The game should have started right here, with this exact shot, and filled in the rest as needed. Besaid is beautiful and a place I care about immediately, with a strong sense of purpose and identity. Discovering how Tidus ended up on the beach is a great inciting incident.
I'm not gonna lie, I was immediately compelled by a group of people sitting sitting around a campfire in a destroyed city and a twink with weird pants asking me to listen to his story because it may be their last chance. One of the most memorable video game openings I can think of.
I also quite like that particular part.
That’s a solid 60 seconds in the first 90 minutes. If it had started with that and then cut to Tidus floating in the waters at Besaid, it could be a winner. It’s just the stuff in between that’s so bloated with nonsense.
The mystery of what's happening in Zanarkand, who Auron is, and why Tidus just got sucked up the Sinhole is more compelling than him just waking up in Besaid to me. It's establishes so many parts of the world that I'm curious about and puts me in Tidus's shoes because I'm as confused as him.
I'm with you. Besides, actually seeing Tidus in Zanarkand is a big part of why the later revelations hit so hard. It lets us fully embody his outsider status, because we understand Tidus and what his life was, and how alien and weird Spira is to him.
The stuff in between Zanarkand and Besaid really build up a sense of aimless despair that gets suddenly lifted by the Besaid stuff. Meeting the Al Bhed and getting our own opinion of them before we're told what Yevon thinks of them is important, too. The game would genuinely lose a lot without it.
I mostly got right away, "Okay, main character is sports ball player, can't live up to expectations set by Dad who was also sports ball player who is just gone for some reason, hey, why a monster suddenly?" I was also 15-years-old when it first released and thought the song Otherworld was hardcore.
That opening sequence is seared into my brain and remains rad as hell, even if Otherworld itself is a questionable song
When Uematsu went back with his first rock back Black Mages and re-recorded it as a surfer/prog rock song with melodic female vocals, I think the first time I heard it I actively rejected it, but I think I've softened on it a bit in the years since. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNr...
so, you didn't give up on it
I'll always have a soft spot for the original version of Otherworld just for being my first exposure to metal outside of what little metal played on the classic rock radio stations my dad always had on in the car.
Black Mages was an interesting take on a few of the songs(hearing The Skies above with vocals is an interesting thing to behold) - but I really like this track more than I probably should? Very much for the same reasons you likely did. NB: I still think Dancing Mad on here is the standout track.
I do still go back to Dancing Mad on that album! But sometimes I wonder if they didn't perfect Dancing Mad when Uematsu made his SECOND rock band, the Earthbound Papas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PpV...
This is the first time I've heard of Earthbound Papas - and now I wish I knew they existed sooner. I can see what you mean. It feels like what was done in The Black Mages was a build up to what is crafted in this version, and it captures those same beats so well. His Magnum Opus indeed.
While I prefer the Distant Worlds and Pixel Remaster versions, this one still goes hard
I saw them perform it at Distant Worlds earlier this year and definitely enjoyed that performance. But I also saw the Earthbound Papas perform this version, and I think that was the more exciting Dancing Mad experience of the two for sure.
X is not my absolute favorite (that's IX for me), but I think by the end of it I found I had really enjoyed it. But I guess when I was 15, I was also really easy to please, and I genuinely thought Squaresoft could do no wrong. If I'd played much later, I likely would have felt differently.
I never really vibed with IX. I respect it, but X always hit for me more. I think it's a combination of that cast + aesthetic + church bad + the idea that sometimes you gotta burn the old world down for a shot at building something better, even if you don't know if it will work.
The intro segment does let players see Zanarkand however, which is relevant (albeit 30 hours later).
This is exactly my point, though. There’s no reason it needs to be in the intro. Tidus waking up on the beach and telling Wakka he plays for the Zanarkand Abes and then getting laughed at is the perfect point to introduce that conflict. Show a brief flashback of Tidus playing Blitzball there.
I would personally rather see if than have Tidus describe it or have a flashback. Open some curiousity gaps, let me wonder about stuff, and then I get to go to Besaid and see what's going on. Stranger in a Strange Land as a setup only works if we get why it's strange.
I’m glad it works for you. I think it’s a mess.
Hey, to each their own, right? But that's the beauty of Final Fantasy. It's never any one thing. It always swings big and tries to be true to itself.
... That could work, yeah.
So I'm going to half agree with you. I think the very beginning with Blitzball, Auron and being swept up works really well and gets you intrigued to keep going. I think then having a Rikku segment before Tidus is washed away AGAIN is completely unnecessary and pointless.
I've absolutely DNFed and dropped books that start this sort of way - *Plot concept 1, then sudden shift to Plot concept 2 then sudden shift to Plot 3*. I think for FFX it is helped by this being a game, so you at least get to play and aren't just reading. But I think the problem is Rikkku's part
Yeah. Maybe they could have cut the original Zanarkand bit into pieces so it’s not like an hour long right out the gate, but the Rikku bit in particular is just… why put this here
Oh, yeah, that part is an absolute auto-cut. And, to be fair, I've had no one disagree with me about that. Haha
I feel like it must have been some kind of carry-over from earlier in the dev process. Like this was their gameplay demo and they just kept it around for some reason.
It does kind of feel like a gameplay demo yes.
It does feel like a vertical slice demo, doesn't it?
Yeah, I could live with the blitzball stuff, but adding the Rikku stuff on top of it is just so bad.
