Good thought. I googled where the save file is for the Game Pass version, and in case someone else wants to know:
https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxGamePass/comments/nhpb5y/final_fantasy_x_game_pass_save_location/
So it looks like it is possible to do just that.
For those unaware, my first time through FFX was as a rental. I had never played a JRPG before and I wanted to rent it for 7 days, finish it, and finally have played through a JRPG.
The friend I was playing with had played FF7 before, and gotten bitter at the death of a certain character, so the moment Auron joined our party he declared “He’s going to die, we’re not going to use him, or level him up”.
So when we got the “Flee” ability, here’s how we played:
This led to a really challenging 7 days of tough boss fights. Really fun.
And I have to admit, this method is working for me yet again. But man, it’s tough.
So the standard sphere grid. Let’s discuss.
I had honestly forgotten the details of this thing. It’s a very interesting piece of game design. For one thing, the nodes are really strong. A hit point node gives you 200 hp for each node, which is huge. It’s the same with the other stats, since everyone starts with such low stats, getting one or two points in the base stats from nodes makes a huge difference.
And there’s the placement. The game gives away Level 1 keys like they’re candy early on. And Level 1 keys let Kimhari get into either Tidus’ area, or Rikku’s area, or Lulu’s area, or Wakka’s area. I’ve noticed that even though he’s right next to Auron’s area on the grid, there’s no route to Auron’s area on the grid. That makes sense, Auron is a veteran and his stats are really high to start with. But his actual starting area on the Sphere grid is really bare. It’s mostly just empty nodes. So you COULD convert those nodes into something, but since Auron’s sphere grid is so isolated, no one else would be able to take advantage of those nodes except Auron if you chose to do that. (Besides, Auron is already the strongest, he doesn’t need more help).
Anyway, I just love the sphere grid so much as a piece of design because I’d forgotten the fact that it feels like a game within a game. It’s not often that you can just play around and plan a route and think about possibilities on a board like this and have it be so interesting.
I still haven’t decided where I’m going to take Kimhari this time. In my original playthrough we took Kimhari to Lulu’s area, so he was a backup black magic user who was bad at black magic compared to Lulu, but he was also our tank (remember we didn’t use Auron), so he was the only character who could survive big party-wiping hits from bosses and bring other party members back using Phoenix Downs.
I’m thinking maybe I can take him to Tidus’ area this time. Tidus has the most interesting tactical options in the game, like being able to cast Haste on people, or delay enemy attacks, etc. But Tidus is always low on MP. So if I take Kimhari into Tidus’ area, he’ll have no shortage of MP and he might be a better Tidus than Tidus.
The Sphere Grid is probably my second favorite Final Fantasy mechanic, behind the License Board in FF12 (in particular the remastered versions updated boards).
The only downside to it is that if you get too involved with the sphere grid and level up too much, you make the most fun part of the game (the boss fights) trivial for yourself. So it’s good to revel in the awesomeness of the sphere grid, but not to the point of leveling up and actually moving too much on the sphere grid. You just have to happy with a very slow pace across that grid, otherwise the only person you rob is yourself.
Sounds like something that someone who doesn’t love cake-walking through trivial boss fights would say. :)
Well, I’ve finished the game 4 times, with 3 different friends, and once by myself. This is my 5th time through it, so I’m very familiar with the joys of calk-walking through boss fights. But I still prefer the challenging boss fights overall.
Still, on the playthroughs where I found everything and did everything, those were pretty pleasing runs too.
I’m in the other camp, I love destroying the game with insanely overpowered characters. I can’t remember what the uber end game dungeon was called, but I loved my Bahamut being able to solo the entire thing.
10 is my favorite game in the series outside of tactics, the character development is really fun.
I want to love X so much, but started replaying it recently and those temple trials still rub me the wrong way. The first couple are fine, but after that they become annoyingly frustrating to me. I don’t mind puzzles in games where you expect them, but why they decided after 9 games to add puzzles to the series is baffling. It didn’t need it.
Anyway, that aside, the game shines in its combat system and encounter difficulty. The story is great, too (though I didn’t see the ending on my first play through - think I got stuck on some boss that kept destroying me and at some point put my PS2 away so never finished it).
The grid system was fine, too, but I didn’t like how skills overlapped and you could end up with somewhat similar characters.
I need to get back to my recent game.
Similar characters? Is this the expert grid system from the international version maybe? The standard grid didn’t let you end up with similar characters at all (except for Kimhari, like I mentioned above, he has 4 choices on whose area to go into).
I actually like the idea of having an expert grid for players who have played the original game multiple times already. Kind of let them make their own characters.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought each character could pretty much move anywhere on the grid?
I haven’t played with the expert grid from international version, but from the brief description I read, that does sound like it.
In the original grid, each character starts in their own area, and have their own abilities that they will get, with the exception of Kimhari.
Yeah. You can eventually get any character to any place on the grid in FFX, but that’s mostly only useful for absurd stat-maxing techniques that only come into play in the post-game (more relevant in the International Edition with its slew of bonus bosses). You need to farm some pretty fancy Unlock Spheres and/or Teleport spheres to really go nuts with that kinda stuff on the standard setup.
At least you can just load up a guide on your phone to get through those. Ain’t no guide gets you through a zero-second time on the motherfucking chocobo race.
You just have to git gud on that one.
I remember when I was doing the completionist run with a different friend, the first friend saw us attempting the chocobo race and over and over and said “pfffft, that’s easy, why are you guys sucking so bad?” So we handed him the controller, and even though he had never done it before, he got it on the 5th try. We had fun teasing his big mouth on the first four tries, but he got the last laugh. It really was pretty easy for him.
Well isn’t he fucking big mouse.
I want to play through it on Switch but I also wanna go full maximalist with it and get all the shit, but some of the absurd grinding for the weapon unlocks is soul-crushing to imagine doing. Esp. since the lightning dodging is 5x harder on LCD screens than it was on CRTs. But god, the sheer amount of fucking time you have to waste playing Blitzball, or, yes, that fucking chocobo race. . .
shudders
I’m still sad about the PS2 memory card with a ~150-hour FFX save my friend Womeldorf and I powered through one summer on it that I lost at a concert venue in Boston when I dropped my bag and didn’t realize the memory card had fallen out.
TBF I’m pretty sure you can complete even the bullshit content in Remaster/International without all the celestial weapons. Just…grind out whatever mods you need…barfffff
Ugh, yeah, I feel like you can get “uncork the damage cap” with some absurdly rare material crafting component but lawd jesus
It’s probably not that bad if you just pimp out the characters who don’t need dumbass minigames for the Celestials.
Auron, Yuna, Rikku, Kimahri (?)