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monasatlantis · 1 year

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Final Fantasy X (10) Finally a review for my favorite game of all times!

So the times has finally come! It is long overdue that I write a review for my absolut favorite game of all times and the (for me) best Final Fantasy game ever made. Final Fantasy X. And there is no better time for me to review it then now, after I just replayed it over Christmas. As I had to use the ingame-cheats to be a bit faster (as I was on a schedule) I have to use previous experiences for a few parts of the review. But do not worry. I played the game on 3 different Consoles (or 2 consoles and the PC) so I have enough experience playing the game without the cheats.

So... here we go! (Spoiler for everyone who hasn’t played the game yet - be ashamed of yourself!) Interview-Style!

1. Why is FFX your favorite game and your favorite Final Fantasy?

This game has EVERYTHING I want in a game. A wonderful love story, strong female characters, an intriguing plot, a hot guy and a wonderfully beautiful word and even tho it is an older game at this point, graphics and music are to this day, still very beautiful. The Linear-way the plot goes is also very much to my liking and I also prefer round-based-battle-systems. So it really is the perfect game for me. The length (with around 2 to 3 weeks) is also very nice. And if I compare it to other Final Fantasy games (no matter if older or newer) non of them can match what FFX gave me and I am honestly not sure if there will EVER be a Final Fantasy game like this ever again.

2. Slow start?

The Intro is definitely amazing. It doesn’t hide anything, but doesn’t really give you any other information then that this is this boy's last chance to tell us his story, while he is looking over a destroyed City and his team seemed to be somewhat devastated, while sitting around a fireplace. Many questions arise immediately. Where are we? Why is this place just pieces of dirt and rubble? Who are these people? Why do they look so devastated? Why is that team so wildly mixed? And why is this the boys last chance to tell us his story? What happened? So it raises all the right questions in a good amount of time. It can not match the P5(R)-Introduction as the bit of action and coolness and panic was missing from it. But it was definitely a good start. Sadly... that only goes for the introduction-sequence, before we actually take over Tidus. As per se, starting out not knowing who you are, what kind of sport you play and while we are talking with what is apparently a Ghost and so on isn’t so bad either. Running around that Street, fighting monsters with Auron after that surprise-attack was also still... okayisch. Not exactly exiting and all, but as you are as confused as Tidus is, it will do for a first time. However, everything that happens after Sin drags you into Spira and until you reach Besaid, is mostly boring stuff you hardly need. Especially until the AlBhed find you. It would have been much better to wake up at the temple, the game giving us a short moment to be able to recognize that this is a temple when we are further in the game and then the AlBhed should have found us immediately. Not sure how much of the part with the ruins was necessary, either. But I get that what it is there for, they just could have made it a bit more exiting. As a Newbie of course, its irritating enough to keep you mostly interested.

3. You’ve played this game many times, does it make the game less good in other parts then just until you reach Besaid?

I feel like you pay more attention to Logic-mistakes and stuff like that, because you don’t pay as much attention to other stuff anymore. For an example, when you are stuck in that temple at the beginning of the game, you find ��dry flowers”, this part of the game is kind of scary and you just want to get out of there as soon as possible, when you play the game for the first time. You are also fascinated by this temple and how it is half underwater and still not full of water. You have no idea were you are and what will happen next, so if you play this game for the first time, you are totally occupied and hardly pay much attention to the fact that you find DRY flowers in a place were water comes in from EVERYWHERE and thus it is definitely impossible for this place to have DRY flowers, as it would be far too humid in there for that. But you only pay attention to stuff like that after you stopped paying attention to the other stuff and that usually only happens after a few playthroughts. So its really stuff like this, that suddenly starts to bother you. But it isn‘t much of a problem, its just making you feel frustrated sometimes, because you REALLY actually don’t want to be the person who points out stuff like this in a game that you actually really love.

4. After so many times playing the game, did you ever find ALL the AlBhed-Primer?

Sadly... no. Even at the end of this playthrough, I still seem to miss at least one. Tho at this point, I am missing mostly letters that rarely used, so its fine.

