Here it is, another Re-release from Square Enix, but this time it’s a HD Remaster of both Final Fantasy 10 and 10 part 2, bundled with a short 15 minute in-game video linking the two games together entitled “Eternal Calm” and a dungeon crawler called “Last Mission”. 10 has been a long disputed champion amongst the series, as well as a much hated entry due to the voice acting and character designs but with change there is always a divide in the fan base. This HD Remaster seeks to improve on the old game with touch-ups to the gameplay, additional content and higher quality graphics, and I am here to test it all out.
This part of the review is for Final Fantasy X, find the second part for X-2 here.
Story
Zanarkand, a huge city full of skyscrapers and machines that make life easy and comfortable, to the countless inhabitants they are all safe and content with their lives. Tidus is one such inhabitant, a celebrity to boot being the start player of the Zanarkand Abes, the star player for a Blitzball team that play in a sphere of water in a similar style to rugby combined with football whilst swimming in a 3D space. We are treated to stunning visuals of the city and a match as well, but something is looming in the distance, a colossal creature bent on destroying the city.
With the help of his Guardian Auron, Tidus escapes Zanarkand before it is destroyed and is transported to a new world, Spira, but with its own destroyed Zanarkand. Spira, being set almost 1000 years after the world Tidus is from, is full of people who fear for their lives against the colossal creature that Tidus escaped from, they call it Sin. Meeting up with a friendly Blitzball player by the name of Wakka, Tidus learns more about Spira and its populace and major religion of Yevon.
After a string of events Tidus is thrown together with a group of Guardians who are sworn to protect Yuna, a young summoner who is on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin. Quickly becoming a guardian himself, Tidus travels the world in hopes of finding a way home, but after reuniting with Auron he slowly comes to terms with the impossibility of returning. He changes his goal, he will save this world, along with his companions, and find answers to all the questions that are before him.
You main goal throughout the story is to go to each temple and receive a new Aeon for Yuna as she continues her pilgrimage. Along the way you will fight Machina, the sacrilegious machines of the world, other inhabitants, monsters and bosses. But not all is doom and gloom, Blitzball is around for your enjoyment, along with a plethora of minigames.
The main story will last you upwards of 40 hours depending on your capability. With all the side missions, minigames and completion you can rack up over 120 hours, with even more to find. It is best to continue on before the final boss as there isn’t a new game+ in this game, though you can carry on Al Bhed Primers if you want to restart to find missed items. My story completion took over 60 hours, but I did quite a bit of side content.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy X continues with the turned-based style battle system, where everyone has a certain speed value and that determines the turn order, but instead of charging a gauge there is a turn order on the side of the screen, which denotes who goes after whom. Once it is your turn you can choose between several offensive and defensive actions. Limit breaks make a return in this release in the form of Overdrives, summoning is also there but some changes have been made to that mechanic too.
During battle party members can use any ability they have learned, be it magic spells, skills or special attacks, or use a simple attack, item or defend. Party members can be switched out whenever it is their turn, with all 7 members of the party, allowing you to really diversify your tactics during battles, if you need a healer for a situation just switch them in and use a healing spell. Battles are really fluid, with attacks going off almost exactly after one another, sometimes hitting an enemy before he can retreat back to his position. After battle you will get AP for your Sphere level, Gil, spheres and items.
Levelling up took the biggest change in this release, as instead of Levels or Class Levels you used Sphere Levels to move along the Sphere Grid to unlock increased stats, like +2 to attack, and abilities like Cure or Fira. Each character starts off at a certain role, Tidus with cheer and close to Haste whereas Lulu is dead in the middle of all the elemental spells. But the way the grid is laid out you can make the characters into what you wish, though it might take a while to move them across the grid. There is also a hidden levelling system that increases stats a little after very 30 battles, but you don’t notice that as much.
Besides fighting you will be exploring the worlds almost entirely on foot, running across fields, through caves, and between towns. Interacting with the environment to find chests, hidden passages and climbing up mountains to make your way to each temple. Full of treasure to find and side quests to stumble upon it is worth your while to keep an investigative mind. Though a guide might be needed at times to find some of the more hidden items, one of them being the Al Bhed Primers that allow you to speak their language.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
With 60 tracks of rearranged tracks, the music in the game is one again a great collection of tunes, from the sombre tracks for times of grief for fallen villagers to action packed rock anthems for battles. Almost every track suits the area they are placed in, and with the higher quality I can see why they made the music the way they did. The only track that really stood out of place was the Zanarkand track that has a sort of death rock feel to it, but it fits really well closer to the end of the game.
However, being over 10 years old, the game does show some age to it, both in gameplay and story, with some very poor writing at times that just cannot be polished with this kind of release. There are texture issues in several places and collision problems that are too apparent to miss, coupled with bad facial animation the visuals can take quite a nose dive. There can also be some loading errors, but I only experience it twice where it took an absurd amount of time to load an area.
Overall Final Fantasy X gets a 4.5/5, the HD Remaster only made the previous version better and didn’t tamper in a way that would make the game any worse. There are quite a few hiccups along the way which takes the grade down a bit, but other than that there isn’t much I can say badly about the game. The story can be quite dull and annoying, but looking from a different side can make it look unique and ballsy. Fans of the series and the previous version will love this game, as I know quite a few fans who have over 200 hours into the first game already.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
