Sony Final Fantasy X — first time through

[turkey]

I finally finished the FF7 remake and decided to play X next. I did play it a little bit when it first came out but didn’t get too far or remember much.

Anything I should look out for? I’m playing the standard grid. I’m also assuming I’ll be sinking a lot of time into blitz ball. I’ll be playing relatively blind aside from what I’m told here or from random posts I read throughout the years.

 

[Quagmire]

You dont have to do much blitzball, I didnt care for it and did the bare minimum. I do know others love it though.

Most of the ultimate weapons are very tough to get, but the best overdrives aren't. I also made a couple weapons pretty close to as good as ultimate weapons. Lulu's ultimate I think makes all magic cost 1mp and I was able to craft a weapon that made them all cost 2mp. It's a great game, enjoy the ride. It was my first Final Fantasy

 

[Raine]

Honestly still my favorite in the series, in terms of single-player experiences. Nothing super noteworthy to worry about until much later in the game, so definitely just enjoy the experience for now. Which, as I'm sure you've noticed, is probably the biggest departure - you ain't got no levels! It makes grinding feel less necessary, though there are still two or three pain points throughout the story depending on who you're using and how you're moving through the Sphere Grid.

Assuming you're playing the HD Remaster, then: The optional superbosses automatically unlock during the progression of the game, at a certain point. Due to some unfortunate placement not all of those end up being very optional - chiefly, make sure you've done everything you need to do in Besaid Village before finding your way to Zanarkand for the first time.

 

[Kat]

Most of the ultimate weapons are very tough to get, but the best overdrives aren't. I also made a couple weapons pretty close to as good as ultimate weapons.

IIRC, the big thing about the ultimate weapons was breaking the damage limit.

I spent sooo many hours on that chocobo race and was never able to do it fast enough to get that ultimate weapon. I think that was the first thing in a game I tried very hard to do and literally couldn't. It makes me mad just thinking about it. I remember the others being time consuming and sometimes tedious, but not outright difficult.

The only thing I can think of you might like to know in advance is that one or two of the translation things are missable. If you're a completionist and don't want to have to play it twice, you might want to look those up.

 

[turkey]

Honestly still my favorite in the series, in terms of single-player experiences. Nothing super noteworthy to worry about until much later in the game, so definitely just enjoy the experience for now. Which, as I'm sure you've noticed, is probably the biggest departure - you ain't got no levels! It makes grinding feel less necessary, though there are still two or three pain points throughout the story depending on who you're using and how you're moving through the Sphere Grid.

Assuming you're playing the HD Remaster, then: The optional superbosses automatically unlock during the progression of the game, at a certain point. Due to some unfortunate placement not all of those end up being very optional - chiefly, make sure you've done everything you need to do in Besaid Village before finding your way to Zanarkand for the first time.

Yep on the remaster. Just noticed the no levels! That’s different.

IIRC, the big thing about the ultimate weapons was breaking the damage limit.

I spent sooo many hours on that chocobo race and was never able to do it fast enough to get that ultimate weapon. I think that was the first thing in a game I tried very hard to do and literally couldn't. It makes me mad just thinking about it. I remember the others being time consuming and sometimes tedious, but not outright difficult.

The only thing I can think of you might like to know in advance is that one or two of the translation things are missable. If you're a completionist and don't want to have to play it twice, you might want to look those up.

I’m not a completionist so I’m hoping my wheel of fortune skills help me out. I found two so far.

You dont have to do much blitzball, I didnt care for it and did the bare minimum. I do know others love it though.

Most of the ultimate weapons are very tough to get, but the best overdrives aren't. I also made a couple weapons pretty close to as good as ultimate weapons. Lulu's ultimate I think makes all magic cost 1mp and I was able to craft a weapon that made them all cost 2mp. It's a great game, enjoy the ride. It was my first Final Fantasy

I figure I’ll want to make a great team and rule the blitzball world.

I just made it to the dock! Liking the game and story so far.

