Final Fantasy X impressions, additional game details

[07.18.01] » Not as cool as ICO, but probably a lot more popular. (Minor story spoilers ahead.)

   Final Fantasy X has just been released in Japan, and occasional GIA contributor Andy Church has filed his initial impressions on the title.

   The game's story is presented as a flashback being told by Tidus. In the intro, Tidus states that this "This might be the last time we meet... so I want to tell everything", and the game then jumps back in time to the beginning of Tidus' adventure. The present Tidus interrupts the story occasionally to add narrative comments.

   The Tokyo Game Show demo sequences both appear early in the game. Tidus' underwater battles are just the same as they were in the demo. Beside Island is also unchanged in appearance, but the story evens that occured there are different; Tidus meets Kimahri and Yuna's entourage under different circumstances in the final game.

   Battles are as fast as they were in the demo. Actions happen one after another, and commands can always be entered while the previous one is being animated. The game can be sped up further still with the recently-released PlayStation 2 hard drive. Loading times are reduced from about to five seconds per screen to two seconds by using the hard drive.

   Final Fantasy X's graphics are excellent. Story scenes look decidedly better than gameplay sequences, however, as the former feature smoother animation and finer detail. While the game's fixed camera angles do not impede with gameplay, there are a number of situations that will likely have players wishing for a controllable camera that could be used to look around.

   The much-debated introduction of voice-acting to the series is moderately successful. While the acting itself is good, the pauses between each spoken line are sometimes too short. And while subtitles can be switched on and off, the voices always stay on.

   Players won't have to worry about being pressed for save space, as FF X uses only a small amount of memory card RAM. Up to 99 Final Fantasy X saves can be stored on a PlayStation 2 memory card (assuming there are no other files on it, of course).

   Equipment changing does not seem to be a major element of the game so far. Characters can equip one weapon and one piece of armor; unused equipment is stored in a special item menu. It doesn't seem that you can sell off old gear, which means there will likely be fewer but more important equipment choices. According to Square's PlayOnline site, weapons can be modified with elements later in the game, which will not only change the weapon's attributes but its name and appearance. For example, adding the fire element to Tidus' sword turns into the traditional "Flame Tan" weapon.

   PlayOnline also revealed that Final Fantasy X will once again feature a Chocobo-themed mini-game. Players will have to catch wild Chocobos, then ride them through various racing courses. Only by beating a set time for a course can players successfuly train the Chocobo.

   Finally, Square has released yet another piece of FF X wallpaper; this one features Tidus and Yuna.

   Thanks to Andy Church for most of the report.