For a game that came out in 2001, being 14 years old it has aged extremely well compared to other titles released in the last decade. It was because of the art style that it was able to make its transition into HD so well and still look fresh.
With the HD remaster, the colors are brighter, the special effects are improved, and the wide screen aspect ratio allows for a better view of the amazing world that was created for this game. Although, in order for them to achieve the wide screen aspect, the top and bottom had to be cropped. Anyone replaying this game, or comparing the Playstation 2 and the Remaster side by side will notice things are cut out of frame. Most apparent with secondary characters in a cutscene.
GRAPHICS
To most, there is no noticeable graphics difference between the PS3 version and the PS4 version. They both benefited from the same remaster and model rebuilds. However, if you take a closer look, you will notice that the contrast is deeper. Through a process known as ‘ambient occlusion’ , the lighting and shading seem more realist as each object in the seen directly influences lighting on the other objects in the scene. For a quick visual explanation of what I mean, check out the video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbWV58AH9eg)
The Playstation 4 version also received some updates to minor background characters. Initially, only characters important to the plot, and background characters standing directly next to them in a scene received the new polished rebuild.
Background textures received another bump as well. Stone walkways, foliage and background environments have a more detailed skin applied to them.
SOUND
The soundtrack to the game is hands down one of my favorite video game soundtracks. And the bonus to the Playstation 4 version, is that you get to choose between hearing the original version, or the remastered arranged version as you play.
The Playstation 3 release lacked this and the fans really wanted this option. It is nice to see Square Enix listen.
The voice acting is great. It was the first Final Fantasy game with voice acting. James Taylor, the voice of Tidus and the games narration did an amazing job. It’s a shame the animations didn’t always fit the acting portrayed by James, sometimes feeling off or awkward. Wakka and Khimari were voiced by Annie Award winner John DiMaggio who is most famous for being the voices of Bender from Futurama and Jake the Dog in Adventure Time. Rikku is voiced by Tara Strong, best known for Timmy in Fairly Oddparents. So this game definitely has voice talent.
The voice acting and the beautiful soundtrack will keep you engrossed in the storyline.
STORY
I have played through this game nearly 10 times since its initial release back in 2001. Every time I play through, I learn something new, or discover something I may have missed. The reason this game is so strong is the way the story is presented.
The game is played out as a narrated monologue from the stand point of the main character Tidus, telling his story so that you can learn from it. This allows the player to feel connected to the story as it unfolds.
Tidus, who is a young star blitzball player living in his father’s shadow, finds himself 1000 years in the future, where the world he knows is gone. He bears witness to a giant beast known as Sin destroying his hometown, right before waking up in Spira. This new world is superstitious, with religion being the focal point of society. The religion, Yevon, has condemned the use of machines known as machina and blames everyones dependance on them for Sin’s existence. Summoner’s, skilled magic users with the power to summon powerful entities, are charged with taking a pilgrimage and ultimately facing off against Sin to bring a temporary time of peace known as The Calm. Unfortunately Sin always comes back starting the cycle over. Figuring Sin brought him there, and is the only way for him to return home, he agrees to become a guardian to the summoner Yuna, and goes on a quest to stop Sin once and for all.
The story has ties to real world aspects. Religion and politics as a means of controlling a society, the twisting of history and omission of facts to support claims. Sacrificing a few for the greater good. That sort of thing. But on a personal level, each of the characters has a back story that you may connect with. Tidus hates his arrogant, verbally and mentally abusive, alcoholic father who abandoned him and his mother. Flashbacks and the narrative tell a story that you can’t help but truly feel bad for him. Wakka and Lulu suffer from the loss of someone close, standing in the role of the big brother and sister to Yuna. A,,,,nd Auron and Khimari’s resolve to keep a promise. You are likely to find a back story that is going to tug at your heart strings.
It doesn’t matter how many times I play this game, there are a few particular scenes that I can’t help but tear up to as they have direct ties to my childhood. The narration and voice acting, which are EXTREMELY well done, just make it that much more believable and add to the effect. Not to mention plot twists and reveals. Holy crap this game is full of them. Because you have 7 playable characters, all with deep backgrounds and a history of their own, seeing everyones story unfold as one giant story will keep you wanting more.
