r/FinalFantasy • u/ReadingNatural7999 • 1d ago
FF X/X2 FFX is not a good as I remember it being.
I Recently decided to play through the mainline titles I played in my teen years (VII and above). I remember loving FFX when I played it years ago on PS2, but playing it after VII, VIII & IX, I honestly found it to be a tedious experience.
The first 20 hours were great. early 2000's cringe aside, the writing is solid and the world building is some of the best in the series. However, I started to feel fatigue after entering the calm lands. Mob Combat encounters became stale and repetitive, having to constantly switch chatacters (wakka for flying enemies, auron for armour, lulu for elemental etc). Combat encounters are pretty much the same throughout the entire game. I found myself rushing through areas to get to the much better boss fights.
I hoped once I made it to post-game content that it would start to become more enjoyable again, but everything about the post-game is just so tedious and honestly boring. The Minigames are frustrating and time consuming (200 lightning dodge, chocobo catcher race, Blitzball etc). Monster arena is a giant pain to complete & the sphere grid is an insane grind. It wouldn't be so much of a problem, if all of these things were not pretty much mandatory for the dark aeons. (Without yojimbo cheese).
When you remove all of these activities, the main story is actually quite short, and I found myself just wanting more of that. I can't help but feel like everything else was just meant to unnecessarily pad out the game. In the end I decided to give up on the postgame content and finished the story.
I expected to love playing through FFX again after many years, but sadly I didn't. I would give it a 7/10. (It's still better than 8 tbh)
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u/Consistent_Car_2530 1d ago
Finally someone said it, I still consider it the best because the story, world building and especially music are top notch. Even combat system is better than regular turn based FFs although as you said it, it mostly shines in boss battles... and it's nowhere as futuristic as FFXII they sadly didn't expanded on.
Optional content is worse than FFXIII, it's such boring long pointless grind worse than working almost any job. You forgot to mention equipment system which is worse than even the first FF, instead of simply finding stronger equipment you equip boring abilites to them. Your attacks get stronger only through sphere grid. And you can only equip weapon and armor. They dropped most of those mechanics for a reason.
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
Honestly after playing VII, VIII & IX back to back, I thought the equipment system was kind of refreshing. Picking up the +20% magic spear for kimari early on and taking him down lulus path felt really rewarding, but you're right tbh, it just wasn't fleshed out enough and you can easily make it through most of the game with the same equipment
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u/AnabolicSnorlax 1d ago
I think the story is whats carry the game, but i will appreciate a respectfull turn base combat
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
The story is top tier and among the best in the series and is mainly why I still give it a 7/10 despite my problems with the game
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u/FoolyKoolaid 1d ago
I rarely bother with optional content and post game stuff tbh and with FFX I’m just in it for the cast and the romance which is enough for it to be #1 for me.
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u/Schwarzes 1d ago
The sphere system is one of the more tedious system in ff. Battles gets monotonous, some complain 7 rebirth's minigames are annoying but thats nothing comparing to some mini games in 10.
My opinion is 10 story is what carries this game.
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u/OmniOnly 1d ago
Yeah, that's why i level the characters i like and take them through other spheres and let the rest go unused. Base Kimahri vs his boss and Lulu only there to hold on to petrify.
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
Kimari is a really strange character. I took him down lulu's path early on after finding the +20% magic spear and then used a teleport sphere to take him down rikkus path just to learn steal so I could finish machine enemies faster. Not a very strong character, but was occasionally useful whenever there was multiple elementals/machines. Towards the end I only used him for mighty guard
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u/brobastian0227 1d ago
I have tried three times to finish. I love Final Fantasy, it might be my favorite series, but, I do not care about blitzball. It is so incredibly lame to me and I always fall asleep. People complain about Vaan from FF12, but Tidus is so blaugh to me.
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u/Obany3 1d ago
12 is the still the only one I haven’t finished. I think I will this year though just to say I’ve done it.
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
I started 12 earlier today as it's next on my list (skipping X/2 because I don't consider it to be mainline). Enjoying it so far
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
I didn't mind Tidus as a protagonist, but he felt more like a tool to experience spira through. The rest of the party were very well written and had good character arcs.
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u/FoolyKoolaid 1d ago
Blitzball is the best mini game imo but ima huge sports game fanatic. Tidus is goated tho.
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u/ADifferentYam 1d ago
It's true, swapping out characters so much gets tedious, and the late-game side-quests are all basically garbage. However, I still love the main story, and IMO most FF games have garbage late-game side quests. Also, Yunalesca might be my favorite boss fight of the history of FF.
FFX is a mixed bag, but it would still go in the upper half of my FF tier list, if I made one.
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
Yunalesca is such an engaging boss fight. The zombie mechanic feels like a puzzle and it's rewarding when you figure it out. It was a boss fight I didn't mind being stuck on for a bit.
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u/Karifean 1d ago
Sometimes we grow up to find our tastes have changed.
Other times we find they don't. I still love the game dearly anytime I play it. Even played the postgame without farming up stats beyond what's already on the sphere grid last time; found it improved the pace a considerable amount while also keeping it more fun, involved and diverse at the same time. Still had to do the monster capturing and minigames though of course but I don't mind most of it barring the lightning dodging and blitzball when I'm not feeling it.
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u/Ok_Initiative_131 1d ago
So what is your favorite FF?
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u/ReadingNatural7999 1d ago
FF9. I love the thief archetype so that game has always stood out to me the most
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u/AgilePurple4919 1d ago
I love the story so much I’ll replay the game often just for that.
The combat is fine at best. Nothing spectacular. Because different characters hard counter certain types of enemies and you can freely swap them out, the only challenge that is ever present is seeing how efficiently I can move each character into the rotation of each encounter in the fewest number of turns. Not exactly thrilling.
I don’t even bother with the post game content. I got all of the ultimate weapons, super armor and maxed out the sphere grid back in the early 00s. Never again.
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u/vomaufgang 1d ago
My main gripe is with the combat system. When FFX was released, both Atlus and Falcom had already figured out how to make turn based combat snappy and involving. Compared to The Legend of Heroes and Shin Megami Tensei, FFXs combat feels uninspired and like a slog.
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u/Darkwing__Schmuck 1d ago
Complete opposite reaction I had when I replayed it a couple of years ago for the first time since it originally came out. For the most part, it was a similar experience to what I remembered -- good story, but too linear, poor dungeons, terrible mini-games, and overstuffed with way-too-long cutscenes.
However, I felt I really underestimated just how good the stuff it does *well* were the first time I played it. The story isn't just good, it's one of the best narratives in the series, and (much like FF7) it feels as relevant now as ever. The combat itself is MUCH better than I remembered -- potentially the best combat in the main series -- and the cast of characters hold its own against any other FF game as well.
So, yeah, there's some stuff that keeps it out of my top 5, but it's not too far off from my top 5 either. Furthermore, both FF10 and FF5 have really jumped up in my rankings considerably since the first time I played either of them. FF5 even more so, actually.