Plot
While in the Malfoy Manor, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters plan to ambush Harry Potter when he leaves the Dursley home with the Order of the Phoenix for the final time. Voldemort takes Lucius Malfoy's wand, in the hope that it will be able to kill Harry.
Meanwhile, Harry disposes of things he would not need, as he does not plan to go back to study at Hogwarts – notably, his Quidditch robes. Indeed, Harry would not have this year an occasion to play Quidditch; however, on three key occasions – getting hold of the Hufflepuff Cup and the Ravenclaw Diadem, and during the final fight with Voldemort – the "unerring skill of the Seeker" would be vitally useful to him in snatching an object out of the air.
Members of the Order of the Phoenix are ambushed by Death Eaters as they attempt to escort Harry from the Dursleys' to a safe house by broomstick using decoys. Harry's wand, seemingly of its own accord, countercurses Voldemort when Harry is attacked, allowing him to narrowly escape. Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody are killed, and George Weasley loses an ear.
The trio go to The Burrow where Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrives to give Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger bequests from Albus Dumbledore's will. Ron receives the Deluminator, Hermione is left a children's book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Harry inherits Godric Gryffindor's Sword and a Snitch, bearing the mysterious phrase "I open at the close". The Ministry claimed the sword to be “an important historical artefact”, however, and kept it.
At Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding reception, a Patronus, conjured by Kingsley Shacklebolt arrives, announcing that the Ministry of Magic has fallen under Voldemort's control, and that Ministry officials, and Death Eaters are on their way to The Burrow at that moment. As the wedding dissolves into chaos, Death Eaters approach, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione disapparate to Tottenham Court Road, where they hide in an empty cafe to plan their next move. However, the Death Eaters find them there and they narrowly escape. They eventually find and take refuge in 12 Grimmauld Place.
While at Grimmauld Place, Harry deduces that Sirius Black's brother Regulus was the "R.A.B" who removed the Locket Horcrux from the sea cave.[HP6] Hermione recalls seeing a locket whilst cleaning the house, and they discover that the house-elf Kreacher had stolen the locket from the items to be thrown out. Kreacher tells them that he had placed the Locket Horcrux in the cave as ordered by Voldemort, and Regulus later died after retrieving it and deceiving Voldemort. With the help of Kreacher and Mundungus Fletcher they learn that the locket is now in Dolores Umbridge's possession. The trio successfully infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and recover the locket. However, Grimmauld Place is compromised when they return, forcing them to flee to the countryside.
The trio begin to travel the country, looking for Horcruxes and the means to destroy them. Overhearing a discussion between Griphook the goblin, Dean Thomas, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, and Gornuk (another goblin), the trio learn that the Sword of Gryffindor that is held at Hogwarts is a fake. Harry decides to find the real sword that can destroy the Horcruxes; some time after this Ron and Harry argue over Harry's lack of a plan, after which Ron abandons the group. Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric's Hollow, as well as Harry's old house. While looking at the house, Harry and Hermione are beckoned by Bathilda Bagshot into her home. Knowing something is not right, Harry follows her upstairs, where she transforms into Nagini. Voldemort himself appears almost immediately after. Hermione casts a Blasting Curse that ricochets around the room, facilitating their escape, but also irreparably damaging Harry's wand. When Voldemort realises they have escaped him, his fury is so strong that Harry is forced to see Voldemort's memory of the night he had killed Harry's parents, leading Harry to fall unconscious.
Hermione apparates Harry to the Forest of Dean. While he is on watch, a silver doe-shaped Patronus leads Harry to an icy pond containing the real Sword of Gryffindor. As Harry dives into the freezing water to retrieve it, the locket Horcrux starts strangling him. Ron, who was guided back to the pair by the Deluminator that Dumbledore gave him, saves him. Ron recovers the sword and destroys the locket with it. Ron warns that Voldemort's name is now Tabooed: speaking it reveals the speaker's location to Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
The mysterious recurring symbol is revealed to represent the legendary Deathly Hallows.
The trio learn from Xenophilius Lovegood that the symbol they have encountered represents the three Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. Xenophilius tells them about the Deathly Hallows and the story of the Three Brothers who each took respective "gifts" from Death. When pressed about Luna's absence, Lovegood admits that Death Eaters abducted her. Hoping for Luna's return, he has alerted Death Eaters of the trio's whereabouts, but the trio escape. Shortly after this escape, Harry figures out that the Invisibility Cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows.
Soon after, Harry accidentally uses the name of Voldemort, and the trio are captured by a gang of Snatchers, led by one of Voldemort's followers and taken to Malfoy Manor, where they join the imprisoned Luna, Dean, Mr Ollivander, and Griphook. Finding Gryffindor's Sword among the trio's possessions, Bellatrix Lestrange fears they have broken into her Gringotts vault, and tortures Hermione for information. Help arrives in the form of Dobby, who apparates into the cellar and rescues Luna, Dean and Ollivander. This attracts the attention of Lucius Malfoy, who summons Wormtail to the cellar to check on the prisoners. As he enters the cellar, Harry and Ron attack Wormtail.[HP4] Harry reminds Wormtail of his life debt after Harry saved his life.[HP3] Wormtail hesitates and is subsequently strangled to death by his own silver hand for his betrayal. Harry and Ron rush upstairs to rescue Hermione; Ron disarms Bellatrix and Harry takes Draco Malfoy's wand. Dobby reappears, and they disapparate to Bill and Fleur's Shell Cottage; Dobby is struck by Bellatrix's knife during the escape, and dies afterwards. Voldemort, having been alerted to Harry being captured, arrives at Malfoy Manor almost immediately after Harry escapes and tortures the remaining Death Eaters. He then leaves them, goes to Hogwarts, and takes the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb.
At the cottage, Ollivander confirms the Elder Wand's existence and says that a wand can transfer allegiance if its owner is defeated or disarmed. Ollivander adds a caveat: although the Elder Wand is unbeatable, its master is not. Bellatrix's behaviour convinces the trio that another Horcrux is hidden in the Lestrange vault. Aided by Griphook, they penetrate Gringotts' defences and retrieve Hufflepuff's Cup, although they lose the sword to Griphook in the process. The trio escape Gringotts on the back of a guard dragon. Voldemort is then informed of the theft of the cup, and realises that his Horcruxes are being destroyed; through his mental connection to Harry, he unintentionally reveals that another Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts.
In Hogsmeade, Aberforth Dumbledore is able to smuggle the trio out of Hogsmeade and into Hogwarts. Harry alerts everyone in Hogwarts of Voldemort's imminent arrival. Luna Lovegood suggests that the fifth Horcrux could be Ravenclaw's lost diadem. Harry recalls seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement when he hid his Potions book there the previous year. Meanwhile, Hermione destroys the Cup Horcrux with a basilisk fang. Various allies of Harry gather in the school, where the Battle of Hogwarts commences. In the Room of Requirement, Ron mentions that the house elves are still in the kitchens and in danger, whereupon Hermione runs over to Ron and kisses him.
While the trio are in the Room of Requirement, Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle attack them. Crabbe mishandles the powerful Fiendfyre spell, killing himself and destroying the diadem, but the others escape unharmed.
During the battle, several of the Weasley brothers are duelling members of the Ministry of Magic. Percy and Fred are duelling the corrupted Minister Pius Thicknesse, when an explosion rocks the corridor, shattering one wall and killing Fred instantly.
Harry catches a glimpse of Voldemort's mind again, and it leads the trio to the Shrieking Shack. Here they witness Voldemort kill Snape, believing it will make him the Elder Wand's master. Voldemort leaves the Shack, and the trio approaches the dying Snape. As Snape dies, he gives his memories to Harry that prove Snape's loyalty to Dumbledore, motivated by his lifelong love for Harry's mother Lily. After being cursed by Gaunt's Ring Horcrux, a doomed Dumbledore had ordered Snape to kill him at a strategic time, sparing Draco from carrying out Voldemort's order to murder him. The memories also reveal that Harry himself is a Horcrux; he must die in order to destroy Voldemort.
Resigned to death, Harry leaves to go to Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, and meets Neville Longbottom, whom he asks to kill Nagini if he gets the chance. Along the way, he realises that the Snitch holds the Resurrection Stone inside it, and is able to retrieve it, whereupon he summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black and the recently killed Remus Lupin, who accompany him to Voldemort's camp. Voldemort then casts the Avada Kedavra curse at Harry.
Awakening in an ethereal place that looks to him like King's Cross station, Harry is unsure whether he is alive or dead. Dumbledore appears and explains that Voldemort's Horcrux within Harry has been destroyed. He says that just as Voldemort cannot die while his soul fragments remain, Voldemort cannot kill Harry because he used Harry's blood in his resurrection.[HP4] Voldemort's killing curse instead destroyed the unknown fragment of Voldemort's own soul that lay inside Harry. Harry glimpses a representation of Voldemort's true self: a weeping, deformed child whom Dumbledore describes as "beyond any of our help." Harry is then given the chance to return to the battle, being advised that he could possibly end it once and for all.
Harry revives, but feigns death. Voldemort orders Narcissa Malfoy to check Harry. Doing so, she realises that Harry is alive, and she asks him very quietly if her son Draco is still alive, to which Harry whispers yes. Narcissa, no longer caring about anything but her son, lies to Voldemort, telling him that Harry is dead. Harry is carried to Hogwarts as Voldemort's trophy by the captured Hagrid and is displayed to agonised supporters gathered in the school entrance hall. When Neville Longbottom defies an invitation from Voldemort to join the Death Eaters (due to his pureblood status), the Sorting Hat is thrust onto his head and set aflame.
Grawp, the centaurs, and the giants add to a sudden disturbance caused by reinforcements from Hogsmeade residents and students' families yelling war cries as they spill over the walls of the school. Neville then pulls off the Sorting Hat, draws Gryffindor's Sword from it, and decapitates Nagini with a single stroke, destroying the final Horcrux. Harry moves around under his Invisibility Cloak and lends aid throughout the ensuing battle, as his supporters rally to defy Voldemort and the Death Eaters one last time. More reinforcements arrive in the form of the house-elves of Hogwarts, whipped into a fighting frenzy by Kreacher, they attack the Death Eaters with knives. Eventually, the battle pares down to Voldemort simultaneously dueling Professors McGonagall and Slughorn, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt. Likewise, Bellatrix engages Hermione, Ginny and Luna in a fight. After Bellatrix tries to strike Ginny with a Killing Curse, she is confronted and killed by Mrs Weasley. Furious at losing his most loyal servant, Voldemort blasts his opponents off their feet. Harry casts a Shield Charm to prevent Voldemort from harming Mrs Weasley. Then, knowing that he is the Elder Wand's true master, Harry finally takes off the Invisibility Cloak and confronts Voldemort. Unable to get Voldemort to even try feeling remorse, which could possibly have saved him, Harry informs Voldemort that when Draco disarmed Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower, he unknowingly became the Elder Wand's master;[HP6] this allegiance was then transferred to Harry when he won Draco's wand at Malfoy Manor. Voldemort then casts another Killing Curse at Harry, but the Elder Wand's allegiance prevents it from harming its Master, and the spell rebounds off Harry's disarming spell, killing Voldemort, and leaving Harry victorious.
Among the fatalities are Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and fifty other people who died fighting the Death Eaters, as well as Voldemort and Bellatrix. Harry accepts thanks from his supporters and helps to comfort the grieving. He slips away to the Headmaster's Office and is greeted by thunderous applause from the previous Headmasters' portraits. With the help of Dumbledore via his portrait, Harry decides that the Elder Wand should be returned to Dumbledore's tomb, where its power will be extinguished if he (Harry) dies undefeated, that the Stone will be left and forgotten in the Forbidden Forest, and that the Cloak would continue to be a Potter family heirloom. Before returning the Elder Wand to the tomb, Harry uses it to repair his own wand, which was previously thought to have been irreparably damaged. He then looks forward to sleeping in his bed in Gryffindor Tower, wondering if Kreacher would bring him a sandwich there.
Epilogue
Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron married Hermione and has two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy and his wife are also there with their son, Scorpius. Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Victoire Weasley (Bill and Fleur's daughter) in a train carriage. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and remains friends with the two families. The book ends with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."
