A few years ago, I made a pact with myself: Play one Final Fantasy game every year. It started with Final Fantasy 7 Remake in 2023, 7 Rebirth in 2024, Final Fantasy IX in 2025 and this year, I’m replaying Final Fantasy X.
Now me and Final Fantasy go way back. You know that one friend who doesn’t leave the house without a Murakami in their bag? That’s Final Fantasy for me. I know most of them inside out and while I have fallen off after XII, these games were absolutely formative for my creative development in the nineties and the aughts. I have replayed them countless times – with one exception: Final Fantasy X. The story about Tidus, an athlete living in a huge futuristic city, who gets swallowed by the huge monster Sin and transported into Spira, where he joins summoner Yuna and her crew of guardians to rid the world of the very monster that teleported him here. It’s a love story for the ages. And it has this banger of an intro:
Final Fantasy X is a bit of an odd duck. When it launched on PS2, it was a technological marvel, complete with fully 3D environments and a fully voice acted cast. Something like that in that scope had just never been seen before and it fit perfectly into developer Square Enix’s vision of grandeur in that time. But as it often goes with first-timers, FFX’s technological side has aged quite poorly. The dialogue reads are all over the place. The faces switch between high-poly and low-poly depending on the shot and move like slow-motion muppets. And every movement feels stiff and unnatural. It’s a hard game to get into, because you have to suspension-of-disbelief yourself into thinking all of the above doesn’t matter. You certainly can’t play a recent game on the side.
This is what it looks like:
But this year, I vowed to do it. My third playthrough (2002 and 2016 if you care about numbers)! And boy, once you get into this game, it just hits you with a sledgehammer. As a star-crossed lovers’ story, it’s just so well-constructed. Tidus joins the priestlike summoner Yuna on her pilgrimage to kill Sin, portrayed as a huge fishlike monster who not only personifies its very name in a game full of religious undertones but is also kind of sort of Tidus’ estranged father. Slowly, the two teenagers fall in love. But there’s a lot of things no one’s telling. For instance, none of Tidus’ crew knows Sin’ is actually Tidus’ father reincarnated’s actual identity, and the fact they’re actually setting out to kill the main character’s dad. But it gets worse (and this is where it gets a bit spoilery so if you’re actually going to play this 20 year old video game and haven’t already, stop reading): Tidus doesn’t realize Yuna’s mission is a sacrificial one. Killing Sin will also kill her. It’s a true rug pull for the ages, as up to that point, Tidus has been firmly established as the happy-go-lucky class clown of the brooding bunch of guardians. He’s been egging her on – and sending her into her death.
So he does what every lover in a fantasy story does: He tries to change the prophecy, and fate itself. And wouldn’t you have it, the guardians actually pull it off. Yuna can yet live. Only that’s when the second rug pull happens…
Final Fantasy VI is a rock opera in disguise. VII is Memento in video game form. VIII is puppy love. And IX is a fairy tale. But Final Fantasy X? It is an absolute tear-jerker. What a gut punch of a game. And I hope they remake this one at a certain point in time, so everyone can finally enjoy this story without concessions.