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Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX (ファイナルファンタジーIX) is a 2000 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the ninth game in the main Final Fantasy series. The plot focuses on a war between nations in a medieval fantasy world called Gaia. Players follow a thief named Zidane Tribal who kidnaps princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII as part of a ploy by the neighboring nation of Lindblum. He joins Garnet and a growing cast of characters on a quest to take down her mother, Queen Brahne of Alexandria, who started the war.

Game development occurred in parallel with Final Fantasy VIII. Envisioned by developers as a retrospective for the series, it departed from the futuristic settings of Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII by returning to the medieval style of the earlier games. Consequently, it draws heavy influence from the original Final Fantasy and features allusions to the rest of the series. The game introduced new features to the series despite this approach, such as "Active Time Event" cutscenes, "Mognet", and skill systems. Final Fantasy IX was the last game in the main series whose music was composed solely by Nobuo Uematsu.

Final Fantasy IX was released to critical acclaim and commercial success, selling more than 5.5 million copies on PlayStation by March 2016. It was re-released in 2010 as a PS1 Classic on the PlayStation Store—this version was compatible with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable; PlayStation Vita support arrived in 2012. In 2016 Square Enix released an enhanced port featuring minor gameplay and graphical enhancements, which would be released on several platforms. An animated series adaptation by Square Enix and Cyber Group Studios was announced in 2021.

Gameplay

In Final Fantasy IX, the player navigates a character through the game world, exploring areas and interacting with non-player characters. Most of the game occurs on "field screens" consisting of pre-rendered backgrounds representing towns and dungeons. To aid exploration on the field screen, Final Fantasy IX introduces the "field icon", an exclamation mark appearing over the lead character's head, indicating a point of interest. Players speak with Moogles to record their progress, recover their energy, and purchase items. An extensive optional quest involves sending and receiving letters from Moogles and other non-playable characters via Mognet, an in-game postal service.

Players journey between field screen locations on the world map, a three-dimensional representation of Final Fantasy IX's world presented from a top-down perspective. Players can freely navigate around the world map unless restricted by obstacles such as bodies of water or mountain ranges. To traverse these impediments, players can ride chocobos, sail on a boat, or pilot airships. Like previous Final Fantasy games, players enter battles caused by random encounters with enemies while traveling across the world map or hostile field screens. Final Fantasy IX offers a new approach to town exploration with Active Time Events (ATE). These allow the player to view events unfolding at different locations, providing character development, unique items, and prompts for story-altering decisions. ATEs are occasionally used to simultaneously control two teams when the party divides to solve puzzles and navigate mazes.

Combat and character progression

When the player encounters an enemy, the map changes to a battle screen. The player issues commands to characters from an on-screen menu on the battle screen, including physically attacking, using items from the inventory, and unique character-specific abilities that define their role in battle. For example, the thief Zidane can steal items, Eiko and Garnet can summon "eidolons" to aid the party, and Vivi can use black magic to damage the opposition. The speed and order in which the characters and enemies take their turn varies according to their agility, an implementation of the Active Time Battle system first featured in Final Fantasy IV. Character-specific commands change when the character goes into "Trance mode", which is activated for a short duration when the character sustains a specified amount of damage similar to the Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII. Trance mode amplifies the character's strength and allows the player to select more powerful attack commands. For example, Vivi's "Black Magic" command changes into "Double Black", allowing him to cast two magic spells at once. Winning battles awards money, items, "experience points", and "ability points".

Experience points determine a character's combat attributes like agility, strength, and magical power. Accumulating sufficient experience points results in a "level up", which permanently increases combat attributes. Equipment worn by a character may also amplify their attributes. Certain weapons and armor also bestow special abilities, which the character may use when equipped. When the character earns enough ability points, it becomes usable without the item equipped. There are two types of abilities: action and support. Action abilities require magic points to use and include magical spells and special moves used in battle. Support abilities provide functions that remain in effect passively, such as increasing power against certain types of enemies. The maximum number of effects characters can equip at once is determined by level.

Setting and characters
Final Fantasy IX takes place primarily in a world named Gaia. Most of Gaia's population lives on the Mist Continent, named after the thick Mist that blankets the lowlands. Large mountain ranges act as natural borders that separate its four nations: Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Cleyra. Alexandria is a warmongering monarchy that controls the eastern half of the continent. One of its cities is Treno, a cultural nexus under perpetual starlight that is home to many aristocrats and paupers alike. The technologically advanced Lindblum, a hub of airship travel, is nestled on a plateau to the southwest. Both countries feature a mix of humans, humanoids, and anthropomorphic animals. Burmecia, a kingdom showered by endless rain, is in the northwest. Cleyra, a neighboring settlement that seceded from Burmecia due to its appreciation for war, is situated in a giant tree in the desert, protected by a sandstorm. Both are inhabited by anthropomorphic rats with a fondness for dance and spear fighting.

Players eventually explore the Outer, Lost, and Forgotten Continents as well. Civilizations on the Outer Continent include Conde Petie, home of the dwarves; Black Mage Village, a secret settlement of sentient magician drones; and Madain Sari, once home to a near-extinct race of horned humanoid summoners who conjure powerful magical beings called eidolons. Also on the Outer Continent is the Iifa Tree, which disperses the Mist to other continents through its roots. This Mist stimulates the fighting instinct in humanoids and contributes to Gaia's bloody history. The Lost and Forgotten continents are littered mostly with ancient ruins. Scattered throughout the marshes of Gaia are the Qu: large, frog-eating, and seemingly androgynous humanoids who are considered great gourmands. Late in the game, players briefly travel to the parallel world of Terra and the dream realm of Memoria.

The main playable characters are: Zidane Tribal, a member of a group of bandits called Tantalus who are masquerading as a theater troupe; Garnet Til Alexandros XVII (alias Dagger), the Princess of Alexandria who runs away with Zidane; Vivi Ornitier, a young, timid, and kind black mage with an unknown origin; Adelbert Steiner, a brash Alexandrian knight captain and loyal servant of Princess Garnet; Freya Crescent, a Burmecian dragoon searching for her lost love; Quina Quen, a Qu whose master wants them to travel the world so that they will learn about cuisine; Eiko Carol, a young girl living in Madain Sari who is one of the last summoners; and Amarant Coral, a bounty hunter hired to return Garnet to Alexandria. Other important characters include Cid Fabool, the charismatic Regent of Lindblum; Brahne, Garnet's adoptive mother and the power-hungry Queen of Alexandria; Beatrix, the general of Alexandria's all-female army; Garland, an elderly Terran male tasked with saving his world; and antagonist Kuja, an arms dealer and pawn of Garland who questions his own existence.

Story
In Alexandria, Zidane and Tantalus kidnap Princess Garnet by order of Cid. Garnet does not resist, for she was already planning to flee and warn Cid of Queen Brahne's increasingly erratic behavior. Vivi and Steiner join the party during the escape. En route to Lindblum, the group discovers that Brahne is manufacturing soulless black mage soldiers that look similar to Vivi. In Lindblum, Cid confirms that he hired the group to protect Garnet from Brahne's newfound aggression. After learning that Alexandria has invaded Burmecia with the black mages, Zidane and Vivi join Freya to investigate. Garnet and Steiner secretly return to Alexandria to reason with Brahne.

Zidane's team finds that the Alexandrian forces, headed by Beatrix, conquered Burmecia with help from Kuja and the refugees have fled to Cleyra. Brahne imprisons Garnet, extracts her eidolons, and uses the eidolon, Odin to destroy Cleyra while Zidane's group defends the city. The party escapes on Brahne's airship, rendezvous with Steiner, and rescues Garnet. Meanwhile, Brahne cripples Lindblum with another eidolon, Atomos. Cid explains that Kuja supplies Brahne with black mages and the knowledge to use eidolons. The party befriends Quina and tracks Kuja to the Outer Continent. Brahne hires bounty hunters Lani and Amarant to capture Garnet. On the Outer Continent, the party defeats Lani and meets Eiko, a summoner who lives with a group of moogles in the village of Madain Sari. Eiko leads Zidane and the others to the Iifa Tree. Inside, they learn that Kuja uses Mist to create the black mages and that Vivi was a prototype. The party defeats the monster that generates the Mist within the Tree, which clears it from the Mist Continent. While waiting for Kuja's reprisal at Madain Sari, Lani and Amarant attempt to kidnap Eiko but Zidane and the moogles foil them. Amarant then challenges Zidane to a duel and loses. He joins the party and Garnet learns of her heritage as a summoner who was adopted by Brahne as a child. At the Tree, Brahne attempts to kill Kuja with an eidolon so she can rule unopposed, but he takes control of it and destroys her and her army.

After Garnet's coronation, Kuja attacks Alexandria Castle. Garnet and Eiko summon an extremely powerful eidolon in defense; Kuja attempts to steal the eidolon as a means to kill his master, Garland, but the latter arrives and destroys it. The party chases Kuja through a portal to Terra, where the antagonists' goals become clear. The Terrans created Garland to merge their dying world with Gaia; Garland, in turn, created self-aware, soulless vessels called Genomes. For millennia, Garland has been using the Iifa Tree to replace deceased Gaian souls with the hibernating Terran souls, turning the former into Mist in the process; this will allow the Terrans to be reborn into the Genomes after the planetary merge. Kuja and Zidane are Genomes created to accelerate this process by bringing war and chaos to Gaia. Kuja had betrayed Garland to avoid becoming occupied by a Terran soul. Kuja defeats Garland, who reveals before dying that the former has a limited lifespan anyhow: Garland designed Zidane to be his replacement. Enraged, Kuja destroys Terra and escapes to the Iifa Tree.

