There Will NEVER Be Another Game Like Final Fantasy X

have you ever finished a video game and immediately found yourself in a grieving process realizing there would never be anything quite like that game ever again that you want to delete your memories so that you can feel and experience that thing again for the first time I can think of no game more prominent in this feeling for me than Final Fantasy 10 Final Fantasy 10 is unique throughout the entire landscape of gaming and also even within its own series my recent playthrough of Final Fantasy 10 taught me why this game is still loved over two

decades later and by many is considered to be the last Great Masterpiece among the numbered single player Final Fantasy games for as often as Square enix's thought of chasing Final Fantasy 7 success again I find that much of the modern series in actuality has been trying to recapture Final Fantasy 10 games such as Final Fantasy 13 Final Fantasy 7 remakes first part and Final Fantasy 16 feature linear environment and an incredibly story-driven game they all including 15 on this front you systems that resemble something like the sphere grid yet despite all of this there are

so many people that considered Final Fantasy 10 to be the last of its kind the games after Final Fantasy 10 certainly aren't bad games games like Final Fantasy 14 shadowbringers and Final Fantasy 7 rebirth can be argued as the absolute apex of the series offerings however there is still a reverence for 10 as this is the last great self-contained Masterpiece changed video games forever and today I want to explore why there will never be another game quite like Final Fantasy 10 while also presenting analysis on why even though contemporary FF games have some of the

same qualities superficially such as linearity and a skill tree that reminds people of the sphere grid Final Fantasy 10 Still Remains One of a Kind Final Fantasy 10's narrative is driven by its characters and I think every character in this game is fantastically written tius is normally the type of character I hate on the surface level a happy go-lucky Shonen protect Agonist who only sees the good in things is entirely optimistic and wants to be the hero is this character sounding familiar to you because there's a lot of characters like them inside of FF and

outside for the most part this Trope is so common because it's so inoffensive and darn near engineered in a lab to be likable it's also because this Trope is trying so hard to be likable I can find it off-putting the Trope will often see writers trying to put every likable and relatable quality into a character to the point of where they simply don't feel believable as a real person anymore but tetus isn't your run-of-the-mill Sunshine boy though tetus outwardly shows the Cheery side of himself his internal monologue is wholly the opposite it's the monologue of

a person who is depressed and struggling with deep internal turmoil he is lost both metaphorically and figuratively I find it incredibly fitting that there is a parallel between him and Yuna that always makes them have to show the best sides of themselves even when they're feeling at their worst because they have fathers in in the spotlight a feeling I can only imagine that children of politicians and celebrities actually have to go through as their lives have these pressures placed on them from frame one this narration allows for us to know which parts of titus's cheeriness

are truly authentic and what he is struggling with deeper down now finding himself in a culture where outward expression of many thoughts could be considered outright Blasphemous this withholding of one's true feelings Becomes emblematic of all Aspira under this is a large part of what separates tetus from the Shonen pack is that more than just having father issues he actually displays them indeed tusi engages in what can only be called fatherless Behavior which is wild because as many Shen protagonist that have been abandoned by their fathers you think that more of them would be expressive

about it even though J never actually chose to walk away from tetus tetus still experiences feelings of Abandonment about this regardless a phenomenon that often does happen in real life in fact he seemingly has a difficult time accepting this even after learning the truth his relationship with Jack is complicated and feels incredibly realistic Jack for the most part as a father and husband is self-centered Jack has a drinking problem which he never addresses until arriving in spir where he decides to quit drinking because he got drunk and attacked a shoe puff in moonflow this was

difficult for tetus to process as his father couldn't stop drinking for him couldn't stop for his mother as if they weren't enough at the same time much of the public never knows to the full extent what kind of man Jack is at home they only know the kind of man he presents himself to be which leads tetus to all he have to hear about how great his father is only for him to seemingly be transported a thousand years into the future only to hear people still telling him about how great his dad was and he's

