Final Fantasy X | X-2: HD Remaster Review by: zanderlex - 9.2/10
A Fantas-tic game10 or so years ago, I was playing a Final Fantasy game and I was having fun, then one day something happened, something that caused me to give up on the series. It was so long ago, that I don't even remember what happened, but all I know is that I have never played another game from this series until now. I was at a Gametop with my friends about two weeks ago and one of them offered to buy me a game. None of the games there for the Vita really interested me because I either had them or I did not like them, so I ended up getting this game. It turned out to be a great descion because so far, I am in love with this game and I play it all the time. As a matter of fact, I would have to say that this could easily be my 2nd favorite Vita game of all time just behind Persona 4 Golden.
Graphics 9/10
The graphics of the game are spectacular. I had looked up pictures of the original game and I thought they looked pretty good, though this is the remastered version, so the developeres did their best job to make sure that the game looked much better and I would say that they did a great job with that. The graphics are much clearer and there are a ton more details put into the map and characters. I would really go on to say that this game has some of the best graphics that I have seen in a Vita game because they are so beautiful. Then you have the cutscenes, which are remarkable. It's as if you are watching an HD movie, everything's sp clear and flows nicely, and because of this, I am going to have to give this category a 9 out of 10.
Sound 10/10
Personally, I find the sound to be the best aspect of the game because it's all amazing. I checked out some of the songs from the original game on YouTube and I loved a lot of them. For the remastered version, a few new songs have been added and most of the songs were remade to make them much better, and I love them all. Just under 10 minutes into the game I was enchatned by the music and I loved it, after just a couple days of playing the game, I had clasified this as one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. It's not just the music that makes the sound so awesome, there are a ton of sound effects and a heck of a lot of voice acting. I like the effects and I feel that a good job had been done with the voice acting, though I feel that just the music alone has been enough for me to give this category a perfect score.
Story 9/10
I will admit, I only scratched the surface of the game, so I don't know much about the story, but what I have seen is just amazing. I always knew that games such as this usually had huge storylines, but I am really in awe at how much had been put into this game. When I first read on the back of the box that the game had over two hundred hours of gameplay, I was a bit skeptical about what most of that time would be done doing. Now, I have played more than 40 hours already and I am already pleased with the amount of story that I have seen, even though I don't know much about it. You follow the story of the main character Tidus as he gets taken away from his home after it's destroyed by a being known as Sin and as members join your party such as Yuna, you battle your way through all sorts of monsters on your way to defeat Sin. I have only seen a small part of the story, but I have seen enough to give it a 9 out of 10.
Addictiveness 10/10
The game can be very addicitng. I have only had the game for 13 days now and I have amassed more than 40 hours of gameplay, so just that alone should be enough to prove how addicting the game can be. There is so much to do, though I am going to say that the most addicting part of the game is Blitzball. I personally feel it's the greatest mini game of any game I have ever played. I have completley ran out of gil multiple times because I would keep playing Blitzball and I kept having to pay salaries. In total, I have played more than 50 league and tournament games and at least two fozen exhibition games, and I still can't get enough of it. On top of that, the game has the regular addictiveness level of any awesome RPG game and because of this, the game leads to all sorts of fun expereicnes. Maybe you won't want to play the game again, but the game can be so addicting that you might want to spend hundreds of hours before you beat it because you are having so much fun. I feel obligated to give this category another perfect score.
Depth 10/10
As for the depth of the game, it's pretty much one of the largest RPG games that I have ever played, there's a whole world to explore and many different kinds of monsters to fight. There are so many things for you to do, and then of course on top of that you have Blitzball. In my opinion, the largest piece of depth in this game has to be the sphere grid. I am shocked at the sphere grid because of how big and how detailed it is set up, when I first opened up the grid and then zoomed out, I told myself that I would never complete it, that it would take me ages. As for the depth, I am going to feel obligted to give it another perfect score simply because the game is so huge.
Difficulty 7
Next we must go over the difficulty of the game, which canat times be extremely difficult. There are going to be a handful of times where you are going to have to battle the same boss multiple times and you are going to die a lot unless you train for hours upon hours. If you can put in all this extra training, and devote your life to the game, then there is a chance that the game might be a bit simple for you, but other than that, there are going to be quite a few challenges. Heck, just completing the Sphere Grid could end up working up a sweat. Overall, the game will mostly be a good challenge, and if you want a challenge then this game will be right for you and my overall grade for difficulty is going to be a 7.
Overall 9.2/10
Overall, the game has been a blast so far. I can easily see myself playing this game for a total of 500 hours, or maybe even 1000, or much more. This game is so much fun, and like I mentioned in the last paragraph, if you are a fan of the series, or you just like a challenging game, then you really should try out this game because it's so worth it. My overall grade for this game is going to be a 9.2 out of 10.
Graphics
9 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
9 Difficulty
7