Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X is the tenth installment in its enduring and much beloved Final Fantasy franchise, and it’s a superstar entry. It’s packed full of fun side-games, memorable characters, and emotional stories that have made it go down in history as one of the greatest Final Fantasy games of all time.
It inspired a direct sequel, made a whole generation of video game fans think about so many different things in a whole new light, and it still resonates with audiences even today. Its timeless charm, fantastical setting, and deeply relatable stories mean that it never stopped being relevant.
10
Operation Mi’ihen
A Major Tonal Shift
Operation Mi’ihen reinforces the idea that you can’t beat Sin unless you follow the preordained script. Summoners go on Pilgrimage, reach Zanarkand, defeat Sin, and then Spira gets the Calm. It doesn’t matter how brave you are, how much effort you put in, or the tricks you’ve got up your sleeve, because the only way to defeat Sin is through the teachings of Yevon.
When I played, I knew Operation Mi’ihen wasn’t going to succeed — I think we all did — but the massive loss of life rapidly changes the overall tone of the story. It’s one of the first major roadblocks in the game, and it results in some characters we’ve seen from the beginning, like Luzzu and Gatta, dying in vain. This sequence is a good mix of sadness, hope, frustration, and, once you’ve played the game through once, a lot of anger at the powers that be. It’s a microcosm of FFX, really.
9
The Laughing Scene
Filled With a Different Emotion Than It Looks Like
The infamous laughing scene will go down in history as one of the most awkward moments in gaming, and it’s been memed on a lot throughout the years. But it’s actually one of the more emotionally complex moments in the game. You have Tidus finally realizing that he’s not in Kansas Zanarkand anymore, Yuna trying desperately to keep herself and everyone else happy, along with everyone else trying not to have an emotional breakdown.
It’s a layered moment with emotions that resonate differently the more you know. This is a scene about emotional masks, but it’s impactful precisely because each character chooses to wear a mask in the moment. There’s some hope, a lot of sadness, and a budding romance.
8
The Dream Zanarkand Opening Sequence
It’s Got a Little Bit of Everything, With a Soundtrack to Match
Final Fantasy X’s opening sequence is packed to the rafters with emotional moments. From the high-octane Blitzball match, complete with a banger of a soundtrack and Tidus’s easy celebrity, to the rapid destruction of Zanarkand and the introduction of Sin, this sequence is one of emotional highs and lows.
It’s my favorite Final Fantasy opening ever — yes, including Final Fantasy VII. I’m not sorry, and I won’t be taking notes. It’s got everything: spectacle, emotional weight, a little bit of mystery. Its presence at the start of the story turns Zanarkand into this looming thing that you’re waiting to see again throughout the entire story. When Tidus leaves Dream Zanarkand for the last time, you think that he’s probably going to return someday — but of course, he doesn’t. In a way, it’s a mirror of the ending, where Tidus once again leaves his home for an unknown future.
7
The Journey Through Mt Gagazet
Bleak, Futile, and Inevitable
The party’s journey through Mt Gagazet is one of the gloomiest parts of the game, since everyone knows what’s coming and there’s an air of resigned fate throughout. Dialogue becomes introspective and thoughtful, and the narrative hits you over the head with the futility and gravity of the summoner’s journey.
At this point in the game, you’re not entirely sure where everything’s going to go. Final Fantasy hasn’t shied away from tragedy in its past (remember Aerith?), so you can’t be sure that there’ll be a happy ending. This entire sequence has an air of quiet dread, albeit with an undercurrent of hope and defiance. The battles with Seymour, the revelations of the Fayth, and other character moments happening on this mountain give it an enduring emotional appeal that’s stood the test of time.
6
Auron’s Sending
Bittersweet, But a Long Time Coming
Auron’s sending is bittersweet, sad, and also oddly satisfying. Despite his grizzled appearance, Auron is just 35 years old. He’s had a pretty hard life (and unlife) to be fair: he’s completed a pilgrimage once before, and the experience left him fundamentally changed and riddled with grief, guilt, and a series of promises to keep. For Auron, much of his “life” during and after Braska’s Calm has been dedicated to fixing his regrets and fulfilling promises to dead friends.
