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So today I started with FFX. 8 hours of gameplay and I'm at High Road riding around with my chocobo.

As I played through the first 8 hours of the game, I couldn't help but notice how long the cutscenes are. I'm all for telling the story and plot but having a x2 button on those cutscenes would be nice.

The battle system is easy to understand, although it's the same damn song every fight. Your screen suddenly shatters and it's "dun dun dun...". After the first hour I couldn't help but hum along to the beat.

A few notes I mentally jotted down while playing:

- Didn't know my characters revived with 1 hp with they get KOed in battle. Wasted a phoenix down. =[
- Yuna is way too nice.
- Yuna is pretty.
- Love the sphere grid system.
- While going down High Road, I was getting figgity because of the lack of save points during that first stretch.
- Talking to every person you meet helps.
- Who is that "summoner" that I 1v1 with?
- Aeons are OP.
- I sucked at the Jecht's Shot.
- Lulu is too hot.
- Auron's a badass.
- Kilika getting owned made me sad. =[
- Lost blitz ball tournament. Made me sad as well.
- Arriving at Luca cutscene was amazing.
- Very engaging story so far.

12 hours played, stopped at Thunder Plains. Got Rikku, her grenades are bomb, and that little strip tease she did with Tidus ---> lulz.

I am really really liking the Sphere Grid system. It's so refreshing from the normal level grind, albeit a different kind of grind. I actually love fighting monsters because I'm looking forward to reaching that +200 HP sphere or that new skill sphere, all my characters now have 1k+ HP and Auron has 2k+ HP.

But...the battle music is ingrained indefinitely into my mind.

Although I did feel really really stupid when I branched out using those Lv.1 Lock Spheres, and I thought that in order to get back into your normal branch, you had to retrace your spheres one by one...so I wasted like 5 skill levels just getting back to where I was. I actually found this mistake out by mistake, as I pushed too far with the analog button and to my surprise, that glowing circle went all the way back there. Believe me when I say I was pissed at wasting so many skill levels.

So continuing on from yesterday (saved at High Road), I reached the end where you go through the Mi'ihen (sp?) fiasco storyline.

The boss at the end, I think it was a sinspawn that got loose, is the first boss that was hard (or long or tedious). The tip about the head helped me a lot though, but the annoying part was killing his two arms, because I needed both Auron and Kimahri out for those. I started off being dumb and sent my Aeons out first when I didn't know what the hell to do, and my Valefor got owned real fast. But luckily I had forgotten about Yuna's overdrive so I used that with Ifrit and took down a large chunk of the boss' HP.

The rest was easy as I just kept healing, taking out his hands, and spanking his ass. My Yuna was unbelievably weak, as she only had about 700 HP. I had a bit of trouble keeping the rest of the guys up because I had to focus on her more. She kept getting hit for ~450 dmg. Luckily I got a lucky "miss" which gave me enough time to potion her up.

Yuna's ability "Pray" is a godsend. No MP and with Yuna's Healer overdrive style, she is always a killing machine waiting to happen.

I just have to say that Seymour and that other Yevon priest that was there are real douches. I have a feeling that they let the people get killed by Sin just because they don't like anyone who isn't practicing Yevon. That really pisses me off in the real world where people think other religions or atheists are destined for hell and always bring it up. Just keep it in and no one will care.

So after, I went to Djose Temple and got Ixion, after spending 20 minutes in the Cloister of Trials trying to figure out why one of the spheres glowed brighter than the others. I'm much smarter now.

I had another run-in with Belgemine (that's her name, lol) and I think I know the pattern to her visits. I'll see if my suspicions are true next time. The Aeon battle went well, but I was scared when her Ixion didn't die from one overdrive.

Soon after, I reached the Moonflow and jumped onto a shoopuf. Like Tidus, I was wondering what the hell that was. Turns out it's FFX's form of over-water transportation, a big fat elephant with a spiraling nose. At this point, I had no idea that Rikku would turn up. I was wary of an incoming fight when I received warnings of summoners disappearing, but I thought it was gonna be a giant, summoner eating monster. To be frank, I think adding Rikku to the party here is shoddy writing. Rikku just happens to be piloting the Al Bhed vehicle there, just when I'm on the Moonflow. It all seemed a bit convenient, and I think the developers realized that too, because they then gave us fanboys a short strip-tease of Rikku taking off her Al Bhed outfit. Can't fault them for that.

Of course when I got her, having only 400 HP was a big WTF.

That guado city and especially the Farplane was a nice treat for my FFX virgin eyes. After the initial cutscenes inside the Farplane, I went back to see if I missed anything and I was treated to an entire landscape underneath the floating brick that the living people are limited to. Actually, this entire portion of the game is very well done I think. I loved going into Seymour's manor and looking at the "hologram" that Seymour showed us of the technologically advanced Zanarkand. Just sitting there eating my chicken while watching the cutscenes is much better than having to be at the controls 24/7.

Overall, I am really taking my time getting to know the FFX universe. I spoke to every person I met on the way and was thankful for the many items that they gave me. Even though there's a strict path that the game leads you on, I don't feel limited at all. There's enough there to keep me interested, but just enough so that I am left wanting more.

Can't wait to see what's after Thunder Plains, I really dislike that place.

