Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

"The time has come to cleanse this world."

Final Fantasy VII (1997) is one of those rare games that needs no introduction. Forgive the cliche, but unless you've been living under a rock or you're a Millennial there isn't a gamer out there who doesn't know Final Fantasy VII. Not only was Final Fantasy VII instrumental in creating one of gaming's most profitable periods, but even today a whopping 18 years after its release it's still one of the most popular titles in gaming and the most successful Final Fantasy that Square-Enix (Squaresoft at the time) ever released. So it came as no surprise that in 2002, Square-Enix launched the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII project which spawned a number of spin-offs from Final Fantasy VII. Think of this as FFVII's expanded universe which included a CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, an anime, two cell phone games, a PSP game, and a PS2 sequel.

They will fight one last time.

Taking place three years after the events of Final Fantasy VII and one year after the events of Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII centers on Vincent Valentine, AVALANCHE member and former Turk. The world has survived the meteor incident and the Second Coming of Sephiroth. The people have undertaken the hard work of rebuilding their lives and the even larger task of rebuilding a world brought to ruin. The citizens of Kalm are having a festival to celebrate the three anniversary of the meteor incident or more specifically the miracle that saved the world from destruction. Rather than join the celebration, Vincent broods in isolation. Tortured by the demons in his past and his own inability to move on, Vincent's psyche has become his personal hell. Suddenly, a wave of violence sweeps through Kalm as mysterious soldiers descend on the small town and massacre its people by the dozens. However, these soldiers also kidnap a select few townsfolk for purposes that can only be nefarious. Calling themselves Deepground, this army is lead by a group of elite superhumans called The Tsviets and the enigmatic Weiss The Immaculate. Vincent swoops into action, his questions punctuated by a hail of gunfire. Will Vincent's battle against Deepground save the world or will he drag it into an even darker hell?

A lengthy summary to be sure, but to be expected of any game based on an RPG. When dealing with any Final Fantasy it's not just a question of whether or not the story is good, but a question of how well it's presented in a genre of this kind. Final Fantasy is an RPG, but Dirge of Cerberus is a third-person shooter which are considerably shorter, so the game's length is a major factor in story-telling. To his credit, Hiroki Chiba does a good job in condensing Final Fantasy VII's complex narrative, and expanding on Vincent Valentine's past. Chiba has introduced some interesting new characters in the form of the Tsviets, and surprisingly enough he's given them adequate characterization as well, but as much as I appreciated the story and characters as a Final Fantasy fan, they are not without their flaws. We learn more about Vincent Valentine's past, but much of what was explored here was already summarized in Final Fantasy VII. In DOC we get a larger picture of Vincent's past with Shinra, the origins of his hatred towards professor Hojo, and the love he had for Lucretia, but we don't learn anything we didn't already know apart from the how and why of the Protomateria that is in Vincent's possession which is essentially the super macguffin that Deepground are trying to get their hands on.

 

Those Tron lines...

As a fan of the franchise I enjoyed learning more about Shinra Incorporated's dirty little secrets - particularly the Deepground soldiers and I liked the Tsviets as villains, but when you get down to it i.e. speaking objectively and not as a fan, they aren't entirely unique. The Tsviets have some very cool designs, but they're basically bad Metal Gear villains. The Tsviets are essentially the Beauty and Beast Corps. of Dirge of Cerberus. Each has their own character trait (bloodlust, apathy, pride, etcetera) you've seen before with a tragic past which you've seen before. Hiroki Chiba is a competent writer to be sure, but it's clear that the game's length hindered his ability to flesh out the Tsviets and differentiate them from the villainous stables you see in many other games. That's not to say it's all bad though. Shelke the Transparent is a member of the Tsviets who gets a lot of character development and while it seems rushed - given that the game takes place over a few days - Shelke was a round, dynamic character who changed considerably over the course of the game.