incredibly lucky to have him this must have been beyond frustrating for tetus while tetus is struggling to be anything but his father you know is struggling to live up to hers she sees her father as a great man who sacrificed everything for the calm to bring people peace if only for a little while yaa grows up seeing the impact of this sacrifice the power of people being able to sleep in their beds at night without the fear of their lives being destroyed their bloodlines being lost entire cities crumbling it may seem pointless to sacrifice herself

to stop sin especially when sin is only going to come back the calm is finite and is set to only be getting increasingly shorter sin will come back and he will come back faster and faster however I think when you see the death and destruction that comes with sin it becomes a very easy decision to understand and although it may be an easy decision to understand that doesn't make it an easy decision to swallow Yuna is going to die at 17 years old she has chosen to give up her life for the sake of others

every place that youa Parts with is filled with sadness knowing that this is a place she will never see again every face that she has to say goodbye to is under the pretense that it is truly goodbye despite this Yuna decides to persevere through her journey smiling the whole way she wanted her journey to be filled with laughter and not for this to be a long dragged out funeral however there was one unforeseen variable that would stop yaa from being the perfect lamb for this system the presence and love of tetus Yuna has now developed

an Earthly attachment an outside influence that was able to make her question true that she found unquestionable the romance of tetus and Yuna is the best in the Final Fantasy series and one of the best in video games to me by a wide margin a common Trope in jrpgs is for romances of two characters who have known each other their entire lives and already have established chemistry to get together it's always been hard for me to relate to this me as well as all the other couples I know met later in life teenagers at the

latest dasas and Yuna are the opposite of the jrpg status quo we see the entirety of tetus and yuna's relationship forming on screen the formation of their Dynamic their chemistry we see the progression of them going from acquaintances to friends to lovers as a result we intimately know what the nature of this relationship is like and we also have an increased attachment to it whereas in some jrpgs we can just be told that two characters have always been in love from the very second they were born trust me bro then their relationship has to be

supplemented for through the use of flashback backs when they were kids but before we go any further I want to be really clear here I am not I am not saying this Trope is bad or always lackluster it can be done really well and it certainly has been done really well that being said it has also been done a lot there are definitely people who prefer the former as it wouldn't be done so frequently if they didn't that being said I definitely prefer the way tus and yauna are presented in the grander scheme of jrpg

relationships this game subverts the typical these two don't grow up in the same town or share the same values about life two people from different religious backgrounds with different beliefs and two wildly different places finding common ground together a very rare Breakaway from the tropes that are often used and Define the genre at times into a great effect Yuna is an incredible heroine from her design to her character but she's Most Fascinating as a figure who breaks free and reexamines her own culture society and even religion in areas where they clearly no longer serve the

greater good as we apply rational thought free from the biases we've been taught our whole lives and this is what Final Fantasy 10 begs us to do it wants us to consider our teachings and traditions and ask if they truly make sense to us this is exemplified by waka's prejudices against the aled and the use of Machina with Machina there is absolutely no real reason they're inherently bad machines like anything else in the world are a neutral enity they can be used used for bad as they can also be used for good so to see

them as outright evil because we were taught at a young age they simply are exemplifies the sort of biases we can all be taught growing up in real life for example at one point in real life there were prejudices against people who were left-handed if you stop and think about this for even a brief moment you wouldn't be able to find anything that was actually wrong with this as a natural consequence there's just the fact that everyone around you says it is bad but there's nothing of observable that you can point to and say that's

actually bad it becomes bad simply because people identify it as bad and everyone agrees with the sentiment in the same fashion waka's hypocrisy and the greater hypocrisy of yevan is revealed when they're okay with makina that do things like automate the blitz Ball Stadium some Machina are arbitrarily good some are bad but it's not about the end result of using them that result in that distinction it's about what my friends and family say the MS of yevan and its teachings say it's bad it's only later when Waka is confronted with these lies directly that he

