FFX Replay and random thoughts

[seventhe]

Not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but safety_caesars and I are (re)playing FFX. Playing in her case, replaying in my case.

First off, I'll say: I like FFX. I actually like FFX-2, also, and I'm well aware liking both at the same time is Fandom Shun material. I'm certainly not saying either game is perfect, but I enjoy them. I've replayed FFX myself two or three times, and I've started FFX-2 about a dozen times (I can never get through it because the story is much too non-linear for someone with my schedule; I have a month where I can't play anything and then I come back, can't remember where the fuck I was, and the story isn't giving me any guidance, so I have to start over and swear a lot).

Protip: if you follow all of the gasping, grunting, sighing, breathing, exclaiming, and other non-verbal personal noises that are made in dialogue with "he/she came", the voice acting is instantly improved, and the game becomes hilarious.

Watching FFX is interesting from the POV of somebody who knows what's coming. We got to the first "big" reveal last night - the Home/Final Summoning/Bevelle/wedding plot point - and I'd kind of been waiting for it to drop for a while. Watching Tidus be a doof at Yuna is really sad not just when you know Yuna's eventual fate, but when you know how Tidus reacts to it and how regretful and awful he feels. Obviously I've known for a while but I think fandom has somehow made me forget just how tragic this game is, this part especially.

I'm still leering and making noises every time Auron says... well, almost anything. I can't wait until we get to Big Plot Point Scene #2 in Zanarkand. :D

I really like the gameplay in FFX - THERE, I'LL SAY IT - although I also am finding it a little tedious. Some thoughts:

The thing I LIKE about it is that it's the perfect balance between class-based play and completely-customizable play. For example: FFIV - which is admittedly one of my favorite games to (re)play, so this is not a criticism - is completely class-based to the point of not being customizable at all; nothing changes depending on how you play the game. Everyone learns their spells at the same time. I realize the DS Remake had customizability and that was cool, but my brain still goes to the old version of it, where everybody is classed and that's that and there's no overlap: Rydia's always your mage and she's gonna learn Meteo at level 60 [or whatever level in whatever version] and she's never gonna be a good fighter, the end. I enjoy that, but I also find it frustrating that there's nothing new to try. But in FFIV, classing is characterization, too -- Rosa's White Magic is part of who she is, and being a White Mage is part of her personality.

On the other end are games like FFVII or VIII - again, FFVIII is one of my favorites, so no criticism meant - where the characters are almost entirely interchangable except for Limit Breaks because the stats and actions are so malleable. I mean, FFVIII is a great example -- Squall is always loads better than anyone else because you can't get him out of your fucking party, and Rinoa and Zell are kind of skewed towards magic/fighting respectively, but between Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie, there's not a lot of difference because Junctioning can fill up the smaller holes. So they can end up doing or being almost anything - especially once GFs start getting those Stat Up abilities. Which is cool in a gameplay sense because there are a lot of different things you can do with characters, but not as much in a mental or meta sense: is Irvine a caster? A distance fighter (of which there aren't a lot of 'distance' enemies where it matters)? A tank? Classing as characterization is absent. Even Rinoa, who becomes a freaking sorceress, isn't 'classed' as one -- their personalities are fairly distant from their battle roles. FFVII is the same way - the characters are mostly the same, strengths and weaknesses are minimized, and Limit Breaks define them.

FFX is, to me, a variant on the best of both worlds. Characters start off classed, so there's never any real confusion as to what you use Lulu or Auron for. But as you advance through the game you get the opportunity to customize, so you can have different characters do different things. If you're like me and you hate blitzball and thus never get Wakka's Overdrives or Ultimate Weapon or anything, you can have another character learn Wakka's skills, for when Wakka eventually gets outclassed by other characters with more developed Overdrives. You can turn Yuna into a fighter or a speed machine or a Sage, whatever you want.

(I once played a Girls-Only Challenge which was really hard and really fun. :D)

It's like what I really like about FFV Advance -- cross-classing, or combo-classing, customizing characters within certain molds and coming up with fun badass new ways to play.

It gets a little tedious switching in and out of battles - which are fun because they can be strategic, with the classing (and cross-classing). It gets old when you're in an area that has the same kind of monsters all the time and you're just switching in and out the appropriate people - but then there's a boss battle where you have to hope you developed everybody because suddenly you've gotta use all those abilities you didn't think were important. (EVRAE. FUCKING EVRAE.)

