Spoony versus FFX

[Vendel]

Once again Spoony gets everything right.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/12/31/final-fantasy-x-finale/

 

[Dashell]

Oh god that Independence day thing was awesome XD

I love that movie and that's a good use for it.

 

[Shademp]

Once again Spoony gets everything right.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/12/31/final-fantasy-x-finale/

I am so happy I never played FFX. The highest roman numeral I ever played was FFIX.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I am so happy I never played FFX. The highest roman numeral I ever played was FFIX.

...Please God tell me you aren't taking Spoony's review at face value and using it as a way to determine if you should play FFX.

Please.

 

[Shademp]

...Please God tell me you aren't taking Spoony's review at face value and using it as a way to determine if you should play FFX.

Please.

For a moment there, I did. Sorry, that was silly of me.

 

[Lord Noctis]

Having now seen the finale I have to say that FFX is one of Spoony's weakest reviews. Still, the last part got a few chuckles out of me so its not a complete loss.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

At least Spoony was funny this time, even if all but one of the very few gripes he declared this time around still make no sense. Really, Spoony, you're complaining that most of the story was told in media res and claiming that Yu Yevon's intentions were never explained (they were)? Though I'm with him on the whole icicle shenanigans in the Nucleus area of Inside Sin being stupid and not making any kind of sense with regard to the larger narrative.

But, yeah, it seems like this time he stopped with the trying to make legitimate points against the game (he had been failing at that, hard) and focused instead on just being funny. And for that reason this final part of the review worked at least. Like Noctis said, overall, this was one of his worst reviews.

 

[Lord Noctis]

All true. I also think Spoony was right about how sucky Yu Yevon was as a boss. I mean, after slugging it out with a boss like Jecht you expect that the next battle should be even more epic. Instead you fight a floatingtick. Kind of a letdown.

Also, my memory is a bit rusty regarding the plot of FFX, could someone remidn me exactly what Yu Yevon's motivations and goals were?

 

[DrakeClawfang]

I've gotten to the point I prefer Nostalgia Critic to Spoony and I'm realizing why - NC actually reviews and cracks jokes along the way, in a lot of his reviews Spoony doesn't review the game, he just bitches. Why IMO his Phantasmagoria and SWAT 4 playthroughs were so good, he was being funny and having a laugh at the games themselves, he wasn't just complaining about every little thing he didn't like. Frankly, the more he *does* complain in-depth with things like FFX, the more he seems to just be petty.

Like, I'm up to where he mentions fighting Evrae and killing it with a Phoenix Down. Well first, that's in a lot of games, there's a reason TV Tropes has a page called "Revive Kills Zombie," and second there's an undead boss or two in every FF game, you can't bitch about that when it's a staple of RPG gaming. It's like hating a FF game for random encounters, it's not a certainty or an absolute requirement but it's part of the genre, it's hardly a hit against a specific game when so many others do the same thing.

EDIT - "this guy gets stronger the more completely he fails, he's like Owe Boll." Okay, that's a good one.

EDIT x2 - Two hours to complete the Zanarkand Cloister of Trials because he thought the solutions to the puzzles were random? This ranks up there with Raine and a lot of his plot bitching as a case of "learn to pay attention." Really, even someone who was clueless will probably eventually notice you're lighting up blocks to form the glyph on the screen, may take them ten-fifteen minutes but not two hours!

EDIT x3 - "So, all we have to do is kill Godzilla, and then for an encore climb inside his carcass for a fistfight with GOD!" Why is he complaining about this, I'd play a game with a climax like that!

EDIT x4 - review wasn't that bad...until we got to the climax. Spoony...just.....*no*.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yeah, he should just lose the skits altogether. So should the Angry Video Game Nerd for that matter.

Also, my memory is a bit rusty regarding the plot of FFX, could someone remidn me exactly what Yu Yevon's motivations and goals were?

Bevelle was an aggressive, warmongering city conquering Zanarkand. Yu Yevon, leader of Zanarkand, was understandably pissed and wanted to preserve Zanarkand forever in some way.

He had all the remaining summoners and townspeople of Zanarkand become the fayth on Mt. Gagazet and used their memories to create Dream Zanarkand (Tidus's hometown), a giant aeon that was nearly an exact recreation of the original city. He also used gravity magic to simultaneously create an armor around himself, fashioned from pyreflies. That was Sin.

Sin was programmed to attack large populations, as well as machina. This was to prevent anyone from ever discovering Dream Zanarkand, which was set far from the mainland.

