History YMMV / FinalFantasyX

** The first half of the game isn't too bad, but the game takes a sudden jump up when you hit Macalania Woods, and the second half and doesn't let up until you get the airship.

** Encountering the dark aeons in the International version. Even with all the {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s, you need the right armor and a ''lot'' of Sphere LevelGrinding (or Yojimbo and a hell of a lot of gil) to even stand a chance against the weakest one. As a [[SarcasmMode bonus]], that weakest one (Dark Valefor) is blocking the path to Besaid, so if you missed anything valuable there the first time (solving the Sphere of Destruction puzzle, or Valefor's second Overdrive), well, good luck. (There's also a Jecht Sphere there, unfortunately for players completing Auron's Overdrives.) And God help you if you missed [[spoiler:the Sun Crest in the place where you fight Yunalesca]] on Zanarkand, as you'll be dealing with Dark Bahamut if you try to return there. And even if you've been knocking down dark aeons left and right, Penance is a completely different fight even with all character stats maxed out. Whittling down all of its 12 million HP (for comparison, the story's FinalBoss by this point can be taken out with less than three hits), as well as contending with its regenerating, independently-acting arms to throw every conceivable debuff your way, will take at least half an hour and lots of strategizing to avoid being completely wiped out.

** The culmination of the pilgrimage has you fighting against [[spoiler:Lady Yunalesca, who the party rejects for her "false hope" and belief that the cycle can never end]]. Not only is it a pivotal scene in the game, the boss undergoes a OneWingedAngel not once but twice, and it's set to the percussive "[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDdDaZuMWko Challenge]]". The scene which precedes the fight also has Yuna and Auron delivering two memorably badass speeches about [[DareToBeBadass living without false hope and fighting for what they believe is right]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/FinalFantasy Like all Final Fantasy games]], the entire soundtrack. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl8uhXwrTWQ&fmt=18 "Battle with Seymour"]], in particular, really gets the blood pumping. Didn't make it into ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia]]'' for nothing.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/FinalFantasy Like all Final Fantasy games]], the entire soundtrack. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl8uhXwrTWQ&fmt=18 "Battle with Seymour"]], in particular, really gets the blood pumping. Didn't make it into ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia]]'' for nothing.

** Some fans also like taking Auron's "Come or don't come. It's your decision" out of context.

** The Bevelle Cloister of Trials is quite a headache, since it's made up of several escalators and treadmills that can make the whole thing far more confusing than any of the other ones, and can be especially difficult to get past [[GuideDangIt without a guide]].

## That butterfly minigame in Macalania Woods. To get the sigil for Kimahri's ultimate weapon, you need to catch every blue butterfly in 30 seconds, in two different areas. Touching a red butterfly will cost you 2 seconds ''and'' force you into a tedious battle from which you cannot Flee and in which the enemies have higher stats. The time limit is extremely tight and the red butterflies very difficult to evade, meaning that if you make an error you may as well give up and try again.

## Getting the sigil for Lulu's ultimate weapon forces players to dodge ''two hundred lightning bolts'' on the Thunder Plains, in one sitting. This requires very careful timing by the lightning flashes and a single error means all your hard work is for nothing, and it's possible to get into battles during this which will screw up your timing. Finally, you have to keep track yourself - the chest with the Sigil spawns at the Travel Agency, so you have to leave the area to check it and this resets your score (the remasters thankfully make dodging 200 bolts an achievement so you have that indicator of when you're done). There are exploits to make this more manageable (pausing to take a break, a crater near one of the towers that one can walk around to force a lightning strike), but it still takes a long time, is very tedious, and has zero margin for error. This is widely considered to be one of the worst, if not arguably THE worst, sidequest in the history of the entire ''franchise.''
** Unlocking the final BonusBoss Nemesis requires you to capture 10 of every monster in the game by defeating them with a weapon which has the otherwise-useless "Capture" skill, no matter how rare they are. [[FakeLongevity This can easily take tens of hours]]. Not to mention that ''facing'' said monster generally requires extensive grinding to remodel the sphere grid, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXsS5trvBvE unless you use Game Breakers]].

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Quite a few people were quite vocal about the changed faces in the HD Remaster, citing that they make them look weird, particularly with Tidus and Yuna.

** [[spoiler:Auron]]. Technically, more of a [[spoiler:"too cool to be alive when the game starts in the first place." Surprisingly, he was more expressive when he was alive, meaning he become cool when dying.]]
** [[spoiler: Jecht, technically speaking, since you know he's Sin in the same regard]].
** Inversion with [[spoiler: Yuna. She's meant to die at the end of her quest, and yet she ends up breaking the spiral of death for good. She was Too Cool To Die.]]

** Wakka's motivations for helping Tidus are entirely selfish (his physical resemblance to Chappu and wanting to win his last Blitzball game before he retires), and he is openly racist towards the Al Bhed and repeatedly insults and degrades them. The game presents his hate of the Al Bhed as due to their role in Chappu's death, which some view as the game simplifying racism into a justified and sympathetic FreudianExcuse (although it is pointed out that the Yu Yevon propaganda against the Al Bhed is the main factor there).

** Tidus' mother is deeply in love with Jecht - to the point that she [[spoiler:lets herself die]] after his disappearance - and is consistently portrayed as TheWoobie. However, not only does she [[ParentalNeglect completely ignore]] Tidus when his father is around, she never bothers stopping her husband from [[AbusiveParents bullying their son]], and didn't seem to care what happened him after Jecht disappears.

** For the same reason, Tidus' influence on Yuna carries a different weight between regions. Yuna is becoming a Summoner dedicated to defeating Sin like her father was, which is a part of filial piety, it is generally expected that children will follow the same career paths as their parents to honor them. Tidus showing skepticism of Yuna's choice and questioning it is an outsider interjecting on another family's business, which the other party members do not do and frown at Tidus for. In the West without the values of filial piety, the importance of Tidus speaking up when no one else will is greatly lessened and it comes off more that he's the OnlySaneMan who is willing to vocalize disagreement with Yuna's choices when no one else is.

