Final Fantasy X



""Listen to my story. This...may be our last chance.""

The tenth game in the mind-crunchingly popular Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy X was the franchise's first foray onto the PlayStation 2, with suitably eye-popping graphics and a story which holds its own in a game franchise loaded with great stories.

The plot starts off rather chaotically, with Kid Hero and sports star Tidus preparing for a game of blitzball- a combination of rugby and water polo- which is very popular in the futuristic, hi-tech metropolis of Zanarkand where he lives. No sooner has the game begun than a mysterious Ronin-in-Red (who knew Tidus's father) appears, and with him, a gigantic sphere of watery doom which swoops down upon the city, reducing it to so much hi-tech neon kindling.

Tidus manages to escape from this disaster with his life, but is soon sucked into a mysterious wormhole that spits him out into Spira, a strange and unfamiliar world filled with ruins and Lost Technology. He finds himself rescued from starvation by a Genki Girl/Gadgeteer Genius named Rikku, who tells him that his home city of Zanarkand does exist in Spira, but as ruins: it was destroyed one thousand years previously.

Tidus soon learns of a great monstrosity called Sin which terrorizes Spira, destroying everything in its path. There exists a ritual for temporarily stopping Sin, which involves a pilgrimage that ends in the ruins of Zanarkand. He meets up with a shy young Summoner named Yuna, whose pilgrimage to Zanarkand is just beginning. Finding himself taken with her, and wishing to solve the mystery of why he has been seemingly thrown one thousand years into the future, Tidus travels with Yuna as one of her Guardians.

During the journey, Tidus makes a variety of new friends (and enemies):


 * Wakka, a blitzball fanatic with a Pidgin accent and a gravity-defying hairstyle which would make Guile from Street Fighter II implode with jealousy. Voiced by the guy who voiced Roronoa Zoro (in Japanese) and Bender (in English)!
 * Lulu, a goth-dressing Lady of Black Magic with a penchant for stuffed animals and an impressive amount of cle--, uh, belts.
 * Kimahri Ronso, Catfolk Proud Warrior Race Guy who communicates primarily in glowers.
 * Seymour Guado, a half-human member of the mysterious Guado race, famed for their long robes and their Picasso-esque hairstyles. He is also the son of their deceased leader, and would like to assure everyone that he is a kind public servant who wishes nothing but good upon the peoples of Spira. And that he will not, repeat, NOT be attempting to destroy the world later in a Sephiroth-esque orgy of megalomaniacal nihilism. Really. Also, the fact that he summons the Devil is completely coincidental.
 * Cid, Rikku's father, and leader of the Al Bhed. The game's obligatory curmudgeonly airship lieutenant.

The enemies faced by Tidus and our heroes include a Corrupt Church, a Nietzsche Wannabe, and a not-so-Sealed Evil in a Can with an insidious way of perpetuating itself. Along with Final Fantasy VI, and FFVIII, it's thought to have one of the best plots in the entire game series, if somewhat more linear gameplay than its predecessors and having some questionable voice acting (and is a worthy introduction of the franchise onto the PS2 console). It was successful enough to go against form and inspire a true sequel Final Fantasy X-2, which takes place two years after Final Fantasy X and stars two of the three main female characters from that game.

Notable for having roughly the same plot as an earlier Squaresoft title, Bahamut Lagoon, which was lampshaded with Final Fantasy X-2's airship named Celsius: the airship in Bahamut Lagoon is called Fahrenheit. Also notable for being the first game in the Final Fantasy series to include voice acting.

Music was composed by Masashi Hamauzu, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Junya Nakano, with arrangements from Nobuo Uematsu's compositions.

An HD remaster was released for Play Station 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, for PlayStation 4 in 2015 and for PC in 2016.

"Auron: Although he was not the man I once knew, was still my friend, Seymour. You will pay for his death!"
 * Abusive Parents: Jecht, of the emotional abuse type. Tidus spends most of the game hating him,.
 * Action Commands: Lulu's "Fury" Overdrive requires the player to rotate the right analog stick as fast as possible. Auron's "Bushido" techniques are activated via button combos, similar to the skills used by Sabin (Final Fantasy VI) and Zell (Final Fantasy VIII). Tidus' (timed button press) and Wakka's (slot machine reels) Overdrives also use action commands.
 * Action Girl: Lulu and Rikku, as well as Yuna in Final Fantasy X-2.
 * Adrenaline Makeover: Yuna toughens up considerably after discovering the truth about . Meeting Tidus helps too.
 * Affably Evil: Seymour and, to some extent, the other Maesters.
 * Alas, Poor Villain:
 * . He's not an especially likable character, but he was back stabbed by his own partner. In fairness, he really should have seen it coming. On the other hand, someone will miss him.

"Seymour: So it is you [Yuna] who will send me. But even after death, Spira's sorrow will prevail."
 * Seymour, especially upon.

