I'm hoping some people who actually like this game can talk me down from the ledge and help me find the fun. I've just arrived on Kilika after the fight with Sin, and im truly struggling to see why this game is so beloved. I haven't met a single character I'm interested in. I either despise them (Tidus, Wakka's accent) or am completely indifferent about them (pretty much everyone else). The story has been treading water since Tidus left Zanarkand, but everyone I've spoken to about this game says the story picks up in a few hours and gets really good. I could happily keep pushing through if I didn't find the combat so boring or the sphere grid so frustratingly complicated.

I'm really not trying to shit on such a well-regarded game needlessly. I want to give it a fair try and understand why people love it, but the more I play, the harder it is to keep going. What I came here to do was to ask for some guidance to make up for the shortcomings I've been experiencing. Do you have any advice to make the Sphere Grid more palatable? Does the combat ever get good, where team composition and interplay between characters actually matters? Because right now their skills seem so isolated, like Yuna's summons completely removing all other party members from the turn order, or there not being any clear way that I can find to show you want elemental type a monster is. Can you promise me the story gets interesting soon?

Please help me tolerate the game you like so much, even if its only for a few hours more.

I personally think FFX is the last great FF game. I think the characters are good and the places you visit are beautiful. I think the combat is better than most FF games. If you compare to earlier FF games where you can win pretty much by holding the accept button and just attack and everyone does about the same amount of damage and Magic is not needed FFX has enemies with armor that has to be attacked by someone with a piercing weapon and enemies that require magic. Also flying enemies that cannot be hit with some weapons. Also the combat is snappy and the camera don't pan around for a minute before the flight as in the PS1 games.

I've never had a problem with the sphere grid and I am not sure why people do. If you are using the advanced grid then you have more options. If you are using the old grid then the characters evolve down a straight path. The story is not FF7 level but it is still good.

Now if someone can make me love FFX-2 as much...

I just haven't seen any dimension to the characters yet, and the plot hasn't really developed since Tidus got to Spira.

I see the Sphere Grid as needlessly complicated. I'm sure for repeat playthroughs having so many diverging paths is great for experimentation, but its intimidating for a first-time player and the system of moving pieces around a board seems unnecessary when it could have just been a regular skill tree.

I don't think I'd say I loved FFX but I liked it well enough. The main plot won't appeal to everyone, it's squarely in the anime bullshit camp of FF games which can be a positive or a negative but I'd say the characters most definitely get fleshed out very nicely with the possible, disappointing exception of Kimahri I think? (I haven't played this game in years)

The one thing that does stick out in my memory about FFX though is the sense of place that the game creates. They really manage to make Spira feel like a real, lived in place with its own cultures and conflicts that extend beyond just what the party happens to be dealing with at the moment. I remember thinking that the introduction to Kilika really just goes for it and nails the landing. That said, I had a ton of problems with bad dialogue in lots of places but there's also some really great scenes! Like I said, the story itself is kind of a mixed bag but overall I'd still call it good. The ending is incredibly strong and probably boosts my overall impression of the game quite a bit.

I still think of combat in FFX as being an incredibly strong example of good turn-based combat in general. Serious, non-accusatory question but do you like turn-based combat generally? Because if you don't then it's a hard sell but if you do then I'd say yes the combat definitely gets a lot more interesting down the line.

I don't really have any advice for the Sphere Grid though because I've never understood why people think it's an issue. What's your specific hang-up? It is basically just a skill tree isn't it? It doesn't even offer that much branching choice early in the game until you get used to playing around with it a bit, unless you went ahead and used the expert grid I guess, in which case my advice would be don't use the expert grid if it intimidates you.

@imhungry: I finished Persona 4 Golden recently, so while I don't have a lot of experience with turn-based JRPGs, I can enjoy them. I'm just struggling to see where the depth and inter-character strategy comes from because all I've seen so far is "melee attacks for grounded enemies, ranged attacks for flying enemies." The elemental matching of magic hasn't been utilized since Lulu's tutorial fight and it's so strange to me that Yuna's summons removes every other character from combat. I'm hoping it gets better, but it has been pretty dull so far. Maybe its just because I'm coming off the heels of P4G where combat is much faster and party composition is more important from an early stage.

Hey hi!

I picked this game up recently in my desire to beat all the mainline FF games, since I'd never played X before. Going into it I was super dubious of the impact that voice acting especially would have. Right now I'm about 20 hours in, although I've put a few hours into Blitzball/other stuff. So I'm a fair way into the game I'd guess, but not near the end.

