Leonhart's Top 50 Games 2011

Leonhart's Top 50 Games list was compiled early in 2011, the first writeup topic he has ever made regarding his favorite games.

The List

1. Final Fantasy X

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Ffxboxart.jpg

So after all that talk about Final Fantasy VIII, how could any game possibly ever top that? Well, Final Fantasy X’s a special kind of game that I had a similar type of connection with, and it’s also why Tidus ends up as my #2 character ever. FFX is a game I just keep finding myself going back to over and over again to this day. I don’t play FFVII, FFVIII, or FFIX all that often anymore (although I did replay through them all last year for old time’s sake for the first time in a while), but man, I still play through FFX at least once per year. I can’t help it. This game just gets it all right, from presentation to atmosphere to gameplay to story to characters to soundtrack to leveling system to cheesiness to just plain fun. I love darn near everything about this game.

I’d say the thing that gives Final Fantasy X such a special place in my heart as my favorite game was just the overall experience. This is one of those rare games I managed to play through without having anything spoiled for me. As a result, I really felt like I was seeing Spira through the eyes of Tidus. I went into it knowing as much about that world as he did, so as he learned, I learned. I got really attached to him and the other characters throughout the game, so the ending was naturally pretty devastating and emotional for me. I still can’t watch that thing without getting chills, and there’s no telling how many times I’ve seen it. It’s such a wonderful story. People talk about how cliché or predictable the plot twists were, but I’m not usually good at figuring those things out beforehand, so they got me good.

I love Final Fantasy X’s battle system and leveling system though. I love the CTB system. It’s cool how the choices you make affect how quickly your turn comes back around the next time and stuff like that. That’s one of the things I liked about FFT, so I’m glad they brought it back around. I also loved being able to switch between party members on the fly. In fact, I always try to get all of the party members involved in every battle so they level up equally. I love the Sphere Grid system and leveling up that way. It’s fun watching them grow as unique job classes for the most part throughout the story, and it seems like it’s set up perfectly so that, as long as you don’t grind and overlevel, by the time you reach endgame stuff, that’s about the point you’ll reach the end of that character’s Sphere Grid and be able to branch out elsewhere (except for Kimahri, obviously). Then you can just power level to your heart’s content and break the game wide open. It was great having two phases to the leveling and battle system like that. I also loved hearing the characters talk and interact with each other and smack talk the enemies during battle. Character interaction is top notch in this game, and that’s one of the reasons why.

Final Fantasy X has just the right level of challenge, too. It had some excellent enemies and some awesome boss fights. I loved the various locations in Spira. They were beautifully designed and memorable. It’s probably one of my favorite worlds in an RPG. Didn’t miss the world map in this one! I enjoyed doing the Cloister of Trials things the first time through. They were neat puzzles. I think the only time I had to look up a solution was for Djose’s. I loved blitzball, too, but I think it’s the most fun at low levels with the Aurochs. It’s too easy to get much better than the other teams as you level up to the point where you can just run up the score and never get challenged (although putting up 10+-0 scores on the slow as molasses Ronso Fangs can be fun, too). Struggling to beat the Al Bhed Psyches with how ridiculous Nimrook is at low levels is fun. I remember holding on at 0-0 for regulation and barely managing to get one past him in overtime for an epic victory.

And yes, I like the voice acting. I think J. Arnold Taylor did a good job as Tidus with a voice that fits his character. Hedy Burress left something to be desired as Yuna, yes, but I think whenever she has lines where you can’t see her mouth so she’s not so concerned with lip-syncing, she does fine. Matt Mackenzie is an awesome Auron, and Tara Strong does solid voice work as usual with Rikku. Jecht’s gruff voice is excellent, of course. Plus, I like cheesiness in my games, so things like the Laughing Scene usually succeed in making me laugh.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed reading the list, and thanks to all who contributed to the topic! Until next time…!