At the Iifa Tree, the party enters Memoria and reaches the origin of the universe: the Crystal World. They defeat Kuja, preventing him from destroying the original crystal of life and thus the universe. After defeating Necron, a force of death, the Tree collapses; the party flees, while Zidane stays behind to rescue Kuja. One year later, the game reveals the cast's fate: Tantalus arrives in Alexandria to put on a show; Vivi has implicitly died as Black Mages only live for a year, but he has left behind several identical "sons," as well as grown to understand the meaning of life; Freya and Fratley are rebuilding Burmecia; Cid has adopted Eiko; Quina works in the castle's kitchen; Amarant and Lani are travelling together; and Garnet presides as queen of Alexandria, with Steiner and Beatrix as her guards. In the climax of Tantalus's performance, the lead actor reveals himself as Zidane in disguise and reunites with Queen Garnet.

Development
Early planning for Final Fantasy IX began in July 1998 before Square had finished development on Final Fantasy VIII. The game was developed in Hawaii as a compromise to developers living in the United States. As the series' last game on the PlayStation, Sakaguchi envisioned a "reflection" on the older games of the series. Leading up to its release, Sakaguchi called Final Fantasy IX his favorite Final Fantasy game as "it's closest to [his] ideal view of what Final Fantasy should be". This shift was also a response to demands from fans and other developers. Additionally, the team wanted to create a coherent story with deep character development; this led to the creation of Active Time Events which showcase the character's individual exploration away from the protagonist. Sakaguchi wrote the scenario for the game, with further contributons from Kazuhiko Aoki and Nobuaki Komoto.

In the game's conceptual stage, the developers made it clear that the title would not necessarily be Final Fantasy IX, as its break from the realism of VII and VIII may have alienated audiences. This idea led fans to speculate that it would be a "gaiden" (side story) to the main series. By late 1999, however, Square had confirmed that the game would indeed be titled Final Fantasy IX, and by early 2000, they had almost finished the game. The developers made several adjustments to the game, such as changing the ending seven times. Director Hiroyuki Ito had designed the battle system.

The game's developers sought to make the game's environment more "fantasy-oriented" than its PlayStation predecessors by reintroducing a medieval setting. In the game world, steam technology is just beginning to become widely available. The population relies on hydropower or wind power for energy sources but sometimes harness Mist or steam to drive more advanced engines. Norse and Northern European mythology also inspired the game's setting. According to Ito, "[the development team is] attracted to European history and mythology because of its depth and its drama". The game's art director was Hideo Minaba, while the characters were designed by Shūkō Murase and Toshiyuki Itahana. Recurring artist Yoshitaka Amano created promotional concept art of the characters and world, and designed the logo. The main Final Fantasy IX website says the development of the game's world serves as a culmination of the series by blending the "successful elements of the past, such as a return to the fantasy roots", with newer elements. To accomplish this and satisfy fans who had become used to the realistic designs of Final Fantasy VIII, the designers stressed creating characters with whom the player could easily relate. The characters had "comic-like looks" as a result. In addition, The Dark Crystal was used as inspiration for the design of the world and characters. Ito suggested that the protagonist Zidane should be flirtatious towards women.

Music
Regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu wrote the music of Final Fantasy IX. In early discussions about the game, Ito asked him to compose themes for the eight main characters along with "an exciting battle track, a gloomy, danger-evoking piece, and around ten other tracks". Uematsu spent a year composing and producing "around 160" pieces, with 140 appearing in the game. During writing sessions, Square gave him a travel break in Europe for inspiration, where he spent time admiring ancient architecture in places like Germany. Uematsu cited medieval music as a significant influence on the score of IX. He aimed for a "simple" and "warm" atmosphere and incorporated uncommon instruments like the kazoo and dulcimer. Unlike the stark realism of its predecessors, the high fantasy undertones of IX allowed for a broader spectrum of musical styles and moods. Uematsu composed with a piano and used two contrasting methods: "I create music that fits the events in the game, but sometimes, the [developers] will adjust a game event to fit the music I've already written".

Uematsu incorporated several motifs from older Final Fantasy games into the score, such as the original battle music intro, a reworked Volcano Theme from Final Fantasy and the Pandemonium theme in Final Fantasy II. Tantalus' band plays "Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony" from Final Fantasy VII near the beginning of the game. Uematsu has stated on several occasions that Final Fantasy IX is his favorite score. "Melodies of Life" is the theme song of IX and shares its main melody with pieces frequently used in the game itself, such as the overworld theme and a lullaby that Garnet sings. Emiko Shiratori performed this piece in both the Japanese and English versions with arrangement by Shirō Hamaguchi.

Release
Final Fantasy IX's release was delayed to avoid a simultaneous release with then-rival Enix's Dragon Quest VII. On October 7, 2000, a demo day for the North American version of IX was held at the Metreon in San Francisco, California. The first American release of the game was also at the Metreon; limited-edition merchandise was included with the game and fans cosplayed as Final Fantasy characters in celebration of the release. In Canada, a production error left copies of Final Fantasy IX without an English version of the instruction manual, prompting Square to ship copies of the English manual to Canadian stores several days later. Square heavily promoted the game both before and after its release. Starting on March 6, 2000, the game's characters appeared in a line of computer-generated Coca-Cola commercials. Figurines of several characters were also used as prizes in Coca-Cola's marketing campaign. That same year, IGN awarded Final Fantasy dolls and figurines for prizes in several of their contests.

Final Fantasy IX was released on Sony's Greatest Hits on June 30, 2003.

Final Fantasy IX was also the benchmark of Square's interactive PlayOnline service. PlayOnline was initially developed to interface with Final Fantasy X but became a strategy site for IX when those plans fell through. Square designed the website to complement BradyGames' and Piggyback Interactive's official strategy guides for the game, where players who bought the print guide had access to "keywords" that they could search for on PlayOnline's site for extra tips and information. This design caused anger among buyers of the guide who felt cheated by the expensive print version's omissions. The blunder made GameSpy's "Top 5 Dumbest Moments in Gaming" list, and Square dropped the idea for Final Fantasy X, which was under development at the time.

Square Enix re-released the game as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package in December 2012. A remastered version was released for Android and iOS in February 2016. The remaster features HD movies and character models, an auto-save feature, seven different game boosters (cheats), including high speed and no encounter modes, and achievements. A port for Windows was released on April 14 the same year. In September 2017, the Windows port was released on PlayStation 4. It was also released on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows 10 in North America on February 13, 2019, and in other regions a day later.

Reception
Final Fantasy IX sold over 2.65 million copies in Japan by the end of 2000, making it the second-highest selling game of the year in the region. Although it was a top-seller in Japan and America, Final Fantasy IX did not sell as many copies as VII or VIII in either Japan or the United States. In 2001, the game received a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The original PlayStation version sold over 5.5 million copies by March 2016.

Final Fantasy IX was released to critical acclaim both in Japan and abroad. It achieved a 94/100 on the review aggregator Metacritic making it their highest-scoring Final Fantasy game. The game was voted the 24th-best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. Francesca Reyes of Next Generation called it "an imaginative return to the roots of the Final Fantasy series that hits the RPG mark dead-on".

Critics generally praised the title's gameplay and combat system. GameSpot approved of the simple learning curve and that the ability system is not as complex as in VII or VIII. Each character possesses unique abilities, which prevents one character from overpowering the others. GameSpot describes the battle system as having a tactical nature and notes that the expanded party allows for more interaction between players and between enemies. Nevertheless, IGN disliked the lengthy combat pace and the repeated battles, describing it as "aggravating". RPGFan felt the Trance system was ineffective because the meter buildup is slow and unpredictable, with characters Trancing just before the enemy dies.

The characters and graphics also received positive reviews. Although IGN felt that the characters were similar to those in other Final Fantasy games, the characters were still engaging and sympathetic. GameSpot found the characters amusing and full of humor. IGN also noted that even the Active Time Event system helps expand the player's understanding of the characters' personalities as they grapple with many ideas and emotions. RPGFan enjoyed the detailed animation and design of the semi-deformed graphical style. They also praised the pre-rendered backgrounds, noting the careful attention given to the artwork, movement in animations, and character interactivity. They commended the cutscenes for being emotionally compelling and highlighted the seamless transition between cutscenes and in-game graphics. The music also received praise, with Electronic Gaming Monthly listing it the best soundtrack on their list of top five original soundtracks, while GamePro praised the audio for evoking "emotions throughout the story, from battles to heartbreak to comedy".

