When you’re playing a video game, there’s no bigger complement to pay it than to wish that it was over just so that you could play it all over again. That’s what I felt playing Final Fantasy X. This installment of Square’s flagship series makes good use of the PS2; bending some time-tested FF traditions while outright breaking others.

Before I go on though, I’ll mention that usually in an RPG review, one wants to write about the battle system and various other gameplay elements. However, if that’s all you’re looking for, I suggest consulting the official Squaresoft FFX website, which does a more than adequate job of describing the game’s features already. I’ll spare you those some of the details and just give you the broad strokes…

Story

About three quarters of the game is told in a “Wonder Years” fashion, from the point of view of the main character, Tidus. We find our hero at the offset stranded in an unfamiliar world, Spira, trying to make his way back to his hometown Zanarkand, which he has been told was destroyed a thousand years ago. The key to returning home, he believes, is connected to the creature Sin—a seemingly omnipotent force of destruction which both plagues and terrorizes the inhabitants of Spira. On the way he encounters Yuna, a Summoner whose only goal is to defeat Sin, and bring peace to the world. Along with the Guardians that protect her, Tidus and Yuna make their way through Spira in an attempt to unravel the mystery of both Sin’s nature, and its connection to Tidus’ Zanarkand.

The imagery of spheres and circles is strong in this game. The traditional experience leveling system has been replaced by the Sphere Grid system, which makes use of spheres that you find in battle. The major pastime that the people engage in—apparently their only source of entertainment—is Blitzball, a combination of football and soccer played in a gigantic spherical floating body of water. Even the name of their world, Spira, is a play on the word “spiral”, and is mentioned as one in one of the character’s monologues.

Sin, the heroes’ quest, and the people’s lives all seem to run around in circles. Auron, one of Yuna’s Guardians, says something once to the effect of, “Ten years and things are still the same. Spira seems to resist change.” In some way it seems to be trying to say something about the world we live in, but it never really comes out and says it. At the game conclusion, our heroes supposedly break out of one of these cycles, but to what end? From the denouement we gather that nothing has really changed for the people of Spira except that they’re happier.

Final Fantasy X is also filled with a strong religious overtone, and makes many statements about the hypocrisy of the church, and the foibles of organized religion. Here it seems like the message is being pulled in too many directions. Is it saying that organized religion is hypocritical? Or is the hypocrisy justified because it brings joy to the people? Or is religion bad because it makes false promises? Or is that a good thing because people can at least feel happy in sad times? Or does religion encourage discrimination? Or maybe it teaches compassion and forgiveness? Or maybe it isn’t saying anything. Although it certainly seems like it’s trying to.

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