Title	Platform/Version	Time to Beat	Achiev %
Final Fantasy X	PC (HD Remaster)	56 Hours	100%

Intro – And That, as They Say, is That.

Final Fantasy X was originally released in late 2001 for the Sony PlayStation 2 and is the first of what many consider to be the “modern” Final Fantasy games, with a fully realized 3D world, high definition textures, and an entirely voice acted main story. FFX marked a significant change for the series, with a return to the Tetsuya Nomura style art direction that had been seen in Final Fantasy VII and VIII, and a tremendous increase in overall quality across the board. While the series was already considered royalty in the gaming sphere, FFX was in many ways the first entry that felt like a triple AAA title through-and-through. Whether you love or hate aspects of the game, there’s no arguing that the vision and polish put into every aspect of FFX was unprecedented for 2001.

To accomplish this, the creative team was significantly expanded, particularly in the music and sound design department. Nobuo Uematsu, the sole composer of entries I-IX, returned as Musical Director, but this time also had two junior composers under his wing: Masashi Hamauzu, known for his work on Saga Frontier 2, and Junya Nakano, who had done several smaller projects for Square throughout the 90’s. While Uematsu still contributed roughly half of the tracks to the final OST, the work of these juniors, particularly Hamauzu, gave the game a completely different audio texture than previous entries. Uematsu is a legend in the industry, often compared to John Williams in film for his use of recurring motif and bombastic orchestral themes, however Hamauzu’s blend of layered synths with classical piano gave his pieces (primarily atmospheric location themes) a very specific and powerful identity, lending the world that FFX takes place in an evocative and unique sound-feel.

Hamauzu’s work on this entry was so profound that it would lead to him getting the nod as the primary composer for Final Fantasy XIII eight years later, a soundtrack that is often overlooked due to other issues with that particular games’ release but on revisiting is just as poignant and evocative as his work on FFX. Recently, Hamauzu had the opportunity to work with Uematsu again as they both contributed to the composition of the OST for Final Fantasy VII: Remake, a poetic nod to the two men that were almost exclusively responsible for what Final Fantasy sounded like for the 20 years between 1988 and 2008.

Whimsical vs Cinematic

Final Fantasy X is incredibly cinematic, almost to a fault. The game takes a linear path through a series of events that leads straight to its dramatic conclusion. Mini-games, side quests, and extra content that often litters nooks and crannies of a world-to-be-explored in previous entries were instead organically built into the locations visited in the main narrative. Gone is the transition to an “overworld” map, and even the airship the party gets at the end of the game merely presents a list of locations to which they can fly, instead of giving the player the ability to actually pilot and explore the world of Spira. This focus on forward narrative progression gives FFX a tremendous clarity of purpose. Everything is in service of the tale being told here in a way that had never been truly explored before in the series. The team at Square went all-in, for better and for worse depending on your stomach for the story in question.

The Gameplay

This game is such a standout for me in the series, as it’s an example of the team making some brash decisions and taking enormous risks, and validating those decisions with well-thought-out and effective gameplay systems. FFX went the route of FFII and FFVIII by eschewing a standard leveling system, but unlike those two entries, this outing was a tremendous success. Characters gain levels infinitely in FFX, but instead of gaining arbitrary stat increases, they instead are allowed to “travel” along the Sphere Grid, which is a giant map with nodes that represent not only stats, but spells and abilities that your character can learn. Each character starts in an area of the Sphere Grid that is themed after one of the classic Jobs: Yuna’s nearby nodes are devoted to White Magic, Lulu’s to Black Magic, Rikku’s to Thief abilities like Steal and Mug. As you progress, there are opportunities to move around on the board and customize your characters in a way that feels both finely orchestrated and also free-form at the same time. There aren’t too many mistakes to make here, and pretty much any path across the Sphere Grid you take with your characters will result in a party who can complete the story.

The game does feature some extra hard end game content, which is to be expected for a Final Fantasy game, and to overcome that content requires the player to pretty much complete the sphere grid for every character, thus nullifying the agency felt earlier in the game in exchange for raw power. Your characters all have max stats and know all the abilities and spells of the game, but the game wisely puts you up against challenges that leverage this. Super bosses immune to physical damage, for example, just mean you have to use the spells you’ve learned instead of attacks. It’s well done and never feels cheap. I have small issues with the QOL of the Sphere Grid (in particular just how slow it is to traverse, I spent about 7 hours of my playthrough JUST navigating the grid to complete it at the end of the game) but in general, it’s fresh and exciting and gives that perfect balance of creativity and balance that earlier games had attempted to implement but always seemed unable to reach.

