Final Fantasy X,X-2, HD Version

[Trepidati0n]

I remember getting FFX..it was what caused me to get a PS2 finally. I remember thinking "wow", look how good this game looks. The plot was fare. Played the crap out of it. Tried it a few years later (after I got the PS3) and it had lost most of its visual luster...and the horrible amount of combat swap time.

So...saw the "HD" version was being released and thought "I wonder if they could bring the magic back"? Well, I'm happy to say they did. In short, the upgrade to detail they did effectively tricked my brain into thinking "this is how I remember the game looking 10 years ago". There is no lag getting into/out of combat (old school RPG issue). The access to the reduce sphere grid is great. Also, the voice acting was all redone with the same actors.

First time that video game nostalgia didn't leave me feeling disappointed.

 

[Armenius]

I have a copy of this sitting at home, being neglected from the release of Reaper of Souls. I have made a promise to start playing it this weekend, though. FFX is one of my absolute favorite titles in the Final Fantasy franchise. I am very interested in seeing and trying out the International version additions to the game. Funny how Square releases "International" versions, but they are never released worldwide...

But I was like you when I tried out the original PS2 version on my PS3. The software emulation of the PS2 caused the visual and audio quality to be severely degraded, so it was better to keep playing on an original PS2.

 

[FnordMan]

I have a copy of this sitting at home, being neglected from the release of Reaper of Souls. I have made a promise to start playing it this weekend, though. FFX is one of my absolute favorite titles in the Final Fantasy franchise. I am very interested in seeing and trying out the International version additions to the game. Funny how Square releases "International" versions, but they are never released worldwide...

But I was like you when I tried out the original PS2 version on my PS3. The software emulation of the PS2 caused the visual and audio quality to be severely degraded, so it was better to keep playing on an original PS2.

PC emulation is actually much better on PS2 titles if you've got a beastly enough system. (PCSX2 is rather demanding and largely single threaded still)
FFX on PCSX2 looks about 80% the same as the PS3 title. The main (and very nice) differences are the cutscenes being nicely redone and of course the whole international edition changes finally being brought back to the .us

 

[maxius]

I had this preordered since November. i played a bit of it and i like it they did a nice job now they need to do 12 then go back to earlier games i do not expect to see a 7 remake for 10+ years

note i never finished kingdom hearts 1.5 hd remix kingdom hearts 2, Final Fantasy 9, 10 HD, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-3 and i have a pc games backlog WHY I BLAME WOW i quit so i could catch up on everything and well offline games are so much more enjoyable than online

 

[Armenius]

PC emulation is actually much better on PS2 titles if you've got a beastly enough system. (PCSX2 is rather demanding and largely single threaded still)
FFX on PCSX2 looks about 80% the same as the PS3 title. The main (and very nice) differences are the cutscenes being nicely redone and of course the whole international edition changes finally being brought back to the .us

I do emulate my PS2 games nowadays. Back when the PS3 came out and I was still playing FFX, PCSX2 wasn't mature enough and I didn't have the hardware to play with it at acceptable performance levels. Purchasing this remaster is good for the reasons you point out, but also hopefully showing my support with my purchase will convince Square to continue updating classic titles.

I had this preordered since November. i played a bit of it and i like it they did a nice job now they need to do 12 then go back to earlier games i do not expect to see a 7 remake for 10+ years

note i never finished kingdom hearts 1.5 hd remix kingdom hearts 2, Final Fantasy 9, 10 HD, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-3 and i have a pc games backlog WHY I BLAME WOW i quit so i could catch up on everything and well offline games are so much more enjoyable than online

I'm with you on bringing a remaster of XII to us. They need to bring the International changes to us with this one if they're going to do it, though. I grabbed a Japanese copy after finding out about the English patch and it really changes the game to what it should have been in the first place, in my opinion. PCSX2 is really great now, but I still feel XII could really benefit from some higher resolution textures and higher audio fidelity. Plus a proper English translation wouldn't hurt, either (correct font, etc.). XII International is my second favorite Final Fantasy after VIII.

