Why I Hate Final Fantasy X

I mention a lot about how I hate Final Fantasy X, but I've never really said why. Well, here's the post to solve that. To note, however, this will be a casual post; mainly because "hating" something in a form of entertainment is a rare occurrence with me. There are many things I don't like in media like movies, anime, manga, videogames, etc, especially since I like to try many different things, but I don't "hate" them, because I understand that there are people out there who enjoy certain things that I simply do not. I can respect something even if I don't like it. It's when I "hate" something that I don't have respect for it, and there are only two objects in media I hate: Final Fantasy X and the anime Panty and Stockings with Garterbelt. The reason for my hate of these two things comes from disappointment. I know, it seems childish, but when I see so much potential in something only to have it ruined by the very people who made it, it just causes this hate. My hate for FFX will be explained in this post. And if your curious, my hate for P&S comes from my disappointment that an anime with such a unique and awesome art style and visual direction was ruined by insane levels of smut, vulgarity, incoherence, and immaturity just made me hate it. Still, it introduced me to the awesome music of Teddyloid; so I guess it isn't all bad.

OK then, let's start on why I hate Final Fantasy X! But first, a bit of a disclaimer: I started playing FFX when it was first released on the PS2, but I didn't go back and finish it until last year. However, my hate for the game has nothing to do with comparisons to FFXIII or FFXII; it does, however, have to do with comparisons to FFVII and FFIX.

First off, as a lover of great gameplay, I was very disappointed by FFX's battle system. Sure, past FF games didn't do too much with the gameplay with the exception of FFVIII, but FFX justs craps all over the past implementations of variety and dynamics in FF battle systems by having the most simple and boring battle system in the series. You see, FFX introduces the element of switching party memebers mid-battle; this goes hand-in-hand with each character having specific abilities others don't. On paper this sounds pretty cool, but in battle (every freakin' non-boss battle) it all just comes down to this: "Oh look! A flying enemy. Better get Wakka in here. OK, that takes care of him. Oh look! An enemy with armor. Better get Auron in here. There we go. Oh! An enemy that glows red. I'll switch Lulu in here to use some ice magic. There we go. OK! I win!" That's it! For the entire freakin' game! There is no strategy at all because the game basically tells you which characters to use to win the battle. It makes combat feel completely pointless, like I might as well just have the computer do it for me since the processes of battle are so simple a child could figure it out. At least past FF games put enemies in front of me that didn't have specific weaknesses, or at least their weaknesses weren't immediately apparent. Sure, bosses require a little strategy, but it's nothing past the typical bread-n-butter of past FF games. One exception being the boss battle against Yunalesca; this is the game's one gameplay highlight for me, because it shows that FFX's battle system can actually have elements of strategy and challenge to it.

Outside of the battle system, there is one other factor I found very disappointing: dungeon puzzles. I'm not against having puzzles in an FF, especially since Square made the right choice of having no random battles during them; however, these puzzles are so annoying. Their structure consists entirely of pushing blocks and placing colored orbs in slots. The results are confusing, time-consuming, and just all-around annoying. It also doesn't help that the music that plays during these puzzle sequences gets very annoying very quickly. I'm sure many people will say I just suck at puzzles and that they were easy; well, sorry I'm so stupid. I've played tons of games with puzzles, and I still found FFX's puzzles just confusing. This is an element that should've just been removed or needed much better execution.

OK, that covers the gameplay since the game was basically just battles and puzzles anyway. Well, there's Blitzball, but that was more annoying that fun, especially with its slow pace. Now, it's onto the aesthetics of the game...

FFX's graphics were fine mainly because it was one of Square's first projects for the PS2; however, what is inexcusable, in my opinion, was FFX's weak art direction. FFX is just such a boring game visually, and coming out of the superb art directions of FFVII, FFVIII, and FFIX, FFX's poor art direction just feels inexcusable. What's even more disappointing is that Square has done the Mediterranean art direction before with Chrono Cross, and that game looked stellar. The artists just did a very poor job of creating a good sense of place; resulting in a very forgettable game, visually.

FFX's soundtrack, like it's art direction, is very forgettable. A few stand-out tracks "To Zanarkand" and "Otherworld" are great, but that's it. If FFX had a main theme, I sure don't remember it. Remember FFVII's incredible main theme? Of course you do, because it fit the mood of the game superbly, as did the main theme of FFIX. FFX just has nothing. Nothing to show for it. It's OST just really lacked personality, imo.

Now, onto the biggest section: story and characters. In my opinion, in an RPG, the story and characters are just as important as the gameplay and aesthetics. And, to be honest, if FFX succeeded in this department, I would have probably forgave it's short-comings in the areas above; too bad this is FFX's worst department.