5. Sphere-board instead of leveling up, is it good or bad?

I think its a mixed blessing. On one hand, it gives you A LOT of possibilities and freedom when it comes to your characters weaknesses and strengths and that IS a great thing that not many games make possible. However... it sometimes also can be over complicated and I do still to this day usually get lost at some point XD Its not something that will ruin the game for anyone, but it can sometimes be a bother, especially as it takes some extra time usual “level-up” - games don’t take - although some other Final Fantasy games still do it in some shape or form. Including the newer game FF7R. But I do have to say I do not need to see a system like that EVER again XD

6. One thing you hate about FFX?

That you can not skip the tutorials. I’ve played this game like 10 times at this point. I do know how to make weapons and Aeons stronger, god-dammit! XD

7. Rate the overall plot!

As I said before, I do absolutely and unconditionally LOVE it. It's rare to find a game with a plot that is like this. First of all, the plot is really well-balanced. It gives you action, love, drama and happiness. Even your occasional “WTF?!” - moment as well as the teeny tiny bit of frustration that every game should draw from you at some point, just for good measure XD The game starts with lots of questions and only slowly, but surely gives you the right amount of answers at the right amount of time. It gives you emotions that you didn’t see coming, sometimes when you don’t see them coming. Its ending is a rollercoaster of emotions and fits the whole theme of the game very well, as happiness and sadness isn’t very far apart throughout the whole game. The plot of the game gives you a bittersweet love story with a great cast that is just the right size and just the perfect mix of different personalities and backgroundstorys that intermingle sometimes. And just when you think you had the plot figured out, they change something or do something unexpected. Going through this masterpiece of a story is a joy (even tho it sometimes hurts) and its almost perfect. It's actually the closest to perfect a game can get with its story I believe. People that dislike the plot of this game, are usually people who dislike romance. So 10 out of 10 points for the plot - yes, even tho it is just “almost perfect” but as you know, there is no such thing as perfect. So “almost perfect” is really as good as it can get.

8. A few words about the cast?

As I was saying the cast is a good mix of characters with different personalities and backgroundstorys, reasons and motives behind their actions. None of them is without fault and its a joy as a player (at least for me) to feel like you are part of their team.

Tidus as the main character is quite the fun guy to play. He never makes you wish you would have a different maincharacter. He gets introduced to you as a starplayer who is a bit overconfident in his abilities, and yet finds the time and will to interact with his fans. He has daddy-issues, but they don’t just actually make sense for once, he also overcomes them eventually, as he grows and matures throughout the story of the game. He is sincere, he cares and even tho he goes through a lot throughout the game, he never wavers and always does the right thing. Furthermore, he even does what he ultimately had to do, even tho the results will be that he looses absolutely EVERYTHING. It was a joy to play him and I would listen to his story again and again and again.

Yuna is the female main character and despite the fact that she seems almost too perfect as she is nice, polite, humble and caring and puts others ALWAYS before herself, she never feels like that character that is just not realistic. She seems perfect, but she is still human. She keeps secrets, causes others to suffer because of her way of dealing with problems and she is fascinated by something so simple as whistling. And even tho she was basically born to be a summoner and always knew what was coming and always ready to do it, unable to stop her wish to save the people of Spira even in the darkest of times in her journey, there is that small moment where she gives in to the wish of imagining a “normal” and “happy” life, which really finishes the deal of making sure that everyone can see and feel that despite everything, she is just a human being. A remarkable one, but a human being no less.

