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I have played this game before and when I started it up, I immediately felt the warmth of familiarity and fond memories. However, it has been nearly eight years and I never finished the game the first time around, so it is still a new adventure. I love this game.
Having played FF XII (and many other games), I can accept that technology and techniques have changed since 2001 when FFX debuted. By the same token, I can also appreciate the feats that FFX achieved, as the game looks beautiful, plays well, and delivers a gripping story, despite the intervening years and a new console generation. In terms of characters and story, in fact, I appreciate FFX even more today because those are two aspects of FF XII that failed to resonate with me.
The mechanics in Final Fantasy are fundamental to the RPG genre, but as with every installment, Square Enix adds some new depth or dimension to the formula. Though I prefer the continuous world of FF XII without the separate battlefield view, FFX keeps any loading to a minimum when switching back and forth. Having three characters in a fight keeps the chaos to a minimum, but the ability to switch out instantly with other party members not on the field adds a level of strategy to combat.
Aesthetically, FFX holds up quite well after all these years. The visuals and set pieces are still beautiful. The way they mix pre-rendered scenes with in-game footage keeps the immersion level high, even during longer cut scenes, blurring the line between playing the game and watching story segments.
The story so far is a great strength of the game. You take on the role of Titus, a star Blitz player who is quickly swept away to a seemingly distant land on a journey of self discovery and ultimately world salvation. Contrast that with the tale in FF XII, where the player assumes the role of what amounts to a tertiary character with little to do but stand by and watch the other party members accomplish grand things. Similarly, friends who join your party in FFX all have their own motivations and enough background stories to develop their characters into real personalities. In FF XII the other party members come off as mysterious for the sake of being mysterious. Their stories are not developed enough to give them a life outside of the quest at hand. Finally, the story and the game in general grab the player from the outset in FFX, where learning about the game, the characters, and the world are blended seamlessly into a tight experience. In FF XII, the first few hours of the game are mind-numbingly boring. The story and characters are introduced in a miasma of complicated political struggle. Learning the game is done via brain dead quests which have nothing to do with the game, adding to the feeling that this tutorial stuff was tacked on as an afterthought.
As I ascend toward the top of Mount Gagazet, I feel as though the momentum is rebuilding following the excitement of the events at Home and Bevelle. At every turn I find more details about Spira, more meaning in the pilgrimage, and more of everything else that has so far made FFX a masterpiece.
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