Final Fantasy X

[sabotai]

I have been, up until FF8, a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games. FF9 renewed my interest in the series. FF8 was just...bad.

I'm now going through FFX, and am near the end. I am now sitting through a long sequence of dialog...again...because of the save system. I died fighting Yunalesca, and I have to sit through ALL of this dialog stuff...again. Save systems are usually a minor annoyance for me, but in this game, it's been a total nightmare. This is the second time I have to sit through a long sequence of dialog for the second time because it doesn't let you save whenever you want.

I understand with a console game, they have to do things to keep the save game low, but come on! Use some frickin common sense. If you have a long ass dialog sequence before a huge battle...save the fucking game!

[Ragone]

You think thats bad sabotai? remember ff6 aersis death scene to sephiroth?

I had to fight that guy 7 TIMES.. i was starting to cry i think after watching that marble bounce down the stairs 6 times

[Noop]

You think thats bad sabotai? remember ff6 aersis death scene to sephiroth?

I had to fight that guy 7 TIMES.. i was starting to cry i think after watching that marble bounce down the stairs 6 times
You mean FF7.... FFX is a good game but I hate all the long talking sometimes... I had the same problem I started all over and powered up so the rest of the game was pretty much a breeze.

[sabotai]

You think thats bad sabotai? remember ff6 aersis death scene to sephiroth?

I had to fight that guy 7 TIMES.. i was starting to cry i think after watching that marble bounce down the stairs 6 times

Yeah, FF7. I remember having to watch it a few times. I'm pretty sure I took about a week or 2 off from that game because I couldn't stand to watch that sequence over again.

Noop, I was thinking of doing that, but I've made it this far. I'm almost ot the point where I can go anywhere and I'm going to power up using the monster arena so I don't have to deal with this anymore.

[terpkristin]

FFX the talking sequences finally got to me, too. I actually finally got around to beating it tonight instead of working to get everybody ultimate weapons and armor. Of course, since all my guys have ultimate armor and half of them at this point have the celestial weapons, beating it was pretty damn trivial, I just got tired of my roommate hounding me to see the end.

On a slightly different note, FFX-2 has a feature in the long dialogs that you can hit "start" and then it gives you an option to "Skip Scene." QUITE useful!

Haven't gotten around to FFXI yet. It's sitting in the box on my shelf, HDD and network adapter included, I just don't have the time or $$ to play it. $12.95/month is a total jack.

~tk

[Ragone]

god.. yes ff7.. not to mention the music that went along with that cut scene.. its permanently burned in my brain

[sabotai]

On a slightly different note, FFX-2 has a feature in the long dialogs that you can hit "start" and then it gives you an option to "Skip Scene." QUITE useful!

I have Xenosaga Episode 1 (and just viewed the opening sequence) and it has the same feature. FINALLY, Square gives us a break. :)

And when I think of FF7 music, I think of that Sephiroth song that plays at the end. I tend to like the FF soundtracks more than the games. Some of those FF7 songs were really good.

[Mota]

FFX was my favorite game ever. I RARELY finish a game (Diablo 2, Dungeon Siege and FFX are the only games I've finished in the last 5 years), but this one I rocketed through in about 2 months. 60 hours.

If you want to make the end game a little easier, grab a few weapons that have 1MP on them (Auron's and Rikku's are very easy to get), and then give Rikku Ultima / auto-life. You should have a pretty easy time since Rikku can auto-resurrect people when they die, and can cast some major damage spells every turn without worrying about MP. I know that she's not one of the major casters in the game, but getting her a 1MP weapon is extremely easy vs. getting the other 2 girls one.

I absolutely loved FFX, and thought the cutscenes really added depth to the game. You really care for the characters. Which is good, since otherwise all those combat sequences would get dull after a while.

But if you think the Yunalesca part is long, wait until you get to the final battle. No spoilers here, but there's a LONG sequence before you even start fighting, I swear it must take 20 minutes... and I had to go through it 3 times before beating the final bosses. It was worth it though. When you hit that final save point be prepared for almost 2 hours of gaming goodness before it all ends... so make sure you have a little bit of time.

I just started playing FF7 a few weeks ago, having a harder time getting into it because of the much inferior graphics / sound. However it is still a great game and I plan on playing through the whole series eventually.

[ice4277]

I think I have started playing, stopped playing, and re-started playing FFX about ten times. I really like the game but don't seem to have the time or desire to get all the way through.

[sabotai]

I hate the main character in FFX. He's so damn whiney. Rikku too. I find myself saying "Just shut the hell up." at the TV screen.

FFX has nothing on FF3/FF6j IMO. That one will probably always be my favorite.

[Troll]

FFX was way too easy. However I went through each area with monsters 2 or 3 times back and forth b/f i moved on, mainly b/c I love the battles. However it leveled up my players too much and made the game easy. Some of the battles really let me down too, I was expecting Sin to be alot tougher than he was, but it only took a couple of turns to down him. The final stretch is awesome tho.

[stevew]

Man, I tried to beat that robo-douchebag on the bottom of the ocean in FF7 way too many times. I could never breed the chocoboos enough to get Knights of the Round table. But otherwise I loved that game.

[Ramzavail]

A few notes:

Sabotai - the song during the battle with Sephiroth is called "One winged Angel"

Mota - Glad you loved FFX, it was OK for me. For a FF fan that has gone through the series starting with FF3/FF6j, this game is just OK for me. Maybe I am a psycho, but I could not stand the "Seven Samurai"-like visual dialogue. The words never match to the lips - it bothered me to no end. I'd much rather have text than voices if the voices don't match up to the lips. Also, be patient with FF7, the graphics (comparable to now) are awful - the sound and music are still excellent, but the storyline is good and really groundbreaking in the RPG genre.