YUNA HAS TO DIE?!>!>!>>!>!?!?!?!??!

That's bullshit, I call bullshit. I'm not playing this game anymore.

30 hours played. Beat Yunalesca, visited Bevelle, and saved on Cid's airship.

I have to say the journey from Besaid Village to Zanarkand Ruins was a pretty wild ride. I loved the story, especially the break from monotony (of going to said temple and getting said aeon) by throwing Seymour, that crazy ass, at us.

I began today training my guys up for a couple of hours at the Gagazet Cave save point. I realized yesterday that my people were pretty weak against the fiends that popped up, especially those big ones that had 20k+ HP. Since my first RPG was Pokemon Red/Blue, I didn't mind the training. FFX's grind is far from monotonous, and since my TV lets me watch two channels at once, I popped in a DVD and watched that while I was grinding away.

After that, I went on my way, doing the two "trials" that I had to do to unlock the steps to exit Mt. Gagazet. I almost teared up when I left the cave and it showed a cutscene of Yuna making that sphere, what a brave, pretty girl. Going through the ruins to get to the temple didn't help matters at all because the music was so dramatic and made me think "this is it, the music is telling me this is the last part of the journey, then Yuna will have to die" and I got all sad. If you guys watched LOTR: Return of the King, that last part where Frodo ran up the mountain, that's what I felt.

Of course, in perfect RPG game fashion, they threw me a cloister of trials, Jecht voiced my thoughts perfectly. Bummer. Completing the puzzle took less time than the Bevelle trials though, yay, I'm smarter.

As for the big twist at the end, I was kind of looking for it. You already know that Sin is Jecht, and when I found out that the Summoner had to die, I was thinking, well hold on, if Braska died bringing the Calm, and Auron is still alive (well, at the time I didn't know he was unsent), why was Jecht the only one who becomes Sin? When I found out that Tidus is actually a "dream", I hoped that Jecht wasn't actually Sin, but was stuck inside Sin somehow. Maybe his pyreflies got mixed up or something.

After Yunalesca, the undead bitch, wanted a sacrifice, I thought Tidus would be the perfect guy for it. He has no one and nothing to live for in the "real world" so why not send him to the Farplane, and when he kills Sin, he'll be reunited with Jecht and Yuna. Win-win scenario. But then the good guys wanted everything so they looked for a fight, bleh.

Yunalesca is by far the hardest fight yet. I was happy when her first form died, but then she went into her second form, and then her THIRD form. I blew all my overdrives during her second form, and when I found out everyone got turned into zombies, I was about to reset. But I fought on, and took her down little by little. I was lucky to have trained my guys; Wakka and Tidus were both hitting for 2k+, while Auron being the beast that he is hit for 4.7k. I alternated between Lulu and Yuna for the buffs and dispels, and I used Rikku to give my Auron and Yuna double max health. I only sent in Kimahri once just so he could get the AP from the boss. He is so weak I don't know where I went wrong, he only hits for 800. He's got a good arsenal of skills though, which I use plenty of times fighting fiends.

One stupid thing I did was at the beginning of her second form, I put Reflect on Tidus during first form because I had him out and it seemed like she was going for him a lot, then I completely forgot about it and cast Hastaga. It reflected off Tidus and went to Yunalesca. So now I had this psycho bitch who makes everyone zombies on crack. I was worried for a second, but Yuna being the brave, pretty girl she is dispelled if off her promptly.

The battle ran on for almost an hour, most of that time I was not even playing, but thinking about what I should do next, who should I use to cast holy water and who should I use to heal, that sort of thing. I was excited when I finally killed her. Her Cura and Renew really bothered me, especially during the last 10k of her health. She kept going from 7k HP to 1k HP to 6k HP to 1.5k HP to 8k HP etc.

I'm now at the point where I think the game wants me to try all the mini-games and to level as I get ready for Sin. I'm definitely going to be spending a lot of time training my people up just because I want to see my guys have the max skills and very good stats. I'll try my hand at getting the rest of the Aeons and getting the legendary weapons as well. I won't be bothering with this right now though, because I think I've completed most of the storylines. I just need to kill Sin to wrap up the plot, which should be interesting because Tidus will disappear after that (or is he?) and make Yuna, the brave, pretty girl cry.

I just want to say that FFX has certainly been an enjoyable game for me. 30 hours of entertainment (and definitely more to come) that I won't soon forget. It is a little shorter, plot-wise, than I would like, but for my first FF game, I am thoroughly hooked and left wanting more.

Tomorrow I will start FFX-2. Can't wait to play a team of girls.

a huge Al Bhed Machinima in the snow

the battle with Sin.

He will just summon Dark Aeons to you, they are pretty easy since you know their attacks and/or if you are overleved

Anyone here got the Cabaldog for Tidus? The minigame to get it was so damn hard. Chocobo.

I got the cadablog xD... and nirvanah (easiest to get), godhand, auron's, and kimahri's. Wakka's and Lulu's just isn't worth wasting time over... Btw you guys know of the AP Trick? Comes in handy.

I mean how you use the triple ap weapon with triple overdrive and overdrive=>ap to get massive ap (don tonberry method/king cacutar methods)... it really helps to max out the characters