{"id":35003,"date":"2016-11-03T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=35003"},"modified":"2021-02-19T02:26:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T07:26:25","slug":"final-fantasy-x-part-20-finale-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=35003","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy X Part 20: Finale Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the belly of Sin, Tidus at last comes face-to-face with his father. This is… strange. Jecht became<\/em> Sin, but then we find Jecht is also inside<\/em> of Sin? That’s like Optimus Prime transforming into a truck, but then you look in the driver’s seat and Optimus Prime is behind the wheel. That’s confusing.<\/p>\n

It’s an awkward conversation when Tidus confronts his father. The last time they saw each other, Tidus was a different person. They both were. They didn’t understand each other before and nothing in the last ten years has corrected that.<\/p>\n

I Hate You<\/h3>\n

I can see where Tidus gets his fashion sense. This is not a compliment.<\/div>
I can see where Tidus gets his fashion sense. This is not a compliment.<\/div><\/p>\n

Eventually Jecht urges them to get on with it. He’s about to lose himself again and become the rampaging beast again. Which means he’s about to turn into a boss monster. So six-foot Jecht turns into a fifty-foot aeon which is inside of stadium-sized Sin, and all three are supposedly Jecht. That’s even more confusing.<\/p>\n

After the fight, Tidus runs to his father’s side and they talk a bit more. Tidus ends the conversation by saying, “I hate you.”<\/p>\n

I don’t think this is a very satisfying way to end his arc. Sure, it ties back into earlier parts of the story. In one flashback young Tidus was saying he was glad his father was gone, and Mom said, “If you never see him again, you’ll never be able to tell him how much you hate him!” And there was a dream back on Besaid Island where he tried to tell dad how much he hated him, and his dad taunted him to “Say it louder!”<\/p>\n

So this is, I suppose, thematically complete. But it still doesn’t make for a great story. “Oh by the way, I jumped into Satan’s asshole and climbed through this madhouse just so I could say I still hate you.” That’s not an interesting or satisfying arc, and it makes it feel like Tidus hasn’t learned anything.<\/p>\n

If you’ve collected Jecht’s memory spheres along the way (and you should, they’re not hard to get and they’re pretty good) then Tidus has watched recordings of his father’s adventures. He’s seen his father swear off drinking. He’s seen his father become a loyal guardian. And regardless of finding those spheres, he’s seen the moment of truth when Jecht chose to give his life for the people of Spira. He saw that his father’s last thoughts were for his son. He’s sensed his father’s anger and frustration at being trapped inside Sin, and how much the guy continues to suffer for doing what he thought was the right thing. And now, inside Sin, Tidus has met the man again in light of all of these revelations.<\/p>\n

I hate you too, Meg Ryan.<\/div>
I hate you too, Meg Ryan.<\/div><\/p>\n

“I hate you!” is a lame way to close this character arc. It makes Tidus seem small and petty. The stakes have gone up so far. Why hasn’t his perspective changed?<\/p>\n

A much better conclusion would be if he could stand here in the heart of evil and look at what a horrible monster his father had become, and still be able to say the words, “I love you.” Maybe I’m just projecting as a father, but I think that would have carried more emotional punch than his tearful goodbye with Yuna.<\/p>\n

Not only does it seem like Tidus shouldn’t say it, afterwards it feels like he didn’t. In the after-credits scene, Tidus goes to the afterlife. As he arrives, he’s welcomed by a high-five from dad. He doesn’t refuse the high-five, or scowl, or pout. Both of them appear happy. They did it, together. They saved the world.<\/p>\n

But maybe I’m interpreting this wrong. Sure, Tidus says, “I hate you!” But he said it through tears, while cradling his father in his arms. Maybe there’s some nuance being lost in translation? Maybe he felt obligated to say it because they just had a fight to the death? Maybe now that he finally gets the chance to say it, he realizes he doesn’t mean it? I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Final Boss<\/h3>\n