The Story

On why we have belief systems and facing truths even if they are lies

First, I wanted to lead with a brief exploration into the narrative themes being told in FFX. Spira is a world governed by death, with heavy symbolism being presented consistently throughout its main narrative. 1000 years ago, there was a war between magic and machine, leading to the death of almost every living being on Spira, and leading to the inception of Sin.

Sin is clearly a borrowing of the iconic demon that is Moby Dick, the white whale, the ever-present but unknowable force of nature that represents the chaos and impermanence of life. Sin comes and goes, showing up whenever the people of the world use machinery or congregate in large numbers, and wreaks havoc. Portrayed as quite literally a kaiju with the appearance of a white whale, Sin is invincible, unstoppable, and acts in ways that cannot be easily predicted. The only way to stop Sin is for a Summoner to go on a pilgrimage and, through sheer tenacity of their beliefs, learn to call upon The Final Aeon. In casting this spell, the Summoner and their Guardian pay with their lives to kill SIn, bringing respite to the people of Spira, “The Calm”. But The Calm doesn’t last. Despite numerous victories (and sacrifices) over the last 1000 years, Sin always returns. And thus is the cycle of death on Spira.

Our story is about a cast of characters that are all going on one of these pilgrimages. Our main character is Tidus, a 17-year-old kid who was whisked away from his home, Zanarkand, when Sin attacked it… 1000 years ago. Lost to time and with no way to get back home, he is resolved to see the ruins of his city with his own eyes. Yuna is a young summoner, the daughter of Braska, the last High Summoner who defeated Sin 10 years ago bringing the most recent Calm. Surrounding them is a cast of characters that all join as “guardians” for Yuna, a prestigious but dangerous role in Spira’s society, offering their lives to protect the Summoner along the pilgrimage in hopes of bringing another temporary respite to the people of the world.

The iconic opening of the game, starting in-media-res with the entire party resting in front of some ruins. We get some voiceover from Tidus before we flashback to the proper start of the game.

Tidus is a Blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes. Blitzball is water soccer and it’s like the most 2000’s thing ever.

We get an extended FMV to open the game with Tidus playing in a blitzball game. The match is interrupted by a monstrous water monster attacking Zanarkand.

A long shot of the city of Zanarkand being attacked.

Auron is here and helps Tidus escape the attack of the monster. Auron seems to know a lot about this monster and even gives us its name, “Sin”.

Eventually Sins floating giant butthole sucks up the city, Tidus and Auron along with it.

We awake in Spira and swiftly meet Wakka, a blitzball player for the Besaid Aurochs out training with his team at the beach.

We kick a blitzball at him and he’s very impressed.

Besaid is a beautiful island and it’s a M O O D.

Tidus is just figuring things out and everyone thinks he’s crazy that he’s from Zanarkand, because apparently it was destroyed 1000 years ago. Apparently Sin fucks with people’s memories and can transport people across the world, so everyone just kind of assumes Tidus got too close to Sin.

We are taken to the Temple of Yevon in Besaid and are introduced to the concept of the Summoners Pilgrimage. Wakka is a Guardian for a young Summoner, Yuna, who is currently inside the inner cloister praying.

We make our way inside and meet Yuna’s other Guardians, Lulu and Khimari.

Yuna feebly walks out of the inner cloister, having barely overcome the trial.

Outside of the temple, Yuna summons her first Aeon, Valefor. This scene shows how important Summoners are for the people of Spira. Showing the Aeon as proof of her success on her pilgrimage gives the townspeople hope that she can defeat Sin.

That night, Tidus overhears Lulu and Wakka talking about Wakka’s younger brother, Chappu. Apparently Tidus looks a little like Chappu, who died a year ago in battle against Sin, something that both Wakka and Lulu are still struggling getting over.

The party heads off to the next destination on the Pilgrimage, Kilika.