Composer Masashi Hamauzu who has 19 years of industry experience brings his A game to Dirge of Cerberus. There are some very good tracks in this game which bring a different feel to each of the game's scenes and bluntly speaking will probably be the thing you remember most from the game. Japanese music icon GACKT also provides two songs for the game "Longing" and "Redemption" the game's ending theme, and as a huge GACKT fan parts of this game were mark out moments for me.

 

The art style delivers though.

Dirge of Ceberus won't win any beauty contests. While the PS2 was never a huge graphical powerhouse it did run some impressive games - this isn't one of them. Some of the environments in this game scream PS era with the framerate to match. Although the art direction is quite good with the Tsviets sporting some cool costumes. The environments, while not very detailed do resemble Final Fantasy VII at least aesthetically and it felt as though I was in Midgar all over again which was a big plus. Pretty much the only area where Dirge of Cerberus stumbles is in the actual "game" aspect. Dirge of Cerberus is a third-person shooter, but not a very good one. While the type of genre does make sense given Vincent Valentines weapon of choice, the gameplay is bare-bones and what's here barely holds together. There's very little strategy involved in the combat as it boils down to dodge the enemies' attacks and shoot them. The A.I. is virtually non-existent as enemies will rarely flank you and will often run directly into your gunfire. While they will sometimes hide behind cover, most won't. Groups of enemies will also stand by explosive barrels which make them easy pickings. The game doesn't get particularly difficult as you advance in the story apart from the game sending larger hoards after you. Vincent has a melee attack which isn't very effective, and in the time it takes him to kill an enemy with said attack the player could have shot him and moved on. Vincent can upgrade his signature weapon Cerberus with a scope, materia (magic), and he can change the barrel to increase damage or firing rate. Vincent also acquires a rifle and a machine gun, but I got through most of the game using the default weapon - thus making the upgrades and additional guns completely unnecessary. The boss battles don't require much strategy apart from dodge and shoot, but if you have enough items you can remove dodging from the equation altogether.

Dirge of Cerberus isn't a bad game, but it's just so by-the-numbers it doesn't do anything to elevate the genre. If you're a hardcore Final Fantasy VII fan, a GACKT fan, or both like I am then you'll probably get a kick out of this game. However, if you've never had a really strong connection to the world of Final Fantasy VII, I can't imagine why you'd ever play this. There are even some Final Fantasy VII fans out there who loathe this game. Personally, I felt it was an enjoyable experience despite its many shortcomings.

Bloody Roar 2 (1999)

Gado The Lion and yes, he's every bit as BADASS as he looks.

Created by Japanese developer Eighting/Raizing and published by Hudson Soft, Bloody Roar 2 is a fighting game released for the Playstation in 1999. In the near future, a small number of humans have reached the next level of evolution due to a mutation in their genetic makeup which allows them to transform into werebeasts. A shadowy corporation known as Tylon learns of these people and classify them as zoanthropes. Tylon begins kidnapping these zoanthropes and uses them in experiments to create the next generation of bio-weapons, but a small group of zoanthropes manages to destroy the corporation and attain their freedom. However, in doing so the zoanthropes have revealed their existence to the world at large and the globe is thrown into panic. Violence breaks out between humans and zoanthropes, and world governments struggle to maintain order. At this time the Zoanthrope Liberation Front (ZLF) appears on the scene and promises to fight for zoanthrope equality. In reality however, what they really want is zoanthrope superiority and it doesn't take long before the ZLF starts committing acts of violence against not only humans but zoanthropes who advocate peace or neutrality. Once again, our heroes from the first Bloody Roar must rise up and stop the ZLF once and for all. But against an army of zoanthropes, can they really make a difference?

Yugo The Wolf - Bringer of the New Age

Called Beastorizer in Japan, the first Bloody Roar, while not a record-breaking success, was a sleeper hit. It received little in the way of marketing and was released at a time where Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Soul Blade (Soul Edge in Japan) had gobbled up a large portion of the fighting game market. Yet Bloody Roar still found an audience thanks to its fast-paced combat, transformation gimmick, and for being one of the few fighting games whose story didn't revolve around a fighting tournament. Back in its heyday Bloody Roar had a cult following and Bloody Roar 2 builds upon its predecessor in every way a sequel should.