Critics acknowledged that Square primarily built the storyline upon elements found in previous Final Fantasy installments, such as evil empires and enigmatic villains. The main villain, although considered by GameSpot to be the least threatening in the series, was seen by IGN as an impeccable combination of "Kefka's cackling villainy" and "plenty of the bishonenosity that made Sephiroth such a hit with the ladies". RPGFan felt that the music was "uninspired and dull" compared to previous Final Fantasy titles and criticized composer Uematsu for reusing some tracks from past iterations of the series. Still, reviewers have concluded that this and many other elements are part of the overall effort to create a nostalgic game for fans of the older Final Fantasy games.

The strategy guide also received criticism; it urged buyers to log onto an online site to gain the information instead of providing it within the actual guide. The book's given links are no longer accessible on the PlayOnline website. The minigame "Tetra Master" was seen by GameSpot as inferior and confusing compared to Final Fantasy VIII's minigame "Triple Triad" as the rules are vaguely explained and offered few rewards despite its expansive nature.

During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences honored Final Fantasy IX with the "Console Role-Playing", "Art Direction" and "Animation" awards, as well as received nominations for "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", "Original Musical Composition", and "Character or Story Development".

Legacy
Final Fantasy IX was voted the 4th best Final Fantasy game in a poll by Japan's national broadcasting organization NHK. IGN named it the 14th best game on the original PlayStation, calling it an "incredible" way to close out the Final Fantasy series's first nine games and complimented its reverence for those titles. Rock Paper Shotgun named the title their 4th best Final Fantasy game available on PC, praising the cast and its eclectic group of heroes. Though overshadowed during its initial release by other Final Fantasy titles, the game has been recognized for its mature themes, including mortality and handling death and is considered a JRPG masterpiece. The music has also been called one of Uematsu's greatest scores. The game has inspired a number of mods such as Moguri Mod, which is an unofficial remaster project developed by fans which saw its initial release in 2018.

In 2015, OverClocked ReMix released a four-disc collection called "Worlds Apart" with 120 songs to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game's release. In June 2021, Cyber Group Studios and Square Enix announced plans to develop an animated television series based on Final Fantasy IX.

title: Final Fantasy IX


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Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X (ファイナルファンタジーX) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth main entry in the Final Fantasy series. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, the game was re-released as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, for PlayStation 4 in 2015, Windows in 2016, and for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019. The game marks the Final Fantasy series transition from entirely pre-rendered backdrops to fully three-dimensional areas (though some areas were still pre-rendered), and is also the first in the series to feature voice acting. Final Fantasy X replaces the Active Time Battle (ATB) system with the "Conditional Turn-Based Battle" (CTB) system, and uses a new leveling system called the "Sphere Grid".

Set in the fantasy world of Spira, a setting influenced by the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan, the game's story revolves around a group of adventurers and their quest to defeat a rampaging monster known as Sin. The player character is Tidus, a star athlete in the fictional sport of blitzball, who finds himself in Spira after Sin attacked his home city of Zanarkand. Shortly after arriving to Spira, Tidus becomes a guardian to summoner Yuna to destroy Sin upon learning its true identity is that of his missing father, Jecht.

Development of Final Fantasy X began in 1999, with a budget of more than US$32.3 million (US$million in dollars) and a team of more than 100 people. The game was the first in the main series not entirely scored by Nobuo Uematsu; Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano were signed as Uematsu's fellow composers. Final Fantasy X was both a critical and commercial success, shipping over 8.5 million units worldwide on PlayStation 2. It is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. It was followed by Final Fantasy X-2 in March 2003, making it the first Final Fantasy game to have a direct game sequel. As of September 2021, the Final Fantasy X series had sold over 20.8 million units worldwide, and at the end of March 2022 had surpassed 21.1 million.

Gameplay
Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X is presented in a third-person perspective, with players directly navigating the main character, Tidus, around the world to interact with objects and people. Unlike previous games, however, the world and town maps have been fully integrated, with terrain outside of cities rendered to scale. As Tidus explores the world, he randomly encounters enemies. When an enemy is encountered, the environment switches to a turn-based battle area where characters and enemies await their turn to attack.

The gameplay of Final Fantasy X differs from that of previous Final Fantasy games in its lack of a top-down perspective world map. Earlier games featured a miniature representation of the expansive areas between towns and other distinct locations, used for long-distance traveling. In the game, almost all the locations are essentially continuous and never fade out to a world map. Regional connections are mostly linear, forming a single path through the game's locations, though an airship becomes available late in the game, giving the player the ability to navigate Spira faster. Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X features numerous minigames, including the underwater sport blitzball.

Combat

Final Fantasy X introduces the Conditional Turn-Based Battle (CTB) system in place of the series' traditional Active Time Battle (ATB) system first used in Final Fantasy IV. Whereas the ATB concept features real-time elements, the CTB system is a turn-based format that pauses the battle during each of the player's turns. Thus, the CTB design allows the player to select an action without time pressure. A graphical timeline along the upper-right side of the screen details who will be receiving turns next, and how various actions taken will affect the subsequent order of turns. The ordering of turns can be affected by a number of spells, items, and abilities that inflict status effects upon the controlled characters or the enemies. The player can control up to three characters in battle, though a swapping system allows the player to replace them with a character outside the active party at any time. "Limit Breaks", highly damaging special attacks, reappear in Final Fantasy X as "Overdrives". In this incarnation of the feature, most of the techniques are interactive, requiring button inputs to increase their effectiveness. While initially the Overdrives can be used when the character receives a significant amount of damage, the player is able to modify the requirements to unlock them.

Final Fantasy X overhauled the summoning system employed in previous games of the series. Whereas in previous titles a summoned creature would arrive, perform one action, and then depart, the "Aeons" in X arrive and replace the battle party, fighting in their place until either the aeon wins the battle, is defeated itself, or is dismissed by the player. Aeons have their own statistics, commands, special attacks, spells, and Overdrives. The player acquires five aeons over the course of the game through the completion of Cloister of Trials puzzles; three additional aeons can be obtained by completing various side-quests.

Sphere Grid
As with previous titles in the series, players can develop and improve their characters by defeating enemies and acquiring items, though the traditional experience point system is replaced by a new system called the "Sphere Grid". Instead of characters gaining pre-determined statistic bonuses for their attributes after leveling up, each character gains "Sphere Levels" after collecting enough Ability Points (AP). Sphere Levels allow players to move around the Sphere Grid, a pre-determined grid of interconnected nodes consisting of various statistic and ability bonuses. "Spheres" are applied to these nodes, unlocking its function for the selected character.

The Sphere Grid system allows players to fully customize characters in contrast to their intended battle roles, such as turning the White Mage-roled Yuna into a physical powerhouse and the swordsman Auron into a healer. The International and PAL versions of the game include an optional "Expert" version of the Sphere Grid; in these versions, all of the characters start in the middle of the grid and may follow whichever path the player chooses. As a trade-off, the Expert grid has fewer nodes in total, thus decreasing the total statistic upgrades available during the game.

Blitzball
Blitzball is a minigame that requires strategy and tactics. The underwater sport is played in a large, hovering sphere of water surrounded by a larger audience of onlookers. The player controls one character at a time as they swim through the sphere performing passes, tackles, and attempts to score. The gameplay is similar to that of the main game in the way that the controlled character moves through the area until they encounter an enemy. In this case, the enemy is a member of the opposing team. Status effects are also implemented in the minigame as each player can learn techniques that are equivalent to abilities in the main game.

Blitzball is introduced in the beginning of the game during one of the early cinematic sequences in which Tidus, the main character who is described as a star blitzball player, is part of an intense game. It is the only minigame that plays a role in the overall plot line as it is a main part of Tidus's character, and is in the first scene where the game's main antagonist, Sin is shown. Unlike with the other minigames, playing blitzball is mandatory near the beginning of the game, but it is later optional.

Setting and characters
Final Fantasy X is set in the fictional world of Spira, consisting of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands. It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands, to the temperate Mi'ihen region, to the frigid Macalania and Mt. Gagazet areas. Spira is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names.

Spira features a variety of races, though predominantly populated by humans. Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive green eyes and unique language. The Guado, which are less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other arboreal features. Still less human are the lion-like Ronso and the frog-like Hypello. A subset of Spira's sentient races are the "unsent", the strong-willed spirits of the dead that remain in corporeal form. In Spira, the dead who are not sent to the Farplane by a summoner come to envy the living and transform into "fiends", the monsters that are encountered throughout the game; however, unsent with strong attachments to the world of the living may retain their human form. Other fauna in Spira, aside from those drawn from real animals, such as cats, dogs, birds, and butterflies, include the gigantic, amphibious shoopufs (which are similar to elephants); and the emu-like chocobo, which appears in most Final Fantasy games.

There are seven main playable characters in Final Fantasy X, starting with Tidus (James Arnold Taylor/Masakazu Morita), a cheerful young teenager and a star blitzball player from Zanarkand, who seeks a way home after an encounter with Sin transported him to Spira. To do so, he joins Yuna (Hedy Burress/Mayuko Aoki), a summoner on a journey to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat the enormous whale-like "Sin". Journeying with them are: Kimahri Ronso (John DiMaggio/Katsumi Chō), a young warrior of the Ronso tribe who watched over Yuna during her childhood; Wakka (also DiMaggio/Kazuya Nakai), a blitzball player whose younger brother was killed by Sin; and Lulu (Paula Tiso/Rio Natsuki), a stoic black mage close to Yuna and Wakka. During the journey, they are joined by Auron (Matt McKenzie/Hideo Ishikawa), a former warrior monk, who worked with both Tidus' and Yuna's fathers to defeat Sin 10 years prior; and Rikku (Tara Strong/Marika Matsumoto), Yuna's cousin, a perky Al Bhed girl and the first friendly person Tidus meets upon arriving in Spira.

