FINAL FANTASY X HD Remaster

If you get this version please get the PS2 Models Mod! The Remaster look for Yuna and Tidus are atrocious! Also, install "Untitled" Project X mod that further enhances the game!

The base game alone has a lot of issues, but there's a mod called Untitled Project X that fixes everything. I recommend taking the time to learn how to set that up and otherwise this game is great.

Great game but make sure you download the 4GB patch or you'll get a green screen during cutscenes on modern hardware.

IMO, FFX is the GOAT of JRPGs.
If you can get past some of the cringey dialogue/voice acting (looking at you, Tidus), the game's worldbuilding, setting, story, and turn based combat more than make up for it. One of the most memorable gaming experiences I've had.

Finally experiencing this game 24 years later after release... I started this up with no nostalgia & shockingly spoiler free. That is despite playing most of the mainline Final Fantasy franchise. Being rooted as a 2001 console game means many parts are a product of its time, however that being said some of the outdated aspects give it a charm that allows that fact to not ruin a good game.
Pros:
-Engaging story with thick lore.
-Memorable characters.
-Good gameplay mechanics.
-Some beautiful FMVs.
-Good amount of individual character customization for abilities, stats, & equipment. A system that really lets you go far with it if desired.
-First game in the series to include voice acting.
-Lots of optional side quests and end game quests for those who want to do more.
-Great music.
Cons:
-Story is rather convoluted & at times very confusing. If you are not a lore hound & either take the time to fully explore it all within the game or educate yourself in it online it can come off as nearly nonsensical. Had I not taken the effort to deep dive into the lore & looked for various explanations I suspect I could have played this game 3 times and not fully understood its multi layered themes and narratives.
-Being a 2021 title I was expecting this games frame rate to be easily matching/exceeding my maximum 144hz display even at native 4K, That is not the case as the game is hard locked at 30 FPS with no reasonable mod being available to increase or unlock it. From what I gathered it has something to do with the game engine itself and that is a hard limit if you want any sense of stability,
-Game optimization is inherently poor. I played on my Ryzen 7 7700X with a RX 7900 XT & 32 GB of DDR5 6000 CL 30 on a high speed PCIE 4.0 NVME SSD. My performance utilization showed that all of my components were barely breaking a sweat as expected. Yet somehow there was more than a few odd dips of the frame rate hitting into the mid 20s periodically. Clearly something with the coding or game engine is horribly unoptimized. I know even today Square Enix has a reputation for delivering rather lackluster PC ports but come on...
-I really hate Blitzball.
-I do not like the sphere grid system. It initially comes comes off as very unintuitive & the game does a crappy job explaining it. While it clearly was an experiment, I found it to be very time consuming, complex, unforgiving, & grindy(too many wasted empty slots).
-Very random difficulty spikes. Some of my game overs were just due to literally bad luck and my entire squad could get wiped out without even giving me an opportunity to react. Save spheres were often few and far between & even with taking time to grind I had more than a few close calls.
-Unskippable cut scenes that were quite long, and almost always set to play before a string of difficult back to back to back boss fights adding even more insult to injury. Infuriating.
-While generally a pro, the English voice acting at times was just awful. I suspect most of that was due to some weird voice conversion errors as sometimes it seemed like they would play the voice line but at x5 speed. Very poorly done at times and jarring.
-Some of these temple trials were conjured up by lunatics. Seemed like nothing but time wasting padding and the puzzles range from annoying to insane.
Despite my criticisms, I do think that this game is worth playing. I can understand now why its held up with the hype its carried even all these years later, something that I do not think the passage of time can change, Its a story that will probably hold up in my mind & while it has its lows it has some very high highs. Give it a shot, or if its been a long time, give it another playthrough. I know I will.

After about a hundred hours, I finally beat this masterpiece and got all the achievements, with help from the speed boost to fasten the heavy grind at the endgame. Now, what should I say about this game that hasn't been said before? This game is a pure masterpiece and a roller coaster of emotion till the end. I just love this game, even though it was my first time playing it.
I never thought I'd be pulled in by such an emotional story like FFX has. And by the time I reached around 40 hours of gameplay, I just said, nope, I can't finish this game right now. There's so much I want to enjoy for a little longer, so I just decided to platinum this game. It's not an easy thing, especially with the amount of grinding and superbosses without using Zanmato. But hey, what can I say? It's a testimony of my love for this game. It's just such an amazing story and game overall, and I hope you're going to love it too!
For those who make jokes about the laughing VA for both Yuna and Tidus, there's one thing I remember when watching that cutscene, is that the amount of absurdity in life that both Tidus and Yuna face at that moment is tremendous. Now, if Nietzsche were there, he would've told them to embrace the nihilistic and meaningless nature of life and that would be such a downer, wouldn't it? While Camus would've told them to revolt against their fate and abandon all the people's hope for Spira altogether.
But there's a saying from Milan Kundera that really resonates with this: in the face of the absolute absurdity of fate and the inevitable death to come, the one thing people should do is just laugh in the face of death. And that's how I feel about the whole cutscene. It's raw emotion, well maybe not executed flawlessly, but still a choice that makes sense regardless.

I'm a pretty masculine guy who does back flips out of burning buildings while I am being hunted. I am not afraid to admit that this game makes me cry.