Hunter (Day 271)

I bought the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster the other day. I feel like I'm starting this game up for the tenth time by now--and honestly, that's not that far from the truth. I've run into a ton of different problems with playing this game over the years. The first time I ever played it was at a friend's house not long after it came out. I played the introductory sequence and not much else--but I remembered it. It stuck with me. I didn't own a PS2 for the longest time and I didn't own the game for even longer.

Once I bought the game many years later after acquiring a PS2 for cheap, I started playing it pretty much right away. Soon after I'd committed, however, I made the mistake of attempting to softmod my PS2. It actually worked and I was able to play the fan translation of Front Mission 5 successfully. Unfortunately, it seemed I'd done irreparable damage to my disc tray, which made it extremely difficult to get any games to work at all. With some effort, I was able to play PS2 games, but I honestly felt it wasn't worth the effort--so I lost interest in FFX for a time.

Some time later, I discovered PS2 emulation and flirted with the idea of revisiting some of the PS2 games I'd never finished before. Unfortunately, my video card stopped working soon after. PS2 emulation isn't nearly as reliable on integrated video, although with some significant tinkering, I was able to boost the performance to adequate levels. When I tested FFX however, I found that there were significant slowdowns during certain spell animations--which deflated my enthusiasm considerably. That was probably my third or fourth time playing through the beginning sequences.

Even though I've never made it very far into the game at all, I'm pretty damn familiar with those opening sequences and I think it's part of the reason I always dread trying it again. I'm bored of going through that segment over and over again. It reminds me a little bit of Baldur's Gate II although it's for different reasons. I really liked the customization that the game offered so I kept making new characters and starting the game over--but unfortunately the opening sequence was identical every time. In the case of FFX it's much worse because you're stuck with the same characters every time. I still haven't played enough of the game to make a judgment, but I do know it starts out pretty slow.

So, here I am, 2 hours into the game and I've completed that opening segment once again. This time, the graphics and sound are a little nicer. One disconcerting element that I never noticed on the PS2 original is just how badly the mouth movements of the characters in the game match the dialogue. I think it's safe to say they were animated to match the original Japanese dialogue--which I am unfortunately unable to hear. I know some games offer you the option of changing the game's language but FFX is not one of them. The voice acting is solid for the most part, but the poor dubbing is distracting, to say the least.