Story
Tidus waits with his allies outside the ruins of an ancient city. He narrates the events that led to the present, spanning most of the game's storyline. It begins in his home city, the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand, where he is a renowned blitzball player and son of the famous blitzball star Jecht, an abusive father who disappeared 10 years prior. During a blitzball tournament, the city is attacked by an immense creature that Auron, a man not originally from Zanarkand, calls "Sin". Sin destroys Zanarkand and takes Tidus and Auron to the world of Spira. Upon arriving in Spira, Tidus is rescued by Al Bhed salvagers, with the young Rikku explaining that Sin destroyed Zanarkand 1,000 years ago. After Sin attacks again, Tidus is separated from the divers and drifts to the tropical island of Besaid, where he meets Wakka, captain of the local blitzball team. Wakka introduces Tidus to Yuna, a young summoner about to go on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin with her guardians Lulu, a mage of black magic, and Kimahri, a member of the Ronso tribe. The party travels across Spira to gather aeons, defending against attacks by Sin and its "offspring" called Sinspawn. Tidus meets Auron again, who convinces Tidus to become Yuna's guardian upon revealing that Jecht is Sin's true identity. Ten years ago, Auron and Jecht bodyguarded Yuna's late father Braska to defeat Sin but Jecht became a new Sin. As Yuna's party continues their pilgrimage, Tidus reunites with Rikku, who the party learns is Yuna's cousin.

When the party arrives in the city of Guadosalam, the leader of the Guado and major clergy member Seymour Guado, proposes to Yuna, saying that it will ease Spira's sorrow. At Macalania Temple, the group discovers a message from the spirit of Seymour's father, Lord Jyscal; he declares that he was killed by his own son, who now aims to destroy Spira. The group reunites with Yuna and kills Seymour in battle; soon afterward, Sin attacks, separating Yuna and sending the others to the arid Bikanel Island. While searching for Yuna at the island's Al Bhed settlement, Tidus has an emotional breakdown when he learns that summoners die after summoning the Final Aeon, leading to his desire to find a way to defeat Sin while keeping Yuna alive. The group finds Yuna in Bevelle, the center of the clergy’s power, where she is being forced to marry the unsent Seymour. They crash the wedding, after which Seymour reveals his plan to become Sin with Yuna's help. The party defeats him a second time and escapes with Yuna. The group heads toward the ruins of Zanarkand, seen in the introduction of the game.

Shortly before arriving, Tidus learns that he, Jecht, and the Zanarkand they hail from are summoned entities akin to aeons based on the original Zanarkand and its people. Long ago, the original Zanarkand battled Bevelle in a machina war, in which the former was defeated. Zanarkand's survivors became "fayth" so that they could use their memories of Zanarkand to create a new city in their image, removed from the reality of Spira. Once they reach Zanarkand, Yunalesca—the first summoner to defeat Sin and unsent ever since —tells the group that the Final Aeon is created from the fayth of one close to the summoner. After defeating Sin, the Final Aeon kills the summoner and transforms into a new Sin, which has caused its cycle of rebirth to continue. The group decides against using the Final Aeon, due to the futile sacrifices it carries and the fact that Sin would still be reborn. Yunalesca tries to kill Tidus' group, but she is defeated and vanishes, ending hope of ever attaining the Final Aeon.

After the fight, the group learns that Yu Yevon — the deity of the Yevon religion who was a summoner from Zanarkand before losing his humanity and mind — is behind Sin's cycle of rebirth. This leads the group to infiltrate Sin's body in order to find Yu Yevon. Inside Sin, the party finds the unsent Seymour, who had been absorbed by Sin and intends to control it from within. Yuna defeats him for the final time before sending him to the Farplane. Shortly after, the group reaches the core of Sin and finds Jecht's imprisoned spirit. Tidus and Jecht come to terms with the latter's abuse. Jecht transforms into his Final Aeon form, asking the party to defeat him and end the cycle; they do so. With Sin's host defeated, Yuna summons and the group defeats each aeon after Yu Yevon possesses each one until finally they vanquish Yu Yevon himself.

Sin's cycle of rebirth ends when Yuna sends Sin and the Aeons to the farplane, and the spirits of Spira's fayth are freed from their imprisonment. Auron, who had been revealed to be unsent, is sent to the Farplane. Dream Zanarkand and Tidus disappear, now that the freed fayth stopped the summoning. Afterward, in a speech to the citizens of Spira, Yuna resolves to help rebuild their world now that it is free of Sin. In a post-credits scene, Tidus awakens under water and swims towards the ocean surface.

Development
Final Fantasy X's development began in 1999, costing approximately ¥4 billion (approximately US$32.3 million, or US$million in dollars) with a crew of over 100 people, most of whom worked on previous games in the series. Executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi has stated that although he had concerns about the transition from 2D to 3D backgrounds, the voice acting, and the transition to real-time story-telling, the success of the Final Fantasy series can be attributed to constantly challenging the development team to try new things. Producer Yoshinori Kitase was also the chief director of Final Fantasy X, while the direction of events, maps and battles was split up between Motomu Toriyama, Takayoshi Nakazato and Toshiro Tsuchida, respectively. The development of the script for the game took three to four months, with the same amount of time dedicated to the voice recording afterwards. Tetsuya Nomura and Kazushige Nojima collaborated with Daisuke Watanabe, Toriyama and Kitase on writing the scenario for Final Fantasy X. Nojima was particularly concerned with establishing a connection in the relationship between player and main character. Thus, he penned the story such that the player's progress through the world and growing knowledge about it is reflected in Tidus' own understanding and narration.

According to the Square Enix companion book Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume III, 17 SEVEN TEEN was a temporary title early in Final Fantasy X's production. 17 SEVEN TEEN's story differed from the final version: the protagonist, who looked similar to Tidus, traveled the world seeking a cure for a pandemic that killed people when they reached the age of seventeen. This inevitable death motif was later carried over to Yuna's fate as a summoner.

Influences

Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has identified the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan as major influences on the cultural and geographic design of Spira, particularly concerning the geographic location of the southern Besaid and Kilika islands. He has also said that Spira deviates from the worlds of past Final Fantasy games in the level of detail incorporated, something he has expressed to have made a conscious effort to maintain during the design process. Kitase felt that if the setting went back to a medieval European fantasy, it would not seem to help the development team advance. While he was thinking of different world environments, Nojima suggested a fantasy world that incorporated Asian elements.

Sub-character chief designer Fumi Nakashima's focus was to ensure that characters from different regions and cultures bore distinctive characteristics in their clothing styles, so that they could be quickly and easily identified as members of their respective sub-groups. For example, she has said that the masks and goggles of the Al Bhed give the group a "strange and eccentric" appearance, while the attire of the Ronso lend to them being able to easily engage in battle. Tidus was originally envisioned to be a plumber as to connect to the underwater elements used in the game, according to Nojima, but they later made him into a blitzball athlete, helping to distinguish his character from prior Final Fantasy protagonists; Tidus' final outfit still incorporated elements of the original plumber outfit they had designed for him.

Tidus' relationship with his father Jecht was based on "stories throughout the ages, such as the ancient Greek legends". This would eventually reveal the key of Sin's weakness and eventual defeat. Auron was intended to be silent throughout the game but became a voiced character as they developed out the Guardian storyline between Tidus and Yuna. Although Final Fantasy X was originally centered on the relationship between Tidus and Yuna, the addition of Jecht's character and his feud with his son was added later in the making of the game to provide more focus on how the father and son produce a bigger impact in Spira's history rather than the romantic couple. Kitase found the story between Tidus and Jecht to be more moving than the story between Tidus and Yuna.

Design
Final Fantasy X features innovations in the rendering of characters' facial expressions, achieved through motion capture and skeletal animation technology. This technology allowed animators to create realistic lip movements, which were then programmed to match the speech of the game's voice actors.

The cutscene of Tidus and Yuna kissing was developed by Visual Works, a subsidiary of Square Enix. Many of the animators were not experienced with romance scenes - Visual Works director Kazuyuki Ikumori said that the animators sought feedback from younger staff at Square Enix, as well as female members of staff. The scene was remade multiple times after receiving responses that earlier drafts were "unnatural" and "not believable".

Nojima has revealed that the inclusion of voice acting enabled him to express emotion more powerfully than before, and he was therefore able to keep the storyline simple. He also said that the presence of voice actors led him to make various changes to the script, in order to match the voice actors' personalities with the characters they were portraying. The inclusion of voice, however, led to difficulties. With the game's cutscenes already programmed around the Japanese voice work, the English localization team faced the difficulty of establishing English-oriented dialogue and the obstacle of incorporating this modified wording with the rhythm and timing of the characters' lip movements. Localization specialist Alexander O. Smith noted that they had to keep the localized sound file within the duration of the original Japanese, as longer files would cause the game to crash. He described the process of fitting natural-sounding English speech into the game as "something akin to writing four or five movies' worth of dialogue entirely in haiku form [and] of course the actors had to act, and act well, within those restraints".

