Thaius said:
I just find it ironic that everyone complains about the stereotypical angsty JRPG character, then when they finally get the opposite of their complaints they hate him. Come on people, show some consistency.
And for your information, FFX happens to be one of the more popular Final Fantasy games, at least in America. And it wasn't until I played it just a few months ago that I realized why.
Final Fantasy X tells a much more personal story than most of the other games in the series. It achieves the epicness expected from Final Fantasy, but it is not the focus: rather, the story is all about the characters, their interactions with each other, their feelings toward each other as affected by their loyalties and their past. It was all about that, a summoner and her guardians. This made the game quite different from most I've played, and made for an incredibly emotional story with deep characters and dynamic relationships.
Also, the battle system is my personal favorite of the FF games I've played (I like the true turn-based rather than the time-based system, and they did a great job of assigning each character a specific role in battle). The soundtrack was not FFVII or FFVI status, but was really good (To Zanarkand is the most beautiful piano song ever). The optional sidequests at the end were actually fun, and there was plenty to do.
You may not like it, however that can happen, but you have to at least recognize that it's your opinion. There are many acceptable answers besides your snide example.
Popularity does not = good. By that logic Twilight is a masterful piece of cinema, The Jonas Brothers are one of the best bands ever, and Dr. Phil should run for President. Yeah, FFX sold well but that doesn't make it universally 'good' - and certainly not in terms of its story.
And yeah, it's just an opinion and we're all entitled to our own. But I don't think that's any reason to halt all discussion about our opinions. Discussing why we feel the way that we do is half of the fun of any discussion. I'd hate to live in a world full of conversations that went like:
"I think it's good."
"I think it's bad."
"We disagree."
"Let's never discuss it again."
"Agreed, we will only ever talk about things we agree on."
Anyway...
The things you describe liking best about FFX are the things it does exactly the same as every FF release before, and I'd say FFX does them the worst. The focus in FF story telling has always been on the characters and their interaction, rather than on the 'big picture' to go and save the world. At the end of FF6 each character recounts their own personal reasons behind being there at the final battle, and the game's story is all about the relationships that form in the face of the crisis more than about the crisis itself. You know that Locke loves Celes, but the game never seriously shows their relationship. You get behind the character's motivations through their actions and the subtext in the dialogue.
In FFX its in your face. Nothing is written in subtext and nothing is between the lines. All the characters blatantly tell you exactly what they feel and exactly what their motivations are. I think this was partly because Square was playing with their new voiceover toy and over-wrote the whole thing. Most of the characters in the game are representatives of a one phrase stereotype, and if you know your Japanese stock characters its absolutely insulting. There's the 'Magical Girl', the 'Old Samurai', the 'Cheery Youngster', etc. Almost half of the dialogue can be drawn from these descriptions, and reading them you basically get everything the game has to tell you about the characters.
Honestly I never considered someone saying they 'prefer' FFX's battle system, as its exactly the same as every other turn-based JRPG created. I guess this would make sense if you played FFXII first and then went back and decided you liked the old-school way better.
Anyway one day I'll go back and replay the whole banal adventure and describe in detail why it sucks and you suck for liking it (Spoony reference, don't go taking that seriously I'm sure you're just a wonderful person with terrible taste
)
In any case I feel this is still on topic as Tidus is the clear 'favorite' in this little questionnaire.
Oh also, as I've said many times before - Cloud from FFVII is not a whiny emo bastard. Cloud from Advent Children, however, is. Fuck Cloud from Advent Children, he ruined Cloud for me.
