FFX: What would you change?

Jdeadevil said:
Yeah, so it's a random yet defining moment, lol! Are you saying that it's not a moment but a situation?
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The situation is the defining part. the moment was a choice on the developers.....example: Yuna could've asked Tidus to scream. He could've asked him to make a joke, anything really....


the situation felt necessary, but the moment is based on the choice to ask Tidus to do "something". it could've been anything, therefore random to ask him to "laugh" in such a way.
 
I dunno, I think the laugh was pretty perfect. He'd already done the scream before, it would have felt like a copy of a scene they'd already done. The forced laughing I think worked perfectly. I'm not confident that a change to that scene would make the moment better at all.
 
Oh that is easy. They should change the leveling system. It bugs me because you have to use all your players in each battle to get them experience instead of just making it a team battle where if you win your party levels up. So many fight would take about 15-20 secs max but instead you must drag them out and use everyone to get them experience. I usually just bring them on screen and press Triangle and put them in defense mode and run through everyone then end the fight. Not all that much work but still I find it a pain in the ass.
 
Sheechiibii said:
I dunno, I think the laugh was pretty perfect. He'd already done the scream before, it would have felt like a copy of a scene they'd already done. The forced laughing I think worked perfectly. I'm not confident that a change to that scene would make the moment better at all.
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Well i think otherwise. to me, its not consistent with the rest of the game.

but overall, i can see other ways....other more sensible, on the spot, ways.
 
With having only played the American version of the game that was released on the Playstation 2, I missed out on facing off against the Dark Aeon's like my friends overseas. I would have loved to ahve given that a shot and had a bigger challenge toward the end of the game.

Also, I would have liked them to say Tidus' name throughout the game instead of him just being referred to as "him".
 
Hunsdale said:
Oh that is easy. They should change the leveling system. It bugs me because you have to use all your players in each battle to get them experience instead of just making it a team battle where if you win your party levels up. So many fight would take about 15-20 secs max but instead you must drag them out and use everyone to get them experience. I usually just bring them on screen and press Triangle and put them in defense mode and run through everyone then end the fight. Not all that much work but still I find it a pain in the ass.
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I completely agree with that. I had thought that the leveling in the game was tedious and a very long process. I've spent over 100 hours on the game before, trying to have superior characters, but there was no point in the end. I felt as though my time spent leveling was completely wasted.

Busta Akula said:
Also, I would have liked them to say Tidus' name throughout the game instead of him just being referred to as "him".
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YES YES YES. I couldn't stand the game because of this one issue. Maybe because it was the first Final Fantasy to hit PS2? I have no idea the reasoning behind that and I felt like they should've gotten rid of the option to change his name the first place.. the game just didn't feel complete almost like he wasn't even an important character.
 
Ed Elric said:
YES YES YES. I couldn't stand the game because of this one issue. Maybe because it was the first Final Fantasy to hit PS2? I have no idea the reasoning behind that and I felt like they should've gotten rid of the option to change his name the first place.. the game just didn't feel complete almost like he wasn't even an important character.
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It was because in X they let you rename Tidus so nobody could ever say his name because it might not have been the name the player went for. I think they let you rename him because it was something the player had always had the option with in main characters. They've learned their lesson now.
 
I'd change the mini-games, they're a terrible way to unlock ultimate weapons in my opinion, especially when they're so tightly locked into the restrictive game-engine that nothing really moves like it should e.g chocobo racing.

Other than that, Tidus's name would be pronounced in-game. I get that it was weaning the fans away from being able to rename every character, but it felt was noticeable and created awkward mispronunciations by fans afterwards.
 
There were a few things that sort of irritated me in this game (Sphere Grid *cough cough*) but the one thing that stood out to me was the whole "Walk three steps after your posse into another cinematic" thing. That sort of shenanigans just makes me grind my teeth. It's not like you're going to be able to run off somewhere else and do something meaningful, so why not just have Tidus walk the few steps in the cinematic and get it over with? This cinematic > walk a few steps > cinematic shindig happened so many times in places where free roaming really wasn't an option (and there's not a hell lot of leveling you're going to be able to do in such a small distance) that it just made me dislike the story and character interaction somewhat. It ended up feeling a bit pointless and silly.
 
The biggest thing I'd change is being able to fly the airship around. The idea of just choosing your location on a menu is absolutely lame. I'd love to fly around Spira and be more involved with the atmosphere. I've never been a fan of choosing a destination and just teleporting there. Fuck that noise.

I'd also change the AI in blitzball. Despite how much I love this mini game, the simple fact is that opponent AI is easily manipulated and they just act stupid. I'm sorry but I shouldn't be able to just stand there with the ball, or swim backwards and them do absolutely nothing. Especially when the clock is running and getting late in the game. They need to be alot more aggressive and not be complete derps. Period.




 
Removing the horrid minigame requirements for powering up celestial weapons. Blitzball is tolerable, but everything else is just... *shudder*
 
Make the level design more complex.
Bring back the world map.
Add a "skip cutscene" option.
 
Everyone else has basically pointed out alot of what I would want changed in Final Fantasy X, but I think the biggest change I would add would be...Leviathan. This game finally had Water have multiple ranks like the Big Spells Fire, Lightning and Ice. But where's Leviathan? Gone. Apparently chilling under the Moonflow with a mai-tai and a sign on his door saying do not disturb.

I felt his/her exclusion was a missed opportunity for Square to really up the summon's abilities and design. One possible reason they didn't include it would be them saying that Leviathan and Sin were essentially the same thing, but then I'd have to ask if Leviathan had the power to pull down the moon. Which the Sea Serpent doesn't. They only deal in water.
 
There's a vague area of the story arch where you can't really discern if Tidus is alive or dead, or if all of the people in Spira are alive or dead. I'd probably try to clear that up some, since it kinda got left open-ended similarly to how the Cloud/Zack/Sephiroth story arch gets left open in FFVII.
 
To be honest I've got a bit of a biggie. I would change a good chunk of the story as it all feels a bit too... convenient? I don't know if that's the word that I mean or not but it'll do for now. I feel there are a few plot holes, or at least logic holes, with the whole Yevon, Sin and Summoners set up. Why doesn't another summoner just complete their pilgrimage during the Calm so that Sin can be defeated as soon as it re-emerges, rather than waiting until a while after before even starting their pilgrimage? That just doesn't make sense. Why not have all the fayth in one place? Since the journey part of the pilgrimage isn't actually important, a summoner could start their pilgrimage in Bevelle, get all the Aeons and then go to Zanarkand to get the Final Aeon. It just seems a bit more convenient for everyone to do that. Why does Yevon not reveal the truth behind the Final Aeon? Everyone is fine with summoners sacrificing their lives in order to defeat Sin, so why keep it a secret that a guardian needs to sacrifice their lives in order to obtain the Final Aeon? Surely knowing that wouldn't break the entire system, right?

So how about this for a change to the back-story of Spira, Sin and Yevon;

Around 1100 - 1200 years ago, Mika, Jyscal and a few others discovered the secret to eternal life, and it involved harvesting the souls of the dead. They first constructed the Farplane (or at least some early version of it), which rather than being where souls are sent to rest, is where souls are "stored" and effectively imprisoned. For a short time this worked, although it quickly became apparent that due to Spira's machina advancements and general enlightenment, the mortality rate was exceptionally low. The Maesters (which they did not yet go by, but it makes things easier for the purposes of this explanation), being the clever sods they were, began to sow the seeds which would begin the First Great Machina War between Zanarkand and the Al Bhed. It was all successful and the war took, and the mortality rate soared.
The war raged on for years and people were conscripted in their thousands to fight. However this lead to the Maesters discovering that the souls of those who die in a state of fear and despair are not as potent or effective at feeding their immortality as the souls of those who die in a state of joy and hope. And so the Maesters formulated a new plan. They turned to the ancient god of destruction, Sin, and the ancient forbidden art of summoning. A deal was made with Sin that it may roam Spira and destroy at will, on the provision that it leave them and their creation (the Farplane) alone. Sin accepted this and was freed upon Spira again, killing at will.
Sin had been imprisoned centuries ago (or more) by early users of machina, which lead to the great reliance on it. The truth of this was lost through the ages and so it was easy to spin the lie that Sin had been imprisoned by a summoner, and the Machina War had inadvertently broken the seal and freed it. Through this they were able to establish the order of Yevon, the summoners pilgrimage, and the lie that Sin would be truly defeated when the people of Spira had atoned for their "sins" (reliance on machina). This gave the people of Spira the necessary hope for the Maesters' soul farming to continue at maximum effectiveness, and even allowed the lie that sending a soul would lay it at rest on the Farplane.

That would all allow the majority of the game to stay the same, until the end, and would tie much more of it together. It explains why the actual pilgrimage is necessary and could even make Seymour into a better villain; all his motives remain the same (becoming Sin to end Spira's suffering), although it turns out he himself is a victim of the lies of Yevon. This would all ultimately make Grand Maester Mika the final boss and not Yu Yevon, and could go further to redeeming Jecht (Jecht becomes Sin and thorugh that brings the order of Yevon down by leading the group to the truth, so that he may be free).
 
Jack's Smirking Revenge said:
Why doesn't another summoner just complete their pilgrimage during the Calm so that Sin can be defeated as soon as it re-emerges, rather than waiting until a while after before even starting their pilgrimage?
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This is a great point! The only thing I have for that is that I believe Calms are quite unpredictable in their length. It might not be clear when it will end and when Sin may return again. It could last decades, or a century, etc. But it could also last only a year, like Braska's Calm. There haven't been too many Calms in Spira's history, as all of the Summoners who managed to earn one are now revered figures and there are only a handful of them.