Rowling's commentary and supplement
In an interview,[44] online chat,[7][45] the Wizard of the Month section of her website, and during her 2007 U.S. Open Book Tour, Rowling revealed additional character information that she chose not to include in the book. The first bits of information were about the trio and their families, starting with Harry.
She said that Harry became an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and was later appointed head of the department. He also kept Sirius's motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after the destruction of Voldemort's soul fragment within him. She also said that Ginny Weasley played for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, then left to establish a family with Harry, and later became the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Ron Weasley worked at George's store for a time, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and then joined Harry as an Auror. Hermione found her parents in Australia, and removed the memory modification charm she had put on them for safety. Initially, she worked for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves. She later moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and assisted in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. She was also the only member of the trio to go back and complete her seventh year at Hogwarts. Rowling then went on to explain that Dumbledore's relationship with Gellert Grindelwald extended beyond mere friendship; indeed, Rowling has revealed that "Dumbledore is gay, actually",[46] and harboured romantic feelings for Grindelwald.[47] Next, Rowling revealed the fate of Voldemort. After his death, he was forced to exist in the stunted form Harry witnessed in the King's Cross limbo, as his crimes were too severe for him to become a ghost.
Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters, starting with the Weasleys. George Weasley continued his successful joke shop. George married fellow Quidditch player Angelina Johnson and had two children: a son named Fred, in memory of his late twin brother, and a daughter, Roxanne. Next, Rowling proceeded to explain Luna Lovegood's future, saying that she searched the world for odd and unique creatures. She eventually married Rolf, a grandson of the famed naturalist Newt Scamander,[45] writer of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. They have twins called Lorcan and Lysander. Her father's publication, The Quibbler, has returned to its usual condition of "advanced lunacy" and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.
Rowling then gave briefer histories on some more of the minor characters, as follows. Draco Malfoy's wife, Astoria (or Asteria), was the younger sister of his Slytherin classmate Daphne Greengrass. Percy Weasley married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters, named Molly and Lucy. Firenze was welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledged the virtue of his pro-human leanings. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns. Cho Chang went on to marry a Muggle.[48] Viktor Krum found love in his native Bulgaria.[49] Neville Longbottom became professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and married Hannah Abbott, who became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.[50] Bill and Fleur Weasley had a total of three children, a younger son named Louis, and two daughters, named Dominique and Victoire.
Rowling also revealed further transformations in the wider wizarding world as follows. Kingsley Shacklebolt became the permanent Minister of Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, Azkaban no longer used Dementors. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also instrumental in reforming the Ministry.[7] At Hogwarts, Slytherin House became more diluted and no longer held the title as the pure-blood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingered.[7] Voldemort's jinx on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position was broken with his death, and there was a permanent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher stated. Harry also is said to come to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class to lecture several times a year.[44] Lastly, Rowling says that a portrait of Snape, who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, had not appeared in the headmaster's office, as he had abandoned his post. Harry then ensures the addition of Snape's portrait, and publicly revealed Snape's true allegiance.[7]
Critical reception
The Baltimore Sun's critic, Mary Carole McCauley, praised the series as "a classic bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tale." She noted that "[b]ook seven... lacks much of the charm and humor that distinguished the earlier novels. Even the writing is more prosaic", but then observed that given the book's darker subject matter, "how could it be otherwise?"[51]
Reviewer Alice Fordham from The Times writes that "Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable." Fordham concludes, "We have been a long way together, and neither Rowling nor Harry let us down in the end."[52]
By contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor says that while "There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from its brilliantly realised magical world to its multilayered narrative," however, "A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not just inevitable, but hollow."[53]
Stephen King criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.[54] He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book, but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the writing style disappointing, he felt it had matured and improved. He acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult, and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.
In the 12 August 2007 New York Times, Christopher Hitchens compared the series to World War Two-era English boarding school stories, and while he wrote that "Rowling has won imperishable renown" for the series as a whole, he also opined that her "repeated tactic of deus ex machina has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue", that the mid-book camping chapters are "abysmally long" and that Voldemort "becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain."[55]
Speed-reading world champion Anne Jones read the book's 199,900 words in 47 minutes and 1 second. She said, "Without being too critical, the plot does seem to be a bit complicated, but I would not change a word. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows is a real page-turner."[56]
Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #8, and praising Rowling for proving that books can still be a global mass medium. Opining that the book is "dense with Rowling's ruling themes: love and death", Grossman compared the novel to the earlier books in the series thus: "This isn't the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling's abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death."[57][58]
Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
Because of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' worldwide fame, it has been translated into many languages. The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on 25 September 2007 (as Гаррі Поттер і смертельні реліквії).[3] The Swedish title of the book was revealed by Rowling as Harry Potter and the Relics of Death, following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words "Deathly Hallows" without having read the book.[4] The first Polish translation was released on 26 January 2008[5] with a new title: Harry Potter i Insygnia Śmierci - Harry Potter and the Insignia of Death.[59] The Hindi translation "Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe" (हैरी पॉटर और मौत के तोहफे) translated as "Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death" was released by Manjul Publication in India on 27 June 2008.[6]
Film adaptations
A two-part film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is planned, with David Yates, who directed the preceding two films, directing both parts. Part I is slated for release on 19 November 2010, and Part II in May 2011.[60][61] The script was delayed as Steve Kloves was not able to start working on it until the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike had ended.[62] Filming begins in February 2009 and will last for a year.[63] Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson will reprise their roles as Harry, Ron and Hermione,[64] respectively, while Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis, Helen McCrory, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Isaacs, Miriam Margolyes, and Julie Walters have confirmed they will reprise their roles as Bellatrix Lestrange, Mad-Eye Moody, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Narcissa Malfoy, Rubeus Hagrid, Lucius Malfoy, Pomona Sprout, and Molly Weasley, respectively.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]
John Williams, who composed the scores to the first three films, has expressed interest in returning to score the films.
hp
on 29 Desember 2008final fantasy
on 14 November 2008
Final Fantasy X (ファイナルファンタジーX, Fainaru Fantajī Ten?) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix), and the tenth installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2. Set in the fantasy world of Spira, the game's story centers around a group of adventurers and their quest to defeat a rampaging force known as "Sin".
Final Fantasy X marks the Final Fantasy series' transition from entirely pre-rendered backdrops to fully three-dimensional areas, achieved with the PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine processor. Although pre-rendered backgrounds are not entirely absent, their use has been restricted to less vibrant locations, such as building interiors.[2] Final Fantasy X is also the first game in the series to feature a wide range of realistic facial expressions, as well as other technological developments in graphical effects achieved, such as variance in lighting and shadow from one section of a character's clothing to the next.[3] Final Fantasy X is also the first in the series to feature voice-over actors.
Final Fantasy X introduces other significant advances in the Final Fantasy series. For instance, because of the implementation of voice-overs, scenes in the game are paced according to the time taken for dialogue to be spoken,[3] whereas previous games in the series incorporated scrolling subtitles. Final Fantasy X features changes in world design, with a focus placed on realism. The gameplay makes a significant departure from past games as well, incorporating several new elements. As of January 20, 2004, the game has sold around 6.6 million units worldwide[4] and was also voted by the readers of the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu to be the greatest video game of all-time.[5]
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
1.1 Field map
1.2 Battle system
1.3 Sphere Grid
2 Plot
2.1 Setting
2.2 Spirituality and metaphysics
2.3 Characters
2.4 Story
3 Development
4 Audio
4.1 Voice-overs
4.2 Musical score
5 Reception
5.1 Critical response
5.2 Legacy
6 Versions and merchandise
7 References
8 External links
//
[edit] Gameplay
Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X is presented in third-person perspective, with players directly navigating the main character, Tidus, or Yuna in some cases, around the world to interact with objects and people. Unlike in previous games, however, the world and town maps have been fully integrated, with terrain outside of cities rendered to scale. When an enemy is encountered, the environment switches to a turn-based "battle area" where characters and enemies must await their turn to attack.
In line with previous titles in the series, players are given the opportunity to develop and improve their characters by defeating enemies and acquiring items, though the traditional experience point system was replaced by a new system called the "Sphere Grid". The game was initially going to feature online elements, but these were dropped during production, and online multiplayer gaming would not become part of the Final Fantasy series until Final Fantasy XI.[6][7]
An example of navigation on the field map
[edit] Field map
Final Fantasy X's gameplay differs from that of previous Final Fantasy games in its lack of an interactive top-down perspective "world map" navigation system. Previous games had featured a miniature representation of the expansive areas between towns and other distinct locations, used for long-distance traveling. In Final Fantasy X, instead, almost all game locations are essentially contiguous and never fade out to an interactive overworld map. Regional connections are mostly linear, forming a single path through the game's locations, though an airship becomes available late in the game, giving the player the ability to navigate the world of Spira in a matter of seconds.
Map director Takayoshi Nakazato has explained that with Final Fantasy X, he wanted to implement a world map concept with a more realistic approach than that of the traditional Final Fantasy game, in-line with the realism afforded by the mechanics of the game's dominant 3D backgrounds, as opposed to that offered by pre-rendered backgrounds (which he refers to as "pseudo 3D environments").[3]
[edit] Battle system
A typical battle with a boss
Final Fantasy X introduces the Conditional Turn-Based Battle (CTB) system in place of the series' traditional Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which was originally developed by Hiroyuki Ito and was first used in Final Fantasy IV. The system was developed by battle director Toshiro Tsuchida, who had Final Fantasy IV in mind when developing the CTB system. Whereas the ATB concept features real-time elements, the CTB system is a turn-based format that pauses the battle during each of the player's turns. Thus, the CTB design allows the player to select an action without time pressure. The CTB system also allows characters' and enemies' attributes and actions to affect the number of turns they are allowed and the order in which they occur. A graphical timeline along the upper-right side of the screen details who will be receiving turns next as well as how various actions taken (such as using the Slow spell on an enemy) will affect the subsequent order of turns.
Character-specific special abilities (known as "Limit Breaks" in some other Final Fantasy games) reappear in Final Fantasy X under the name "Overdrives". In this new incarnation of the feature, most of the techniques are interactive, requiring fighting game-style button inputs or precise timing to increase their effectiveness. Furthermore, an "Overdrive meter" was introduced to determine when such an ability could be executed. Through the use of different "Overdrive Modes", the player is allowed to designate what circumstances (such as receiving damage, slaying an enemy, or being the only living character on the field) cause the Overdrive meter to fill.
Final Fantasy X allows the player to control only up to three characters in battle at once, but a "swapping system" allows the player to replace any of them with one of the (eventually) four others waiting on the sidelines. A player may swap one character for another at any time, unless the on-field character has been defeated. Swapping is encouraged by the fact that each character has a specialized application: Yuna has the greatest skill at healing with White Magic and can use summon spells; Rikku is adept at using and stealing items; Tidus can use time-altering magic and accurately strike agile enemies; Wakka can inflict negative status effects and accurately strike flying enemies; Auron can pierce enemies' defenses and has the greatest physical strength; Kimahri can use enemy skills; and Lulu has elemental Black Magic spells suited for use against elementally aligned enemies.
Final Fantasy X introduces an overhaul of the summoning system employed in previous installments of the series. Whereas in previous games a summoned creature would arrive, perform a single action, and then depart, Final Fantasy X's summons (called "aeons") arrive and entirely replace the battle party, fighting in their place until either the enemy has been slain, the aeon itself has been defeated, or the aeon is dismissed by the player. Aeons have their own stats, commands, special attacks, spells, and Overdrives, and in addition to providing powerful attacks, they can be employed as "meat shields" while fighting difficult bosses,[citation needed] as the enemy must first kill any summoned aeon before it can damage the party directly. The player acquires a minimum of five aeons over the course of the game, and three additional aeons can be unlocked by completing various sidequests.
Originally, Final Fantasy X was going to feature wandering enemies visible on the field map, seamless transitions into battles, and the option for players to move around the landscape during enemy encounters.[8] Battle art director Shintaro Takai has explained that it was his intention that battles in Final Fantasy X come across as a natural part of the story and not an independent element.[3] However, due to hardware and system limitations, these ideas were not used until Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. Instead, a compromise was made, whereby some transitions from the field screen to battle arenas were made relatively seamless with the implementation of a motion blur effect. The desire for seamless transitions also led to the implementation of the new summoning system seen in the game.
