RTTP: Final Fantasy X HD (Switch)

[Deleted member 56266]

The ONLY Final Fantasy game I haven't finished. But I love it! I played it for the first time years ago on PS4 and stopped a bit after I got to the calm lands because I ran into a boss which resembled a giant robot or something (Which after a quick google search was named Defender X) and he was kicking my ass. For some reason my save also prevented me from grinding in the calm lands to beat him (I think it may have been corrupted or something). You would think after an experience like that I would hate the game. Oddly enough it's the contrary. I still listen to the chill music and remember loving the battle system. I now want to start a fresh file on Switch and just breeze through the game as simply as possible with the optimal party members, as I remember experimenting with Kimahri and Rikku back on my last playthrough and that was fun but this time I actually want to beat the game and give all the EXP to the good party members. I have some questions though for you FFX lovers (I know you crazy bastards are out there, people love this fucking game):

• I don't remember ever having to grind before encountering Defender X, but he kicked my ass. Is this supposed to be a level check or am I just bad? I may have screwed up my sphere grid somehow. Speaking of...

• The sphere grid seemed simple enough. I am afraid of getting off track with a character though. Obviously I'm not going to lead Lulu into melee skill territory for example but what general areas should I be aiming for for the main party members?

• Any notable grinding spots or am I good if I fight every random battle?

• is FFX - 2 worth playing afterwards if I liked the gameplay of X?

That's all!

Bonus: my favorite track from the game:

 

[Deleted member 4353]

FF X has like the best world building in any Final Fantasy game ever. FFX-2 is definitely worth playing. Even its just for closure. Its a pretty great game on its own too.

If you love the world of Spira then you should play FFX-2.

 

[Deleted member 8861]

I'm not a particularly big fan of Final Fantasy but I'm fond of FFX and XIV.

It's a lovely game, I hope you finish it. I basically did the main story and left satisfied.

• Any notable grinding spots or am I good if I fight every random battle?

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I had to grind for like 4-5 hours right before the final boss to beat the game so perhaps I rushed it.

 

[Transistor]

FFX-2 has the best iteration of the ATB system of any FF game. Hell, it may be my favorite RPG battle system ever.

 

[Massicot]

I would say the first big spot that I would kick back and "grind" for fun would be the Mihen Highroad, after Luca, or a little later in the Moonflow area when you get your last party member. Lots of strong monsters worth good EXP and items. Calm Lands also good.

I don't really remember Defender X being that big of a block, but he's in front of a couple of difficulty spikes as it is. You were probably just a bit low leveled.

On the regular sphere grid, it's not really too possible to 'mess up' because most of them are actually very linear, with only short branches off of their main path. Only Kimahri really has a lot of option in where to go, and seems to end up a bit underpowered no matter what. IIRC, I think I generally try to have him head towards Auron's section of the grid.

I personally think FFX-2 is a must play if you enjoyed X's narrative, story, themes, etc. But it plays (and sounds) quite a bit different.

 

[Kromeo]

I love that tune, only people of the far north is better in that game imo

 

[Poppy]

people might be right when they say ffx-2 has a decently cool battle system but even then i think it is pretty sluggish to actually use, and also the rest of the game is a series of trash minigames and vignettes

not recommended

i honestly dont find it a compelling follow up at all

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[DeSolos]

Maybe it's obvious, but Yuna -> Black Magic.

I beat the X-Defender back in the day using Hyper Mighty G on Yuna, Lulu, Rikku.

Rikku can do Hyper Mighty G by using her Overdrive Mix, and fusing a Lunar Curtain and a Bomb Core. If I remember correctly It casts Haste, Shell, Protect, Regen, and maybe also reflect.

It's a super good set of buffs that maybe too hard to do at that point o the game otherwise.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Maybe it's obvious, but Yuna -> Black Magic.

I beat the X-Defender back in the day using Hyper Mighty G on Yuna, Lulu, Rikku.

