I was thinking of making this thread for a while but wanted to be sure I wasn't misjudging the game so I said I'd wait until I played the whole game through. I just finished X for the first time and I really liked it and can see why it's a lot of people's favourite Final Fantasy.
But something that was bugging me throughout was whether on its initial release it was attacked for being so linear. Don't get me wrong it's not really something I mind, in fact honestly I find most RPGs and JRPGs quite daunting lately as someone that is working 2 jobs and often 6 day weeks and has to spend about 3-4 hours on each of those days commuting, so having something more direct with less filler is actually almost like a breath of fresh air for me as someone that might only have a few hours of gaming free a week. But (personally, at least) I've never really seen people discussing whether they liked this or not about the game and XIII's similarity to it with regard to its linearity. X has more towns than XIII no question, but even then I felt a lot of those were really small and didn't have much to them apart from simply being places to shop and rest. But I just wondered if X was slated when it came out because it didn't have the freedom that the likes of VIII had, or because it doesn't have places like Treno in it to explore. I know it has the airship towards the end which makes things feel a bit more open but it's pretty much just there for going back to places you've been to already. XIII was my first FF game but since then I've gone on to play all of IV to IX (and now X rounds that off as I don't really have a huge interest in I-III unless I should be convinced otherwise) so I can see the faults that XIII has pretty clearly but I guess I'm just more surprised at why people reacted so angrily about that aspect of XIII. Did Square promise or show off the game as something different?
Anyway I did really enjoy the game. I already knew a couple of tracks (mainly Wandering Flame after seeing it posted in a thread years back about relaxing music) although I avoided ones like To Zanarkand because I wanted to hear it for the first time in game (and yes I used the original OST, I remember the furore over that with the PS3 remaster), but those better tracks in the game like Suteki Da Ne and To Zanarkand really are wonderful. I had parts of the story spoiled years ago as well but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and I actually liked the whole cast which is not something I'd be able to say often. The sphere grid system confused me a little at first but I realised it's not really complicated, although I still can't say I used it to its fullest. The battle system was solid, and although trying to even out the AP everyone got in each battle was a little tiring (I swapped everyone into most battles) it was great to not have to pick a select few to use and the rest to ignore unless I wanted to spend hours upon hours grinding. I was considering doing some of the side content but I've read a lot of it requires a lot of grinding and I wasn't exactly in a great place as I got towards the end so I think I'll leave it (only just got Ultima right before the final boss fight and used a friend sphere to give it to Yuna too, without that I wasn't finishing this game any time soon). Although I've seen most people shitting on it, I think I will at the very least give X-2 a try, I've seen some (not many, mind you) praise its dungeons and other aspects of its battle system.
But something that was bugging me throughout was whether on its initial release it was attacked for being so linear. Don't get me wrong it's not really something I mind, in fact honestly I find most RPGs and JRPGs quite daunting lately as someone that is working 2 jobs and often 6 day weeks and has to spend about 3-4 hours on each of those days commuting, so having something more direct with less filler is actually almost like a breath of fresh air for me as someone that might only have a few hours of gaming free a week. But (personally, at least) I've never really seen people discussing whether they liked this or not about the game and XIII's similarity to it with regard to its linearity. X has more towns than XIII no question, but even then I felt a lot of those were really small and didn't have much to them apart from simply being places to shop and rest. But I just wondered if X was slated when it came out because it didn't have the freedom that the likes of VIII had, or because it doesn't have places like Treno in it to explore. I know it has the airship towards the end which makes things feel a bit more open but it's pretty much just there for going back to places you've been to already. XIII was my first FF game but since then I've gone on to play all of IV to IX (and now X rounds that off as I don't really have a huge interest in I-III unless I should be convinced otherwise) so I can see the faults that XIII has pretty clearly but I guess I'm just more surprised at why people reacted so angrily about that aspect of XIII. Did Square promise or show off the game as something different?
Anyway I did really enjoy the game. I already knew a couple of tracks (mainly Wandering Flame after seeing it posted in a thread years back about relaxing music) although I avoided ones like To Zanarkand because I wanted to hear it for the first time in game (and yes I used the original OST, I remember the furore over that with the PS3 remaster), but those better tracks in the game like Suteki Da Ne and To Zanarkand really are wonderful. I had parts of the story spoiled years ago as well but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and I actually liked the whole cast which is not something I'd be able to say often. The sphere grid system confused me a little at first but I realised it's not really complicated, although I still can't say I used it to its fullest. The battle system was solid, and although trying to even out the AP everyone got in each battle was a little tiring (I swapped everyone into most battles) it was great to not have to pick a select few to use and the rest to ignore unless I wanted to spend hours upon hours grinding. I was considering doing some of the side content but I've read a lot of it requires a lot of grinding and I wasn't exactly in a great place as I got towards the end so I think I'll leave it (only just got Ultima right before the final boss fight and used a friend sphere to give it to Yuna too, without that I wasn't finishing this game any time soon). Although I've seen most people shitting on it, I think I will at the very least give X-2 a try, I've seen some (not many, mind you) praise its dungeons and other aspects of its battle system.