| |
"In the next room, or this very one,
The man with the golden gun." Ah, Lulu
|
With the news today of North America getting Final Fantasy X a month earlier than previously planned to catch the pre-Christmas rush, Final Fantasy: Worlds Apart thought it's about time
we did a preview of the biggest game yet to arrive on Sony's PlayStation 2. Although only 500,000 copies are going to be sneaked out onto shelves, and the UK not getting a release until the 22nd of February next year, a lot of lucky gamers will have Final Fantasy X in their Christmas stockings.
Its been a long wait for the English version of the game that sold over 2 million copies in Japan - symptoms of waiting for it to arrive include drooling, sleepless nights, and massive amounts of anticipation.
Through a candid, lengthy conversation with TheDarkOne, a fellow FF:WA member who's completed the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 10, I got the scoop on many areas of the gameplay and various other juicy facts; I wouldn't consider anything within this article to be a spoiler, because no plot of story points are mentioned. Anything that is mentioned will, most likely, be learnt somewhere near the start of the game.
Tidus, the Squall-lookalike and main character, lives in an area called Zanarkand. The main pastime in his world is a game called Blitzball (more on that later) and our Tidus is a bit of a player, being a celebrity amongst his people. The games main adversary is a chap called
Sin who's a bit of a dab-hand in the forces of nature. Yuna, a much more innocent specimen, is knowledgable in the forces of magic.
'EXP' and the traditional method of levelling up are gone, replaced with the intriguing Sphere system. At the end of battles you get AP, and there'll be an amount of AP required to get to the next sphere level. As you increase in sphere levels it costs more and more AP (obviously). When you have an S. Lvl (Sphere level), you can use it on the board to move one place along it. You also gain spheres at the end of battles to spend on specific places on the board. Some spheres on the board increase power, physical/magical defence, speed, evade, and abilities. Essentially, you burn S. Lvls on the board.
|
|
|
Lulu "relights her fire" using the sphere system
|
The extra number crunching of the PS 2 = more pretty graphics to look at
|
Also after battles, you can get spheres like Power Spheres (to use the power, defense, and HP increasing spheres on the board), Magic Spheres (for the magic stats), Ability spheres (to learn magic and abilities) and luck and speed spheres.
You can only activate the spheres on the location you are in, and the ones next to it on the various paths. The board is set; you move along a path or multiple paths as there are junctions to go in different directions. The spheres on the board (not the ones you burn) dictate how your stats can improve, so you can't just keep increasing one stat. You just have to go along the path that the board lets you, but you have a lot of control with the sphere locks and what way you want to go.
You also have to deal with certain locks that lock out parts of the board, however you can use Sphere locks on the board to unseal those spheres to cross them into different sections: it's just like increasing your stats. The different character's sections are locked out, so your character's can't learn each others abilities, but once you unlock them, you can.
All characters have unique overdrives; it's an excellent amalgam of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII's limit break systems, and far better than Final Fantasy 9's "Trance" system, which was somewhat of a nuisance since it would occur whenever the bar became full, no matter what. This time round limit breaks work like VIII's, with a bar that increases, but they can be saved and are activated by holding left (a la VIII). So, it won't replace the Attack command or be instantly used.
|
|
|
500,000 copies out "in the third week of Decemeber," so pre-order now
|
Otherwise keep a look out for "Winter Jampack" on the PS2 - it has a FFX Demo
|
Each character has different ways of increasing their limits. Also, you can set the situation for which your bar increases. You start with the main way; it increases when you get hurt. As you go through the game you gain more options; for example, it increases when you kill enemies, heal the party, change members during a battle, etc.
Tidus: Trigger on the centre line in a certain amount of time
Wakka: Slots; three colours with various coloured buttons, stop each slot so the same coloured buttons are lined up
Auron: Blitz; input a certain combination of buttons within a certain time period (like Zell's "Duel")
Lulu: Select a spell and within a certain time limit, rotate the right stick. The more times rotated = the more times she casts the spell.
Kimari: Blue magic learned with Dragon Sword (like Quistis)
Yuna: Summons an Aeon with a full limit bar
Rikku: Combines two items, performs an attack with them (can do pathetic damage or huge damage)
Basically, you can only equip a weapon and armour; if it's a fighting character, the armour is a shield or a buckler. Magic characters, on the other hand, equip rings. If you're thinking "Wow, we can only equip a weapon and an armour?" don't fret just yet, as there's a lot that you can get and a slew of abilities to set.
