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The end at last. I can't believe I managed to do all of this without ragequitting at having to resize too many screencaps!
First, there's one more Jecht sphere I have to get so we temporarily go back...
I do wonder what would've happened if Tidus never ended up there. Seymour definitely caused the party to divert from the normal path, as without him they would've never been branded traitors and seen how corrupt it is firsthand.
Tidus definitely had a part in getting them to defeat Yunalesca and not let Yuna be sacrificed to defeat Sin, though.
You know, if you read too much into this, you can come up with the theme that you need to stop dreaming and embrace the world as "your story" and act to make the changes you want.
Tidus sounds way more excited here than he normally does when we run into npcs.
I'm starting to think I made the right choice last time I saw him
... definitely the right choice.
Tidus, do you have something going on with Clasko you want to tell us about?
Thinking about it, Tidus' ultimate weapon DOES revolve around racing chocobos... hmm...
Hm, so the dialog has changed in most areas, but I'll wait and do that after beating the game.
I said it once, ages ago, but I'll say it again: I'm so glad we started at the most optimal area and didn't have to hike all the way back to Bevelle.
You'd think at least someone would be curious about Zanarkand and explore it for the sake of it, but I'm guessing it's discouraged as sacred ground.
Jecht needs to take parenting notes, here, especially since what Jecht said was like "don't want to make your little girl cry"
Uh wait
I want to point out that these were said in the same dialog and not separate ones.
Did Luzzu hate everyone in Bevelle for some reason? Even people born there by not fault of their own who may not even really care about Yevon?
But enough of fooling around while Sin patiently waits for us and back to the finale
This is the first time I've summoned them, and I select the option to let them do what they want and... this happens. So great, guys. So worth all that effort.
I would question why there's buildings inside sin, but after seeing Jecht's stage, I'm going with they're the fallen ruins that previous final aeons created. There's no evidence of that, but there's a lot of things I've been filling in with headcanon for my own happiness.
I remembered this section very well because it always was a source of ??????
We got transported to a different area where spikes shoot up and we have to collect glowing eggs in order to get transported again to meet Jecht and... yeah... ????
Transport via flying!
I love whenever the game lets me run around in circles in front of a boss.
Yet it's amazing he even got there at all.
Is his strap broken or did it merge with his skin?
Just saying, you'd think the HD remaster would think to remove these issues
I don't blame you, there.
But it does seem like Jecht has changed a lot and we've seen him express that he does want to be a good father.
He gives us a warning, and implies that he's been trying to hold Sin back all this time. From what I can tell, it seems he never *fully* became the final aeon until...
He starts shining and jumps off the ledge
Jecht is really lacking in creativity, considering what some of the other fayth came up with.
I'm still too strong for even the final boss (as far as enemies you can actually lose to), to make a dent but
He does survive long enough to fill his overdrive gauge, so I summon Valefor to take the shot, only for it to do about... 300 damage. It's also a very small animation which was pretty underwhelming. Jecht couldn't even be creative enough to come up with an overdrive sequence that lasts more than two seconds!
It gets filled again when he dies, and it stays on this screen for a moment. I was worried it was a glitch.
This is actually the first time we've seen Tidus cry since he was a kid, though.
Wakka, this is a dramatic and tragic moment, stop ruining it by facepalming!
Despite saying he hates him twice, it does cause Tidus to say
"The the first time, I can say I'm glad..."
Unfortunately, yes ;; now this is going to be painful
That's giving a new meaning to the word "faceplant"... he's merging with the ground!
*sighs* Might as well start with the newest, after all I barely used them and am not attached.
I really love this battle theme, it's basically hymn of the fayth: battle style.
Without auto-life, this would be really tough. Their stats seem to be the exact same as they were when in my party, and since Yuna's my strongest character, against ALL the aeons... almost all my physical attacks miss, any attacks which do land do much less damage than normal (like 3000 instead of 15000+), and every time any of them attack me it does 9999.
I notice they have unique messages, but I missed one of them.
That's how I'm feeling, too.
I forgot to mention, but I Anima is crazy strong, I had forgotten before I got her that her overdrive was multi-hit... all of which often do 99999, that will REALLY help with optional battles.
I missed Yojimbo's but I'm guessing it was "At least give me all your gil before you kill me! I'll need that in the afterlife just like I need gil as an ethereal being now! Why don't you believe me?!"