For the final boss fight, Jecht takes the form of a heavy metal album cover.<\/div>
For the final boss fight, Jecht takes the form of a heavy metal album cover.<\/div><\/p>\n

Jecht is the last “real” boss of the game. It’s the last time you’ll be seriously challenged by the mechanics. (Unless you’ve been side-questing, in which case the only place you can find a challenge is the monster arena.)<\/p>\n

Afterward you fight Yu Yevon – who for some reason looks like a hovering tick – and that fight is almost impossible to lose. Your characters all have auto-life, meaning they’re instantly revived if they get knocked out. You just have to destroy each of Yuna’s Aeons so that there is nowhere else for Yu Yevon to go.<\/p>\n

The game forces you to call each Aeon. Then Yu takes control of it and you fight it. Did you go to a bunch of extra trouble to unlock the bonus Aeons in hopes they would make you stronger? Did you spend time boosting their stats? Oops!<\/p>\n

Defeating your own aeons seems to destroy the Aeon forever. This raises all sorts of questions about how fayth, summoning, and aeons work in relation to Yu Yevon, but the story isn’t really interested in explaining or exploring it.<\/p>\n

THIS is Yu Yevon? Really? That doesn't really work for me.<\/div>
THIS is Yu Yevon? Really? That doesn't really work for me.<\/div><\/p>\n

Once Yu is out of Aeons, he’s a pushover. The camera cuts away so the storyteller doesn’t have to explain how they get from the belly of Sin to the deck of the airship. With Yu Dead, the summoning ends. The Fayth end their dreaming and become lifeless statues. The aeons vanish for good. Dream Zanarkand fades away. The world changes forever as a millennia-long stalemate is finally broken.<\/p>\n

Tidus, being a part of Dream Zanarkand, vanishes too. But he does so slowly, so we can get a few minutes of tear-jerky sadness as Yuna watches her man dissolve and everyone says their goodbyes.<\/p>\n

It’s a sad ending. A tragic ending. The story created a romance between these two characters, which makes his loss even more powerful. Even if you disliked Tidus, you probably liked Yuna and wanted her to enjoy a happy ending for her struggle. But I’m glad the writer was willing to commit to this. I think it would have felt too indulgent if these teenagers had solved this problem and it hadn’t cost them anything.<\/p>\n

What About Final Fantasy X-2?<\/h3>\n

So Yuna defeated Sin, and then she decided to dress and behave like a completely different person? If we're going to revisit the same old characters, then they really ought to be the same characters.<\/div>
So Yuna defeated Sin, and then she decided to dress and behave like a completely different person? If we're going to revisit the same old characters, then they really ought to be the same characters.<\/div><\/p>\n

I suppose before I wrap this series up I should say a few words about the sequel. The story of this world was supposedly continued in Final Fantasy X-2. I tried it. I didn’t like it. It answered a question I didn’t care to ask, which was “How did the world change after Sin was defeated?” I felt like the first game created a clear, solid, thematically complete arc, and I was content to leave the rest to the imagination. Worse, none of the characters felt like the characters I knew. Everyone was slightly off. I gave Mass Effect 2 a hard time for re-writing Liara’s personality between games<\/a>, but here it felt like everyone got a re-write. I found it incredibly off-putting just how out-of-character everyone was behaving.<\/p>\n

For example: I really disliked the Wakka wound up with Lulu, since I never once got the impression she had the slightest interest in him. If I had to sum up her attitude towards him in a single word, it would be “contempt”. They barely interacted on Yuna’s pilgrimage. She also didn’t strike me as being in a big hurry for motherhood. It’s not that this outcome was impossible<\/em> or anything – I mean, there are only like two dozen people living on Besaid Island anyway – but it didn’t click into place for me. It felt like fanservice, if not fan fiction. It’s the most banal and obvious match, and yet the one most poorly supported by the previous game.<\/p>\n