 

[turkey]

Are the primers found in alphabetical order? I found A, B and D so far.

 

[Kat]

Are the primers found in alphabetical order? I found A, B and D so far.

No, I don't think so.

 

[Raine]

They get super out of order as you open up more places to experience at once, especially.

My memory could be failing, but I think the Al Bhed Primers are more helpful for second playthroughs. You can't really start reading what they're saying until maybe halfway through the game, and they say a lot of stuff throughout the game to that point. The story stuff is usually fairly clear on what they're getting at through emoting and such though, as with the pre-Besaid introduction.

 

[Benzine]

FFX is great and so is Blitzball. I do a replay every now and then. Enjoy!

 

[Mark]

I’ll echo the sentiment about the Al Bhed primers, because you’re going to want to replay the game after your first run through. It’s always nice to have the bulk of the primers the second time through, and you’re gonna be thinking of different ways to approach certain parts of the game the next time before you finish the first time. For me, that feeling came from not really completing the sphere grid to the point that I would have liked to. That brings me to my next point… I’ve seen the sphere grid mentioned in this thread, but little on how important it is to really plan the route you’re going to take on it. You could very easily run out of time to fill it out as you approach the end of the game, so you are definitely going to want to plan several moves ahead early on, and then entire segments ahead later on as the cost of activating nodes increases.

 

[turkey]

I’ll echo the sentiment about the Al Bhed primers, because you’re going to want to replay the game after your first run through. It’s always nice to have the bulk of the primers the second time through, and you’re gonna be thinking of different ways to approach certain parts of the game the next time before you finish the first time. For me, that feeling came from not really completing the sphere grid to the point that I would have liked to. That brings me to my next point… I’ve seen the sphere grid mentioned in this thread, but little on how important it is to really plan the route you’re going to take on it. You could very easily run out of time to fill it out as you approach the end of the game, so you are definitely going to want to plan several moves ahead early on, and then entire segments ahead later on as the cost of activating nodes increases.

I’m guessing it’s a cost of the different spheres to unlock certain abilities/bonuses? I’m blowing through the spheres every chance I get at the moment. (I just finished the kikila temple last night.)

 

[Mark]

I’m guessing it’s a cost of the different spheres to unlock certain abilities/bonuses? I’m blowing through the spheres every chance I get at the moment. (I just finished the kikila temple last night.)

Yeah, like early on for example… some of the STR boosts are +1 and cost significantly less than equal boosts later on. You could easily wind up missing out on Ultima with Lulu or the best curative spells with Yuna if you deviate too much from the “intended” path for each character. It helps to cross-reference with other characters to see how much or how close you’re getting to overlapping someone else’s grid.

 

[Raine]

I would definitely advise not spending the unique Spheres too haphazardly - things like Special Spheres and Teleport Spheres. You won't really have a good way to get more without doing harder side/post-game stuff, and they can be very useful for quickly picking up abilities on different/new characters. Insofar as wandering outside of (or intentionally into) the intended "job" section - Rikku is a Thief, Lulu is a Black Mage, you can turn someone into one of those by sending them to their starting areas - those are generally blocked off by Lv.1/2/3/4 Key Spheres. So you'll probably have some idea of what's going on before that's a major problem.

If you're so inclined, farming the normal Spheres (Power, Mana) isn't too time-consuming. Nor is earning ludicrous amounts of Sphere Levels using the Monster Arena that becomes available around the midpoint of the game. Probably best to try not to abuse that on a first playthrough though!

 

[turkey]

I would definitely advise not spending the unique Spheres too haphazardly - things like Special Spheres and Teleport Spheres. You won't really have a good way to get more without doing harder side/post-game stuff, and they can be very useful for quickly picking up abilities on different/new characters. Insofar as wandering outside of (or intentionally into) the intended "job" section - Rikku is a Thief, Lulu is a Black Mage, you can turn someone into one of those by sending them to their starting areas - those are generally blocked off by Lv.1/2/3/4 Key Spheres. So you'll probably have some idea of what's going on before that's a major problem.