Here, at the very end of the game and of his journey, the burden is lifted. And for Auron, that means it’s finally time to move on. When Yuna performs the sending, it’s a complex emotional moment: Auron finally gets to rest, but he doesn’t get to enjoy the Eternal Calm he was instrumental in creating. It’s sad, because Auron is going away forever, but happy, because he finally gets reunited with his friends in the Farplane, and it’s deeply satisfying, because it’s a fitting end to his emotional arc. Like much of FFX, it’s complex, but in a good way.
5
Auron’s Speech Before Yunalesca
Auron’s Second Chance at a Last Stand
Auron’s speech comes at one of the lowest points in the game, when the party (and us as players) are left reeling from a series of revelations that make everything seem even more pointless than it already had. Centuries of tradition built on top of sacrifices and lies, and duties carried out because there was no other choice in the moment.
At the moment before Yunalesca, the party faces a stark choice: follow the preordained path or choose something radical. Auron’s speech inspires the radical choice, a triumph of hope over fatalism. It’s one of the best Final Fantasy speeches, and its powerful message of challenging broken, outdated, and damaging systems is maybe more relevant than ever before — it’s an enduring emotional moment precisely because it’s so relatable.
4
Tidus Learning the Truth About the Final Summoning
Betrayal, Loss, and Despair
The moment where Tidus learns the truth about pilgrimage and the Final Aeon is a particularly powerful moment for a lot of different reasons. This marks the point where Tidus’s — and therefore our — innocence as players is finally and fundamentally smashed apart, and we’re left with cold, hard reality instead.
This one moment in the Al Bhed Home reframes so many different moments throughout the game. It makes the party’s strange behavior make sense, since they all already knew. It’s a massive emotional turning point for the game, and it makes us finally understand the pilgrimage in the same context as everyone else does.
3
The Kiss at Macalania Woods
Doomed, Tragic Romance and a Moment’s Relief
This is the big payoff moment for the Tidus/Yuna romance arc, and it’s a good one. It comes after a series of particularly hard and difficult revelations, boss battles, and story beats, so it’s a good reprieve from the main story. It’s hopeful, romantic, and doomed.
At this point, you know it’s only temporary, because Yuna is set on her pilgrimage, and everyone has grudgingly accepted it as what she wants to do. Still, there is a little hope, and the music and visuals give the scene extra emotional weight. It’s packed with sadness, tragic love, and a little bit of hope, but it feels restrained in a way that makes it feel sincere rather than saccharine. I’ve played FFX so many times now, but this scene always gets me.
2
The Truth About Tidus
Shocking Twist with More Questions Than Answers
Tidus learning the truth about his existence as a dream of the Fayth is one of gaming’s insane reveals, and it completely recontextualizes Tidus’s whole journey. It necessarily asks “what makes someone real?” and drops a huge bombshell that reverberates through the story.
Everything we know about Tidus comes under intense scrutiny, and since we’re watching Final Fantasy X largely through his eyes, it feels like a punch in the gut. This is a moment of intense shock, confusion, disbelief, and also, strangely, hope. But what’s compelling about this moment is that Tidus keeps on going, despite knowing that when the Fayth dies, so will he. It underlines a central theme of FFX: impermanence doesn’t mean something isn’t worth doing.
1
The Ending Sequence
Bittersweet, Emotionally Complex, and the Perfect Culmination of FFX’s Themes
It’s not quite a single moment, but the ending sequence is one with emotional payoffs for every major character arc. It sees Auron and Tidus fade away, Spira enters its Eternal Calm, and Yuna grapples with the reality that she’s survived even though the man she loved hasn’t. Like the rest of the game, it’s emotionally complex, without a single overriding emotion.
Yuna running through Tidus’s fading form is an iconic moment, and it underlines the tragic irony in that her enduring life is owed to the man she would have wanted to live it with, who simply cannot live it with her. It refuses a simple happy ending in favor of insisting that sometimes, it’s the journey that matters, rather than the destination. And that’s something that resonates strongly, even today.
- Released
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December 17, 2001
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
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Square Enix
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