I love Final Fantasy. I may be biased, the original Final Fantasy X was my first real RPG game and I played it to death and back. X-2 was one I got later down the line and, while I enjoy it, there's really no comparison.
The Games:
X has, in my opinion, a beautifully crafted story in an interesting, if a little confusing, fantasy world. The political and religious aspects of the game might be a little tough for some, as Square Enix doesn't have any problem taking shots about blind faith and religion is a central point of the game. Heck, the biggest monster around is literally named Sin. The combat mechanics are exclusively turn based, meaning you can spend all night planning your next move if you're careful, and sometimes it does take a good amount of though to get it right. The special ability system (Overdrives) do have some time-based mini game-like aspects, but they're generally easy to learn and don't get too complex. Leveling up is also as simple or as complex as you want it to be, with generally defined paths for each character but various junctions available to deviate into someone else's path. It looks hard but it's very easy to learn. This remaster is also based on the international version of the game, meaning all the content (the second level up grid, dark aeons, etc) are open.
X-2 is an immediate squeal and pretty bland story wise. You pick up some short time after and seem to have forgotten all you abilities and how a lot of the world works is completely changed. A job based system replaces the grid and you switch between jobs during battle (similar to Paradigm Shifting in FF13 but with much, much more to customize). There's not a whole lot to say actually. Yuna (the player's character of X-2 and secondary main character of X) is robbed of her agency as a person and more or less functions only in the context of Tidus (the player's character of X) and the rest of the girl squad mostly exists to help Yuna for reasons this and that reason. One silly thing that I love however is the shout-outs to X, specifically Yuna and Rikku (the other playable character from X who returns) will use specific items from X, some their own, some others. It's a nice touch to say "Hey, we didn't just throw their stuff out!"
The Remaster:
This is not a remake. From what I can tell, a select few character models (commonly used ones like the main party and our old friend S.) have been updated to much higher quality, and their textures along with it, but most of the characters have not been changed which makes for some awkward scenes between somewhat realistic people and box people composed of a third the geometry or less, but for the most part it's not too noticeable. Close ups of non-remade characters aren't the norm. The audio is great, with rerecorded versions of the battle theme and others, while keeping some of the old sounds for things like menu selection and what not. It's a little jarring if, like me, you have the originals memorized, but the updates are very well done.
Verdict:
The only, ONLY reason this doesn't have five stars is that I would have liked if they updated more of the characters, textures, and animations. At times if feels like a port and FFX was notorious for the bad lip-sync to the audio, by which I mean complete lack of. The mouths were not updated to move to the English dialog, so any time you look at someone's mouth while they speak you feel like you're watching a dub, because you basically are. Frequently someone's feet will hover above the ground, particularly on slanted terrain. That said, these games, particularly X, will always hold a special place in my heart. Anyone who liked the originals will love playing again on a modern console, and having both together is nice, especially for us Americans who never got to fight the Dark Aeons! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Sigils to collect...
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Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2014
Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2016
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Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2014
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Top reviews from other countries
Lisa Savoy
Fun adventure to play
Reviewed in Canada on April 9, 2014Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
D. St-Maurice
great game but horrible loading time!
Reviewed in Canada on May 22, 2014Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
Stephenie Denault
So worth the price!
Reviewed in Canada on May 11, 2014Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
Jonathan Leblanc
yay
Reviewed in Canada on May 31, 2014Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
Scott McKnight
Grade A Service
Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2016Style: PS3 SpecialVerified Purchase