From a storytelling perspective, Wakka and Rikku make a much more interesting pairingYou might object to it because their age difference seems a little scandalous to western sensibilities, but Wakka is supposedly 23 and Rikku is in her mid-teens. Historically, that’s not even a big deal, and once you move the timeline forward a few years it’s a perfectly normal couple even by modern standards.<\/span>, as it flows naturally from their shared arc as enemies becoming friends. It also works as a payoff for the end of the last game and helps show how the world has healed. Without the teachings of Yevon, the Al Bhed can be welcomed into normal society, and former “Al Bhed hater” Wakka is the first to take an Al Bhed spouseNot actually the first. I mean, Braska did it a couple of decades ago.<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Also, I really disliked that Yuna was looking for Tidus. (Or whoever. I don’t care that it was some other spirit or whatever.) Everyone had settled into their post-story happy endings, and I didn’t want to see them leave that behind so they could undo parts of the ending of the previous game. That’s like making a sequel to Lord of the Rings where Sam leaves Rosy and his gardening so he can bring Frodo back from the Grey Havens. I know that it was sad to see Frodo leave, but bringing him back would retroactively undercut the huge emotional impact at the end of Return of the King.<\/p>\n

I only made it a few hours into the game, and all of it felt slightly off. Too indulgent, too implausibleWhich is really saying something for this series.<\/span>, too jarring, or too dumb. It was the worst of both worlds. I didn’t get the wonder and excitement of discovering a new world, but I also didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing old familiar characters. I get that the dress spheres were a big hit with fans, but I’d much rather have experienced that gameplay while exploring a fresh new world with a new slate of characters.<\/p>\n

Wrapping Up<\/h3>\n

There aren't any group shots at the end, because Auron gets sent to the afterlife. So here's a shot from the middle of the game. Man, I love these idiots.<\/div>
There aren't any group shots at the end, because Auron gets sent to the afterlife. So here's a shot from the middle of the game. Man, I love these idiots.<\/div><\/p>\n

Final Fantasy X was an odd transitional game. Its graphics make it more similar to the games of today than to the Final Fantasy games that came out just two years earlier. (This is true of a lot of games in that time period. 2000-2004 was a watershed era in gaming.) But stylistically, I think it’s closer to those old games than it is to anything that’s followed.<\/p>\n

Is it a perfect game? Not by a long shot. The “Al Bhed as oppressed minority” doesn’t really gel, the big Blitzball game is a disaster<\/a>, some of the sidequests<\/a> are poorly paced, the rare difficulty spikes seem to always follow massive unskippable cutscenes<\/a>, there are a few scenes that don’t work as well as they should<\/a>, and a couple of contrivances skate by without being properly addressed. But it’s got charm, vibrant environments, a stellar soundtrack, and a couple of characters I really<\/em> love. I enjoyed the turn-based gameplay. I like my action games (Batman) to be fluid and fast-paced. I like my strategy games to allow me to linger over complex decisions, looking for optimal choices. So I’ve always found the turn-based-with-a-timer idea of the early games to be a really unsatisfying compromise.<\/p>\n

I played through FFX again while writing this series, and I was glad to see the game still held up after all these years. This wasn’t like the time when I returned to Leisure Suit Larry<\/a> and discovered that the magic was long gone. This is still a genuinely fun game. Yes, the world of Spira is bonkers, but it’s the good kind of bonkers. It’s the vibrant, crazy, surprising kind of bonkers. Maybe it doesn’t always make sense, but it manages to hit the right emotional notes. And that’s exactly what I want from Final Fantasy.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the belly of Sin, Tidus at last comes face-to-face with his father. This is… strange. Jecht became Sin, but then we find Jecht is also inside of Sin? That’s like Optimus Prime transforming into a truck, but then you look in the driver’s seat and Optimus Prime is behind the wheel. That’s confusing. It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46293,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35003\/revisions\/46293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}