We fight against the beast and shoot it with harpoons to try to stop it from attacking Kilika (and gives a great nod to the Moby Dick motif)

Unfortunately, Sin still attacks Kilika and kills almost everyone.

Notice the top of the sail looks like a tombstone over the ruins of Kilika. S Y M B O L I S M

Here, Tidus learns of the other important duty of a Summoner: Performing “sending”, which is a necessary act to ferry the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. Apparently if a sending is not performed, the dead will turn to monsters.

This FMV of her performing the sending is 10/10 gorgeous and heartbreaking.

Along the way, we are introduced to the rules of the world through Tidus’ eyes. His life 1000 years ago didn’t involve Sin, he was just a naive boy who played sports and had a rough upbringing. So, as we visit every new locale, we learn more and more about Spira and the politics of the world. We learn of the religious sect of Yevon, which preaches tenants entirely surrounding the atonement for the evils of the past. We meet the disparate races, and the Al Bhed, who are outcasts and nonbelievers who go against Yevon and instead use machinery in their daily lives. We experience the attacks of Sin on the denizens of the world, and even witness first-hand the near obliteration of the city of Kilika.

But most of all we experience young love. Tidus, a boy lost to time, and Yuna, a doomed Summoner who must give her life as sacrifice for the wellbeing of the world, are immediately smitten with one another and dance around the grim reality that their fates have forced upon them. Tidus isn’t aware that the Summoner must die to defeat Sin, and often talks about what they will do “once Sin is defeated”. He’s an optimist with a plucky attitude and wears his heart on his sleeve. Yuna and the rest of her guardians never talk about the sacrifice either, and the justification is one that is dramatically human: They don’t want to acknowledge it, to face it. To say it out loud makes it true. Yuna’s guardians aren’t mercenaries, they are friends. They are loved ones. They are like brothers and sisters to her. They are on this pilgrimage because they care about Yuna, because they want her to succeed, but at the same time, they dread what her success would mean.

Final Fantasy X continues to march you forward towards its dramatic conclusion. One by one, we visit the temples of the world and complete our pilgrimage. And with every step, the energy to take the next is compounded exponentially. The fears, the anxieties, the breaking of hearts as we get ever closer to the final temple are organically felt with each new area. FFX is about melancholy. It’s about not wanting to face the truth, while also being unabashedly beholden to it. It’s about the strength of your convictions, about the weight of one life against many, and about whether losing love is better than having experienced no love at all.

After visiting the temple in Kilika, we head to Luca where a giant blitzball tournament is happening.

As this is the biggest tournament in the world, all of the worlds leaders are here. We meet Seymour, a new maester of Yevon and clearly not a villain. (spoiler alert of course he’s evil I MEAN LOOK AT HIM)

We play water soccer and help Wakka get his first win.

Tidus is very impressed with Luca, as it’s the first city that is anywhere close to his hometown of Zanarkand.

During the tournament, monsters attack and we meet Auron again.

It turns out Auron was a guardian for Yuna’s dad 10 years ago, and is here to help Yuna on her pilgrimage and also kind of look after Tidus. Auron basically plays a babysitter role.

Seymour shows up to save the day and kill the monsters.

And he does so by Summoning his aeon, Anima… which is totally not evil at all.

Anima attacks by screeching in pain as its eye shoots monsters.

Tidus asks Auron a million questions and Auron answers like 0% of them.

Auron officially joins the Pilgrimage, and Tidus is depressed because it’s seeming like he can’t ever go home again.

Yuna picks up on Tidus’ depression and the two of them have a moment where they try to raise each others spirits.

They decide to “force” themselves to laugh, which comes out really cringey (not helped by the early 2000’s voice acting not being great)

Eventually though, their forced laughs turn into real laughter once the absurdity of the moment hits them. It’s a cute scene.

Yuna and Tidus share a moment of respite on their journey and we experience their burgeoning romance.

We stumble across a giant initiative by The Crusaders, a society of volunteers that attempt to battle Sin to keep it away from cities, to finally kill Sin with machina weapons from the Al Bhed.

And of course it doesn’t work and Sin kills fucking everyone. This is important to show just how much an invincible force of nature Sin is.

Yuna performs the sending for the Crusaders who died, while Tidus gets lost in his thoughts, consumed by grief. “When will she stop dancing?” is such a pure human thought to this scene. To handling second hand grief, survivorship guilt, etc.

