Requirements
STAAAARS: Complete the Monster Arena; in other words, beat Nemesis.
Sadism and Masochism: All “main” characters must have fully upgraded Celestial Weapons.
Character screenshots
STAAAARS: Complete the Monster Arena; in other words, beat Nemesis.
Sadism and Masochism: All “main” characters must have fully upgraded Celestial Weapons.
Character screenshots
Random comments
Let’s start with an “only Ben would do this sort of thing” history to explain why there're 4 characters above rather than 3. The first time I went through this game intending a perfect game save, I had two general ideas. First, I wanted each main character to max 2 stats: Strength and Agility for Tidus, Magic and Magic Defense for Yuna, Defense and Evasion for Rikku. I chose Tidus because the game says he’s the main character, Yuna because she’s the actual main character, and Rikku because…she’s in the sequel. See, the second idea I had was that I wanted to follow FFX by playing FFX-2, and since Rikku’s a protagonist in FFX-2, I wanted some continuity.
Everything went according to plan and I played through FFX-2. I hated it. I found myself wishing I’d built up Lulu instead of Rikku, since Lulu’s my second favorite character in FFX. I don’t necessarily dislike Rikku in FFX (specifically, Rikku in FFX, not Rikku in FFX-2), but if the entire reason for me to field Rikku was continuity with FFX-2 and I hated FFX-2, I should’ve fielded someone else.
So a few years after I’d completed FFX’s perfect game save, I loaded it up, backtracked out of the final dungeon, and built up Lulu. To give Lulu the stats to back up her in-game reputation, I had her max every stat the others maxed and had her fill the entire Sphere Grid. Every. Last. Node. Yeah, I could’ve started a new game, but I think going through the game the first time with Rikku actually helped me, since that meant I had 2 underwater characters. I also wasn’t about to subject myself again to the game’s more frustrating features…as I’ll get to now.
Getting a perfect game save for FFX is not fun, because “[completing] the Monster Arena” involves capturing 10 of almost every monster found in the game. It’s like Pokémon, except (1) only ONE of each Pokémon is needed in Pokémon, whereas TEN of each are needed here and (2) Pokémon is FUN, whereas this is NOT. Running around a cave for hours waiting for a Tonberry to show up so you can capture it is simply not a fun way to spend hours of my time.
I don’t know why Square apparently summoned some Satanic spawn of pure evil from the depths of Hell to design some of the Celestial Weapon quests. One of the only times in my life I’ve legitimately rage-quit a game was running that fucking chocobo gauntlet to power up Tidus’s weapon. And Lulu’s…you need to dodge 200 lightning bolts in the Thunder Plains in a fucking row.
Next, I’d like to show a screenshot for the first time here.
Let’s start with an “only Ben would do this sort of thing” history to explain why there're 4 characters above rather than 3. The first time I went through this game intending a perfect game save, I had two general ideas. First, I wanted each main character to max 2 stats: Strength and Agility for Tidus, Magic and Magic Defense for Yuna, Defense and Evasion for Rikku. I chose Tidus because the game says he’s the main character, Yuna because she’s the actual main character, and Rikku because…she’s in the sequel. See, the second idea I had was that I wanted to follow FFX by playing FFX-2, and since Rikku’s a protagonist in FFX-2, I wanted some continuity.
Everything went according to plan and I played through FFX-2. I hated it. I found myself wishing I’d built up Lulu instead of Rikku, since Lulu’s my second favorite character in FFX. I don’t necessarily dislike Rikku in FFX (specifically, Rikku in FFX, not Rikku in FFX-2), but if the entire reason for me to field Rikku was continuity with FFX-2 and I hated FFX-2, I should’ve fielded someone else.
So a few years after I’d completed FFX’s perfect game save, I loaded it up, backtracked out of the final dungeon, and built up Lulu. To give Lulu the stats to back up her in-game reputation, I had her max every stat the others maxed and had her fill the entire Sphere Grid. Every. Last. Node. Yeah, I could’ve started a new game, but I think going through the game the first time with Rikku actually helped me, since that meant I had 2 underwater characters. I also wasn’t about to subject myself again to the game’s more frustrating features…as I’ll get to now.
