The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I haven't been able to get interested in a Final Fantasy since FF8, to be honest.

First of all, not only did FF8 suck premere donkey balls, but it finally helped me realize how much I fucking LOATHE those menu battles. I HATE the menu driven battle system.

But since then, even despite the fact that FF9 was supposed to be really good, I couldn't get interested. With the dorky looking characters, promises of more menu driven battles, and fear of the stereotypical Square story (start out as some bum, get in some small group/party/organization, squabble with some guy, some guy either turns out becoming a god or being some god's tool, you kill god).

I already know there's going to be menus, and I don't know about all this blitzball and the setting for Final Fantasy is starting to get a little too exotic for my tastes. But is the story any good? A lot of people I hear raving about FFX have been also playing since FF4 (FF2 US), so there's got to be something redeemable and different, right?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>No. Don't play it. You may like it again if you do.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Draconwick; text-align: left; '>And I love it. It's way too addicting. I'll start playing it and I won't be able to stop. I'll look at the clock then look again a bit later and 4 hours just passed by. I can kick the computers ass at blitzball and it is so fun! Hard to figure out at first, but once you get it really fun. The plot is so good that you don't want to stop playing, you want to know what's going to happen next! The things that tear me away from this game are work and lack of sleep.

One of my favorite things though is the automatic ability to switch someone in and out of a battle. With that everyone in the party becomes useful and you don't have a core group of characters that you play the game with. Also another thing I love is the ability to switch weapons and armor mid battle. It takes one turn, but if you have some armor that is resistant to something that's kicking your ass you can pull it out. If you weapon if a fire weapon and some fire elemental pops up you can switch to a different weapon instead of healing it when you hit it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Extremely addicting game. Even Don likes it, although he won't completely admit to it. :)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Arial; text-align: left; '>It does seem a little too exotic, but the realistic characters kind of make it acceptable. Suspended belief is definately required but not at the level of FFVIII. The writing is also very well done. It makes fun a few RPG cliches.

The voice acting is actually pretty decent, and they really add to the impact of the story. John DiMaggio (who also does Bender) provides the voices for Wakka and Ronso; he's versatile enough that you can hardly tell they're both done by him (though Wakka has a hint of Bender).

It's not perfect though. There's Rikku, the token ditz; not as bad as Selphie, but she does have a voice. And Yuna seems to take a lot after Shatner.

Anyways, if you think the series has lost a lot in the past few installments, I think you give it one last chance with FFX before totally giving up on it.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>They got Bender's voice in there? I think I want to play an hour of this.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt "Times New Roman"; text-align: left; '>I'm 13 hours in and I love it. If you don't like menu driven battles, you won't like it though. The amount of cinemas makes me think its MGS2 in the fantasy world, though. I like that kinda stuff</div>

<div style='font: 12pt "Times New Roman"; text-align: left; '>My fave is FF6 too. After that, it goes like FF9, FF7, FF4</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>That said, although Rikku is undoubtedly meant to be that type of character, she's not annoying.

I don't find anything wrong with Rikku's voice. It's pretty much the same in Japanese too, generic upbright voice.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I thought Rikku was one of the cooler characters, and her VA, one of the best.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I don't find her to be a ditz at all. Just upbeat.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I guess that's a tradition started by FF8 with Selphie... might've been similar characters earlier but that's the most prominent one I can think of.</div>

<div style='font: bold 11pt ; text-align: left; '>i haven't beaten the game yet so a horrid ending (like Chrono Cross) could ruin it but i doubt it.

my list of FF games now goes, FFX, FF 2/4, FF 3/6, FF9, FF7 and FF8 (tied), the FF1 doesn't count, it had no characters, never played FF5, although i should.</div>