Lulu is probably one of my most favorite characters of the game. She seems cold and mean at the beginning, but a lot of what she is doing is just hiding her pain and despair, and you come to see and understand that, as you go with her through the game and learn more about her story, her feelings and her needs. She is never mean to Tidus, always explaining things to him, open to possible things beyond her understanding, never judging the AlBhed and when she is mean, it is usually towards Wakka and throughout the course of the game you see what is behind that and learn to not judge her for it. She is a great “big sister” for Yuna and a wonderful travel-companion for Tidus and I love her gothic look XD

Wakka is quite the complicadet character. When he meets Tidus, he seems extremly naive and absolutly desperate, given that he invites a total stranger to be part of his team, despite Tidus pulling the “Zanarkand-Abes” - Story on him. Wakka is extremly religious and he clings to his religion desperatly to endure the life and what it had put him through and yet, when Tidus breaks the rules to “save the summoner” he isn’t angry at him at all. Wakka is desperatly trying to putting the blame for things he can’t explain on someone and he usually choses the AlBhed, even when there is no way in hell that they are to blame. But in the end, Wakka is all in all just a really sad man. When he came up with the “maybe Chappu isn’t dead and he just got transfered a 1000 years into the future”, even tho Lulu confirmes that they have found his corpse and he didn’t just vanish or anything like that, you can see that he just has trouble getting over his little brothers death and that he struggles with the question of how to continue with his life. He and Lulu both offer to become the final summoning readily relatifly quickly, showing that they do not cling to live or what it has to offer for them. However, despite some moments were Wakka seems unlikable because of the way he deals with Rikku, he redeams himself really quickly and is overall a fun character.

Kimari is by far my least favorite character of the team. Its not like I dislike him or find him annyoing, its just that I do not feel much for him. I am glad he wasn’t killed in the fight with Seymore and that he could make up with his family, before they died and all, but I just don’t have strong emotions for him. But he does also grow in the story, it is just not as easy to see, because of the fact that he was so quite for so long. However, I still think that the game would not be the same without him.

Auron is my one true love in all the Final Fantasy games XD I am usually not into older man, but I really like this guy for some unknown reason that I can not even explain properly. He is strong, he is cool, he has been through a lot and yet, even tho it sometimes seems that way, he isn’t cold and he does care, even tho he tried to hide it sometimes. I love how he took care of Tidus for 10 years in a foreign land and yet he complains like an old man, how hard it is to guard a young summoner when she is at least in his own homeland, just as if he never dealed with a young person before XD He tries to be the hard one sometimes and his desicions seem cruel at times, but there usually is a reason behind it that you will come to understand over time.

Rikku joins the team relativly late but is a fun addition as likely the youngest member of the team and she brings that “I don’t care what Yevon says” - attituede to the team that was really necessary, after Tidus was forced to addapted to the rukes of Yevon. It was also good to have someone who was just as desperatly thinking about saving Yuna as Tidus did. And yet, it spoke for her that despite everything, she was willing to support Yuna until the very end, because that is what she wanted and Rikku wanted to be there for her. I find it a bit sad tho, that they never really say much about the fact that Rikku is actually Yunas cousin, but they bring it across quite well through their relationship, I think.

9. The “best”, greatest, most painful and most surprising moments in the game?

I love how when you enter the boat to Killika, you never think something bad would happen. Its quite early in the game and there is no way in hell that Sin is showing up again so early, right? WRONG! I think the scene were Sin attacks Killika is one of the hardest ones to watch in the game, but it is also very well done, because it did not just come very surprising its also showing you full force what Sin does. He does not care if he kill woman, children, elderly people or even an innocent baby. He just kills and destoryes and his attack is so powerful that as the player you can not help but wonder how the human race even survied until that day, given that in that attack, 4 children alone were killed in one single attack.

The scene, were Yuna dances on the water to send the souls of the dead, is just simply amazing. Visually it is just so beautiful and it really captures the essence of the game. Beautiful but also sad.

The Mihen-Offensive-Mess. The game doesn’t even give you the feeling that it will work out. It wouldn’t make much sense for the game anyway and yet, they drag you there to watch all those people die infront of the boy who just recently found out that Sin is his father. And there is a small moment, were you actually have some hope. Were you believe that MAYBE they can at least do something to weaken Sin. To make him stop attacking for a while or something. Anything. This scene was purely to show us part of Yevons true face. It was cruel but different then the destruction of Killika. While in Killika this was a surprise scene to show you what Sin can and will do, Mihen was purely to show you that stopping Sin without the High Summoning seems hopeless and that Yevon allowed those people to die, just to show that and keep the faith strong.

