Balancing act

Still trucking through Final Fantasy X.

With each post on my progress through this game, I have been taking notes, in the name of assessing the difference between game time and story time. At time of writing I have defeated Yunalesca. This is significant as this boss marks the point where the game opens up: From here, the player has access to the airship and can revisit previous locations in the game. From here, it's just one step away from the final dungeon and a real opportunity for the player to do anything, from sidequests to exploring.

You know, like a significantly non-linear game.

And just how long did it take for me to get there? 32 hours. A reasonable amount you may think but 13 of those hours was spent grinding playing the game the way I wanted to. This means that I had to spend 19 hours going along with the demands of the narrative.

Whether I liked it or not.

This playthrough of Final Fantasy X is one borne through playing some of the other titles in this series. And by playing I, IV, V, VI, VII and IX, I got the sense that I had a lot more freedom: I could go anywhere I wanted to and the game didn't resent me for it. True X may have been my first but it can't really use that excuse when compared to it's brethren. Makes me wonder: is the linear nature of the game the reason why many Final Fantasy fans hate X?

Still, having the game opened up before me, presents an opportunity to readdress the balance.
And having the control being taken from me so many times, six hours (minimum) of messing around in Spira looks good to me.