Of course, the Sphere Grid leveling system is what usually garners the most praise from fans, and there’s a good reason for that. Frankly, it makes far more sense than the usual convoluted need to have only three people of seven take part in all the action. The ability to swap out party members mid-scrap, and the resulting need to utilize every single character, is yet another good idea that future RPGs seemed strangely uninterested in. Just speaking of bosses, some of the series’ best encounters are found here, offering up some lengthy, emotionally draining slogs that nevertheless remain nailbiting affairs throughout. The ability to see the next few turns of combat – and alter that order of play using actions and spells – lends a tactical depth to proceedings, while the Overdrive special abilities, with their quick-time event leanings, add just a dash of extra interactivity to keep players on their toes.įrom contextual dialogue actions during boss fights, to full-on control of summoned aeons, Final Fantasy X brought a lot more to the table than it got credit for during its initial release. Just the ability to input and carry out commands while the animation of the previous command is still finishing provides a fantastic example of what I mean – sure, that’s a minor aesthetic change, but it makes the turn-based battle feel far more alive, adding a sense of speed and fluidity to an otherwise methodical system. In a post Final Fantasy XIII world, one can truly appreciate how good X was, and how it bridged the gap between traditional Japanese RPG and modern fast-paced expectations in ways today’s Square Enix could only dream of. FFX has aged phenomenally well, remaining an expertly structured roleplaying game with an engrossing leveling system and a subtle-yet-gratifying take on turn-based combat. Replaying Final Fantasy X on the PlayStation Vita, my belief that it was a delightful game in spite of itself holds true. Really, the lack of a manually traversable world map wasn’t that bad. Every time I look back on it, though, I only recall the amount of fun I had, not so much the disturbance I suffered at all the scary, non- Final Fantasy changes.

Although I quite enjoyed Tidus’ depressingly upbeat adventure when I played it back in the day, I nonetheless viewed it as the beginning of a downward spiral for the Final Fantasy series, full of ideas that made for a notably inferior installment. My opinion on Final Fantasy X has only ever improved with time.

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