The Wedding. This hole ordeal with the wedding, from beginning to the end was just a freaking n,ightmare. For you as a player, it doesn’t really make sense why Yuna should or would marry Seymore. How would that bring the people joy, knowing that Yuna was going to die a short while later anyway? It shows you how desperate Spira is for good news, even if they are odd and hardly long lasting. It also makes you question Seymores motives. And it gives you A LOT of emotions you don’t even want to say out loud XD HOWEVER, when the wedding suddenly happens, with a man who should be dead because we freaking killed him, this gives you a whole different kind of feeling. This is freaking it. A wedding in Final Fantasy and yet again it is NOT the one we want to see. Beautiful visuals and all and once again, not the OTP getting married. Why Square Enix? Why? XD

The Kiss. Beautiful. Very well done and absolutly stunning to look at. Me loves. (I also have to say that I love the innocence of that scene. We have an underwater kiss scene. That could have easily turned into a hot makeout-sessions, sratching on the border of what the PG allowed, but insteak, we have them kissing and caressing each others faces as well as holding hands. Absolutly adorable and truly wonderful.)

The truth about Zanarkand. From the moment we saw the wall of the ones being used to summon Tidus Zanarkand to the moment where we find out all there is to know about the ruins of the real Zanarkand its a rollercoaster of emotions that are hard to place anywhere. First you think that you might lose both Yuna and Tidus and then we might also lose Lulu or Wakka and then things happen and suddenly you don’t know if the game won’t end on Sin actually killing you, because is there really a way to kill him and why hasn’t no one thought about it in the past 1000 freaking years? It was a great turn of events but it was also very exausthing.

The goodbye as well as the after-credit-scene. We get to that in the next question tho.

Honorable Mention: Tidus finally telling his father “I hate you.”

10. What do you think about the ending?

I usually see little of it, because I cry my eyes out every freaking time XD But seriously, its the bittersweet ending the game deserves. Hard to watch but still somewhat satisfying all the same. I love how the music changes the moment Tidus starts to fade away. I love how Yuna want to hug him and I adore how the while time, Tidus is crying. I can not even put into words how painful it is to watch Yuna stand there whistleling or the moment when she tells you to never forget the dreams that have faded. But I can also say that the moment in the “after credits” - scene, were Tidus comes back, immedeatly turns your tears of sadness into tears of joy. And in all honesty? That is where the game should have ended.

The game gets 9,5 points from me. I feel like despite everything, I can not give it full 10 points. There were a few small things the game didn’t do right and they add up at the end. Still the closest to a perfect game for me.

#Mona plays #Monas Spiele reviews #Mona plays FFX

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covenantofthedeep · 1 year

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electric love ☆

feat. | mona, childe, zhongli, & jean summary | they have a crush on u! a/n | i am trying to write so bad. pleeaseee rb if you see this it really helps esp since i haven't written in a while <3 thank u

mona megistus |

mona's not sure how to explain the crimson flush that spreads from her cheeks to her fingertips when you're around, nor is she willing to.

she doesn't know what's happened; just a couple of weeks ago the two of you were hanging out every day, friends forever, but now it's like something's changed. she can't think of you without picturing your lips, or the sparkle in your eyes, and that throws her off so much she goes out of her way to avoid you.

sometimes from her window she can see you talking to someone in the square, the sun highlighting your face and it's like you've been bathed in an ethereal spotlight. when she thinks about talking to you, her mouth goes dry and she finds herself at a loss for words, and she's not sure how to carry a conversation with you anymore. she hates it, actually. she detests it. you? distracting her so much from her every day tasks that she drops a stack of books on her foot when she sees you sprinting after a cat? how dare you.

the last straw is when she takes a walk through the woods and ends up in a sunny clearing, and she starts to daydream-the sun is just so nice on her face like that, and she's needed a break--and her mind wanders to you. your hands, she can imagine them intertwined with hers. would they be callused, she wonders, with all the sword-wielding you do all day? and then she catches herself and her eyes fly open and she stands. this can't go on any longer. you're taking up too much space in her mind.