is forced to reprocess these ideas entirely there's also waka's relationship with rku and the underlying tension of him not knowing rku is aled for a long while after they meet moreover he also doesn't know that with rku being yuna's cousin that means that Yuna is also part aled the woman that he has sworn to guard has lineage of the ones he perceives as traitors to yevan this is is curious to me as I feel albed have very distinct features in particular their green eyes that have a spiral-shaped pupil it seems like at any point he

could just look rku in the eye and know that she was albed is this a plot hole perhaps but there's another way of thinking about it there's an aspect of human nature that makes it easy to hold on to prejudices of a group of people whenever they're just merely a concept in your head that dehumanization often melts away when we meet and interact with people and realize that they're just human beings living their lives and doing what they think is right however when they're far away and they're only whatever we project onto them it's easy

to project biases against them after all without knowing them up close you really don't have any counter example to prove the opposite either and rku is immediately introduced as a friend has approval from Sir Ain and so I'd like to think that this initial framing of her as a friend and comrade prevents his mind from ever even conceiving her as being the same as the foe despite it being painfully obvious and not to theorize too much I do think it's interesting that alth have this spiral-shaped pupil spira's namesake indeed comes from the word spiral a

spiral of death and sacrifice the aled as people outside of the religion of yevan perhaps seeing that spiral for exactly what it is and thus them wanting to break that cycle by stopping Summoners like Yuna from completing their pilgrimage is the deeper symbolism of their spiral pupil Les or perhaps the curtains really are just blue for no deeper reason but it is an interesting thought Riku in herself is an upbeat character in the hit sequel to yui Kisaragi both are bubbly Thief characters coming from a foreign nation that is hated and often discriminated against by

the ruling organization which threatens to undermine them creative Studio 1 really likes this Trope of character and it's endearing thus I find it really interesting that rku has a line where she says that she wants to be like Lulu a character who is the exact opposite of her a stoic Black Mage of few words and the words that she does have are often times brutal rku and Lulu are great counterbalances to each other within the group each representing the qualities that each other lacks riku's vibrant personality injects a sense of hope and resilience into the

group even in the darkest moments of the journey while Lulu's cold tell it as it is approach often grounds the party in the truth and necessary armor forwards from past trauma and losses Lulu is is also struggling with quite a lot here the loss of chapoo waka's brother as well as Lulu's love interest was killed in the battle against sin and though this loss leads to them having a lot of tension with each other it's also that same trauma that leads them to Falling in Love And while I don't think I need to explain to

you the taboos of eventually getting pregnant by your dead partner's brother one can only hope that it meets the approval of Chapo's ghost by the end sir Ain is the character that commands the most respect among the party however and he's also the oldest party member which is wild to me because Ain is 35 years old although his rankles and gray hair would suggest that he is much older than that is this just a continuation of the trend of squareenix's not understanding what someone in their 30s looks like probably but I have a bit more

of a meaningful interpretation you see Ain was killed by unesa and became an unsent at 25 years old he was also notably much younger looking at this time time unsent aren't bound to the same physical laws as the living and as a result they don't age and yet a in here looks significantly older the stress the trauma and the heavy responsibilities he carries contribute to his weather older appearance and thus as a result it manifests him as an ultra looking man than he should be this is just my theory on it and I'm sure others

have came to a similar conclusion before though to my knowledge there isn't any outright confirmation on it but I think it strengthens the character even further and until Yoshi Nori kitas or tsia NOA tell me that I'm wrong I'm going to keep believing it Ain is cool mysterious and everything I hoped I would be growing up unfortunately for kid NSP I grew up and became this goofy guy his anger at the system of yevan the willingness to tear down that system that continues the spiral is at The Core theme of Final Fantasy 10 and its