[edit] Sphere Grid
A small portion of the Sphere Grid
Final Fantasy X's leveling system, the Sphere Grid, was unique in the computer role-playing game genre at the time of its release; however aspects of the approach were adopted by some later titles, for example the "Mantra Grid" in the game Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. Instead of characters gaining pre-determined statistic bonuses for their attributes after a certain number of battles, each character gains a "sphere level" after collecting enough Ability Points (AP). Sphere levels, in turn, allow players to move around the Sphere Grid, a predetermined grid of several hundred interconnected nodes consisting of various stat and ability bonuses. Items called "spheres" (obtained from defeated enemies, treasure chests, and event prizes) are applied to these nodes, unlocking its function for the selected character. In this way, the playable characters' development resembles a board game.
Producer Yoshinori Kitase has explained that the purpose behind the Sphere Grid is to give players an interactive means of increasing their characters' attributes, such that they will be able to observe the development of those attributes firsthand.[9] The Sphere Grid system also allows players to fully customize characters in contrast to their intended battle roles, such as turning the magician Yuna into a physical powerhouse and the swordsman Auron into a healer. The International and PAL versions of the game include an optional "Expert" version of the Sphere Grid; in these versions, all of the characters start in the middle of the grid and may follow whichever path the player chooses. As a tradeoff, however, the Expert grid has noticeably fewer nodes in total, thus decreasing the total statistic upgrades available during the game.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot
Map of Spira
[edit] Setting
Main article: Spira (Final Fantasy)
The world of Final Fantasy X is known as "Spira". It consists of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands. It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands to the temperate Mi'ihen region to the frigid Macalania and Mount Gagazet.
Although it is predominantly populated by humans, Spira features a variety of races. Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive spiral-green eyes and unique language. The Guado are somewhat less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other subtle differences. They also have a natural propensity for magic and conjuring monsters. Still less human in appearance are the large, lion-like, one-horned Ronso, and the frog-like Hypello.
Spira's wildlife population introduces several new concepts into the series. Although most creatures are drawn from real animals, such as cats, dogs, birds and butterflies, a few fictional species appear, such as the gigantic, amphibious shoopuf and the emu-like chocobo. Both are used primarily for transportation purposes. Most other unusual creatures encountered in Final Fantasy X are fiends.
Spira is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names. Nomura has identified the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan as major influences on the cultural and geographic design of Spira, particularly concerning the geographic locations of Besaid and Kilika.[3] He has also said that Spira deviates from the worlds of past Final Fantasy games most notably in the level of detail incorporated, something he has expressed to have made a conscious effort to maintain during the design process. Though a southeast Asian theme is dominant, like other games in the franchise, Final Fantasy X borrows elements from many other cultures, featuring references to demonology, Hindu, Norse, Arabic and other mythologies. Psychology is also represented, with Carl Jung referenced by the aeon Anima.[citation needed]
[edit] Spirituality and metaphysics
A screenshot of the Farplane, resting place of the soul-like pyreflies
The most distinctive, basic features of Final Fantasy X's mythology are pyreflies, luminescent "bundles of life energy" that emerge from the newly-dead and wander the land.[10] If left to their own devices, they usually cluster together and form into fiends, dangerous monsters that take a variety of forms and return to balls of pyreflies when defeated. The vast majority of enemies in Final Fantasy X are fiends. In rare cases, pyreflies maintain enough cohesion and sentience to become unsent, beings that appear human but are actually the lingering remnant of a dead individual with a purpose left unfinished.
One of the tasks of a summoner in Final Fantasy X is to help guide stray pyreflies to their final resting place, a mystical domain guarded by the Guado and known as the Farplane. They do this through a ritual dance known as "the sending". The other chief function of summoners is to summon aeons, fierce magical creatures created when people sacrifice their lives to encase their souls within statues, becoming fayth. Fayth grant summoners the ability to summon their respective aeons, which are described as "dreams of the fayth". Summoners are charged with the duty of defeating Sin, a gigantic monster that has plagued Spira for a thousand years, capable of wiping out entire towns and armies with ease.
Spira's human population is deeply religious and centered around the temples of Yevon, a millennium-old religious organization that has gained enormous influence. The Yevonite temples consider Sin a divine punishment set upon people for their pride in the use of machines (or machina, as they are called in the game),[11] and forbid the use of advanced technology. However, it is eventually revealed that the highest priests, known as the maesters, have become increasingly corrupt and unfaithful to their own doctrine, making use of machina to increase their power.
Summoners go on pilgrimages to gather aeons and increase their powers. They are accompanied by guardians, trained fighters whose duty is to protect the summoners and assist them along the way. The end of the pilgrimage is in the sacred ruined city of Zanarkand, where summoners acquire the Final Aeon, the only known power that can destroy Sin. It is revealed late in Final Fantasy X that the fayth for the Final Aeon is actually created from one who is personally close to a summoner, requiring a guardian of each summoner who defeats Sin to sacrifice his or her life.[12] Additionally, using the Final Aeon against Sin costs the summoner's life as well.[13] However, even this measure is only temporary: after a small period of peace, known as "the Calm",[14] Sin returns, thus requiring the process to start anew.
[edit] Characters
Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy X and X-2
The seven main playable characters in Final Fantasy X are Tidus, an energetic and upbeat blitzball star; Yuna, a reserved and soft-spoken summoner who always puts others before herself, and has heterochromia (two different coloured eyes); Kimahri Ronso, an exile of the Ronso tribe who remains silent for most of the game and is devoted to protecting Yuna above all else; Wakka, an amiable blitzball player and devout follower of the Yevon order, who has been a friend of Yuna's since childhood; Lulu, an often cynical and harsh, but well-meaning Black Mage; Auron, a taciturn and matter-of-fact ex-warrior monk; and Rikku, a perky Al Bhed girl with extensive knowledge of machinery.
The primary antagonists of the game are maester Seymour Guado and the other maesters of the Yevon religion, while the rampaging Sin serves as the primary source of conflict. In addition, there is a vast supporting cast of named characters, who—along with the main characters—feature voice talents complementing their principle roles, as well as the myriad incidental characters that have traditionally populated the worlds of Final Fantasy.
Character designer Tetsuya Nomura took particular care in each of the characters' designs. For example, Nomura based Yuna's overall design on Okinawan kimonos. When he learned that the character was to perform the sending dance, he wanted to give her outfit something that would flow. For this reason, the specific style of kimono he chose for her was a furisode, a kimono bearing long sleeves. Additionally, he adorned her dress and necklace with images of the flower also called Yuna (Hibiscus tiliaceus), and her name carries the meaning of "night" in the Okinawan language, a direct contrast with Tidus' Japanese name, Tīda, the Okinawan word for "sun". Nomura has explained that while all these subtle details may be unnecessary, he does not want his designs to be without explanation.[15][unreliable source?]
For minor characters, sub-character chief designer Fumi Nakashima's focus was to ensure that characters from different regions and cultures bore distinctive characteristics in their clothing styles, such that they could be quickly and easily identified as members of their respective sub-groups. For example, in her words, the masks and goggles of the Al Bhed give the group a "strange and eccentric" appearance, while the attire of the Ronso lend to them being able to easily engage in battle.[3]
[edit] Story
A side image of Sin
Final Fantasy X begins late in the story, with the main character, Tidus, waiting with his allies outside the ruined city of Zanarkand. From this in medias res beginning, Tidus narrates the series of events leading up to his present situation, and this extended flashback sequence spans most of the game's storyline. It begins in Tidus' home city, an unruined and high-tech Zanarkand, where he is a renowned star of the fictional underwater sport blitzball. During a Blitzball tournament, the city is attacked by an immense creature shrouded in water known as Sin. The city is destroyed in its path, and Tidus is taken by Sin to the world Spira.
After arriving in Spira, Tidus is rescued by Al Bhed divers in the area, and one of them, Rikku, tells him that Zanarkand had been destroyed one thousand years earlier. After another attack by Sin, Tidus is separated from the Al Bhed and drifts to the tropical island of Besaid, where he meets Wakka, the captain of the local blitzball team. Wakka then introduces Tidus to Yuna, a young summoner planning a pilgrimage to destroy Sin using the "Final Aeon" from the ruins of Zanarkand. Accompanying Yuna are her guardians: Lulu, Wakka and Kimahri.[16] The party travels by boat to Kilika Island—where Sin is encountered yet again, attacking the boat and decimating most of the town and its villagers, then getting the aeon Ifrit and going to Luca. Fiends attack after the tournament, destroyed by Maester Seymour. After the blitzball tournament, the party encounters Auron, who joins them. Auron then reveals to Tidus that Yuna's father, Lord Braska; Tidus's father, Jecht; and Auron himself made the same pilgrimage and defeated Sin ten years ago.[17] Tidus had previously thought his father had died at sea ten years earlier.[18] Not long after, following another encounter with Sin where a crusader fleet is decimated, they acquire the aeon, Ixion and they are joined by Rikku, who is revealed to be Yuna's cousin.[19]
The group travels to Guadosalam, where Seymour proposes to Yuna. After brief contemplation, Yuna and her guardians follow Seymour to Macalania temple. While traveling, she informs the group of her intent to marry Seymour for Spira's happiness. Along the way, they are attacked by Rikku's brother and a machina. After repelling the Al Bhed, Seymour's aide, Tromell, guides the group to the temple. While at the temple, they see a message sphere from Jyscal Guado, Seymour's late father. He declares he was killed by his son, and that Seymour's evil nature will destroy Spira.[20] Upon hearing the message, the group engages Seymour in battle and defeats him. Tromell destroys Jyscal's sphere and after fleeing, they are attacked by Sin again. The attack transported them to the sandy Bikanel island, where they lose track of Yuna. Rikku guides the group to the Al Bhed Home, which is under attack by Yevon. While searching the base, Tidus learns that a summoner must give their life to perform the Final Summoning. Using the Al Bhed's airship, everyone escapes the base before it is destroyed. The group resolves to save Yuna and discover her at Bevelle, forced into marriage with the now unsent Seymour. They interrupt the wedding and, with Yuna, escape the city towards Mt Gagazet, home of the Ronso. At the summit they meet Seymour again, who has brutally slaughtered the Ronso. They defeat him once more and go to Zanarkand.
As the player approaches Zanarkand, Tidus learns that he, Jecht, and the Zanarkand they hail from are summoned entities akin to aeons.[21] Their city, Dream Zanarkand, was created one thousand years earlier when a war forced Yevon, Zanarkand's ruler and a powerful summoner, to take action to preserve its memory.[22] He had the city's surviving people become fayth so that he could use their memories of Zanarkand to create a new city in its image, far removed from the warfare on the Spiran mainland.[23] Sin was also created, given form by Yevon to serve as armor; protecting himself and the fayth.[24][25] While continuously summoning Dream Zanarkand, Yevon lost his humanity and became known as Yu Yevon, a being existing solely to maintain Dream Zanarkand's existence.[26][27] Over the next one thousand years, Sin would persistently attack the people of Spira to prevent the discovery of Dream Zanarkand's existence.
Tidus attempts to embrace Yuna as he fades away
Once the player completes Yuna's pilgrimage to Zanarkand—ending Tidus' recount of the game's events—she and her companions learn from the unsent spirit of Lady Yunalesca—Yevon's daughter and the first summoner to have defeated Sin[28][29]—that the Final Aeon used to fight Sin is created from the spirit of one close to a summoner. After defeating Sin, Yu Yevon's spirit then possesses the Aeon, transforming it into a new Sin.[30] The group decides to against using the Final Aeon and defeat Yunalesca. Yuna and her guardians then seek a new way to permanently destroy Sin that will not require any sacrifices. The party attacks Sin directly using the Al Bhed's airship, and enters Sin's body.
