I am a massive Final Fantasy Fan. I am currently on my third play through of FF VII, playing on PC this run, and I am on my second play through of FF VIII on Switch through the remaster. I am at the third to final boss on my first run in FF X. As a JRPG lover, I was surprised at the quality of this game. I have only heard praise about FF X, and I was excited to play it. Throughout the entire game, I never enjoyed the story or the characters. I though Auron was cool and Lulu was overpowered, but I hated all of the characters personalities.
Every Final Fantasy since 7 (To my knowledge) has had a specific system that sets it beyond the rest. For 7 it was Materia. For 8 it was Junctions, Triple Triad, and crafting. For 10, it is the weapon ability system and the Sphere Grid. I can't even remember the name for it, but when you get a weapon with available upgrade slots, you can attach abilities to it such as Deathtouch, Strength +3, Magic +3, MP +5%, Poisontouch, etc. You can do the same with armor pieces, except they have defensive abilities instead of attack abilities. This system can completely make you stuck without any way to fix your problems. If your weapon gets an ability, and the enemy is immune to that ability, your character is useless.
The Sphere Grid system isn't without its problems either. It gives you opportunities to stray from the basic path given for each character, but reprimands you for doing so. You grind for stats you will never use and waste time trying to get back on track. For instance (This actually happened to me): I want Tidus (Tai-Dus) to learn Demi, and since Lulu just learned it I can now use a special sphere to transport Tidus there. The problem is that I can't bring him back using another sphere because they are rare. I have to now grind my way back to my original spot and spend hours getting magic and magic stats I don't want and wasting time on it. A few hours of grinding later, I finally get back there, and I still don't have what I need for my character, so I need to grind more to upgrade his normal stats. After more hours of grinding, I can finally continue, only to be squashed by the next boss because he doesn't obey the rules of turn based gameplay (Takes too many moves per turn, or uses abilities on my turns also).
The only decent part in my mind about X is Blitz Ball. Blitz Ball is soccer while swimming. There is a net to hit into, you can pass to your teammates, you can dribble. The problem is that there are RPG mechanics to it, so you have to seriously prepare every single time an enemy (Enemy team, there are no monsters to fight here) stands in your way. This gets annoying really fast, so it's a good thing we don't have to play it besides for one game. Read the rules of Blitz Ball here (https://primagames.com/tips/final-fantasy-x-how-play-blitzball)
Final Fantasy VIII was controversial because of the Junction system (Speaking of Final Fantasy VIII, go check my review for it here). You basically had to take magic away from enemies and apply it to your stats to break the infinite loop of enemy auto-leveling. People either hated or loved it, but you had to accept it because you would use it throughout the entirety of the game.
This game punishes you for leveling, and I appreciate that. It takes 1000 XP to level up every time, and every time you level up the enemies you face also level up (Including bosses). If you think about it, you could never guarantee a win in a fight. When you draw magic out of an enemy, you get 1 of that magic from them and into your magic inventory. Different enemies have different magic and you can hold up to 99 of each type of magic at a time. You can junction magic to different stats (Strength, Magic, Vitality, etc). By level 25, you can get to 9999 health for your character (The iconic max health stat of the series, apart from X).
Final Fantasy VIII was groundbreaking as an RPG to me. I never thought I would see such an intricate system in a video game that makes me want to get all of the magic possible. Final Fantasy X just made me want to beat the game so I don't have to continue playing it.
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