"Jecht: You've really grown. Tidus: Yeah, but you're still bigger. Jecht: Well, I am Sin, you know. Tidus: That's not funny."
 * All Just a Dream: Inverted, bizarrely enough..
 * Always a Bigger Fish
 * And Man Grew Proud: Tidus thinks this is in effect when hears about the ruins, but its more.... complicated than that.
 * And Now You Must Marry Me: Part of Seymour's agenda is to get Yuna to marry him.
 * Anti-Villain:.
 * Antidote Effect: Played straight until you can customize weapons.
 * Apathetic Citizens: Subverted.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Played straight: only three characters can fight at a time, but simultaneously averted by letting you trade an active member for anyone in the Lazy Backup section at any time.
 * Arc Words: "This is my story", and variations thereof.
 * Arranged Marriage: Auron turned one down sometime before Braska's pilgrimage. In a way, too, although it was arranged by the former party.
 * Assimilation Plot
 * Awful Truth: In order to defeat Sin,.
 * Badass Longcoat: Auron.
 * Bad Bad Acting: In universe in the infamous laughing scene, done by Tidus and Yuna. That scene was a game made by Tidus as a way to relieve stress for the road ahead, and at first both force themselves to laugh, before really laughing about how ridiculous it sounded. However, this was before, so this makes the scene Harsher in Hindsight. Many people take this as Bad Bad Acting out of universe.
 * Bag of Spilling: In Final Fantasy X-2, in the traditional sense for Yuna and Rikku. In the first game, before "Tidus' Story" starts, Auron had completed the pilgrimage once, and Lulu has made it to, and none of them have the gear or abilities to show for it. You could argue that since ? Lulu doesn't Hand Wave away so easily though. Auron also mentions in the beginning of a battle that there wasn't as many fiends in his time. Could be that he just didn't get as much battle time in his first pilgrimage with Braska and Jecht. Fridge Brilliance: when entering The Cave of the Stolen Fayth, Lulu tells you about how she . Lulu didn't lose her skills prior to the game: she never had them. That's why.
 * Barrier Change Boss: Spherimorph changes between a different elemental weakness every few turns.
 * Beehive Barrier: The Protect spell manifests as this.
 * Begone Bribe: A learnable skill, which becomes rather useful due to the rare items some enemies leave behind them after using it. This even applies to some bosses.
 * Belated Happy Ending: In Final Fantasy X-2.
 * Beyond the Impossible: Penance, the Ultimate Dark Aeon, in the International version. At maximum character potential, it takes 30 MINUTES and can One Hit KO your characters.
 * BFS: Both Tidus and Auron wield these. So does Jecht,.
 * BGM Override: The trek down to Zanarkand is the most notable (and serves as the page quote for the trope), but the game does this for some other sequences as well, with a new spin on it due to the smooth transition from overworld to battles used some places.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The apparently-gibberish Hymn of the Fayth, if written down and then read in a certain manner, becomes a Japanese prayer to Yevon.
 * Bittersweet Ending:.
 * Black and White Morality: Slightly lost in the translation, but the Japanese kana for "Yevon" and "Al Bhed" can be read as "Ebon" and "Albedo"... "black" and "white". Now think about what those groups represent in-game, and... yeah.
 * Blatant Lies:.
 * Bleak Level: The beach, post-Sin wreckage.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Wakka has shades of this, although he's a bit more virtuous than most Boisterous Bruisers tend to be. Jecht, however, plays it straight. In Dissidia Final Fantasy, it's pretty much every single one of Jecht's lines.
 * Bold Inflation: Yuna is guilty of this, though this is at least partially a problem with actress Hedy Burress's performance. This trait was not present in the sequel, where many people noted said actress' performance had gotten significantly better. Word of God is that Hedy Burress tried to lip-sync with the digital representation of the character. As the former was speaking English, and the latter was lip-syncing Japanese, it made for some odd inflections. The sequel Final Fantasy X-2, had more effort put into the localization, syncing the character with the voice actor, rather than the voice actor syncing with the character.
 * Bonus Boss: 62 of them, by the loosest definition:.
 * Book Ends: The beginning of the game has Tidus washing up in Besaid. The Golden Ending of Final Fantasy X-2.
 * In addition, Tidus begins his narration of the story in the ruins of Zanarkand, and in the perfect ending of Final Fantasy X-2, for the end of their story.
 * Thirdly, after being sucked out of Zanarkand, Tidus awakens in a zero-gravity void above a ruined stadium. This is resides. It will take Tidus the entire game to get back here.
 * Booze Flamethrower: Auron does a variant for Tornado, one of his Overdrives. He creates a huge whirlwind, then throws his bottle of sake into it, and the whole thing bursts into flame. Through friction, maybe?
 * Breakout Character: Auron is badass. You may notice it reading this page. Jecht gets much love too.
 * Bring My Red Jacket: Auron has the signature red coat, but doesn't take much damage... mainly because.
 * But Thou Must!: The game plot runs on rails with a single way forward up to the point where you get the Global Airship... and at that point, you can go directly to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon or run around doing sidequests to get all the Infinity Plus One Swords and Bonus Bosses.
 * Calling the Old Man Out:.
 * Catfolk: The Ronso are a race of muscular, anthropomorphic feline humanoids from the world of Spira. The Ronso tribe lives at the base of Mt. Gagazet and guard the sacred mountain fiercely. They are formidable warriors, well known for their strong sense of honor and loyalty, as well as their pride and quickness to anger.
 * Chained by Fashion: Anima.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Tidus. He's a sports star, after all (it's also shown that blitzball stars train to hold their breath underwater for extended periods of time, which Handwaves why Wakka and Tidus can survive in underwater combat; Rikku presumably learned to do the same while serving aboard the Al Bhed salvage ship). Additionally, every single blitzball player.
 * Climax Boss: . The fight is fairly challenging and is preceded by a long, epic cutscene complete with a major plot twist.
 * Convenient Terminal Illness: is hinted to have had one, part of her reason for so readily agreeing to.
 * Cool Old Guy: Auron.
 * Cool Shades: Auron constantly sports these, except in flashbacks.
 * Corrupt Church: Guess what it is.
 * Crystal Spires and Togas
 * Cutscene Incompetence (also an example of Stupid Surrender): The party is unable to actually stop, since some guards are pointing guns at them. However, in regular battle, guards of the very same type with the very same guns aren't any more threatening than regular fiends.
 * Damsel in Distress: Subverted: Yuna is kidnapped by the Al Bhed, and when the party arrives to rescue her, she's already kicked some ass and is about to leave.
 * Data Crystal: Spheres are multi-purpose tools that are often used as video and audio recording devices.
 * Dead All Along: Since the nature of pyreflies and passing over allows any soul with a strong enough will to stay "alive" past their death so long as they are not sent to the Farplane by a summoner, there's quite a few of these that turn up over time in the game's plot. The most prominent secret Unsent is . A rather important scene reveals that . Furthermore, there's the minor character of . Final Fantasy X-2 reveals that is also an example of this.
 * Death By Pragmatism: The Al Bhed at Operation Mi'ihen. Full-on frontal assaults against Sin don't work unless you're the designated heroes. This is revealed to be a plot by . They let the Al Bhed and the Crusaders believe they stood a chance so that, when Sin destroyed them, they could point to them as heretics who got what was coming to them..
 * Deconstruction Fic: Quite a few, about how much it would hurt to accompany your surrogate baby sister to her inevitable death, which everyone (including her) wants to happen. In the Sequel, fics about Yuna hiding her pain.
 * Did Not Get the Guy: In the ending,.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Yunalesca, and to a more evident extent Sin, who is.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Ronso take great pride in their horns. "Hornless" is one of the biggest insults they have.
 * Doomed Hometown: Zanarkand.
 * The Dragon: ...
 * Dude, Not Funny:
 * Invoked:

"Rikku: Cover your eyes! *throws flash grenade* Seymour: *glances down directly at the grenade*"
 * Another example occurs when Wakka, trying to cheer Rikku up, makes a rather tasteless joke as the Al Bhed prepare to destroy Home. Rikku quite rightly chews him out for it, and if you speak to Wakka afterward, he admits that he really ought to have "kept his big mouth shut."
 * Eldritch Abomination: Sin is a giant aquatic beast that cannot be harmed by anything except OTHER Eldritch Abominations. Even then, its core will just possess the Aeon that killed Sin and grow into a new Sin within years. Some of the regular Aeons qualify as well. Anima might be terrifying when you see her face, but it's nothing compared to her full body. The fact that her power is based on pain itself doesn't help.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Almost. During, the Fayth give the team one last present: permanent Auto-Life, replete with a special animation.
 * Empathic Environment: Once you cross over the northern slopes of Mt. Gagazet, sunset begins, which becomes fully night once the party enters, dawn finally breaks.
 * Eviler Than Thou: You might think you're on a quest to defeat the ancient force of destruction known as Sin, but by the end of the game, you'd almost think the real Big Bad was.
 * Exotic Eye Designs: Al Bhed have swirly pupils.
 * Exposed to the Elements: Everyone, except maybe Auron in his Badass Longcoat, has this to a certain extent. Kimahri in particular wears little more than a loincloth, but he at least has fur. Auron is a bit of an inversion: his full clothing and longcoat is well suited to Mt. Gagazet and Macalania, but is less suitable for the tropical islands that make up most of the world. Not to mention Lulu's dress, which with the long sleeves and fur collar looks way too warm for someone who lives on a tropical island. May be justified in Auron's case, since . Rikku subverts it, where on Mt. Gagazet we see her hugging herself and shivering.
 * Exposition Break: So much so that the trope was originally named Maechen Period.
 * Exposition Fairy: If you ask him, the scholarly Maechen will fill you in on whatever region of Spira you happen to reach on the pilgrimage.
 * Expy: From Bahamut Lagoon, an earlier Square Soft game with a very similar plot: Yuna can be seen as an Expy of Yoyo, and Seymour as an expy of Sauzer. The Fayth have the same role as the Dragonites, and Yu Yevon has the same role as . Bahamut is... well, Bahamut.
 * Wakka is a lovable oaf who is unquestioningly loyal, is paired up with a short-tempered, bossy woman who keeps him in line, and has a Verbal Tic of asking for confirmation whenever he makes a statement. This sentence also describes Raijin from Final Fantasy VIII.
 * Jecht, Braska and Auron are just the buddy dynamic of Laguna, Kiros and Ward warmed over, except Jecht is what would have happened if Laguna was an alcoholic Jerkass who wasn't too good at being a father (then again, Laguna's )...
 * The main characters: a White Mage/Summoner, an Main Character with a specific purpose who is of a previous physical class in the series, a Token Non-Human, a Black Mage and a physical character who changes his beliefs due to said White Mage. Is that Yuna, Tidus, Kimahri, Lulu and Wakka or Garnet, Zidane, Freya, Vivi and Steiner?
 * Rikku is a perky teenage girl with shorts and some weird guard on her arm, with a knack for theft, and who comes from a culture which antagonizes the culture most the rest of the cast comes from. Yes, Rikku is so much an Expy for Yuffie that Yuffie substituted Rikku during the development of Kingdom Hearts and mostly it only involved changing the head in the design.
 * Eye Scream: Poor Auron. To be specific,.
 * Failure Knight:.
 * Fairytale Wedding Dress: wears one when.
 * Fan Disservice: starts off in her oh-so-revealing metal bikini, then you have her subsequent forms, which are anything but fanservice material.
 * Fan Service: All over the place. If we listed examples, it'd be half the page. The other half would just be the words "Auron" and "Badass".
 * Fantastic Racism: The treatment of the Al Bhed.
 * Fear of Thunder: Rikku is terrified of thunder and lightning ever since a misaimed lightning spell hit her as a child. This is Played for Laughs. It's interesting to note that this is an example of averted Gameplay and Story Segregation, seeing as after this revelation, Rikku will scream in panic every time she's hit by a Thunder spell. At the same time, Gameplay and Story Segregation is also played straight with this trope example. With the way the Sphere Grid works, it allows players to learn abilities from other characters, so there is nothing stopping Rikku, who is deathly afraid of thunder, from learning Thunder spells.
 * Feather Motif: Yuna's wedding dress contains a double dose of feather symbolism: first of her role as The Messiah (and thus divine/angelic), and second as a symbol of freedom and flight. Immediately after the ceremony, she.
 * Fighting From the Inside: does this if you attempt to talk to him using Tidus. After a couple of times, it stops working.
 * Five-Man Band: Tidus, Yuna and her guardians.
 * The Hero: Tidus.
 * The Lancer: Wakka.
 * The Smart Guy: Lulu.
 * The Big Guy: Kimahri.
 * The Chick: Yuna.
 * Alternativley:
 * The Hero: Tidus/Yuna.