 

[m33pm33p]

I had this preordered since November. i played a bit of it and i like it they did a nice job now they need to do 12 then go back to earlier games i do not expect to see a 7 remake for 10+ years

note i never finished kingdom hearts 1.5 hd remix kingdom hearts 2, Final Fantasy 9, 10 HD, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-3 and i have a pc games backlog WHY I BLAME WOW i quit so i could catch up on everything and well offline games are so much more enjoyable than online

AMEN! X, X-2 and 12 are the ONLY Final Fantasies I havnt beaten. I picked up X/X-2 remake last week and been playing it here and there when Im not playing DSII. I think they did a good job. The mouth movement for the voice acting is kind of driving me nuts but other than that Im digging it so far.

 

[Derangel]

I had this preordered since November. i played a bit of it and i like it they did a nice job now they need to do 12 then go back to earlier games i do not expect to see a 7 remake for 10+ years

note i never finished kingdom hearts 1.5 hd remix kingdom hearts 2, Final Fantasy 9, 10 HD, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-3 and i have a pc games backlog WHY I BLAME WOW i quit so i could catch up on everything and well offline games are so much more enjoyable than online

If SE ever does a remake of FF7 it will most likely be on a phone or a handheld device. It would be much cheaper for them to do with that way since they'd have to start from scratch with every single asset for the game and a console remake would be expected to have voice acting so that adds even more to the cost.

 

[mrgstiffler]

Started playing this on Tuesday. I forgot how slow and boring the game is at the beginning. It picks up A LOT once you get some party members. I also remembered that I'm pretty much the only person who hated the sphere grid.

 

[FnordMan]

Started playing this on Tuesday. I forgot how slow and boring the game is at the beginning. It picks up A LOT once you get some party members. I also remembered that I'm pretty much the only person who hated the sphere grid.

I love the sphere grid, in my original game I had Yuna all over the place. She was even starting to rival some of the fighters in melee damage. Though at that point her holy spell did 99,999 damage to most everything. By the time I finally beat Sin fighting the aeons was kind of cake.

In my X/X-2 remake game I just got to see Kimhari's (likely misspelled that) grid and I forgot how screwed over he is at first. One pretty much has to get a LV1 lock sphere to get him much of anywhere. (playing with the Standard Sphere grid)

 

[Megalith]

What was the point of changing the voice acting and music?

 

[Derangel]

What was the point of changing the voice acting and music?

They actually didn't redo the voice acting. What they did however was not compress it all to hell like they had to do on the PS2 so it sounds much better.

 

[Armenius]

I love the sphere grid, in my original game I had Yuna all over the place. She was even starting to rival some of the fighters in melee damage. Though at that point her holy spell did 99,999 damage to most everything. By the time I finally beat Sin fighting the aeons was kind of cake.

In my X/X-2 remake game I just got to see Kimhari's (likely misspelled that) grid and I forgot how screwed over he is at first. One pretty much has to get a LV1 lock sphere to get him much of anywhere. (playing with the Standard Sphere grid)

Yes, it is quite a pain with how rare Keys are in the first act of the game. By the time you pick up your first Lv.1 Key, all your other characters are also fighting for the right to unlock another area.

I'm going to try the Expert Grid. The picture of it I saw shows it is significantly bigger, which has me intrigued.

 

[Trepidati0n]

Yes, it is quite a pain with how rare Keys are in the first act of the game. By the time you pick up your first Lv.1 Key, all your other characters are also fighting for the right to unlock another area.

I'm going to try the Expert Grid. The picture of it I saw shows it is significantly bigger, which has me intrigued.

The big diff between the two grids at completion is the US (full size) grid allows you to hit 99,999 HP and the smaller grid tops out at ~60kHP I believe. All else..relative to combat is a wash; everybody hits for 99,999 damage. And...you don't need the extra HP. Any of the extra stuff bosses if they want you dead...HP doesn't matter..they just hit for 99,999HP. The smaller grid allows you to get there "quicker" which is why I chose that route this time around.

 

[pigwalk]

The mouth movement for the voice acting is kind of driving me nuts but other than that Im digging it so far.

It was always like that though. One of the things that FF13 most impressed me with was how good the vocal sync'ing was.

 

[King Icewind]

Has anyone gotten it for the Vita?

 

[Godmachine]

Have it sitting in front of me for another time. But I'm excited to play it.

 

[m33pm33p]

It was always like that though. One of the things that FF13 most impressed me with was how good the vocal sync'ing was.

But back then that was the norm. It's just extremely noticeable now days..

 

[ultraman7k]

After this, I want them to re do FFXII, and boot Vaan and Penelo, and have the cast as it should be!

