The main thing you have to remember about Final Fantasy X is that you have a choice to make:
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Do you want to emphasize fun strategic battles that are hard to win, and fun to fight in turn-based gameplay? Or…
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Do you want to explore the game and discover all its extra little side quests and secrets and secret weapons, and extra rewards?
Unfortunately the two are mutually exclusive.
If you choose Path 1, then try to finish the game as fast possible. Do not dilly dally in any area. Never stick around to fight any extra enemies in an area because you’ll have more random encounters and you’ll level up like crazy. If you truly want to have fun in the later boss fights, you’ve got to keep plowing forward, and forget about any extra missions or exploration. The game makes it pretty intuitive about where you have to go next in the linear storyline. If you choose path 1, then go the intuitive route. Go for the straight storyline.
The first time I played through the game, I inadvertantly chose path 1 because I had rented the game, and I’d never played a FF game before, and I just wanted to finish as soon as possible. I’m a huge fan of PC RPGs like Fallout and Planescape, and I kind of looked down on Console RPGs at the time, so I just wanted to get through FFX ASAP. What I discovered was that the tactical combat was really tough and really fun to figure out. This was further complicated by the fact that I was playing with a friend of mine who hated Auron, so we never gave him any play time and therefore didn’t level him up much.
FFX changed my opinion on console RPGs, and I ended up buying the game. And I played it through with a different friend of mine, this time choosing Path 2. We gave the whole party experience, I did all the mini games, I got all the side paths, did the sidequests, got all the ultimate weapons for everyone. It was fun discovering all those things, but… the game was really easy. I mean, really really easy. It was just not fun from a tactical battle point of view. It was a cakewalk.
The third time I went through the game, my plan was to try to do a little of both. I wanted to show a third friend of mine the game, show him some sidequests while we played through the game, while still keeping the game challenge. That’s the time I discovered that Paths 1 and 2 are mutually exclusive. Even if you tarry just a little bit in any part of the game, you soon level up your character to a point where the next boss fight isn’t as challenging any more. We also discovered that Auron is a really strong character who doesn’t have to be levelled up all that much to be too strong. If you’re going for Path 1, I advise staying away from Auron, or at least don’t level him up as much as the others.
The first time I played through the game, the boss fights were just absolutely deliciously challenging. We were almost always on the verge of dying if we made one wrong move. We really had to think about every turn based move. We had to analyze every single consequence of our action. The list of whose turns were coming up in the battle screen is essential in planning out how your moves turn out.
Now, all this happens later in the game, of course. With only 3-4 hours under your belt, I suspect you’re still in the part of the game where I was thinking “Console RPGs suck, this is like watching a movie and hitting X once in a while when the battle screen comes up”. Believe me, that will change, especially if you choose Path 1. It will change drastically. I highly recommend Path 1. I know most people’s RPG-playing instincts tell them to explore when they get the chance and to level up their characters a little more, but believe me, the fights are a lot more fun and the game is an absolute blast if you try to tear through it.
Plus the story is excellent. It gets a lot better. Yuna is an awesome lead character, and Tidus makes a decent sidekick for her. That’s another thing I kind of enjoyed: playing a sidekick in an epic story was a little different than playing the main avatar around whose actions everything revolves.
P.S. Another tip: Most people’s paths along the levelling up screen are fairly linear, but Khimari’s path is pretty much wide open. You can take him in any direction you want, so keep an eye on that. We took Khimari down a path that most Final Fantasy players scoff at, saying “that’s the not the best way to utilize Khimari”. Well yeah, DUH. Who cares how to best utilize him? We wanted to make him unique, and we did. And we had a blast with it too.
Final Fantasy X doesn’t really get good until about 3/4 through, when you’re given the ability to wander freely around the world. It’s not a terrible game, and there are some difficult battles, but it will take you a while to get to the good stuff.
While I can see why Scry would think the game only gets good when you have the choice to go where you want to go in the world, keep in mind that if you go to places other than where the straight storyline is suggesting you go, you will be choosing Path 2. You’ll level up too much and the boss fights will be less challenging, and the game won’t be as fun. So if you choose Path 1, ignore the freedom of choice when you get to 3/4th done with the game, and always choose the linear path. Don’t worry, if you really have a tough time with a boss fight which you can’t beat after 5 or 6 tries, just go a save game before the boss fight and fight some monsters, just levelling up a little bit makes a HUGE difference, and you’ll be able to beat the boss fight much easier.
But if you dilly dally, there’s no way to do the reverse. There’s no way to make the boss fights more challenging. Its easy to make them less challenging. So I highly recommend Path 1.