** Tidus. He grew up with a neglectful father, a mother who was driven to suicide following the disappearance of her husband, saw his hometown destroyed and then got sucked into a world where his family's past and achievements are long forgotten. [[spoiler: Even worse, he finds out that the plan to save the world means sacrificing his girlfriend, and that he and everybody else he knew from Zanarkand are just part of a dream world. Even if Tidus figures out how to save Spira without Yuna dying, ''he'' still has to die]].
** It's hard not to also feel this way about Yuna. She grew up as a celebrity orphan, idolizing her late father and training to eventually follow in his footsteps, knowing that she would meet the same fate if she did. Everywhere she goes, people flock to her and cheer, but only because [[spoiler:they know she has promised to die for them]]. She's constantly being asked to send the souls of the dead and comfort people in their grief. She begins to fall for Tidus and allows herself to fantasize about a future with him, only to break down crying when she realizes she can't abandon the people who invested all their prayers in her. She's then told that [[spoiler:to defeat Sin, not only will she have to die, but one of her loved ones must die as well, and that her hopes of defeating Sin for good are futile]]. Finally, when she does find a way to vanquish Sin permanently, it [[spoiler: costs her the love of her life]]. There's also a heavy implication that, before Kimahri took her to Besaid, she had been shunned by people in Bevelle because she's half Al-Bhed, just as Braska was kicked out of Yevon for marrying one.
** The rest of the party also has some Woobie in them: Lulu and Wakka are still both reeling about the loss of Chappu, with the former heartbroken over the death of him, and the latter nursing a hatred towards the Al Bhed for what he perceives as their role in his passing. Kimahri is a BlackSheep of his clan, being born smaller than most other Ronso and having his horn (a symbol of pride) broken by two of his dickhead clansmen. Auron had to watch his two closest friends die for no reason thanks to Yevon's machinations, and [[spoiler:died trying to avenge them, only to come back an Unsent and be revered as a hero who can't even speak the truth about Yevon to most people.]] Rikku, the most upbeat of the group, still has to contend with the FantasticRacism that most of Spira hold toward her people, and constantly frets over Yuna's [[spoiler:impending suicide.]]

** Perhaps the most notable example occurs in the final scene between Yuna and Tidus. In the Japanese script, the final thing she says to him as he [[spoiler:begins to fade away]] is "Thank you". In the International version, this was changed to an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. This was viewed by many as an appropriate deviation for a couple of reasons. For one, in Japanese love is rarely expressed directly in words but rather communicated by actions and subtext (although like everything else, it depends on the person, regardless of country or culture).The actions Yuna had taken earlier, such as making a VideoWill in which she discussed how painful love is in reference to Tidus, as well as her behavior in this scene, would have already made it abundantly clear to players how she felt, with her expressing her gratitude being a culturally appropriate way to handle such a painful moment. In western cultures, a "thank you", no matter how heartfelt, just doesn't carry the same emotional weight as it does in Japanese. Despite all of this however, some still see it as a {{Macekre}}, since, context aside, while she says one thing in the Japanese version, she does say something completely different in the English version.
** Other examples include renaming ''shibito'' (which literally means "corpse") as ''Unsent'' and ''shokanju'' (literally "summoned beasts"[[note]]Which is what they're called in most other Final Fantasy games, and in other productions.[[/note]]) as ''Aeons'', and rechristening the protagonist Tidus instead of Tidaa, his original Japanese name, since that doesn't sound like a masculine name to western ears. The choice of ''Aeon'' also gives ''Final Aeon,'' which was simply "Ultimate Summoned Beast" in Japanese, a poetic double meaning synonymous with "end of an era."

** The HD Remaster decided to turn two [[ThatOneSidequest infamous side-quests]] into trophies: Lulu's sigil sidequest in which you have to dodge 200 lightning bolts, and killing Penance, a sidequest that will take most of your game time.

** Cactuar's 10,000 Needles attack. It deals a FixedDamageAttack of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 10,000 points]] to a single target, exactly one point higher than the normal HP cap. It can't be protected against like "Death"-type moves can, either. Yeowch.
** Malboro's Bad Breath. Its status effects include poison, darkness, and berserk or confusion; an easy ticket to an unavoidable GameOver. Even worse with Greater Malboro, as it will always ambush the party in some areas, and always open with this attack. To add insult to injury, neither one will ''ever'' use Bad Breath on Aeons (who are all immune to most status effects), resorting to powerful melee attacks instead.

** [[spoiler:Yunalesca]]'s Hellbiter and Mega-Death CombinationAttack. The former turns all party members into Zombies, which [[ReviveKillsZombie causes heals to damage them]] but makes them immune to Death spells. The natural course of action would be to cure the zombies, but if no one's zombified, she'll use Mega-Death as soon as her third form emerges. Your only chance to survive is to still have a Zombie.
** Sin's Giga-Graviton. It's an instant NonStandardGameOver, even if you try to tank it with an Aeon. Not an exaggeration, as the cutscene of the airship blowing up indicates.
** The Demonolith's "Breath" is the enemy version of Kimahri's Stone Breath, and just as deadly. If you don't have an active Aeon or your characters aren't wearing Stoneproof armor, the Breath will petrify the entire party, which will end the game.

** For many first-time players, facing off Seymour for the first time may be a wake-up call. [[FlunkyBoss A pair of henchmen]] who focus on healing the main boss, a freaking hi-health Aeon in the middle phase, and multi-ra spells in the third round.
** Evrae, fought outside Bevelle, is particularly obnoxious. If you have been relying on Yuna's Aeons ''or'' Lulu's arsenal of AttackItsWeakPoint elementa spells up until this point, as opposed to properly training the rest of your team (something that many first-time players are prone to do), you're going to run into a lot of trouble. And it's not just the lack of Aeons that are the problem: Yuna is your team healer as well, and despite Rikku now having what is likely a small mountain of Al Bhed Potions (which heal the entire party for a thousand hit points ''and'' cure a gamut of status ailments) so she can act as a substitute WhiteMage in place of her, it is ''really'' hard for her to keep up with Evrae's damage output. (You can also move Rikku into Yuna's section of the Sphere Grid, but actually doing so will leave you so over-levelled that the fight won't be terribly difficult anyway.) Oh, and right afterwards, you're thrust into a raid on Bevelle with no chance to save. While the enemies are relative pushovers, if they manage to score a game over on you, you have to start all over from Evrae again.