Uriko has mellowed out since being the first games antagonist.

Nearly every character from the first game returns in some form or another even if at times their move lists go into a new character. Mitsuko and Greg for example, while absent have had their moves integrated into Stun's move list, and Fox's move set went to Jenny. Fan favorites like Yugo, Long, and Gado are among the returning characters but they all have different roles in this game. This game features a younger, faster, shinobi named Bakuryu who shares the codename and beast mode of the original. Some of these characters might sound like palette swaps but they all play a bit differently from their core construction as well as each other. The characters Beast Modes play a larger role in the gameplay this time around as well.

Alice The Rabbit vs Jenny The Bat

The gimmick in Bloody Roar revolves around the Beast Mode. Because your fighters are zoanthropes, they can transform into werebeasts during combat and everyone transforms into a different animal-human hybrid which provides different benefits during combat and even changes the way some characters play on the fly. Bloody Roar 2 continues this trend but also build upon it. In the original Bloody Roar, the character's human forms weren't that effective and so it came down to players only trying to build their beast gauge so they could transform and really get down to the grit. In Bloody Roar 2 however, the cast is more than capable of holding their own even in their human forms and become absolute BEASTS when they transform no pun intended. Offensive and defensive attributes increase, health regenerates, and every character gains additional moves and combos that can only be done in their transformed state.

Slash Marvel!!

While in beast mode you can also unleash a super move which will inflict massive damage (50% every-time) on your opponent. This move can change the ebb and flow of battle in an instant so if you use your super move you better make sure it hits. There is a risk versus reward system here because whether your attack hits or not, it will empty the beast gauge completely. Once the beast gauge is depleted it can be refilled by inflicting damage as well as taking it. Because the characters all have different fighting styles and different beast modes, their super moves are different as well. Some characters like Yugo can combo into their super, while Gado's is telegraphed, and Long's is something of a parry.

First rule of Bloody Roar: no casuals.

The combat in Bloody Roar 2 delivers whether you're playing with a friend or against the computer and this is due in no small part to the responsive controls, varied fighting styles, and really capable AI. Bloody Roar 2 is an old-school fighting game and by old-school, I mean it was a game that required a player to have skill. There are no patches, the characters aren't balanced (in part because they're not supposed to be), and in order to really play and beat this game you have to actually be good at it. The game requires skill and technical mastery of the characters and combat system to come out on top. Gado (pictured above) for example can and will dish out 60% damage with only a 3-hit combo while characters like Long and Shenlong can repeat combo strings and take out the average player before they even get a hit in. This is especially true on higher difficulty settings.

Leaving the past behind.

There is a captivating story mode which explains each characters involvement in the game and why they enter into the conflict with the ZLF and to the games credit, not only are all these stories interesting, some are a bit unorthodox, and none of which have anything to do with a fighting tournament because there actually isn't one. In each characters story, a different event puts them on the path to take on the ZLF and we'll go into a few of these without delving into spoiler territory. Yugo's adopted brother Kenji gets kidnapped by one of the games antagonists and so Yugo sets off to rescue him, encountering the other zoanthropes and having to fight them in the process. Shina is searching for her father Gado who disappeared while investigating the ZLF, and signs point to him being part of the organization. While Long is approached by Uriko who needs help rescuing her mother who was kidnapped by the leader of the ZLF - a man who bears a striking resemblance to Long himself. The fighting in Long's story is further justified in that the other zoanthropes attack him on sight because he looks exactly like the ZLF's leader. The overall point here is that there is a reason the characters are fighting each other that goes beyond "I must progress to the next level". "No I must progress to the next level. We must fight"!

Long The Tiger

The artwork in Bloody Roar 2 is stunning, very detailed, and there aren't any characters in any other fighting games that look like the cast of Bloody Roar 2 and it really gives the game a unique aesthetic.

The game has a rocking score provided by Jun Kajiwara, a well-known guitarist in his native Japan. Every character has their own theme and stage which is not only fitting but gives every battle a tone of its own. The slow, heavy guitar riffs on Gado's stage immediately let's the player know that what they were up against before is nothing compared to the battle they're about to face. And Shenlong's theme, appropriately called "You're Dead" really drives the point Shenlong is wild, fast, unpredictable, and a monster game-changer.

Mole versus Tiger? Let's see where this goes.

There are some technical issues with the game depending on which version you play. For whatever reason, the game has massive and I mean massive lag on the PS3. We're talking "sip your Mountain Dew between Long's combo strings" lag. This lag wasn't present in the Playstation version. I've read that PSVita owners haven't had any issues so it appears to be a PS3 problem. With that said I highly advise buying a Playstation copy off Amazon or from a mom and pop store and playing it in your Sony console of choice, and avoid the PSN version unless you're playing it on your Vita.

The New Breed

Bloody Roar 2 is an excellent fighting game and undoubtedly one of the best from the Playstation era. If you're a fighting game fan who doesn't mind the dated graphics this is a must own title. And you'd better get it fast because there's a reason those Amazon prices are inching closer and closer to $80. Not only is this game the high-point of the Bloody Roar series but it's one of the best old-school fighting games of its time.

Final Fantasy X (2001)

This is where Final Fantasy died.

Final Fantasy X centers around the exploits of seventeen year old Tidus. A popular young man and the best Blitzball (an underwater cross between football and soccer) player in his home city of Zanarkand. All is well until the city is attacked by a colossal monster known as Sin. This terrible creature ravages Zanarkand reducing the entire city to rubble in minutes. Fighting alongside his mentor Auron, Tidus does his best to fight off the monsters Sin unleashed but to no avail. After getting too close to the beast, Tidus finds that he has been transported one-thousand years into the future and the land he inhabits is not Zanarkand, but the land of Spira. The scars of battle fresh on his body, and baffling questions fresh in his mind. What is Sin? What is it’s purpose?  How has Tidus traversed time and why?  Alone and confused, Tidus begins his journey to find a way back home. But will he have a home to return to?

Tidus and Yuna

At its core we have what could have been a great adventure and coming of age story. However, the presentation suffers due to three major factors: a poor plot, bad pacing, and a cast of characters that can best be described as cringe-worthy. These three missteps create scenarios so fantastical that at times it is difficult to give the game the kind of seriousness the drama is so desperate to command. There are a few examples of what I mean. When Tidus meets Yuna, he barges into the Cloister of Trials because according to the onlookers Yuna has been in there for days and they fear she might have died. Since no one sees any need to check on her - not even her guardians - Tidus exercises his heroism and runs off to save her. Yuna is fine but this doesn't stop the characters from criticizing Tidus for disturbing their ritual, casually ignoring the fact that not only did he have good intentions but he had their best interests in mind.

Not long after that we see Sin wipe an island off the map but because there is a Blitzball championship in Luca, that somehow takes precedence. The fact that one of your teammates wants to delay Yuna's pilgrimage i.e. that thing that will save the world, to play sports removes all sense of urgency the game is trying so desperately to convey. In addition to amateur writing that makes the tenth outing of the Final Fantasy series seem like an experiment gone awry, the game also has numerous issues with pacing that stem from this same brand of amateur writing and more than a few plot contrivances to boot.

When the cast gets to the Mi'hen Highroad they stumble upon a military operation where the Crusaders are gearing up for an assault against Sin under the supervision of Maester Kinoc, one of the most powerful officials in the world. Being a maester, Kinoc has the power to stop the operation at any-time but not only does he not stop the operation, he openly admits to our heroes that he knows the operation will be a disaster. One could argue that these developments are being used to show that Kinoc can't be trusted, but one must wonder how does this matter to the overall narrative and why. This further falls apart when we look at the fact that Maester Kinoc is a minor character while Maester Seymour is one of the primary antagonists. Yet this event is used to portray Kinoc's villainous nature when he only has a small handful of scenes in the game and outside of this operation he's mostly window dressing in those. What this all means is that an entire three-to-four hour section of the game wasn't even needed. The game is filled with occurrences like this where events and even elements of the narrative drag simply to make the game longer than it needs to be.

Seymour Guado, President of the East Spira Kefka Fanclub

True, there is nothing wrong with a long RPG but the crux of the matter is that the narrative structure has to warrant the gameplay which is being used to carry it and that isn't the case here. A prime example is when Seymour asks Yuna to marry him. Rather than give Seymour her answer right away, she agrees to meet with him at Macalania temple and tell him there. From here we have five to six hours of fighting monsters, level grinding, and characters not talking about much of anything just so the game can give you a reason to travel to Macalania so Yuna can give Seymour a yes or no answer, when the two of them were just in Guadosalam together. RPGs are known to have contrived reasons to go from point A to point B just as they are known to have good reasons to get you to go from point A to point B. Then you have RPGs like Final Fantasy X where most of the events that occur are just padding.

Off to rescue Yuna a third time.

The many issues with Final Fantasy X's plot is due in part to the fact that the creators couldn't decide if it wants to be story driven or character driven and so abandons commitment to just one, opting to try and do both and failing in the attempt. The plot is largely seen from the standpoint of a main character who spends the majority of the game working out his daddy issues. Even when the stakes are raised and Tidus becomes aware of Spira's fate, the danger of Sin, and Yuna's unfortunate predicament, one never gets the sense that Tidus really understands just how dire their situation is especially when 30+ hours in the game he's still talking about how much he hates his father Jecht.

While it is true that previous protagonists (Cloud, Final Fantasy VII, Squall, Final Fantasy VIII) were dark and brooding, they also had hidden depths and a number of complex issues that they were dealing with which justified their emotional and mental condition and the decisions which stemmed from them. Tidus on the other hand is truly a one note character who is defined entirely by how much he hates his dad. This comparison is not made to allege one character is better than another, but to illustrate the importance of character depth which Tidus does not have. If Tidus had a perfectly rational excuse to hate his father and if we as gamers are fellow-recipients of whatever trauma Tidus claims to have endured then he would be more authentic as a character. However, from what we've seen of Jecht it's clear that while he was by no means the best father, he certainly wasn't the monster Tidus makes him out to be. The game even shows this when our heroes find video diaries of Jecht and in most of them he's thinking about Tidus and how he wants to return home to his family. Even when other characters like Yuna talk about how kind Jecht is, Tidus refuses to believe it - not because Jecht was somehow not kind - but because Tidus needs to hate his father. This becomes even more incredulous when a plot-unraveling secret is revealed after the halfway point. Of course the other issue with Final Fantasy X is our heroine Yuna.

Setting women back since 2001.

Despite the fact that the game came out in 2001, Yuna is a throwback to the antiquated idea of what makes an ideal woman: she's docile, she does what other people tell her to do, she is complacent, in essence she plays into Japan's obsession with the nadeshiko woman. In addition to the numerous levels on which this is offensive to women, Yuna's character detracts from the integrity of the plot due in large part to how these traits lead her to make decisions that betray the most basic common sense.