The game was initially going to feature online elements, offered through Square's PlayOnline service. The features were dropped during production, and online gaming would not become part of the series until Final Fantasy XI. Map director Nakazato wanted to implement a world map concept with a more realistic approach than that of the traditional Final Fantasy game, in line with the realism of the game's 3D backgrounds, as opposed to pre-rendered backgrounds. Battle art director Shintaro Takai has explained that it was his intention that battles in Final Fantasy X come across as a natural part of the story and not an independent element. Features would have included wandering enemies visible on the field map, seamless transitions into battles, and the option for players to move around the landscape during enemy encounters. However, hardware limitations resulted in these ideas not being used. Instead, a compromise was made, whereby some transitions from the field map to the battle map were made relatively seamless with the implementation of a motion blur effect that would happen at the end of an event scene. The desire for seamless transitions also led to the implementation of the new summoning system seen in the game.

As a player of the games in the Final Fantasy series, battle director Tsuchida wanted to recreate elements he found interesting or entertaining, which eventually led to the removal of the Active Time Battle system, and instead, incorporated the strategy-focused Conditional Turn-Based Battle system. Kitase has explained that the purpose behind the Sphere Grid is to give players an interactive means of increasing their characters' attributes, such that they will be able to observe the development of those attributes firsthand. At the time of the game's development, Nojiima had been reading about cryptography, and thus created the means to decode the Al Bhed language within the game, albeit simpler than initially planned.

Music
Final Fantasy X marks the first time regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu has had any assistance in composing the score for a game in the main series. His fellow composers for X were Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano. They were chosen for the soundtrack based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style while still being able to work together. PlayOnline.com first revealed that the game's theme song was completed in November 2000. As Square still had not revealed who would sing the song, GameSpot personally asked Uematsu, who jokingly answered that it was going to be Rod Stewart.

The game features three songs with vocalized elements, including the J-pop ballad "Suteki da ne", which translates to "Isn't it Wonderful?". The lyrics were written by Kazushige Nojima, and the music was written by Uematsu. The song is performed by Japanese folk singer Rikki, whom the music team contacted while searching for a singer whose music reflected an Okinawan atmosphere. "Suteki da ne" is also sung in Japanese in the English version of Final Fantasy X. Like "Eyes on Me" from VIII and "Melodies of Life" from IX, an orchestrated version of "Suteki da ne" is used as part of the ending theme. The other songs with lyrics are the heavy metal opening theme, "Otherworld", sung in English by Bill Muir; and "Hymn of the Fayth", a recurring piece sung using Japanese syllabary.

The original soundtrack spanned 91 tracks on four discs. It was first released in Japan on August 1, 2001, by DigiCube, and was re-released on May 10, 2004, by Square Enix. In 2002, Tokyopop released a version of Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack in North America entitled Final Fantasy X Official Soundtrack, which contained 17 tracks from the original album on a single disc. Other related CDs include feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus which, released in Japan by DigiCube on October 11, 2001, featured tracks based on Tidus' and Yuna's characters. Piano Collections Final Fantasy X, another collection of music from the game, and Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection, a compilations of exclusive character dialogues and songs were both released in Japan in 2002.

The Black Mages, a band led by Nobuo Uematsu that arranges music from Final Fantasy video games into a rock music style, have arranged three pieces from Final Fantasy X. These are "Fight With Seymour" from their self-titled album, published in 2003, and "Otherworld" and "The Skies Above", both of which can be found on the album The Skies Above, published in 2004. Uematsu continues to perform certain pieces in his Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy concert series. The music of Final Fantasy X has also appeared in various official concerts and live albums, such as 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy, a live recording of an orchestra performing music from the series including several pieces from the game. An odd note is that the unreleased/promo CD-R (Instrumental) version of Madonna's "What It Feels Like For A Girl" done by Tracy Young was used in the blitzball sequences. Additionally, "Swing de Chocobo" was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for the Distant Worlds – Music from Final Fantasy concert tour, while "Zanarkand" was performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in the Tour de Japon: Music from Final Fantasy concert series. Independent but officially licensed releases of Final Fantasy X music have been composed by such groups as Project Majestic Mix, which focuses on arranging video game music. Selections also appear on Japanese remix albums, called dojin music, and on English remixing websites.

Versions and merchandise

The Japanese version of Final Fantasy X included an additional disc entitled "The Other Side of Final Fantasy", which featured interviews, storyboards, and trailers for Blue Wing Blitz, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, as well as the first footage of Final Fantasy XI Online. An international version of the game was released in Japan as Final Fantasy X International in January 2002, and in PAL regions under its original title. It features content not available in the original NTSC releases, including battles with "Dark" versions of the game's aeons and an airship fight with the superboss "Penance". Final Fantasy X was released as Greatest Hits in North America in September 2003. The Japanese release of Final Fantasy X International also includes "Eternal Calm", a 14-minute video clip bridging the story of Final Fantasy X with that of its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2. The video clip was included in a bonus DVD for Unlimited Saga Collector's Edition under the name Eternal Calm, Final Fantasy X-2: Prologue. It was first released in Europe on October 31, 2003, and featured English voice-overs.

The international and PAL versions include a bonus DVD called Beyond Final Fantasy, a disc including interviews with the game's developers, and two of the game's English voice actors, James Arnold Taylor (Tidus) and Hedy Burress (Yuna). Also included are trailers for Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, a concept and promotional art gallery for the game, and a music video of "Suteki da ne" performed by Rikki. In 2005, a compilation featuring Final Fantasy X and X-2 was released in Japan as Final Fantasy X/X-2 Ultimate Box.

Square also produced various types of merchandise and several books, including The Art of Final Fantasy X and three Ultimania guides, a series of artbooks/strategy guides published by DigiCube in Japan. They feature original artwork from Final Fantasy X, offer gameplay walkthroughs, expand upon many aspects of the game's storyline and feature several interviews with the game's designers. There are three books in the series: Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania, Final Fantasy X Battle Ultimania, and Final Fantasy X Ultimania Ω. The game was re-released as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box release in December 2012.

HD Remaster
Final Fantasy X was re-released in high-definition for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, in celebration of the game's 10-year anniversary. The remaster was released in December 2013 for Japan, and the following year in March for other markets. The production of the remaster started in January 2012. Producer Yoshinori Kitase was once again involved in the production, and wanted to work on its quality. Character models of Tidus, Yuna, Bahamut and Yojimbo were presented in HD quality. The remaster also included its sequel X-2, remastered in HD and they were released under the title Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on a single Blu-ray disc game. It was sold separately on game cartridges on Vita in Japan and sold together in North America, Europe and Australia as a set, with FFX being on a cartridge and FFX-2 being included as a download voucher. Downloadable versions were available for both systems. The games contain all the content found in the International version, including Eternal Calm and Last Mission.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster was released for the PlayStation 4 worldwide in May 2015. It included enhanced graphics in full HD (1080p), the option to switch to the original soundtrack and the ability to transfer save files from the PS3 and PS Vita versions. One year later, it was released for Windows via Steam on May 16. It includes an auto-save feature, 5 game boosters, 3 parameter changes, the option to skip FMVs/cinematics, 4K resolution support, audio settings and graphic options. A version for the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One was released on April 16, 2019.

Reception
Final Fantasy X received critical acclaim from video game critics. The Japanese video game magazine Famitsu and Famitsu PS2 awarded the game a near-perfect 39/40 score. Another Japanese gaming magazine, The Play Station, gave the game a score of 29/30. Famitsu, Famitsu PS2, and The Play Station expressed particularly favorable responses toward the game's storyline, graphics, and movies. The game maintains a 92 out of 100 on Metacritic. Producer Shinji Hashimoto said that the overall reception to the game was "excellent", having received praise and awards from critics.

IGN's David Smith offered praise for the voice actors and the innovations in gameplay, particularly with the revised battle and summon systems, the option to change party members during battle, and the character development and inventory management systems. He also felt that the game's graphics had improved on its predecessors in every way possible, and that the game as a whole was "the best-looking game of the series [and] arguably the best-playing as well". Greg Kasavin of GameSpot praised the game's storyline, calling it surprisingly complex, its ending satisfying, and its avoidance of role-playing game clichés commendable with Tidus viewed as an appealing protagonist. He also lauded the music, feeling it was "diverse and well suited to the various scenes in the game". Similarly, GamePro described its character building system and battle system as "two of the best innovations in the series". The visuals of the game were commended by GameSpy's Raymond Padilla, who referred to them as "top-notch", as well as giving praise to the character models, backgrounds, cutscenes, and animations. The voice casting was praised by Game Revolution who noted most of them were "above average" and called the music "rich".

Edge rated the game considerably lower, criticizing many aspects of the game for being tedious and uninnovative and describing the dialogue as "nauseating", particularly panning Tidus. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer criticized the game's linearity and that players were no longer able to travel the world by chocobo or control the airship. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell noted that the game's puzzle segments were "depressing" and "superfluous", and that although the Sphere Grid was "a nice touch", it took up too much of the game. The linearity of the game was positively commented on by GamePro who stated that a player would not be required to participate in side-quests or the mini-game to reach the game's conclusion, finding some of them unappealing. Game Revolution complained that cutscenes could not be skipped, some even being too long.