** The assault in Bevelle right after defeating Evrae can be a very anxious period for the player depending on how much supplies and MP they have left, as they just defeated Evrae who is widely considered [[ThatOneBoss a very difficult fight]] and [[CheckpointStarvation there are no save points during this entire sequence]]. If you lose here, you will have to fight Evrae all over again!
** The Bevelle cloister of trials is quite the head-wreck, since it's made up of several escalators and treadmills that can make the whole thing far more confusing than any of the other ones, and can be especially difficult to get past [[GuideDangIt without a guide]].

** The game's only mandatory Blitzball match will indisputably be [[EarlyGameHell the hardest one you'll ever play]]. The Luca Goers are superior to the Besaid Aurochs in every way save for Tidus and Wakka, and you only get one each of them at a time. You have no time to practice beforehand, just a tutorial for the controls, so for first time players they're trying to figure out how to play anyway. Winning pretty much requires the player to use Tidus or Wakka to score a goal and then playing keep away to run out the clock. If players got the Jecht Shot then Tidus will have a much easier time, thankfully.
** You need to play Blitzball to win Wakka's Overdrives and one of his sigils. To win an Overdrive, you'll need to beat a tournament, then a league, then a tournament, and finally a league for the Mercury sigil. Also, since league prizes get set at the end of the last league game, you'll have to play 20 or more games to clear out the deadwood, and each game takes about 15-20 minutes to play, making it a slog even if you know what you're doing. This is by far the most time-consuming element of the game, and unless you are playing on PC with the Untitled Project mod, there is no way to actually speed up the games. That is roughly 50 games of Blitzball (if the RNG gives you the rewards you want), for a total of '''16 hours or more'''. While Lulu's sidequest is also reviled, it doesn't hold a candle to Wakka's insane time investment.

** Playing through the game a second time and knowing [[spoiler:that Yuna's pilgrimage will end with her sacrifice]] changes your perception of many early scenes. Especially leaving Besaid. And any time that Tidus mentions to Yuna what she should do after she defeats Sin. Interestingly enough, flashbacks show us that [[GenerationXerox Jecht did the exact same thing with Braska]]. Both Yuna and her father "just smile" in response.

** Lulu. Early on in the game, Lulu is invaluable due to her spells providing her a damage output unrivaled by most of the party (especially against enemies with a weakness to certain elements). However, as the game goes on, Lulu simply isn’t able to keep up with the rest of the cast due to her low Speed and the recovery on spells, meaning her damage output falls off considerably. It also doesn’t help that her Overdrive is a pain to use (requiring one to rotate their joystick rapidly to increase its damage) and doesn’t scale well into the later portions of the game.

** The hum of Pyreflies departing whenever you kill a Fiend.

** It's actually feasible to win nearly every boss battle in a NSNSB (No Summons, No Sphere Grid) run, apart from the last four Arena encounters, so long as your party setup is solid and you've got 30-60 minutes to kill! (NSG Dark Anima just takes more time than anyone ever wants to spend, though.) Rikku is a staple of these battles due to her Mix ability. One mis-click will end it all, though. If you're curious, you ''need'' aeons and/or magic to beat Neslug (it regenerates HP), Ultima Buster ([[CognizantLimbs too many attacks]] per turn), and Nemesis (too [[RandomNumberGod luck-reliant]]). Shinryu is a no-go because it's fought underwater, and its Eraser has a Petrify probability of 255%, which means it ignores protection and therefore ALWAYS kills you since you sink to the bottom and shatter instantly. You need maxed-out stats and Quick Hits to kill it right away.

** In the final phase of its final airship fight, Sin can unleash an attack that destroys ''the entire airship you're on for a NonStandardGameOver''. Players summoning an Aeon expecting it to tank the hit get ''sorely'' proven wrong.

* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Blitzball has enough content in its mechanics to be its own separate game. Managing your team, recruiting free agents or even rival players whose contracts have expired, learning techs to improve your players' performance in a match, etc. The amount of time a player could spend on Blitzball alone compared to the rest of the game can add up really fast.

* StoicWoobie: Auron. At first, he comes off as an aloof, sarcastic coach. Then we discover his backstory: He started out as an ostracized monk and decided to go on the pilgrimage with Braska and Jecht, basically because he had no other purpose in his life. When the three were [[spoiler:told by Yunalesca that the Final Aeon requires the sacrifice of both the summoner ''and'' one of their guardians]], Auron relented, but failed to convince Braska and Jecht to "turn back". Even that turned out to be a lie, [[spoiler:as the Final Aeon who kills Sin is possessed by Yu Yevon and reconfigured into a new Sin.]] In revenge, Auron tried to kill [[spoiler:Yunalesca]], but she flattened him with no effort. [[spoiler:After dying of his wounds, Auron reformed as an unsent and, in an amazing display of resolve, kick-started a majority of the game's plot by crossing over to Dream Zanarkand and watching over Tidus,]] hoping to guide the next generation to finally end the spiral of destruction. During their journey, Kinoc, one of his best friends when he was a monk, is introduced as a corrupt Yevonite, and Auron (who's already a very jaded man) seems to still be very disappointed to see that his old friend has become so rotten. Yet, when Kinoc is killed, Auron is still visibly enraged by this. Auron's other unexpected NotSoStoic moment is when he lashes out in an emotional frenzy at Zanarkand's [[IHatePastMe projection of a younger him]], trying to get Braska and Jecht not to go through with the Final Summoning.

* BreatherBoss: Evrae Altana, which occurs after the Aeon-to-Aeon fight with Isaaru and right before Seymour Natus, both of which can be very tough bosses if you're under-prepared. By contrast, Evrae Altana is permanently inflicted with the zombie status, meaning healing items are lethal to it. Toss two Phoenix Downs or two X-potions at it and it goes down without much effort on your part. This is actually the ''more rewarding'' method of defeating it, as if you try to defeat it the conventional way, you not only have to navigate a side route full of locked gates, but you [[PermanentlyMissableContent permanently miss out]] on a few pieces of nice equipment.

** Beating the [[JerkJock insufferable]] Luca Goers for the Blitzball championship, on their own turf. ''And'' the Aurochs receiving an utterly massive trophy for your trouble.

** The infamous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc laughing scene]] is frequently taken out of context, leading to the popular misconception that it's a case of bad voice acting and that the Japanese version of the scene was "better". Neither of those things are true ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mAgVjH9V9Ps#t=447s see for yourself]]). In reality, the awkwardness is intentional. The point of the scene was to show how forcing yourself to [[SadClown laugh]] or [[StepfordSmiler smile]] makes you look weird, as evidenced by every other characters' reactions to Tidus laughing. In-context, Tidus had just learned that his father, Jecht, had become Sin and is responsible for scores of deaths across the globe. Tidus is struggling to laugh convincingly...because he doesn't have a lot to be happy about.

** Inverted with some of the fiends you need to capture for the Monster Arena, a few of whom appear so infrequently and under such specific conditions that [[ThatOneSidequest finding ten of them can easily take hours]]. Examples include the Tonberry variants in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and Omega Ruins, and the notorious Simurgh in Djose.
* GoddamnedBoss: With enough LevelGrinding and upgraded Celestial Weapons, the Monster Arena creations (aside from most of the Original ones, who are on a whole other difficulty level) can actually be a cakewalk. The same cannot be said for the Species Creation Jumbo Flan. Immune to physical attacks? You can just use magic, except it has Auto-Reflect, meaning you have either to cast Ultima (pierces Reflect) or set up Reflect on your own party to bounce magic at it (magic can only be reflected once). Alternatively, you can use special attacks such as Overdrives or Anima's Pain, but this still needs high stats to do decent damage. And even if you can hit the damage cap of 99,999 with each hit, it will still take 14 turns for Jumbo Flan to finally fall. You'll need high Magic Defense if you want to survive Jumbo Flan's own devastating magic. It makes you feel like farming for Magic Spheres (Jumbo Flan's drop) is more cumbersome than farming for Fortune and Luck Spheres (against Originals the Earth Eater and Greater Sphere, respectively).

** There is a glitch in the blitzball enemy AI. The opposing team has no programming for what to do if you swim into your own goal while carrying the ball. The opposing team will swim uselessly around in circles until the time runs out. You can easily exploit this against the Luca Goers in the finals in order to grind in the first half so you can beat them in the second after leveling up.

** Jecht. He was a cocky, macho prick who barely lifted a finger to raise Tidus, and never referred to him as anything but "runt". [[spoiler:But after going through a long journey to save Spira, and sacrificing himself to become the Final Aeon, he spends years as Sin, forced to continue the destruction he had worked to stop until his son arrives to put him out his misery.]] Before that, his spheres reveal that being stuck on Spira gave him a long time to self-reflect. By the end, he had lost all hope of returning home, and decided to [[spoiler:sacrifice his life for the Final Aeon so his death would at least be "useful" for something. Also, he more or less concedes that he was a poor father.]]

** Wakka spends much of the game ranting about the Al Bhed, accusing them of crimes against Yevon and preventing humanity from "atoning" for the heresy that produced Sin. [[spoiler: He later finds out that the Grand Maester of Yevon is an Unsent, and Wakka has to participate in the slaying of both Maester Seymour ''and'' Lady Yunalesca]] (Yuna's namesake and the co-founder of his religion). Which naturally gets Wakka branded as a traitor to Yevon. He ends up sympathizing with the Al Bhed after they fall victim to an unjust massacre by the Guado. ''Then'' he has to ride in a "forbidden Machina"...then learns that Yuna is half Al Bhed...then learns that the great Sir Jecht [[spoiler:is Sin and that he was responsible for killing his little brother Chappu.]]

** Lulu is pretty hot-headed and rude to almost everyone besides Yuna when the game starts. But then you discover that the Chappu everyone keeps talking about was her fiance, and that he volunteered to fight with the Crusaders, which resulted in his untimely death. Additionally, she's been a Guardian twice. Although the second simply gave up his pilgrimage, the first died under Lulu's care. Doing the math puts Lulu as a teenager when this happened.

** Lulu. While early on in the game, Lulu is invaluable due to her spells providing her a damage output unrivaled by most of the party (especially against enemies with a weakness to certain elements). However as the game goes on Lulu simply isn’t able to keep up with the rest of the cast due to her low Speed and the recovery on spells, meaning her damage output falls off considerably. It also doesn’t help that her Overdrive is a pain to use (requiring one to rotate their joystick rapidly to increase its damage) and doesn’t scale well into the later portions of the game.
** Kimahri. His Ronso Rages (read: Blue Magic, copying certain enemy attacks) are few and you won't get to use them much since they're Overdrives, and the few that could hypothetically be useful are outdone by the skills and Overdrives of other characters (for example, Mighty Guard is entirely outclassed by Rikku's Mighty G line of Mixes that offer far more stat buffs). Otherwise he's meant to be a JackOfAllStats who can slip into the Sphere Grids of other characters, but moving him around so much like that would be very resource intensive, and even when he's focused into just one character's skills he'll inevitably be inferior to them since it takes time to get him into their Grid that they are using to advance through it. His main utility will end up being a shallow clone of Auron or Rikku, since they join the party later in the game and Kimahri is your default third physical fighter before Auron joins; once the party is filled out, Kimahri will probably get set aside unless needed for specific circumstances.

** [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Yunalesca]] is the first Summoner who defeated Sin and the overseer of the sacrificial Final Summoning. Defeating Sin to restore her father's honor by sacrificing herself and turning her husband Zeon into the Final Aeon, Yunalesca now resides in Zanarkand as an Unsent in-charge of [[KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge carrying out, explaining, and enacting the ritualistic Final Summoning]] to whomever proves their worth regardless of race and character. Highly protective of the ritual, Yunalesca would strike down anyone who defied it, such as Auron, and later attempted to do the same to the party when they reject it, considering [[MercyKill her act to be "mercy"]] since they know the horrible truth of Sin and the Final Summoning. Having bid her time and set her own courses, Yunalesca laments her defeat, believing Spira is doomed without the Final Aeon.

** ''To Zanarkand'' being used as a song to convey sadness (often used with the image of the victim in black and white).
** [[https://youtu.be/F0QWJxaqmAg Wakka singing about Tidus's love parts.]][[labelnote:Explanation]]In 2022, Wakka became a FountainOfMemes in Japan. What set off the trend was this video of Wakka singing "Connect" by Claris, singing about how good Tidus's "love" is.[[/labelnote]]

** The laughter scene is a Type 3. It's typically cited as an example of bad voice acting, but it's invariably taken out of context: Tidus and Yuna are intentionally trying to sound as fake as possible. Not only do the characters sound just as broad and over the top in the Japanese version, within less than a minute of that laughing scene, the other party members gawk at them and say, "We were just worried you guys might have gone crazy".

*** Hilariously, one modder used a texture swap to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4iGAa3K9cE allow the kid to live out his dream.]]

* MisattributedSong: There is a rumor that the song "Otherworld" from the game's soundtrack was written and performed by Music/{{Rammstein}}. In truth, it was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and performed by Bill Muir. Rammstein never covered the song either.

** Seymour crosses it with the revelation that [[spoiler:he murdered his own father to become a Maester and take command of the Guado race.]]
** Mika and Kinoc cross it with TheReveal that [[spoiler:Yevon is corrupt from top to bottom, and is governed by Unsents.]]

** Even if he gets better, Wakka is remembered for his prejudice attitude against the Al-Bhed.

* TheProducerThinksOfEverything: While the ending of ''X-2'' is sometimes considered a WriterCopOut, talking with the fayths in their temples before the final fight results in the foreshadowing of the sequel's ending, as does the ending of the first game. In fact, the ending to the second game picks up right where the first game ended, with Tidus rising out of the sea.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While the gameplay still holds up (it's consisdered to have one of the best turn-based battle systems in the series), it's hard to appreciate nowadays how much of a risk voice acting was back around the turn of the milennium. These days, it suffers a ''lot'' from LipLock (Especially with Yuna) or HongKongDub.

** As usual, there are varying levels of this, including: no summoning, no overdrives, [[LowLevelRun no Sphere Grid]], and use only starting equipment.
** It's actually feasible to win nearly every boss battle in a NSNSB (No Summons, No Sphere Grid) run, apart from the last four Arena encounters, so long as your party setup is solid and you've got 30-60 minutes to kill! (NSG Dark Anima just takes more time than anyone ever wants to spend, though.) Rikku is a staple of these battles due to her Mix ability. One mis-click will end it all, though. If you're curious, you ''need'' Aeons and/or magic to beat Neslug (it regenerates HP), Ultima Buster ([[CognizantLimbs too many attacks]] per turn), and Nemesis (too [[RandomNumberGod luck-reliant]]). Shinryu is no-go because it's fought underwater, and its Eraser has a Petrify probability of 255%, which means it ignores protection and therefore ALWAYS kills you since you sink to the bottom and shatter instantly. You need maxed-out stats and Quick Hits to kill it right away.

** Winning the first (and only plot-mandatory) Blitzball game. The other team are insufferable jerks that that repeatedly rub in your face that your team is the worst in the league, making you hunger to humiliate them. Unfortunately, they're basically correct -- it's meant to be a HopelessBossFight, but can be won if you're prepared to reload a ''lot''.

* {{Sequelitis}}: While there's ''Will'', there's also a lesser-known (and Japan-only) novel released alongside the UpdatedRerelease called [[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2.5_~Eien_no_Daish%C5%8D~ FFX-2.5 ~Eien no Daishō~]] (The Price of Eternity in English) which leads up to it, and is responsible for most of what people took issue with ''Will''. Some highlights: Tidus [[TooDumbToLive kicks a bomb because he thinks it looks like a blitzball, which ends up killing him in a gory manner]] (complete with his severed head landing on Yuna). She revives him, which incidentally brings everything back from the Farplane, but he's made of pyreflies and will vanish if he realizes this. There's also a lot of sex for some reason, [[ILoveTheDead even after Tidus dies and is subsequently revived]]. It's nearly-universally hated in Japan.

** Most endgame parties will end up having Tidus, Wakka, and/or Rikku, if not just all three. Tidus' Blitz Ace/Slice and Dice and Wakka's Attack Reels are two of the most damaging Overdrives in the game beyond what other characters can acquire, making them your best source of DPS, and Rikku's Mix lets her grant the party powerful buffs and fully heal them, making her the best support character. Fourth place goes to Yuna, as her Aeons are invaluable as meat shields against some of the games most devastating attacks your party otherwise cannot survive (such as Dark Anima’s Oblivion, or the Dark Magus Sister’s Delta Attack). Fifth place goes to Auron, whose Tornado Overdrive is good against groups of enemies and his Celestial Weapon comes with First Strike and Counter-Attack, and since Tidus and Wakka's Celestial Weapons have Evade & Counter, this creates an entire party that will counter enemy hits with an attack of their own.

** For Blitzball, Brother. Though his stat growth slows to a crawl at Level 50 and his stats at Level 99 are mostly mediocre, his Speed starts at 75 and will hit 99, making him significantly faster than most other players the moment you recruit him. Even if his other stats are subpar, Brother can just kite the enemy team and run the ball to the net and take his shot without opposition.

** Anima is a massive, chained monstrosity whose top half is perpetually screaming, and who has a burly bottom half (used for her Overdrive) which unleashes ''a hurricane of punches'' on her targets. She's also one of the go-to Aeons for the endgame in re-releases.

** The first half of the game isn't too bad, but the game takes a sudden jump up when you hit Macalania Woods and the second half and doesn't let up until you get the airship.
** Encountering the Dark Aeons in the International version. Even with all the {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s, you need the right armor and a ''lot'' of Sphere LevelGrinding (or Yojimbo and a hell of a lot of gil) to even stand a chance against the weakest one. As a [[SarcasmMode bonus]], that weakest one (Dark Valefor) is blocking the path to Besaid, so if you missed anything valuable there the first time (solving the Sphere of Destruction puzzle, or Valefor's second Overdrive), well, good luck. (There's also a Jecht Sphere there, unfortunately for players completing Auron's Overdrives.) And God help you if you missed [[spoiler:the Sun Crest in the place where you fight Yunalesca]] on Zanarkand, as you'll be dealing with Dark Bahamut if you try to return there. And even if you've been knocking down Dark Aeons left and right, Penance is a completely different fight even with all character stats maxed out. Whittling down all of its 12 million HP (for comparison, the story's FinalBoss by this point can be taken out with less than three hits), as well as contending with its regenerating, independently-acting arms to throw every conceivable debuff your way, will take at least half an hour and lots of strategizing to avoid being completely wiped out.

** Jecht's wife tends to be treated as this by those who outright hate Jecht, depicting her as the long-suffering wife who tries her best to be a good mother. The game suggests anything but: Tidus recalled her being totally obsessed with Jecht, to the detriment of her family (to the point where ''Jecht'' of all people told her to spend more time with the kid). Great pick of parents. Let's face it, Tidus turned out extremely well, considering.
** Yunalesca gets a bit of it, as well, considering she's the one [[spoiler: perpetuating the sacrificial Summoner system. Certain fans are quick to excuse her actions by pointing out that she likely doesn't want to destroy what remains of her father. Which may have been excusable at first, but still refusing to let go of Yu Yevon after ''a thousand years'' and perpetuating a cycle of mass murder]] puts her well over the "Moral Event Horizon." (See below.)

** Anima. She's first introduced as an antagonist because she's Seymour's exclusive Aeon, but her Fayth's tragic backstory -- and the fact that she's just as powerful when you get ''your'' hands on her -- made Anima a favorite of the Aeons.

* EvilIsCool: The Aeons themselves are already very cool, but this game introduces the Dark Aeons; evil counterparts to them with different colouring and monstrous stats. The scenes and battles with them tend to have deliciously [[NightmareFuel nightmarish]] moments and epic music.

** In the West, Wakka is a well liked character. In Japan? He was [[https://www.gamerbraves.com/final-fantasy-character-poll-reveals-wakka-as-japans-second-favorite-character/ ranked number 2 on an official character poll in 2022!]] Might have to do with Wakka's FountainOfMemes status in Japan.

** The Chocobo racing minigame has birds who exist for no other reason than to eat away at your score as they attack in a rabid, Hitchcockian frenzy.

** There is a glitch in the Blitzball enemy AI. The opposing team has no programming for what to do if you swim into your own goal while carrying the ball. The opposing team will swim uselessly around in circles until the time runs out. You can easily exploit this against the Luca Goers in the Blitzballs finals in order to grind in the first half so you can beat them in the second after leveling up.

** In one of the most light-hearted scenes of the game, Rikku pokes fun at Auron, saying he always charges into things without a plan. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that's exactly how he got himself killed]].

** The culmination of the pilgrimage has you fighting against [[spoiler:Lady Yunalesca, who the party rejects for her "false hope" and belief that the cycle can never end]]. Not only is it a pivotal scene in the game, the boss undergoes a OneWingedAngel not once but twice, and it's set to the percussive "[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDdDaZuMWko Challenge]]". The scene which precedes the fight also has Yuna/Auron delivering two memorably-badass speeches about [[DareToBeBadass living without false hope and fighting for what they believe is right]].

** Is the main character's name pronounced "Tee-dus" or "Tie-dus"? Not even ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia]]'' or ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII II]]'' (all Squared-owned properties) can agree. Given the Romaji used for his Japanese name (ティーダ, ''Tīda''), it's probably supposed to be the former. Doesn't mean people won't still argue over it, or prefer to keep calling him Tie-dus.
** The infamous fake laughter scene, both in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-fij_lEBQ English]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDocsZkWK0 Japanese]]. The laughter is ''meant'' to sound forced and awkward, so a lot of people think it's okay as-is, with it fitting the context of the scene. But there are just as many people who think it succeeds ''too'' well and it's hard to not physically cringe when watching the scene. People tend to either love it or hate it.

** Fighting Evrae [[HighAltitudeBattle in the skies above Bevelle]]. The fight takes place from the deck of the ''Fahrenheit'', so you have the option to move out of range of its Poison Breath, and Cid can help you by [[MacrossMissileMassacre firing missiles at it.]]

** The infamous fake laughter scene, both in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-fij_lEBQ English]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDocsZkWK0 Japanese]]. The laughter is ''meant'' to sound forced and awkward, so a lot of people think it's okay as-is, with it fitting the context of the scene. But there are just as many people who think it succeeds ''too'' well and it's hard to not physically cringe when watching the scene. It's hard to find a neutral opinion about it.

** At the end of the pilgrimage, [[spoiler:summoners die when performing the Final Summoning]]. Aside from being foreshadowed in the text, the general atmosphere of the game and the attitudes of characters when discussing the topic makes it pretty clear there's something they're not telling Tidus. Yuna in particular is heavily built as a MessianicArchetype, so the revelation that [[spoiler:she intends to sacrifice herself to save the world]] may not surprise players that much. If players have their highest affection with Rikku and travel with her on the snowmobile in Macalania, she outright ''spoils'' the twist to Tidus, then hastily doubles back and claims she meant something else.
** This happens twice with the reveal that Auron [[spoiler:is an Unsent]]. There's ample and obvious {{foreshadowing}} for it prior to each reveal: Rin said he was wounded so badly he shouldn't have survived but somehow was able to leave on his own power, Seymour asking why he is "still here", and Auron's reaction when Yuna performs the Sending for Jyscal. When Tidus learns, he's not surprised at all. The cutscene immediately before the boss battle before Tidus learns this also makes it pretty clear that [[spoiler:Yunalesca fatally wounded Auron.]] If the player has their highest affection with Auron, Auron's words right before the final battle, in front of everyone, ''heavily'' imply [[spoiler:that he, like Tidus, will fade away immediately after they defeat Sin.]] Most of the rest of the party only learns for certain after the final boss, though several of them should've been able to piece it together. Auron had promised Braska he'd take care of Yuna, but ''Kimahri'' was the one who brought her to Besaid and served as her first guardian. This is because [[spoiler: Yunalesca fatally wounded Auron when he confronted her. He was only able to make it to Bevelle, and not carry out his promise, so he had to pass the request on to Kimahri, who was likely the last person to see him alive.]]

** Death spell.

** Just about any PreMortemOneLiner your party delivers right before delivering the final blow of a fight.

** Rikku saying, "Let's see what ''this'' does" when using one of her Mixes.

** The game treats SummonMagic differently, having the "Aeon" come in as a controllable character who ''replaces'' your party. This can lead to amusing interactions with the animation system: if one of your characters is dead, then, when you summon your Aeon, the character will get up (as though a Phoenix Down was used on them) and run offscreen. Then, when the Aeon is dismissed or dies, the dead character ''runs back on screen'' and falls down again.

** Much of the voice-acting. While groundbreaking when the game came out due to being the first fully-voiced ''Final Fantasy'' game, the acting was harshly (perhaps ''too'' harshly) criticized from the outset, and is unfavorably compared with the later titles. It's obvious the translators and voice actors are trying to match their dialogue to the MouthFlaps to avoid LipLock, resulting in lines that sound stilted or hurried. And the result ''still'' doesn't match the lip movements very well, so one wonders why they even bothered.

** The dream sequence Tidus has after meeting Yuna involves him being stuck in an ImaginaryLoveTriangle between Yuna and Rikku, only for Jecht to show up and start mocking him about trying to pick up girls. ''Then'' Tidus is suddenly a child yelling at him about how much he hates him while Rikku and Yuna cheer him on. Its so jarring and out of no where that its incredibly funny, especially for what seemed to be the games attempt to convey Tidus' views on his dad by giving Jecht an EstablishingCharacterMoment.

** Hedy Burress' attempt to lip-sync with the animation is frequently brought up when discussing the quality of the voice-acting. On the other hand, it fits pretty well on the ferry to Kilika, since she's trying to chat up Tidus with lines like ''weather is nice'' and ''God wanted us to meet'', so it makes sense for it to be awkward.

* GoddamnedBoss: With enough LevelGrinding and upgraded Celestial Weapons, the Monster Arena creations (aside from most of the Original ones, who are on a whole other difficulty level) can actually be a cakewalk. The same cannot be said for the Species Creation Jumbo Flan. Immune to physical attacks? You can just use magic, except it has Auto-Reflect, meaning you have to set up a Reflect on one of your own party to even damage it. You can use Anima if you have her (her Pain special is the only one that can easily bypass Jumbo Flan's immunity), but you really have to have Yuna's Magic and Magic Defense stats capped to even inflict decent damage and survive. And even if Anima is dealing 99k damage, it will still take 14 turns for Jumbo Flan to finally fall. It makes you feel like farming for purple Magic Spheres (Jumbo Flan's drop) look more cumbersome than farming for Fortune and Luck Spheres (against Originals the Earth Eater and Greater Sphere, respectively).

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Lulu. While early on in the game, Lulu is invaluable due to her spells providing her a damage output unrivaled by most of the party (especially against enemies with a weakness to certain elements). However as the game goes on Lulu simply isn’t able to keep up with the rest of the cast due to her low Speed and the recovery on spells, meaning her damage output falls off considerably. It also doesn’t help that her Overdrive is a pain to use (requiring one to rotate their joystick rapidly to increase its damage) and doesn’t scale well into the later portions of the game.
** Kimahri. His Ronso Rages (read: Blue Magic, copying certain enemy attacks) are few and you won't get to use them much since they're Overdrives, and the few that could hypothetically be useful are outdone by the skills and Overdrives of other characters (for example, Mighty Guard is entirely outclassed by Rikku's Mighty G line of Mixes that offer far more stat buffs). Otherwise he's meant to be a JackOfAllStats who can slip into the Sphere Grids of other characters, but moving him around so much like that would be very resource intensive, and even when he's focused into just one character's skills he'll inevitably be inferior to them since it takes time to get him into their Grid that they are using to advance through it. His main utility will end up being a shallow clone of Auron or Rikku, since they join the party later in the game and Kimahri is your default third physical fighter before Auron joins; once the party is filled out, Kimahri will probably get set aside unless needed for specific circumstances.
** The Magus Sisters qualify as both variants of this trope due to their unpredictability. They have a lot of haters due to the fact that you can't actually control them. You can only suggest what they'll do, but Cindy is especially prone to taking a break and missing a turn if she's tired. The Sisters' saving grace is their ability to break the damage limit: See Mindy's Passado attack, which ''isn't'' an Overdrive, and she uses it quite often.

* AnticlimaxBoss: The fight against Seymour Omnis is disproportionately easy compared to what came before. To put it in perspective, you just got done fighting a four-part SequentialBoss where the final part alone had 140,000 HP, almost 300,000 for all its parts total. And the ClimaxBoss before that was a three-part Sequential Boss with a combined total of 132,000 HP. Seymour Omnis has only one phase with 80,000 HP. For his offense, he'll just spam elemental magic while telegraphing which element he'll use, so the basic "Nul <Element>" spells (that Yuna can cast every turn for a measly 2 MP) will nullify his ability to harm you. Beyond that, the only thing he has to hurt you with is Ultima, and he gives you a full turn's warning to prepare for it. To make him even easier, the area immediately before the battle with him has an armor piece for Yuna which absorbs three elements, and an empty slot for customization to weaken the fourth one, too. The result is that your White Mage is invincible for most of the fight as she protects the rest of the party from the boss's predictable attack pattern. Plus, if you've found the Celestial Weapons, your characters can break the damage cap and a strong enough Overdrive or summon can end the fight on the first round -- or, if you've done enough grinding, one move.

** [[spoiler: Yunalesca]]. Not only is it a pivotal scene in the game, she undergoes a OneWingedAngel not once but twice, and it's set to the percussive "[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDdDaZuMWko Challenge]]". The scene which precedes the fight also has Yuna/Auron delivering two memorably-badass speeches.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: In Japan, Jecht is just another TragicVillain, but he has a pretty sizable fan base in the West. It's mainly because of his oozing testosterone. Might also help that he's got a good English performance.

* ShockingMoments: In the final phase of its final airship fight, Sin can unleash an attack that destroys ''the entire airship you're on for a NonStandardGameOver''.

** At the end of the pilgrimage, [[spoiler:summoners die when performing the Final Summoning]]. Aside from being foreshadowed in the text, the general atmosphere of the game and the attitudes of characters when discussing the topic makes it pretty clear there's something they're not telling Tidus. Yuna in particular is heavily built as a MessianicArchetype, so the revelation that [[spoiler:she intends to sacrifice herself to save the world]] may not surprise players that much. If players end up traveling with Rikku on the snowmobiles in Macalania, she outright ''spoils'' the twist to Tidus, then hastily doubles back and claims she meant something else.
** This is lampshaded in another instance. When Tidus learns that [[spoiler:Auron is an Unsent]], he's not surprised at all. Not hard to blame him, as there's ample and obvious {{foreshadowing}} for it: Rin said he was wounded so badly he shouldn't have survived but somehow was able to leave on his own power, Seymour asking why he is "still here", and Auron's reaction when Yuna performs the Sending for Jyscal. The cutscene immediately before the boss battle after which Tidus learns this also makes it pretty clear that [[spoiler:Yunalesca killed Auron.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Anima. She's first introduced as an antagonist because she's Seymour's exclusive Aeon, but her Fayth's tragic backstory -- and the fact that she's just as powerful when you get ''your'' hands on her -- made Anima a favorite of the Aeons.

* ThatOneLevel: The assault in Bevelle right after defeating Evrae can be a very anxious period for the player depending on how much supplies and MP they have left, as they just defeated Evrae who is widely considered [[ThatOneBoss a very difficult fight]] and [[CheckpointStarvation there are no save points during this entire sequence]]. If you lose here, you will have to fight Evrae all over again!

** Wakka's motivations for helping Tidus are entirely selfish (his physical resemblance to Chappu and wanting to win his last Blitzball game before he retires), and he is openly racist towards the Al Bhed and repeatedly insults and degrades them. The game presents his hate of the Al Bhed as due to their role in Chappu's death, which some view as the game simplifying racism into a justified and sympathetic FreudianExcuse.

* ValuesResonance: On a flip of the above, though he is still a BaseBreakingCharacter, increasing discussion and criticism of [[MachoMasochism toxic masculinity]] in the years following the game's release have made Tidus more relatable to Western players, as well for [[https://femhype.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/tidus-video-games-answer-to-toxic-masculinity/ subverting the stereotype of men not being allowed to show emotion other than anger]]. Meanwhile, with emotional and mental health awareness on the rise, it's being recognized that even if he didn't ''physically'' hurt Tidus (as far as is known), Jecht's parenting is still emotional abusive, which is just as damaging to a child and something they would struggle with well into adulthood. The game is, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens and beyond, seen as having been a bit ahead of its time in being willing to discuss the concept so frankly.

** The infamous fake laughter scene, both in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-fij_lEBQ English]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDocsZkWK0 Japanese]]. The laughter is ''meant'' to sound forced and awkward, so a lot of people think it's okay as-is with it fitting the context of the scene. But there are just as many people who think it succeeds ''too'' well and it's hard to not physically cringe when watching the scene. It's hard to find a neutral opinion of this scene.

** The infamous fake laughter scene, both in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-fij_lEBQ English]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDocsZkWK0 Japanese]]. The laughter is ''meant'' to sound forced and awkward, so a lot of people think it's okay as-is. It fits the context of the scene, but there are just as many people who think that it crossed the line and made players feel embarrassed for the actors. It's hard to find a neutral opinion of this scene.

* TheWorldsStrongest: Lulu calls Tidus this in the airship before the final fight.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Playing through the game a second time and knowing [[spoiler:that Yuna's pilgrimage will end with her sacrifice]] changes your perception of many early scenes. Especially leaving Besaid. And any time that Tidus mentions to Yuna what she should do after she defeats Sin. Interestingly enough, flashbacks show us that [[GenerationXerox Jecht did the exact same thing with Braska]]. Both Yuna and her father "just smile" in response.

* HarsherInHindsight: In one of the most light-hearted scenes of the game, Rikku pokes fun at Auron, saying he always charges into things without a plan. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that's exactly how he got himself killed]].

** Along with ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII VII]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX IX]]'', it's thought to have one of the better plots in the series, although the game is much more linear than its predecessors and some of the voice acting is questionable (it was the early days for such things). As a result, there's a divide between those who like the plot and who think that the voice acting, as well as other flaws.

** ''To Zanarkand'' being used as a song to convey sadness (often Used with the image of the victim in black and white).

-While Tidus' DaddyIssues initially come across as simple, a flashback reveals that Jecht abused alcohol and actually abused his son who only wanted drop it because citizens made fun of that