Rikku can do Hyper Mighty G by using her Overdrive Mix, and fusing a Lunar Curtain and a Bomb Core. If I remember correctly It casts Haste, Shell, Protect, Regen, and maybe also reflect.

It's a super good set of buffs that maybe too hard to do at that point o the game otherwise.

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I remember reading about a strategy where you give Yuna the 4 black magic spheres and she becomes way better than Lulu. I'll keep it in mind, thanks!

 

[Knight613]

I do wish Square Enix would patch in the boosters that are in the PC version of the game. I don't know that I'd have the patience to grind anymore.

 

[Shurp]

I don't remember ever having to grind before encountering Defender X, but he kicked my ass. Is this supposed to be a level check or am I just bad? I may have screwed up my sphere grid somehow. Speaking of...

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I don't really remember Defender X being that big of a block, but he's in front of a couple of difficulty spikes as it is. You were probably just a bit low leveled.

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I beat the X-Defender back in the day using Hyper Mighty G on Yuna, Lulu, Rikku.

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You can always cheese it by provoking it with Tidus, so that it only uses Blast Punch on him, which only halves his current HP, makes for a pretty easy battle.
Pretty sure its susceptible to blind too, but I may be remembering that wrong

 

[Deleted member 56266]

You can always cheese it by provoking it with Tidus, so that it only uses Blast Punch on him, which only halves his current HP, makes for a pretty easy battle.
Pretty sure its susceptible to blind too, but I may be remembering that wrong

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Well now I just feel like an idiot

 

[Luyrar]

FFX-2 has the best iteration of the ATB system of any FF game. Hell, it may be my favorite RPG battle system ever.

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This so much, ffx2 battle system is better than many action rpgs out there.

 

[IzzyRX]

I'm playing it right now, just before the final boss, doing some side quest and I can't for the life of me get the 200 dodges or the chocobo race. I was set at doing all the sidequests, but that shit ain't fun. I did almost everything else but fuck those Sigils.
I love it overall, but some minigames are just plain stupid. I'll grind a little with Don Tonberry for AP and finish it, i'm really excited to try FFX-2.

 

[IzzyRX]

Well now I just feel like an idiot

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Just saying, you really should grind a little and do some sidequests or something like that, the next boss is literally hell if you're not prepared.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Just saying, you really should grind a little and do some sidequests or something like that, the next boss is literally hell if you're not prepared.

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I'm starting from the beginning and will grind this time at some places like bevelle bridge.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

FFX-2's combat system is dope as hell. I'd definitely try it out after beating X. Before XII changed my expectations I considered X-2's combat to be the best in the series. Looking back it's no surprise that they made the huge change with 12

 

[inner-G]

FF X has like the best world building in any Final Fantasy game ever. FFX-2 is definitely worth playing. Even its just for closure. Its a pretty great game on its own too.

If you love the world of Spira then you should play FFX-2.

Click to shrink...

.

I prefer the original sphere grid. Might as well grind in the calm lands, for Defender X

Spoiler

and right after that is Mt Gagazet w fucking Seymour from hell that will destroy you

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Glad to hear the praise for X-2 as well, guess I will check it out afterwards.

.

I prefer the original sphere grid. Might as well grind in the calm lands, for Defender X

Spoiler

and right after that is Mt Gagazet w fucking Seymour from hell that will destroy you

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Like I said pretty sure I had a corrupted save cause I couldn't go back to the calm lands lol

 

[inner-G]

Bah I hit reply instead of edit 😭

 

[IzzyRX]

Like I said pretty sure I had a corrupted save cause I couldn't go back to the calm lands lol

Click to shrink...

Are you sure? It might only be the game blocking you?

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Are you sure? It might only be the game blocking you?

Click to shrink...

Might have, been a long time.

 

[Shurp]

Spoiler: SPOILER

and right after that is Mt Gagazet w fucking Seymour from hell that will destroy you

Click to shrink...

Oh god, my first play through of that, i was so underleveled for that fights, i ended up getting all my Aeons to overdrive and used them one after the other and just prayed for survival.