One character whose outfit I DO like is Bahamut's fayth's. It's really cool how they incorporated parts of Bahamut onto his outfit... or vica versa.
Although, given current trends, if this were a FF game today this scene would look like...
Why Bahamut in XIII and other recent games has a skirt, I don't think I want to know. Fish-dragons need no skirts!
Up next... the one I relied on the most
;-;
Appropriate reaction.
Fire puns! Always a good time for those!
Oh they're not even trying any more.
Thus the floating tick that is the final boss finally appears.
Well, at least he gave them some warning? At the very last moment?
Everyone except Yuna has a "What the farplane are you talking about?!" reaction
Normally I'd protest, but since he's about to disappear, I'll go with it this time.
This is easily one of my favorite tracks in the game. Such a pathetic boss doesn't deserve such an epic and chaotic theme.
Bonus: Piano version!
Wow, and this time a single hit nearly killed it. It automatically heals after every hit, so it was down below 9999 for a second, but Tidus can't kill it on this turn since he can't break damage cap. (Chocobo racing? No thanks)
So Yuna gets to kill him with an ironic Holy.
I know the sudden final bosses of FF games get a lot of hate, but they never bothered me? The one in FFIX was more symbolic than anything, the embodiment of death itself, which was what was really motivating Kuja and had a hand in every single character's storyline... except perhaps Quina's.
Yu Yevon is... the enemy this whole time has been the culture keeping Sin in place, which was caused by Yu Yevon. Why he's now a floating bug, I have no idea, I almost would've preferred a final boss who could talk and give details on exactly why, but it's been clear for a long time that neither Seymour nor Jecht were truly the "big bad" in this game. In a way, it also makes sense for an enemy who is essentially a false religion to be weaker than the bosses before him, since a sole loon is simply that-- a loon. It's the followers who truly give power to any ideology.
Uh-oh, we accidentally killed the world and now it's pure white!
... that's even worse than the pure white.
The Besaid Blitzball team was at the very bottom of my list of people I wanted to see. Well, okay, that's not fair. Seymour was dead last, so this was... second to last.
That's an improvement, although I have no idea why they're in Besaid all of the sudden.
I'm curious about their choices. He's a dead guy and just Mr. Exposition?! And was at the Ronso mountain last we saw him?
Tidus is demanding more Clasko before he dies!
Auron is one of the most vital and likable party members, you'd think he'd at least deserve a cinematic cutscene here.
This is the biggest scene Kimahri gets in the ending.
I like how his eyebrows are of uneven width. No, I'm not even being sarcastic. I've met too many people too obsessed with eyebrows.
On a serious note, I really liked Auron. He not only helped influence this whole situation to finally bring down sin, but he has a backstory, character development, and is generally a badass. He's already dead, but it still hurts.
This is pretty an does deserve a cinematic scene for once!
I wonder, does Anima appear here if you didn't get her, or since you did meet her once when Seymour summoned her, does she always appear here as an aeon in general? Since I don't see the Magus Sisters or Yojimbo.
Shiva is taking this in stride.
He was made of bubbles with awkward photoshop effects all along!
Um, Wakka.
Yevon damn it Wakka, stop ruining the scene by making silly faces, have you no shame?! You've done nothing to help us through this entire game and now you even try to ruin the ending.
Alas, bubbles are not solid.
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.
... Wakka, why are you facepalming.
He must've decided that, if he's going to disappear anyway, might as well go out with an adrenaline rush, as he jumped off the airship.
This is part of why the 100% ending to X-2 bothers me. Considering how Braska and Auron WEREN'T dreams, this implies they all went to the farplane and he died as normal. Further, Tidus' mother is there earlier...
Yuna has to give a speech and evidently Luca bliztball stadium is the only place to. Spira really needs better entertainment.
She gives a general kind of motivation speech without detail, but it is important to see the world - rightfully - doesn't hate her anymore and instead is thrilled she defeated Sin.
Eventually, but first the world splits in two.
After this we get a flashback of all the cinematic scenes
Which really shows how few of them were from the most memorable scenes... We get a lot of clips of Seymour showing us Zanarkand and random attacks they apparently thought was cool, but I still don't get why they didn't give a cinematic scene to situations like Tidus finding out that Yuna is going to die (especially since they did this annoying shaky camera method to make up for it). The only ones that really stand out as that important are Operation Mi'ihen and the wedding. Arguably also the weird crystal water making out (sex?), but I never cared about that.