overarching narrative and that narrative is one that is absolutely powerful it is fundamentally at its core about challenging one's own Society culture and religion when it needs to be re-evaluated sin is inspired by mythological sea monsters in the concept of collective human guilt it's designed to embody an Unstoppable force of Nature and a profound symbol of Humanity's sins against the teachings of yevan sin symbolizes the cyclical nature of Destruction and guilt reflecting how societies and individuals are trapped in a cycle of punishment and Penance for their transgressions this parall s the real life concept of

the shame of sin where people often carry the burdens of their past wrongdoings perpetuating a cycle of guilt and atonement that can be difficult to break however the followers of yevan believe that if they are faithful to the teachings if they can eventually atone for the sins of their ancestors that one day if they keep doing the final summoning and hold the faith sin would finally be gone that one day the cycle would be broken but little did they know that was the exact thing continuing the cycle was created during the machine war between bevel

and xanakin when zarin's leader yuvan devised a plan to both preserve xanakin and defeat bevel as zenin face defeat yuvan transformed the surviving citizens into Faith using them to summon a dream version of xanakin Hidden Away at Sea to protect this dream and ensure it remained undiscovered Yu yevan summoned sin a massive entity with the purpose of destroying any City That Grew too large or relied on technology however the strain of controlling sin overwhelmed yuvan turning him into a Mindless entity focused solely on maintaining the summoning this led to sin becoming a monstrous force that

indiscriminately attacked civilians over time unesa introduced the final Aon as a means of temporarily defeating sin creating a cycle of Destruction and temporary calm periods the yevan temple in bevel capitalized on this cycle establishing a religion that taunt sin was a punishment for Humanity's sins thus by offering spear hope through the promise of eventual salvation all the meanwhile administering Eternal damnation all of this was done by taking a phenomenon that people couldn't explain having powerful figures explain it and offering a means in order to make it go away and thus seemingly verifying their claims and

that's one thing that people fail to understand about Yu yevan yuvan is absolutely not God nor is yuvan anything like a God let me be clear here even though I am a jrpg enjoyer one of my least favorite things about jrpgs is killing God to defy fate don't get me wrong I love it when it's a guy like seph off trying to become God I find man's Ascent to godhood to be incredibly fascinating and I think there's a lot of room and differing motivations that characters can have for wanting that kind of power but I'm

not a big fan of when the final boss is God the creator of the planet and humans has decided that Earth no longer suits him or that Humanity has been given far far too many chances and now it's time for extinction it's cliche it's overdone to the point of it almost being the default jrpg story and it's not exactly what I would call thought-provoking anymore but yuvan again is not God he is a mortal man in a Summoner just like Yuna who managed to manifest a being like sin and through lies spread about him and

his teachings created an entire religion around him of course even still yanites don't necessarily worship yevan as the G God but more so as a spiritual teacher this follows the influence of the many Eastern religions that inspired yanis this also defies most jrpg tropes that explicitly look toward abrahamic Inspirations to create these figures the result is that even though yism appears to follow many jrpg tropes such as Church bad it is indeed true here to an extent it also implemented in a way that most other jrpgs don't of course ascending to the head of yanis

is maester Seymour guad Seymour is is also seeking salvation for the people of spir in the most Twisted way possible by taking control of sin Seymour aims to kill everyone on the planet and turn them all into unsent by doing this there will be no more death or pain in spir everyone would be an undead ghost who no longer requires mortal needs this would destroy the cycle of Nature and while being an unsent seems like an ultra cool option to just not die when you don't want to unsent risk losing their sense of cells by

becoming consumed by Nega negative emotions like anger jealousy or despair this can eventually cause them to transform into fiends you could still probably make an argument that there is something correct about the way that Seymour is approaching things and that it is better than the alternative here but I think the entire planet being haunted by ghosts is just something that is ultimately unsettling Final Fantasy 10 is layered with multiple different antagonists from Seymour to sin to yuvan to jet to whoever decided on the movement controls for Blitz ball and all these different moving Pieces come