Getting a perfect game save for FFX is not fun, because “[completing] the Monster Arena” involves capturing 10 of almost every monster found in the game. It’s like Pokémon, except (1) only ONE of each Pokémon is needed in Pokémon, whereas TEN of each are needed here and (2) Pokémon is FUN, whereas this is NOT. Running around a cave for hours waiting for a Tonberry to show up so you can capture it is simply not a fun way to spend hours of my time.
I don’t know why Square apparently summoned some Satanic spawn of pure evil from the depths of Hell to design some of the Celestial Weapon quests. One of the only times in my life I’ve legitimately rage-quit a game was running that fucking chocobo gauntlet to power up Tidus’s weapon. And Lulu’s…you need to dodge 200 lightning bolts in the Thunder Plains in a fucking row.
Next, I’d like to show a screenshot for the first time here.
This is the scene you get if you win the blitzball championship in the required game. It took me many tries, but I finally did it despite (1) the enemy team being way overleveled for that part of the game and (2) the game refusing to let me pull off action commands until 3 enemy players had surrounded my carrier. Why did I put this in? Because it's the first of the many events within the game that define what it really is – a test of patience (and no, that's not a good thing…).
Character award: Yuna
Her character is strong yet silent and kind, though at times she is extremely naïve (but…well, that makes her more human, right?). Also, although one of the themes of the game is that sacrifice for the sake of victory is bad, her attitude on putting everyone else’s happiness above her own is highly admirable.
Villain rating: good
…assuming Yu Yevon to be the villain. His story is a tragic one, a (very Buddhist) lesson about the dangers of attachment. His arguably selfish, arguably noble attempt to save his home city during the ancient war threw the entire planet into an unbroken cycle of suffering, not to mention throwing technological advancement back several centuries and then halting it completely.
Gameplay rating
Flawless. This is the only implementation of the conditional time battle (CTB) system as of its release, but it worked pretty well.
Difficulty rating
Easy. Save Spheres heal your entire party, which makes the game pretty easy as you can afford to be a bit more aggressive in battle. Now this is not counting the optional stuff, such as Celestial Weapons and the Monster Arena. At that point, the game becomes hard, but not in the sense of enemies-are-strong hard. It becomes a test of patience – how long are you willing to chocobo race and get hit by birds over and over again, how long are you willing to run around in circles waiting for 10 of each monster to appear so you can capture them, how long are you willing to input the same commands over and over to beat bosses with over a million HP, how long are you willing to spend trying to beat the Luca Gayers…
And no, I’m not homophobic. Look at the Goers and just try to tell me they’re straight.
Storyline rating: awesome
This story is intriguing and unique and the characters are alive and real. To finish up this section, as a Buddhist I must comment on this – Spira’s plight, to me, represented the cycle of birth and rebirth into realms of suffering, which is called samsara in Buddhism. Now two things relate to this: one, Yuna’s Celestial Weapon is called the Nirvana – in Buddhism, nirvana is the antithesis of samsara; it is the release from the cycle of suffering. Yuna is the summoner who breaks Sin’s cycle of rebirth. Cool, huh? The second is Seymour’s philosophy: to end the cycle of suffering, the only solution is to destroy everything. This reminded me of a common misinterpretation of the Buddhist concept of no-self. The Buddha taught that nothing has inherent existence, and a deluded view on this, i.e. that we do have some inherent existence, is a major propagator of samsara. Many throughout history wrongly interpreted this to mean that nothing exists, which isn’t Buddhism but is instead nihilism. Seymour’s nihilism seems a direct parallel to this, and if the authors intended for that then I think they hit something pretty deep.
Quote award
“You don’t want to finish that sentence.” – Lulu
…on Tidus commenting on her love life.