I always took this to mean Tidus was so obsessed with blitzball that his ideal afterlife is a giant sphere pool.
Annnd that's it. Almost. This version came with an interlude called "The Eternal Calm" so I'll post final thoughts + that short in another post.
First, there's one more Jecht sphere I have to get so we temporarily go back...
I do wonder what would've happened if Tidus never ended up there. Seymour definitely caused the party to divert from the normal path, as without him they would've never been branded traitors and seen how corrupt it is firsthand.
Tidus definitely had a part in getting them to defeat Yunalesca and not let Yuna be sacrificed to defeat Sin, though.
You know, if you read too much into this, you can come up with the theme that you need to stop dreaming and embrace the world as "your story" and act to make the changes you want.
Tidus sounds way more excited here than he normally does when we run into npcs.
I'm starting to think I made the right choice last time I saw him
... definitely the right choice.
Tidus, do you have something going on with Clasko you want to tell us about?
Thinking about it, Tidus' ultimate weapon DOES revolve around racing chocobos... hmm...
Hm, so the dialog has changed in most areas, but I'll wait and do that after beating the game.
I said it once, ages ago, but I'll say it again: I'm so glad we started at the most optimal area and didn't have to hike all the way back to Bevelle.
You'd think at least someone would be curious about Zanarkand and explore it for the sake of it, but I'm guessing it's discouraged as sacred ground.
Jecht needs to take parenting notes, here, especially since what Jecht said was like "don't want to make your little girl cry"
Uh wait
I want to point out that these were said in the same dialog and not separate ones.
Did Luzzu hate everyone in Bevelle for some reason? Even people born there by not fault of their own who may not even really care about Yevon?
But enough of fooling around while Sin patiently waits for us and back to the finale
This is the first time I've summoned them, and I select the option to let them do what they want and... this happens. So great, guys. So worth all that effort.
I would question why there's buildings inside sin, but after seeing Jecht's stage, I'm going with they're the fallen ruins that previous final aeons created. There's no evidence of that, but there's a lot of things I've been filling in with headcanon for my own happiness.
I remembered this section very well because it always was a source of ??????
We got transported to a different area where spikes shoot up and we have to collect glowing eggs in order to get transported again to meet Jecht and... yeah... ????
Transport via flying!
I love whenever the game lets me run around in circles in front of a boss.
Yet it's amazing he even got there at all.
Is his strap broken or did it merge with his skin?
Just saying, you'd think the HD remaster would think to remove these issues
I don't blame you, there.
But it does seem like Jecht has changed a lot and we've seen him express that he does want to be a good father.
He gives us a warning, and implies that he's been trying to hold Sin back all this time. From what I can tell, it seems he never *fully* became the final aeon until...
He starts shining and jumps off the ledge
Jecht is really lacking in creativity, considering what some of the other fayth came up with.
I'm still too strong for even the final boss (as far as enemies you can actually lose to), to make a dent but
He does survive long enough to fill his overdrive gauge, so I summon Valefor to take the shot, only for it to do about... 300 damage. It's also a very small animation which was pretty underwhelming. Jecht couldn't even be creative enough to come up with an overdrive sequence that lasts more than two seconds!
It gets filled again when he dies, and it stays on this screen for a moment. I was worried it was a glitch.
This is actually the first time we've seen Tidus cry since he was a kid, though.
Wakka, this is a dramatic and tragic moment, stop ruining it by facepalming!
Despite saying he hates him twice, it does cause Tidus to say
"The the first time, I can say I'm glad..."
Unfortunately, yes ;; now this is going to be painful
That's giving a new meaning to the word "faceplant"... he's merging with the ground!
*sighs* Might as well start with the newest, after all I barely used them and am not attached.
I really love this battle theme, it's basically hymn of the fayth: battle style.
Without auto-life, this would be really tough. Their stats seem to be the exact same as they were when in my party, and since Yuna's my strongest character, against ALL the aeons... almost all my physical attacks miss, any attacks which do land do much less damage than normal (like 3000 instead of 15000+), and every time any of them attack me it does 9999.