Spoiler: Haunts my nightmares to this day

"Death awaits you!" dead aeon

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Am also open to any unrelated general tips you FFX experts have for me as I am starting a new playthough.

 

[Lumination]

• I don't remember ever having to grind before encountering Defender X, but he kicked my ass. Is this supposed to be a level check or am I just bad? I may have screwed up my sphere grid somehow. Speaking of...
• The sphere grid seemed simple enough. I am afraid of getting off track with a character though. Obviously I'm not going to lead Lulu into melee skill territory for example but what general areas should I be aiming for for the main party members?
• Any notable grinding spots or am I good if I fight every random battle?
• is FFX - 2 worth playing afterwards if I liked the gameplay of X?

Click to shrink...

1. Defender X and the boss two after him are probably the biggest level checks in the game. Try taming some monsters in the Calm Lands and doing some of the side stuff. Funnily enough, I only got to play FFX way back when because my neighbor got stuck on Defender X. Thanks, buddy!
2. Just follow their natural paths. The traditional sphere grid is pretty foolproof as you need key spheres to migrate anywhere.
3. Just fight every random battle. The game isn't grind heavy. Make sure you have a proper boss battle strategy like Hasting your party.
4. Whereas X was the pinnacle of turn-based battle at the time, X-2 was the pinnacle of active-time battle. If you can look past the ultra-saccharine, it's a good game and a good follow-up lore wise.

Am also open to any unrelated general tips you FFX experts have for me as I am starting a new playthough.

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Have fun with Kimahri. People on the internet dislike him because they think he's boring because he doesn't get his own Sphere Grid space. He's your blue mage, go experimental with him. You can make a second status effecter like Wakka, dip into Rikku for steals, chip in with heals, etc. If you're afraid of "breaking" your characters but also want to experience the Sphere Grid for real, do it with Kimahri.

 

[inner-G]

Oh god, my first play through of that, i was so underleveled for that fight

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I went out and bought the strategy guide at that point, lol

Am also open to any unrelated general tips you FFX experts have for me as I am starting a new playthough.

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I'm not sure if there are any quirks specific to the Switch version to watch out for.

It's not a terribly difficult game, unless you're trying to 100% it, just play through however you want and enjoy the ride.

 

[Shurp]

Am also open to any unrelated general tips you FFX experts have for me as I am starting a new playthough.

Click to shrink...

Apart from planning out your route on the sphere grid (beginner or expert btw?) might be worth looking into when you can get key spheres, or some of the other special spheres, getting black magic on Yuna can make Lulu redundant as a character in battle.

if you want to maximize leveling, then you may want to switch through as many characters as you can per battle, as long as they take an action they will gain AP from battle. (this can be quite a slog to do though from my experience, I always start of intending to do so but I always end up using the same few characters all the time)

It's not a terribly difficult game, unless you're trying to 100% it, just play through however you want and enjoy the ride.

Click to shrink...

This is good advice, don't try and rush through, and for the love of god, try to minimize the battles you flee from or you will end up underleveled by the time you reach the Calm Lands/Gagazet again (my first playthrough ended up this way)

 

[IzzyRX]

Spoiler: Haunts my nightmares to this day

"Death awaits you!" dead aeon

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

After losing five times, I just said 'fuck it', went and got a full overdrive bar with each aeon and spammed their overdrives and Bahamut finished him.

Am also open to any unrelated general tips you FFX experts have for me as I am starting a new playthough.

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Switch through your characters per battle so all of them can gain AP, it's sound boring but make it a habit, use the standard grid, decide early where to go with Kimahri, personally, Rikku(Steal/Use) and Wakka(Str/Acc) are the best for him and alwaysuse Lancet in everything(Mighty Guard comes to mind).
You don't really need to grind, but you should if you feel the fiends are hitting too hard. If you're going to do the sidequests(Monster Arena, Dark Aeons, Celestial Weapons, Omega) look at guides on how to farm AP, some monsters on the arena hit really hard and make the final story bosses look like a joke.
Friend, Return, Teleport Level 4, Level 3 spheres are your friends, plan where's each character is going after they're finished with their grid(I like to send in Lulu/Yuna to end of each others grid so they can backtrack and start with Flare/Holy, backtracking with Yuna to the Doublecast and using a Black Magic Sphere with Lulu so she can activate it too).
And there's an affection system if you into that stuff.

