Trivia / Final Fantasy X

• Acting for Two:
  • John Dimaggio voices two of the guardians, Wakka and Kimahri. They don't share any exchanges in the game, though; Kimahri's just too quiet.
  • The underrated voice actor Dwight Schultz pulls triple-duty as Maechen, O'aka XXIII, and Grand Maester Mika, all sounding largely different, especially with their accents.
• Approval of God: James Arnold Taylor voices his approval of a mod that replaces all audio with Tidus' laugh.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The infamous NPC kid in Kilika says, "I'm gonna be a blitzball when I grow up!" It is very frequently misquoted as "I want to be a blitzball when I grow up!"
• Cross-Dressing Voices: The young Tidus is voiced by Cree Summer.
• Killer App: Final Fantasy X was one of the biggest system sellers for the PlayStation 2, selling a total of 8.5 million units, and being the highest-selling game on the console that wasn't part of Grand Theft Auto or Gran Turismo. And as a result of the PS2 being the highest-selling console of all time, many people were introduced to the series through X, thus making it the equivalent of Final Fantasy VII for its own console generation.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: While Dwight Schultz was already a celebrated actor by this point, being famous for being the aptly-named Howling Mad Murdock and the socially-challenged Lt. Reginald Barclay, plus other voice work (most notably as the young/old versions of the handler in Killer7), it's here where you can see a great example of his range vocal skills. He plays O'aka, Maester Mika, and Maechen, all of whom sport very different vocal tones, accents, and speech cadences. And it's mind-boggling to know they're all voiced by one guy.
• No Export for You: The US didn't get the International version initially, only the PAL regions and Japan. This was not rectified for thirteen years, until the HD release, which has the International version's content. To be fair though, this is mostly Sony's fault, who has a policy stating that a game must have a certain percentage of new content before it can be re-released and the International version of Final Fantasy X doesn't meet the criteria, and this was an era before consoles were capable of receiving DLCs.
• Playing Against Type: Paula Tiso had mainly voiced bubbly women in commercials before this game. Voicing the Aloof Dark-Haired Girl like Lulu was quite different for her.
• Real-Life Relative: Gippal and Baralai are voiced by brothers Rick Gomez and Josh Gomez.
• Star-Making Role: For James Arnold Taylor in the English version.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tidus was originally supposed to be revealed as an unsent. However, Nomura saw a movie with a similar premise, and decided to swap Tidus' reveal with Auron. Tidus ends up being kind of similar to an Unsent, but his Cessation of Existence isn't something Yuna can control.
  • In the original draft, Tidus was going to be a plumber(!) who was also a member of a Japanese-style gang.
  • Tidus was originally going to have darker hair, as shown in the prototype trailer
  • The original concept of Yuna performing a sending◊ features her in a different dress instead of her kimono and with sandals instead of either her short boots or being unshod.
  • Apparently, there were supposed to be portraits of Yu Yevon (presumably in his non-parasitic form) displayed in public places in the original draft, but they were cut in the final version.
  • Supposedly, the Final Boss was intended to be a Puzzle Boss.
• Word of God:
  • Hints in an Ultimania interview that Final Fantasy VII is the Distant Future of the game's world, but likely on another planet.
  • James Arnold Taylor has said about his Tidus voice that he was presented to him as an angst-ridden, somewhat spoiled teenager who never had to do much but enjoy the cheers from the fans until he's thrown into a whole different world which changes him. This is why his narrator voice is more controlled. Naturally, Shuyin sounds more grizzled on account of fighting (and dying — messily) in the Machina War.

General Trivia:

• Each character's standard progression in the Sphere Grid is reminiscent of at least one Job Class from previous Final Fantasy games. Tidus is a Fighter-Time Mage combination, Yuna is a typical White Mage/Summoner, Lulu is a pure Black Mage, Wakka is an odd take on an Archer-Green Mage^note given his status-inducing attacks fusion, Auron is a FFT-style Knight (with some stylistic and aesthetic references to the Samurai class), Kimahri is a cross between a Dragoon, a Blue Mage and a Red Mage, and Rikku is a wonderful blend between a Thief and a Chemist.

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