But I think most games have those points. In FFVIII, for example, Drawing spells is the most fuckboring thing ever invented, even when Laguna does it. In other games there's just plain levelgrinding. I think FFX manages to be strategic even with its plug-and-play battle system because the bosses aren't that mold -- and they can be freaking hard.

But maybe that's just me and I like making my mages into heavy hitters, lol.

- - -

It's funny, though, replaying, because I'm not very fannishly active for this game, and I am not entirely sure why. I love Auron/Lulu as a ship, but watching the game, there really is little to no evidence of them ever, like, interacting about anything much. (Which... ships sail on much less, so it isn't a criticism, but I've been actively looking for hints and so far coming up dry.) In fact, on this playthrough, Lulu is leaving me a little bit cold; she's the kind of character I usually find fascinating but this time it's as if there just isn't much there. She never gets explained: she just was with Chappu and then went on some pilgrimages and she casts magic and for some reason Guado really like to target her in battle and, well, that's that. Her motivations are just there but they never really get developed.

As always the character who draws me in the most is Rikku, which is also funny because she's the archetype I'm usually not drawn to. But what I like about Rikku is that she's so serious and big-hearted and determined to save her cousin, and she's never once apologetic about her people and their lives to Wakka or anybody else -- I love the way she continues to question Yevon and the teachings, even as the Yevon threads start to unravel; she's more a catalyst for what happens with Yuna than I think most people give her credit for.

Auron is still awesome. Braska and Jecht and Auron are still my OT3.

Also shipping Tidus/Wakka this playthrough, BY THE WAY. WHO HAS FIC. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE IT.

Hadn't realized in previous playthroughs how Seymour is set up as a creeper basically from the beginning, with his creeper voice and creeper dialogue and sinister demeanor -- I was kind of spoiled so I probably didn't notice because I knew he was a not-so-good-guy, but it's really freaking obvious coming back to the game with a bit of distance.

I'm still unsure why this game doesn't catch me fannishly, though. There are a lot of ideas I have and things I'd like to explore, but for some reason they're never forceful enough to drag me to the keyboard and sit me down, going, DO THIS. Other fanfiction ideas have. None of the characters speak to me personally (like, say, Quistis Trepe) or draw out my interests and sympathies and nostalgia (like Rydia). I am hoping this playthrough changes that, though, because like I said, I'd like to create more for this fandom.

What I find I like the most is the world. It's complicated and it's actually a pretty shitty place to live, all things considered. It's so complex and well-built because of it. The 'rules' of the fayth and the pyreflies and the aeons, the complicated relationship Yevon has with everything, and the way Yuna is a product of that and still manages to walk her own path (again, I am convinced the Al Bhed play a bigger role in this story than fandom admits).



Anyway, that's where we are now, and those are my thoughts. More as I go!

Comments

[feywood]

There is so no shame in liking both FFX and FFX-2! :D Though I admit it took me a long, long time to come to appreciate FFX and how tragic and beautiful it all is.

[crankyoldman]

Yeah, I adored both Yuna and Rikku a lot in FFX, which is why as I'm playing through FFX-2 it is basically Relevant to Cendri's Interests: The Game. Auron is also great, but yeah, Team Yuna and Rikku all the time.

God, I need to get back to that, I'm on Chapter 2. I managed to do something dumb and have to go all the way through Bevelle again, so.... I put it down for like some months.

[novel_machinist]

I love FFX and FFX-2. :) I'm happy to see that they're remaking 10. Though I wish they would have done 9 or 7, I understand that the map wandering and settings are a bit too much in those games with SO MUCH map roaming. 10 is easier because it's one of the first games where wide MAP ROAMING isn't able to happen.

In short, I love it so haters gonna hate

This is a pretty long response.

[zen_monk]

I remembered the last time I replayed FFX and I found that I liked it more the second time around. I think it helps that I expected bad voice-acting and occasional plot WTF-ery, so that I had more chance to evaluate its good points.

