Final Fantasy X Community Playthrough

[Jason Tandro]

Holy shit man it's been four days and we're supposed to be over 10 hours into this game??? I even started early and I'm already so far behind

10 Hours to get to Luca??? I'd say more like 6-7 at most and you're not due to be there until the target end date of the 9th. If it makes you feel better I'm still working on 9 so I haven't started yet but I'm gonna jump right in as soon as I'm done and should catch up pretty quick since I know this game like the back of my hand.

 

[Joker]

Spoiler: Chapter 1

Discussion:

• What version of the game are you playing: the original or one of the remasters?
• If you are playing a remaster, which version of the Sphere Grid are you using? How are you finding its progression? If you are playing the original, what do you think about the Sphere Grid in general as a leveling system?
• What do you think about the Cloister of Trial puzzles as a recurring puzzle? Are they too tricky? Too Easy? Just plain annoying?
• What do you think about the drastic shift from the ATB to the CTB system for battles? What about the ability to switch party members on the fly?

- Still running remaster, because I love the international version changes so much!

- Running original sphere grid (I've given my thoughts on expert elsewhere, though tbh the difference in nodes only results in a loss of HP, which, in endgame, is irrelevant). I like Kimahri being able to zip around

- I like the cloisters, but I feel like they're just a touch too easy, which is relatively okay due to you NEEDING to be able to figure it out to get through the dang thing, but even finding the Destruction Spheres is really easy, and that's supposed to be an extra, hidden chest (which ultimately unlocks a hidden aeon).

- I've always said FFX has the best battle system in series, not least because of being able to swap party members. The gameplay feels more smooth and strategic than "hey let's pick Tifa and Cid because they're my favorites and I GUESS I'll let Cloud tag along since I'm forced to".

Spoiler: Chapter 2

Discussion:

• What did you think of the Sending sequence? How does it hold up today?
• Did you face the optional boss Lord Ochu? How did you handle him?
• How was Blitzball for you this time around? Do you plan on playing it regularly? Were you able to beat the Luca Goers?
• Now that you've got some levels on you, what are your plans for Kimahri?
  How will you be developing him.

- The graphics in most main FF games still hold up REALLY well to this day, FFX not least among them. I tend to agree with Tidus here, though. That said, I question how she was walking on water, Christian imagery aside.

- I didn't face him Not yet. Remedies are hard to come by in bulk, and you need them for Auto-Med!

- Same as always: learn Jecht Shot, get ball, score, steal ball, pass around backline. Try to get 2-3 points ahead so that if we start sucking it up because of Cap'n Wakka, it's still fine. I hate blitzball, though, so I'll only be playing it as needed for Overdrives, the Mercury Sigil, and the World Champion. Also the Goers are chumps.

-

Spoiler: my other kimbro tldr here

Okay so, first I grab Jinx and Scan, then mosey on over to that Level 1 lock and pick up Steal and Use. Once I'm able to GET a Level 2 key, I'm going to smash my way through the end of Yuna's and pick up Curaga, Dispel, and Holy (plus Reflect and Regen, all way before she can). Sometimes I like to instead go over and Level 2 near where Life is, then backtrack through Tidus' grid and grab Quick Hit and Hastega. Kinda depends on my mood really. This run, I'm doing the former.

 

[Joker]

Holy shit man it's been four days and we're supposed to be over 10 hours into this game??? I even started early and I'm already so far behind

10 Hours to get to Luca??? I'd say more like 6-7 at most and you're not due to be there until the target end date of the 9th. If it makes you feel better I'm still working on 9 so I haven't started yet but I'm gonna jump right in as soon as I'm done and should catch up pretty quick since I know this game like the back of my hand.

I play really slowly and grind for ages in Kilika, myself.

Well, Kilika, the Highroad, Mushroom Rock, the Thunder Plains, Bikanel, and Gagazet, anyway

 

[Jason Tandro]

I'll grind too but mainly I love to exploit the hell out of that Sin fight. I power-level the fuck out of some Bikanel desert though, once you're able to steal Al Bhed Potions and instant kill mechs like crazy.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

I try to limit my grinding to Mushroom Rock Road (to get Lulu's level 2 magic before the boss there,) and the Bevelle Highroad (to get Reflect for Yuna.) The latter is probably my favorite grinding spot before the postgame, since I don't really care about Kimahri by that point.