together to make an interesting multifaceted conflict something that I feel can be lacking in the Contemporary games of the series sometimes but it's what makes the journey throughout spir so interesting spir in itself is just one-of a kind locations in video games I legitimately cannot even think of another game that comes close to looking like this one I think this is also a strength of Final Fantasy in its golden era that each game would take the series somewhere brand new and present a visual identity that the world hasn't seen before and Still Remains unique among

the landscape of video games yoshinori kitas noted that when they began work on Final Fantasy 10 he had received complaints from longtime fans that Final Fantasy had gone too far away from its medieval Roots this came especially post Final Fantasy 7 and 8 but kitas wasn't a fan of this idea kitas wanted to challenge the notion that fantasy had to be European Ian and medieval and while Final Fantasy 9 would eventually satisfy the purists looking for this type of game kitas and the team we know of as creative Studio 1 would look throughout Asia for

inspiration finding a direction for where to take this game next the end result of this was creating a setting visuals and atmosphere the likes of which we've never seen before and arguably have never seen again it's heavy use of water a world spread across islands and Island cultures a unique sense of fashion where every char in this entire game is wearing the most insane thing you've ever seen in music that is absolutely ethereal composed by noou U Manu known for his tracks that focus more so on Melody and Masashi huzu whose tracks tend to be

more atmospheric they combine forces on this soundtrack for a result that is equal parts emotionally resonant and deeply immersive Final Fantasy 10 would push the PlayStation 2 to its limits becoming a quintessential demonstration of how powerful the new system was but it wasn't just raw technical prowess it was also through incredible art Direction choice of setting and how they chose to display each scene squareenix's pre-rendered cinematic Studio visual Works did their absolute best creating the fmvs for this project these are still absolute Marvels to look at and felt light years ahead of anything else on

the market when they first arrived in 2001 in particular water and hair were difficult things to animate during this time in animation and arguably still are to a large extent however visual Works produced industry-leading results when it came to this making the world of spe something absolutely breathtaking and that has truly lasted the test of time though the resolution even on the remasters is upscaled and cropped I'm willing to bet that if you could somehow render these at 4K they would still look stunning because I don't even mind looking at them in blurry 48p of

course a game is more than just its cinematics it's also its combat system in terms of of combat Final Fantasy 10 is a puzzle game each battle revolves around the player looking at the resources that they have what abilities they have unlocked on the sphere grid and figuring out a way to defeat the enemy turn order is posted in the right corner with the game allowing you to preview how each action will affect the turn order before you commit to it and it's this simple mechanic that allows for a depth of strategy to take Route

some characters like rku are fast and can stock multiple turns in a row using items is faster than attacking and haste will allow your party to stack multiple turns there are near Endless Possibilities on how you can approach things previous Final Fantasy games with determin turns by an active time gauge meaning enemies could keep attacking you if you set the controller down in Final Fantasy 10 they would return to a true pure turn-based system known as the conditional turn-based battle system or CTB where time was no longer a factor and holy crap do I prefer

this system over traditional ATB it's snappier significantly more strategic and offers so much more variety in battle limit breaks return in the form of overdrives however what makes overdrives unique is that there is a myriad of ways in which you can charge them in the menu each character has different conditions that can be set to change the overdrive the character taking damage allies getting hit or simply the number of turns that go by and much more that means that you can set how you want your over tribe to charge B based on the type of

battle that you're going to be facing and the way you think that character best plays this is where the depth of customization that Final Fantasy 10 offers begins to come through also new to Final Fantasy and one of the most highly requested features to return to the series right now is the ability to swap party members out mid battle each party member fulfills a unique FF job in this game and you're able to swap them out all freely at any time so long as the character you're swapping them with is still alive this takes the

complexity of strategy even further as now you're both considering the turn order and when to move characters in and out of battle this allows for creativity to thrive with the Myriad of tools that you have here you can look for enemy weaknesses you can use titus's time magic to ensure that you get more turns than the enemies do Buffs and debuffs actually matter here you can use riku's items and fast attacks to stack more turns and then swap to another character to finish off your round of turns you can use yauna to control some summons