 * The Lancer: Yuna/Tidus.
 * The Smart Guy: Auron.
 * The Big Guy: Kimahri/Wakka.
 * The Chick: Lulu/Rikku.
 * Five Races: Humans as the Mundane, Ronso as the Stout, Guado as the Fairy, Al Bhed as the High Men (they represent what Humans really are, when the roots of the Yevon religion are revealed), and the Hypello fill the role of the Cute. All except the Hypello have some significance to the plot.
 * Fixed Camera
 * Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Yuna's wedding dress.
 * Foot Focus: Yuna walking barefoot on the water to perform the Sending.
 * Forceful Kiss: Between . Very Squicky, indeed...
 * Foreshadowing:
 * In the prologue, Sin's gravity magic has an odd effect on Zanarkand, causing the towers to bend into weird shapes..
 * When Seymour notes that Auron . There's a good reason for that....
 * Four Is Death: There are four Maesters: the fourth one Seymour is one of the game's primary antagonists, and you have to kill him four times before he stays dead.
 * Foxy Grandpa: Auron.
 * A Friend in Need: The whole party of guardians fight to rescue Yuna from despite effectively declaring war on the Yevon church.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Numerous examples. This is an RPG, after all.
 * Global Airship: Because of the game's lack of world map, this is the only way to backtrack unless you want to do it all on foot.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: Most Al Bhed wear goggles or sunglasses at all times, presumably to hide their spiral green eyes.
 * Gratuitous German: Maester is the about closest you get to get the right pronunciation of Meister, which is German for "master". It's actually pronounced correctly in the Japanese version. Or did they borrow the spelling from George R. R. Martin, who uses the term 'maester' in A Song of Ice and Fire?
 * Gratuitous Spanish: In the Cactuar minigame, when you manage to beat a Cactuar, you get a sphere with the name of the Cactuar. Fail three times, however, and you get an item called "Sphere del Perdedor", which is Spanish for "Sphere of the Loser".
 * Ground Pound: Ironside's aptly-named "Body Splash".
 * Guest Star Party Member: Seymour, for one single boss fight.
 * Guide Dang It:
 * The only hint as to the location of is NPC chatter in Al Bhed and a hint from a few Guado in Guadosalam. And you still have to figure out how to get to Baaj Temple even once you've worked out that there's a Fayth there.
 * Hell, the whole Bevelle Cloister of Trials in general. It's nearly impossible to do without looking it up in a guide.
 * Same thing goes for one third of Tidus's Infinity+1 Sword. If you failed to pick it up, then you'll find Bonus Boss there to kick your ass when you retrace your steps (though this is only in the International/PAL version).
 * Many of the Celestial weapons require you to find treasure chests in totally obscure/not visible places while others require you to beat various mini-games and hidden bosses. Most of the mini-games are plainly obvious to find, but Kimahri's Spirit Lance requires you to pray to three random Qactuar stones in the Thunder Plains with the square button -- which is only used on the overhead map to recruit blitzball players -- and then follow an almost invisible ghost around. Oh, and the ghost doesn't appear on the north side of the plains where the majority of the stones are.
 * Healing Checkpoint: Save Points heal you and remove negative status ailments.
 * Hellish Pupils: Averted with the Al Bhed, whose pupils are spiral-shaped. Although they have a common reputation in Spira as violent, ungodly heretics, they're actually much nicer and more morally centered than most groups.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: Subverted. Because the game is almost entirely voiced, Tidus is addressed directly with variations of 'you' and 'newbie' or 'new guy'. When being spoken about, Tidus is replaced with pronouns and sometimes in the sequel as 'You-know-who'.
 * The Heretic: Upon learning the truth about Sin's origin, Yuna rejects the teachings of Yevon to pursue the monster to destruction.
 * Hero-Killer: The dark Aeons.
 * Heroic BSOD: Tidus' reaction to the fact that was (understandably) angsty, to say the least.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * An especially noble case, where.
 * The same goes with . In his case,.
 * All the summoners know that . However, this is more an example of, given.
 * There is also the You Shall Not Pass incident described in detail in that article..
 * Hey, You: Tidus is never referred to by name, and in at least once instance is actually addressed "Hey, you". This is due to the fact that his name is chosen by the player.
 * How We Got Here: The game opening has all of the main heroes assembled around a campfire, preparing to enter Zanarkand. A short narrative voiceover later, and the player is zipped back to the past to see how the whole thing got started. In fact, pretty much the first two-thirds of the game is one massive flashback.
 * Hufflepuff House: The Crusaders. They stick around in Final Fantasy X-2, rechristening themselves as the Youth league.
 * Hulk Speak: The Ronsos.
 * Idiot Ball: In a minor example, Seymour gets to hold it in one scene.
 * Idiot Ball: In a minor example, Seymour gets to hold it in one scene.