We visit another temple at Djose and meet Rikku, an Al Bhed who is Yuna’s cousin and joins the party as another Guardian. Then we head to the hometown of the Guado to chat with Seymour.

The Guado are like elves in FFX, and they live in a place where the real world and the afterlife (the farplane) overlap. Humans are able to physically travel to the farplane and we get some beautiful scenes here.

Seymour begins to lay out his plan, referring to the first Summoner to defeat sin hundreds of years ago.

Yep, Seymour wants to marry Yuna. Their marriage, one between a leader of Yevon and a Summoner on her Pilgrimage would bring immense hope and joy to the people of Spira.

We see Yuna speaking with her mother and father, Braska, who was the last Summoner to defeat Sin.

Wakka speaks with Chappu, giving him some element of closure.

Lulu watches on, and we learn that Lulu and Chappu were to be wed before he died to Sin. She too gets closure here.

Tidus and his plucky optimism is usually at odds with Lulu’s grim pragmatism, but this is one of the few times that his comments are well received by her.

The party makes their way to Macalania temple, which means traveling through the Thunder Plains. Yuna is uncertain if she’s going to accept Seymours proposal.

During a brief respite, Yuna breaks it to the party that she has decided to marry Seymour. It’s clear that she doesn’t care for him, but she has other plans that she doesn’t immediately reveal.

Tidus often speaks directly to the player through his inner thoughts, which gives us a tremendous view into who he really is.

Every so often, we get this reminder that Tidus is a man out of time and has nobody on Spira, no friends, no family, only Yuna and her guardians.

Auron pulls Tidus aside and gives some insight to the boy about who Yuna is.

As we reach the third act, the world crumbles around us and every belief system is challenged. Tidus isn’t from 1000 years ago, Sin isn’t just a monster, one of our fellow guardians (and pseudo-father figure for the party) has been avoiding telling us the whole truth, and the foundations of the Yevon religion are in fact found to be based entirely on assumptions by a populace that simply didn’t know the truth. And yet the spiral of death continues as the party continues to push against all odds just to bring a lasting peace to the people of Spira.

And then, at the end, the game does something incredible: It keeps all of its themes intact but rotates the stakes around in a very poetic way. We go from Tidus being naive and hopeful despite learning that his love with Yuna is temporary if she hopes to succeed, to now facing the opposite reality: For the party to truly succeed, to bring an end to all of this suffering, to kill Sin forever, Yuna will live but Tidus won’t. Our characters are placed in each other’s shoes and have to fill the role of offering support to one another, of finding acceptance with these terrible truths for the greater good. It’s damned poetic, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s beautiful in a way that transcends the medium.

It turns out that Yuna had access to a recording from Seymours father, Jyscal, revealing Seymour for who he really is: a villain!

We run into Seymour at Macalania temple and attempt to put him down.

Yuna summons Shiva to battle Seymour and his Aeon, Anima.

And are immediately marked as heretics for attacking a leader of the Yevon church.

Luckily Sin shows up and with his Sin powers (which are always a little vague and ambiguous) he whisks us away to a desert across the world.

After making our way through the desert, we find the Al Bhed “home”, which is being attacked by Yevon because the Al Bhed are unbelievers who use machinery, which aggravates Sin.

We FINALLY meet this games’ version of Cid. He’s the leader of the Al Bhed, Rikku’s Father, and Yuna’s Uncle.

Rikku explains that the Al Bhed are on a mission to stop the summoners, because it isn’t right for them to sacrifice themselves to defeat Sin. This is the first time that Tidus learns that Yuna will have to die for Sin to be defeated.

Wakka lays down some grim realities for everyone. They all knew what they were getting into, and this is the path that Yuna wants to walk.

Tidus has a full on breakdown here. All of these feelings, the hesitation between him and Yuna, Seymour and his marriage proposal, it all comes crashing down.

Cid tries to talk the party out of rescuing Yuna from Seymour just to have her complete the Pilgrimage.

We use Cid’s airship to go rescue Yuna from Seymour and the Guado

And it turns out we’re too late, they’ve already begun the wedding.

This entire segment of the game is cinematic and beautiful, as we swoop in and disrupt the wedding to save Yuna.