 

[Joe]

I'm still debating what platform to play this on. I have the Steam version (and my latest save is up to the Mi'hen highroad so I'm not behind yet) but I really wanna play this on my Ps4 so I might get that and catch up. It'll mark the fourth time I've ever paid for the game though

 

[Kionae]

Geez, I go into hiding for a weekend and you guys start the playthrough without me. Guess I've got some catching up to do...

 

[ChipNoir]

Augh, I'm so behind. But I can catch up over the next two days and do a double sized response I guess.

In terms of grinding, I don't really bother until, like others have said, I really want a high level spell for things like Mushroom Rock. Otherwise the game becomes too easy for my tastes.

As a side note, THANK FRICKING GOD for Wakka's "DropAbility Sphere" skill. There's a certain point between Besaide and Luca where if you don't premptively grind for ability spheres, your progress can be stopped in it's tracks. That always frustrated me when I played the PS2 version when I was younger.

I've never been brave or dedicated enough to go after Monster Arena or Dark Aeons, so this play through I'm gonna make it my goal to go 100%!

 

[Jason Tandro]

Since we're getting a lot of people saying they haven't even started yet I'm going to give us a couple extra days on this chapter to help accommodate the late starters.

 

[Kionae]

That what you get for starting it right before a holiday weekend, when all Americans are supposed to be busy barbecuing and blowing shit up, Jason.

 

[Channy]

Yeah Jason, 'murica.

I just powered on through the weekend mornings.. stopped short a little bit further ahead than this chap (got Auron, thought that's where we'd stop) so I'll keep an eye out for next time.

Discussion:

• What version of the game are you playing: the original or one of the remasters?
• If you are playing a remaster, which version of the Sphere Grid are you using? How are you finding its progression? If you are playing the original, what do you think about the Sphere Grid in general as a leveling system?
• What do you think about the Cloister of Trial puzzles as a recurring puzzle? Are they too tricky? Too Easy? Just plain annoying?
• What do you think about the drastic shift from the ATB to the CTB system for battles? What about the ability to switch party members on the fly?

- I'm playing on the PS3 Remaster, before they ever even announced it was coming to PS4

- I'm giving the Expert Grid a try. I looked at how massive it was and wanted to see where I could take people and how far off the beaten path to benefit them differently. First games I had Rikku as a power house eventually taking her down Auron's path cause I lurve her.

- Urgh, Cloisters bug me. I remember spending an infinite amount of time on them before and now it's no different... well, I have the guide book this time around. Also helps with those Primer locations to make sure I don't miss one. But that's about it.

- I love it. You can definitely build up a couple different teams and keep swapping them out while swapping in your last slagger player that you always forget about, just to at least get some exp. I could and still can just sit there and stare at the screen for ages, planning my strategy and not get penalized because the meters running.

FYI: You can level spam the Sinspawn during the Sin fight so long as your HP holds out. Go nuts and get some free Sphere Levels (you can do the same thing to the subsequent Sinspawn fight but it's only with Wakka and Tidus and is harder).

Discussion:

• What did you think of the Sending sequence? How does it hold up today?
• Did you face the optional boss Lord Ochu? How did you handle him?
• How was Blitzball for you this time around? Do you plan on playing it regularly? Were you able to beat the Luca Goers?
• Now that you've got some levels on you, what are your plans for Kimahri?
  How will you be developing him.

I did not know that.

- Oh the sending is oh so beautiful - it still holds up fantastically as one of the best FF FMV's to date. Yuna's sadness, Tidus' awe.. the colours, the lights, the dancing..

- Lord Ochu isn't all that bad... I don't think.. some fire sells and he's easily taken care of. I had Yuna learn the four basic elements by this point, wanting to use both of them for situations like these.