Yuna gets kidnapped. A lot - despite the fact that her Aeons make her quite possibly your most powerful party member. From the standpoint of the plot, Yuna is canonically the strongest character in the game because only a summoner can defeat Sin. Yet Yuna gets kidnapped by the Al Bhed not even an hour after the gang gets to Luca and she literally waited on her guardians to come to her rescue because despite the fact she had two powerful Aeons the thought to use either of them to escape on her own never even came to her. Yuna apologists might say "Well she didn't want to hurt anyone because she's a pacifist." Well that argument doesn't hold water because given the fact that Yuna's guardians had no problems killing Al Bhed left and right in order to save her, Yuna's refusal to save herself actually put more people in danger. And for arguments sake, suppose the gang never found out about Yuna's kidnapping until after the perpetrators have fled Luca. In essence Yuna wouldn't be able to complete her pilgrimage, therefore she wouldn't be able to defeat Sin, thus Spira would fall into further destruction so you see, any argument that anyone can make in defense of Yuna's character actually ends up compromising either the plot or Yuna herself, because the character is illogical by design.

This is how Yuna saves the world.

When Yuna finds out that Seymour murdered his own father to usurp his position she tries to convince him to turn himself in and face the justice of the high court. She does this by agreeing to his marriage proposal. Bear in mind Seymour never agrees to turn himself in just because Yuna marries him. However, she believes she can convince him to expose his darkest secret, surrender his political and religious power, and face a very likely execution, despite the fact that Seymour has not given any indication that he'd go through with it. The only thing that can be said in Yuna's defense is that she isn't even the worst part of the game. That's what the rest of the cast is here for.

Our heroes. God help us.

Apart from Tidus and Yuna, Final Fantasy X's motley crew consists of Kimahri our resident wookie. Lulu whose most memorable trait is the size of her bust, and also later marrying Wakka our lovable racist.

Not going anywhere for awhile? Grab a Blitzball.

While Final Fantasy is no stranger to exploiting ethnic and religious stereotypes, and racial and gender inequality, to Final Fantasy X's credit it does aim to keep racism within its own universe as the target of Wakka's prejudice is the Al Bhed. However, the type of mindset Wakka has isn't any less offensive nor does the fact that he's a fictional character in any way, shape, or form lessen the ugliness of his character traits. I'm not sure if Squaresoft was trying to be progressive with this character but it only served to make the cast even more unbearable than they already were. Wakka hates the Al Bhed because his brother Chappu used a gun which is an Al Bhed weapon at the time he was killed by Sin. Keep in mind that if Chappu used a sword his corpse wouldn't have been anymore recognizable anyway, but Wakka also seems to think that the Al Bhed are evil because they don't follow the teachings of Yu Yevon.

There could be a moral lesson here i.e. don't hate people just because they're different from you but the game continually makes the Al Bhed the punching bags of Final Fantasy X. While the game could have used this as a way to promote a message of peace and understanding among all people and all religions, it almost goes out of its way to show that if a minority group doesn't run with the pack they get eaten. Being a Japanese RPG this may have actually been what the creators were trying to argue, but even that does not excuse the type of character Wakka is. Wakka actually makes a joke when the Al Bhed lose their city and comments that the explosions look like fireworks. Never mind the fact that the few surviving Al Bhed helped him and his friends escape, and the Al Bhed were also doing a better job of protecting Yuna than her guardians, but when the Al Bhed are on the receiving end of a veritable genocide, Wakka still has time to joke about it. This joke was made right in front of the teams token Al Bhed Rikku, who mostly serves up an unsettling amount of the games fanservice.

I'm not even going there.

Rikku, much like Lulu is one of our sexualized female party members. That's par for the course with most JRPGs but the thing is Rikku is only 15. And actually, even sexualizing a 15-year-old is not off limits for some JRPGs and clearly Final Fantasy X doesn't have any hang-ups about it either. When she's not wearing skin tight costumes that show off her, personality, she doesn't really do much else but serve as a connection to Yuna's half-Al Bhed heritage. Yuna and Rikku are cousins as Yuna's Al Bhed mother was Rikku's aunt. This could have provided some interesting narrative elements because Yuna's father was a follower of Yu Yevon, and Yu Yevon forbids marriage to Al Bhed. However, the game doesn't do anything with the familial relationship between Rikku and Yuna because it's too busy placing Yuna in scenarios to get kidnapped while Rikku dishes out her best valley girl impression.