Sales
Square initially expected the game to sell at least two million copies worldwide owing to the reduced PlayStation 2's fanbase, making it smaller than the last three released titles. However, within its first day of its release in Japan, more than 2.14 million units were shipped, including 1.4 to 1.5 million pre-orders. A million units were sold within hours, and first-day shipments were expected to generate ¥17.6 billion or US$,000,000 2001 in sales revenue. These figures exceeded the performances of Final Fantasy VII and IX in a comparable period, and Final Fantasy X became the first PlayStation 2 game to reach two and four million sold copies. In October 2007, the game was listed as the 8th best-selling game for the PlayStation 2. Final Fantasy X sold over 2.43 million copies in Japan alone in 2001.

By June 2002, it had sold 5.07 million units worldwide, including 2.76 million in the Asia-Pacific region, 1.47 million in North America, and 840,000 in Europe. By March 2003, the game had sold 5.89 million units worldwide, including 2.87 million in Japan and 3.02 million abroad. It sold 6.6 million copies worldwide by January 2004. By July 2006, it had sold 2.3 million copies and earned $95 million in the United States (US$million in ). Next Generation ranked it as the 11th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. As of March 2013, the game had shipped over 8.5 million copies worldwide on PS2. As of 2017, the PS2 version of the game has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

The "Ultimate Hits" bargain reissue of the game in September 2005 sold over 131,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006. As of October 2013, Final Fantasy X and its sequel X-2 had together sold over 14 million copies worldwide on PlayStation 2.

Awards
Final Fantasy X received the Best Game Award from the Japan Game Awards for 2001–02. In GameSpot 's "Best and Worst Awards" from 2001, it came seventh in the category "Top 10 Video Games of the Year", and won the "Best Story" and "Best Role-Playing Game" awards. The game also received a PlayStation 2 Game of the Year award nomination at the 2002 Golden Joystick Awards, but lost to Grand Theft Auto III. Readers of Famitsu magazine voted it the best game of all time in early 2006. Final Fantasy X came in fifth on IGN 's "Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time" list in 2007 and sixth in "The Top 10 Best Looking PS2 Games of All Time". In a similar list by GameSpy, the game took the 21st place. 1UP.com listed its revelation during the ending as the third-biggest video game spoiler, while IGN ranked the ending as the fifth best pre-rendered cutscene. In a Reader's Choice made in 2006 by IGN, it ranked as the 60th-best video game. It was also named one of the 20 essential Japanese role-playing games by Gamasutra. It also placed 43rd in Game Informer's list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time". In 2004, Final Fantasy X was listed as one of the best games ever made by GameFAQs, while in November 2005 it was voted as the 12th "Best Game Ever". In a general overview of the series, both GamesRadar and IGN listed Final Fantasy X as the fourth best game. At the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2003, it was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" and "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year". Readers from GameFaqs also voted it as Game of the Year during 2001. In 2008, readers of Dengeki magazine voted it the second best game ever made. It was voted first place in Famitsus and Dengekis polls of most tear-inducing games of all time. Both Tidus and Yuna have been popular characters in games in general due to their personalities and their romantic relationship.

Legacy
Due to its commercial and critical success, Square Enix released a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X in 2003, titled Final Fantasy X-2. The sequel is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy X, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. Although the sequel did not sell as well as the original, 5.4 million units versus over 8 million units, it can still be considered a commercial success. As a result of the title's popularity, Yoshinori Kitase and Kazushige Nojima decided to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII, another well-received Final Fantasy game. In 2013, after the release of the HD Remaster, Nojima said that he would like to see a second sequel to X, and if there were demand for it, it could happen. The minigame of blitzball has made it into other games, such as its sequel, and was mentioned as a possibility for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

The advancements in portraying realistic emotions achieved with Final Fantasy X through voice-overs and detailed facial expressions have since become a staple of the series, with X-2 and other subsequent titles (such as Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XII, XIII and its sequels, and XV) also featuring this development. Traversing real-time 3D environments instead of an overworld map has also become a standard of the series. Final Fantasy X can be considered a pioneer in 3-D RPG maps. The Sphere Grid system of FFX had an influence on the action role-playing game Path of Exile (2013), along with the Materia system of Final Fantasy VII.

According to Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, cosplays of the characters have been popular. Takeo Kujiraoka, director of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, regarded Final Fantasy X as his favorite game from the franchise based on its emotional impact on the players as well as the multiple amount of playable content that surpasses 100 hours. Kujiraoka noted that the staff received multiple requests by fans to include Tidus' and Yuna's Will look as an alternative design but Nomura said it was not possible as the company would first need to develop Final Fantasy X-3.

In addition, a kabuki stage adaptation of the game's story, Kinoshita Group presents New Kabuki Final Fantasy X, a collaboration between Square Enix and Tokyo Broadcasting System, was performed at the IHI Stage Around Tokyo from March 4 to April 12, 2023 with a cast including Kikunosuke Onoe as Tidus and Yonekichi Nakamura as Yuna.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Final Fantasy X


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Final Fantasy Chronicles

Final Fantasy Chronicles is a compilation of Square's role-playing video games Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Chrono Trigger (1995), released for the North American Sony PlayStation on July 2, 2001. TOSE ported both titles from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; each had been previously released as individual Japanese PlayStation ports in 1997 (Final Fantasy IV) and 1999 (Chrono Trigger). Several bonus features were added to each game, such as art galleries, bestiaries, and cutscenes—including computer-generated imagery full motion video used at the beginning of Final Fantasy IV and anime scenes used throughout Chrono Trigger.

Final Fantasy Chronicles was received well by players and critics, who praised the peripheral features and the fact that Square was offering RPG classics to a new generation of gamers. Conversely, reviewers sharply criticized "long and frequent loading" between areas and battles due to poor emulation. Enough copies of Chronicles were sold to warrant a second release as part of Sony's Greatest Hits in June 2003.

Gameplay
In Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, the player controls a set of characters, closely following the role-playing video game genre. The methods of viewing and controlling the characters are separated by three different "screens": the overworld, where the characters traverse to different locations; the field map, where the characters explore locations such as towns and dungeons; and the battle screen, where the characters fight with monsters or other enemies.

Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IV introduced the Active Time Battle, a system designed by Hiroyuki Ito. It centers around the player inputting orders for the characters in "real time" during battles. Each character is balanced through certain strengths and weaknesses; for instance, a strong magic user may have low defense, while a physical fighter may have low agility.

Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger's gameplay deviates from traditional role-playing games in that, rather than random encounters, most enemies are openly visible on field maps or lie in wait to ambush the party. Contact with enemies on a field map initiates a battle that occurs directly on the field map itself rather than on a separate battle screen. Chrono Trigger uses an updated form of the Active Time Battle introduced in Final Fantasy IV, with additions such as "Techs" that rely on enemy positioning and abilities of characters. Other features are the employment of time travel and a "New Game Plus" option.

Development
Final Fantasy Chronicles features two previously released ports by TOSE; Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger were released separately, and IV was re-released as a part of Final Fantasy Collection, all published in Japan. Chronicles was designed and directed by Kazuhiko Aoki, supervised by Fumiaki Fukaya, and produced by Akihiro Imai. It was created as a follow-up to Final Fantasy Anthology, a compilation of Final Fantasy V and VI.

The original Final Fantasy IV was released in North America as Final Fantasy II in 1991, with various "Easytype" modifications. These were removed in the Final Fantasy Chronicles version, and the game was re-localized, achieving a script closer Takashi Tokita's original scenario. Chrono Trigger, released in 1995, was already localized by Ted Woolsey, but the Final Fantasy Chronicles version has additional modifications.

A primary addition to both games is full-motion video. Final Fantasy IV features computer animated cutscene sequences, while Chrono Trigger features anime-style sequences designed by Akira Toriyama and animated by Toei Animation that "help further tell the story of Chrono Trigger". Final Fantasy IV was given gameplay features such as a two-player mode, a "Sprint Feature" to "enhance and quicken gameplay", and the "Memo File" system to "reduce saving time". Chrono Trigger, instead of added gameplay features, has an "Extras Mode". This features databases such as a bestiary and a gallery of artwork created in development.

Promotion and merchandising
A compilation of Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger was in consideration in December 2000, with Final Fantasy Anthology's success a key decision factor. Final Fantasy Chronicles was announced by Square Electronic Arts in April 2001. President Jun Iwasaki mentioned an "overwhelming number" of requests to re-release Chrono Trigger, and believed the compilation of it and Final Fantasy IV would "appeal to fans of the original games and introduce a new generation of gamers to some of our classic titles". An event was held on July 10 in San Francisco, primarily to celebrate the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and release of Final Fantasy Chronicles. It featured a cosplay contest, a memorabilia raffle, and booths to play Final Fantasy Chronicles and Final Fantasy X.