SteveW - The Emerald weapon was NASTY, really tough to beat. Even if you had Knights of the Round - it still was not guaranteed that you would beat it.

[stevew]

A few notes:

SteveW - The Emerald weapon was NASTY, really tough to beat. Even if you had Knights of the Round - it still was not guaranteed that you would beat it.

I remember one time FINALLY putting some serious damage on it. Like I knocked out a couple of its lights. Next turn it re-healed itself, and then the following one, it killed me

[sabotai]

A few notes:

Sabotai - the song during the battle with Sephiroth is called "One winged Angel"

Yes, I know. I have the soundtrack and used to listen to it constantly. I didn't say the name because I didn't think anyone else would know it. :)

[terpkristin]

I never played FF4-FF9. Never had a good enough computer nor enough time and money to do it. I take that back, I did play a bit of 7, but the computer issue came up.

Anyway, I think my biggest complaint about X (and now X-2) is how linear it is. The game practically holds your hand in the order of how you do things and getting places.

This is a far cry from FF - FF3 and the FF's on Gameboy. It was almost too easy, until you got to places like the temples and had to figure out the trick to the particular area and which order to do things in (which honestly got annoying).

Oh well. Hmmm time to play some X-2.
Oh yeah, where did you guys get the soundtracks? I love FF music, never seen any soundtracks though...

~tk

[sabotai]

http://www.gamemusic.com/

Game music is kind of pricey though (mainly because they ususally consist of multiple CDs)

[sterlingice]

Anyway, I think my biggest complaint about X (and now X-2) is how linear it is. The game practically holds your hand in the order of how you do things and getting places.
This is one complaint I've never understood: "the game is too linear", particularly from the Fallout or recent AD&D crowd. Are movies too linear, too? The FF RPGs have always played like movies (excluding FF1-3) and it would take a tremendously gifted storyteller to craft a non-linear story that fits together nearly as nice as a linear RPG.

Even the encroaching mini-games that have become more and more prevalent in the neo-playstation generation FF's take away from the story a lot. Try raising Chocobos or play in the Golden Saucer for 10 hours and when you try to get back to the story, you've been taken out of it because you've been doing something completely unrelated for the last major chunk of playing time ("Oh, yeah, I was in the middle of saving the world when I decided to snowboard for 10 hours").

This is a far cry from FF - FF3 and the FF's on Gameboy. It was almost too easy, until you got to places like the temples and had to figure out the trick to the particular area and which order to do things in (which honestly got annoying).
To be fair, the FF's on Gameboy are not actual FF's much like Mystic Quest or, more recently, FF: Crystal Chronicles for Gamecube. These are not from the FF series proper and just have the FF name tacked on.

SI

[sabotai]

This is one complaint I've never understood: "the game is too linear", particularly from the Fallout or recent AD&D crowd. Are movies too linear, too? The FF RPGs have always played like movies (excluding FF1-3) and it would take a tremendously gifted storyteller to craft a non-linear story that fits together nearly as nice as a linear RPG.

Kind of a complaint of mine as well. It's not that the game is too linear now. The plot was always linear. It's more that the game now holds your hand and takes you from one place to another. In the previous FF's (up to 7, at least), you had the freedom to move about the world. I miss that ability. Exploring the world was always fun, now there is no exploring. It's "Done with this area, take me to the next".

[sterlingice]

http://www.gamemusic.com/

Game music is kind of pricey though (mainly because they ususally consist of multiple CDs)
Unless you go the Sonmay or Ever Anime route where you get Chinese or whatever knockoffs and frankly, I don't even know the legality of those nowadays since it seems to be ever shifting. And actually, I've read conflicting reports as to whether they've been shut down.

If you don't know what they are, they were quasi-legal (and that's being generous) distributors of basically knock off soundtracks. They were identical to the originals except the cover art wasn't quite as good (since they were cheap scans) and the CD's weren't quite professional quality as they were a cheap (essentially pirating) company that cut corners. They're easily identified by their SonMay or Ever Anime logo and most likely anything you find on the cheap on ebay (ie Final Fantasy soundtracks for under $30 and reasonable shipping) is made by them whether the seller says so or not. Better email the ebayer before you buy something like that and ask- 9 times out of 10, you'll get no response or an afirmative on them being pirates so you'll want to leave them alone.

As an aside, I always found them comical because they were the bane of importers everywhere. Most anime fans I know that go to Japan bring extra storage and bring back metric assloads crap to sell on ebay. They hated that these illegal copies were supressing their precious sales of CDs they bought for $20 couldn't sell for $50 + exorbitant shipping for a 300%+ markup except in select circles. Import shops were just as adamant and hated that stuff they got wholesale in shipments couldn't get them a 200% markup. Call it me being an asshole, but it was fun watching them get pissed at not being able to gouge people as much so these CDs did serve a bit of a purpose.

SI

[sabotai]

I just checked the soundtrack I got off eBay and it's Ever Anime. Oops. :)

[terpkristin]

This is one complaint I've never understood: "the game is too linear", particularly from the Fallout or recent AD&D crowd. Are movies too linear, too? The FF RPGs have always played like movies (excluding FF1-3) and it would take a tremendously gifted storyteller to craft a non-linear story that fits together nearly as nice as a linear RPG.
Maybe linear was the wrong word. My real beef is that it tells you where to go and what to do next. I mean, in the worlds, you can only go to certain places on the land, and there's that flashing red arrow that tells you where your next objective is. In FFX, until you get the airship, you're SOL for free exploring. I guess it just seems like a bit of handholding compared with some of the others that I loved to play in the series.

~tk