I liked Tidus and Rikku the second time a lot more. I think that their characters are more honest and have more dimension than most, though I think I'd like to chalk it up to them having more complicated pasts and lifestyles compared to the rest of the team. They're really shake up the characters more than what Auron and plot circumstances ever did because they actually bothered to question things. I also think that Wakka deserves some praise as a character, since it's not often that I witnessed someone with such ignorance in a RPG video game charcter, though Steiner from FFIX serves that boat as well. Actually, I can sort of compare Wakka to Steiner: they're very good at being douchey when they are, and they're very good at not being douchey when they're not. Wakka has strong beliefs and opinions that I think made him stand out much more than others and because we the audience see that, we can judge a bit more critically and can easily form opinions about him.

I feel that unlike other FF worlds, the FFX world reveals so much and yet so little at the same time. I think that in other FF games, like in the PS1 era, a country's culture and viewpoints are easily expressed both verbally and non-verbally. I'm of the opinion that other FF worlds, like in VI-IX and XII, a country and town's culture can also be inferred through greater areas of exploration and subtext. Especially when it's obvious when developers show their research based on town dialogue, architecture, and also the structure of its settings. I mean, IX gets to have plays and literature and auctioning and diverse mythology, VII and VIII get tech and space aliens and economy/ecology/political strife, and XII has.... a lot of things. I think that due to the linearity of FFX, a lot of things get lost; I mean, I felt that when everybody was in Bevelle, it should have been a bit more awesome because that is the seat of political and religious power. We get a sewer dungeon and a boss battle from it.

Though, it could be that it show's the game's narrative: that the protagonists are too focused on their goal to want to explore a great many other things. This may show that actually most characters in that world are narrow-minded save for those that aren't, and those more open spaces are where more open-minded characters reside, like the desert where the Al-Bhed lived and the Great Plains where some summoners stop and rethink their goals.

[jerkface]

FFX's world is brilliant. It was the first game where I found myself caring as much about the NPC's as I did for the main party. Spira is a huge, sprawling mess of dysfunction and I love it.

[owlmoose]

Another lover of both games here, and I've never understood why there's had to be a choice. They're just so different. Why can't we love each game for what it is? FFX for being epic and FFX-2 for being (comparatively) lighthearted fun.

I like your thoughts on Rikku, who I also really enjoyed in FFX (although I am on record as being not crazy about how her character was developed in X-2). Your point about Lulu is also really interesting -- I haven't thought of it that way before, but now that you mention it, I agree: you can see that the depths are there, but the game doesn't spend enough time exploring them. But then I suppose that's what fandom is for... ;)

[yukie]

I remember thinking Seymour sounded like dub!Kaworu Nagisa and going, "...This can go nowhere good, Mister Tree."

Also, Evrae is a douche. Even if its appearance inspires one of Auron's best goddamn lines ever. XD

FFX has some of the most epic world-building, really. it's up there with the Ivalice stuff for me and that says a lot XD I wish we'd seen more of it.

In closing: one of the best things ever is watching your best friend, who has BASICALLY MAXED OUT THE EFFING SPHERE GRID, getting Yuna to bop something with her staff for 9999+ damage.

[astrangerenters.livejournal.com]

OMG I love you for this post. We share so many similar opinions on this game. THIS GAME WHICH I VERY MUCH LOVED!!! I love the sphere grid instead of straight leveling up - and when you finally get to the point where they can start going on each other's grids and shit gets real LMAO. The only downside is when you have none of the ability spheres so you get stuck for a while development wise, but that never stops me from spending hours in Bevelle on the bridge before fighting Seymour (deal with it, Kimahri).

I am also the world's worst blitzball player. I have scored a goal once in ten years. I like the idea of it, but I just...really suck at it and since I suck right off the bat, I don't have the patience to get better. I've also never dodged lightning or caught butterflies or raced chocobos for Tidus' weapon and I don't really feel as though it's detracted from my enjoyment of the game. Then again, I'm not much of an "I MUST UNLOCK EVERYTHING" completist either.

I also liked X-2 but I think I only finished it once and even then I wasn't close to having done everything. Loved the girls though. So I'll be weird in liking both games like you.

And this isn't a universe I have really explored fic-wise either. I'd love to explore the past with previous summoners' journeys. I did write X-2 fic for the exchange though which was a fun exercise.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

YES TO ALL OF THIS!! I love passing Yuna into Tidus or Auron's grids and making her fight, MWA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA. I also haven't gotten any of the ultimate weapons either -- unless it's something you find in normal gameplay it isn't happening. I will fight the Monster Arena until I turn blue, because that's awesome, but I'm not going to dodge lightning or play blitzball, urghhhhh.