I was in a very similar position to you at around Kilika, where I felt no desire to get to know these characters, why was I doing any of this, etc. I was flipping between the English and Japanese VA in a way that was detrimental to my enjoyment of the story, but I couldn't quite settle which I wanted. In the end I chose English and I'm happy I did. Yeah, the voice acting is rough in a lot of places, but I've grown to find it strangely endearing.

The game really started to pick up when I got to (and out of) Luca, which shouldn't be too far along for you, iirc. Things start to come together and the journey you're really on becomes apparent, which I think is the strongest point of the game so far - it really does feel like you're on a pilgrimage. I found that it takes a while for Tidus to feel like an integrated member of the party (which is well justified imo), but he does, eventually. The story and the world has become infinitely more interesting the further I've gone on and I can only hope you get the same reaction, because it feels really unique. I love the dynamic of the religious establishment and the insistence on not using machina. You start to realise what religion means in this world and I feel like that's a rare sight in videogames.

As for combat/the sphere grid, I can't say too much other than I think the sphere grid is not something you need to worry about. Sure, that makes it kind of a chore, but the game is absurdly easy most of the time. I've been mostly following the obvious path in the sphere grid and while I don't find it particularly interesting, it's fine. I'd hope it would be more interesting on the expert mode. Combat is quite hit or miss, I think a lot of the random encounters are kinda shitty, especially since from zone-to-zone, it often feels like you're fighting the same archetypes with a different skin/model. There are some really cool boss fights though, that use the contextual commands quite well. Ultimately I'd probably agree with you that combat is a little one-note. Oh and for enemy elemental types, make sure one or two of your party members has the Sensor ability tied to a weapon/accessory.

It feels somewhat banal but I would just say stick with it for a while yet. Meet the antagonist. Get the full party together. Play some blitzball. The game quickly goes places in the story after a fairly easy-going start, but stick with it. Anyway, I need to go finish it myself... ya?

@mars92: Like I said it's been forever since I played this game but Kilika is still fairly early on (is it? I could be totally wrong) so I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't much complexity yet but the combat definitely gets more involved. Elemental factors definitely play in more, you start having to worry about piercing attack properties etc. Just speaking generally, one of the things that FFX combat does well is the importance that it places on turn management. Speaking to Yuna's summons specifically, one way in which the mechanic gets used is timing the summons to soak up damage on telegraphed, big damage attacks from bosses so that your summon takes the hit instead of your party. Like I said, it'll definitely get more involved but the thing I remember most about the combat is the strategic depth in messing around with the turn order and mid-battle character switching.

There are some good boss fights in the game, even if a lot of the time the game is too easy to really leverage the battle system well. As for the story/character stuff, I'll just say to keep in mind what the console rpg scene was like in 2001. (Playing this after P4G isn't going to do it any favors heh)

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here - I'm of the opinion that FFX is the most vastly overrated game in the series. It's too linear, the characters are blah, the world is blah, the music is blah plain bad. Blitzball is a terrible minigame. The spheregrid promises a lot of customization that takes too long to really open up. Pretty much everything about it is just sort of "blah." Not necessarily bad, just completely uninspired in every way. If you aren't enjoying it, don't waste your time playing it.

If you've got the scratch, pick up FFXII and play that. It's a considerably better game.

@therealturk: Wow I can't disagree more with nearly everything you said about FFX.

I have always found FF12 to be a boring chore of a game. That 4x speed thing that the rerelease put in was the smartest thing they could have done because fuck playing that game at regular speed.

Fight me. (Please don't)

I was never all that hot on FFX myself, I liked the combat and swapping out characters with different strengths and I loved Blitzball but I hated the VO and most of the characters. Sphere grid was good at the time but I'm meh on it now and the story never really grabbed me.

I always thought it's a good game but not a favourite for me. Tbh you've probably seen everything the combat has to offer as soon as you have most of the party members. If you're relying on the story to carry you, you may be disappointed but it's so subjective there's only one way to really know (the story certainly has it's moments tbf)

The linearity is probably the whole reason I'm stuck on Mount Gagazet and dangerously underlevelled. As for character development, Tidus goes through a bit ... as does Grand Wizard Waka.

Ohhh, yeah... The only thing I can suggest is to try not to compare Final Fantasy X to Persona 4. Two different stories. Two different casts of characters. Two different styles. Two different eras in the history of JRPGs. And arguably two different qualities of games if you wanna be one of those people.

At this point, Final Fantasy X is a nostalgia piece that hasn't aged as well as Persona 4.