Equipment is customisable! You start with a basic weapon and armour; as you pick up new weapons/armour in the game, they might have new abilities. Weapons have no attack power stat on their own, that's defined by your stats. Weapons and armour do have bonuses, like Attack +5%, Defence +5%, Poison Attack/Defence, etc. But after a point in the game, you get to add your own abilities to your weapons and armor. Each weapon and armor has so many slots, some are used when you initially get them. In the spare ones you can combine items to become an ability for that specific weapon or armour. For example, you can put 30 softs into an armour to gain the Petrify-defence ability.
|
|
|
Two million sold in Japan within the first few weeks - what will sales be like in the west?
|
Fans in England will have to wait until around 22nd February 2002 to play a nicely letter-boxed PAL version. Gutted
|
'ATB' is gone, replaced with a turn-based system. The game has an initiative order for your actions; faster characters get more actions. The list of turns and when they occur appears on the upper right side of the screen. You can scroll down the list to see who gets an action when. You can't skip characters and go back - everyone must act on their turn. Which is why you can switch a member of your party with someone else, during the battle, so you can do something useful to prevent your turn from getting wasted. Switching a member for another one doesn't even take up a turn. Running is an option, but is very difficult until you get the "Flee!!" skill (yes, it makes its triumphant return!).
Also, making a long-forgotten return, is the ability to change your weapons DURING the battle (remember how you could do that in the SNES Final Fantasies?). So if you're fighting a fire-based opponent, just switch your weapon to an ice-based weapon during the battle; it's that simple.
Blitzball is Final Fantasy X's epic new mini-game - basically a game in itself! The underwater sport is played with two teams of six, and the goal is to get the blitzball into your opponents goal by any means necessary. You can swim, pass, and throw; some characters are better at certain actions than others. A lot of skill, strategy and luck are involved. You can customise your blitzball team by signing players to contracts, and even firing players! And to top things off, Biggs and Wedge make their triumphant Final Fantasy return, as two Blitzball players!
|
|
|
Is Final Fantasy X the last one-player Final Fantasy? All depends on the success of
FF XI: Online Another World
|
Will players be going for the "Voices: Off" feature? We think not...
|
TheDarkOne has completed the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X, and it seems he rather likes the game. Graphically, he wasn't expecting a really over-the-top experience. He said they cut a few things down, but some things are just "wow" to watch (and he's not even counting FMV's!). As well, he stated that the spell effects are great, and they've kept the animation lengths to a minimum to avoid long battles. When I asked him if it was true that there were huge stretches of cinema, he simply said "Yes.." and drooled.
TheDarkOne on gameplay: "Absolutely amazing. Some of the random battles can get repetitive, since you sometimes face the same group of monsters over and over again but there are some really unique situations and boss battles which require intense timing or blatantly you die. Also, there are puzzles that make you have to think. It keeps you thinking about character combinations a lot, which is good. The system is complicated enough, and there are subquests coming out your ears. So, thumbs up."
| |
FMV sequences are "on par" with Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within's effort, according to TheDarkOne
|
TheDarkOne on FMVs: "'Nuff said. On par with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Sometimes better, since they've worked a lot in getting skin tone right... and the action scenes are great."
TheDarkOne on the music: "With the new people helping it helps a lot - it breathes new life into it. There are a few "annoying" tracks, but the battle theme isn't horrific setting the scene well. There are alot of atmospheric tracks that just work so well. The music sounds very modern, but it's still Final Fantasy."
TheDarkOne on the story: "A much stronger version of Final Fantasy VIII's story when it comes to character development. The characters are very well-tied together, and there's no really convuluted areas in the plot; it flows well, building to the climax. The emotional drama of it is helped by the graphics engine and voice action, since it's very well done with the expression and intonations that you can get to grips with character's joy, torment, etc."
TheDarkOne on the battle system: "Highly customisable: at the beginning, you have little choice in the development, since the paths on the board are very set near the start. But later on, it becomes very easy to fine-tune your character's stats and abilities, to make a perfect combination. It's really adaptive to people's various playing styles.
If what TheDarkOne says is true, you can expect a truly engrossing, emotional epic with Final Fantasy X. I know one thing is for certain: I can't wait until Final Fantasy X is in my hands. Or more specifically, my PlayStation 2.
Martin Lemieux
Take Me To The FF X Forum! 
|