I notice they have unique messages, but I missed one of them.
That's how I'm feeling, too.
I forgot to mention, but I Anima is crazy strong, I had forgotten before I got her that her overdrive was multi-hit... all of which often do 99999, that will REALLY help with optional battles.
I missed Yojimbo's but I'm guessing it was "At least give me all your gil before you kill me! I'll need that in the afterlife just like I need gil as an ethereal being now! Why don't you believe me?!"
One character whose outfit I DO like is Bahamut's fayth's. It's really cool how they incorporated parts of Bahamut onto his outfit... or vica versa.
Although, given current trends, if this were a FF game today this scene would look like...
Why Bahamut in XIII and other recent games has a skirt, I don't think I want to know. Fish-dragons need no skirts!
Up next... the one I relied on the most
;-;
Appropriate reaction.
Fire puns! Always a good time for those!
Oh they're not even trying any more.
Thus the floating tick that is the final boss finally appears.
Well, at least he gave them some warning? At the very last moment?
Everyone except Yuna has a "What the farplane are you talking about?!" reaction
Normally I'd protest, but since he's about to disappear, I'll go with it this time.
This is easily one of my favorite tracks in the game. Such a pathetic boss doesn't deserve such an epic and chaotic theme.
Bonus: Piano version!
Wow, and this time a single hit nearly killed it. It automatically heals after every hit, so it was down below 9999 for a second, but Tidus can't kill it on this turn since he can't break damage cap. (Chocobo racing? No thanks)
So Yuna gets to kill him with an ironic Holy.
I know the sudden final bosses of FF games get a lot of hate, but they never bothered me? The one in FFIX was more symbolic than anything, the embodiment of death itself, which was what was really motivating Kuja and had a hand in every single character's storyline... except perhaps Quina's.
Yu Yevon is... the enemy this whole time has been the culture keeping Sin in place, which was caused by Yu Yevon. Why he's now a floating bug, I have no idea, I almost would've preferred a final boss who could talk and give details on exactly why, but it's been clear for a long time that neither Seymour nor Jecht were truly the "big bad" in this game. In a way, it also makes sense for an enemy who is essentially a false religion to be weaker than the bosses before him, since a sole loon is simply that-- a loon. It's the followers who truly give power to any ideology.
Uh-oh, we accidentally killed the world and now it's pure white!
... that's even worse than the pure white.
The Besaid Blitzball team was at the very bottom of my list of people I wanted to see. Well, okay, that's not fair. Seymour was dead last, so this was... second to last.
That's an improvement, although I have no idea why they're in Besaid all of the sudden.
I'm curious about their choices. He's a dead guy and just Mr. Exposition?! And was at the Ronso mountain last we saw him?
Tidus is demanding more Clasko before he dies!
Auron is one of the most vital and likable party members, you'd think he'd at least deserve a cinematic cutscene here.
This is the biggest scene Kimahri gets in the ending.
I like how his eyebrows are of uneven width. No, I'm not even being sarcastic. I've met too many people too obsessed with eyebrows.
On a serious note, I really liked Auron. He not only helped influence this whole situation to finally bring down sin, but he has a backstory, character development, and is generally a badass. He's already dead, but it still hurts.
This is pretty an does deserve a cinematic scene for once!
I wonder, does Anima appear here if you didn't get her, or since you did meet her once when Seymour summoned her, does she always appear here as an aeon in general? Since I don't see the Magus Sisters or Yojimbo.
Shiva is taking this in stride.
He was made of bubbles with awkward photoshop effects all along!
Um, Wakka.
Yevon damn it Wakka, stop ruining the scene by making silly faces, have you no shame?! You've done nothing to help us through this entire game and now you even try to ruin the ending.
Alas, bubbles are not solid.
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.
... Wakka, why are you facepalming.
He must've decided that, if he's going to disappear anyway, might as well go out with an adrenaline rush, as he jumped off the airship.
This is part of why the 100% ending to X-2 bothers me. Considering how Braska and Auron WEREN'T dreams, this implies they all went to the farplane and he died as normal. Further, Tidus' mother is there earlier...
Yuna has to give a speech and evidently Luca bliztball stadium is the only place to. Spira really needs better entertainment.
