Why it sucks: The first annoyance is that random battles are still in play, I was kind of hoping that Chrono Cross would have had a little more of an effect on this. The battles pop up more in some areas (Ultima Dungeon) and less in others (Besaid Island), but even then there's not a fine enough of a distinction between them. To alleviate this one can fight tooth and nail through most of the game until you luckily come into possession of one the NO ENCOUNTER items. Blitzball. Quite possibly, the worst thing in the game! A cheap, crappy mix of elements from football/basketball/soccer and such, put under water and having things like "drain tackles" and "poison shots" entered into it. Nice idea, unfortunately the computer does most of the work forcing you to watch and scream at your rather useless players and make you wonder why the designers chose to ignore physics altogether when making this horrible game. TO make things even worse, if you want to get Wakka's overdrives, ya gotta Blitz! It really sucks >_< Another annoyance is the quest itself, being pulled by the nose in one direction is not what I would call a fun and non-linear game, 'tis a big disappointment as far as adventuring goes. While on the topic of adventuring, it's important to note the incredible environments Tidus mills around in and the addition of the map in the upper left corner. While Tidus can simply stand there and drink in the great music and beautiful scenery... you can't do jack! Basically, Tidus is confined to a single path (sure, he can run all over THE PATH) or the occasional hidden path, but he is ALWAYS confined to THE (usually dirt) PATH and cannot run over to stomp flowers, shake trees, drown in a puddle, mark territory, harass all the villagers, or even just to step on the grass!!! This is most irritating since in all the FFs before there was so much wide open space to move around in in the world map... and there's no world map, being that there's no world map to even speak of (save the airship map) and thus Tidus is ALWAYS confined to "THE PATH"! The game itself is rather short (though it's good enough that people should really quit their whining about that) compared to the 90-120 hour games preceeding it, but then again it depends how much effort you put into it and how much of the secrets you explore. And on the topic of secrets, I was personally hoping for a few more than simply extra Aeons, Aeon Overdrives and Legendary Weapons. My biggest beef? THE FINAL BOSS!!! It was the most dissapointing boss fight I've ever had!!! The single biggest pushover in FF history! Kefka rolls in his grave! It's just... SAD >_<
Why it rules: FFX sucks you in at the start with the intense eye popping visuals and awesome music, not to mention all the audible dialogue (Amen ta' that!). The frightening realism in movement, facial expressions and particularly the water make for a incredible cinematic treat that even Hollywood has yet to acheieve. Although just starting the game takes forever ('bout a good 25 minutes to over half an hour before your first save) it's quite difficult to leave while playing so make sure all chores are done and all bowels cleared before beginning. The story is quite good, told from Tidus' point of view we see the destruction of his home and his arrival in a world called "Spira", where the only familiar face is the face of man named Auron, supposedly a close friend to his father, Jecht who watched over him until the attack by sin. An enthralling story that had me skipping over everything I could when I first played in order to get more of it. The characters are incredibly likeable, I had trouble with Wakka at first, Rikku (though really cute) was incredibly annoying and Yuna was annoyingly cheerful. By midway through the game I had no problems with any of the characters, they grow on you rather quickly. I can't say the same for the Aurochs, Guado, Villagers and other "bit" players. All of the "bit" players got on my nerves, particularly those kids who beg Tidus to sign their stuff at the beginning of the game. Cid, on the other hand, was awesome! Moving along, the fights made for lots of strategy which there wasn't enough of in the previous games. Wakka takes fliers, Lulu handles magic, Tidus takes the quick beasts, Auron handles the slow and heavily armored types. While this changes throughout the game thanks to the sphere grid and the customization ability thanks to Rikku, the idea stays very much the same. The customization ability takes the annoying percentage & number games from previous FFs and tosses it aside, favoring the advantage of having elemental powers, status attacks, immunities, and special abilities like "piercing" added to weapons and armor. Of course there's percentage boosts such as Defense, Magic, HP and MP, strength, etc. But the most effective points are the added abilities, particularly piercing. Tidus kinda sucked until I slapped that onto one of his swords, now he takes on the big guys just like Auron and does the healthy damage so sorely needed. The difficulty isn't too bad, Leveling is sort of possible provided you've the same patience for getting into constant battles and earning the AP to move about the Sphere grid getting your characters their abilites/spells/extra HP/MP/etc. Which you WILL have to do often to continue onward past a boss. Especially Seymour. Summons will blow your mind! They change the playing field almost completely compared to what summons USED to do. Once a summoning is done, everyone 'cept Yuna runs for cover and the Aeon (Ixion, Anima, Ifrit, Yojimbo) take over the fight and each particular Aeon has their own skills and certain uses (Pay Yojimbo, Cheer on the Magus Sisters, etc.) which adds a great deal of extra possiblities for battle strategies and their overdrives will be vital to your victories in the future. >_< Not a ton of minigames, Blitzball is about it and while it's not a bad idea, the execution is lacking in fun and fairness. Even so, I got the crystal cup suckers!!! *cheers for self* I'll end this by mentioning the issues with the ending, I won't spoil a thing, but I will say it didn't meet my expectations and only half answered the dire question about Tidus which comes up when you speak with Bahamut. Great ending, if a bit unsatisfying for all the work put into it. Would've been nice if there were 2 more possible endings.
OVERALL: While Blitzball should've never seen the light of day, the entire quest was a tad too linear and much of the drama/dialogue was super cheesy. The game was instense, touching (I was all teary when Tidus discovered what happens with the Final Aeon after the Guado attak the Al Bhed home), addicting and overall really fun! A satisfying game worth every minute (well... okay, there's a few I'd like to take back) and comes off as a decent challenge and a step above what I had previously held the FF series to in the past. Summons actually MEAN something, the battle system is brand new, and visuals are good enough to stare at until your eyes bleed. An incredible game that makes for a decent use of 70+ hours and even more if you explore it fully and do your best to fill the sphere grid. I recommend this more highly than any previous FF as it breathes new life into the seemingly tired franchise making for an all new adventure. Can't wait to see what this means for the next Chrono installment!!! ^_^