It’s why this was the first Final Fantasy game to ever get a sequel. Fans wanted to know more. The ending left everyone wide eyed, smiling, in tears or anger out of denial. People needed more of Tidus, Yuna and their world Spira.
GAMEPLAY and EXTRAS
This is your classic turn based RPG. Instead of using the active time battle system from previous games, a new system was implemented called the conditional turn based system, where a character’s speed stat determined how many turns they received in a battle. Faster characters were able to attack more than slower characters.
Certain battles played host to interactive environments, such as door switches, generators and machines. Toggling the command to focus on these interactive points could be used as a tactic in battles.
Experience points and levels are gone, instead being replaced by a skill and stat based game board called the Sphere Grid. This leveling system is simple, fun and offers you a customizable play style with how you decide to level your character. On one playthrough for example, I had Yuna go off her direct path and learn some of Lulu’s Black Magic early on.
The great thing about the HD Remaster is that it’s the international version of the game which came with a ton of other features not available initially stateside. One of those features was “The Expert Sphere Grid”. The expert Sphere grid is laid out differently, contains 68 nodes less than the standard, but maintains all of the ability nodes from the standard. With 68 less nodes, you can still max out every single stat with the exception of 2-3 minor stats like Luck. The benefit to the Expert grid though is you can really customize your characters more easily, and even change their initial battle roles by doing so.
Other features in this version of the game include abilities that cause fiends to drop spheres for the sphere grid, new special abilities, increased stats on certain bosses, and the extremely difficult optional bosses;The Dark Aeons and Penance.
There are plenty of other minor changes and a quick search online will reveal a very detailed breakdown of what is different.
Perhaps one of my favorite features to the HD remaster is the ability play across consoles. I started playing on my PS3 last year, was able to load and continue from that save file on my PSP and PS4. Really handy for when I have a few extra minutes that I want to knock out some side quests or level grind on the go.
Lastly, the Remaster of the game comes with Final Fantasy X: The Eternal Calm, a short sequel cinematic movie leading into Final Fantasy X-2 which is also included. On top of that, X-2’s Last Mission is included as well as an audio drama taking place 6 months after Last Mission. The audio drama has risen major speculation about a Final Fantasy X-3. Because of the content in the audio drama though, some fans have chosen to ignore it and not believe it to be canon.
BUGS
In games like Final Fantasy, “random” is the most important element that plays behind the scenes. From encounters, to damage and critical strikes, everything needs to be randomized within a range of set numbers.
For some reason, the Random Number Generator, often referred to as RNG online, is broken. Let’s say you load up your save file, take 3 steps forward, then find yourself in a random encounter with 3 Bombs. The first Bomb chooses to hit Rikku for 900 damage. Now, if you were to reset, and load up your save file and go to step forward, guess what happens? You will find 3 steps in, you are suddenly in a battle with 3 bombs again. The first bomb chooses to attack Rikku for, yep, you guessed it, 900 damage.
I didn’t even notice this until I got a game over right after my Save, loaded it back up just to die in the same exact way, with the same exact numbers. I started second guessing my memory but when I reviewed the video footage, the numbers matched. Upon doing some google searching, everything became clear. There was definitely an issue with the RNG.
While it’s not necessarily game breaking, it can serve to be exploitable.
The other noticeable bug pertains to background music. Which is a shame because this games soundtrack is one of the best in the franchise. In previous versions of this game when leaving a battle, the background music continued off where it was when you first entered the battle. Now, the music track starts over, meaning a majority of players will only ever hear the first 20 seconds of a track (unless they just stand there).
Truthfully, I wasn’t even aware of this bug until I looked up the RNG issue. While I am playing, I often put the control down to take notes on my thoughts, and the music had a chance to play.
Because of the amount of attention these two bugs are getting in the last 2 weeks, I am sure we can expect a patch for it before Fall as I am sure in the millions of lines of code, something got bumped and they have to track it down.
Even with these two bugs, I’d consider this game to be the definitive version. Especially since it comes with all of the bonus content and the sequels. Everyone I know buys this game simply for Final Fantasy X, and ignores the sequel and the audio drama. If you hadn’t picked up on it yet, I own this game for my Playstation 3 and Playstation 4, as well as my Playstation Vita. I even have an original release of the game on Playstation 2 and the greatest hits copy as well. I give this game a 9 because of the bugs. It’s nearly perfect, and if they ever patch it, I would raise it to a 9.5.
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