Over time, Yu Yevon stopped being a cognizant individual and just became an unthinking mechanism that existed to preserve Dream Zanarkand.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

Agreed he needs to abandon the storyline. His older reviews far outshine the new, like Demolition Man, now having seen the film recently I've new appreciation for that gem.

I'm also reminded of his FF1 review, where he mercilessly bashes virtually everything about it and assures people he wasn't serious and he was just having some fun for April Fools. Well, that seems to be how he's actually going in some of his reviews these days.

 

[DLPB]

It makes me laugh how anyone could hit on FFX story when it was far better and more involving than any other that came after it. Seems some people have a chip on their shoulder.

 

[ForceStealer]

It's just so unfortunate that this was all the ffx review amounted to. The FF8 review was well and truly hilarious. It only lost hilarity in the aforementioned skits. This review...ugh...there's nothing to say that hasn't already been said. It's petty, it ignores glaringly obvious plot elements, it tries to sustain itself on one joke - that Tidus is annoying. And even if true, that's not enough to carry the review.

It had a funny moment now and then, but ANY of us could make a X review and have more funny jokes than that had. In the last part, I had to laugh when I heard Lady Gaga playing when Yunalesca walked out, but then he ruined it by overusing the joke in the dialogue. If he had just used the music, it would have been subtler and thus, funnier, something he used to understand.

And yes, Spoony Defense Force, he's not a reviewer he's an entertainer that's not meant to be taken seriously. First of all, am I allowed to fault him for not being entertaining then? Secondly, that's still a bullshit excuse because he doesn't make reviews for the purpose of saying nonsense to be funny. His reviews, except when he specifically says so, are his honest opinions of the content. So if those opinions are misinformed and lazy, we're allowed to call him out.

VIII's review was funny for several reasons, but one of them was that he was pretty familiar with the story and intricacies of stuff. (Yeah yeah missed Raine, but still) He had enough handle on the plot to point out reasonable contrivances that you may not have noticed and glossed over. He picks on stupid dialogue, as opposed to just going ON and ON about how one character's voice is annoying.

"PEOPLE CAN'T BREATHE UNDERWATER THIS IS BULLSHIT" is not an amusingly insightful observation. People may have glossed over some of the implications of FFVIII's radio silence and when he points out some of the times this is ignored, or conditions that exist even though they clearly shouldn't in such a world, it can make you think. None of that exists here.

Blah, disappointing.

Yeah, he should just lose the skits altogether. So should the Angry Video Game Nerd for that matter.

And holy crap do I hate it when AVGN does...just about anything else other than review a game. It's the same mentality that Sega seems to have with Sonic - "we need something different or people will get bored by the thing that is making them play/watch in the first place."

 

[Ite]

Let's just hope that the Nostalgia Critic doesn't fall into this (probably tempting) trap.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Force's post makes me hard. Well said, dude.

 

[Alexia Ashford]

-randomly jumping in-
I'm not sure what all's been said so far, but I skimmed through some.

Anyway, I did like his FFVIII review better as well, but I wasn't pissed at his X either. I agree with some of his points and the ones that he kinda goes kinda off tangent with I just took at face value. And if you really hate a game like he seems to you're not going to look at anything in a positive light. When you don't like something you see everything there is to be wrong about it even if there isn't anything ACTUALLY wrong.

That being said.... I hate Blitzball....
Is it ever explained why they can breathe under water?
Tidus is ANNOYING. Yuna's just kinda there.
I like Rikku and don't see what the problem is with her. Auron is awesome. And I love the way they did the fighting in X. It's fast paced while still being turn-based. It's my favorite for battles in the FF series.

It is kinda funny that Seymour just KEEPS COMING BACK. XD You think he'd be more sneaky.

But yeah, a lot of his points were bogus and I hate his little in between skits. Those made me die a little each time. :/ But overall I thought it was funny enough to keep watching.

That tic..... ah... when I fought him I just kept remembering

Spoiler: The Tic

the whole time I was fighting that thing. Ahh....
I barely remember The Tick..... :/

 

[ForceStealer]

Is it ever explained why they can breathe under water?

I don't understand why this needs to be explained. It isn't Earth, Spirans are not Earthlings. If they could breathe underwater or hold their breath for longer periods of time or freaking fly why would that ever be discussed among them as its just something they can do? Do you explain to your friends how your body is able to heal wounds?

