


In a post Final Fantasy XIII world, one can truly appreciate how good X was, and how it bridged the gap between traditional Japanese RPG and modern fast-paced expectations in ways today’s Square Enix could only dream of. FFX has aged phenomenally well, remaining an expertly structured roleplaying game with an engrossing leveling system and a subtle-yet-gratifying take on turn-based combat. Replaying Final Fantasy X on the PlayStation Vita, my belief that it was a delightful game in spite of itself holds true. Really, the lack of a manually traversable world map wasn’t that bad. Every time I look back on it, though, I only recall the amount of fun I had, not so much the disturbance I suffered at all the scary, non- Final Fantasy changes. Although I quite enjoyed Tidus’ depressingly upbeat adventure when I played it back in the day, I nonetheless viewed it as the beginning of a downward spiral for the Final Fantasy series, full of ideas that made for a notably inferior installment. My opinion on Final Fantasy X has only ever improved with time.