If you're so inclined, farming the normal Spheres (Power, Mana) isn't too time-consuming. Nor is earning ludicrous amounts of Sphere Levels using the Monster Arena that becomes available around the midpoint of the game. Probably best to try not to abuse that on a first playthrough though!

I’m too lazy to grind, but I accidentally backtrack a lot so I get battles in.

The locks kind of separating everyone makes sense. I’ve just been working around them.

Next up is the blitzball tournament… might get to play that tonight.

 

[turkey]

I lost the championship. Going to try again after I hit the… pga 2k23 course.

 

[Kat]

I lost the championship. Going to try again after I hit the… pga 2k23 course.

I lost too. I didn't bother to replay it. It's too annoying with lousy players.

 

[turkey]

I lost too. I didn't bother to replay it. It's too annoying with lousy players.

I felt like I understood the math but was outpowered.

 

[Raine]

I felt like I understood the math but was outpowered.

That's basically the size of it. You can win, but you're realistically not scoring more than 2 goals (~1 each with Tidus and Wakka, that is) and the Luca Goers need to be prevented from scoring even once if at all possible. Which basically means getting the ball to the fastest player (so, Tidus probably? I don't remember for sure) and just doing laps around the outer rim of the sphere so the Goers can't catch/engage with you. Since, more often than not, they'll strip the ball and then immediately score.

If you don't have the Jecht Shot with Tidus - which you get from the minigame that pops up on the a ship that takes you from Kilika to Luca, when you examine the Blitzball near the bow of the ship - it's probably not worth driving yourself nuts over. There is a different cutscene for winning though, and it does feel like that should canonically be what happens.

 

[turkey]

That's basically the size of it. You can win, but you're realistically not scoring more than 2 goals (~1 each with Tidus and Wakka, that is) and the Luca Goers need to be prevented from scoring even once if at all possible. Which basically means getting the ball to the fastest player (so, Tidus probably? I don't remember for sure) and just doing laps around the outer rim of the sphere so the Goers can't catch/engage with you. Since, more often than not, they'll strip the ball and then immediately score.

If you don't have the Jecht Shot with Tidus - which you get from the minigame that pops up on the a ship that takes you from Kilika to Luca, when you examine the Blitzball near the bow of the ship - it's probably not worth driving yourself nuts over. There is a different cutscene for winning though, and it does feel like that should canonically be what happens.

When I try today I’ll try to kill clock. Definitely didn’t get the jecht shot. If I lose I’ll just move on.

Lost 2-1 in ot on my first attempt.

 

[Kat]

I know someone who won that game by having it in the more automated mode, where it moves players for you. I never tried it myself, though

 

[Benzine]

Yep, the strat is to pass it amongst yourselves while waiting for Tidus to get open and then launch him the ball to run it in.

Missing Jecht shot hurts but you'll be fine.

 

[turkey]

I won 4-2 last night! Sphere shot and wakkas poison shot went in, plus one more from each. I was really tired so didn’t get much farther in the game though.

 

[Kat]

That's impressive!

 

[Disgustipated]

Honestly still my favorite in the series, in terms of single-player experiences.

Same, idk why but I absolutely loved it back in 2001 and even replaying the HD remaster when it came out, loved it then too.

IIRC, the big thing about the ultimate weapons was breaking the damage limit.

I spent sooo many hours on that chocobo race and was never able to do it fast enough to get that ultimate weapon. I think that was the first thing in a game I tried very hard to do and literally couldn't. It makes me mad just thinking about it. I remember the others being time consuming and sometimes tedious, but not outright difficult.

The only thing I can think of you might like to know in advance is that one or two of the translation things are missable. If you're a completionist and don't want to have to play it twice, you might want to look those up.