Music from Final Fantasy Chronicles is a set of two separately released compact discs published by TokyoPop. Final Fantasy IV Official Soundtrack and Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack were both released on August 21, 2001. Final Fantasy IV Official Soundtrack is nearly the same release as Final Fantasy IV: Original Sound Version, the soundtrack album for the original game, except that the songs were rerecorded by TOSE, resulting in minor differences, some song titles were slightly changed, and a 45th track was added, "Theme of Love (Arranged)", which had previously only been released as a piano version on the second track of Piano Collections Final Fantasy IV. This release has the catalog number TPCD 0210–2, and its 45 tracks had a length of 62 minutes. Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack was the corresponding album for Chrono Trigger. The album was heavily based on Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack album for the PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger; the first 21 tracks of the album out of 25 were identical to Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack, while the next three tracks corresponded to tracks 22, 23, and 29 of the Original Soundtrack and the final track was the same as the first track of Brink of Time, an arranged album of Chrono Trigger music. The album is 1:13:03 long, and has a catalog number of TPCD 0209–2. In addition to the albums, a strategy guide for Final Fantasy Chronicles written by Dan Birlew and was published by BradyGames on July 2, 2001.

Reception
Final Fantasy Chronicles was commercially and critically successful, becoming the top selling PlayStation title for two weeks, and scoring an average of 89 out of 100 in Metacritic's aggregate, a review tallying website. Gaming website IGN rated it 9.4 and awarded an "Editor's Choice Award", calling the game a "must buy" for RPG fans. It was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best PlayStation Game" award, which went to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

GameSpot reviewer Brad Shoemaker gave the game an 8.5, but cited "muffled sound effects" in Final Fantasy IV, and was displeased with frequent loading in Chrono Trigger. He added that the visuals were "stupendous" when the games were originally released, but they now look dated and will "turn off those looking for a bigger thrill for their gaming dollar". Marcus Lai of Gaming Age was disappointed with a lack of additions, calling the ports "barebone games" and claiming that the full motion videos are "nice touches to both games but don't add much".

title: Final Fantasy Chronicles


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Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, released as Mystic Quest Legend in PAL regions and as Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest (ファイナルファンタジーUSA ミスティッククエスト) in Japan, is a role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released as a spin-off to Square's Final Fantasy series of video games. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was first released in North America in 1992 and marketed as a "simplified role-playing game... designed for the entry-level player" in an attempt to broaden the genre's appeal. The game's presentation and battle system is broadly similar to that of the main series, but differs in its inclusion of action-adventure game elements. It was also the first Final Fantasy game to be released in Europe.

The player controls a youth named Benjamin in his quest to save the world. His goal is to reclaim a set of stolen crystals that determine the state of the world's four elemental powers. The gameplay takes a departure from the main series in a variety of ways, eliminating many series staples such as random battles, save points, manual equipment, and the party system. The game received middling reviews and sales in North America and Japan, citing its simplified gameplay and lack of depth in the game's story. It has retained its reputation for being a "beginner's Final Fantasy" and has been praised for its music.

Exploration
Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is presented in a top-down perspective, with players directly navigating the main character around the world to interact with objects and people. The game features a unique way of traveling the world map. Unlike past Final Fantasy games, players cannot freely roam the world map. Instead, they travel along set paths from one "icon" (pictorial image on the world map) to the next. Some routes are blocked off (restriction is indicated by a gray arrow), but become accessible when the player succeeds in a specific task, such as completing a dungeon. Once its path is open, the player can enter an icon; the game's plot and action takes place within these icons, which include towns, dungeons, and battlefields. The game is characterized by featuring action-adventure game elements; besides jumping, players can use weapons outside of battle, which play an active role in exploration. Players can chop down trees with an axe, detonate bombs to open sealed doorways, or use a grappling hook to clear wide gaps. The game has more puzzles than earlier Final Fantasy games. In the Falls Basin, for example, players must move pillars of ice across the ground level in such a fashion that they can be used as platforms to jump across on the second level. Mystic Quest does away with save points; players can save their progress at any time during exploration.

Battle system
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest eliminates the system of random enemy encounters, a trademark of the main series. Instead, battles are represented in dungeons as stationary enemy sprites, and the player is given the option of approaching the enemy and engaging a battle. Once engaged in battle, the player is thrust into the battle screen, which presents a window-based menu with three commands to choose from: battle, run, or control. Running from battle transports the player back to the field screen, while choosing "control" toggles between the ally's battle mode, where the player can manually control the main character's ally or opt for a computer-controlled ally. If players choose to battle, they are presented with a submenu of four more options: physically attack the enemy, cast a spell, use a curative item (such as a Cure potion), or defend. The game's battle system relies on conditional turn-based combat, where the characters and enemies cycle through rounds in battling each other, with the first action of the turn awarded to the fastest character. Enemy sprites are always far larger than player sprites in battle, despite appearing further away from the game camera. Some animals attack by physically crushing the players.

Character health is represented by an incremental life bar, although the player may choose to have it displayed in numerical fractions as in most role-playing games. If all character life bars reach zero, the game is over, but the player is given the option of continuing and restarting the battle. If the player chooses this option, however, the main character's attack power may suffer temporarily as a penalty. A character's performance in battle is determined by numerical figures (called statistics) for vitality, attacking power, defensive capabilities, speed, magical prowess, accuracy, and evasion. Character statistics are driven by experience points (EXP) gained from winning battles, which accumulate until players achieve milestones known as "experience levels". Besides awarding experience points, battling enemies also earns the player gold pieces (GP), which can be used to buy weapons, armor, and curative items. In the absence of random enemy encounters, battlefields are scattered across the world map. Players are immediately thrust into a battle when entering a battlefield, and must win ten enemy battles to "clean out" the battlefield. Once a battlefield is cleaned out, players are awarded either a large amount of experience, a large amount of GP, a piece of armor, or a magic spell.

Customization
Unlike all other Final Fantasy games, players cannot manually equip characters with armor. Instead, newly acquired armor replaces the main character's current equipment, or upgrades a current version of a weapon, e.g. obtaining the knight sword will replace the steel sword. Using the L and R buttons allows the user to cycle through the weapons that have been collected so far. Benjamin uses four types of weapons: swords, axes, bombs, and claws. Although the weapons share a similar function in battle, all have different purposes when exploring the field map. The Dragon Claw, for example, doubles as a grappling hook. The weapon arsenal in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is considerably smaller than most role-playing games.

Magic in Mystic Quest is not learned by designated spellcasters through experience. Instead, the main character acquires magic spells through treasure chests or as a reward for clearing out battlefields. The system of spellcasting is similar to that of the original Final Fantasy; rather than using magic points to draw upon for supplying magic, spells are used according to a set number for their type, i.e., white magic, black magic, or wizard magic. The allotted number for each type increases as a character levels up. A spell's effectiveness is proportional to a character's experience level; the higher the character's level, the more powerful the Fire spell, for example. The spell catalog in Mystic Quest is limited compared to most other Final Fantasy games. Items in the game are analogous to the spells. Notably, the Heal spell and potion act as a cure-all for status ailments, eliminating the need for unique status recovery items. Similarly, the Cure spell and potion each restore 25% of player's maximum hit points regardless of level, so there is no need for a range of potion or spell strengths.

Setting
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest takes place on a single continent of an unnamed world, which is divided into four distinct regions: Foresta, Aquaria, Fireburg, and Windia. The welfare of each region is determined by the state of one of four shining crystals: earth, water, fire, and wind, respectively. For centuries the Focus Tower had stood at the heart of the world. It had been a center for trade and knowledge, and the world's people met there to peacefully settle their differences. But on one warm summer day, powerful monsters stormed the Tower, stole the four crystals, and took off with the magical coins that kept the Tower's doors unlocked. The monsters began consuming the power of the crystals; they grew in strength while the world began to decay. An old prophecy tells that at the time the "vile four" steal the power and divide the world behind four doors, a knight will appear to vanquish the darkness.

Story
The game opens with an adventurous youth named Benjamin climbing the Hill of Destiny. While exploring, his village is destroyed in an earthquake. As Benjamin is climbing the Hill, he meets a mysterious old man who charges Benjamin with fulfilling the knight's prophecy. Although initially in disbelief, Benjamin accepts the role and the Old Man shows him the Focus Tower, supposedly the center of the World. After defeating a monster at the top of the hill, Benjamin follows the Old Man to the Level Forest, where he is tasked with recovering the Crystal of Earth. Proceeding to Foresta, he meets with an axe-wielding girl named Kaeli, who agrees to help Benjamin if he can help her rid the Level Forest of monsters. Kaeli is ambushed and poisoned in the process, and her mother informs Benjamin of the Elixir and where it can be found. Benjamin's search for Elixir to heal Kaeli brings him to Bone Dungeon, where he's aided by a treasure hunter named Tristam in succeeding dual purposes: not only does Benjamin get Elixir from Tristam to heal Kaeli, but he defeats one of the four Vile Evils, Flamerous Rex, to free the Crystal of Earth and in turn restore life to the dying village of Foresta. Tristam leaves and Benjamin heals Kaeli.