Inside Sin, the party battles Seymour, this time sending him, Jecht's imprisoned spirit, and Yu Yevon to the Farplane. Thus, ending Sin's cycle of rebirth. The spirits of Spira's fayth are freed from their imprisonment, dispersing the aeons, Dream Zanarkand, and Tidus in the process. In a speech to the citizens of Spira, Yuna resolves to help rebuild the world now that it is free of Sin. However, she asks that they never forget the people who have been lost along the way. After the credits, there is a brief scene with Tidus underwater. He opens his eyes and begins swimming upward, and the screen fades to white. This scene is later explained in Final Fantasy X-2 if certain conditions are met.
[edit] Development
Development for Final Fantasy X began in 1999, costing approximately four billion Japanese yen (approximately $32.3 million)[31] with a crew of more than one hundred people, most of whom worked on previous games in the series.
As with most other games in the Final Fantasy franchise, the characters and story of Final Fantasy X are distinct from those of its predecessors. Executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi states that this is to maintain the novelty of each title and to show off his team's true potential. Although he had certain reservations about the transition from 2D to 3D backgrounds, the voice acting, and the transition to real-time story-telling, Sakaguchi believes Final Fantasy's success can be attributed to constantly challenging the development team to try new things.[3] For his part, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima has said that with this installment of the series, he was particularly concerned with establishing a connection in the relationship between the player and main character. Thus, he penned the story such that—since both Tidus and the player find themselves in a new world—the player's progress through the world and growing knowledge about it is reflected in Tidus' own developing understanding and narration.[3]
Final Fantasy X also features innovations in the rendering of facial expressions on characters, achieved through motion capture and skeletal animation technology.[3][32] This technology allowed animators to create realistic lip movements, which were then programmed to match the speech of the game's voice actors.
Battle director Toshiro Tsuchida wanted to do away with the ATB system for Final Fantasy X but Square did not allow him to. A compromise was eventually agreed upon, resulting in the CTB system.[33]
[edit] Audio
[edit] Voice-overs
Nojima also revealed that the inclusion of voice-overs had a substantial impact on the writing of the game's story. He has explained that the presence of voice actors allowed him to maintain a more simple method of storytelling, as the range of emotions that could be expressed through them was greater than that provided by text alone. Nojima has further revealed that the presence of voice actors led him to make various changes to the story and characters themselves, so as to solidify the voice actors' personalities with the characters they were portraying.[34]
In some respects, however, the inclusion of voice-overs led to additional difficulties. With the game's cutscenes already programmed around the Japanese voice work, Final Fantasy X's English localization team faced not only the difficulty of establishing English-oriented dialogue, but also the added obstacle of incorporating this modified wording with the previously established rhythm and timing of the characters' lip movements. In his words, lead localization specialist Alexander O. Smith described the process of "fitting natural-sounding English speech into [...] the high-polygon scenes and CG movies" as "something akin to writing four or five movies worth of dialogue entirely in haiku form [and] of course the actors had to act, and act well, within those restraints". To this end, each voice actor was briefed on their character's motivations and feelings for every scene, and also shown various scenes from the game itself.[8]
[edit] Musical score
Main article: Discography of Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X marks the first time Nobuo Uematsu has had any assistance in composing the score for a Final Fantasy game. His fellow composers for Final Fantasy X were Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano.
The game includes three songs with vocalized elements, one of which is the J-pop ballad "Suteki Da Ne". It is sung by Japanese folk singer Ritsuki Nakano, whom the music team contacted while searching for a singer whose music reflected an Okinawan atmosphere.[3] "Suteki Da Ne" is sung in its original Japanese form in both the Japanese and English versions of Final Fantasy X. The song's title translates to "Isn't it Wonderful?" in English, and its lyrics were written by Nojima,[3] while Uematsu composed the instrumentals. Like the ballads from Final Fantasy VIII and IX, "Suteki Da Ne" has an in-game version together with an orchestrated version used as part of the ending theme. The other songs featuring lyrics are the heavy metal opening theme, "Otherworld", sung in English by singer Bill Muir, and the "Hymn of the Fayth", a recurring piece sung using Japanese syllabary.
[edit] Reception
[hide] Reception
Review scores
Publication
Score
1UP.com
A+[35]
Eurogamer
9 out of 10[36]
Game Informer
9.75 out of 10[37]
GameSpot
9.3 out of 10[38]
IGN
9.5 out of 10[39]
Aggregate scores
Aggregator
Score
Game Rankings
91.4% (138 reviews)
Metacritic
92 out of 100 (53 reviews)
Final Fantasy X's reception was largely positive, with high sales figures and critical acclaim from the gaming industry. The game sold 90% of its initial 2,140,000-unit shipment—1,926,000 units—within just the first four days of release in Japan, having already sold between 1.4 million and 1.5 million copies in pre-orders.[40] These figures exceeded the performances of Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy VII in a comparable period,[41] and Final Fantasy X became the first PlayStation 2 game to reach sales totals of 2 million and 4 million copies.[42][43] As of July 2006, the game has been rated the US market's 11th best selling game of the 21st century,[44] and was nominated for the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards for animation and console role-playing game of the year in 2003.[45][unreliable source?] At the seventh anniversary of the PS2 in the United States (October 2007), the game was listed as the eighth best selling game for the PS2.[46] As of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 5.89 million copies worldwide, with 2.87 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 3.02 million abroad.[47] In 2007, Final Fantasy X was named third best PlayStation 2 game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the PlayStation 2's long lifespan.[48]
[edit] Critical response
Both Japanese and western critics have generally given Final Fantasy X high scores, with the game attaining a 92/100 ("universal acclaim") according to Metacritic.[32] A leading Japanese video game magazine, Famitsu, awarded the game a near-perfect 39/40 score,[49] while readers of the same magazine voted it the best game of all time in early 2006.[50] Another leading Japanese gaming magazine, The Play Station, gave the game a score of 29/30.[49]
As part of their reviews, Famitsu and The Play Station expressed particularly favorable responses toward the game's storyline and graphics, as did the UK-based magazine Edge. However, the magazine only gave the game a 6/10, describing it as "Sequential software that labels itself next-gen" without providing a next generation gaming experience, instead repeating "the mistakes ... made on the last version".[51] In this regard, Edge cites the game's battle and character-leveling systems, describing the former as only "fractionally more complex" than was the case in previous installments of the series, and the latter as "[no] more flexible than the straight leveling from previous games".[51] Edge also dealt harsh criticism to the game's English script and voice-overs, regarding the dialogue, "both textual and verbal", as "nauseating". The magazine went on to say that it "renders the pathos comedic, the comedy dead, and ... butchers the whole game".[51] Multimedia website IGN offered extensive praise for the voice actors and the innovations in gameplay, particularly with regard to the revised battle and summon magic system, the option to change party members during battle, and what they felt were more efficient character development and inventory management systems. Offering additional praise for the game's graphics, which they suggested "improves on its predecessors in every area possible", they commented that the game as a whole was "the best-looking game of the series [and] arguably the best-playing as well" at the time of release.[2] GameSpot admired the game's storyline, calling it surprisingly complex, its ending satisfying, and its avoidance of RPG clichés commendable.[52] GamePro magazine agreed, saying that despite an "anticlimactic final battle", the story remained engaging every step of the way.[53]
[edit] Legacy
Due to its commercial and popular success,[54][55] Square Enix released a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X in 2003, entitled "Final Fantasy X-2". This sequel—the first direct sequel developed in the Final Fantasy series—is set two years after the conclusion of the original story, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. Also as a result of the game's reception, Kitase and Nojima decided to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII, another popular Final Fantasy title.[54]
The advancements in portraying realistic emotions achieved with Final Fantasy X through voice-overs and detailed facial expressions have since become a staple of the series, with its sequel and other subsequent titles—such as Final Fantasy XII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII—also featuring this development. Additionally, traversing real-time 3D environments instead of an overworld map has also become a standard of the series, as demonstrated in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy X marks the Final Fantasy series' transition from entirely pre-rendered backdrops to fully three-dimensional areas, achieved with the PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine processor. Although pre-rendered backgrounds are not entirely absent, their use has been restricted to less vibrant locations, such as building interiors.[2] Final Fantasy X is also the first game in the series to feature a wide range of realistic facial expressions, as well as other technological developments in graphical effects achieved, such as variance in lighting and shadow from one section of a character's clothing to the next.[3] Final Fantasy X is also the first in the series to feature voice-over actors.
Final Fantasy X introduces other significant advances in the Final Fantasy series. For instance, because of the implementation of voice-overs, scenes in the game are paced according to the time taken for dialogue to be spoken,[3] whereas previous games in the series incorporated scrolling subtitles. Final Fantasy X features changes in world design, with a focus placed on realism. The gameplay makes a significant departure from past games as well, incorporating several new elements. As of January 20, 2004, the game has sold around 6.6 million units worldwide[4] and was also voted by the readers of the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu to be the greatest video game of all-time.[5]
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
1.1 Field map
1.2 Battle system
1.3 Sphere Grid
2 Plot
2.1 Setting
2.2 Spirituality and metaphysics
2.3 Characters
2.4 Story
3 Development
4 Audio
4.1 Voice-overs
4.2 Musical score
5 Reception
5.1 Critical response
5.2 Legacy
6 Versions and merchandise
7 References
8 External links
//
[edit] Gameplay
Like previous games in the series, Final Fantasy X is presented in third-person perspective, with players directly navigating the main character, Tidus, or Yuna in some cases, around the world to interact with objects and people. Unlike in previous games, however, the world and town maps have been fully integrated, with terrain outside of cities rendered to scale. When an enemy is encountered, the environment switches to a turn-based "battle area" where characters and enemies must await their turn to attack.
In line with previous titles in the series, players are given the opportunity to develop and improve their characters by defeating enemies and acquiring items, though the traditional experience point system was replaced by a new system called the "Sphere Grid". The game was initially going to feature online elements, but these were dropped during production, and online multiplayer gaming would not become part of the Final Fantasy series until Final Fantasy XI.[6][7]
An example of navigation on the field map
[edit] Field map
Final Fantasy X's gameplay differs from that of previous Final Fantasy games in its lack of an interactive top-down perspective "world map" navigation system. Previous games had featured a miniature representation of the expansive areas between towns and other distinct locations, used for long-distance traveling. In Final Fantasy X, instead, almost all game locations are essentially contiguous and never fade out to an interactive overworld map. Regional connections are mostly linear, forming a single path through the game's locations, though an airship becomes available late in the game, giving the player the ability to navigate the world of Spira in a matter of seconds.
Map director Takayoshi Nakazato has explained that with Final Fantasy X, he wanted to implement a world map concept with a more realistic approach than that of the traditional Final Fantasy game, in-line with the realism afforded by the mechanics of the game's dominant 3D backgrounds, as opposed to that offered by pre-rendered backgrounds (which he refers to as "pseudo 3D environments").[3]
[edit] Battle system
A typical battle with a boss
Final Fantasy X introduces the Conditional Turn-Based Battle (CTB) system in place of the series' traditional Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which was originally developed by Hiroyuki Ito and was first used in Final Fantasy IV. The system was developed by battle director Toshiro Tsuchida, who had Final Fantasy IV in mind when developing the CTB system. Whereas the ATB concept features real-time elements, the CTB system is a turn-based format that pauses the battle during each of the player's turns. Thus, the CTB design allows the player to select an action without time pressure. The CTB system also allows characters' and enemies' attributes and actions to affect the number of turns they are allowed and the order in which they occur. A graphical timeline along the upper-right side of the screen details who will be receiving turns next as well as how various actions taken (such as using the Slow spell on an enemy) will affect the subsequent order of turns.
Character-specific special abilities (known as "Limit Breaks" in some other Final Fantasy games) reappear in Final Fantasy X under the name "Overdrives". In this new incarnation of the feature, most of the techniques are interactive, requiring fighting game-style button inputs or precise timing to increase their effectiveness. Furthermore, an "Overdrive meter" was introduced to determine when such an ability could be executed. Through the use of different "Overdrive Modes", the player is allowed to designate what circumstances (such as receiving damage, slaying an enemy, or being the only living character on the field) cause the Overdrive meter to fill.
