I initially struggled a bit to get into the game, every session felt like a newbie session (what's that, who're they, am I in the past or the future, was it Zanarkand I came from and Spira I'm in now, why should I care about any of these places or the characters in them, the main protagonist is a boring douche etc) so I tried to let go a bit of my strategy guide and just let the game show me the ropes organically. I immediately missed the Rod of Wisdom, an incredibly useful weapon for Yuna, so I went back to following the guide more or less to a T - and boy did I think I needed it. There were a lot of useful items hidden with NPC:s appearing on already visited places, who - with no hints or pointers - just casually gives them out after exhausting their dialogue a second time. I didn't want to hunt down every last single NPC and go through their oftentimes boring/useless dialogue multiple times "just to be sure" so I stuck with the strategy guide at every turn."I thought the liniarity would help me [...] but it really started to feel constricting"
After 20 hours or so I realized there were only a handful of items that would really suck to have missed, and the game had yet to branch out at all (it was the most linear experience I've ever had with a Final Fantasy game, with absolutely no say in where the journey was heading) so once again I felt the strategy guide wouldn't help me that much. And I thought the liniarity would help me, I often get frozen from too much freedom and having a linear path to take sounded comforting on paper. But after, like I said, 20 hours or so it really started to feel a bit constricting. In fact, this was going to be the case all the way to the end. Just before the last boss I got access to an airship and from there I was free to go back and explore secrets and hidden paths. But by that time, a solid 50 hours into the game, I was completely fed up with it. In all honesty I was pretty fed up with it already at 40 hours, so when I reached the end and unlocked the ability to do as I pleased I just wanted it to end already. I know it's an epic RPG and all, but I guess I just can't dedicate myself to a video game that long - at least not if it's a fairly uninteresting game like the case with FFX. The characters grew a bit on me, sure, but only from "they're stupid" to "they're okay for the most part".
"I played strictly out of dedication to finish what I've started"
You might wonder why I skipped from my first sessions with the game to the 20 hour mark and then the 50 hour mark without commenting on the story or gameplay mechanics. That's because I didn't think they were memorable. I played strictly out of dedication to finish what I've started, there was no interest in the world or the progress. And that's my judgement on this game. It was not interesting. And it had a fitting ending. The last fights (a couple of bosses with several formations) were incredibly frustrating with long cutscenes without the possibility to pause, let alone save. I just had to sit the hours out and if I died, it was all in vein. After getting the advice to go back, find and use "Trio of 9999" (I won't go into detail here) the end fight became much easier. Eventually the lastest last boss went down and I was finally free. Free from the daily boredom, the daily chore. I don't think I'll play another Final Fantasy for a good while.
