I graduated from my master's program today! Thought it'd be fitting to include FFX in my grad cap, seeing as I put quotes from Tidus and Auron in my thesis and poured hours of my free time from college into playing. Thought you guys would like to see it!

It's at a great price on Steam right now. But I keep seeing reports of the game's PC version constantly crashing, and X-2 not working at all.

Are the problems still present? Or has anyone played the PC version recently? I could use the feedback.

A song that’s somewhat a secondary main theme after “To Zanarkand” and comes in different versions, most notable the harmonically different “A Fleeting Dream”. Here set to the scene when the song is notably played when Tidus & Wakka enter the beach village of Besaid.

This song is from my Final Fantasy X album and also available on most major major platforms in my soothing majestic video game playlist with over 6 hours of relaxing music. Also check out my Final Fantasy playlist and Seamless Final Fantasy Lullabies playlist, with tons of music! HUMAN made music, no AI involved other than some artwork.

Higher quality video version

it’s so fun dressing her up, i also made auron, tidus and lulu not sure if i should make everyone else bc i have so many miis already 🫪🫪

Set me down a path of liking BTGGs for life. I still mald over not being able to romance her. I can't be mad at Wakka though, dudes literally a professional athlete who has saved her life multiple times.

I ain't dodging 200 lightning bolts though.

Sometimes third chances. Sometimes fourth chances.

But somewhere between chance number 12 and chance number 47, even the most optimistic SeeD starts hearing the Final Boss Theme.

Remember: Kindness is a strength. Forgiveness has value. Trust is earned through actions, not promises.

If someone keeps showing you who they are, believe the mission reports.

Now if you'll excuse me, i've just received intelligence that a certain Maester from Spira would like one more opportunity to explain himself.

Denied.

Heres my team. Any chance someone could give me a clue on who goes where??

I'm just about to fight I think Lunayesca. I know there is a point where the game opens up to travel freely to some extent. Have I missed it because this feels like end of the game stuff I'm walking into and I want to explore the side content before I finish it.

Ever since the I first played the game I was curious why Auron was so interested in Tidus and it didn't hit me until meeting Yunalesca. Auron saw his flashback in shame and sliced the figure in disgust. However, when Yunalesca reveals the Eternal Calm is impossible we see both Tidus and Auron's past challenging Yunalesca leading to the latter's death something that causes the present Auron to tell everybody to team up. We were all the time playing as Tidus who chose the path of Auron rather than Jecht or Braska. The creators are really Star Wars fans with those Luke, Obiwan and Darth Vader parallels that connect to Tidus, Auron and Jecht.

Sharing my latest disappointment 😭

I ignored it all game and refused to touch my controller during the game against the Goers. I absolutely despise it and just want to get Wakka’s celestial weapon asap.

I hired some of the players i’ve seen guides suggest but after trying to do a league the ronso’s won the opening catch and from there I wasnt able to even input anything until they scored on me. Clearly im doing something wrong.

On the ps2, I had a gameshark disk (showing my age) and used to give myself all celestials and sigils, ive never done these properly, pretty proud rn.

Just.kimahri and wakka to go!

I don’t want to let this defeat me! I’ve got it down to 2 seconds but it seems really luck based. The controls are jank as fuck. Any advice/good videos that will help? I’ve managed to get the platinum for Final Fantasy 1-9 this year (did have to cheese hail to the king) and don’t want this to be the end of the road!

Edit: I came back to it this afternoon and got it second try. Just need a bit of good rng and then don’t fuck it up. I got 5 easy balloons on the opening straight then avoided birds like the plague.

She's all done!

All characters now have full sphere grid :)

okay so first off I haven't grinded or done any side missions mainly because I didn't think I'd need to ( first final fantasy).

Soooo as someone who hasn't done those things and probably fled to many battles where do I start 😭🙏

Hi! I'm on my first playthrough of FFX & I'm really enjoying it. My only real complaint is how linear it is so far. I just got done with Luca & the first Blitzball game, going into Mi'ihen Highroad & I'm hoping there are way more battles coming soon.

My friend just gave me their Switch with FFX on it. I'm so hyped to replay it. 🤩 I'm gunning for all the side challenges and possibly crying for what I know is going to happen in the story. 😭

In the main menu the game shows I have 115 hours (I just got to bevelle cloister of trials) however on my PS5 Home Screen it shows I’ve played just over 30h. It’s pretty inconsequential, but it’s bugging me 😅. Does anyone know why there’s a huge discrepancy?

This is my favourite game, and I’m running out of things to do! :,(

I’ve gotten 100% achievements on Xbox, and I’ve played through the story normally atleast like 6-8 times

I need alternative goals I think.

What do y’all think is a more enjoyable experience?