Final Fantasy X allows the player to control only up to three characters in battle at once, but a "swapping system" allows the player to replace any of them with one of the (eventually) four others waiting on the sidelines. A player may swap one character for another at any time, unless the on-field character has been defeated. Swapping is encouraged by the fact that each character has a specialized application: Yuna has the greatest skill at healing with White Magic and can use summon spells; Rikku is adept at using and stealing items; Tidus can use time-altering magic and accurately strike agile enemies; Wakka can inflict negative status effects and accurately strike flying enemies; Auron can pierce enemies' defenses and has the greatest physical strength; Kimahri can use enemy skills; and Lulu has elemental Black Magic spells suited for use against elementally aligned enemies.
Final Fantasy X introduces an overhaul of the summoning system employed in previous installments of the series. Whereas in previous games a summoned creature would arrive, perform a single action, and then depart, Final Fantasy X's summons (called "aeons") arrive and entirely replace the battle party, fighting in their place until either the enemy has been slain, the aeon itself has been defeated, or the aeon is dismissed by the player. Aeons have their own stats, commands, special attacks, spells, and Overdrives, and in addition to providing powerful attacks, they can be employed as "meat shields" while fighting difficult bosses,[citation needed] as the enemy must first kill any summoned aeon before it can damage the party directly. The player acquires a minimum of five aeons over the course of the game, and three additional aeons can be unlocked by completing various sidequests.
Originally, Final Fantasy X was going to feature wandering enemies visible on the field map, seamless transitions into battles, and the option for players to move around the landscape during enemy encounters.[8] Battle art director Shintaro Takai has explained that it was his intention that battles in Final Fantasy X come across as a natural part of the story and not an independent element.[3] However, due to hardware and system limitations, these ideas were not used until Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. Instead, a compromise was made, whereby some transitions from the field screen to battle arenas were made relatively seamless with the implementation of a motion blur effect. The desire for seamless transitions also led to the implementation of the new summoning system seen in the game.
[edit] Sphere Grid
A small portion of the Sphere Grid
Final Fantasy X's leveling system, the Sphere Grid, was unique in the computer role-playing game genre at the time of its release; however aspects of the approach were adopted by some later titles, for example the "Mantra Grid" in the game Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. Instead of characters gaining pre-determined statistic bonuses for their attributes after a certain number of battles, each character gains a "sphere level" after collecting enough Ability Points (AP). Sphere levels, in turn, allow players to move around the Sphere Grid, a predetermined grid of several hundred interconnected nodes consisting of various stat and ability bonuses. Items called "spheres" (obtained from defeated enemies, treasure chests, and event prizes) are applied to these nodes, unlocking its function for the selected character. In this way, the playable characters' development resembles a board game.
Producer Yoshinori Kitase has explained that the purpose behind the Sphere Grid is to give players an interactive means of increasing their characters' attributes, such that they will be able to observe the development of those attributes firsthand.[9] The Sphere Grid system also allows players to fully customize characters in contrast to their intended battle roles, such as turning the magician Yuna into a physical powerhouse and the swordsman Auron into a healer. The International and PAL versions of the game include an optional "Expert" version of the Sphere Grid; in these versions, all of the characters start in the middle of the grid and may follow whichever path the player chooses. As a tradeoff, however, the Expert grid has noticeably fewer nodes in total, thus decreasing the total statistic upgrades available during the game.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot
Map of Spira
[edit] Setting
Main article: Spira (Final Fantasy)
The world of Final Fantasy X is known as "Spira". It consists of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands. It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands to the temperate Mi'ihen region to the frigid Macalania and Mount Gagazet.
Although it is predominantly populated by humans, Spira features a variety of races. Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive spiral-green eyes and unique language. The Guado are somewhat less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other subtle differences. They also have a natural propensity for magic and conjuring monsters. Still less human in appearance are the large, lion-like, one-horned Ronso, and the frog-like Hypello.
Spira's wildlife population introduces several new concepts into the series. Although most creatures are drawn from real animals, such as cats, dogs, birds and butterflies, a few fictional species appear, such as the gigantic, amphibious shoopuf and the emu-like chocobo. Both are used primarily for transportation purposes. Most other unusual creatures encountered in Final Fantasy X are fiends.
Spira is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names. Nomura has identified the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan as major influences on the cultural and geographic design of Spira, particularly concerning the geographic locations of Besaid and Kilika.[3] He has also said that Spira deviates from the worlds of past Final Fantasy games most notably in the level of detail incorporated, something he has expressed to have made a conscious effort to maintain during the design process. Though a southeast Asian theme is dominant, like other games in the franchise, Final Fantasy X borrows elements from many other cultures, featuring references to demonology, Hindu, Norse, Arabic and other mythologies. Psychology is also represented, with Carl Jung referenced by the aeon Anima.[citation needed]
[edit] Spirituality and metaphysics
A screenshot of the Farplane, resting place of the soul-like pyreflies
The most distinctive, basic features of Final Fantasy X's mythology are pyreflies, luminescent "bundles of life energy" that emerge from the newly-dead and wander the land.[10] If left to their own devices, they usually cluster together and form into fiends, dangerous monsters that take a variety of forms and return to balls of pyreflies when defeated. The vast majority of enemies in Final Fantasy X are fiends. In rare cases, pyreflies maintain enough cohesion and sentience to become unsent, beings that appear human but are actually the lingering remnant of a dead individual with a purpose left unfinished.
One of the tasks of a summoner in Final Fantasy X is to help guide stray pyreflies to their final resting place, a mystical domain guarded by the Guado and known as the Farplane. They do this through a ritual dance known as "the sending". The other chief function of summoners is to summon aeons, fierce magical creatures created when people sacrifice their lives to encase their souls within statues, becoming fayth. Fayth grant summoners the ability to summon their respective aeons, which are described as "dreams of the fayth". Summoners are charged with the duty of defeating Sin, a gigantic monster that has plagued Spira for a thousand years, capable of wiping out entire towns and armies with ease.
Spira's human population is deeply religious and centered around the temples of Yevon, a millennium-old religious organization that has gained enormous influence. The Yevonite temples consider Sin a divine punishment set upon people for their pride in the use of machines (or machina, as they are called in the game),[11] and forbid the use of advanced technology. However, it is eventually revealed that the highest priests, known as the maesters, have become increasingly corrupt and unfaithful to their own doctrine, making use of machina to increase their power.
Summoners go on pilgrimages to gather aeons and increase their powers. They are accompanied by guardians, trained fighters whose duty is to protect the summoners and assist them along the way. The end of the pilgrimage is in the sacred ruined city of Zanarkand, where summoners acquire the Final Aeon, the only known power that can destroy Sin. It is revealed late in Final Fantasy X that the fayth for the Final Aeon is actually created from one who is personally close to a summoner, requiring a guardian of each summoner who defeats Sin to sacrifice his or her life.[12] Additionally, using the Final Aeon against Sin costs the summoner's life as well.[13] However, even this measure is only temporary: after a small period of peace, known as "the Calm",[14] Sin returns, thus requiring the process to start anew.
[edit] Characters
Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy X and X-2
The seven main playable characters in Final Fantasy X are Tidus, an energetic and upbeat blitzball star; Yuna, a reserved and soft-spoken summoner who always puts others before herself, and has heterochromia (two different coloured eyes); Kimahri Ronso, an exile of the Ronso tribe who remains silent for most of the game and is devoted to protecting Yuna above all else; Wakka, an amiable blitzball player and devout follower of the Yevon order, who has been a friend of Yuna's since childhood; Lulu, an often cynical and harsh, but well-meaning Black Mage; Auron, a taciturn and matter-of-fact ex-warrior monk; and Rikku, a perky Al Bhed girl with extensive knowledge of machinery.
The primary antagonists of the game are maester Seymour Guado and the other maesters of the Yevon religion, while the rampaging Sin serves as the primary source of conflict. In addition, there is a vast supporting cast of named characters, who—along with the main characters—feature voice talents complementing their principle roles, as well as the myriad incidental characters that have traditionally populated the worlds of Final Fantasy.
Character designer Tetsuya Nomura took particular care in each of the characters' designs. For example, Nomura based Yuna's overall design on Okinawan kimonos. When he learned that the character was to perform the sending dance, he wanted to give her outfit something that would flow. For this reason, the specific style of kimono he chose for her was a furisode, a kimono bearing long sleeves. Additionally, he adorned her dress and necklace with images of the flower also called Yuna (Hibiscus tiliaceus), and her name carries the meaning of "night" in the Okinawan language, a direct contrast with Tidus' Japanese name, Tīda, the Okinawan word for "sun". Nomura has explained that while all these subtle details may be unnecessary, he does not want his designs to be without explanation.[15][unreliable source?]
For minor characters, sub-character chief designer Fumi Nakashima's focus was to ensure that characters from different regions and cultures bore distinctive characteristics in their clothing styles, such that they could be quickly and easily identified as members of their respective sub-groups. For example, in her words, the masks and goggles of the Al Bhed give the group a "strange and eccentric" appearance, while the attire of the Ronso lend to them being able to easily engage in battle.[3]
[edit] Story
A side image of Sin
Final Fantasy X begins late in the story, with the main character, Tidus, waiting with his allies outside the ruined city of Zanarkand. From this in medias res beginning, Tidus narrates the series of events leading up to his present situation, and this extended flashback sequence spans most of the game's storyline. It begins in Tidus' home city, an unruined and high-tech Zanarkand, where he is a renowned star of the fictional underwater sport blitzball. During a Blitzball tournament, the city is attacked by an immense creature shrouded in water known as Sin. The city is destroyed in its path, and Tidus is taken by Sin to the world Spira.
After arriving in Spira, Tidus is rescued by Al Bhed divers in the area, and one of them, Rikku, tells him that Zanarkand had been destroyed one thousand years earlier. After another attack by Sin, Tidus is separated from the Al Bhed and drifts to the tropical island of Besaid, where he meets Wakka, the captain of the local blitzball team. Wakka then introduces Tidus to Yuna, a young summoner planning a pilgrimage to destroy Sin using the "Final Aeon" from the ruins of Zanarkand. Accompanying Yuna are her guardians: Lulu, Wakka and Kimahri.[16] The party travels by boat to Kilika Island—where Sin is encountered yet again, attacking the boat and decimating most of the town and its villagers, then getting the aeon Ifrit and going to Luca. Fiends attack after the tournament, destroyed by Maester Seymour. After the blitzball tournament, the party encounters Auron, who joins them. Auron then reveals to Tidus that Yuna's father, Lord Braska; Tidus's father, Jecht; and Auron himself made the same pilgrimage and defeated Sin ten years ago.[17] Tidus had previously thought his father had died at sea ten years earlier.[18] Not long after, following another encounter with Sin where a crusader fleet is decimated, they acquire the aeon, Ixion and they are joined by Rikku, who is revealed to be Yuna's cousin.[19]
The group travels to Guadosalam, where Seymour proposes to Yuna. After brief contemplation, Yuna and her guardians follow Seymour to Macalania temple. While traveling, she informs the group of her intent to marry Seymour for Spira's happiness. Along the way, they are attacked by Rikku's brother and a machina. After repelling the Al Bhed, Seymour's aide, Tromell, guides the group to the temple. While at the temple, they see a message sphere from Jyscal Guado, Seymour's late father. He declares he was killed by his son, and that Seymour's evil nature will destroy Spira.[20] Upon hearing the message, the group engages Seymour in battle and defeats him. Tromell destroys Jyscal's sphere and after fleeing, they are attacked by Sin again. The attack transported them to the sandy Bikanel island, where they lose track of Yuna. Rikku guides the group to the Al Bhed Home, which is under attack by Yevon. While searching the base, Tidus learns that a summoner must give their life to perform the Final Summoning. Using the Al Bhed's airship, everyone escapes the base before it is destroyed. The group resolves to save Yuna and discover her at Bevelle, forced into marriage with the now unsent Seymour. They interrupt the wedding and, with Yuna, escape the city towards Mt Gagazet, home of the Ronso. At the summit they meet Seymour again, who has brutally slaughtered the Ronso. They defeat him once more and go to Zanarkand.