stocking up Aon overdrives and then unleashing them all on the enemy speaking of aons in previous FF games summons for the most part just did a powerful attack and then left they were incredibly visually impressive but often times they really didn't mix up gameplay in any meaningful Way new to the FF series you can now control your summons entirely choosing their moves as well as using them to be able to Shield powerful oncoming attacks giving them even more utility each boss in the game has incredibly Unique Mechanics that conjure specific memories of how players dealt

with those enemies and this is still true even though it's been years since my last playthrough for example anyone watching this video if I just mention unesa you probably have some very specific memories on dealing with zombie you might even recall specific strategies or frustrations you had overcoming this this game has boss fights that leave an imprint on you when compared to contemporary FF games like Final Fantasy 15 it's it's hard to think of a boss in that game that even comes close to this experience most you simply held square and warp stried until they

were dead one thing I noticed in my chat is that every single person had different ideas on how to beat the boss and what's more incredible is that the vast majority of them were very much viable furthermore each person has made different discoveries or grinded to different places on the sphere grid and so had different tools that they could all use to solve each problem all of this is an absolute Testament to how much flexibility this system has and just how deep it actually is the battle system in this game is incredible however I think

with any great RPG battle system a great progression in character growth system has to be standing behind it in order for it to truly shine and that is absolutely the case with Final Fantasy 10 new to the series was a brand new system of character growth the spear grid rather than characters gaining levels and increasing predetermined attributes players instead would be given sphere levels which allow them to move along a grid and spin these points to unlock new nodes it is incredibly easy to look at the sphere grid and think that this is just a

skill tree however there is so much that sets this apart from any skill tree you've ever seen each node of course contains different stats and abilities but you can't just immediately go back to any other branch in the tree or select other boost or abilities at any time if you want to do this you will have to have enough s levels to go all the way back while this may sound inconvenient at first less s levels are required to move further back on the grid than they are to move forward and more importantly it makes

the player commit to something not something irrevocable but it makes them have to sit with their choice at least for a little while this makes each choice have a lot more weight to it and as a result makes it more engaging to interact with the sphere grid much more strategic and much more meaningful another thing that separates the sphar grid from your run-of-the-mill skill trees is the fact that this system is entirely interconnected meaning that it's possible for your characters to learn skills outside of the roles they're normally supposed to fulfill this allows you to

hybridize your character's role in battle though there is criticism that by the end game every character aside from Unice exclusive summoning ultimately ends up being the same honestly this is an issue with more FF games than just this one but my rebuttal would be that's fine this isn't going to be an issue that you see until very deep into the post game with the super bosses however for most of the experience and for most players they're going to get a deep level of customization and build options for their playthrough another thing that separates the sphar

grid from contemporary skill trees especially ones that came after Final Fantasy 10 are the empty nodes that's right sometimes you spin levels on the sphar grid and get absolutely nothing on the surface level this seems like it would actually be something to criticize the system for but on the contrary it's where a lot of the system's genius comes in for starters you get S levels more frequently than you'd level up in pretty much any RPG so this means you're constantly engaging with the sphere grid the entire game each upgrade also makes a more tangible difference

in combat empty nodes are a great way to cool this system off but they also serve as a system that is somewhat comparable to Materia in ff7 throughout the game you'll find spheres that can plug into these empty nodes and they allow you to do all sorts of things a black magic sphere will allow a character to learn any black magic move that another character has learned on the sphere grid already no matter where they currently are on the sphere grid or you can use something as simple as an HP sphere that turns an empty

node into an HP sphere now let's contrast this with contemporary FF growth systems final fantasy 13's crystarium looks like a more visually appearing sphere grid but it's actually significantly more streamlined for starters in this game there are only three stats HP strength and magic and that's literally it so already we're starting off rough here there's a forced cap on the crystal each chapter to prevent you from overleveling you can always easily go back and level up branching paths you missed there is no consequence you can always just go back while making it more convenient Than

