For Final Fantasy X,
the tenth in the ongoing series and the first game to appear on the PS2,
you play Tidus, the blonde star of the sport Blitzball, an underwater mix
of water polo and martial arts.
However, during a game the city is attacked by an
evil force called Sin, destroying everything apart from yourself and your
guardian, Auron. For no reason at all you're transported to another world
where you have to do the usual FF blend of managing experience points, learning
new powers and recruiting a few non-playing characters to join your quest.
It's a good job I've dropped 'originality' from the review scores now (as of
April 2002) since everyone who's ever played a game in the series will know
exactly what to expect and it doesn't dish out any surprises.
Graphically, it looks fantastic. Yes, there are jaggies in some of the game
sections as you walk about, but once you're in a battle, the PS2's prowess
takes over and if you're delivering an Overdrive hit, or being battered into
next week by the Demi early on, what you see is brilliantly rendered.
The sound creates a nice touch of atmosphere, be it soft as you start the game
whilst everything is rosy and then heating up the pace as battle commences.
Whether you partake of this episode depends on your penchant for game types
and if role-playing games aren't the most important things on your agenda then
you'll no doubt give this one a miss, whereas fans of the genre will lap it
up with delight.
What is annoying, though, is that if you die early on (ahem!) it can take an
age to get the game going again as you're taken through all the preliminary
FMV sequences.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Graphically, it looks fantastic. Yes, there are jaggies in some of the game
sections as you walk about, but once you're in a battle, the PS2's prowess
takes over and if you're delivering an Overdrive hit, or being battered into
next week by the Demi early on, what you see is brilliantly rendered.
Whether you partake of this episode depends on your penchant for game types
and if role-playing games aren't the most important things on your agenda then
you'll no doubt give this one a miss, whereas fans of the genre will lap it
up with delight.