[ifotismeni]

i like both games too, a lot! i don't understand why you are not supposed to like them both? :(

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I don't know why but it always seems like if you like FFX you have to disown X2

[salarta.livejournal.com]

As I said on Twitter, if FFX-2 was a brand new game in a brand new series, it would've been fine. If you view it on those grounds, it's an alright game with good gameplay, even if intentionally perverse (Brother suddenly being a horndog for his cousin being a prime example).

The reason FFX-2 gets a lot of hate is because of how it takes Spira, Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, etc and forcibly changes them in ways that make no sense to what they were like in FFX, out of nowhere. There are a lot of people that complain about it being too "girly," or about the costumes looking slutty, but ultimately it all really just boils down to that the game is so radically different from FFX that it should have been a new IP. When it comes to FFX-2 as a sequel to FFX, or 3rd Birthday as a spinoff to the Parasite Eve series, I like to use the example of if Lord of the Rings suddenly had space ships and laser guns and all the characters fought in bikinis instead of armor. I also use that comparison for a lot of how FF13 and FF4:TA turned their backs on important themes to Final Fantasy and FF4, but it resounds much stronger with FFX-2 and 3rd Birthday.

If FFX-2 had been made as a brand new IP, I would be praising it today. It's the misuse of FFX's world and characters that give it such a bad reputation.



Back to more enjoyable topics! I remember my first play-through of FFX. For some reason, I never once leveled up any of my characters until I got to the part in FFX where you have Seymour in your party. It made things fairly challenging, and by then I had 30-something "levels" stockpiled to use. Similarly, I had all the ultimate weapons when going to the final dungeon, yet I was extremely underleveled. And it's not like I was underleveled as in I needed to grind, when I actually went ahead and fought monsters in the final dungeon, the first one I killed gave all my characters 10 levels. And I had actually beaten the game once already before I went back to level the characters.

Also fuck Lulu's lightning dodge game. The next time I have to go through that, I'm writing porn of Lulu getting struck by a bolt of lightning to make her pay me back for that torture.

I liked Lulu though. I think the reason she isn't explained is because she's supposed to play off the mysterious woman kink in addition to her copious amounts of cleavage and belts. Her red eyes are certainly something to wonder about, that and the fact she's wearing this massive heavy goth dress and has her hair styled that way on an island where nobody else dresses or looks even remotely like her. I remember there being speculation that Lulu and Paine were from the same obscure tribe or ancient heritage and that it would be explained in FFX-2, but it never happened. I also found out a couple years ago that Lulu was only shoved off into pregnant with Wakka's baby territory because the producer or director (forget which) felt that Lulu would too easily stop Yuna and Rikku from acting stupid.


Lastly on your fandom bit, if the thing that really draws you in most is the world, then write based on that! How you use the characters will surely flow from whatever you're trying to do with the world.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I find some parts of the changes of X2 problematic, but not necessarily all of them! For example, I like the way they changed Yuna. I realize this is an unpopular fandom opinion, but I find it really believable that after the events of X2 she develops a more upbeat and positive and outgoing attitude. And I also REALLY like that she moves on with her life rather than Mooning over a man - I would have been more upset from a lady's perspective if she had just sat on her ass because her life was over.

I do find the Lulu thing problematic. I'm undecided on Rikku.

[salarta.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with Yuna's change isn't her being more positive and outgoing, although I do have issues with that aspect seeming to come out of left field instead of being directly shown as developing (I feel "two years passed" is not appropriate to use as a throwaway excuse for a character to be completely different from how they were in the previous game). With Yuna, it's her sudden decision to randomly dress in skimpy outfits which went completely against her style in FFX, and that she started acting more like, in my opinion, a goofy preteen girl than the mature (albeit burdened) woman she was in FFX. It's one thing to loosen up, be happy and upbeat, etc, but it's quite another to act immature after having been extremely mature. Things like saying "poopy" and treating it like a horrible curse word, or getting drooly over the guy leading New Yevon (I interpreted what I saw of that scene as the FFX-2 equivalent of a preteen getting a fangirl crush on a cute boy in a boy band), fuel that feeling.