Benjamin is told that Aquaria is in danger, and is in need of help. He is told by the Old Man and various others that he should see Spencer. He is told that a girl named Phoebe can help him as well. After proceeding through the first stage of the Focus Tower, and arriving in the province of Aquaria, Benjamin locates Phoebe, and learns that Spencer is trapped underground by thick ice floes. Phoebe needs the "wakewater", which is said to be able to help free Aquaria. Benjamin and Phoebe head to the Wintry Cave and defeat a monster to obtain the Libra Crest. Using this crest to enter Life Temple from the Libra Temple, they find that the source of the "wakewater" has dried up. Finding the Old Man in the back of the Life Temple, they find that he holds the only bag of wakewater, and to use it on the plant in the center of town. Back in Aquaria, they find that the wakewater does not work, and reviving the crystal is the only thing that will save the town and Spencer. They head off for the Ice Pyramid and defeat the second of the Vile Evils, the Ice Golem. The Water Crystal is saved, and Benjamin and Phoebe head back to Aquaria. They find the town is now like Foresta after the crystal is revived there and Spencer is back and digging his tunnel to save Kaeli's father Captain Mac. Upon leaving, Spencer hands the Venus Key to Benjamin, and tells him to head for Fireburg.

Benjamin arrives in the Focus Tower to find the Old Man again, who tells him to find Reuben, and disappears. Benjamin heads for Fireburg, and finds Reuben. Reuben joins when Benjamin promises to help free Reuben's dad, Arion. Upon finding Tristam in the Inn who gives Benjamin the Multi-Key, they find the coward who left Arion in the mine in a locked house. He teaches Benjamin how to throw the bombs and says that it will free Arion. Benjamin and Reuben then proceed to the Mine and free Arion. Arion tells some tales of how the Fire Crystal has gone berserk, and Reuben goes off with Benjamin to the Volcano to stop the Vile Evil from stealing the crystal's power. After defeating the Dualhead Hydra, Benjamin and Reuben find the Fire Crystal returning to power. They decide to head to Windia, and Reuben is ambushed by monsters and falls off the rope bridge. Tristam comes along and helps Benjamin cross the bridge, but they are stymied by a tree who won't talk to them. Tristam says that there is a gal in Foresta who can talk to tree spirits, and the two drop in on Aquaria where Kaeli was trying to find Spencer. Benjamin and Tristam go down into the tunnel and find Spencer, who tells Tristam of a great treasure. They leave, and Phoebe plants a bomb that collapses a tunnel Spencer was building. She leaves to tell Spencer what happened, and Benjamin takes Kaeli to the Alive Forest to talk to the dormant tree spirit. He tells them that he will take them to Windia if they kill the monsters dwelling within him. They do and he takes them to Windia.

Upon arriving in Windia, Benjamin and Kaeli find Otto, whose daughter Norma was caught in Pazuzu's Tower when the winds from nearby Mount Gale knocked out his Rainbow Road. The only way the road works is when there is no wind, so Benjamin and Kaeli proceed to Mount Gale and stop the wind by defeating a powerful monster at the top. After returning to Windia, Otto powers up the Rainbow Road and the two adventurers proceed to Pazuzu's Tower. After giving chase, they corner Pazuzu and defeat the fourth Vile Evil and restore the Wind Crystal. Norma is reunited with Otto, and Kaeli stays to take care of her. Reuben shows up and after a series of long events Captain Mac is rescued. Reuben falls down because of the injury sustained on the Rope Bridge, and Phoebe joins Benjamin instead.

The Old Man tells Benjamin an ominous addendum to the prophecy: "The one behind the four is darker than the night, and rises midst the land". It becomes known that the Dark King is the true source of evil. Benjamin thus sails to Doom Castle to confront the Dark King, who threatens to enslave Benjamin along with the rest of mankind. The Dark King claims that he wrote and spread the prophecy Benjamin had followed throughout his quest. Once the Dark King is defeated, the old man congratulates Benjamin and reveals that he is the Crystal of Light in the guise of a human. At the end of the game, Benjamin is seen still craving adventure, and he borrows the ship from Captain Mac as his friends gather to wish him off. While sailing, Tristam makes a surprise appearance.

Development
Although designed by one of Square's development teams in Japan, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was specifically geared for the U.S. market. At the time, console role-playing games were not a major genre in North America; Square thus attempted to broaden the genre's appeal through this title. Square had already released several Final Fantasy spin-offs in North America, including the first three titles in the SaGa series as Final Fantasy Legend, and the first Mana series game as Final Fantasy Adventure, and wished to further break into the popular American consciousness. Square's executives cited the alleged difficulty of role-playing games as the reason Americans shied away from them, and eased the difficulty level by tweaking various aspects of the main series' gameplay. The American release of Final Fantasy IV was altered to make the game simpler, for example. Mystic Quest was to take this one step further, and the Japanese developers worked with the American offices to make sure the game was accessible to children.

Mystic Quest was developed in a graphic and gameplay style similar to Final Fantasy Legend III (part of the aforementioned SaGa series). The gameplay shares numerous similarities with that title, featuring a very similar battle system, graphical interface, and dungeon system. Even the jump feature from Final Fantasy Legend III has been reproduced, and almost all of the icons - from caves to the enemy sprites - are a color-upgraded version of Final Fantasy Legend III's character set. Besides allowing for computer-controlled allies, the game did away with random battles, complicated storylines, and text-based menus. To appeal to the perceived tastes of North American audiences, which gravitated towards fast-paced games, Square included action-adventure game elements; players could now brandish weapons outside of battle, jump, use a grappling hook, and set bombs to open new paths. North American translator Ted Woolsey explained that "the action/adventure players... are larger in numbers and the demographic is different. They tend to be younger and like the idea of jumping straight into the action with a sword in their hands; it's an empowerment issue - you get to go out there, start whacking things and it feels good! With the more traditional RPGs, it takes a good 15 or 20 hours of playing before you're finally hooked". Woolsey said that Mystic Quest was one of the easiest games he had to translate, due to the game's small size. Because the game was marketed towards a younger demographic, the game sold for US$39.99.

Release
After its U.S. debut, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was released in Japan under the title Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest. The European release of the game was released in English, German and French, and had the title changed to Mystic Quest Legend to avoid confusion with Final Fantasy Adventure, which had been released in Europe as Mystic Quest. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was first unveiled in June at the 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, where it was a popular venue, and the game was later presented in more detail in the Fall 1992 issue of the Ogopogo Examiner.

Audio
The game's soundtrack was composed by Ryuji Sasai and Yasuhiro Kawakami. It was one of the first games bearing the Final Fantasy name not to be composed by series regular Nobuo Uematsu, after Final Fantasy Adventure (known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) and the Final Fantasy Legend trilogy (known in Japan as the Sa·Ga trilogy). The album was first released on one compact disc by NTT Publishing on September 10, 1993. ROM capacity limits and hardware limitations made the composition process difficult. After the game was completed, Sasai recorded two remixes on his days off for the game's album, and personally played the guitar parts. "Mountain Range of Whirlwinds" was built off of Sasai's liking of the sound of the french horn, and its ability to go the length of the song and convey a sense of mountains. The track "Last Castle" was written in a short time, and was used to create imagery of a field, but its length left very little space for the "Battle 3" song. '

Reception
According to Square's publicity department, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest sold a total of 800,000 units, with roughly half of these sold in Japan.

On its original North American release, it scored 16/20 in GamePro, 14.9/20 in the November 1992 issue of Nintendo Power, 29/40 in Electronic Gaming Monthly, and 86% in Electronic Games. The game did not generate much excitement in either America or Japan, although it is thought to have appealed to younger fans. The game ultimately failed in its bid to bring mainstream North American popularity to console RPGs (a feat that wouldn't be accomplished until Final Fantasy VII five years later), and simultaneously alienated fans of the series anticipating another epic following Final Fantasy IV. Electronic Games described the title as "Final Fantasy with an identity crisis" due to the inherent flaw of creating a game that didn't appeal to the masses or the hard-core gaming audience.

Reviews written in the years after its initial release remained largely negative. After the Wii Virtual Console release, Kotaku dubbed it "The Worst Final Fantasy" in the title of the review, and GamesRadar called it a "franchise embarrassment" for its enemies that stand still and wait for players to attack. IGN rated the Wii Virtual Console release a 6.0, or "Okay", citing an extremely repetitive and simple battle system, and very little character development. 1UP.com rated the game a "Not Worth It!", calling it "handholding" and "insubstantial".

It was, however, praised for its music, including 1UP.com praising its "sweet sampled metal guitar licks", and listed the final boss battle music as one of the must download songs for the Final Fantasy music game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. It was also praised by GamesRadar for its music, mentioning the boss battle in their "Game Music of the Day" column, and also mentioning the rest of the game music as smooth and easy listening. On April 1, 2006, GameSpot included Mystic Quest in an April's Fools list entitled "Top 10 Final Fantasy Games", which mostly consisted of spin-offs from the main series and unrelated games. Mystic Quest was "praised" for being easy and having simplistic graphics and plot. In October 2010, the game was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console. Famitsu has also reported that Square was preparing the game for release on the Android mobile platform in 2012. In 2018, Complex ranked the game 66th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". They liked the game being a simple more laid back Final Fantasy game and also liked the game music.

The main character Benjamin and several songs have appeared in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.

title: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest