The first Final Fantasy game on PS2 is a winner!
Anyway, sorry to get off track. Now you're wondering how exactly this nugget of joy came into my life right? Ya see, I actually found this game in a parking lot. It was scratched to hell, and the case was broken. Curiousity hit me like a kick in the face, so I kept the thing. Obviously it didn't work, but I worked at a video rental store with a disk resurfacing machine. (as angels sing out) So I pop it in the tray, and it has to cycle through 6 grinding stones before it finally clears all the scratches. When It finished, I removed the disc and marvelled as smiled into my flawless reflection on the disc's surface. Long story short (kind of) the disk worked miraculously from here on out.
Now for the Review!
Gameplay: 10
When I first started out playing this game, I thought I was gonna get bored with it within the first 30 minutes, and sell it on e-bay later. Three hours later, I'm reseting my machine to get the Jecht shot down cause I totally spaced out what I was supposed to do. That's dedication my friend. The gameplay is probably my favorite of all the Final Fantasy games. This is largely based on the battle system. I absolutely love it. Some say that the battle system made the game too easy. I disagree. I felt that the game was a lot more fun because of the battle system, mainly because I liked the strategic feel of taking the time to plot out the moves with your characters before taking the pain from the bosses. Since this was my first FF experience, I had a really hard time going from this to FF 8's time-based turn system. I know you can switch it, but I still like having the time to plot out my moves on MY turn. 8's was still like "hurry up and attack before they hit you five times and you're dead".
Graphics: 10
The playstaion 2 console really is not made for graphics. I love the machine, and I can admit it. However, the thing that seperates this console from X-Box is the games. PS2 definately tipes the scale as far as good games are concerned. (I poop on Halo 2) Final Fantasy 10 is a good exception to the graphical problem. I thought the CG animations were absolutely stunning. Gameplay graphics were awesome too. Not once did my eye feel like regurgitating any repulsive polygons.
(It was extremely hard to go from this to Final Fantasy 8)
Sound:
I would have to say that this was the lowest score on my board. I felt that some music scores sounded too much like they were from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. *It was only a few* However, there were some awesome music tracks. The voice acting made me laugh at parts. I never did figure out how old Tidus was supposed to be (the manual was missing), his voice actor wavered a lot. But the voices definately fit the characters. Along with the voice acting, I felt that there were A LOT of cheesy lines. This should be expected though, but for me playing my first Final Fantasy game, I really felt that they could have come up with some more adult-like dialogue. Sound effects were fine, no complaints
Value:
I actually just discovered all about the monster arena, Omega Ruins, and celestial weapons. I knew the monster arena was there, but eveything else was totally new to me. Beleive me when I say that the sidequests really do a lot for the value. My second time through was largely spent on capturing all the monsters to create the ultra-hard bosses that I could fight at any time I desired. It took forever, but I felt it was time worth spent. The celestial weapons are definately worth your time if you want to end those stinkin boss fights quickly. Plus Auron's Masamune made me jittery. The sidequests bump up the total playing time at least another 20 hours. Now that's value my friend.
Definitely worth the buy!!!
Tilt:
All in all this game is near-perfect. It was my first FF experience, and is what kicked off my addiction for these games. I loooove it.
peace,
eLLipTiX