Which, of course, is even more fueled with how FFX-2 seems to have this overriding theme that only young girly girls can be admirable adventurers; if you're an older mature woman in FFX-2's world, then either you're knocked up and have to stay home (Lulu) or you're the comic relief vile villain (Leblanc) with two bumblign comic relief lackeys.



..... But when you say Yuna moves on with her life rather than mooning over her man, I have evidence that says she didn't according to FFX-2. Not just the sphere they found, but also her costume.



Yuna's costume is a skimpy, girly spin on Tidus' costume. She has the hoodie. She has the same symbol as Tidus' necklace, just used to keep her top from showing more of her boobs to the world. She has a longer skirt on her left leg to run opposite to Tidus' shorts being longer on his right leg. The rest of the observations are minor and would mean nothing at all if not for the other stuff I just pointed out; belt on her waist, a bracelet on the same arm that Tidus wears a gauntlet, and boots. It does show a lot of elements that aren't taken from Tidus, but the big ones from Tidus' design are left there, suggesting she both hasn't moved on and that if we take this as being the same Yuna, then she's lost huge chunks of the individuality she had during FFX to imitate Tidus' style, in essence dressing like a female version of him.


Rikku also suffered from FFX-2, in my view. She went from a cute, friendly, upbeat and slightly naive girl to the stereotype of a clumsy blonde bimbo without the boob size to match.

Pretty much, if I was a huge fan of FFX, I think I would've been extremely pissed off at Square-Enix for the way FFX-2 turned out. I still loathe the game, but I was still able to hope Square-Enix could still get better in the future. That notion ended after a string of other things including how FF4:TA was handled (one of the closer-to-okay screw-ups but still had too much I didn't like as an FF4 fan) and the final straw of 3rd Birthday.

[selryel.livejournal.com]

Disagree on no change-ups in FFIV. Sometimes I put Kain and Cecil in the front row with Edge and the women in the back row. Sometimes, it's the guys in the front row and the women in the back. Sometimes I have Kain occupying the position at the top of the screen and sometimes I have him at the bottom. YOU NEVER KNOW! (Facetious, obvs)

Also if young me had known how much easier life can get when you let Edge die and never resurrect him, I think my first several playthroughs would have been much less frustrating.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I always put them in the same order. Cecil, rosa (back row), kain, Rydia (back row), edge. Because that's how I ship. *WORST GAMER*

[selryel.livejournal.com]

My default setting is the same as yours, but with Kain and Cecil reversed. I don't know why I always feel the need to have Kain at the top of the screen -- gives him less distance to jump, maybe.

[kenupntr.livejournal.com]

Loved reading this. Many shared opinions. Sooo excited for it to be coming out in hi def, whenever that may be!

[celeloriel.livejournal.com]

I love both FFX and FFX-2, and I LOVE Yuna. She is honorable in the way that Kain only wishes he were, and she is stubborn as hell, and she will be doing what is right no matter what you think, and she is constantly pushing her own limits, and she doesn't think she's charismatic, but she very, very much is. (Note how most summoners have their families, like Issaru, or one lover, like Dona? Yeah. Yuna has a small band of outstanding mercenaries, including a Legendary Guardian.)

Rikku is love. She is pretty much my second favorite after Yuna. I love that they're related, and I like to think that in X-2 Yuna gets to explore her Al-Bhed side a bit more.

I love Lulu's voice actress, her dress-o-belts makes me roll my eyes, and I agree: on my second playthrough I found it odd that she would be so nonspecifically devoted to Yuna in an elder sisterly sort of way. I often wonder about the first pilgrimage she went on, and why. I have a headcanon story somewhere about Lady Ginnem essentially bullying her into it, but I cheerfully admit it's all embroidery on very thin cloth.

I disagree with one thing, Sev: I think that Lulu and Auron interact significantly ONCE - when Seymour invites them into Guadosalam, Lulu and Auron specifically look at each other in a point of the conversation in which Yuna being alone with Seymour is discussed. It's pretty clear that they are both Very Unhappy with the whole thing.

Also? The amount of Unsent at Yuna's wedding is freaky as hell. How many the hell of those highranking maesters are freaking corpses?!

I agree with you about the complexity and suckitude of the world that they live in, and I find it fascinating that Shinra the kid starts up Shinra the company, and eventually we spin it forward to Sephiroth and Aeris.

