Final Fantasy X: Overly Zealous?

by The Pezman

It’s quite possible I may have signed my death warrant just with the title, but with the game being/having been hailed as quite possibly the best Final Fantasy (maybe console game) ever, it’s easy to overlook a concerning issue in the game, especially the way it’s hidden: the sidequests are too numerous and too difficult.

I played through the game when it first came out, a bit more than a year ago. I, like everyone else, was enthralled with the voices, the high-framerate FMVs, and out-of-this-world plot. The simplifications of the elements and battle system were a warm welcome. And then I beat Yunalesca.

Suddenly I’m confronted with ten thousand new things to do, where basically all I could do before was go forward. The Monster Arena is open for business, Omega Dungeon is sitting there, Blitzball is just beginning to become winnable, and, of course, Sin lurks in the distance.

No matter how much is pumped into a game, the gamer will get bored. It’s not the fault of the designer or even the gamer him/herself, it’s simply human (at least American) nature: everything has to be new. After you’ve participated in Operation Mi’ihen, exposed Seymour and Yevon for the dirty liars they are, and destroyed your only option for beating Sin, you’re bound to have had a long and fulfilling game as it is. Those trendy graphics are looking a little blocky, and you’re getting bored with the whole amount of three catch phrases Tidus can make every time you hit the ‘flee’ command. All you want to do is bring closure to the story and beat Sin. But you can’t. All those sidequests have to be done, or else you don’t get the COMPLETE experience. The complete experience is supposed to be able to be gotten over the course of the game, with sidequests being nice distractions from the main plot. FF7's Wutai is a fun sidequest to get into, as is FF8's Shumi Village. But they can be accessed at around the midpoint of the game, and remain open until near the end.

Not only are these sidequests placed at an inconvenient spot, but they expect too much from the gamer. The gamer has to realize that there’s actually a reason for dodging those annoying lighting bolts in the Thunder Plains. And that you should pray to a tower that a Qactuar (yes, it uses a Q. Go back there) ghost leads you to. And anyone who can deduce where a Cactuar (THIS one has the C) is from a hint like “he’s gone walkabout” is a smarter person than I am (not a hard status to obtain even if you don’t get it). And wait! You’re supposed to get that chocobo counter down to ZERO?! Completely?! Well, how am I supposed to know that?

And of course, certain quests are harder to do than to figure out that you have to do them. My prime examples are the Monster Arena and the European-exclusive Dark Aeon/Penance quests. Keep in mind that you’ve come off one hard-ass boss, Seymour Flux. No guide, printed or HTML, gives me a definitive way to beat him. At 70 grand, he has the largest HP of any enemy (unless you add the HP of Yunalesca’s three forms together and consider that) till the airship. All of a sudden you can go out and catch monsters, with the weakest monsters in Area Conquest (the weakest category of the Monster Arena enemies) performing attacks that supposedly go over your max HP. How are you supposed to defend against someone who does nine thousand on ONE TURN? Why, that’s simple. All you have to do is equip a piece of armor with the “Break HP Limit” on it. But to get that you need thirty “wings of discovery,” to create that ability once. You can get thirty “wings of discovery” by winning the chocobo race at Remiem Temple, but anything beyond that requires you to bribe either a Marlboro for 270,000 gil for 4 wings or bribe a Great Marlboro for 640,000 gil for eight wings. Do the math, it’ll take awhile even if you only want to have three HP Break Limits. Then, of course, is the implied but as-of-yet unspoken problem of major leveling up. If my earlier summary did not apply to you and you were able to toast Seymour and Yunalesca like an early morning piece of bread, then you may be able to take on a few of the weaker creatures.

And now for the rebuttals. The first one I expect is something like this: FFVIII’s main sidequests don’t become available until most of Disc 3 has progressed, and you can’t return to them once you’ve beaten Disc 3. Yes, this is true. However, not only are these limited sidequests few in number, but they’re easy to figure out. The Deep Sea Research Facility isn’t too difficult to spot, and any trouble you may have against Bahamut and Ultima Weapon pales to that of the Battle Arena. The UFO quest is annoying and nigh impossible to figure out, this I also admit. However, its reward is something easily done without, unlike the Mercury Sigil, which is only gotten through an unannounced and vague Cactuar genocide. Doomtrain takes some wits, but that quest is doable, unlike the acquisition of a certain Sun Sigil. The next rebuttal: Well, you don’t have to do the sidequests. Rate the game on what you do see of it. Try and imagine a game without sidequests. None at all. The only thing you can do is level up and go to the next town. Hardly fulfilling. Not only do sidequests serve as distractions from the main plot, they usually bring something back to the main plot. It’s very interesting to see the true demise of Don Corneo, or to discover the identity of the ultimate aeon, Anima. Who would want to miss the musings of the King of Dragons, or to remain ignorant of the secrets behind the Deep Sea Research Facility? No, without sidequests, a game can only be a fraction of it’s potential. But while FFX’s sidequests are numerous in quantity and generous in plot, they tend to alienate the gamer more than assist him/her.

Please don’t interpret this essay to mean that I dislike FFX, as that is not the case. It manages to create a fantastic world without the use of princesses, kings, and evil wizards, and even calls into question (albeit on a basic level) some of the cultural phenomena we experience in the world today. But my main point remains: to beat every sidequest (as many RPGamers like to do) this game requires an insane amount of time, both to discover them all, and to complete them all. This is something that even a veteran RPGamer would be loath to do for one game, because not matter how spectacular it may be, there must always be a time to move on.

Muchos kudos to Split Infinity, who has the most crazily detailed guide to FFX I’ve ever seen. This is where I came to look up facts for this essay I couldn’t remember: GameFAQs