She gives a general kind of motivation speech without detail, but it is important to see the world - rightfully - doesn't hate her anymore and instead is thrilled she defeated Sin.
Eventually, but first the world splits in two.
After this we get a flashback of all the cinematic scenes
Which really shows how few of them were from the most memorable scenes... We get a lot of clips of Seymour showing us Zanarkand and random attacks they apparently thought was cool, but I still don't get why they didn't give a cinematic scene to situations like Tidus finding out that Yuna is going to die (especially since they did this annoying shaky camera method to make up for it). The only ones that really stand out as that important are Operation Mi'ihen and the wedding. Arguably also the weird crystal water making out (sex?), but I never cared about that.
I always took this to mean Tidus was so obsessed with blitzball that his ideal afterlife is a giant sphere pool.
Annnd that's it. Almost. This version came with an interlude called "The Eternal Calm" so I'll post final thoughts + that short in another post.
no subject
...That very ending part with Tidus, before playing FFX-2 at least since one of those endings played off of that scene, reminded me of this really awful (and by awful, I mean hilarious!) literary criticism thing that one of my teachers told me about: basically anytime there was a part of a book with people in a cave or under water it was somehow supposed to be symbolically a womb. Or something (she lost all of us when she tried to say that was the case with a scene in Huckleberry Finn, haha. She loved trying to say that about every book we read in class that year). So, I can never look at it now without bursting out loud laughing! XD
no subject
... lmao, wow. Water could symbolize a lot of other things, like purification or... it could just be water, lol. Sadly you could probably make that argument given how Tidus is "reborn" in X-2, lol.
no subject
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...)
no subject
That IS very IC, but I'm almost surprised Jecht didn't add a blitzball, too. XD Wakka's should definitely have some kind of hideous pattern or something to imitate his completely dreadful style.
Agreed, that's also why I like the little comments, as it's a reminder that they were people - people now begging you to kill them - and not just mindless monsters. While their exact use falls into the number of things under the "summoner" category I wish we got more detail on, they do say that a part of them goes with any summoner they do accept. Afterward, they seem to be separate from whatever pieces goes with them, since most of them seem to lose autonomy and can still be summoned even if the summoner is doing something they wouldn't approve of (like attacking a blitzball stadium) or is already dead and just challenging anyone who locks eyes with them to a battle... but then there's Yojimbo and the Magus Sisters, so a part of their personality still seems to remain. Still, a huge improvement on most of the other FF games where no one seems to bat an eyelash at people summoning giant monsters, or their role in the plot seems forced in.
I never really got the impression Squall changed at all. He was... slightly more talkative I guess? But he doesn't take any actions he wouldn't have at the beginning of the game. What really stands out about Tidus is... at the beginning, he didn't really have anything, and it's a lot easier to be selfish in that circumstance. He never even mentions any friends he cared about or anything, only Auron, who he has here as well anyway. At the end, he's willing to fade away if it means Spira can be free of Sin, because he's gained friends (particularly in Rikku) and even a lover in Yuna, and seen so much of what Sin has caused, which hit him even harder knowing that his dad was Sin. I know people like to hate on Tidus for being whiny, but he really only is at the VERY beginning? And then not much, and he has a sense of humor, something desperately lacking in recent protags, lol.
The ending flashbacks were all from Yuna's perspective, so the Overworld sequence (which I love) sadly wasn't there, so it was mostly flashes of random attacks and such, though I did forget to mention the Sending as important! I'm sure it was there, but they flashed so quickly I likely missed it. I honestly can only remember one cut scene in XII, and it was one with Vayne so that was probably me being biased... uh... I remember them showing skies and air ships a lot, I think? ... and I sadly remember several from CC, but only because they were so long and boring I wanted to hit myself over the head with a telephone to stay awake-- same with XIII, but CC's were even worse for me as they had extremely long battle sequences that were complete nonsense with flying characters when battles are supposed to be gameplay... I do remember hearing that parts of FFX were cut out because of system restraints, which is why the areas tend to be linear / small, but then XII is massive, so I'm not sure I buy that any more than I buy "We need to make VII remake multi-part because... restraints!" Although the money may have been the true factor there given the time period... and after FFX, they regained a lot of clout. Honestly, my main gripe is just that Auron doesn't get a CGI send off and the camera subjected me to annoying craziness during the scene at Home.