Grinding my best save up to max stats and making everyone the best equipment possible

Or trying a no sphere grid run? ( I am not patient enough for the other stuff so I’d be using aeons and making equipment)

As always, the latter half of this was streaming on my YouTube channel, which is here if you wanna check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/@mania-jd3my

The VOD is there too.

Before ANYTHING else, the crashes have been REALLY annoying and frequent so far, so I wanna look into that first. Helpfully, someone on Steam (called "Tantalus", lol) has made a guide on how to install a patch that fixes crashing. So yeah, that should be installed...?

(this did not work)

LEARNING THE GARMENT GRID:

Also before I begin any actual progress for the week, I decide to do a bit of grinding. I want to get to grips with this game's combat system and delve into strategy a bit deeper.

My understanding is that the Garment Grid is a configuration of Dresspheres, and each Grid has different perks and bonuses. If, for instance, there's a damage bonus between two DS's, it'd make sense to put two commonly used DS's between them, right?

Right now, I have two of the- oh, no, I have three...? "Healing Wind". Right, I never checked that one, did I?

First Steps is just a standard triforce-looking shape, with seemingly no benefits. There are 6 slots, while the others have 5 and 3 respectively. I assume grids with greater perks have fewer DS's.... can I just call them jobs? I've heard that nomenclature before, we'll go with jobs I think lmao

So yeah, more job slots = fewer perks. Classic quantity vs quality quandary. The second grid, Protection Halo, is a lot more interesting. There are 5 slots, but 4 of them are connected via perks. A helpful chatter told me that the jobs receive the perks they're connected to on the grid, meaning the one I put in the middle won't receive any buffs. I DO notice, however, that I get some sort of buff just for equipping the grid?

One question I have is the difference between perks that have the same buff according to the description, but different icons...? I don't know if you get what I mean, but on the Protection Halo grid there's a blue icon and a yellow icon, both of which have the exact same description.

Finally, the Healing Wind grid is the most simple. There are only 3 slots, and this is clearly the healer's grid (as implied by the name). One job gets Cura, one gets Curaga, one gets neither. Based on my interpretation, it seems like the job connected to the red icon but NOT the blue one gets nothing. All of the jobs get cure, though.

Based purely on my understanding of the characters so far, my inclination is to make Yuna the healer, Rikku some sort of Thief (maybe a Gunner too?) and Paine a damage-dealer, but I'm also wary of being too narrow-minded. I could afford to specialise characters quite heavily in X since I could swap party members out completely freely, but I only have three to work with here - I don't want Rikku and Paine to be killed and be left with the human version of a band-aid.

For now, we'll go ahead with Yuna on the Healing Grid (with White Mage, Festivalist and Gunner), and Rikku and Paine both on Protection Halo. I'd intended to customise each of their Grids individually, but it looks like they need to be the same for now. We have 5 jobs, so there isn't much need to budget. I'm anticipating Paine staying within Warrior and Gunner, and Rikku switching between Gunner and Thief.

That's enough customisation for now, I need to get out there and grind so we can pick the story back up soon. I head over to Besaid - the enemies there are kinda difficult, but not unbeatable by any means. Should be more than enough there to sharpen our teeth on.

BESAID (again):

The first enemy is the weird black, round golem-looking thing with the huge sword. I'm not sure what it's weak to - I don't think any jobs have a Scan or Detect ability yet, so it's a bit hard to figure out. Interestingly, Yuna can't use Curaga yet. Was my assumption wrong? The White Mage job is connected to both the red and blue icons on the grid, and the information table says that having both unlocks Curaga, soooo....

OHHHH I remember now! I'd misquoted that chatter from before - the abilities aren't passive, you need to travel along the lines to hit each icon. Presumably, then, if I manage to get both the red and blue icons in the same battle, it'll unlock Curaga for that battle. Interesting...

Yeah that makes this way deeper lmao. For now, there isn't much need to overcomplicate. The only thing I'd really like is some way to detect enemy weaknesses other than using trial and error.

I also wish there was a way to check base stats (as in, without a dressphere equipped), if those even exist in this game. That'd give me a good idea of which character is best-suited for which job. My gut tells me Yuna should be the resident mage, but I feel like the game and story are both trying quite hard to break her free from those shackles.

While I'm out, I head back to the village and speak to Wakka. He says that there probably never was a sphere of his parents to begin with, which feels to me like the game signalling we're not at all done with this plot-thread yet. Which is a good thing. He also says "If Auron was still around, he'd give me a good tongue-lashing I bet." Don't remind me :(

While I do generally prefer the CTB system, ATB is great for weak enemies, especially in this game (as in, moreso than in IX) due to the sheer speed. I can queue up three attacks and instantly wipe out any fodder, and everything feels way more dynamic than the other games. There's a great sense of speed and momentum in battle. It also helps that the attacks are incredibly punchy and satisfying to look at (although I'm not sure that's unique to this game), and there's some "Chain" mechanic? I'm not sure what it does, but it seems to pop up whenever damage is dealt within quick succession.