she never used to feel this way. what a curious thing.

tartaglia |

childe would rather saw off his own fingers than admit he cares for you, and that's quite a sacrifice, seeing as he needs his bow and arrow. he has tried denying it, going so far as to shoot you down when you ask him to go monster fighting with you, or telling you he's "busy" when you ask him if he wants to hang out.

the crease in your brow when he tells you no kills him every time, making him want to turn you around and shout, i like you!

but that's a childish move, and childe doesn't resort to such tactics. he's decided the best option is to squash down his feelings and act as though everything's okay, despite the fact that taunting you isn't the little game it used to be--the two of you firing insults at each other for ages. now he takes real digs at you, because maybe that'll convince his stupid heart that he doesn't like you. the wounded look in your eyes before the whip-quick insult you spit back makes him want to kiss you, and he's embarrassed to admit that your lips take up more time in his head than they should.

he has no words to say how much he likes you, and he doesn't want any words, either, because that would mean he would have to tell you. even if he didn't want to tell you, he's not confident that his lips would stay sealed around you--one quick smile throws him off his balance these days, and sometimes when you wink (you've always done that, how has he just now noticed how cute it is?) he thinks he sees stars.

jean gunnhildr |

jean's already busy enough without you bothering her. that's what she tells you when you hang in her doorway, complaining that you're bored and will she please hang out with you? she always felt like tearing out her hair when you bugged her, although lately it's been for a different reason.

sometimes when you come in and throw yourself across her desk, she can't focus anymore; she used to be able to tune you out, but now, for some reason, you've been a distraction, one that she can't afford. she's had so much paperwork lately, so many requests from the townspeople asking her to take care of this, look over that, does this sound good. she's just so tired of it all, and she finds herself looking forward to you coming in and throwing her off kilter.

there's something almost magical about the dust motes floating through beams of sunlight that cut across your face when you lie on the floor, an arm thrown over your eyes and paperwork strewn on the ground beside you. she can't put a finger on the emotion she feels, she just knows that on the days you don't pop in, it feels empty and lonely. on those days, she catches herself staring out the window, watching for you, waiting to see if you'll drop by with some sweet madames and an offer to go to the tree by the statue of seven.

thoughts of you won't leave her mind, and it irritates her to no end. her work's been sloppy for the past few weeks, and that's not her brand. she wants to yell at you for distracting her this way, but those arguments just end up with you taking her hand and kissing her on the cheek, which is a strange thing to be imagining about you.

and she asks herself every day, is it odd that she wants to kiss you?

zhongli |

zhongli prides himself on his emotional disconnection from this world, and the way he can stay stable in every situation. except, the other day, your arm brushed his when you were laughing, and his arm tingled. maybe he could've convinced himself that he's imagining things and you just shocked him, maybe, which sometimes happens between people when there's static, except it happened again, and this time when you were handing him a pile of scrolls and books you thought he'd like.

he had dropped them all, sending the scrolls unraveling and the books landing splayed on their spine, which he knew would bend them. you had flashed him a dirty look, but laughter danced in your eyes. and you'd helped him pick them up while he wondered what had just happened.

sometimes he thinks you've noticed that he's been stumbly and stuttery and a mess around you lately, but you choose not to comment and instead tease him about it, which irritates him, and makes him wish that he could fluster you the same way. unfortunately, you remain the same--irritatingly, frustratingly perfect.

he wishes he could invite you to dinner more often without it seeming strange, although you are his closest friend--it can't be that weird?

but he regrets it instantly when you show up dressed up, as though you were going somewhere else than his dining room. after apologizing profusely for not telling you that it was just with him, he feels bad the whole meal and decides to make it up to you by taking you outside to see the stars (although you don't seem to mind being overdressed).

the stars shine and mirror in your eyes, pools of night set into your face. he wonders how much he could possibly love you without his heart exploding.

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