Preacher: Well, I' m a touch confused. Everyone I know hasn' t had a problem with FF X, and found that they were well-prepared for the final battle. Were you running away from battles? Didn' t you take just an hour here or there to level up and get some new abilities? That' s how every last FF has always worked; not just FF X. The side-quests absolutely are NOT necessary to beat the game; three of my friends beat the game in 35 hours without attempting one of those quests, and it wasn' t even that hard for them, apparently.

You' re actually the first I' ve seen complain of the length and difficulty...most complaints I' ve heard are just the opposite; too short and too easy. So maybe that' s why I' m confused.

dont want no games in March. the next game i want is " The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from butcher bay" (XBOX only) in JUNE!!

It' s not that I find it difficult in the slightest really, it' s more to do with the fact that gaining new abilities and spheres is just such a monotonous task - if it weren' t totally in the hands of random battles and some of it were better intergrated into the puzzle/exploration elements then it wouldn' t feel like such a chore.


And I suppose that' s my point. It feels like a chore when you get to that stage in the game. I didn' t duck out of any random battles precisely because I wanted to avoid a ton of random battles at the end.

I just got Ninja Gaiden. That game i awesome.

I' m still not sure I understand. In the history of FF, you advanced through battles...it wasn' t any different in FF X. How else would you expect to gain abilities? Solving puzzles? You have to fight to advance. That' s pretty much the way it is with any RPG.

I ordered Ninja Gaiden of the internet a few days ago. It' ll be a while before it gets here though.

You' re right, every FF has used this system - that doesn' t mean it' s acceptable to the palette of all gamers.

the bulk of the game sees you levelling up/advancing your characters in tandem with a story. As you level up, you' re doing it in context of the story, so you feel there' s a purpose to it.


But if you want to take on Sin at full strength, you have to do the levelling up without any real story behind it. This isn' t a fantastic incentive if you ask me.


The last 10-20 hours are spent advancing your characters wihtout any kind of character or plot progression. That' s why I feel the FF series is flawed, and has been flawed for far too long.

And not every RPG adheres to this system. Hell, I went through Skies of Arcadia from start to finish purely in context of the story and I finished it, without having to resort to endless searching and levelling up.


Don' t get me wrong, I enjoy FF for the most part, I just think it falls down in the last 10-20 hours.