(Would love to see a fic in which Aeris talks to the Lifestream, and Yuna is the personality that she gets, but I'm also the person who wanted to cross FFX-2 with FF4 based solely on one single dressphere, so.)

[lassarina]

.....You realize, darling, that now I must crossover IV and X and have Kain have Realizations.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I think part of my Thing with Lulu is that she's static - she has a well developed past and backstory, but it's all been done by the time you get to the game. Cmpared to Wakka, who enters the story at the same time she does - Wakka changes a lot, with respect to his attitudes to Tidus, to the church, to Rikku, to everything. You get the feeling that Lulu has already gone through that, and while that's more interesting for fanfic, it's less interesting as a player.

An actually, last night I found a second interaction (in Bevelle, after the Via Purifico, when Kimahri is holding off Seymour and Yuna and Tidus decide to help him? Everyone chases after and Auron and Lulu are standing by the save point and they share this. Look. It's a Look. And then Lulu says, "I'll go too," and Auron laughs. I was like YEESSSSSSS)

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

i am hire-able for playing blitzball, btw, since 20 of my hours were spent on just that. JUST THROWING IT OUT THERE, YO.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

WE MIGHT NEED THAT BECAUSE BECKY REALLY LIKES WAKKA BUT NEITHER OF US HAVE THE PATIENCE TO DO IT. CAN WE PAY YOU IN BEER.

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

YES. HOW MUCH GOLD ARE YOU WILLING TO SPEND CAUSE YOUR TEAM SUCKS AND YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TO RECRUIT PEOPLE AND I CAN DO THIS BUT IT REQUIRES SOME TIME AND MONEY LMAO

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

UHHHHHH WE ARE LIKE AT THE CALM LANDS AND I WILL CHECK OUR GOLD BUT BASICALLY YOU CAN HAVE OUR MONEY BECAUSE I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO DO THIS HAHA

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TONIGHT LOL

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

LOL I AM OUT OF CLASS AT 7:05 AND CAN BE HOME BY 7:15 IF YOU WANT ME AT YOUR PLACE FOR THIS, IT CAN BE ARRANGED

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

WE ARE GAME IF YOU ARE. LET US KNOW BECAUSE WE ARE IN PAJAMAS AND WILL HAVE TO MAKE A BEER RUN LOL

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

DUDE I'M IN. I WILL COME IN PAJAMAS. IF YOU HAVE A STRATEGY GUIDE I CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE THESE PEOPLE ARE TO BE RECRUITED, BUT YOU WILL NEED:

SHAAMI
WEDGE
JUMAL

ALSO DO YOU HAVE THE JECHT SHOT TELL ME SHE GOT THIS, IT MAKES THINGS A LOT EASIER

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

also i still maintain that auron/rikku is more canon than most ships in this game based on rikku's samurai dressphere in ffx-2. liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike. lol

[lassarina]

I love this entire post.

I'm replaying FFX for the paladin, and paying really close attention to the plot *because* I'm playing it for him, and I'm having the same thing as you: I really like this game but it doesn't own me fannishly like 6 or 4.

Seymour IS THE CREEPIEST.

I also suck at blitzball, though randomly this time through I won the fucking tournament and I've no idea how.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

O god we hated the fucking tournament whyyyy

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

I wish I could give everyone my goofy love of blitzball so that it would be fun for you. It's gotten me through a lot of Momcalls.

[safety-caesars.livejournal.com]

I am liking it! But I'm wondering why I'm not getting all that into it in a 'fannish' sense either. I like the sphere grid and I feel like if I were to play this through a second time, I would go totally gung-ho getting ALL THE TREASURES and ALL THE ABILITIES or whateverthefuck I've been missing whenever I get frustrated this time through lol. I mean the damn sphere puzzles in every temple are really fucking stupid. But in general I tend to be an "explore everything / spend 800 hours level-grinding to get every ability!!" kind of gamer. But... maybe that's one thing that's kind of keeping me from loving this game too much? I don't like that there's no world map to wander. You're thrown into each new area automatically - the story is too linear for me. What helps me get into a game is just being able to run around and explore the world on my own time, and getting to know the characters more as I customize them leisurely, not hurriedly in between each next major plot point. It's dumb, but that's all I can think of for why I'm not getting into this game in a fandom sense - because it is a really interesting story and what you say about characters like Rikku are totally true. I just kind of feel like the story is sweeping me along at its pace and not my own. And the knowledge that I won't be able to make Wakka (who I still like the best) max out unless I play fucking blitzball is kind of a cockblock too :/

But - it's been forever since I've played a *new* game through for the first time, so maybe it's one of those things that would just take a second playthrough anyway for me to really get into it on a fandom level >_>

(Though I do maintain that I would actually like Tidus a whole lot more if it weren't for the voice acting... the script makes him quite likeable! But the acting is terrible!)