It’s not the early 2000’s if people aren’t GRINDING on everything. This. is. not. how. shoes. work.

The party almost succeeds before being held at gunpoint. Which is legitimate. Guns beat swords.

Yuna realizes she’s not just a victim, she holds the power here.

Seymour thinks he’s got it all figured out.

Midair she summons her first aeon, Valefor, to catch her and escape. Once again, the FMVs here are #chefskiss

In our bid to escape, we confront Seymour again where he finally villain monologues his plan. He wants to go to Zanarkand which is where the final temple in the Pilgrimage is.

He wants to be Yuna’s guardian, to die with her, and then merge with Sin.

So he can destroy the world. To “save it”. Of course. OF COURSE.

After our escape from Seymours clutches, Tidus finally gets a moment to catch up with Yuna. Her faith is shaken, and he’s still reeling from learning that she must die to defeat Sin.

This is the most important scene in the game, and it pulls on my heartstrings every time. The writing is good, because what they are saying out loud is not what they are REALLY saying. This is two young lovers who are facing reality and avoiding it by talking about everything else they COULD do.

Yuna is the first to break. To cut to the truth. They both knew she’d never stop her pilgrimage. They both knew that her destiny is to defeat sin and she’d stop at nothing to do it.

Yuna is an incredibly strongly written character, who always puts forward a face of determination and resolve. This is the one moment where everything comes to a head and she shows weakness, allowing her true emotions to pour out of her.

And Tidus accepts it. He consoles her and accepts her. He doesn’t plead with her to change her mind, and he doesn’t let his own grief get in the way of helping her through her own.

Yuna brings the scene to a close with a statement of the truth in case the audience missed it. If she abandoned her Pilgrimage to be with Tidus, she’d never live down the regret. Allowing Sin to continue to kill would weight too heavily on her.

So she asks him instead to come with her. Until the end. To be with her for as long as they can, fully knowing that it must end.

So much of what makes FFX enjoyable is the little details, the drip feeding of all of the truths (and all of the lies), and how the player is learning and adapting to each reveal at the same time as the characters on screen. While FFX is over 20 years old and the idea of entirely avoiding spoilers is out the window, I am preserving most of what moved me here because I wholeheartedly recommend playing this game for yourself if you haven’t and giving yourself the opportunity to really experience it first-hand.

Extras & Achievements

So, just because the game is very narratively focused and lacks open-world exploration, doesn’t mean it isn’t loaded with extra content. FFX has a very satisfying end game and optional layer that will easily add 10-20 hours of content even with the HD Remasters 2x and 4x speed modes.

Celestial Weapons
- Each character has an ultimate weapon that can be found by interacting with the world in different ways. Most are tied to the numerous other optional end game content.
Optional Dungeons
- Shrine of the Stolen Fayth – Optional dungeon that is available as the player moves through the Calm Lands. Optional Aeon Yojimbo is available here.
- Omega Ruins – Optional dungeon available at the end of the game, requires the airship. Has an optional super boss and the hardest enemies in the game.
Super Bosses
- The Dark Aeons
  - Every Aeon has a “dark” variant that is super difficult and available to find and kill at the end of the game. Killing them all unlocks…
- Penance
  - Penance is the hardest foe in the game and is a tremendous challenge even if the party has completed the entire Sphere Grid with optimal nodes.
- Nemesis
  - Nemesis is a superboss that is second only to Penance, and requires capturing 10 of every enemy in the game as a part of the Crusaders Hunting Lodge side quest.
Blitzball
- It’s water soccer, and it’s AWESOME. Blitzball plays a little bit like Bloodbowl if you’ve ever seen that. It’s basically soccer, in the water, but with RPG and turn based mechanics. The main story has a Blitzball Tournament that takes place in Luca, but then you unlock the minigame as a whole. You can play in tournaments for prizes, and there’s also a “league” that takes place over ten games.
- Additionally, you can customize your team with NPCs from all over the world. You can walk up to any npc and press Square to see if they will play blitzball for you. The players level up, and as the league progresses, players are offered better contracts with different teams, so the league adapts and evolves over time. Additionally, if there’s a player on another team that keeps beating your team, you can wait for their contract to expire and try to sign them.
- Blitzball is VERY polarizing, however I fucking love it and always lose many hours to playing it just for the fun of it. It appeals to my love of RPGs, with the intensity of a sport, with the numbers of a Fantasy Football League. Leveling up a woman sailor from Kilika to become the star forward of my team and get the highest goals scored for that season is just so fucking neat.
Chocobo training/racing
- This is fun, but the achievements related to it are painful. It took me about an hour and a half to finish the hardest race at the time required for the achievement. It’s frustrating and legendary among fans of the series as being one of the most RNG dependent minigames. Worst of all, it’s required for Tidus’s Celestial weapon.
Lightning Dodging
- This isn’t as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, but it’s still difficult and exhausting. There’s an area of the game where you can dodge lightning strikes that randomly occur for prizes. The timing is relatively forgiving (within about a quarter of a second), but to get the achievement (and the piece of Lulu’s Celestial weapon) you have to dodge 200 strikes consecutively, something that just ends up being a test of your endurance and consistency more than your skill.
Butterfly Collecting
- Not as bad as the above two, but also frustrating for different reasons. The on-rails camera movements combined with the colors of the butterflies against the background of the forest makes it very hard to be precise in a minigame that requires precision. I was terrible at this as a kid, and I was terrible at it as an adult.