I used a gameshark back in the original release to get some of the ultimate weapons, specifically Wakka and Lulu. Fucking lightning bolt dodging. Definitely a cause for some of the grey hair I have now. But the remaster I did it all legit. Finally learned how to properly play Blitzball and made sure to get some good recruits and also learned how to dodge lightning. I can't believe that was almost 10 years ago already jesus fucking christ.

 

[Raine]

Same, idk why but I absolutely loved it back in 2001 and even replaying the HD remaster when it came out, loved it then too.

So I don't want to say too much lest turkey get too curious and spoiled, but I quite enjoyed how every character felt like they had a place in the party. There wasn't, by the end, someone that just felt like they were filling out a roster and otherwise not engaged - all of them care deeply for Yuna, minimally, and one another to varying extents. It was nice.

Some of the topics the game broached were also, to that point, something I hadn't seen elsewhere in the genre and many of them struck a chord.

Fucking lightning bolt dodging. Definitely a cause for some of the grey hair I have now. But the remaster I did it all legit.

The opposite for me, for the lightning bolts. I'm not sure if it was in the OG PS2 version, but the remaster (and therefore ostensibly the International PS2 release) had a super useful exploit. Fuuuck doing that legitimately more than once.

Conversely, I didn't hate Chocobo Racing or Butterfly Catching ~20 years ago on the PS2. ~10 years ago on the PS3, however... that didn't go over quite as well. Dreading the Soon™ Xbox playthrough for some of this.

 

[Kat]

I kinda liked the lightning dodging. I had to restart a few times when I got hit but only within the first dozen strikes or so. It was a bit taxing to pay that much attention for that long but otherwise it was fine. I doubt I'd have the patience or attention span for it today, though. I don't remember the butterfly catching at all.

Same, idk why but I absolutely loved it back in 2001 and even replaying the HD remaster when it came out, loved it then too.

It's my favorite, too. I played it multiple times and really enjoyed the story. Somehow I didn't realize they remastered it! I wonder how difficult that'd be to find a copy of today.

 

[Disgustipated]

I kinda liked the lightning dodging. I had to restart a few times when I got hit but only within the first dozen strikes or so. It was a bit taxing to pay that much attention for that long but otherwise it was fine. I doubt I'd have the patience or attention span for it today, though. I don't remember the butterfly catching at all.


It's my favorite, too. I played it multiple times and really enjoyed the story. Somehow I didn't realize they remastered it! I wonder how difficult that'd be to find a copy of today.

Not very, it was released for PS4/XB1 as well a few years after the PS3 version. Can also just buy a digital copy. I bought the remaster 3 times, PS3, PSVita and PS4 lol

EDIT: Switch too apparently, which I didn't realize.

 

[Raine]

And PC!

FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster

Two of the greatest RPGs of their generation come to PlayStation®4 system in beautifully remastered graphics and sound. FINAL FANTASY X and FINAL FANTASY X-2, first released on the PlayStation®2 system, are widely acclaimed for their moving stories, endearing characters, and memorable...

store.playstation.com

Buy FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster | Xbox

FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster brings the timeless classics forward to the current generation of fans, old and new alike. Fully immerse yourself in the World of Spira as you enjoy over 100 combined hours of gameplay across the two classic titles.

www.xbox.com

Physically, Vita is the "hardest" to find followed by Xbox. But they're still fairly readily available.

Amazon NSW/PS4/XBO | Amazon PS3/PSV

 

[Kat]

Not very, it was released for PS4/XB1 as well a few years after the PS3 version. Can also just buy a digital copy. I bought the remaster 3 times, PS3, PSVita and PS4 lol

EDIT: Switch too apparently, which I didn't realize.

Oh wow, how did I not know it'd been remade when it's happened so many times? I'll have to pick up the PS4 one.

 

[canadaguy]

Sorry to interject. I tried this one out a few years back, but stalled out at the first blitzball game.

I found blitzball such an atrociously unfun experience that it soured me on the whole game and never went back.

I think someone mentioned that you can actually manage to avoid it mostly if you want, which intrigues me. I'd definitely be interested to try it out again if I can avoid that abomination as much as possible.

