Tidus x Clasko: THE OTP TIME FORGOT!

Regarding Jecht's creativity, I have to wonder if his approach to fayth design really was HNGGGHHHHHH THE GREAT SIR JECHT IS HUGE GIANT MUSCULAR BEAST WITH A LARGE SWOOOOOORRRD!!! as somehow I don't expect much else from him in that department. (I have to wonder what the hell Wakka would've gone with if he became a fayth.... Giant blitzball with his hair attatched?)

Part of what I found really effective about the final battle with the Aeons is how you see Yuna struggling not to break down as she summons each Aeon. It's a great little detail that sells the idea that to her, Aeons weren't tools for her to use, they were her comrades, they were a part of her and by doing this she is killing a little part of herself. She still had to make a summoner's sacrifice in a way, not just in terms of Tidus dying (as that wasn't really a decision on Yuna's part) but in terms of how she had to kill the guardians that everyone took for granted, the Aeons. The Aeons could so easily have been just another batch of token summons that your party uses for convenience (e.g. VII, VIII, XII) but by having Yuna go through such lengths to get them (not just reach them but have them accept her) and the tiny little interaction details you see when Yuna summons them in-game or story, there is the sense that they mean something to her. And it's by establishing this that fighting the aeons hurts more than it would.

I said it once before, but I do love how everything ends up flipped here. Yuna is built up as the one who has to make a sacrifice, but in the end, it's Tidus. Tidus, who likely would've thrown a fit if he learned he was going to disappear at the beginning of the game. Tidus and Yuna both influenced each other a lot, as I think he would be acting a lot more selfish without her, so even as a non-shipper it's impossible to deny that it's a very well done relationship.

Exactly. One of the things I love most about X was how they got this flip aspect to work so well and have the influence Tidus and Yuna have on one another be something both needed. Both grow from their interaction and become far stronger as a result, something I sorely wish I could say about this team's previous attempt at such a relationship... (I guess Rinoa was meant to help Squall be more open or something but Squall's presence only seemed to make Rinoa worse as she was less of a limpet and made attempts at trying to succeed at her goals before she decided to cling to him whilst Squall...... was still a moody tool but just changed whose moody tool he was.) Tidus's sacrifice also feels palpable as opposed to forced because we're given enough development across the narrative to show how he would reach such a conclusion and be able to accept it- we've seen villages destroyed and countless people lose their lives through Tidus's eyes, we found out about the summoner's ultimate sacrifice with Tidus, we learned the truth about the fayth and dream Zanarkand with him. We know exactly what the stakes are and so Tidus's life seems a small price to pay if it means putting an end to this spiral once and for all.

Regarding the cinematics... the more I think about it, the more it seems the X team decided to make all their 'fancy spectacle scenes' FMVs to show off their CG teams abilities which unfortunately has become the standard rather than the exception in FFs now as cinematics for storytelling hasn't really been done since IX... (in fact I think only VII and IX really used their FMVs for moments where using models just wouldn't have sufficed i.e. a shock death, the invasion of a city, the SIGHT of a world etc) X has elements of it here and there such as the Overworld sequence, the Sending sequence, the party crashing the wedding and Yuna's escape from said wedding but then you have stuff such as Seymour's fancy hologram show which is presumably a precursor to pointless pocket fairy dancing from the Nautilus light show in XIII... That said I think X is overall more hit than miss in the cinematic department as even some of it's odder choices are watchable and staged in such a way that you can remember them whilst with XII, Crisis Core, XIII and Type:0 I actually can't remember the majority of the FMVs and when I watch them they feel too busy and too banal. Though I suppose there IS also the question as to whether the teams wanted to rely less on FMVs and more on the new camera technology they had at their disposal as close-ups, mid-shots, zooms and tracking shots weren't really possible pre-PS2 (they kind of were in PSone era but they had to make the background change from pre-rendered to an FMV) and now they could shoot these scenes more like films so there was less need to shoot some of the important moments in the fancy full-motion video. Still doesn't really excuse Auron though XD Maybe he was originally planned and then Seymour screwed up the budget. (Actually I do have to wonder just HOW much more of X would've been in FMV had Squaresoft not had huge financial problems from Final Fantasy The Spirit's Within bombing as X was still in production when that occurred.... Hmm...)