Also, as an aside, I just wanted to add one bit of “extra” content that delighted me on this playthrough. There’s a Macarena reference (yes, THAT Macarena) in the game, and Tidus’ voice actor says “AYE!” sounding just like the singers in the song… and it caught me off guard when I heard it on this playthrough. Never remember hearing this as a kid and it’s so cringey but also beautiful and terrible and amazing all at once.

The Music

I kind of wish I had more time to put together some content for you all on this, as I feel very strongly about the OST for Final Fantasy X, as I alluded to in the Introduction. This topic deserves a 10-20 minute long video with examples of the songs in question, something that I just don’t have the capacity to put together and do justice while still powering through the remaining three entries before XVI’s release in a month and a half. That being said, I wanted to include some of the stand-outs here. I don’t feel the need to champion Uematsu, as his work has already been acknowledged as forever belonging to the pantheon of gaming’s greats. So instead, I just wanted to give some examples of Hamauzu’s work, particularly as I feel like it’s underappreciated and has largely been lost to time.

Besaid Island

The Splendid Performance

Mount Gagazet (Servants of the Mountain)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1susdDMvCq4

Final Fantasy Staples Introduced

(Please note that this is not supposed to be an exhaustive list, just those things that I personally noticed and took note of during my playthrough)

First game to get an official sequel (even though FF7 did get sequels/prequels, they all happened after FFX-2)
First game in the series with a fully rendered 3D world. (Still a lot of usage of pre-rendered backgrounds, but most environments are either a mix or entirely textures on 3D objects, which is the modern way of rendering scenes in-game)
First game in the series with voice acting.
First game with widely available HP/Damage cap over 9999. (FFVIII featured some very limited examples of this, and other games sometimes recognized damage over 9999 but didn’t show it on screen, but this is the first one where at end game, your entire team was doing 99,999 damage on attacks and had over 9999 hp)

Final Thoughts & Score

I first played Final Fantasy X when I was 16 years old. While Tidus and Yuna are near that age (17), the story being told is one whose themes and motifs require a fuller understanding of life than any of us have as a teenager. We experience the youthful naiveté of these characters, dealing with their whiny frustrations in the face of the responsibilities that have been placed upon them, but the real message is in what isn’t said. It’s in the silences, the wistful moments of the guardians around the two main characters, and the truths that are known by all but acknowledged by none. These are all incredibly human and intimate things.

Poetry is a format through which a collection of words can convey ideas that are more than the individual meanings of each word. A whole that is more than its combined parts.

In this way, FFX tells a story that is deeply poetic. The entire experience is polished, the vision is consistent, and everything in the game is purpose-built to facilitate its narrative. While the experience is not perfect, particularly with some distracting artistic decisions with the characters and inconsistent voice acting, these are mere blemishes easily hidden beneath a veneer of something absolutely wonderful. This playthrough of FFX impacted me greatly in ways that it didn’t as a teen. It touched me and moved me, filling me with incredible melancholy and love. What an experience.