Auron and his jug of Whoop Ass

The only bright spot in Final Fantasy X's cast is Auron who seems to be the only member of the team who has his priorities in order. Sin poses a global threat so Auron feels destroying it should be the primary objective. It's a shame that despite how cool Auron is I have to give him points simply for exercising the common sense the rest of the team doesn't seem to have. Auron's seriousness and even his intellect almost makes him feel completely out of place with the rest of the cast. There is a plot specific reason why Auron is an outsider true, but even without that narrative element Auron seems so different because he's the only one who seems to know how to react to what's going on around him.

The music is acceptable for the type of game that it is but this is far from Nobuo Uematsu's best work. To its credit the boss themes do provide a sense of tension and urgency while Seymour's themes do a good job at driving home the fact that he can't be trusted, although that's something the average gamer would be able to see immediately.

You'll need most of the team for this one.

Final Fantasy X abandons the ATB system and returns to turn based battles with the added benefit of being able to swap your characters on the fly. While this is fairly common today, back in 2001 you wouldn't see this feature outside of the Tales of... series. Certain characters are skilled against certain monster types and recognizing that is the key to winning most battles in the early going. For example, Tidus is the best character to use against monsters that have high agility and speed stats, but he's not good against monsters that have heavy armor. For those types you'd need Auron, but while he can deal heavy damage to those enemies, he isn't the best party member to use against flans that must instead be killed via Lulu's black magic. So there's a little bit of strategy that goes into random encounters and boss fights. Of course you can also negate that depending on how you traverse the sphere grid. For example, by the last ten or so hours of the game I had leveled Tidus and Auron to the point where they bodied enemies and even most bosses in one-hit, regardless of type.

Sphere Grid

Leveling is done via the sphere grid system whereby characters use points acquired through battle to move about the grid. Said character will come across nodes that have various skills and status upgrades which can be unlocked if you have the appropriate sphere. While spheres are hard to come by early on, about twenty hours in you'll typically have more than enough. The game does lose just a few points here though, because with the exception of Yuna's summons, every character can learn every technique in the game, thus eliminating any need to switch characters in battles which would normally require strategy. In my playthrough, not only did I unlock the appropriate spheres to have Tidus use Lulu's black magic, but he was every bit as competent in using them as she was.

Bahamut

The summons (Aeons) in Final Fantasy X were truly at their peak because to the games credit, no other title in the series has driven home how effective these powerhouses are. Unlike in earlier titles where summons just showed up and used an attack, or in later titles where they were more or less useless, in Final Fantasy X the Aeons are party members in their own right. Sure in Final Fantasy VIII they learned support skills, but here they actually acquire attack spells, status buffs, support spells, and new attacks. When Yuna summons an Aeon all the party members clear out and the Aeon in question takes over. If the Aeon dies it can always be revived and over the course of the game Yuna acquires a wide variety thereof from classics such as Shiva and Ifrit to new faces like Yojimbo and Anima. While the Aeons aren't impressive early on, you can make them stronger over-time. The Aeons are game changers and once you unlock the means to remove the damage cap it'll be bad news for your enemies when they hit the field.

The sun sets on what Final Fantasy once was.

Final Fantasy X is a game encased in hype and fanfare. Having played every game in the series I'm more than convinced that the only reason this game has been so well-received is because many gamers today just got started with the series during the PS2 era. Add on the fact that casual market believes graphics make a game good and it's easy to see why some think this is a good game. The gameplay makes Final Fantasy X a passable RPG true, but the characters, story, and one particular plot twist which actually makes the games own narrative structure fall apart proves that this game is an absolute disgrace to the Final Fantasy series. Some blame Squaresoft's merger with Enix or Final Fantasy XIII for the downturn of the series but I can assure you that it was Final Fantasy X that put a bullet in this franchise a long time ago. And the reality is that an HD remake doesn't turn a crime scene into a work of art.