The Spar grid it also removes any weight of choice that you had it isn't interconnected so there's really no way to break off from the beaten path and do anything unique with your character the only decision that you really get in this system it's which role you want to empower first but in the end these things all have fairly objective answers combine this with the fact that all the character roles aren't unlocked until later the player is pretty much robbed of their choice all of these things could also be said about Final Fantasy 16's growth

system which is literally a set of abilities that you can dump AP into without any choice on Clive stats we have to acknowledge that these are different games with different systems and they should not just copy Final Fantasy 10 nobody is saying that I'm not saying that don't say that I'm saying that but when we highlight the strength and weaknesses of these systems it becomes apparent why the sphere grid is still so unmatched there are also no empty notes in this system which of course means that there's no sort of items that you can find

that contribute to your character's growth in any meaningful way which leads to one of the most important strong points about Final Fantasy 10 this game has some of the best itemization in the series if not the best itemization for those unfamiliar with the term itemization itemization in video games refers to the system by which players acquire equip and manage items such as Weapons armor consumables and other items in order to enhance their character's abilities and performance that is to say how you get items why you're getting those items in the first place what meaningful utility

they have which then ultimately defines the value of these items in the context of the game Final Fantasy 10 has a variety of different uses from items inside and outside of battles of course there is the standard Final Fantasy trappings of using potion Elixir and Phoenix downs but there's also a large variety of other items that players can find in the game including spheres armors grenades items that Grant shell protect and so much more of course these items have the standard utility that you might imagine but they can be used for oh so much more

customizing your weapons and armor in this game so they can have various bonuses allowing your characters to avoid status elements like zombie and poison giving them an increase in HP and while these weapons when you find them will have certain fixed abilities you can also add additional abilities on top of that meaning that you have a ton of flexibility with your equipment you can also use items to power up your summons so they can learn new abilities or increase their stats of course there is also riku's overdrive returning for the first time since Final Fantasy

5 players can mix two items together to create a brand new unknown effect which has seemingly endless different possibilities this can be used for things such as combining two potions together to make a stronger potion or even combining items that allow you to unlock the trio of nines allowing your party to consistently hit the first damage cap with every single ability used by your party the itemization in this game allows for Endless Possibilities on how you customize your builds it means that you should in fact open every single Treasure Chest that you come across you

should in fact steal from every single enemy that you can you should solve every puzzle and explore every corner you can also find albet primers which help you learn the tongue of spe's greeny people once complete you can import your primers into a new save file allowing you to experience all the outet dialogue again but this time with fluency the end result is that every item you find is valuable in some way shape or form just from hearing this and thinking about it you can see just how important itemization is to compare with modern FF

games such as Final Fantasy 13 or 16 There is almost nothing useful to find outside of crafting materials in these games Final Fantasy FY 16 for example has some very big very beautiful zones and you want to go to them and find something really interesting but unfortunately there's just no secret thing that you can really find that would actually be useful for you because of the way the game is built because of the itemization there's not going to be an item that you find that increases Clive's strength unless it's a crafting item for a sword

there's not going to be a moment in these games where you find the useful ability or anything like that in fact I'd go as far as to say that there's never really a time in these games where you get an item and have that holy crap this is so useful moment because the game design simply does not allow for Meaningful itemization to even exist it's a very stark contrast and one I hope that Final Fantasy games will fix in the future but the center of modern Final Fantasy discourse is always about linearity Final Fantasy 10

throughout most of its journey is a very linear game later you acquire the Airship and you're able to revisit locations as well as unlock new ones however people often wonder why a game that is more linear like Final Fantasy 13 gets so much criticism for it while Final Fantasy 10 is loved for it I've always thought the reasons for this were really obvious and nowhere near as confounding as it's made out to be Final Fantasy 10 for starters is Simply Better paced Final Fantasy 13's battles look fast but Final Fantasy 10's battles actually are fast