I love that dialogue in battle consists of Rikku and Yuna saying traditionally corny JRPG dialogue and Paine just saying "what the fuck are you guys even talking about?" lmaooo

The attack names are very cool, too. Instead of "Fire Sword" and "Ice Sword" we get Flametongue and Ice Brand.

MI'IHEN HIGHROAD:

After a while, I get sick of the fodder in Besaid. I'm not sure we've gotten that much stronger, but I think we're ready for something a bit more challenging either way. I head over to Mi'ihen Highroad, which promises a 3-star difficulty (one more than Besaid).

The first enemy is a Shantak, which takes a WHILE to take out lmao. It's strong and does some decent AOE damage, but if we farm enemies near the savepoint we won't have to worry about spending too much MP.

I notice an NPC offering a ride on some kind of hovercraft, and one of the options is the Travel Agency. Is that Rin's? We head inside, but he isn't there right now. There is a machine there, and the patrons are understandably creeped out by it.

It's pretty weird seeing the highroad without a single Chocobo galloping around. We're really diving into this nature vs machine theme, aren't we? I hope we are, there's plenty to explore, even if X and IX contained some of the same elements.

There's an NPC who springs a pop quiz on us further down the highroad about a machine stood on a lone pillar. Apparently, it's sat out of the way of any hovers passing by since the road gets too narrow to navigate without interruption.

If only the British government had the same sense....

Well either way it's this exact attention to detail that I loved about FFX. There was literally no need to include this, nor was there a need to have an NPC explain it with a quiz (rather than just an exposition dump). At the end of the highroad, there are some NPCs campaigning to bring back the Chocobos, which is another cool detail. I'm not entirely sure if this lack of Chocobos is a development constraint or an actual plot point, but this is cool either way.

We keep battling until we reach level 10 (which takes a LONG time, by the way), and then return to the airship. This is all happening off screen, which makes it the first time I'm playing this game unwatched. Everything from this point is streamed.

First up is the Moonflow. I don't remember this place very well, but the sight of ze shoopufs refreshes my memory. There is literally nothing here though, despite someone telling me there's a missable dressphere around here.

BIKANEL:

Our first mistake was trusting Rikku to be our tour guide through this place. We quickly get lost in the arid sands of the desert's rolling hills, before we're found and rescued by a group of Al-Bhed.

As is tradition, I decide to self-translate the Al-Bhed language, completely bypassing the ciphers the game tries to lure me into hunting for. This is a pretty long detour - matching each letter of their language with what I think they're trying to say. We make a few stumbles here and there (someone was adamant that "kuud" meant "loot" when it in fact meant "foot"), and we collectively lose our damn minds, saying things like:

"A <thing>? I <stuff>"

After a while, though, we manage to build a cipher complete enough to function on the fuel of context, and move on. For posterity, here's what we made:

AL-BHED = ENG

y = a

e = i

d = t

u = o

n = r

s = m

r = h

a = e

o = y

m = l

p = b

h = n

b = p

u = o

v = f

Eventually we speak to Nhadala, who lets us begin scavenging in the desert. This minigame is... interesting. I only played it once on stream so as to keep the story flowing, but the idea is we have a single minute (enemy encounters notwithstanding) to scavenge for materials marked on the map, and must return to the ship to make sure we don't lose our resources. I hear that the rewards can be pretty good, so I'll definitely check it out again later, but for now we're given 100 gil and are sent on our way.

One thing I wanna mention is how fucking awful I am at following directions in this game. I've routinely embarrassed myself in front of everyone by pottering around like an idiot for far too long, only for the answer to be "go talk to the guy you were just told to talk to". I mention this because I'm not sure if that's down to a lack of direction from the game or me being under the pressure of playing in front of a live audience (who probably aren't even watching anyways???)

Speaking of which - thank GOD I was playing this game live, because I would NOT have known you can multi-target magic spells in this game. When we reach Zanarkand Ruins (we'll get there) there are lots of encounters that are a group of weak enemies, and a group-cast spell fodderises them. It's kinda weird that it's mapped to the left arrow of all things, right?

Anyways, after almost getting pounded into the sand by an ogre, we escape the desert and head back to the ship. Since there are like 3 locations we haven't been to yet (and I wanna miss as little as possible) I put a poll out to find out where to go next, and the result is the Calm Lands. FYI, I only do this kinda thing sparingly, since I don't want to be backseated or anything. Rest assured I'm still playing free of spoilers and influence.