- Fuck Blitzball. That is all.

- I don't know about Kimahri... first time on PS2 he went down Tidus' path... I think right now he's going down... Wakka's? Seems to be strong enough. I don't ever really have a plan for him he's just sort of... there.

YOU CAN'T DO IT KID NO ONE CAN YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR YOU CAN'T DO IT KID NO ONE I'M THE BEST YOU CAN'T YOU'RE OUTTA YOUR LEAGUE

oh god I'm having flashbacks

 

[Joker]

As a side note, THANK FRICKING GOD for Wakka's "DropAbility Sphere" skill. There's a certain point between Besaide and Luca where if you don't premptively grind for ability spheres, your progress can be stopped in it's tracks.

Before the Highroad, the number of Ability Spheres you get is severely limited, because they are only dropped by bosses, and I don't think (?) you have access to Distillers yet. But yeah, Distill Ability is a GODSEND.

 

[Joker]

all Americans are supposed to be busy barbecuing and blowing shit up, Jason.

YEEEEEHAAAAAW HERE WE GO

 

[Flare]

I'm still debating what platform to play this on. I have the Steam version (and my latest save is up to the Mi'hen highroad so I'm not behind yet) but I really wanna play this on my Ps4 so I might get that and catch up. It'll mark the fourth time I've ever paid for the game though

There's worse things to spend your money on. JUST DO IT

 

[Jason Tandro]

^ DON'T LET YOUR SAVINGS JUST BE SAVINGS.

 

[Joe]

PSN made the decision for me by cutting the price by 50% yesterday. Couldn't say no
I'll catch up tonight.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Didn't quite finish FFIX yet, but I will be starting X this weekend so I decided it was time to update the old sig and ava (besides I've have the Zidane one for ages). I was going to go with Mr. Rin since my policy has been to always use my favorite character since I started this by game basis with FF6 (Setzer, Reno, Laguna and Zidane in sequence). But not enough artsy shots of him so I decided to change tack and go with my favorite thing: Blitzball. Tidus Ava is two images and a water background I frankensteined together and the sig is a combo of a gif and the classic Aurochs image.

 

[Teioh]

Chapter Two​

What did you think of the Sending sequence? How does it hold up today?

Still a very beautiful scene and one I watch over and over whenever I get around to buying the movie spheres.

Did you face the optional boss Lord Ochu? How did you handle him?

I leave him until I can bribe. In future I’m going to have a go at fighting him with my party at a low level, just not this time.

How was Blitzball for you this time around? Do you plan on playing it regularly? Were you able to beat the Luca Goers?

Ahem.

Fuck Blitzball. That is all.

Was 2-0 down by the first half. No way was I recovering from that. Spammed the X button to get it over with. Probably wont touch Blitzball for the rest of the game now.

Now that you've got some levels on you, what are your plans for Kimahri?
How will you be developing him.

I’m still not sure. I usually grab Steal and Use and then a few of the lower white and black magic before pushing him through to Auron. But I don’t know if that’s what I want to do with him this time around. I’ve still got time to consider, got to fetch a couple of unlock spheres first anyway.

Spoiler: Extras

FYI: You can level spam the Sinspawn during the Sin fight so long as your HP holds out.

I don’t normally do this as I’m quite impatient. I like grinding but only when I can quickly run to a save point in case of sudden loss of progress due to unforeseen circumstances. I stuck with it this time though and slaughtered approx 800 of them which netted me around 1700 AP and 18k gil didn’t lose any HP at all due to using Tidus’s Haste and Cheer. Even brought Lulu in for a while and kept her in until her MP ran out.

As a side note, THANK FRICKING GOD for Wakka's "DropAbility Sphere" skill. There's a certain point between Besaide and Luca where if you don't premptively grind for ability spheres, your progress can be stopped in it's tracks. That always frustrated me when I played the PS2 version when I was younger.

I remembered this just in time in Chapter 1 when I was down to my last Ability Sphere. Had to skip over a skill and then backtrack. I would have seriously considered restarting the game if I had run out lol

• Didn’t spend as much time grinding in Kilika as I usually do as I already gained a few sphere levels killing sinspawn. When it came to rescuing Yuna I actually found that I’m under-levelled compared to where I’m usually am at this point. I don’t have the –ra spells for Lulu for example (I may grind a little too much in Kilika lol)
• Kilika Cloister Trial didn’t go as smoothly as Besaid but didn’t run around for too long
• I got the Jecht Shot but it didn’t matter in the end
• It’s nice to actually know exactly what the Al Bhed are saying. I kinda got the gist before but again, nice not to have to try and translate as I read
• Something I never thought of before but noticed this time. Why doesn’t Bevelle have a Blitzball team? I understand that it’d be difficult to recruit team players because of plot but is there a story reason for it? Just seemed sort of odd, the biggest city in Spira not having a team to represent them

 

[Tennyo]

Aw yiss, this game is tied with FFIX as my favourite Final Fantasy.

Spoiler: I'm really looking forward to losing my mind again

I hate you. So much.

*cries in the corner*

 

[Jason Tandro]

Spoiler: Blitz Question

[*]Something I never thought of before but noticed this time. Why doesn’t Bevelle have a Blitzball team? I understand that it’d be difficult to recruit team players because of plot but is there a story reason for it? Just seemed sort of odd, the biggest city in Spira not having a team to represent them[/list]

I'm sure there's a canon explanation somewhere, but as far as I can tell I have a few theories:

Spoiler

1. Bevelle is the head of Yevon and a majority of the populace are ordained priests and whatnot so no time for Blitzball.
2. Blitzball originated in Zanarkand and perhaps Bevelle is still sour about adopting anything they used (except of course machina)

But the one I think most likely is this:

3. Maesters oversee the events and need to remain impartial. Yes, I know that would require believing Yevon plays fair, but still.

 

[ChipNoir]

I'm disinclined to agree with it being because of it's religious elements, because in our world The Vatican has it's own soccer and cricket team. I also recall that at least one summoner (Lord Ohaland of Killika I believe) has been a Blitzer.

Honestly probably just because they didn't want to bother programming in a team.

Bigger question, that I hope Jason might pose at some point: Why in the ever loving hell is there not a water aeon? You'd think either in Luca or later in Guadosalom (Y"know, right before you really really need all the water magic you can get?), they'd stick in a temple for Leviathan, Bismark, or even just something new. For a game that puts a lot of emphasis on balanced elemental system, it kinda floored me after getting Bahamut and realizing that only three of the main elements are represented. I mean, the entire game is mired in water imagery and water metaphors, and yet, no water Aeon. What the fecklefrout is that about?

I've never been able to track down an interview or ultimania passage covering this absurdly untalked about omission.

 

[Kionae]

I'm disinclined to agree with it being because of it's religious elements, because in our world The Vatican has it's own soccer and cricket team. I also recall that at least one summoner (Lord Ohaland of Killika I believe) has been a Blitzer.

Honestly probably just because they didn't want to bother programming in a team.

Bigger question, that I hope Jason might pose at some point: Why in the ever loving hell is there not a water aeon? You'd think either in Luca or later in Guadosalom (Y"know, right before you really really need all the water magic you can get?), they'd stick in a temple for Leviathan, Bismark, or even just something new. For a game that puts a lot of emphasis on balanced elemental system, it kinda floored me after getting Bahamut and realizing that only three of the main elements are represented. I mean, the entire game is mired in water imagery and water metaphors, and yet, no water Aeon. What the fecklefrout is that about?

I've never been able to track down an interview or ultimania passage covering this absurdly untalked about omission.

I don't know... I always sort of assumed that Sin was the water representative, being essentially created/rebuilt from the High Summoner's Final Aeon itself. I suppose that doesn't technically make it an Aeon, but...

 

[ChipNoir]

I'm disinclined to agree with it being because of it's religious elements, because in our world The Vatican has it's own soccer and cricket team. I also recall that at least one summoner (Lord Ohaland of Killika I believe) has been a Blitzer.