As the player approaches Zanarkand, Tidus learns that he, Jecht, and the Zanarkand they hail from are summoned entities akin to aeons.[21] Their city, Dream Zanarkand, was created one thousand years earlier when a war forced Yevon, Zanarkand's ruler and a powerful summoner, to take action to preserve its memory.[22] He had the city's surviving people become fayth so that he could use their memories of Zanarkand to create a new city in its image, far removed from the warfare on the Spiran mainland.[23] Sin was also created, given form by Yevon to serve as armor; protecting himself and the fayth.[24][25] While continuously summoning Dream Zanarkand, Yevon lost his humanity and became known as Yu Yevon, a being existing solely to maintain Dream Zanarkand's existence.[26][27] Over the next one thousand years, Sin would persistently attack the people of Spira to prevent the discovery of Dream Zanarkand's existence.
Tidus attempts to embrace Yuna as he fades away
Once the player completes Yuna's pilgrimage to Zanarkand—ending Tidus' recount of the game's events—she and her companions learn from the unsent spirit of Lady Yunalesca—Yevon's daughter and the first summoner to have defeated Sin[28][29]—that the Final Aeon used to fight Sin is created from the spirit of one close to a summoner. After defeating Sin, Yu Yevon's spirit then possesses the Aeon, transforming it into a new Sin.[30] The group decides to against using the Final Aeon and defeat Yunalesca. Yuna and her guardians then seek a new way to permanently destroy Sin that will not require any sacrifices. The party attacks Sin directly using the Al Bhed's airship, and enters Sin's body.
Inside Sin, the party battles Seymour, this time sending him, Jecht's imprisoned spirit, and Yu Yevon to the Farplane. Thus, ending Sin's cycle of rebirth. The spirits of Spira's fayth are freed from their imprisonment, dispersing the aeons, Dream Zanarkand, and Tidus in the process. In a speech to the citizens of Spira, Yuna resolves to help rebuild the world now that it is free of Sin. However, she asks that they never forget the people who have been lost along the way. After the credits, there is a brief scene with Tidus underwater. He opens his eyes and begins swimming upward, and the screen fades to white. This scene is later explained in Final Fantasy X-2 if certain conditions are met.
[edit] Development
Development for Final Fantasy X began in 1999, costing approximately four billion Japanese yen (approximately $32.3 million)[31] with a crew of more than one hundred people, most of whom worked on previous games in the series.
As with most other games in the Final Fantasy franchise, the characters and story of Final Fantasy X are distinct from those of its predecessors. Executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi states that this is to maintain the novelty of each title and to show off his team's true potential. Although he had certain reservations about the transition from 2D to 3D backgrounds, the voice acting, and the transition to real-time story-telling, Sakaguchi believes Final Fantasy's success can be attributed to constantly challenging the development team to try new things.[3] For his part, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima has said that with this installment of the series, he was particularly concerned with establishing a connection in the relationship between the player and main character. Thus, he penned the story such that—since both Tidus and the player find themselves in a new world—the player's progress through the world and growing knowledge about it is reflected in Tidus' own developing understanding and narration.[3]
Final Fantasy X also features innovations in the rendering of facial expressions on characters, achieved through motion capture and skeletal animation technology.[3][32] This technology allowed animators to create realistic lip movements, which were then programmed to match the speech of the game's voice actors.
Battle director Toshiro Tsuchida wanted to do away with the ATB system for Final Fantasy X but Square did not allow him to. A compromise was eventually agreed upon, resulting in the CTB system.[33]
[edit] Audio
[edit] Voice-overs
Nojima also revealed that the inclusion of voice-overs had a substantial impact on the writing of the game's story. He has explained that the presence of voice actors allowed him to maintain a more simple method of storytelling, as the range of emotions that could be expressed through them was greater than that provided by text alone. Nojima has further revealed that the presence of voice actors led him to make various changes to the story and characters themselves, so as to solidify the voice actors' personalities with the characters they were portraying.[34]
In some respects, however, the inclusion of voice-overs led to additional difficulties. With the game's cutscenes already programmed around the Japanese voice work, Final Fantasy X's English localization team faced not only the difficulty of establishing English-oriented dialogue, but also the added obstacle of incorporating this modified wording with the previously established rhythm and timing of the characters' lip movements. In his words, lead localization specialist Alexander O. Smith described the process of "fitting natural-sounding English speech into [...] the high-polygon scenes and CG movies" as "something akin to writing four or five movies worth of dialogue entirely in haiku form [and] of course the actors had to act, and act well, within those restraints". To this end, each voice actor was briefed on their character's motivations and feelings for every scene, and also shown various scenes from the game itself.[8]
[edit] Musical score
Main article: Discography of Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X marks the first time Nobuo Uematsu has had any assistance in composing the score for a Final Fantasy game. His fellow composers for Final Fantasy X were Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano.
The game includes three songs with vocalized elements, one of which is the J-pop ballad "Suteki Da Ne". It is sung by Japanese folk singer Ritsuki Nakano, whom the music team contacted while searching for a singer whose music reflected an Okinawan atmosphere.[3] "Suteki Da Ne" is sung in its original Japanese form in both the Japanese and English versions of Final Fantasy X. The song's title translates to "Isn't it Wonderful?" in English, and its lyrics were written by Nojima,[3] while Uematsu composed the instrumentals. Like the ballads from Final Fantasy VIII and IX, "Suteki Da Ne" has an in-game version together with an orchestrated version used as part of the ending theme. The other songs featuring lyrics are the heavy metal opening theme, "Otherworld", sung in English by singer Bill Muir, and the "Hymn of the Fayth", a recurring piece sung using Japanese syllabary.
[edit] Reception
[hide] Reception
Review scores
Publication
Score
1UP.com
A+[35]
Eurogamer
9 out of 10[36]
Game Informer
9.75 out of 10[37]
GameSpot
9.3 out of 10[38]
IGN
9.5 out of 10[39]
Aggregate scores
Aggregator
Score
Game Rankings
91.4% (138 reviews)
Metacritic
92 out of 100 (53 reviews)
Final Fantasy X's reception was largely positive, with high sales figures and critical acclaim from the gaming industry. The game sold 90% of its initial 2,140,000-unit shipment—1,926,000 units—within just the first four days of release in Japan, having already sold between 1.4 million and 1.5 million copies in pre-orders.[40] These figures exceeded the performances of Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy VII in a comparable period,[41] and Final Fantasy X became the first PlayStation 2 game to reach sales totals of 2 million and 4 million copies.[42][43] As of July 2006, the game has been rated the US market's 11th best selling game of the 21st century,[44] and was nominated for the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards for animation and console role-playing game of the year in 2003.[45][unreliable source?] At the seventh anniversary of the PS2 in the United States (October 2007), the game was listed as the eighth best selling game for the PS2.[46] As of March 31, 2003, the game had shipped 5.89 million copies worldwide, with 2.87 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 3.02 million abroad.[47] In 2007, Final Fantasy X was named third best PlayStation 2 game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the PlayStation 2's long lifespan.[48]
[edit] Critical response
Both Japanese and western critics have generally given Final Fantasy X high scores, with the game attaining a 92/100 ("universal acclaim") according to Metacritic.[32] A leading Japanese video game magazine, Famitsu, awarded the game a near-perfect 39/40 score,[49] while readers of the same magazine voted it the best game of all time in early 2006.[50] Another leading Japanese gaming magazine, The Play Station, gave the game a score of 29/30.[49]
As part of their reviews, Famitsu and The Play Station expressed particularly favorable responses toward the game's storyline and graphics, as did the UK-based magazine Edge. However, the magazine only gave the game a 6/10, describing it as "Sequential software that labels itself next-gen" without providing a next generation gaming experience, instead repeating "the mistakes ... made on the last version".[51] In this regard, Edge cites the game's battle and character-leveling systems, describing the former as only "fractionally more complex" than was the case in previous installments of the series, and the latter as "[no] more flexible than the straight leveling from previous games".[51] Edge also dealt harsh criticism to the game's English script and voice-overs, regarding the dialogue, "both textual and verbal", as "nauseating". The magazine went on to say that it "renders the pathos comedic, the comedy dead, and ... butchers the whole game".[51] Multimedia website IGN offered extensive praise for the voice actors and the innovations in gameplay, particularly with regard to the revised battle and summon magic system, the option to change party members during battle, and what they felt were more efficient character development and inventory management systems. Offering additional praise for the game's graphics, which they suggested "improves on its predecessors in every area possible", they commented that the game as a whole was "the best-looking game of the series [and] arguably the best-playing as well" at the time of release.[2] GameSpot admired the game's storyline, calling it surprisingly complex, its ending satisfying, and its avoidance of RPG clichés commendable.[52] GamePro magazine agreed, saying that despite an "anticlimactic final battle", the story remained engaging every step of the way.[53]
[edit] Legacy
Due to its commercial and popular success,[54][55] Square Enix released a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X in 2003, entitled "Final Fantasy X-2". This sequel—the first direct sequel developed in the Final Fantasy series—is set two years after the conclusion of the original story, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. Also as a result of the game's reception, Kitase and Nojima decided to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII, another popular Final Fantasy title.[54]
The advancements in portraying realistic emotions achieved with Final Fantasy X through voice-overs and detailed facial expressions have since become a staple of the series, with its sequel and other subsequent titles—such as Final Fantasy XII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII—also featuring this development. Additionally, traversing real-time 3D environments instead of an overworld map has also become a standard of the series, as demonstrated in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII
God of War II is a hack and slash action-adventure video game and the sequel to the 2005 game God of War for the PlayStation 2. It was released in North America on March 13, 2007, in Europe on April 27, 2007,[2] and May 3, 2007 in Australia,[2] and October 25, 2007 in Japan.
The North American NTSC version of God of War II is packaged in a two-disc set. The first disc contains the game, and the second disc is dedicated to the game's development, including a diary of the game's production.[3] The European/Australian PAL version comes in two different editions: a single disc standard edition and a two disc "Special Edition" that comes in a different case than the single disc edition. It also includes different box art, a bonus DVD, as well as the PAL version of the game.
God of War II won a Golden Joystick for "PlayStation Game of the Year 2007" at the 2007 Golden Joystick Awards.
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
2 Plot
3 Characters
3.1 Main characters
3.2 Common enemies
3.3 Bosses
4 Items and abilities
4.1 Weapons
4.2 Magic
4.3 Relics
4.4 Urns
4.5 Costumes
5 Animal cruelty controversy
6 Soundtrack
7 Critical reception
8 Additional Game Information
9 References
10 External links
//
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay of God of War II is very similar to that of its predecessor. The player controls Kratos in a combination of combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements. Kratos' main weapons are Athena's Blades, which are blades on the ends of long chains that Kratos is able to swing in destructive paths but also able to use to scale rock faces or swing from special hook points. Kratos received Athena's Blades at the end of the original game. Other weapons and magic abilities are acquired as the plot progresses and can be used in conjunction with the Blades to dispatch enemies. Defeating foes using a combination of attacks, including chaining attacks together in combos, will release red experience orbs, used to power up Kratos' weapons and magic, and green, blue, and yellow orbs to replenish health, magic power, and the Rage of the Titans power, respectively. Chests distributed throughout the levels can also release these orbs, as well as providing Kratos with special artifacts to increase his maximum health and magic levels.
As with many foes in the first game, once Kratos has weakened an enemy, an indicator will appear above it. The player can then initiate a fatality minigame, which may require the player to hit a button, turn the analog stick, button-mash, or some combination thereof when prompted on-screen. A successful attempt will release additional orbs or life as a reward, while failure may result in damage to Kratos. Bosses can only be finished via these minigames, allowing the programmers to guarantee them graphic and cinematic demises.
New features in God of War II include additional relics introduced in the game. These allow Kratos to reflect magic spells back to their target, to slow down time when near special statues, and to open locked doors. Additionally, Kratos takes flight on the back of Pegasus with the combat similar in nature to rail games such as Panzer Dragoon Orta. A new "Challenge of the Titans" mode allows the player to attempt 7 different challenges with increasing difficulty after they have completed the main game once. There is also an "Arena of the Fates", in which the number and types of opponents can be customized. The experience points gained therein carry over to the main game. An overall rank of Titan must be achieved in the Challenge of the Titans in order to unlock the Arena of the Fates. Finally, a series of Grecian urns hidden throughout the game allow the unlocking of additional abilities when starting a New Game Plus, known in this game as a "Bonus Play".
