This is my first time playing the HD remaster, but I felt like giving the game another try since the last time I played FF X was on the PS2. I walked away with a lot of problems and really ended up hating it for a variety of reasons when I was younger. That said since I grabbed the HD version on a big sale a while back, I finally decided to give it another go to see if time has changed my view on it.
FF X follows Tidus as he becomes a Guardian for Yuna, a Summoner tasked with defeating Sin and bringing The Calm. Tidus claims to come from Zanarkand, a city that was supposedly destroyed over a thousand years ago. Some twists are pretty well known by this point, but I will still avoid them in case you have managed to avoid them all these years and are at all interested in this game.
The Combat
I am of two minds on the game's combat. The use of that sidebar with the turn order, switching party members in and out, and other such factors makes a system that is ripe for strategy and interesting setups and mechanics. There is also the occasional fight with additional environmental commands that can keep fights a little fresh.
The other mind is saying that you are given so much versatility in your strategies to deploy against enemies who have so little, and as a result, it feels like the system goes to waste. You can pretty much always switch in the guy you need to deal with the enemies on screen at the time, and as a result the game quickly turns into feeling like you are just running through the motions the game established at the beginning.
Expert Sphere Grid
One big issue I had with the original was how restrictive the supposedly open Sphere system was. Until the endgame, you are basically locked on a single path. Where this really becomes frustrating is how you level up in the game each time you gain a level, you go to the sphere grid, advance your location, and use spheres to unlock nodes that provide stat boosts and abilities. The problem here is this is no different than leveling up normally, but with extra steps. With a more open grid, this system may have presented options, but here you're just following the path until you get to a point you can actually experiment when you get spheres that open up locked nodes.
The Expert Grid is better, having more paths connected that you can branch out onto and dip into other characters' abilities more easily, but it's not a great fix. You are still going to be following a line most of the time, but there are at least times you can play around more with it. I always get a bit frustrated with systems that aren't as open as they appear at first.
Everything takes so long.
Rather than individually go over Cloister of Trials and late-game content, I'm going to sum it all up and say everything in this game takes so long to do. Dodge 200 lightning bolts in a row, any error or fluke battle you get into restarts the counter, play damn near 100 games of blitz ball, collected anywhere from 30-99 of a single item to enhance a piece of armor with gear, and there is so much stuff like this. It's not particularly hard, much of it isn't engaging (Your experience with Blitzball may vary), and it just drags the length of the game out. This is a problem that exists even in the Sphere grid since you are activating nodes one at a time. The Cloister puzzles feel like they take forever when you are just slowly pushing a pillar, or running back and forth mindlessly with the spheres.
More than anything this is the thing that keeps me from really getting into this game, it just feels like so much of it is designed to pad out the game as much as possible. Yes, I do still have fun with the combat, despite the times it feels like it's dragging, but too much in this game just feels like a chore.
There are a lot of interesting details to the story and world.
Firstly, I actually like that at the center of this story is Blitz-ball. It really helps sell the fact the world lives in constant fear of Sin. It can be a little too on the nose with its messaging at times, but it clearly means a lot to the people of the world to have something that can rally behind even in the dark times between the Calms. I know some people give the game shit for its large focus on a sport in the plot, but it actually adds to it for me.
I also like how Sin himself isn't really some evil plan, it's basically presented as a force of nature the party is having to deal with. It's not unlike Lavos from Chrono Trigger, but with its own take on the idea. Yeah, I think his design is kind of goofy looking, but not enough to really take away from the presence he has in the world.
Visuals are a mixed bag
There are some fantastic designs in this game. The one I really want to highlight is Auron. Even without knowing the motifs behind it, the guy looks like a grizzled badass. Taking into account the motifs, those of a Ronin Samurai, it really adds to how much I appreciate the design.
On the other hand, we have Seymore and Bahamut. Seymore is trying to get himself in the good graces of the people while walking out looking like the evilest man in the world and speaking in a voice that makes me feel as though he is stroking my face as he talks. Then there is that goofy ass hairstyle. He just feels horribly over-designed. And it's hard not to start to notice this in a handful of other prominent designs like Tidus and that weird red mesh thing he has going on on one sleeve and the man purse strapped across his back, to Bahamut looking more like a flamboyant Power Rangers monster than a summon. Overall I think the visuals are great, but the ones I don't like really end up standing out.
Tidus and Seymore Are Kind of Pointless
If you take Tidus out of this story entirely, there is so little you would have to change to keep everything intact. This is a pretty common critique of the game, but your main character is pretty much pointless. To an extent, this applies to Seymore, who acts as an antagonist for a decent portion of the game. In the case of Seymore, I get it. Despite not really having any impact over Sin and his actions, he kind of acts as someone who can poke at your party as well as being a kind of representation of the game's themes. It's just I don't think it was handled well enough to really feel like he needed to be there, in the same way, a character like Takaya from Persona 3, who fulfills a very similar role in that story.
Final Thoughts
I have really softened on this game from my youth. I definitely walked away appreciating more aspects of it than I did when I was younger, and I'm glad I gave it another chance. At the same time, I still don't like it. Far too much of the game feels like it's padding, and everything good about it I feel is dragged down by the aspects of it I don't like. I think it's a good premise that may have gotten bogged down by them being a little overly ambitious with the new hardware of the time.