Final Fantasy 10 Review

Read another review?

Another Final Fantasy has come our way, in the form of the unusually linear Final Fantasy 10.

Firstly, what's new? Well, erm what's this? Voice acting? Yes, gone are the memories of the many pop up text boxes with speech in from previous Final Fantasy games. But don't get too excited, there is the terrible lip sync and flat voices, just don't be expecting voice acting of the quality seen in Metal Gear Solid 2. But having voices say all the stuff that comes out of these nicely rendered characters faces adds a nice touch to reading everything, but yes, those subtitles still remain.

Another new feature is the Sphere Grid. Gone are the days of endlessly leveling up to get those experience levels and new abilities. Well, sort of. Instead of getting experience from battles, you gain AP, which levels up your Sphere Level. This in turn lets you move around the Sphere Grid. Each character starts in a different area of the grid and activates nodes with different types of spheres to gain various abilities and to raise stats. It's a nice change to running around fighting all the time, and I think it works well. While characters have rather linear paths on the grid, it is possible to cross over to other character's grids to learn their abilities, giving the freedom to customise each character more.

GRAPHICS

Ahh, just lovely. The FMV's (Full Motion Videos, or cutscenes as I like to call them) really do look fantastic, making the game lean towards the label of an "interactive movie". The characters themselves look good too, complete with the weird fashion sense infamous to Final Fantasy games. Backgrounds look lush, dusty footsteps and the variety of fiend appearances make FFX's graphics top notch.

STORY AND CHARACTERS

This is where the game starts to let itself down. You play as Tidus, a star blitzball player who gets chucked into the world of Spira, a thousand years in the future thanks to a huge evil creature type thing called Sin (bare with me here). While you play as Tidus, the actual storyline is following the summoner Yuna on her pilgramage to defeat Sin and bring calm back to Spira. Yes, yes it's your usual "beat the bad guy, save the world" Final Fantasy storyline, with the mandatory plot twists in there as well. While the story is always an essential part in any RPG, FFX's isn't that bad, although character development is pretty shallow. Tidus gets whiny, Rikku gets annoying (think Yuffie in Final Fantasy 7) and Wakka's habit of saying "ya!" at the end of everything is just odd. But there is a nice little love story thrown in between Tidus and Yuna for all you romantics out there. Very little time is given to the other characters in terms of development, which turns out to be a real shame.

MUSIC

Fantastic as with any Final Fantasy game, and goes again with the interactive movie theme. Each location's music suits it very well, and that tune "dah dah dah dah dun dun dah dah daah", meant to be the winning battle theme is back as well. The character music goes well, and the sounds of the game are great also, living up to the standard of music set by previous games. Nobuo Uematsu does it again.

BATTLES/GAMEPLAY

Typically turn based, with the limit of 3 characters in battle. But a nice feature is the ability to change between characters in battle with a nice little touch of the L1 button, which makes boss battles that little bit easier. If an enemy's vunerable to magic, just switch to Lulu and hit it with her black magic; if it's armoured, switch to Auron. You can also bribe enemies to not attack you.

Overdrives are a big nod to the Limit Break's of Final Fantasy 7, more you are attacked, the more the gauge fills, or that's at least now one Overdrive Mode works. Other modes increase the Overdrive Gauge when an ally is hurt, or when the character attacks the enemy. Characters start out with one Overdrive but the more it's used, the quicker another Overdrive will be learned. They are unique to each characters, with button bashing in a sequence for Auron, or stopping slots for Wakka.

Aeons (exclusive to Yuna) can also be summoned and take place of the previous summons, GF's, whatever you wanna call them from previous FF games. Aeons act like a separate character in battle, with their own magic, commands, HP and MP. Yes, there is an Ifrit, Shiva and Bahamut, where would be without them? Aeon's also have their own Overdrives, ususally they ae damn powerful things. Look good too.

BLITZBALL
Yep, this mini game/side quest gets a section all to itself. Simply put it's very stat based and kinda works like underwater football (or soccer, whatever). It CAN get addictive and as you travel around you can scout players for your team, as well as gain that wonderful experience (they got it there eventually!) to level up the player's blitzball stats. Also, by competing in tournaments, you can gain items to upgrade characters etc. But depsite it's nicely shimmery watery exterior, blitzball just ain't as good as I thought it would be. It can get very tedius, especially if your player's are low. A game can turn into move, pass, breakthrough, shoot, miss, other team get's ball, they do the same and it goes on. Worth it for a small break in the storyline, but I doubt you'll lose hours playing it. But there are other side quests, such as Chocobo's (they're back!), secret Aeon's and learning Al Bhed.