[edit] Plot
God of War II takes place some time after the events of the first game; Kratos, after his defeat of Ares, has become the new God of War, but has not been accepted by the other members of the Greek pantheon due to his ruthless treatment of the other Greek city-states. Kratos is still haunted by memories of the deeds from his past while working under Ares. He finds enjoyment the only way he can, by leading and aiding his Spartan army in conquering Greece. Athena pleads that Kratos stop, telling him that she cannot protect him much longer from the wrath of the gods and that he should not turn his back on her because it was she who made him a god. Kratos replies that he owes nothing to her and descends to Rhodes to assist his Spartan army.
As Kratos arrives to destroy the city, a bird (Zeus), which Kratos believes to be Athena in disguise, robs him of almost all of his godly power, infusing them into the Colossus of Rhodes and bringing it to life to kill Kratos. After a protracted conflict with the metal giant that rages across the city, Zeus offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus, which Zeus himself used to overthrow Cronos and the Titans. At Zeus' behest, Kratos infuses the blade with his godhood, rendering him mortal but enabling him to destroy the Colossus from the inside. As Kratos jumps from the falling Colossus, he shouts to the gods if he needs to prove anything more to them. However, Kratos is crushed and severely wounded by the Colossus' falling hand after the battle. Kratos realizes he must retrieve the Blade of Olympus to save himself. As he slowly gets up and limps his way to the sword, Zeus reveals himself as the eagle that stole his power. Zeus explains he betrayed Kratos to save himself and Olympus from the same fate as Ares. He then offers Kratos one final chance at being a god, provided that he forever serve Zeus. Kratos says he serves no one, and Zeus, claiming Kratos has left him no other choice, slays him. Zeus tells Kratos that the path was his own choosing and, though mortally wounded, Kratos still defies Zeus, saying that 'a choice from the gods is as useless as the gods themselves'. An enraged Zeus drives the blade further into Kratos' chest. Zeus whispers that everything Kratos has ever known will suffer for his sacrilege - Kratos will never be the ruler of Olympus and 'the cycle ends here'. He then pulls the sword out of Kratos and uses the weapon's power to destroy the fighting warriors of Sparta and Rhodes. As Zeus is walking away, Kratos gives him a warning as he dies: "You will pay for this, Zeus... be certain of that."
However, as Kratos is being dragged towards an eternity of torment in Hades, he is saved by Gaia, the mother of the Titans who reveals herself to be the franchise's narrator and offers an alliance; when the Titans were defeated by the Olympians, they were punished and humiliated, and they want Kratos' help to exact revenge. Kratos escapes the Underworld and is bidden by Gaia to find the Sisters of Fate in order to change his past. She gives Kratos the aid of the magical horse Pegasus to traverse the distance to the Fates. Kratos and Pegasus, after a detour to a mountain that houses the Titan Typhon and the former Titan Prometheus, fly to the Island of Creation where the Sisters of Fate (the Moirae) await. As he explores the island, Kratos encounters the likes of Theseus, whom he kills in battle to determine who is the greatest warrior of Greece (and to take his key in order to venture onward), Perseus, who is there to change the fate of his beloved Andromeda, and the revived Barbarian King from the original God of War who has fought his way out of Hades to change his fate. Kratos also encounters an elderly Icarus who is on the brink of insanity and tackles Kratos off a cliff, saying that it is his fate, none others, to seek and audience with the Sisters. While both are falling, Kratos rips off Icarus' wings and sails below the Earth where it is being held up by Atlas, as Icarus falls to his death far below.
Kratos lands upon the Titan Atlas below the earth and tries to communicate with him. At first, Atlas refuses to help Kratos, bent on crushing the human for what he has done to him. However, Kratos manages to persuade Atlas to help him so that he may change his fate and kill Zeus. The Titan accepts the offer, giving Kratos the last of his magic and helping him back to the surface so that he may continue his quest. After an expedition through the Sisters' Palace, Kratos encounters an unknown warrior who is also seeking to reach the Sisters. Without either of them knowing who the other one is at the time due to the darkness, Kratos rams the man through a stain-glass window after a fight and is shocked to see that the man is the very Spartan he had told to return to Sparta and prepare for a battle against Olympus. The Spartan reveals that Zeus has destroyed Sparta and that he was seeking the Sisters to change that. He tells Kratos as he dies that he has faith that Kratos will finish what he has started. Kratos is despondent and bereft of the will to carry on, but is inspired by Gaia to continue the battle. She promises Kratos that Zeus will fall, saying 'this battle is just the start of a great war that is to come...'
Kratos finally confronts the Sisters, Lakhesis, Atropos and Clotho, who operate and defend the Loom of Fate, which rules the lives of mortals and gods alike. Kratos first encounters Lakhesis. She reveals that it was she who decided the Titans lose the Great War and allowed Kratos to come this far. They fight and Kratos defeats her, but she then summons Atropos, who takes Kratos back to the time of his final fight with Ares in the first God of War. As Kratos and Ares disappear (as Kratos fights to protect his family in an illusion caused by Ares), Atropos attempts to destroy the Blade of the Gods - the sword that Kratos used to kill Ares - reasoning that if the sword is destroyed, Ares can kill Kratos, causing him to die in both the past and the present. He stops her and goes back to the present to face Lahkesis one more time. As he fights Lahkesis, Atropos intervenes from the three mirrors in the room, meaning Kratos must fight both at the same time. Kratos destroys Atropos' first two mirrors, then traps Lahkesis and Atropos in the last mirror and destroys it, trapping the two Sisters in the past for eternity, and opening the path to Clotho, who pleads with Kratos as he approaches that his manipulation of fate will destroy everything. It should be noted that before entering Clotho's chambers, Kratos sees three murals describing past, present, and future events, the last alluding to the journey of The Three Wise Men toward the birth of Christ. Upon reaching Clotho, Kratos impales her in the head with a swinging blade, leaving him to control the loom.
He first goes back to his death at Zeus' hands in Rhodes, reclaiming the Blade of Olympus and inciting a lengthy battle with the King of the Gods. At the end of the fight, Zeus is striking Kratos with an unstoppable lightning storm, leaving Kratos to call out to Zeus that he surrenders. Kratos asks him to release him from his life and his torment, and as Zeus is about to execute Kratos, stating that "I would release you from your life, my son, but your torment is just beginning", Kratos dodges the blow and pins Zeus' hands to the rock with his blades. Kratos then takes the Blade of Olympus and begins driving it into Zeus' abdomen.
Athena arrives and defends Zeus. Kratos angrily battles her, snarling at her for having the gall to stand against him. Athena replies she doesn't wish to fight, but she will defend Olympus. The badly wounded Zeus attempts to escape, telling Kratos he has started a war he cannot hope to win, as the Fates have already deemed Zeus victorious. As Kratos tries to charge forward and slay Zeus as he flees, Athena interposes herself, saving her father at the cost of her own life. Her dying words reveal that Zeus' actions are meant to break the cycle of son killing father, which goes back to Cronos killing Uranus, and Zeus defeating Cronos. By killing Kratos (the son) before he can kill Zeus (the father), Zeus had hoped to break the cycle - thus confirming that Kratos is, in fact, Zeus' own son, and begs him to relent in his quest for vengeance. After a moment of apparent shock and shame, Kratos darkens and snarls that he has no father. Athena dies in Kratos' arms, saying that all the gods on Olympus will deny Kratos, defending Zeus so Olympus will prevail. She says that even though Kratos wishes to kill Zeus, Zeus IS Olympus. Kratos then vows to exact retribution on Zeus and any god who will deny him his vengeance, screaming that their time is at an end, swearing that 'If all on Olympus will deny me my vengeance, then all on Olympus will die!'
Returning to the Loom, which is now collapsing, Kratos uses it once again to go further back in time to The Great War as it ends. Kratos screams to Gaia, "Gaia, we can win the Great War! But not in this time! Together, we will destroy the petty gods and we would see Olympus crumble before us! Return to my time. Victory awaits." He then brings Gaia and the Titans back to the present with him. Meanwhile, Zeus rallies his fellow gods Poseidon, Hades, Hermes and Helios together (the identities of these gods were confirmed in God of War: Chains of Olympus), urging them to unite and defeat Kratos. As Zeus spits out triumphantly, "Olympus shall prevail!", the entire temple of Olympus begins to shake. The gods run over to the balcony to see the Titans brought forward in time by Kratos beginning to scale the mountain and bearing Kratos with them to end the Great War between the Gods and the Titans once and for all. As Zeus looks down in horror, Kratos shouts up to him, "Zeus! Your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!"
The game finishes with a prophetic warning: The End Begins....
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main characters
Kratos: At the start of God of War II, Kratos is the God of War after defeating Ares but not being released from his torment made his sorrow boil into hatred. He turns to his mortal army of Sparta to wage war on cities across the land, which raises the anger of Zeus and the other gods. Soon, he finds he is betrayed by Zeus and reduced to a mortal. Kratos must travel to the Sisters of Fate to exact revenge and destroy Zeus once and for all.
Athena: The goddess of wisdom, defensive war and industry. Though a constant companion in the first game, Athena appears only three times in this sequel: once to warn Kratos that his actions are displeasing the other gods, a second through a statue (as in the first game), and the last to save Zeus by stepping in the way of Kratos' killing blow. (Ironically, when Athena's mother, the Titaness Metis, was pregnant, Zeus attempted to kill both for fear that the child be the prophesied overthrowing son.)
Gaia: Mother of the Titans, and connected to all things of the Earth. Along with the other Titans, she was banished in the War of the Titans, and seeing Kratos' quest for revenge on Zeus, offers to lend her power to his cause. She helps Kratos throughout his journey in hopes that together they can bring about the fall of Olympus. She also acts as the narrator.
Lakhesis: The middle (matron) of the three Sister of Fate bears a feathered robe and wings along with a staff. She mocks Kratos by telling him that she was the one responsible for deciding both the defeat of the Titans in the Great War and letting Kratos reach the Sisters. She refuses to accept Kratos and tells him that he will fail in his quest to change his fate.
Atropos: The oldest (crone) Sister of Fate who was inside Lakhesis until she split off to fight Kratos. She mocked Kratos' attempt to change his fate, demonstrating her power by altering the event from the first God of War and attempting to destroy the Blade of the Gods so that Kratos would die by Ares' hand. Kratos is forced to fight in his own past (with the final battle of the first game raging in the background) in order to defeat her and preserve his existence.
Clotho: The youngest (maiden) Sisters of Fate that Kratos encounters, although she looks like anything but. She is a morbidly obese silkworm-like creature with multiple arms and breasts that sits within the multi-leveled Loom Chamber. She spins the thread of every mortal, god and titan. Kratos must defeat Clotho and learn how to work the loom in order to kill Zeus and change his fate.
Zeus: The King of Olympus who created the Blade of Olympus. He is the father of Ares, Athena and Kratos. He betrays Kratos in the beginning of the second game and is the antagonist for the duration.
[edit] Common enemies
See also: List of God of War Monsters
Most of the common enemies that Kratos faces are based on mythological creatures including several that return from the original God of War; these include the undead, skeletons, wraiths, harpies, nymphs, gryphons, minotaurs, Gorgons, Cyclopes, Cerberus hounds, Sirens, satyrs, juggernauts, and the armies of the Fates. Many of these common foes can be dealt a more violent finishing blow to earn more experience orbs and other benefits, though can also be finished off by repeated attacks.filho da puta corno nub
[edit] Bosses
Colossus of Rhodes - The first boss in the game. It is brought to life by Zeus (who was in the form of a bird) who drains Kratos' power and gives it to the statue. As Kratos fights his way through the city, the Colossus attempts to destroy him. Kratos eventually fights the Colossus from within. When completely drained of its power by Kratos' use of the Blade of Olympus it begins to collapse. Kratos escapes through the mouth onto a platform. He is then crushed and nearly killed by the hand of the falling colossus.
Theseus - A famous Greek hero, he wields a twin-bladed spear and can summon ice crystals and Frost Minotaurs. He serves the Sisters of Fate as the 'Horse master' for the glory of Zeus and keeps the key to the chapels on the backs of the Steeds of Time. Kratos offers Theseus' life in exchange for the key he possesses for the door; however Theseus challenges Kratos to a duel to the death to prove who is the greatest warrior in Greece. After an extended battle, Kratos uses Theseus' own spear against him by impaling him to the door, using the key to open the door, then repeatedly smashing the door on his head until he dies.
