LogFAQs > #970877470

Final Fantasy X. My experience with RPGs basically amounted to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on Game Boy Color, and the Dark Cloud demo on the disc that came with the PS2 (which is more of an action RPG with town-builder elements than a tried and true turn-based RPG). I tried to play Chrono Trigger a couple times, and I just didn't like it that much for how much it was hyped. Point is, I wasn't a big JRPG guy.

At school, I traded my copy of Tekken Advance for FFX over the span of a couple weeks, and after playing it for a couple hours I just couldn't get into the game because of how dated it was. I think I got up to Luca, and I just didn't give a fuck past that point - probably got to the Blitzball match and sucked ass.

Keep in mind, this is like 2006. I had played Tekken 5, Ratchet and Clank 3, all the Jak and Daxter games - I liked more kinetic, actiony games that made full use of the PS2's capabilities. The back of the FFX box touts real-time blinking animations, with the effect being incredibly basic and fake. Everything about that game is stiff and dated - it comes with the territory of being a launch game. Another thing that really dated it was the framerate; again, look at all those games I listed above. FFX with its blurry 30FPS and weird freeze-frame aftershadow transitions really didn't do it for me. I just outright didn't like it.

So I get my game back, dude set a bunch of high scores which was annoying but whatever. Then a couple years later, I begin to burn out on video games. Even games I adored previously left me feeling like this empty husk.

And then I remembered FFX. It was a slow-paced game that let you take it at your own pace. It was the perfect game to just sit back and brute-force your way through.

I fully stand by FFX being a stiff, dated mess. But it's also a really good game, and I really enjoyed it. I played FFX-2 and enjoyed that as well, took me years to get 100% story completion in that one. Played FF5 and I really liked that kne. I love Dragon Quest and Atelier, and I'm thinking about trying out Ultima. Nowadays I prefer a good, slow-paced JRPG that I can take at my own pace.

Final Fantasy X had to sit with me for years before I finally got it.