When I heard about the Final Fantasy X HD remaster, I figured it would be a quick job where minimal work was done to have it run in 16:9 and at 720p resolution. I was still intrigued, and looking forward to playing through the game again.
Well, I grabbed it off PSN for PS3 on Tuesday, and I’m pretty blown away by how much work they put into it. Not only does the game run at native 1080p, but a huge amount of work went into making new, high resolution texture assets. They also made higher-fidelity models for all the main characters, and a ton of the monsters. Apparently they re-recorded a large portion of the soundtrack to use real instruments as well.
The game is absolutely gorgeous, even by today’s standards. It also plays really well. The only negative aspect being the writing can be kind of shit at times.
I really can’t recommend it enough for fans of (kind of) old-school JRPGs with massive production values. It also contains an entirely remastered Final Fantasy X2… I’ve never played this one, and I haven’t fired it up yet so I can’t really comment on it.
It’s currently offered in several forms, all $40:
For PS3, a retail disc with Final Fantasy X and X2. On PSN, one file that contains FFX and X2.
For Vita, retail package comes with a cart with X on it and a download code for X2. On PSN, a single bundle with separate downloads for FFX and X2.
I’ve finished FFX 3 separate times and I finished FFX-2 once all the way through to get the ultimate ending.
But I’m still tempted by this. Not by FFX-2, which I dislike because it ruins a great ending for the characters in FFX, but by FFX itself. I don’t own a working PS3 so I guess the Vita version is the one I want. Does anyone know if it looks as good on the Vita as it does on PS3? $40 seems a bit high though. That’s how much I payed for my PS2 version over a decade ago.
Yeah, I missed both of these the first time around since I was late to the PS2 generation, but they might be perfect for the Vita. I’m especially intrigued by the roguelike mode.
That’s good to hear. I really liked FF X, only issue I had with it was those temple puzzles, some were pretty frustrating and it just messed with the overall good pacing too much.
I don’t own a PS3 or Vita but I would buy one in a heartbeat if they’d give Final Fantasy XII the same HD treatment.
I think he means he hopes to see X/X-2 HD on Steam some day. Which would be smart of Square-Enix to do.
I want this, but with AoW3 and Reaper of Souls so close to release I’m going to hold off and hit this in the summer, I think. It’s been on my radar since it was announced, and now I have a Vita to play it on, even, which should be perfect. I’m well pleased it’s being received well, I liked FFX quite a lot but only played it once, and I never did get a chance to play X-2 as my PS2 had died by the time it came out.
FF XII HD absolutely needs to happen, especially if they put in the International Version content, including the Zodiac job system. I never got to play that edition. :(
I wouldn’t expect X|X-2 HD on other platforms any time soon. The only reason VII and VIII are on Steam is because they already had PC ports back in the day that could be reworked into things that run on modern hardware.
XII HD has been mentioned in interviews as a thing the FF devs want to do. I’ll buy it in a heartbeat if they follow through with the rest of what they discussed at the time and put it on Vita.
I think they want to see how well this does before they do XII HD.
I bought this but I don’t know why. It looks nice but I don’t feel a need to go revisit Spira again. FFXII on the other hand I think I would like to take a crack at in HD since it was a generational gap title at the time I believe, or at least I played it on the PS3 after quitting it after hating it for a bit after playing on the PS2. I guess I could play it on the PC but it’s just not the same.
Well, I’ve done my bit: I bought for it the Vita and the PS3. It looks like they have some means of transferring save data between the two versions, but I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet.
Sony has spoiled us with crossbuy titles so much that I was pretty disappointed when this wasn’t crossbuy or offered as a discounted bundle. That said, I still picked this up for PS3 and really look forward to giving the games a shot for the first time soon.
You can already do this, somewhat. There is an English translated version of the Zodiac job version out there. Playing through an emulator with quadruple upscaling will give you something pretty damn close to an HD version.
NECRO ALERT:
So, I just cannot put this game down. Yes, the mini games will explode blood vessels in your forehead. Yes, the cut scenes really need a skip button (If this exits, for the love of god someone please share). But the combat is so perfect for a JRPG, the character swap is awesome, and the fact that finishing the game only yields about 1/10th of the playtime you can actually get from the title if you want to go further boils down to the best 30 bucks I’ve spent in awhile. Maybe it was nostalgia, or Youtube, but I’d also say that dodging weather and racing chickens wasn’t nearly as bad this time around as I remembered it to be.
My only wish: I wish I knew how to export/import a save from a friend, because I missed 2 al-bhed primers that cannot be gotten again since I wasn’t following a walkthrough until I got to Sin, and now I won’t be able to get 100% without a second play through. Any ideas on this one folks?
(Well, I also wish I could skip the laugh scene, but…)
I was really into this and got over half way into it, but I did put it down and keep forgetting to go back to it. I haven’t even redeemed the X-2 code yet, for which I do feel dully shamed. FFX is a lot of fun though, and it’s perfect to have in this mobile format, but I should have held off on starting it until I had less on my plate. Still, I did charge the Vita up last night (mostly to pull down free July games) and so may jump in a bit this weekend.
No way to skip cut-scenes, sadly, that I have found and according to what I have read looking into it on my own. Still, a very fun game made all the better with the updated visuals. I hope the Vita gets more stuff like this - I’d love FF12 HD, and I really hope we get some sort of tactics-ogre style games soon, that aren’t the silly (but I understand popular) Disgea games.
