onsdag 1 december 2021

Final Fantasy X HD Remastered (Switch)

April 16 2019? Maybe was time that I actually played this (2021-03-20 as of writing)

So I got Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Collection again, but this time for switch, so I had to play it. And I still like it. I like the story, the graphics are cozy nostalgic for me and the music is heavenly. I noticed I never wrote about the story last time which is a bit uncharacteristic for me since I usually focus on that. Glad I can fix that right now? Basically it's about the blitzball (some kind of water polo sport) player Tidus from Zanarkand that during the cup honoring his fathers Jechts disappearance ten years earlier (he himself a famous blitzball player) the city is attacked by the monster Sin and together with his father's friend Auron is transported to the land of Spira. In Spira Tidus learns that Zanarkand was destroyed 1 000 years ago in a war between Bevelle and Zanarkand and after that Sin appeared. His father also ended up in Spira 10 years ago and journeyed with the High-Summoner Braska and sir Auron on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin and they succeeded, but Sin is back again. 

Tidus joins up with Braska's daughter the summoner Yuna and her guardians Khimari, a ronso blue mage, Wakka, a blitzball captain and Lulu the black mage. On their journey they meet up with Auron again and Rikku the Al-Bhed thief. On their journeys they meet the maester Seymour Guado of Yevon (pretty much the church of Spira that gives hope to the people by claiming that if people atone for their sins, using machines and all that, Sin will never return when the summoners bring the Calm) who intends to kill Sin and become it in order to destroy all of Spira so that all can be free of death... a psychopath is what he is. The church is corrupt and just perpetuates the status quo, even being led by an unsent Maester Maika (unsent being a person that died and haven't been sent by a summoner to the Farplane, and if they aren't sent they can turn into fiends). At the same time the Al-Bheds are kidnapping summoners in order to save them since the Final Summoning they uses to destroy Sin will kill the Summoner. 

Turns out that the Final Summoning must be created by sacrificing one of the guardians. Also, the Final Summoning destroys Sin but is doomed to become Sin since the entity inside Sin, Yu Yevon was a summoner of Zanarkand that as the city was destroyed 1 000 years ago put up the Fayths the summoner prays to recieve different Aeons (summons) by using the survivors from the city, and most of them was used to summon Zanarkand in a dream world so it would become eternal. And since Tidus is from there he is a dream given life by the Fayths since they are tired after 1 000 years and want's to end it. Meanwhile Auron lost his life after Braska destroyed Sin so he has walked around unsent to stop the spiral of death by masterminding everything together with Jecht who become Braska's Final Summoning. Tidus and the gang blasts into Sin by using machines that Al-Bhed have salvaged, like an airship. 

Also you fight Seymour 4 times, the last inside Sin before fighting Jecht as the final summoning and then Yu Yevon, which you can't loose since you have auto-life granted. Nice with a boss that isn't that hard. It's more for story purposes. Yuna sends Auron and Tidus disappears as the Fayths are dying since Yu Yevon isn't summoning anymore.

I finished it 2-3 times, played to the end some 2 more times and I love it more and more. I recall some complaining that Tidus steals what is actually Yuna's story, and on one hand they are right. He hardly actually effects the story in any meaningful way other than actually question how the world works. But on the other hand, it's about Tidus and his strained relations with his father Jecht who always towered over him. He was a drunk, belittled him and his mother didn't look twice at him when his father was around. Until he ended up in Spira and tried to get home, and had to confront his behaviour. Jecht stopped drinking after hurting an innocent beast while drunk that forced Auron and Braska to pay for the damages. And as he realised he couldn't get home whenever he talked about Tidus he almost teared up. Which makes it so sad when he chooses to be the summoning, since he has nothing in Spira. And the music, the Hymn of the Fayth in every incarnation in the game sounds amazing. Auron's theme is fantastic and the assault song as they go for the wedding scene is thrilling, they even used it on the trailer timing it with the cannons from operation Mi'hen going off. And since I never got there as a kid I'm always entranced by Seymour's last battle theme. And the voice acting... I like it? One of the first (almost) full voice acted games I played. And good voices. 

Now, I only played it for 60 hours and only got 3 fully upgraded Celestial Weapons, but I got all summons and Al-Bhed primer. I pretty much sat with a guide by my side so that I could know when to go to Besaid before the Dark Aeon appeared and all that. Got a no encounter weapon that made the end game so much easier. So I checked up on my save on the PS3. I played that for 90 hours, got 4-5 celestial weapon fully upgraded (missing Lulu's that I got this time around thanks to the no encounter weapon). I even defeated the Dark Aeon at Besaid since I got all the Jecht spehere's (I got the trophy to support it), but I have to replay the game since I missed some primers at the Al-Bhed Home. I was actually thinking that if I ever wanted to play it again I might do it on the PS3 since it has the trophies, but since I got the ones I got and frankly the controls are better on the Switch (used a pro controller). I think it has to do that the right stick feels like a walking stick compared to the PS3, it's even placed more naturally above the d-pad. Also I imported a cartridge with both games on it, screw that with only giving 1 game and then download the other. At least not as bad as Capcom who gave you the smaller game (by a lot) and got you to download the 23 GB game to play it.

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