(This review is meant to be read by people who have played the game. If you haven't be warned to see tons of spoilers.)
FFX is one of the best FF ever produced in the flagship series. Althought compared to FFX-2 it instantly deserves 100/100 and Oscar nomiations in 21 categories, FFX is actually not that perfect. For a mediocre game I will start with the goodies, but for a great game I will start with the flaws.
Flaw (1) During a battle, you want to shuffle all of the 7 characters to the front line to spend at least one turn, so they all get good AP afterwards and level up properly. To do it 500 times is not really enjoyable.
Flaw (2) A few ultimate weapons require you to do minigames of HUUUUGE difficulty, namely, butterfly catching, lightning dodging x 200, and chocobo racing of 0:00. Frustration guaranteed. If you have played FFX-2, you know how the development team got their sadistic tastes from.
Flaw (3) Some characters got strange speaking habbits that can be annoying after hearing it for 200 times. "You know?"
Flaw (4) Almost after every battle, one or more of your characters level up. You can't help, but go to the sphere map to advance a tiny step. At first this is very satisfying, but soon enough you will notice how time consuming it is.
Flaw (5) The most common soundtrack - the battle music, is not as great as FFV & FFVII. But if you have played FFX-2, you have no right to whine here.
That's basically all of the flaws. All of the other aspects are perfect.
***
[Story] 9/10
You annot ask a PlayStation RPG story to be more mature and moving. SQUARE(-ENIX) used the ultimate plot killer (spoiler follows!) - your lover has to die eventually, no? YOU have to die eventually. You are nothing but a dream. You are an illusion. You are not supposed to exist. Nothing hurts more to see yourself disappear into nothing, right? So naturally the FFX plot has a top potential. The story telling didn't let down this potential. It sets a consistent mood throughout, and the end will steal your tears.
Despite it being so perfect, you keep hearing "you know?" from so many different characters's script. This is rediculous. I never hear any "you know" spoken by anybody in my real life. It really piss me off. So I took one mark off here. Heh.
[Video] 10/10
You can't ask a game to be more beautiful. I don't even have to say anymore because you have to see it for yourself. You will regret to have missed this visual festival.
[Audio] 8/10
As I mentioned above, the battle theme was not strong enough to make your blood boil. Also, there is not anymore FF-Clasic "the wonderful field track" that make FF2, FF4, FF5, FF6 and FF9 so beautiful, many of the soundtracks are quite inspired - you really feel the momentum inside the Sea of Sorrow. On Mt. Gagazet you hear the lonesome, and in the travel agency you smell the relaxation. Suteki Da Ne (the song played when Tidus kissed Yuna) is better than FF8's main theme.
The English voice actos are doing pretty well. Lulu's voice is sexy! Much better than the Japanese Lulu.
[GamePlay] 8/10
You have to keep worrying about your level up. This interrupts your feeling about the current area. The frequency of save spheres are really nice. Compared to FFX-2, you have to cherish what you have now. You don't have to run through the same area for 10 times (each chapter at least 2 times. Why? You are automatically teleported back to the airship, leaving you behind all the items to be collected and NPC's you want to speak deep inside the area).
[Battles] 7/10
A lot of people dislike the turn-based battles but I find it to be fine after a while. Here, a bit of planning brain can make a lot of difference. It is more strategy-based compared to FF7-9, and definitely more thoughtful than FFX-2. Hell, FFX-2 is all about CONGRADS and trigger happy (with cat nip), right? In FFX, you can leave a lot of battles unscratched, or lie on the ground with the colored "game over" overhang, depending on whether you know the right things to do. The instant inputs for overdrives are also not a bad addition to this rather-stationary battle format. You can see a lot of battle machanics studies in gamefaq.com, while you see no such interests in FFX-2. Why? you may ask. FFX is deep; FFX-2 is above the water level.
You might complain from time to time that the bosses are a little too easy, because you really don't need to train for anything except for the very few last area random encounters - they are often tougher than the final boss. The same trend carries over to FFX-2 and becomes much worse. In many occasions, as long as you get your overdrives filled, you are guaranteed a success, and vice versa.
[Overall] 10/10
It surprises me that this game's average ranking is even a little lower than FF9. It is much better than FF9, so I boost my ranking to 10, although it probably deserves a 8.5/10 or so. (FFX-2? I give it a 3/10). Play it if you haven't done so, and laugh at those miserable souls who are struggling for 100% in FFX-2. Har har har.
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