 

[Kat]

Sorry to interject. I tried this one out a few years back, but stalled out at the first blitzball game.

I found blitzball such an atrociously unfun experience that it soured me on the whole game and never went back.

I think someone mentioned that you can actually manage to avoid it mostly if you want, which intrigues me. I'd definitely be interested to try it out again if I can avoid that abomination as much as possible.

I think you just have to play that one game and you don't even have to win it. (Maybe there are two and you have to win just the first? I vaguely remember something like that.) There are benefits to playing it more but it can be reasonably avoided IIRC.

 

[Raine]

Yup, there's just the one match against the Luca Goers, which you don't have to win, and then the game treats it entirely as a side-game that you never have to touch again. You can also recruit the various good NPCs and just have it run simulation-style to get the goodies later on without having to actually do anything.

If you don't intend to use Wakka during endgame/post-game, you don't have to worry about Blitzball. And there are alternative methods for making him useful in the handful of fights he's required to be in (read: underwater encounters).

 

[Kat]

I've been playing this again since it was free with PS+, and it's been a mix of pleasant nostalgia and "wtf were these designers thinking?" I definitely didn't notice all the close-ups of women's butts and Lulu showing off her cleavage when I was a kid. (Don't get me wrong, I'm into it. But also yikes.) The worst is all the confirmation dialogs, though. Number of button presses to cancel leaving the sphere grid: one. Number of button presses to get from the main menu back to the sphere grid if you leave on accident: also one. You could use this whole game as any example of how not to use confirmation dialogs. This is the sort of thing they should fix in a remake!

The story is as good as I remember, though. Even if Tidus is a bit of a dunce.

 

[Kat]

Are the primers found in alphabetical order? I found A, B and D so far.

Apparently Al Bhed primer 3 (the C) is found before D, and we both missed it. You can get it later though.

 

[Raine]

I definitely didn't notice all the close-ups of women's butts and Lulu showing off her cleavage when I was a kid.

Oh yeah. Square was, and still is honestly, suuuper bad about how they partake of Male Gaze shenanigans. And treat female characters in general.

Bonus (this is further along than you are turkey, don't click!): Rikku is 15 and this is how they (re)introduce her

The worst is all the confirmation dialogs, though. Number of button presses to cancel leaving the sphere grid: one. Number of button presses to get from the main menu back to the sphere grid if you leave on accident: also one. You could use this whole game as any example of how not to use confirmation dialogs. This is the sort of thing they should fix in a remake!

More recent entries are even worse about the number of button presses it takes to do basic actions. So, if anything, not updating the game itself was probably the better route.

 

[turkey]

I've been playing this again since it was free with PS+, and it's been a mix of pleasant nostalgia and "wtf were these designers thinking?" I definitely didn't notice all the close-ups of women's butts and Lulu showing off her cleavage when I was a kid. (Don't get me wrong, I'm into it. But also yikes.) The worst is all the confirmation dialogs, though. Number of button presses to cancel leaving the sphere grid: one. Number of button presses to get from the main menu back to the sphere grid if you leave on accident: also one. You could use this whole game as any example of how not to use confirmation dialogs. This is the sort of thing they should fix in a remake!

The story is as good as I remember, though. Even if Tidus is a bit of a dunce.

I click myself out of the sphere menu so much.

I missed the butts but lulu cleavage is nonstop. My kid is only 6 so I haven’t gotten any comments when he’s watched.

I’m only at the part with the chocobo rides… haven’t had time to advance in the last couple days.

 

[MrDawn]

Anything I should look out for? I’m playing the standard grid. I’m also assuming I’ll be sinking a lot of time into blitz ball. I’ll be playing relatively blind aside from what I’m told here or from random posts I read throughout the years.

You've done something correct already. Always go with the standard sphere grid and not the expert one.

Be sure to consistently use Lulu. She's a heavy hitter and extremely useful.