Drakey Explores FFX Remaster · 4:47pm Mar 16th, 2017
Saw it for 13 bucks at EB yesterday, needed something to play with MMBN wearing thin and Pokemon Moon failing to engage. "Sure, why not."
To preface - I don't hate Final Fantasy X. IMHO, none of the main series (numbered) Final Fantasy are bad. But some are much less good than others. And this is the least good.
But will this remaster prove me wrong or will it vindicate my distaste?
Let the journey down the rabbit hole begin.
So, my first raised eyebrow comes during the intro - no skipping cutscenes. That's bullshit. Why is this not an option? This isn't me wanting to skip the annoying story or anything, this is a basic feature of games. KH1.5 let us do it, X-2 let us, XII let us. So I'll be watching a lot of YouTube over the next month or so as I wait for cutscenes to play out.
Question - who the hell is Zanar? He's the guy giving a brief narration during Tidus' walk to the Blitzball stadium. As far as I know he doesn't appear later on or have any significance to anything. I checked his FFWiki page to be sure and I was right. Why is this here? Shouldn't this be Auron or Tidus narrating stuff? Instead we have a one-off character that never gets mentioned again and is never seen on-screen.
In retrospect I like the first few battles going on here, not for tutorials but for demonstrating how battles in FFX work - the battles will be dynamic with cutscenes integrated seemlessly, the party members and enemies will move around, and there may be secondary targets like that reactor that can influence the battle. They also nicely build up Overdrives in time for a boss and give us the chance to try out our first Limit Breaks for the game.
Welcome to Spira. I notice that the ruined temple here does sort of look like the Zanarkand architecture, building up the game's mystery of Tidus perhaps being flung forward in time 1000 years. Subtle touch.
Al Bhed still isn't a language. It's English put through a basic letter substitution code. Your ten-year old cousin writing in her diary is muttering "I do that too, does that mean I'm bilingual?"
How do Grenades work underwater?
Another boss fight that demonstrates the dynamic battles with the party members having circumstantial commands when Tros moves around, and the enemy and party moving around the arena. Really shows that this is not like previous games where the party members and enemies all stand in a line waiting for their turn to attack. Well, at least it shows that won't always be the case.
Oh fuck it's him. Please keep Wakka facing away from the camera at all times. Also put some duct tape over his mouth.
It was around this time I noticed they didn't do anything for FFX's mouth flaps. Not even a token attempt to change the lip movements. Bleh. And what's with the crappy models on the other Aurochs? Wakka looks fine but the Aurochs might as well have just had their models re-imported from the PS2 game. I don't like laziness like this.
This still bugs me that they insist on using the word "machina" when "machine" is obviously part of Spira's vocabulary. Is there a distinction I missed maybe, like "machines" are okay and only the ones classified as "machina" are forbidden by Yevon. I'm gonna keep an eye out for an explanation, if there is one, because this is a pet peeve of mine.
Random NPC kid - "Daddy doesn't play with me." Well, that was an uncomfortable piece of info to share with the oddly dressed strange man who wandered into your home. You're kinda creepy, kid.
Seeing the statues of the High Summoners, I'm wondering if the figures on the pillars above them are their Final Aeons. And if they are, wouldn't it be cool foreshadowing here if the statue of Braska had the Final Aeon form of Jecht on its pillar? The actual Final Aeon is only vaguely recognizable as Jecht if you don't know it's him, and allowing for stylized architecture could further obscure his identity on the pillar. That would be so neat.
That's right, Tidus, run into the sacred temple interior ignoring the priest that it's sacrilegious. Way to defile their holy place completely dismissive of their traditions. You just know when he comes out of the temple he's gonna be greeted by torch-wielding villagers clustered in front of a wooden pole with kindling piled around it.
I'm narrating this entire sequence in the Honest Trailer guy's voice. "And now to explore the temple by playing with my balls. These balls set things on fire, these balls shoot lightning, and some balls make walls explode. Oh yeah." Seriously I'm gonna be keeping an eye out for explanations of just what the Cloisters have to do with the Aeons and Summoners aside from busywork in each temple. Is it to test our knowledge and wisdom, is it to demonstrate mastery over the Aeon's elemental powers?
I also question what's up with the Destruction Spheres since Anima doesn't seem to be an official part of Yevon doctrine and her temple is ruined anyway. Did Seymour hide these spheres across the temples to bind his mother's spirit and hide his past or something? Actually that might make sense, let's keep talking to people as we play and see if they explain it.
Ah, Lulu, the bitchy ice queen who insults and belittles everyone yet gets a pass from fans and critics because she's got tits and a cool voice. The former never did much for me, by the way, boobs alone do not win me over and her terrible design otherwise does even less to make me interested in her sexually.
You just know somewhere out there on the internet there's a fic where Yuna has to earn the right to summon the Aeons by having sex with them. I mean, why else is she always exhausted and sweaty when she leaves their chambers? I can't be the only person who's thought of this, not that I'm interested in actually reading such a fic, but still.
I'm gonna start a drinking game, every time Wakka wraps Tidus in an obnoxious man-hug, take a shot. I'm gonna start keeping score, we're up to three I believe.
Welcome to the team, bird Aeon, I hereby name you "Fearow." Sorry but "Garudamon" was a one letter too long.
You know I just realized Wakka's problem, his mom was exposed to Sin's toxin when she was pregnant, so her child became eternally stupid and ignorant and devoted his life to Yevon praying for a cure for his condition. Actually kinda sad, really. But I just made that up so no, Wakka is still a shit.
Tidus knows Yuna for five minutes and he's already dreaming about a threesome with her and Rikku. I don't blame him but still, dude, you barely know her name.
Ah, an FMV where Wakka acts stupid and Lulu acts like a bitch. I'd make this a drinking game too but I don't wanna be chugging pop every ten seconds. Don't give me that, Wakka, an amnesiac young man with a talent for blitzball washes up on the beach and you agree to help him if he joins your team for the upcoming tournament. You are totally using him. Also, no, Tidus looks absolutely nothing like Chappu in any way.
Well, more to come later.
There's one thing that makes me keep coming back to this game and it's the battle system. I really like how it's implemented and how each character has a role to play. Well, at least until the end-game where Overdrives decide if a character is worth using or not.
I just figured he was the Blitzball announcer.
If I'm remembering correctly, I read that a developer explained that the script had to be translated twice. Once from Japanese to English and then modified again to fit the mouth flaps that were animated to fit the Japanese script. So whenever you see a "you know" tacked on at the end of a line (Riku's especially), it's because of "desu" being a common way to end a line in Japanese.
I do know that in X-2 they use machine instead of machina due to the stigma of that word. One of the Al-Bed goes into detail about it.
Ew.
4458725 I like the idea of the skill system, but not the implementation. Each party member hard counters a specific enemy type and kills them in one hit. Makes random encounters boring for much of the game.
This is amusing. I haven't played this game in years, but reading this is bringing back all the memories.
Creepy NPCs with random, nonsensical dialogue are kind of a fixture in Eastern CRPGs. I mean, if they weren't there, you'd wonder why they weren't there, even though they serve no useful purpose. It'd be like a Pokemon game without the SHORTS BOY.
Lulu is everything that is wrong with female characters in video games, and is largely why Payne was created for FFX-2. Believe it or not, Lulu isn't as popular as you might think she is--hence why she was written off as being pregnant when the other girls were wandering around in skimpy new fanservice outfits.
(Also, Nomura's belt fetish went overboard with Lulu. An entire dress made out of belts--REALLY?)
...I'd love a doujinshi of that actually...not so much a fic, but absolutely a doujinshi.
4459155 Actually I've seen Lulu rank on "Best FF Char Ever" lists. Repeatedly. Usually it's only her and Auron from FFX that make it.
4459545 Huh. Weird.