 

[Derangel]

After this, I want them to re do FFXII, and boot Vaan and Penelo, and have the cast as it should be!

They're not going to completely remake it. That said I'd really like them to give this treatment to the international edition of XII, apparently it has more distinct license boards for classes so not every character is exactly the same.

 

[Trepidati0n]

They're not going to completely remake it. That said I'd really like them to give this treatment to the international edition of XII, apparently it has more distinct license boards for classes so not every character is exactly the same.

Agreed. I'm not a fan of RPG where at end game "everyone is the same". I think it would be add a bit of variety if you needed a definite compliment of characters to beat a boss even if it was an optional way over powered that you would never see during the normal game boss.

 

[Armenius]

The license boards in XII International are great. They ultimately allow each character to be more powerful than one would with a fully populated original license board. To balance the game to this approach almost all of the weapons and armour were reworked to be more appropriate for the classes that were built. Daggers are actually powerfully unique in their own way, while rods were reworked for White Mages to use from the start with appropriate bonuses that benefit the class. The best thing is that MP is no longer tied to Quickenings. Mages get sizable MP pools to encourage Magick use. Limit Breaks are more traditional with a stoic-type application, but to make up for it Limit Breaks have been made more powerful. There are just so many great changes in XII International it is hard to think of them all.

On topic, I posted some of my impressions of FFX HD in the "What are you nerds playing this weekend?" thread.

I started playing FFX HD. Love the high resolution (plays at 1080p natively ). It looks like at least a lot of the texture assets were also increased in resolution because nothing looks terribly blocky at 1080p. The main characters' faces have been updated to full 3D models, which looks great. But lesser characters still only have animated textures on their faces which is a little jarring in some cutscenes. At the beginning when it transitions often between CGI cutscenes and in-game cutscenes, these are completely smooth now. There are still framerate issues in certain situations, but the game generally plays at a smooth 60 FPS. The music I have heard so far, I actually like the remixes better than the original because they're more robust with more sound depth. Only issue with the sound is it's still only mixed in stereo (receiver showed Dolby ProLogic II, no option to change in-game)... No Dolby Digital Surround or DTS . I made it up to right before departing on the S.S. Liki.

 

[refraxion]

It was always like that though. One of the things that FF13 most impressed me with was how good the vocal sync'ing was.

I thought they re did the movement in ff13 to match the English voices?

 

[HeavensCloud]

So tell me, did they cut out that ridiculous laughing cut scene

Either way I might grab this. X-2 did zilch for me, but I put a lot into X. Blitzball was so fun once you get Ropp (I think that was his name.)

 

[m33pm33p]

So tell me, did they cut out that ridiculous laughing cut scene

Either way I might grab this. X-2 did zilch for me, but I put a lot into X. Blitzball was so fun once you get Ropp (I think that was his name.)

Nope, lmao. Oddly enough that's the first question my Co worker asked when I was telling him about remake..

 

[Kinsaras]

So tell me, did they cut out that ridiculous laughing cut scene

Either way I might grab this. X-2 did zilch for me, but I put a lot into X. Blitzball was so fun once you get Ropp (I think that was his name.)

I have a lot of mixed feelings about X-2. I think it has one of the best battle systems of almost any FF in the series. The story and oozing "girl power" theme brings it down so I mostly try to ignore that part haha.

 

[Megalith]

It's $30 now at Gamestop. I got it price matched at Target, but I feel like maybe I should have waited for the digital version to go on sale.

 

[King Icewind]

It's $29.99 at Amazon as well. I got the Vita version today. On a slightly unrelated note, I got Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for $16.99 too, not bad. Will arrive just in time for my 30 hour drive to Grand Canyon.

I will have to let you know how it is on the Vita.

 

[Shalafi]

I bought this last night. Loving the nostalgia feels.

 

[Godmachine]

It's $29.99 at Amazon as well. I got the Vita version today. On a slightly unrelated note, I got Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for $16.99 too, not bad. Will arrive just in time for my 30 hour drive to Grand Canyon.

I will have to let you know how it is on the Vita.

Its exactly the same as the PS3 version. Slightly lower resolution textures but that's only because the Vita isn't running at an HD resolution. But the games looks almost exactly the same and you can even transfer saves if you want.

Very impressed with the Vita version.