Honestly probably just because they didn't want to bother programming in a team.

Bigger question, that I hope Jason might pose at some point: Why in the ever loving hell is there not a water aeon? You'd think either in Luca or later in Guadosalom (Y"know, right before you really really need all the water magic you can get?), they'd stick in a temple for Leviathan, Bismark, or even just something new. For a game that puts a lot of emphasis on balanced elemental system, it kinda floored me after getting Bahamut and realizing that only three of the main elements are represented. I mean, the entire game is mired in water imagery and water metaphors, and yet, no water Aeon. What the fecklefrout is that about?

I've never been able to track down an interview or ultimania passage covering this absurdly untalked about omission.

I don't know... I always sort of assumed that Sin was the water representative, being essentially created/rebuilt from the High Summoner's Final Aeon itself. I suppose that doesn't technically make it an Aeon, but...

I mean, from a gameplay perspective. Mind you've seen some awesome AU art where Tidus is Leviathan as Yuna's final Aeon. But it still bugs me to have such a highly specified elemental system and leaves it broken in their aeon system.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I'm disinclined to agree with it being because of it's religious elements, because in our world The Vatican has it's own soccer and cricket team. I also recall that at least one summoner (Lord Ohaland of Killika I believe) has been a Blitzer.

Yeah like I say the third option seems the most likely since, unlike the Vatican, they are basically the world owners.

Honestly probably just because they didn't want to bother programming in a team.

Or that.

Bigger question, that I hope Jason might pose at some point: Why in the ever loving hell is there not a water aeon? You'd think either in Luca or later in Guadosalom (Y"know, right before you really really need all the water magic you can get?), they'd stick in a temple for Leviathan, Bismark, or even just something new. For a game that puts a lot of emphasis on balanced elemental system, it kinda floored me after getting Bahamut and realizing that only three of the main elements are represented. I mean, the entire game is mired in water imagery and water metaphors, and yet, no water Aeon. What the fecklefrout is that about?

I've never been able to track down an interview or ultimania passage covering this absurdly untalked about omission.

That is actually an excellent point that I have never considered and now irritates the hell out of me. So thanks for that.

But, uh yeah, actually I'll pose that question next time and give you due credit.

 

[Kionae]

Ahhh... Finally got around to starting this playthrough. So, here's my chapter one summary:

What version of the game are you playing: the original or one of the remasters?

The PS4 remaster. Funnily enough, this is actually the very game I bought a PS2 for... and then was incredibly pissed off when I found out that the game was being released while I was going to be in Utah for a month for my degree in geology. So, yeah, I basically had to wait a month to play it the first time. I also recall that this was the period of time that I was really into the anime Yu Yu Hakusho and forced my field camp roommate to watch it with me every Saturday night on Cartoon Network... which has nothing to do with anything, just an interesting side note.

If you are playing a remaster, which version of the Sphere Grid are you using? How are you finding its progression? If you are playing the original, what do you think about the Sphere Grid in general as a leveling system?

I'm using the original sphere grid. I might give the other one a try the next time I play through, but I'm more interested in revisiting the story than making it extra challenging.

To be honest, I didn't really care for the sphere grid before... but I think that had a lot to do with me being an obsessive completionist the last time I played X, and it drove me nuts when the path split and I realized that I'd lose interest long before I unlocked everything on the board for even one character. I've gotten over that mindset in recent years.

What do you think about the Cloister of Trial puzzles as a recurring puzzle? Are they too tricky? Too Easy? Just plain annoying?

I love the Cloisters. I'd actually venture to say that they're one of my favorite parts of the game. They remind me of the puzzle solving in games like the Zelda series, which I adore.

What do you think about the drastic shift from the ATB to the CTB system for battles? What about the ability to switch party members on the fly?

I love being able to switch characters on the fly. It gives it an element of realism, I think. Because seriously... if you're wandering the globe, fighting monsters with a bunch of people, why the hell would you take on the swarms with only part of your party? I would love, love, love to see on-the-fly changes carry over to the FF7 remake.

Anyway... on to Chapter 2!