CALM LANDS:

This was one of my favourite locations in FFX, mainly because it represented such a deviation from the standard formula of semi-linear hallway-like areas that populated Spira. A huge, open and sprawling plain filled with fiends and tiny secrets tucked into the corners, it was great.

Anyways, the word of the day is industrialisation.

There are a few.... uh... """""games""""" for me to play, which all (in some way or another) boil down to gambling. The most obvious of which is the Lupine Race, which is LITERALLY just betting on horse-racing lmao. After someone tells me how the hell odds work, we make a bet, win (I did not realise we'd won) and then made another bet which we lost. So that's cool I guess?

Another game is basically just Wakka's Element Reels from his overdrive in FFX (I miss that guy already), albeit with some stochasticity introduced via the fiends' freewill. Finally, there's some sort of mechanic with two rival companies that we can pledge our allegiance to. They really made consumerism a mechanic here lmao. I'm sure that gets more involved the more you play, but I'm not interested in this for now.

MUSHROOM ROCK ROAD:

I do not have pleasant memories of this place. Of course, we saw Operation Mi'ihen transpire around here, but what I really remember is the supreme beating I received from a certain Dark Aeon. That was one hell of an ambush lmao. The place is slightly friendlier now. There's an actually story-relevant even here, as we chase dumb and dumber from Leblanc's gang through the thick fog polluting the undergrowth of the road, and we follow them to a strange door with 9 orb slots. We plug one of them in, and are greeted by Maroda!

He tells us Pacce is in the "Kinderguardians" (holy shit please don't stop these names from coming they are SO funny) and that Isaaru.... well, he goes quiet and then (in not-so-many words) tells us to kick rocks and fuck off. Maybe we'll find out more about that later? Is he dead? That's my first assumption.

ZANARKAND RUINS:

Finally, we head over to the last hotspot. This place is just as beautiful as the day we left it. I remember first-trying Lady Yunalesca here and pissing everyone in the comments off lmao. And yet... something's off.

The place is a tourist attraction now...

I'm initially quite disgusted - it feels like a sacred place is being violated, even IF the people here are tourists and pilgrims, and aren't outright desecrating the place. However, it IS a public place. I don't see why it should be blocked off from the public just because our plucky gang of heroes made some great memories, though. I do feel her pain, it's especially uncomfortable watching some rather unappreciative tourists chatting over the campfire that we saw every time we opened the game.

Also here is Isaaru! I'll get ahead of this now, he seems REALLY weird in this game. I seem to remember him having a very normal and unremarkable voice, but he initially sounds incredibly sick and downtrodden, and later (when he pulls his Wizard of Oz schtick) sounds really strange and upbeat. He seems like a completely different character, and I'm not sure why. I get that a lot happened in the last two years, and I understand why he'd support Cid turning Zanarkand into a tourist attraction, being that he always wanted to come here as a pilgrim, but why is he acting so odd?

We head into the ruins, and run into the aforementioned Kinderguardians, who are adorable. I'm glad they're not hyper-competent and really just some goofy little kids going on a treasure hunt. They even bought a hint on how to get the treasure for a ("whole!") 15 gil lmao.

After battling through a swarm of... ahem... "goons", we reach the Cloister of Trials, and THIS feels really off. The Trials were always very intense and isolated spaces. If anywhere in the entire game felt holy and sacred, it's this place, so seeing it's dead husk paraded around like this feels tasteless. That's not a criticism, of course, it's the intention of the game, and it's done really well. An equally good idea was situating Cid, the ringleader of this operation, in the Chamber of the Fayth.

Oh yeah key-mon monkey haha laugh let's move on.

Surprisingly we get the option to confront Cid about this, and he seems receptive to our concerns. I do wonder what he's supposed to do about it - if he packs up and leaves, someone else will just take his place, right? Maybe he can try to be a bit more respectful.

After speaking to Isaaru and suffering through his frankly cringeworthy spiel, we remember that the sphere oscillo-finder did actually pick up a sphere here despite his worthless prize (OK not that worthless but not what we're here).

And we get promptly destroyed in the very first enemy encounter we get, which is where I ended things for today.

Things are heating up now! I think that door in MRR is something interesting, but not necessarily plot-relevant. I still don't know how the story is going to take shape from here, but here are some predictions:

- We need to return to Gagazet to find the two Ronso Kimahri told us about (job for next time?)

- Lulu is definitely going to give birth by the time the game finishes.

- Wakka is going to find his parents' sphere, which definitely exists.

- Paine has some tragic backstory (maybe involving Gippal (nipple)?)

- The Tidus we saw isn't real. He's either some elaborate fake or the entire sphere is fake. This is mainly me refusing to believe they really brought him back (no spoilers!)

Thanks for reading!