Just a quick update on Final Fantasy X... (possible spoilers follow, but, if you haven't played X by now, I'll repeat the now-sage advice given me by a friend: If you haven't played X yet, just go ahead and play XII):

After enduring the botched Al Bhed/Crusaders collaboration to defeat Sin, we're treated to what is, so far, the coolest prerendered cinematic in the game (and I'm not just saying that because it's the first time we see Lulu in full CG), wherein Seymour shows Zanarkand in its prime to your party, punctuating the event with his proposal to Yuna. After all that and when I hit the Thunder Plains, my entire party got creamed in the first battle and I got a Game Over screen. The problem is that my last save was back at the hotel just outside Seymour's manor house, before the flashback, marriage proposal, and trip to the Farplane. In other words, 50 minutes of story has to be repeated for me to get to where I was because of one little mistake in my party formation.

What this has taught me: Rikku is borderline worthless in battle. The problem is that she joins your party way too late; by the time she arrives, her below-400HP is utterly dwarfed by everyone else's 4-figure standings. This leads into a slight problem I have with the Sphere Grid system (I say "slight" for reasons I'll qualify in a moment):

The Sphere Grid works a little like this: Picture a game board, where your movements are determined by your performance in battle. When you move onto a blank sphere space, you'll have a chance to place an appropriate sphere (earned during battle, among other places) in that hole. Certain spheres fit in certain spaces, some relating to abilities while others relating to status. The issue I take with this system is that, while it would be a great way to learn abilities and attacks, I don't see it as a great way to level up your characters. Normally, in an RPG, when you battle monsters, you earn experience points. Earn enough points, and your level increases, granting you more hit points and a greater capacity for using magic. In short, the more you battle, the stronger your character gets, and in relative proportion to your performance in battle. In other words, if you just fight small and relatively weak enemies, you'll earn fewer points as opposed to a long and drawn out boss battle with a powerful monster.

While this is still, mostly, the case with FFX, your level doesn't go up in a traditional way. It's got more in common with the heart containers in Legend of Zelda. You don't level up along the lines of some preset algorithm, but instead simply reach a specified tier in your development. All the sphere-slots on the grid are interconnected; to get to a sphere-slot related to HP, you have to get past sphere-slots related to other attributes. In other words, your character may not be able to increase their HP until you get enough AP (movement points) to reach that part of the sphere grid. Instead of gradually building up your HP, you just get 200 extra points when you reach that section of the sphere grid, which is laid out well in advance. This can be a huge problem if you tend to lean on certain characters for their strengths than others (such as Lulu's black magic) to give yourself an edge in battle.

That's something else, as well; Battles, at times, can feel more like puzzles than tests of skill and strategy. Well, strategy is a factor, but it's incredibly elementary. For example, you'll encounter a certain monster that has a very tough outer skin. Tidus' sword, which normally can cause at least 200 points of damage, all but bounces off its hide and is lucky to render double-digits at best. Sir Auron, however, can take them down in one blow, even if he hasn't progressed very far in his development. It's one thing to encounter this kind of balance issue when dealing with magic, because that's expected; a fire spell against a Snow Flan is going to deal far more damage than simple melee attacks or magic attacks built around non-opposing elements, but that's a far cry from a monster that's only vulnerable to a certain type of attack from a specific character.

This, combined with the way the sphere grid bears more similarities to Zelda, and also the Cloister trials (moving block and key puzzles) inside the temples, causes me to re-evaluate just what kind of RPG FFX is. In fact, I'm more inclined to call it an Action RPG, a Dungeon Crawler, or even a Rogue-like than a typical turn-based number-crunching RPG like previous entries in Final Fantasy, or similar series like Phantasy Star. Characters don't gradually develop, but instead reach predetermined levels of strength and certain characters are better against certain types of enemies in melee attacks, regardless of level. The former statement is reminiscent of an Action RPG, and the latter makes the game sound like an MMO, with tanks and DPS (and all those other pieces of MMO nomenclature I don't know).

Anyway, my problem with Rikku being so far behind meant that, even if I did some good old-fashioned grinding, she'd never really reach an equal level with everyone else because they'd earn the same amount of AP as she in each battle. In other words, she'd always be behind. Now, if there were a way for characters to share AP, that would solve this problem, and allow everyone to reach a level playing field.

This makes me think of something that I said about Super Smash Bros Brawl (which I kind of cribbed from the Zero Punctuation review of Fable II): As a fighting game, it's terrible. As a party game, it's pretty damn good.

So, as an RPG, FFX is seriously lackluster if not fundamentally flawed. As an Action/RPG, it's pretty damn good. And now, I've had a massive setback, and yet have to keep my spirits up in light of the game being just "pretty damn good." (sigh)