I'll start with the story. FFX's story could not have been more straight-forward. The game is literally a straight-line from start to finish, both in terms of it's gameplay (I'm OK with linear gameplay though) and how its story is executed. The one twist being the kidnapping of Yuna, which is dealt with very quickly. I get that the game is a pilgrimage, but the game just needed a lot more conflict. Furthermore, for a story that was supposed to focus on Tidus, it did a poor job of it. He is supposed to be our narrator in this story, yet the game never really feels like its from this perspective; its more like the player is omnipotent. Overall, the execution of the story just feels really poor; like all the writers wanted to do was to get to the "tear-jerker" scenes, show those off, and then work on getting to the next one. Heaven forbid the writers try to create some build-up to those scenes. You know why Aerith's death is so sad? Because we got to know her so well, and she showed how great of a person she was. Yuna, on the other hand, just came across as whiny and weak, but more on characters later. Overall, the story just felt poorly constructed and weak. I say this a lot, but I feel the story would have been SO much better if it focused on Tidus' relationship with his father. If that was the main focus of the story, and there was no crappy romance with Yuna (which is terribly executed btw) or all this talk about religion and stuff, it would have made for a great and personal story about a boy tying up the loose ends in his life before he died. If it did that, I probably would've cried at the end of the game when Tidus was holding Jecht's dead body; oh well. I'll give the game one piece of credit for it's impressive implementation of religion in the story; I liked how they remained consistent with the prayer motion throughout the game.

Now, onto the characters:

Auron - the one good character in the game. His lines were well written and well delivered. He has a great character design. And his aura of mystery was well implemented into the plot. His relationship with both Tidus and Yuna felt natural and was well executed. No complaints on my part here.

Rikku - not an annoying character, but really didn't need to be there. IMO, she cared about Yuna more than Tidus did, and if her and Yuna developed a stronger relationship, I think it would've been better for both characters. Overall, she feels a bit wasted here, as she's mainly used to bring about the Al-behd story-line.

The blue guy - yeah, I do not remember his name; something native-american sounding, I think. Regardless, easily the most forgettable character in the FF series I've come across. Other than that, there really isn't much bad about it him; it's just that he's not really important. I did like the scene where he found those two other guys from his village. Khimari! That's it. Just remembered.

Wakka - OK. Here's another character who felt out of place. Wakka is basically the buy who is bound by a duty but has unfinished business. Sounds admirable, except that unifinished business is playing in a blitzball game. It all just feels weak and annoying. I mean, he's supposed to be protecting the person who is set to save the world, and yet he wants to play in a sports tournament. The parallel I find to Wakka is Cid from FFVII, except Cid's dream was to be the first man in space and look upon the cosmos. THAT is admirable and romantic. Wakka is just this guy who wants to play blitzball and uses a ball in battle and it always shouting "ya!". His personality just feels forced. It's really uneccessary too considering we already have a hyper-active loudmouth character in the form of Tidus.

Lulu - Awesome character design! But pretty bland in all other areas. She is supposed to be the "onee-san" character of the group, which she kinda comes across in the beginning, but then she just falls to the background like Wakka and Khimari. She feels as tacked onto the cast as Wakka, but, hey, every party needs a black mage, right? Her execution could have been great, especially since she has a dark past, but since the story isn't about her, she's just there for magic.

Tidus - Oh man, does Tidus disappoint. As I've said before, I feel that Tidus could have been better implemented into the story if he focused solely on his relationship with Jecht, but instead, he somehow gets in a relationship with Yuna; a process that must have occurred off-screen, because I saw no build-up at all to their kiss scene mid-game. At first, it feels like Tidus was going to have a unique story to go along with his father issues, but that all just goes out the window when Yuna shows up. By the end of the game, Tidus feels less like a character and more of a plot device for the big twist at the end.

Yuna - I've saved the worst for last. Holy moly is Yuna a terrible character. She is just so freakin' weak! Yeah, yeah, people will say: "But she was going to die! Put yourself in her place!". Please! Many of FF's females have been put into terrible situations, and yet they faced them head-on. Terra had to deal with her bloody past, Tifa lost everything important to her, Aerith knew full well she was going to die, Garnet and Eiko lost everything they loved, and you know what they all did: they picked themselves up, held their head high, and fought for what they believed in. But, no, instead Yuna breaks down crying and find solace by kissing a boy she met two freakin' days ago. Just an awful female character. Yuna never comes across as a leader or role-model in the whole game, nor any character really deserving respect. I suppose Yuna's appeal is that she's one of those moe characters that one just wants to protect, and since the player is Tidus, they kinda get to protect her. Tch, whatever. Yuna was easily the most disappointing character of FFX because of just how weak she was; this was especially noticeable coming after FFIX's female lead: Garnet, who was a superb female lead, and arguably the strongest female of the FF series.

So, what does this all come down to: I hate FFX because it dissapointed in every aspect of game design, especially those that are most important for an RPG. And what makes it even worse is how superbly those aspects were executed by the the three previous games in the series.

I understand that FFX is one of, if not the, most treasured game in the franchise by the fanbase; however, I will probably never understand why, especially with such gems like VI, VII, and IX. I'm sure they all simply love the aspects of the game that I despise. Oh well, that's opinions. And yet I cannot simply respect it as that. Heh, it's childish, I know, but I really just don't "get it". How can people truly love this game? The conclusion I've come to is that FFX was simply many people's very first FF game, and, as a result, it holds many nostalgic memories for many members of the FF fanbase.

OK. That's enough rambling. I apologize to those who read this and love FFX. I just did this mainly because I was bored and felt like writing something; so don't take it too seriously. Though I am serious about hating FFX. Oh, how I hate FFX.