"Wakka: We gotta pay?! If we lose, you'll die too! Rin: I have confidence in your success."
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: While fighting against.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: One look at all the failed cosplay inspired by this game will tell you how hard this clothing is to reproduce. It's worth noting that Lulu is absent from many of the game's CGI movies, unless it's from the waist up. Her skirt is simply too abstract to hold up under dynamic camera angles or movements.
 * Impossibly Low Neckline: Lulu.
 * Improbable Hairstyle: Seymour. Even by JRPG standards.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Wakka fights fiends by chucking his blitzball at their heads and Lulu uses dolls as her weapon of choice. And in Wakka's, those blitzballs are clearly pretty hard and heavy, as are his throws. They'd have to be to have any sort of chance of going through water.
 * Improvised Zipline: The ship fires massive anchor cables into the building the characters need to get to, but since it's under fire, it can't stay long, so the party surfs down the cables onto the building.
 * Infinity-1 Sword: When visiting the Farplane for the first time, Tidus' sword Brotherhood gains buffs that make it the strongest weapon he'll be able to acquire until a good while later in the game.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Celestial weapons, once upgraded, are extremely powerful. However, the player may resort to creating even better customized weapons for some of the toughest bonus bosses.
 * The Ishmael: A fakeout trope. Tidus seems to be turning into this as the game progresses, since most of the drama centers around Yuna's pilgrimage. But then Auron reminds him "This is your story"...
 * Just Whistle: Tidus teaches Yuna to whistle in Luca, promising that if she ever does so, he will come running. One of the last scenes of the game is Yuna standing on a pier, whistling for him.
 * Kid with the Leash: Although a bit older than most, the summoning animations put a lot of emphasis on Yuna's role as this, often with her stroking or petting the monstrous Aeon before sending it into battle. The animation for Ixion has her literally using a bolt of lightning as a leash to pull Ixion out of a portal, and she hugs Valefor lovingly around the neck and pets her beak before sending her into battle. Some of the Aeons subvert this: Bahamut is so badass that he doesn't need to be petted (instead only forcing Yuna to stumble as he lands on the ground), and Anima's emergence cuts to Yuna with a "Did I really want to to do this?" look on her face.
 * Knight Templar: Maester Mika seems to carry out this trope. At a couple of different points, Auron mentions that Mika and Seymour are "not of one mind", and Mika would not approve of Seymour wanting to . In his conversation with the party right before he, Mika states that he doesn't want to see Spira destroyed by Sin, and genuinely thinks that there's no other way to stop it than sending summoners on their pilgrimages to bring about the Calm. The problem though is the means he and the rest of the church use to enforce the status quo, such as.
 * Last Girl Wins: Yuna is the last of the three female leads that Tidus meets, and he ends up kissing her in Macalania and starting a quasi-relationship with her that.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: Some versions of the manual that comes with the game feature advertisements for Final Fantasy X-2, including Yuna. Kinda makes the revelation a bit hollow.
 * Letter Motif
 * Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Lulu is the Dark Feminine, while Yuna is the Light Feminine.
 * Limit Break: Overdrives.
 * Lip Lock: Because this game happened to be the first Final Fantasy with spoken dialogue, the English voice acting in particular had several teething problems, such as having certain lines sped up noticeably to fit the Mouth Flaps. Some lines also become noticeably disjointed, creating awkward conversations which feel like multiple sound clips randomly placed together.
 * Literally Shattered Lives: A character who's petified can be shattered if they're hit while turned to stone. You won't be able to rotate in another character to replace them, and will have to continue the battle shorthanded. In underwater battles, anyone who's petrified immediately sinks like a stone and shatters without any chance to cure them... which can be highly enjoyable to watch if Rikku uses a Petrify Grenade on underwater fiends.
 * Literal Strawman: Yu Yevon is a good example of this. His belief system was totally wrong, and messed up the lives of millions of people. The only way to actually lose this battle is probably to petrify yourself, and even doing nothing Yu Yevon can defeat himself.
 * The Lonely Piano: The opening piece "To Zanarkand", though it's a bit more uplifting than most pieces of this trope.
 * Lost Forever: Many of the items in Bevelle and Home, for example. Watch for those Al Bhed Primers!
 * Love It or Hate It: James Arnold Taylor has said about his Love It or Hate It 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.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: . This is also handled very matter of factly:.
 * Made of Explodium: After Sin fires his Wave Motion Gun, the party watch as the valleys formed across the ocean and land begin to refill. As the ocean reforms, an understandable tsunami begins to form. However, as it draws closer to the cast, instead of meeting a giant wave, the earth begins to explode with enough force to knock the leading couple off their feet.
 * Magikarp Power: Not by the main cast: their individual talents generally remain useful throughout the game. Rather, it applies to a few of the recruitable Blitzball players.
 * Keepa starts on the Besaid Aurochs and, beyond his Catch stat (mediocre even among other low-level goalies), he's pretty lousy in all areas. But from level ~70 on, his shooting ability explodes... until he's easily the strongest forward available. Kind of satisfying. So if you plan on playing Blitzball a lot, it might be worth it to keep him signed. A level 99 Keepa is no one you want playing against you...
 * Magitek: The machinery wielded by the Al Bhed.
 * Manly Tears:.
 * Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest: The Monster Arena dispenses some.
 * Master of None: Kimahri. In a game where you'll be using your specialists most of the time, there's no real need for a multi-tasker. Level him well, and he'll be able to doublecast Ultima and use Quick Hit effectively far sooner than any other party member, so he will kick ass.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * One of the translations of Yuna's name could be "moon", referring to her quiet, calm personality. Not to mention that Tidus is derived from the Okinawan word "tida", which means sun, hence his bright and optimistic character. The game is well aware of this: the items you gather to make both character's Final Weapons are called "The Sun Crest" and "The Moon Crest", respectively.
 * Or Sin, besides being an obvious name to give something that you believe is the embodiment of the population's... sins, Sin is also the name of the Babylonian moon god. Makes sense when you consider Sin's affinity for the ocean and its powers over gravity.
 * The spelling of Tidus is also similar to 'tides'. What is it that affects the tides, and what is Yuna named after?
 * A more subtle one: The Japanese way of saying Sin's name is "Shin", which can be translated as "Truth", as in the truth that's being concealed about it. It's also the word for "death". Considering what it leaves in its wake, rather appropriate.
 * Mismatched Eyes: Yuna is half Al Bhed, and as a result has one green eye (though she lacks the spiral pupil that most Al Bhed have) and one blue.
 * Mr. Exposition: Lulu and Auron. But especially Maechen.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Lulu.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * After a series of events that force Yuna on the run, she ends up stating that after what has happened, "nobody will build a statue of me". The Ronso present reply "Then if nobody else will, the Ronso will! With a grand horn on head,", which refers both to the importance of Ronso horns, and to the fact that the summoner job classes in earlier games in the series had horns on their forehead in the same place the Ronsos do.
 * Not many realize it, thanks to its No Export for You status, but Valefor first appeared in the early Squaresoft title Bahamut Lagoon. That makes all the summons except Ixion Mythology Gags from one Square game or another.
 * Nintendo Hard: Many of the minigames required to fully-power the Celestial Weapons.
 * Most notoriously, the Catcher Chocobo minigame which nets you the Sun Sigil required for Tidus' Celestial Weapon. Many a controller has been smashed in a fit of rage due to this minigame. This is one of the most memorable examples of Fake Difficulty on the PlayStation 2. The controls are difficult to manage, and more than that, it's mostly a Luck-Based Mission. There are some people who can inexplicably win four-out-of-five times, but for many others it often requires three or more hours of hair-tearing frustration to finally succeed.
 * Lightning Dodging is a close second to Catcher Chocobo, though it thankfully relies more on skill than luck.
 * No Hero Discount: Rin is still charging you for weapons and items despite the fact that the airship they are on is being attacked by a giant monster. This is actually lampshaded:

"Auron: (after seeing a statue of Braska in a temple) So you're a champion of Yevon now, Braska?"
 * Not Completely Useless: Kimahri's much more useful than many people give him credit for because of how adaptable he can be. Depending on the abilities you give him, he can function as a valuable backup mage, inflict additional status effects, and so on. On top of that, he's the only other party member besides Auron whose weapons usually have the Piercing trait, which can be pretty useful at the start of the game before Auron actually joins you.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: The second half of the final dungeon. The tense music cranks the paranoia all the way up, and those damn pieces of the floor that suddenly bar your path with a loud noise certainly don't help. It gets worse when you have the No Encounters ability equipped, preventing random encounters from breaking the tension.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Tidus is generally not guilty of this, because he really is new to Spira. But when Wakka shows him the "Yevon prayer", which Tidus knows as the blitzball "victory" sign, he seems to be deliberately doing it much more shakily than he'd know how to do.
 * The Obi Wrong: Auron.
 * Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Tidus unintentionally does this often. After The Reveal, he has a few minutes of Heroic BSOD when he thinks about how bad saying these things must have hurt Yuna (although, it turns out that she was okay with it). If you go and replay the game, it's quite startling to see the situations knowing the truth of what they're all thinking. Particularly the scenes in Djose Temple, the Moonflow, and when Yuna gets out of Luzzu's way right before Operation Mi'ihen.
 * Obviously Evil: Seymour, you're not fooling anyone. And even if he was, his Leitmotif isn't.
 * Oh Crap: The only way to describe Tidus' look when he faces Penance... Jump to 1:43.
 * One-Time Dungeon: The Bevelle temple and the Via Purifico.
 * One-Winged Angel: The monstrous boss forms of.
 * Opposing Sports Team: The Goers are painted this way in the beginning, and in the mandatory minigame segment. After that, it fades away because more important issues are taking center stage.
 * Opposites Theme Naming: Tidus is a romanization of "Tidaa", which is Okinawan for "sun"; Yuna, on the other hand, is Okinawan for "night".
 * Outrun the Fireball:.
 * Party Scattering: Sin splits up the characters and sends them across Spira. Luckily, most of them are pretty close together, and it doesn't take too long for them to meet up again. Unluckily, Yuna was sent to a completely different city, and the player must do without her until the party can find her again.
 * Patchwork Map: Spira.
 * Path of Inspiration: The Church of Yevon, an arguably greyer example of the trope.
 * Petal Power: Yojimbo's Zanmato attack.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Lulu's dress.
 * Pluralses: The Hypello talk this way.
 * Poe's Law: Say, ever hear about that laughing scene? You know where Tidus and Yuna laugh like they went crazy? The scene that's held up as an example of bad English dubbing? Well, guess what... it's identical in the Japanese version, except that Tidus sounds like a crow and not a seagull because the entire point of that sequence is that Tidus and Yuna are faking it: most people spreading this were either making fun of it (because they sound like birds!) or took it out of context... or completely ignored what happened afterwords ("We thought you had gone crazy!").
 * Post-Mortem Conversion: In life, Braska was a thorn in the side of the Church who reached out to the Al-Bhed. After his death, they try to turn him into a hero of the Church and make sure that everyone forgets about his true feelings and actions.

