FFX/FFX-2 review: The classic JRPGs remastered on Nintendo Switch

Earlier this month, we got a copy of the remastered version of Final Fantasy X & X-2 for Nintendo Switch. To me who has never laid a hand on FFX nor FFX-2, it’s a golden opportunity to experience the game and how it feels to play on a Switch. So, let’s not beat around the bushes and jump straight into FFX/FFX-2 review.

Story

The story of FFX revolves around Tidus, a cheerful and energetic young lad who’s the star player of a blitzball team. Also, he’s the main character of the game. Tidus’ adventure begins when a creature known as “Sin” attack Zanarkand and warped him into a foreign world ahead of his time.

As the story progresses, Tidus met Yuna, a summoner who aims to defeat “Sin”. In FFX, the two plays a vital role in bringing down “Sin” and players will be in an emotional ride because the story has a twist that you’ll never see it coming.

For FFX-2, it’s a sequel to FFX which focuses on Yuna, Rikku and a new comer called Paine. Although the game adapts a much pop overtones, it still addresses the aftermath of the first sequel.

In short, FFX-2 focuses more on Yuna and the gang seeking spheres by joining the Gullwings and also searching for her lost love, Tidus.

Visual Improvements & Audio Tracks

Well, the games did get remastered but it’s almost 20 years ago so there are only improvements in visual. However, it’s still amazing that game this old can still be this gorgeous.

One thing to point out about the visuals are those supporting characters still lack improvement in looks when compared to the few main characters. By that I mean their faces still look kind of pixelated whereas characters such as Tidus and Yuna have HD-fied features.

Upon starting the game, there are now two choices of sound tracks to choose from between arranged tracks and classic tracks which you can switch in-between game. Arranged tracks are better quality with it being much crisp and surrounding while original are the nostalgic tracks that veteran players will mostly go to.

Gameplay

Gameplay-wise, for someone who never experienced the game, I would say it is a great JRPG, it’s Final Fantasy for crying out loud! A game where players will view the world in a 3rd person perspective where there are immersive storylines and classical play style, I can’t even believe that the combat system was from like 18 years ago.

In the game, players will be able to take on the role of Tidus and his friends including Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri and Rikku along the journey. Although it’s not an open-world game like FFXV, players can still explore certain parts of the map in different locations.

While exploring towns, I noticed how the NPCs will run about and that makes the game feel more lively and at the same time immersive. If players were to explore in the wild like most of the time, there will be enemy encounters.

There are times when Tidus will be given decisions to make that will affect the affections of the party members,the affections will decide which party members to appear in some cut scenes but it will not influence major events. Besides that, the camera angles in the game is fixated meaning that the players can’t move around the camera which kind of annoys me at first but it’s a really old game so I’ll let it slide.

In FFX-2, the gameplay is much more fast pace as the game does not wait for you. Meaning the AI Monsters will start attacking even is on your turn, so players got to pick up their pace in order to not fall behind.

Besides that, FFX-2 also introduces a new feature called Creature Creator. In this feature, players can catch fiend in different locations and make them aid you in battles. In addition, fiends can be trained and learnt different skills in the Creature Creator menu.

The fiends that players captured can even take part in a tournament and win prizes such as Trap Pods which is a tool for catching fiends and when your fiends grow to a certain degree, players can learn more about the fiends in Fiends Tale.

Combat

The combat system in FFX uses the classical strategy turned-based combat where a maximum of 3 party members will join the fight while the additional members can be switch-in while in combat.

I especially like how the game allows you to switch-in different characters and still allows the switched-in character to make a move unlike any other RPGs that will just skip your turn.

Besides that, FFX has this Overdrive which can be cast when the Overdrive gauge is filled. It is a special attack that deals additional damage and each party members have their very own unique special attacks.

On top of that, some Overdrive comes with a special set of requirements that acts as a mini-game. For instance, a bar with white space will come out when Tidus uses his Overdrive and when players land the cursor on the white space, Tidus’s Overdrive will deal more damage.

Besides that, Yuna is quite the special character as she can summon Aeons, summoned beasts that can only be called upon by summoners. When an Aeon is summoned, the rest of the party members will withdraw leaving only Yuna and her Aeon on the battlefield, I’m just assuming having Aeon and the rest of the party might be too overpowered so they did this.

Anyways, Aeon is a powerful creature that Yuna can obtain as story progresses and each have its unique skill and only Aeon is capable of delivering damage on the battlefield as Yuna stood behind it.

For FFX-2, each characters can go through transformation using dress-sphere which FFX does not has. A dress-sphere will change a character’s skill set which will turn the tides of favor when used correctly in any situations.

Gaming Experience on Nintendo Switch 

Playing FFX/FFX-2 on the Nintendo Switch is not out-of-the-ordinary but it’s something pretty fresh to me because you can make use of the touch screen where the quick recovery menu is. Aside from that, Nintendo Switch being a very portable console makes it even better because you can play FFX on the go. However, when detaching the joycon and playing the game on a bigger screen can be somewhat awkward to me at the beginning but is easy to get use to it. Also, the battery is one of the problems because you know how portable consoles are when you have a long and heavy gaming session.

Check out our gameplay:

Verdict

Getting a remastered of both the series on Nintendo Switch is actually a very big thing for me as I’ve never played it before and since playing it, I was able to view FFX/FFX-2 in a more HD-fied manner. The games are a classic and i would highly recommend people to play it if they have not. However, there are still some flaws within in that I noticed.

For instance, there are too many cutscenes in the game but I’m not complaining about that but only the fact that it’s unskippable. Then there are times where the animation does not sync well with the audio but I guess it’s just the dubbing problem. Speaking of dub, there’s no Japanese dub on the Nintendo Switch which I absolutely hate about it. Overall, FFX/FFX-2 on Nintendo Switch is pretty neat to me because I can play it on the go like on PS Vita but the version on Switch is more HD and I can even play it on the big screens if I feel like it.

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