It feels like to me there was a first draft where Tidus is with Rikku for a longer stretch of the beginning game that was then cut. Otherwise I don't get looping her in there. Have Tidus meet her later in a couple of places he's on his own, so he can then be familiar with her when she joins!
(Maybe there's a draft where Rikku and the Al Byed take Tidus with them to Besaid before dropping him off because they can't help him farther and think someone else can there? It'd make much more sense)
Also, why have Tidus appear so close to Seymour's mother and then not really do anything with that? (Unless I'm forgetting or missed something.)
Tempted to agree but there's so much flashing back to the braska/jecht/auron pilgrimage that they'd have to juggle multiple flashback plots.
Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ll have to see how that might fit together once I get to that part. The story is just a structural mess.
The OG soundtrack is so perfect I couldn’t play with the remastered version, would be too distracting to me. This and modding the fugly character 3D models would be mandatory to get me to play this version..
There's so few games that have such a beautifully rendered Southeast Asia inspired setting, and it rests so firmly in my heart.
Baten Kaitos is such a great game. I really should pick up that remaster and play through it again...
Good idea! Honestly the improved performance on the remaster makes a big difference, too!
Still gotta play this one
I *almost* chose the BK remake instead of FFX, haha.
Honestly right now is an amazing time for FFX. Is fitting.
Easily the worst character designs and terrible fashion, in a JRPG, second only to TWEWY, which is REALLY saying something
Oh, don't you wait, I'm taking screenshots and will GET there soon.
I assume ps 2 graphics limitations and lack of time for designing other outfits. Nowadays you’d have like 20 different cosmetics to change tidus into, 7 of which are dlc
(Altho they did figure out outfits by the game’s unnecessary sequel and then some lol)
Real answer: modeling and skinning clothes takes a lot of work
Oh, yeah, for sure, but he also plays Blitzball in the same outfit, so if you're going to design one costume for someone, it should... probably be a reasonable costume for the activity he's best known for.
They never figured out how you're supposed to breathe during Blitzball and you want them to think about uniforms?! 😂
At least two of Clair Obscur's songs are quite inspired by FFX. "To Zanarkand" especially resonates. The overall vibes of their beautiful dying worlds are similar.
I have this soundtrack and this song is in a crazy amount of my playlist ;) This, the Song of Prayer, and Too Zanarkand have found their way into my daily listening.
Not even a little bit.
Amazing, even final fantasy is trying to copy clair obscur now
FFX has some incredible worldbuilding just from little details like that, yeah.
FF9 - This is Evil FFX - This is Fine
Truth.
According to the Al Bhed primers, “Aidan is wrong about Final Fantasy X” translates to “Final Fantasy X was my first RPG.”
I can respect your right to be wrong about the sick af intro section of FFX. The mysteries it sets up were so wild and felt especially fresh after the straightforward intro of FF9.
I will note that I get where you're coming from and my first RPG was Final Fantasy on the NES.
What mysteries? The boss shows up, destroys the protag’s village, and the protag goes on an adventure is *the* most basic RPG plot. They sacrifice so much potential character/worldbuilding for conflict that would have worked far better at later points in the game.
Contrast that against an opening where the protagonist has to kidnap a princess, and uses an elaborate theatre troupe to do it, only to end up being used in turn by the princess who WANTS to be kidnapped. There’s so much character tension there!
Don't get me wrong; I loved FF9's intro and still prefer it. It gets you so invested in the charming world. But I think FFX is a very different game from FF9, and they sought to go bombastic in a way more akin to FFVIII. FFX's intro, with solemn grief contrasted with watery rock mayhem, is bizarre.
ok like, I don't really *agree* with you on all your assessments but I do understand why you're coming to them all (not near my first RPG but I do like it, and more as I'm older and my annoyance with Tidus has given way to understanding just the hardcore bleakness of this setting)
Wakka chucking his basketball at Sin while Lulu does all the work feels like a metaphor for something.
Some more thoughts here on Final Fantasy X's opening and how it compares to Clair Obscur, which shares MANY narrative elements. It's fully of Clair Obscur spoilers, so I didn't want to drop it in this thread directly.
Moment also kills in the ffx kabuki play m.youtube.com/watch?v=rs3k...
This part made my religious mother uncomfortable, and of course she walked in at that exact moment.
But don’t even get me started on the awful costume design in this game.
Actually I have several notes but they're all nitpicky worldbuilding questions (how did they get shrouds onto those corpses?? Being the big one) and the scene is so beautiful that I don't REALLY care about them
Comments are wild for a fairly tame opinion on a 20 year old PS2 game 😂
regret to inform you that FFXII is now the (almost) 20-year old FF game; FFX can almost rent a car
Wait until they get a load of my hot takes about She's All That.
It's a prediction of their dynamic when they become parents, because the writers couldn't think of anything to do other than force them into a couple that makes no sense and give Lulu a baby that makes even less sense ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY DIDN'T EDIT HER TO LOOK PREGNANT
FFX: spends 90 minutes telling you how amazing Blitzball is Blitzball: is a broken mess
A mess, perhaps, but a beloved mess. I played way too much Blitzball.
💀💀💀
Holy shit.
Clair Obscur is obviously heavily inspired by FFX. Both feature a melancholy plot about a doomed pilgrimage to stop a deity from killing everybody.
Also in both cases you high five* your dad at the end *depending
I don’t mind having an opening bit to establish Zanarkand, but then having another opening bit is just too much without getting to the characters and places that actually endear you to this game.