 

[chanman]

I really like the music in this game a lot easily has some of my favorite tracks in the series. I would like to do another playthrough of this game if they brough the JP dub to consoles, I'll guess I'll have to play on PC again someday.

 

[Hobbun]

Final Fantasy X is easily one of my favorites of the franchise. I'm a huge fan of the Conditional Turn-based combat system for the game and the sphere grid is probably my favorite means of character development in the series, even more so than the job system.

The soundtrack for the game is also probably my favorite of the series, especially the music for the boss battles.

The game has it's drawbacks, also. Not a huge fan of the mini-games for the Celestial weapons. All of them are doable for me though, besides the chocobo race. Hate that one with a passion. Can't speak for how many hours I spent in frustration on that race. Couldn't even do it on my original PS2 playthrough for the game (had a friend do it for me) and finally did it for the PS3 remaster.

Also, the summon system I would prefer for them to just be summoned, attack and leave, instead of the party becoming the summon.

But both of these issues are very small factors in an otherwise great game. I will be playing this soon again myself via my PS4 remaster as it's been over 5 years for me. And will be going for 100%.

 

[SirNinja]

Just recently resumed a FFX playthrough myself on Switch. Previously I had gotten hung up on winning the first mandatory Blitz game, even though winning isn't necessary to proceed. Forgot what an utter pain in the ass that thing is, even with a decent knowledge of the game and the hide-behind-your-goalie glitch. Took me about a dozen attempts to win. The goalie caught the Jecht Shot every single time but once, Balgerda kept getting the ball from Tidus through unlucky RNG (she has 9 AT vs. Tidus's 10 EN)...it was just a mess. Very glad to have that behind me so I can build a Blitz team that's actually worth a damn later on.

Forgot how good this game looked in handheld mode. Unlike the Vita version, where all the enhanced textures, etc. were severely downscaled to fit the game on a 4GB cart, the Switch version looks to have made very few if any visual compromises. Everything looks so clean and crisp; it's like having the PS4 version in my hands. I may not be able to put this one down until I destroy Penance again.

 

[The Grizz]

FFX is probably my favorite FF game. From world building, to character development, story, and gameplay.

Dodging lightning can pound pavement, though.

 

[mgrimble2]

Loved FFX. I think it is my favorite FF game.

For grinding if you're not a purest I remember cheesing the system after you can catch and fight monsters in the Calm Lands. You equip something that gives oyu DMG -> EXP and then summon and fight the Cactuar boss. He does 99,999 needles and that converts to EXP. I played and beat that game 4 or 5 times and definitely used that "cheat" for one of my play throughs haha.

I would saw FFX-2 is worth it. The battle system and job system is really fun. There's a bunch of extra story stuff. The one thing I hated was the % system which figured into what ending you got.

 

[Mage_of_Cinder]

Beating late game bosses may require some creativity. In the instance of Defender X, use Wakka's Blind Shot to dramatically reduce its chance to hit you. Use Auron's Armor Break and Power Break to debuff it.
Generally speaking, use Haste and use Delay attacks whenever they work, especally on Rikku because she can often get two turns in before an enemy does. Try out every status effect, you might be surprised how helpful they can be (Like using poison on the boss on the summit of Gagazet); and speaking for myself, became essential for late game fights.
You can't go wrong with the Sphere Grid, each path will keep the characters in their "class" with the exception of Kimahri; his will branch off into either Theif, Mage, or Fighter. I can recommend using the Share Sphere (I think) to teach Yuna some Black Magic because she has a higher magic stat than Lulu. Don't sweat it unless your going hardcore into the monster arena.

