Final Fantasy X Remaster, 10: Game Balance and International Versions.

       The guardians get a momentary respite at they travel the Calm Lands. However, trouble is close behind as they reach the sacred mountain, Gagazet.

       Okay, so this blog is relatively new, and here is where I admit that I'm still figuring out the best way to pace my playing with my blogging. Obviously, the way I've been blogging FFX has been less than ideal, since the quality of what I have to say has certainly taken a hit, being that I'm reflecting on experiences I had over a month ago now, if I recall. So, I'm hoping to wrap up the notable elements of the "main quest" (That is, besides "side quests") all in this post, and get the blog back on track with my game playing.

       The Calm Lands I talked about in my last post as a place where some new monsters show up. The game had been relatively easy up to this point, but pleasingly so. I was not having much difficulty because I knew the correct strategies to defeat enemies. This is the sort of gameplay I like. In FFX, you have some leeway for trial and error to figure out the best way to defeat your opponent without losing. Once you've got a good strategy, it's relatively easy. Contrast this to FF13 and many other games where the trial and error portion involves fighting and losing a battle many times, than reloading. Uggh, I hate that sort of gameplay, it's unfortunate that it seems to be the trend that games are moving toward. FF13 even builds this in with a "retry" option in battle, wtf? Admittedly, I may have a bit of a bias from tabletop games where I feel like if I "die" or "lose" a battle that I didn't do something right, and that I should be able to win battles without having to reload if I'm a good player. 

      A good example of what I'm getting at is the contrast in gameplay from Pool of Radiance to Pools of Darkness. In PoR you can wander around, and generally speaking, use your resourcefulness to get yourself out of any sticky situations (good game balance). PoD throws massive, deadly battles at you, and you just have to hope for the best... then reload (not good game balance). Oddly enough, at the time I'm writing this I'm a good deal into FFX-2, and the two games have a similar contrast. FFX has a turn-based, strategy heavy combat system. FFX-2 has a real-time strategic system, but it just seems like you're holding on for dear life trying to come up with the right combination of abilities, and often just end up button mashing... and hoping for the best.

Seymour attacks again on Gagazet. Total Annihilation? Hmm, that sounds best avoided.

      All that being said, the Calm Lands and Gagazet were where I started to have difficulty. An almost defeated malboro (I was trying to capture it, if I recall) handed me my first game over. This was over 30 hours in, without a defeat. Some might call that an easy game, but in this case I call it well balanced. The key is that there were some close battles, but I was always able to dig my way out and come out on top. I've heard a lot of Joe Internet complaining/bragging that Final Fantasy games, JRPGs, etc. are sooo easy, but part of me wonders how much of that is just simply based on expectations. If you expect to die Wizardry, or even Gold Box style, Final Fantasys might seem easy. However, if you expect NOT to die, they might seem just right. 

      On a side note, I've played a lot of Dark Souls, and feel the devs there really found a sweet spot in terms of deaths and gameplay. Death in an RPG isn't so aggravating if you don't lose your exp and items. Honestly, I think even keeping exp is enough, otherwise a defeat just feels like a waste of time since your last save. Take notes developers!

This massive beast is a member of another great Final Fantasy pedigree, the flan.

      So, FFX became a bit of a grind on Mt. Gagazet. The enemies were tougher than I remembered, and there was a very high encounter rate. It's notable that the remaster of the game is based on the "international" version of FFX, and features a new sphere grid option. The sphere grid is how you develop your characters in the game. Without going into too much detail, I was using the new "expert" sphere grid that allows more options for the characters. This also means I may have developed them less optimally, accounting for the increased difficulty than I remembered. All that being said, although the mountain got a little aggrivating at points, I did feel like I'd really accomplished something tough after making it through. I felt like it was actually the test of the summoner's abilities that the game's story hypes it up to be, and I came out on top. It was a nice unintentional RP moment for me, actually.

      There is so much to dig into in these games, I feel like a quick explanation of the "international" releases is in order. Essentially, some of the games have been released outside of the US with additional features (In this game's case, the extra sphere grid, and extra mega-bosses), possibly to make Europeans and Australians feel better about their release date being later than the US and Japan. Then, in true cash cow fashion, these additional featured games (along with english audio, if I recall) are released in Japan as the "international" version. That pretty much sums it up.

  Feeling exhausted but triumphant after scaling the massive mountain, the guardians faced yet more trials within the caves leading to the mountain's peak, and to their eventual goal... Zanarkand.

The cave holding the trials of Gagazet.

           

The guardian at the mountain's peak.

  There is a very nice sunset background as the guardians decend into Zanarkand.

 Then, once the guardians reach the base of the mountain, it's a starry night.

Which, admittedly, this screen shot does not show too well.

     Given that the Final Fantasy games don't have a day/night cycle like Ultima or Dragon Quest, I cynically expected to go back a screen and have magically gone back in time to sunset. Kudos to the devs for thinking of that, the sky on the previous screens was now awash with stars. Incidentally, I generally dislike the word "kudos", go figure...

       So there is just too much more to say about this game, and it's 3am, so... one more post on the main quest to follow! (It would have been cool to end FFX on the 10th post, but hey, whatevs.)

  The guardians have reached Zanarkand. Rikku and Tidus are no closer to finding a way to avoid Yuna's death. Will she end up sacrificing herself in the name of peace? Find out next time... on This Bard's Tales!