I have spent ~20 hours playing the HD remake of Final Fantasy X—out today for PS3 and Vita. In short, it's wonderful. Play it.
To try to capture what my experience has been like, here are the notes I took while playing FFX on PS3, presented with no edits whatsoever:
- Wow this game looks great. HD as heck.
- Tidus's face sure is goofy.
- Love this music. GJ Uematsu.
- I forgot how genuinely interesting this world is—I love the concept of a world where demise is always inevitable and everyone's always looking for a distraction. Everything is just so sad.
- How come nobody tells Wakka to stop trying to kill monsters with a fucking soccer ball.
- Couple of technical flaws here. Sometimes the music will pause, voices will skip, etc. Nothing major at all.
- No more jaggies!
- hahaha I forgot that Auron carries around a jug of sake. I'd need alcohol too if I had to travel around the world with Tidus and Yuna.
- Why can't I pause during cut-scenes smh
- This is kind of like Final Fantasy XIII, but good.
- The coolest thing about FFX's combat is that mid-battle party-swapping is a major part of the strategy—instead of just setting up a party and bringing them into battle, you can swap anyone in and out at your discretion, which is really neat.
- The Sphere Grid owns. What a smart idea for a level-up system.
- Can you really poison people in blitzball? I'm starting to suspect that the Spira Blitzball League does not care about player safety.
- Man, everyone always brings up that "HA HA HA HA HA" scene, but really, all the cut-scenes are just as awkward. The transitions are clunky, the editing is terrible, and the camera likes to hang way too long on close-ups of the characters' weird-looking faces.
- Thirteen years later, these sphere puzzles are still bullshit.
- This game really is great though.
I'll be working on a big, meaty review to be published when I've spent more time with FFX and its polarizing sequel, the dress-up sim Final Fantasy X-2. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, if you're wondering whether FFX is worth playing today, the answer is YES. If you've got questions, fire'em below.