It would make sense though for Summoners to train and then stand guard waiting for Sin even if they don’t end up meeting it in their lifetime. Better to be overprepared than have thousands of people die unnecessarily.

The pilgrimage, however, would be a religious thing primarily. The act of treading the holy path pathed by ancestors, conversing with the divine in sacred shrines, and then making the ultimate sacrifice at the end. That's more to do with faith and soul-searching than logic and tactics. They did acknowledge the latter in The Crusaders and Al Bhed.

Additionally, the locations appear to be important to the particular Fayths contained within them. If they were all moved to Bevelle they might lose their spiritual significance. They could have had a building to house the entire pantheon, but then none would enjoy the attention they deserve individually, it could be argued.


Jack's Smirking Revenge said:
So how about this for a change to the back-story of Spira, Sin and Yevon;

Around 1100 - 1200 years ago, Mika, Jyscal and a few others discovered the secret to eternal life, and it involved harvesting the souls of the dead. They first constructed the Farplane (or at least some early version of it), which rather than being where souls are sent to rest, is where souls are "stored" and effectively imprisoned. For a short time this worked, although it quickly became apparent that due to Spira's machina advancements and general enlightenment, the mortality rate was exceptionally low. The Maesters (which they did not yet go by, but it makes things easier for the purposes of this explanation), being the clever sods they were, began to sow the seeds which would begin the First Great Machina War between Zanarkand and the Al Bhed. It was all successful and the war took, and the mortality rate soared.
The war raged on for years and people were conscripted in their thousands to fight. However this lead to the Maesters discovering that the souls of those who die in a state of fear and despair are not as potent or effective at feeding their immortality as the souls of those who die in a state of joy and hope. And so the Maesters formulated a new plan. They turned to the ancient god of destruction, Sin, and the ancient forbidden art of summoning. A deal was made with Sin that it may roam Spira and destroy at will, on the provision that it leave them and their creation (the Farplane) alone. Sin accepted this and was freed upon Spira again, killing at will.
Sin had been imprisoned centuries ago (or more) by early users of machina, which lead to the great reliance on it. The truth of this was lost through the ages and so it was easy to spin the lie that Sin had been imprisoned by a summoner, and the Machina War had inadvertently broken the seal and freed it. Through this they were able to establish the order of Yevon, the summoners pilgrimage, and the lie that Sin would be truly defeated when the people of Spira had atoned for their "sins" (reliance on machina). This gave the people of Spira the necessary hope for the Maesters' soul farming to continue at maximum effectiveness, and even allowed the lie that sending a soul would lay it at rest on the Farplane.

That would all allow the majority of the game to stay the same, until the end, and would tie much more of it together. It explains why the actual pilgrimage is necessary and could even make Seymour into a better villain; all his motives remain the same (becoming Sin to end Spira's suffering), although it turns out he himself is a victim of the lies of Yevon. This would all ultimately make Grand Maester Mika the final boss and not Yu Yevon, and could go further to redeeming Jecht (Jecht becomes Sin and thorugh that brings the order of Yevon down by leading the group to the truth, so that he may be free).
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This is an interesting reinterpretation which would grant an enhanced relevance to the Farplane.

I’d love to know more about the original draft of FFX before they started to make the game itself. Originally the lore of the game was going to be drastically different. All humans were fated to die when they reached their seventeenth year (Tidus and Yuna being 17 in the completed game could be a reference to this). The original plot was presumably going to work in a fix for this problem. This seems a bit reminiscent of the film Logan's Run but I suspect some mythological inspiration from the Indian epic Mahabharata (at the end of the fourth age/Yuga of a cycle, humans are meant to have a limited lifespan of sixteen years, or some sources say longer but still young'ish - one of many consequences of the world's decline). The South Asian aesthetics of FFX suit that.

Interestingly, your ideas could tie into the limited lifespan idea as the motivations for the Maesters in trying to prolong their lifespans.

I personally am mostly satisfied with the story we got in the game, but I certainly am interested in imagining 'What if?' scenarios like that.
 
Jack's Smirking Revenge said:
Why doesn't another summoner just complete their pilgrimage during the Calm so that Sin can be defeated as soon as it re-emerges, rather than waiting until a while after before even starting their pilgrimage?
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My immediate first thought was the it might be a reference to the pilgrimage that ancient man took during polytheistic human history to observe and be a part of the Precession of the Equinox. Certain old buildings from old civilizations were designed for certain celestial event recurrences, such as Chichen Itza in Mexico, for example.

There are 365 days in a year, each staircase on all 4 sides (and there are 4 seasons), has 365 steps.
On the side of the staircase, there is the head of Quetzalcoatl at the base, and large diamonds embedded in the rock on the way up to the top.
On the first day of Spring, at a certain time of the day, the Sunlight will hit those diamonds and cast a serpentine-shaped shadow up the staircase wall. To this day, tourists still make pilgrimages (although, they're just tourist-y pilgrimages these days) to see this event.

Here is a time lapse of it on YouTube for good measure:

 
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