GRAPHICS = 9/10
STORY AND CHARACTERS = 6/10
MUSIC = 10/10
BATTLES/GAMEPLAY = 8/10
BLITZBALL = 6/10
OVERALL SCORE = 8/10

By: Dark-Angel (Laura Guy)


RPG's Breath Of Fire 2 Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy 7 Final Fantasy 10 Previews Star Ocean 3 The RPG Institution Bookmark Us Forums Sign Guestbook Newsletter Links/Afilliates Main Awards Extra Stuff Aeris Dead	Final Fantasy 10 Review Read another review? Another Final Fantasy has come our way, in the form of the unusually linear Final Fantasy 10. Firstly, what's new? Well, erm what's this? Voice acting? Yes, gone are the memories of the many pop up text boxes with speech in from previous Final Fantasy games. But don't get too excited, there is the terrible lip sync and flat voices, just don't be expecting voice acting of the quality seen in Metal Gear Solid 2. But having voices say all the stuff that comes out of these nicely rendered characters faces adds a nice touch to reading everything, but yes, those subtitles still remain. Another new feature is the Sphere Grid. Gone are the days of endlessly leveling up to get those experience levels and new abilities. Well, sort of. Instead of getting experience from battles, you gain AP, which levels up your Sphere Level. This in turn lets you move around the Sphere Grid. Each character starts in a different area of the grid and activates nodes with different types of spheres to gain various abilities and to raise stats. It's a nice change to running around fighting all the time, and I think it works well. While characters have rather linear paths on the grid, it is possible to cross over to other character's grids to learn their abilities, giving the freedom to customise each character more. GRAPHICS Ahh, just lovely. The FMV's (Full Motion Videos, or cutscenes as I like to call them) really do look fantastic, making the game lean towards the label of an "interactive movie". The characters themselves look good too, complete with the weird fashion sense infamous to Final Fantasy games. Backgrounds look lush, dusty footsteps and the variety of fiend appearances make FFX's graphics top notch. STORY AND CHARACTERS This is where the game starts to let itself down. You play as Tidus, a star blitzball player who gets chucked into the world of Spira, a thousand years in the future thanks to a huge evil creature type thing called Sin (bare with me here). While you play as Tidus, the actual storyline is following the summoner Yuna on her pilgramage to defeat Sin and bring calm back to Spira. Yes, yes it's your usual "beat the bad guy, save the world" Final Fantasy storyline, with the mandatory plot twists in there as well. While the story is always an essential part in any RPG, FFX's isn't that bad, although character development is pretty shallow. Tidus gets whiny, Rikku gets annoying (think Yuffie in Final Fantasy 7) and Wakka's habit of saying "ya!" at the end of everything is just odd. But there is a nice little love story thrown in between Tidus and Yuna for all you romantics out there. Very little time is given to the other characters in terms of development, which turns out to be a real shame. MUSIC Fantastic as with any Final Fantasy game, and goes again with the interactive movie theme. Each location's music suits it very well, and that tune "dah dah dah dah dun dun dah dah daah", meant to be the winning battle theme is back as well. The character music goes well, and the sounds of the game are great also, living up to the standard of music set by previous games. Nobuo Uematsu does it again. BATTLES/GAMEPLAY Typically turn based, with the limit of 3 characters in battle. But a nice feature is the ability to change between characters in battle with a nice little touch of the L1 button, which makes boss battles that little bit easier. If an enemy's vunerable to magic, just switch to Lulu and hit it with her black magic; if it's armoured, switch to Auron. You can also bribe enemies to not attack you. Overdrives are a big nod to the Limit Break's of Final Fantasy 7, more you are attacked, the more the gauge fills, or that's at least now one Overdrive Mode works. Other modes increase the Overdrive Gauge when an ally is hurt, or when the character attacks the enemy. Characters start out with one Overdrive but the more it's used, the quicker another Overdrive will be learned. They are unique to each characters, with button bashing in a sequence for Auron, or stopping slots for Wakka. Aeons (exclusive to Yuna) can also be summoned and take place of the previous summons, GF's, whatever you wanna call them from previous FF games. Aeons act like a separate character in battle, with their own magic, commands, HP and MP. Yes, there is an Ifrit, Shiva and Bahamut, where would be without them? Aeon's also have their own Overdrives, ususally they ae damn powerful things. Look good too. BLITZBALL Yep, this mini game/side quest gets a section all to itself. Simply put it's very stat based and kinda works like underwater football (or soccer, whatever). It CAN get addictive and as you travel around you can scout players for your team, as well as gain that wonderful experience (they got it there eventually!) to level up the player's blitzball stats. Also, by competing in tournaments, you can gain items to upgrade characters etc. But depsite it's nicely shimmery watery exterior, blitzball just ain't as good as I thought it would be. It can get very tedius, especially if your player's are low. A game can turn into move, pass, breakthrough, shoot, miss, other team get's ball, they do the same and it goes on. Worth it for a small break in the storyline, but I doubt you'll lose hours playing it. But there are other side quests, such as Chocobo's (they're back!), secret Aeon's and learning Al Bhed. GRAPHICS = 9/10 STORY AND CHARACTERS = 6/10 MUSIC = 10/10 BATTLES/GAMEPLAY = 8/10 BLITZBALL = 6/10 OVERALL SCORE = 8/10 By: Dark-Angel (Laura Guy)	Sections Screenshots Walkthrough Review Hints/Tips
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