" Talk> Auron:"
 * Posthumous Character: This is how we get the surprisingly complex Character Development for Jecht..
 * Practical Taunt: Tidus's Provoke skill, if successful, makes an enemy attack him only, or even drive down the enemy's accuracy. It sounds like a spell, but it's performed through a rude gesture and sometimes a verbal taunt. "Hey, hey, hey!"
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: The cast try, but only Auron gets it right, and boy does he get it right. For example, when coming into battle with wounded allies and facing a two giant metal humanoids with three-story swords, what does he say? "I foresee no difficulty."
 * Pretty in Mink: Lulu's neckline. Odd in that she was born and raised on a tropical island.
 * Proud Warrior Race: The Ronso.
 * Rage Against the Mentor: Averted with Auron, who tells Tidus a little bit more than he is willing to hear each time he asks, never really holding back except for a couple of things.
 * Random Number God: Although the blitzball tutorial specifically notes that there is some deviation when it calculates the chance of successful passes/shots/etc, you seem to get the low end of the stick unusually often....
 * Recurring Traveller: A couple of people, including the merchant O'aka, the wandering scholar Maechen, and other summoners going on their own pilgrimages.
 * The Reveal: There are plenty of reveals in this world of stagnant tradition and ancient dogma, but three stand out as plot-pivotal. Each of them are personal to Tidus, and each is handled differently.
 * . Early in the game, Auron flat-out tells Tidus that Jecht became Sin. Tidus keeps this to himself though, and Auron never mentions the first part, so the pieces don't get put together until the end.
 * . Everybody knows this except Tidus the outworlder, and nobody has the nerve to tell him.
 * . Tidus alone learns this, and keeps it a secret so the party will finish their quest.
 * Revive Kills Zombie: And it can be used to One-Hit Kill (well, actually two-hit kill, but close) a boss! And if it wasn't enough, you can zombify your opponents for this purpose, including.
 * Role-Playing Game
 * Ronin: The Samurai Auron, who has all of the traditional ronin festoonery, down to the sake bottle hanging on his belt.
 * Rousing Speech: Auron has one:
 * Sad Battle Music: "Someday the Dream Will End", which plays both as the field and battle music in Zanarkand.
 * Scenery Porn: It's almost impossible not to be awe-struck with some of the backgrounds. The Farplane and pyreflies are especially noticeable... while the scenes in the Farplane take place on a barren stoney platform, it was shortly shown as actually being covered with flowers in a large landscape with a sunset, rainbows and beautiful waterfalls. Final Fantasy X-2 has a character wondering if the Farplane is creepingly pretty... or pretty creepy.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Basically what you're saying every time you have Yojimbo use Zanmato.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right:
 * When.
 * This is also how Tidus meets Yuna.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here:, after learning of the defeat of , decides to send himself rather than face a seemingly unstoppable Sin.
 * Schizo-Tech: Probably the most thoroughly explained example in the entire series. Advanced technology/machina like that used by the Al Bhed are outlawed by Yevon's teachings, as the technology is more or less the same of that of the allegedly-corrupt and decadent civilization of Zanarkand. The restrictions on robots and More Dakka do not apply to the religious authorities, however.
 * Sculpted Physique:.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Auron.
 * Shipper on Deck: Auron with Yuna and Tidus.
 * Shout-Out:
 * "I am a summoner, like my father before me", is a clear shout out to Return Of The Jedi; also, Biggs and Wedge are recruitable blitzball players.
 * Not to mention 's Mortiorchis form being a near-copy of the Gundam GP03 Orchis; see also Emerald Weapon.
 * The name of Cid's airship, Fahrenheit, is a reference to an airship in Bahamut Lagoon, an older Squaresoft title. This is continued in Final Fantasy X-2 with another airship named the Celsius.
 * The puzzle room in Zanarkand Ruins uses Tetris pieces in a really bizarre way.
 * One of the optional Aeons is Yojimbo, completely with a flower petal motif, which is quite similar to the scene from Sanjuro, in the summoning animation.
 * "He said he went to Macarana Temple." "Macalania Temple." "Aye!"
 * The BGM "Hopeless Desire" bears more than a passing resemblance to "Greensleeves".
 * One of the earlier bosses is an octopus-like creature named Tros.
 * Anima bears a resemblance - in both form and origin - to Eva-01.
 * When you think about it, you can't help but notice some similarities between Final Fantasy Xs ending and Final Fantasy VIs ending: ...
 * Sibling Team: The Magus Sisters, especially their Delta Attack Overdrive.
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor:.
 * Skill Slot System: The Sphere Grid mainly.
 * Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke: The Aeons, especially Ifrit.
 * Smash Mook: Aside from the Iron Giant, we have Ironsides: giant fiends encased in a thick, armor-like shell.
 * Socketed Equipment: By another name, true, but it's basically how the Item Crafting mechanic works.
 * Sole Entertainment Option: This constitutes a rather bizarre example, as it makes the entertainment Blitzball very integral to the plot.
 * Songs in the Key of Lock
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: Both on the final road to and during the Bonus Boss fight with.
 * Species Surname: Kimahri Ronso, Seymour Guado, et al.
 * Spoiled by the Manual: The manual spoils a lot of the early game:
 * Kimahri first mistakes Tidus for an enemy and attacks him... but since Kimahri is listed as a party member in the manual, the player knows in advance that the hostility won't last for long.
 * Likewise, Auron and Rikku are listed as party members in the manual.
 * The manual lists four of the first aeons by name and description.
 * Stat Grinding: The Sphere Grid system.
 * Stepford Smiler: Played with in Yuna. She is a bit of a Broken Bird, but she isn't smiling to hide a flaw of her own. She's smiling to give Spira hope.
 * The Stoic: Auron incarnates this trope..
 * Stripperiffic:
 * The breast-baring regency gown worn by Lulu, Rikku with her short shorts, and Shiva overall.
 * Yunalesca and her metal bikini, which consists of a thong and cleavage-exposing bra.
 * Dona, who looks more like a hooker than a summoner.
 * Lucille of the Chocobo Knights trio.
 * Stylistic Suck: The laughing scene. In-story, it's supposed to be horribly forced and hollow.
 * Suicide by Cop:.
 * Super Not-Drowning Skills: Tidus, Rikku, Wakka. And any other blitzball players.
 * Supporting Protagonist: Tidus seems to be this for most of the game: many players are a little startled when he suddenly declares, "No, wait: this is MY story."
 * Taken for Granite: The Fayth are statues that house the souls of people who provide the power for the summoned creature. Many fiends can also petrify you... but you can also petrify them as well, with the right spells and items.
 * Tech Points: Final Fantasy X takes the unusual step of basically replacing Experience Points with these, renaming them "Sphere Levels" and providing a "Sphere Grid" for a Point Build System... except for how progression through it is essentially linear (Final Fantasy X-2 went back to standard levels).
 * Technicolor Death: This is integrated into the plot: When monsters are killed, the pyreflies they're made of emanate from their remains.
 * Those Two Guys: Luzzu and Gatta..
 * Tomato in the Mirror:.
 * Took a Level in Badass:
 * Yuna starts out as a peaceful, quietly devout girl, but as the game continues, she gets increasingly powerful Aeons, busts out of a kidnapping attempt,.
 * She gains several more levels in Final Fantasy X-2. "I don't like your plan. It sucks."
 * The game does this for the entire summoner class. The bread and butter of the summoner's ability is summoning powerful monsters to attack enemies but they don't really have much power on their own. Summoners in past games augmented their abilities by being proficient with other magic (Rydia and Dagger for example). But in Final Fantasy X, a summoner created Sin and terrorized the world for a thousand years solely through the art of summoning. The summoner's identity?.
 * Too Many Belts: Lulu wears a dress made of belts. It was also to try to challenge the graphics designers anyway.
 * Tragic Monster:
 * Not to mention Anima..
 * Tranquil Fury: Auron. Seriously, nothing can faze this dude.
 * Except during the second battle with Seymour:
 * Except during the second battle with Seymour:


 * Translation Convention: A rare exception, in that the game doesn't translate the language spoken by the Al Bhed. It does, however, allow the player to collect primers which will interpret their spoken and written language.
 * Trapped in Another World: Tidus, although his relationship to this new world may not be what he thinks it is.
 * Undeath Always Ends: Yuna ends up sending at the end of the game after he insists that he's "been here long enough... This is your world now."
 * Underground Monkey
 * Underwater City
 * Underwater Kiss: Between . An iconic moment for the game.
 * Useless Useful Spell: The instant death spell, by the time you get it, anything worth using it on is immune to it.
 * Vacuum Hurricane Kick: The Jecht shot seems to involve doing twenty-some revolutions while hovering at the apex of your jump for five seconds. What's interesting is how the shot is used both underwater and on land, and is just as implausible in either scenario.
 * Verbal Tic:
 * Wakka ends a lot of his sentances with "ya?".
 * Maechen ends every lecture (some of which border of Daravon-calibre boringness) with "And that, as they say, is that."
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon:.
 * Vicious Cycle: Sin's death and rebirth. Every time Sin died before, it just came back..
 * Video Wills: sphere. Eventually, once he realizes 's Spheres become this.
 * Villain Decay: After defeating, he drops out of significance in the plot and eventually becomes a complete joke. Not even the main characters take him seriously anymore, with Tidus' reaction to their final confrontation being one of simple annoyance.
 * Ironically, he becomes tougher as a boss, so I guess it all balances out?
 * Visionary Villain:
 * Seymour and his plan to purify Spira.
 * Also.
 * "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Sinspawn Gui. It's the first boss that can genuinly wipe the floor with your party.
 * Watching the Sunset: Tidus and Yuna at the travel agency in Mi'ihen.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: . "Extremist" being a huge understatement.
 * White Magician Girl: Yuna hits this trope on nearly every point: feminine and sweet, primarily a White Mage, and The Heart of the party.
 * With a Friend and a Stranger: With the protagonist as stranger variation, and a trio of friends instead of a duo.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: . Then again, given that his own mother admits that he's driven completely by a lust for power and has become a Complete Monster Omnicidal Maniac who wants to destroy the world For the Evulz, it's kinda hard to make him sympathetic in the first place.
 * Wrench Wench: Rikku, and how.
 * You Bastard: To get the sigil for Rikku's Ultimate Weapon, you have to hunt down and fight some Cactuars. Each one is introduced individually, with a name and personality. First, the cactuar stone tells you their names and where you can find them (e.g. Tomay - Gone to fetch the water, be back soon). When you've killed them all, the stone reads it all again, but instead of "be back soon" after each one it says "gone for good", and it's actually quite chilling.
 * Zen Survivor: Auron.
 * Zero Effort Boss:.

"...And that, as they say, is that."