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Coming late to the party:

I love the game mechanics of FFX because it's a mix of action and tactics. As someone with arthritis, I appreciate lack of button-mashing. I love trying to figure out monster vulnerabilities (e.g. Lulu can 1-hit-kill Guado, so they hate her, plus she can knock out two of their four summons easily).

Auron and Lulu
(a) tend to take rearguard when the party is moving and wind up side by side a lot (not that it mean much)
(b) the main interaction is when Tidus and Yuna and the rest of the party go haring off after Kimahri. Lulu and Auron are at the back, as usual, being rearguard and she gives him a sheepish grin and says, "I'm going too," at which point he snorts and follows her-- rather an understated exchange, but basically, "Yes, I know this is idiotic, and you know I know it..." and him being amused back at her for breaking the code they both follow.
(c) Another A/L moment that most people miss: when Yuna and the Ronso face off. I don't think you're there yet but watch the way Auron and Lulu double-team to save her ass with some fast talking.
(d) Tidus gets the Sun Crest. Yuna gets the Moon Crest. Auron gets the Mars Crest. Lulu gets the Venus Crest. Er....hm. (possibly an accident, but it's a suggestive archetypal pairing.)

There really isn't much. It's more of a sense of two kindred spirits who've wound up in similar roles, after similar (in their own minds) failures. They're experienced guardians, yet by their own standards, they failed and are trying not to fail again.

Unfortunately Lulu's backstory takes place between silences and in some really hard-to-find scenes. If you stop by the Farplane in Guadosalam, there's a few scenes where she's talking to Ginnem (or looking for Ginnem) as a mentor and confidante.

My suspicion was officially confirmed in canon some years ago: the Ultimania guide says that Lulu really, really was fond of Yuna as her little sister, and when she saw Yuna going for summoner, Lulu trained herself to be a guardian, trying her damnedest to keep Yuna from dying by going on other pilgrimages to head her off. Lulu was trying to beat Sin before Yuna finished her training. The sad part is that Chappu was so worried about Lulu after her first disastrous pilgrimage (Lady Ginnem) that he enlisted with the Crusaders to protect Lulu and got killed.

That's all bubbling around in the background, and it's why Lulu's so danged hard on everyone, including herself. If you poke Lulu enough in-game, especially later in the game, her facade starts cracking: she is incredibly worried she's going to fail again as she did on her first two pilgrimages. Lulu starts to unravel when Yuna is nabbed by the Guado ("some guardian I am"), and there's a few "I just can't fail...not again...no way, nohow" quotes in the Via Purifico and several across the Calm Lands. By the time they reach Guadosalam, past the limit of where Lulu has trained herself for the trip, she's flipflopped with Yuna, who's now taking the lead in their relationship. But there's still another Mama Bear moment.

I've almost come to accept Lulu's odd morph in X-2 (despite misgivings) because ...well, she's spent all her adult life trying not to lose what little family she's got left, and now, finally, the danger is past and she can HAVE a family. She's off her self-imposed hook.

The Al Bhed did a lot behind the scenes. If you go back to Besaid you can trace Isaaru's pilgrimage; villagers mention the nice young man and his brothers, but the Al Bhed salvage ship (I assume) nabbed Pacce on the beach of Besaid and blackmailed Maroda and Isaaru into coming with them. Probably Isaaru wouldn't have managed to reach Zanarkand first, and he certainly wouldn't have chosen Yuna's solution, but the Al Bhed's capture of all the other summoners accidentally helped Yuna get to the head of the pack.

Stop by the Final Fantasy X Undub to get a sense of everyone's original Japanese voices.

Spira is just a beautiful world. It's like the Enterprise in original Trek, or Middle-earth: the place is a character. It's especially important in quest-stories where the world itself is what you're fighting for.