 

[Alexia Ashford]

Well the thing is you can only suspend disbelief so far. There are some things that yeah you just sit down and accept but... that just seemed too much for me.
Also, it seems that not everyone can do it considering there are only a few people who can fight in water.
And we all know how our body heals wounds, or I'd hope anyone who's passed 6th grade health does, so no I don't. If they asked I would be happy to. I at least have a basic understanding of the process.
But breathing is kinda essential. They don't have gills so far as I can see.
I mean they need to catch their breath from running and things like that. If they don't need oxygen the same as we do then why would that happen? Blah blah blah. I could keep going on.
It boils down to if it fits into your limits of 'suspension of disbelief' and it really doesn't fit into mine. Maybe I'm just weird.

But my basic point is they explain everything else, so why couldn't they just... I don't know even MENTION it briefly.
Maybe Tidus could add it into one of his brain-killing monologues.
They could have even had one of the non-water based characters mention why they're staying behind.
Oh I don't have a water lung so I'll wait here. It just wouldn't have been hard to add, y'know?

 

[ForceStealer]

That's a silly place to draw the suspension of disbelief line. The fact that Jenova's cells can all act independently of one another is something no one ever seems to have a problem with. And that's never explained, biologically, how that happens. VI, VII, and XIII are in the minority of FF games that actually explain magic, but no one freaks out in the other FFs when it isn't. In nearly every traditional fantasy Elves can see in the dark, how? It's never explained, it's just something elves can do.

You talk about suspension of disbelief, but this is a game in which Yuna calls mystical beings born from the souls of the dead to do her bidding. This doesn't bother you, but the fact that they can hold their breath a bit longer is irreconcilable? Maybe if they had used it as some sort of deus ex machina I could agree with you. But it is established in the very first scene that Spirans are clearly more comfortable in the water than we are.

 

[Celes Chere]

It isn't Earth, Spirans are not Earthlings.

It seems like only Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka are the only ones who can do it, out of the party. xD Are Blitzball players specially trained for this, or something? (The Albed too?) Otherwise, why would they worry about water at all?

It bugged me too. Not to a large degree like Spoony, I was able to get over it quickly lol.

 

[Alexia Ashford]

Well the thing is, generally things need oxygen to breath. True there are creatures even on this earth that can hold their breath for an amazing amount of time but to be fighting underwater and using all that energy while being deprived of what is universally known as a component necessary to live just seems too far fetched for me.
Magic, it's a fantasy game yes there's going to be magic. Say this person's a sorceress or we draw energy from life to create magic whatever. Usually it can be explained or it's something everyone is able to do. But the fact that this breathing thing ISN"T something that is universally available to everyone seems to be strange to me.
They could have even put a timer or something saying you can only be underwater for this long before you need air and I'd be happy.
And like I said, it may just be my personal preference. I may be weird, but it just seemed stupid and unbelievable to me. The point of suspension of disbelief is that there still has to be some sort of element to make it believable. The water thing just didn't have that element to me.

 

[ForceStealer]

Well they are technically holding their breath, not breathing underwater. They're just better at it than we are. Tidus, Wakka, and for some reason Rikku just seem to have the most training and therefore the best lung capacity. And Yuna also plays blitzball in X-2, so she obviously also can.

I'm amazed people are irked by this. Like I said, it's not like the game just asspulls it later to get the party out of a jam, it is literally put on full display in the opening scene of the game. The fact that Tidus falls what looks to be hundreds of feet in that opening scene doesn't bother anybody? The fact that there is nothing anywhere on the Fahrenheit that looks like it would lend itself in anyway to flight doesn't bother anybody? The fact that the party grinds down freaking cables in nothing but their normal shoes down from a moving airship while being shot at doesn't bother anybody?

Nope, they stay underwater too long. Unacceptable.

 

[Alexia Ashford]

I think the whole blitzball concept is ridiculous. The fact that he jumped that far out of water is just impossible and the impact of when he hits ANYTHING at that point would at least shatter a couple of ribs. I have problems with that trust me.

And I'm not saying that this is a basis for my hate for the game or anything. I don't hate the game at all in fact. It's just a minor issue that bothered me for aforementioned reasons.

And maybe they're just wearing steal-toed boots? XDDD Ah...

 

[Celes Chere]

It's the same reason why people say "Why couldn't we have just used a Phoenix Down on Aerith?" XD

It's just being nitpicky. It happens sometimes.

 

[Dashell]

I believe when a character goes down in battle, they're just KOed, not dead. Phoenix downs only work on KOed people, not dead ones... at least that's what I think