Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
For the uninitiated, Final Fantasy X drops you in the shoes of Tidus, a blitzball player (think underwater football) who has avoided death by being sucked into the future by the same monster that’s just destroyed his entire city. What follows is a story full of memorable characters, brilliant action, romance, drama, sadness and a few one-liners that’ll have you laughing out loud. It’s no wonder then that Final Fantasy X has a spot in many a gamer’s heart and is thought of as one of the best RPGs ever made. Luckily for us, Square Enix have treated these HD remasters with just the right amount of love and attention.
First off, it’s amazing how modern these remasters feel even though Final Fantasy X was released over ten years ago. The backgrounds, textures and lighting have all been updated, and whilst the games were undeniably pretty on PlayStation 2, the colours really pop off the screen in crisp HD. It even made us wish that modern games were a tad more colourful, whilst the incredible full motion video cut scenes also look sublime. Attention has also been paid in the sound department and with remastered and rearranged scores, these games have never sounded better.
There are a few niggles though. For example, whilst the bundle is cross-save compatible, which means you could play in the evening on your PS3 and then continue the next morning on your commute on Vita, there’s no cross-buy so you’d need to buy the remasters twice to take advantage of it. Some aspects haven’t aged so well either; such as the voice acting – it might have been top notch back then but there’s a fair bit of dialogue that just sounds a little cheesy and overdramatic now. Likewise, whilst the visuals have been updated, you can tell that the animation is very much from the PS2 era, as character faces can look a little odd at times.
Drawing from the well of nostalgia is a risky business. If you get it right you’ll bring back all those wonderful memories - if you get it wrong you’re left with something that people scorn for not being as good as the original. Luckily for Square Enix, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster is pure nostalgia heaven. Seeing as Final Fantasy X clocks in at around 45-60 hours long and X-2 around 30-45 hours, it’s also fair to say that you really are getting a lot of bang for your buck. So, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve played these games before or not – you owe it to yourself to play these pieces of gaming history.