 lag
I got it earlier when archers were present. So bad I could barely move. It was like actual slow motion.