 

[SirNinja]

For grinding if you're not a purest I remember cheesing the system after you can catch and fight monsters in the Calm Lands. You equip something that gives oyu DMG -> EXP and then summon and fight the Cactuar boss. He does 99,999 needles and that converts to EXP. I played and beat that game 4 or 5 times and definitely used that "cheat" for one of my play throughs haha.

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I remember farming Ultima Buster to get everyone a set of [Triple AP] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Overdrive → AP] weapons back in the day. It was worth it to be able to get millions of AP from those cactuars, lol.

 

[Dragoon]

Finish it man, it has one of the best endings ever in a videogame.

Don't play FFX-2 because ot directly fucks up that ending. FFx-2 doesn't exist for that reason for me

 

[Aurica]

I've played a few FFs, but I've only beaten XII. I need to beat X one day. Can't decide if I want it on switch or ps4.

 

[ffdgh]

I remember farming Ultima Buster to get everyone a set of [Triple AP] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Overdrive → AP] weapons back in the day. It was worth it to be able to get millions of AP from those cactuars, lol.

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One eye is a way faster way to get that kind of gear for AP farming. It's also great foe making loads of money for bribes too.

 

[Deleted member 6263]

FFX is a great game with wonderful characters and one of my favorite battle systems. I just platinumed it last month and...yeah it kind of made my love for the base game die. If you're going to try to play through it and enjoy it, I'd avoid trying to do any of the endgame stuff like the Dark Aeons, or even some of the ultimate weapons sidequests, because it's kind of a test of your patience more than any sort of skill. The tedium set in for me at about 100 hours but I kept going because I became super obsessive about it.

 

[maxx720]

I just ordered the X and X-2 combo since they were on sale in addition to XII. I haven't played either. Should I play X and X-2 first or is the order irrelevant?

 

[Vito]

I'm looking to get this on Switch but I don't want that terrible US release.

Does anyone know if the Japanese release has everything in English?

 

[Champion]

I just ordered the X and X-2 combo since they were on sale in addition to XII. I haven't played either. Should I play X and X-2 first or is the order irrelevant?

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X and then X-2.

 

[ShadowFox08]

I started FFX in march and finished in end of May. My first FFX game and it was a fantastic game. Loved the characters, world building, battle sytem and spear grid. Wasn't a huge fan of turn based RPGs, but FFX really made me appreciate it more. There were definitely a couple boss battles I had to grind for sure.. The last main boss battle especially I tried at least half a dozen times. Perfect difficulty if you ask me. Only thing I didn't like about the game were the mini games.. I could never get into blitzball no matter how hard I tried. That and the other mini games (chocobo races) had awful controls as well. I also didn't bother too much with the final weapons, dark aeons, etc, but I dabbed some stuff like monster captures. I put like 70hrs into the main game till I beat it.

After I beat the game, I played an hr of FFX-2, but haven't played it again. I will someday. Battle system is kind of weird for me.

Teach LULU doublecast and of course the strongest aga spells. Then teach Yuna double cast and at least two elementals. She will became a monster with doublecast doing 9999 damage per cast, and twice. She is actually a good alternative against not using summons too, or using them for last resorts against boss battles. It will make boss battles a lot easier.

Maybe next gen will introduce a FFX remake? It's long overdue. The background graphics didn't age the best.

 

[Zephy]

For levelling recommendations, I'd say use the normal Sphere grid (not expert), simpler to not get sidetracked and waste levels. Use all characters as required by the enemy type, exceot IIRC Rikku and Kimahri who are not particularly useful.

As for X-2, it's a cool game, but I really recommend to not start it right after X. The tone and stakes are much, much lighter, it's much less dramatic. The areas are also mostly the same. Give it some time, and when you start missing X's world, play it.

 

[craven68]

I loved ff10 but didn't try ff10 2 , the story is good ? I really don't care if battle are better or not.

 

[upinsmoke]

FFX is one of my favourite games. I love the battle system and the sphere grid. It also has nice places to grind and lots of side stuff to do. I've still never defeated the dark aeons though

 

[Alak96]

Probably my favourite FF. I loved the story and how fast the battle system was.