with most normal battles ending very fast if you target the appropriate enemy weaknesses now don't get me wrong there are definitely some longer battles that occur later on in the game and thankfully the remaster has 2X and 4xp that allow grinding to go by even faster however even without grinding Final Fantasy 10 has battles that simply feel snappier most of the time each area in Final Fantasy 10 is also at most a few screens long the areas are significantly smaller they're also more interesting to explore with more secrets in them and the secrets are actually

valuable when you find them both games have branching paths with a treasure chest but in Final Fantasy 10 again you actually find items that are useful Final Fantasy 10 also creates scenarios where you interact with the world differently through puzzle solving dodging lightning or various mini gamess that shake up the pacing and no a lot of these are not great I agree a lot of them suck and the Closter of trials in particular can be incredibly frustrating and just outright unenjoyable at times but they serve a deeper function and they fulfill exactly that they create

gameplay variety such that you aren't just running down a hallway fighting battles watching a cutscene repeat in fact you can always take a break from battles and play Blitzball and more directly Final Fantasy 10 is in full honesty generally considered a better story with more enjoyable characters so when I am walking forward to Cuts scene and fight I enjoy doing it more because I'm more captivated by what's going on in a game like ff13 you can't even backtrack to any previous location aside from pulse once you visit that location in a playthrough you will never

see it again unless you replay the game Final Fantasy 10 however encourages you to go back and explore those areas and unlock new Secrets as well as a map system that lets you discover new areas through coordinates and passwords linearity is not the issue here in fact most video games by definition are linear the difference simply is Final Fantasy 10 finds ways to engage the player throughout its fixed Journey offering ing both real gameplay Choice as well as satisfying illusions of choice that continues to mix things up so that you're never doing the same thing

for too long and to be more blunt just also has a more relatable tale with characters that are more grounded as a result it remains no secret that Final Fantasy 10 remains in the heart and mind of Gamers to this day with the Final Fantasy 10 series selling over 21 million units worldwide through my most recent playthrough of this game for this video I couldn't help but fall in love with this all over again and now this game by many is still considered to be one of the best entry points in the series giving the

absolute best of new and old and it's not just the fans who still love Final Fantasy 10 squareenix has on many occasions talked about a potential for a Final Fantasy 10 3 tanoma had this to say on the matter quote if we are to make a Final Fantasy 10 3 we somehow have a synopsis written by noiman it's sleeping right now but the plot itself does exist it's interesting to know that him saying here the plot of Final Fantasy 10 3 does exist they really want to do this Noma has already drawn pches for the

designs of what tetus and Yuna would look like in such a hypothetical game tetus sporting J's headband and Yuna now with long flowing hair and it's alluded to that she's practicing the art of summoning again but can you make a game that stands next to one of the greatest of all time do we really need to relive revisit spir especially when we can already do that with another playthrough do we need to yet again undo one of the most meaningful endings in video games just so that we can feel the rush of when our feet

first touch the sand of bade Island there's a part of me that would not say no to this or even no to a remake of this game but just like there's also a part of me that wants to go into my freezer and eat an entire half gallon of ice cream I also know that it's not good for me even though it's tempting instead what I want squareenix to do is understand why a game like Final Fantasy 10 is so untouchable and why ly loved not to Simply recreate Final Fantasy 10 not to make another

game like Final Fantasy 10 but to realize how Final Fantasy 10 embodies the spirit of Final Fantasy laid out by previous games and elevated it to the next level a brand new world like we've never seen before drawing inspiration from culture locations and settings that we haven't seen before used in video games to look at a rich diverse cast of party members who all have their different roles in this found family as well as different different roles in combat all of which are playable and most importantly they have a journey that will never forget there

will never be another game like Final Fantasy 10 but I hope that it inspires other games other Final Fantasy games to be a game unlike any other