Overpowered award
The Magus Sisters. If you could actually control them, they’d make the game a joke. Now I have three real-life friends named Courtney, Julie, and Cindy, who always hung out together. Julie's very tall and Cindy's really short. As such, they reminded me of the tall and short Magus Sisters, which is why I named them what I did (the real-life Courtney isn’t fat at all, but there was one Magus Sister left, so…). Cindy’s Passado attack is this game’s version of Knights of the Round, hitting 15 times for up to 99999 damage each. The only solace my enemies had was that she only used it when she felt like it. This is tempered by the fact that she used it quite often to devastating effect. Some battles went like this:
Final boss: Yu Yevon, whom I can one-shot but instead nine-shot Overkilled him with Blitz Ace
Character award: Yuna
Her character is strong yet silent and kind, though at times she is extremely naïve (but…well, that makes her more human, right?). Also, although one of the themes of the game is that sacrifice for the sake of victory is bad, her attitude on putting everyone else’s happiness above her own is highly admirable.
Villain rating: good
…assuming Yu Yevon to be the villain. His story is a tragic one, a (very Buddhist) lesson about the dangers of attachment. His arguably selfish, arguably noble attempt to save his home city during the ancient war threw the entire planet into an unbroken cycle of suffering, not to mention throwing technological advancement back several centuries and then halting it completely.
Gameplay rating
Flawless. This is the only implementation of the conditional time battle (CTB) system as of its release, but it worked pretty well.
Difficulty rating
Easy. Save Spheres heal your entire party, which makes the game pretty easy as you can afford to be a bit more aggressive in battle. Now this is not counting the optional stuff, such as Celestial Weapons and the Monster Arena. At that point, the game becomes hard, but not in the sense of enemies-are-strong hard. It becomes a test of patience – how long are you willing to chocobo race and get hit by birds over and over again, how long are you willing to run around in circles waiting for 10 of each monster to appear so you can capture them, how long are you willing to input the same commands over and over to beat bosses with over a million HP, how long are you willing to spend trying to beat the Luca Gayers…
And no, I’m not homophobic. Look at the Goers and just try to tell me they’re straight.
Storyline rating: awesome
This story is intriguing and unique and the characters are alive and real. To finish up this section, as a Buddhist I must comment on this – Spira’s plight, to me, represented the cycle of birth and rebirth into realms of suffering, which is called samsara in Buddhism. Now two things relate to this: one, Yuna’s Celestial Weapon is called the Nirvana – in Buddhism, nirvana is the antithesis of samsara; it is the release from the cycle of suffering. Yuna is the summoner who breaks Sin’s cycle of rebirth. Cool, huh? The second is Seymour’s philosophy: to end the cycle of suffering, the only solution is to destroy everything. This reminded me of a common misinterpretation of the Buddhist concept of no-self. The Buddha taught that nothing has inherent existence, and a deluded view on this, i.e. that we do have some inherent existence, is a major propagator of samsara. Many throughout history wrongly interpreted this to mean that nothing exists, which isn’t Buddhism but is instead nihilism. Seymour’s nihilism seems a direct parallel to this, and if the authors intended for that then I think they hit something pretty deep.
Quote award
“You don’t want to finish that sentence.” – Lulu
…on Tidus commenting on her love life.
Overpowered award
The Magus Sisters. If you could actually control them, they’d make the game a joke. Now I have three real-life friends named Courtney, Julie, and Cindy, who always hung out together. Julie's very tall and Cindy's really short. As such, they reminded me of the tall and short Magus Sisters, which is why I named them what I did (the real-life Courtney isn’t fat at all, but there was one Magus Sister left, so…). Cindy’s Passado attack is this game’s version of Knights of the Round, hitting 15 times for up to 99999 damage each. The only solace my enemies had was that she only used it when she felt like it. This is tempered by the fact that she used it quite often to devastating effect. Some battles went like this:
- Tidus attacks, enemy dodges.
- Rikku attacks, enemy dodges.
- Yuna summons the Magus Sisters.
- Courtney and Julie do stuff.
- Cindy’s turn comes up and the enemy begins begging for mercy.
- Cindy says, “Dodge this.”
- Cindy uses Passado for 15 x 99999 = 1499985 damage.
- The enemy explodes in a bloody mess.
Final boss: Yu Yevon, whom I can one-shot but instead nine-shot Overkilled him with Blitz Ace