Barbarian King - One of the characters from the original game to return, the Barbarian King was seen repeatedly through the cutscenes in that game as Kratos' adversary who nearly defeated him, forcing Kratos to make a pact with Ares. Kratos is seen decapitating the King in the first game, but in this game he is a corpse riding a decrepit horse and he tells Kratos he is thankful that the Fates granted him this last duel with Kratos for revenge. After Kratos knocks the King off his horse, he uses his own hammer against him, smahing his head in until it's nothing but a huge mess. In another throwback to the original game, the ship captain whom Kratos let perish inside the Hydra is one of the souls the Barbarian King summons. Should the player decide to kill him, it marks the third time Kratos has taken the captain's life.
Cerberus - A black, three-headed hound who is faster, stronger and can breathe fire, Kratos discovers it has eaten Jason (of the Argonauts) and the Golden Fleece along with him. Kratos must retrieve the Golden Fleece from within the beast. He first stabs two of the heads then sticks his hand inside the last ones mouth ripping the fleece and his guts from inside of him killing him.
Euryale - Medusa's sister, a much larger, heavier gorgon. She wishes to avenge the death of her sister, who was slain by Kratos in the original God of War, and to get revenge for all of the other gorgons Kratos has killed. She praises the Sisters of Fate for luring Kratos to her temple. Her petrification energy is red, as opposed to other gorgons' energy being green. Kratos struggles with her at first but finally slices her head off. When defeated, her head can be used to turn enemies to stone. This is similar to "Medusa's Gaze" from the first game.
Perseus - The Greek hero appears to be on his own quest to seek the Sisters of Fate, to bring his love (presumably Andromeda) back from the dead. Perseus uses the Helmet of Hades that makes him invisible, a sling, a sword, and a reflective shield, all of which he received from various gods. He attempts to kill Kratos believing that the confrontation is a test to prove his worth for an audience with the Sisters (or at least he can bask in the glory of slaying Kratos). Kratos must first destroy his helmet to remove his invisibility then break his sword into pieces, at which point Perseus is down only to his sling and the blinding magic of his shield. After weakening Perseus, Kratos smashes his head into a wall, drowns him into unconsciousness then takes Perseus's shield and throws him through a wall into a hook, killing him instantly. Perseus is voiced by Harry Hamlin, having first played the role of Perseus in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans; Hamlin was cast specifically for this role.[4]
Icarus - Kratos runs into an elderly Icarus upon reaching the Great Chasm. He appears to have lost his sanity, reacting violently to Kratos' arrival. This causes a tussle that takes them both over the edge. Kratos manages to tear off his wings, causing the old man to fall to his death, while Kratos lands on the Titan Atlas.
The last Spartan - Silhouetted against the sky from behind a framed glass window, Kratos fights this opponent as a shadow. Neither man knows the truth as to who they are fighting until Kratos wins by ramming him through the chest with his blade then tackling him through a window, discovering to his horror that it was the Spartan he had told to defend the city at the start of the game. He tells Kratos that Zeus had destroyed Sparta and he had hoped to gain an audience with the Sisters of Fate to change the outcome. The Spartan dies having faith in Kratos' ability to save the Spartans. Kratos uses his body to place on a pressure plate during the battle with the Kraken. Midway with Kratos fighting the Kraken (after the player discovering a strategy to defeat it) he consumes his corpse whole.
Kraken - Appears after the battle with the Spartan. At this point Kratos has been through so much that he gives up fighting and will not lift his blades. He now believes he cannot change his fate and wishes Zeus to face him at that very moment. This allows the Kraken to firmly grab hold of Kratos who is still enraged. Kratos regains his fighting spirit after being convinced by Gaia (in the form of Kratos' wife) that he will be eternally tormented by Zeus unless he changes his fate. After a few rounds of battling the monster, Kratos stabs its tentacles, knocking it off balance, allowing Kratos to use a lever to extend a bridge, sending the bridge straight through the Kraken's mouth, killing it.
The Sisters of Fate - In order to use the Loom to change his past, Kratos must battle the Three Sisters of Fate that are defending it, frightened that Kratos will bring doom to the world should he use it. Lakhesis confronts Kratos alone trying to kill him using a combination of melee attacks and magic with the use of her staff. When bested by Kratos, Lakhesis releases Atropos from within her. Atropos carries Kratos through the mirror back to the time when Kratos fought Ares. She threatens that she could kill Kratos in the past by destroying the sword he used to kill Ares. Kratos defeats Atropos, bringing him back to Lakhesis' throne room. Both Lakhesis and Atropos fight against Kratos. He defeats them by throwing them into one of their inter-dimensional mirrors, and then destroying it, trapping them in a void between realms. The final sister, Clotho, awaits Kratos a few levels away. While Kratos makes his way to her head he disables five of her smaller arms blocking his way up. Once at the top level, he disables her two main arms, giving him time to bring up a giant swinging blade. With this blade he impales Clotho through her head killing the last of the Sisters of Fate, granting him the power to change the past.
Zeus - After using the Loom to return to when Zeus drives the Blade of Olympus into Kratos, Kratos must fight Zeus for control of the blade in order to change his future. Toward the end of the battle Kratos uses both Athena's Blades and the Blade of Olympus to bring him down. After an electrical storm attack from Zeus, Kratos tricks Zeus by telling that he gives up and to end his life. Kratos, with the use of the Golden Fleece, reverses Zeus' attack and uses the Blade of Olympus to nearly kill him until Athena interrupts. Kratos, while trying to run Zeus through, accidentally impales Athena who threw herself in the path of the killing blow and mortally wounds her while Zeus escapes with no concern for his fallen daughter. Corey Burton provides the voice of Zeus, who is a character Burton also played in the animated television series Disney's Hercules.
[edit] Items and abilities
[edit] Weapons
Kratos' main weapon is "Athena's Blades", bestowed on him by the goddess Athena. They function as the same weapon as the Blades of Chaos, but these were given to Kratos as he ascends to Godhood by Athena, and after Ares had taken the Blades of Chaos from Kratos during the final battle. During the game, Kratos also gains the "Barbarian Hammer" (a slow but powerful close combat weapon originally wielded by the Barbarian King), the "Spear of Destiny" (a fast weapon with piercing attacks originally used by the Dark Rider), and the "Blade of Olympus" (a divine sword so powerful it was the blade that allowed Zeus to defeat the Titans.) Each weapon can be powered up with experience orbs to increase their power and add new attacks. However, the Blade of Olympus, normally a weapon provided solely by plot developments, can only be used when during the fight with the Colossus, fighting Zeus in the last bit of gameplay, and via Bonus Play.
[edit] Magic
Kratos is bestowed with magical powers as he successfully completes certain tasks during the plot. Initially, Kratos starts with the "Poseidon's Rage" magic, carried over from the original game, but loses this after sacrificing his magic power in an attempt to defeat the Colossus. However, Kratos gains other magic spells, including "Typhon's Bane" (a bow-like long range attack weapon), "Cronos' Rage" (an attack using electricity to strike multiple targets), the "Head of Euryale" (similar to the Medusa's Gaze from the first game, able to turn enemies to stone), and "Atlas Quake" (a wide area ground pounding attack). As with his weapons, Kratos can improve the potency and abilities of these spells by spending experience orbs.
Kratos also gains the "Rage of the Titans" power from Prometheus, which is similar to the "Rage of the Gods" from the first game. This power can only be activated initially when a meter has been filled either due to Kratos taking damage or collecting yellow/gold orbs from defeated foes. Activating the power increases Kratos' attack power for a short time and makes him invincible to knockback, stun, and petrify effects, though not invincible to damage. The player is allowed to activate and deactivate Rage of the Titans whenever they wish, unlike Rage of the Gods which had to be fully charged and then could only be fully drained.
[edit] Relics
There are two primary types of relics in the game that Kratos will collect. The first are special keys to open locked doors throughout the game, but otherwise have no power of their own. The other type of Relics are those that provide Kratos with a special power. Kratos starts the game with the "Trident of Poseidon" which allows Kratos to swim and breathe underwater indefinitely. Kratos also gains three additional Relics of this nature in the game: The "Amulet of the Fates" that allows Kratos to slow down time when close to a Fate statue, the "Wings of Icarus" that allow Kratos to glide after jumping, and the "Golden Fleece" which Kratos can use to reflect directed shots back at their sender.
[edit] Urns
In the game, the Urns give Kratos special abilities and attributes when activated in a Bonus Play after they are collected. Some of the abilities granted by these Urns as by giving Kratos infinite magic or unlimited use of Rage of the Titans. The Urns are either found during gameplay in well hidden spots or earned in Challenge of the Titans. The six urns are the Urns of Gaia, Gorgons, Olympus, Prometheus, the Fates, and Poseidon.
[edit] Costumes
By completing the game or satisfying other special criteria, the player can unlock various costumes for Kratos. The costumes change both Kratos' appearance and effect changes in gameplay by adjusting the values of the various types of collected orbs in both positive and negative ways, as well as affecting other factors such as Kratos' resilience and attack power. The range of costumes includes: a fish costume, making him the "Cod of War"; armour made from the Hydra Kratos defeated in the first game; Dark Odyssey, which is essentially Kratos with darker skin and gold markings; General Kratos, Kratos as he appeared before the Oracle of Athena cursed him into the Ghost of Sparta, and even complete appearance changes to either Athena or Hercules. Also, with God Armor, the Blades of Athena keep their gold regardless of what level they are at. The player can only change costume when starting a new game in Bonus Play mode.
[edit] Animal cruelty controversy
Sony's marketing campaign included the presence of a decapitated goat at a party held in Athens for the launch of the game.[5] Distribution of an issue of the "Official PlayStation Magazine" containing photos of the event was halted after condemnation from animal rights groups.[6]
[edit] Soundtrack
God of War IIOfficial Soundtrack
Soundtrack by various artists
Released
April 10, 2007
Length
66:41
Label
SCEI
The score of God of War II was composed by Gerard K. Marino, Ron Fish, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco and released on CD on April 10, 2007. A rock arrangement of "The End Begins" was also released as a free downloadable track for the PlayStation 3 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
[show]Track listing
The North American NTSC version of God of War II is packaged in a two-disc set. The first disc contains the game, and the second disc is dedicated to the game's development, including a diary of the game's production.[3] The European/Australian PAL version comes in two different editions: a single disc standard edition and a two disc "Special Edition" that comes in a different case than the single disc edition. It also includes different box art, a bonus DVD, as well as the PAL version of the game.
God of War II won a Golden Joystick for "PlayStation Game of the Year 2007" at the 2007 Golden Joystick Awards.
Contents[hide]
1 Gameplay
2 Plot
3 Characters
3.1 Main characters
3.2 Common enemies
3.3 Bosses
4 Items and abilities
4.1 Weapons
4.2 Magic
4.3 Relics
4.4 Urns
4.5 Costumes
5 Animal cruelty controversy
6 Soundtrack
7 Critical reception
8 Additional Game Information
9 References
10 External links
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[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay of God of War II is very similar to that of its predecessor. The player controls Kratos in a combination of combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements. Kratos' main weapons are Athena's Blades, which are blades on the ends of long chains that Kratos is able to swing in destructive paths but also able to use to scale rock faces or swing from special hook points. Kratos received Athena's Blades at the end of the original game. Other weapons and magic abilities are acquired as the plot progresses and can be used in conjunction with the Blades to dispatch enemies. Defeating foes using a combination of attacks, including chaining attacks together in combos, will release red experience orbs, used to power up Kratos' weapons and magic, and green, blue, and yellow orbs to replenish health, magic power, and the Rage of the Titans power, respectively. Chests distributed throughout the levels can also release these orbs, as well as providing Kratos with special artifacts to increase his maximum health and magic levels.
As with many foes in the first game, once Kratos has weakened an enemy, an indicator will appear above it. The player can then initiate a fatality minigame, which may require the player to hit a button, turn the analog stick, button-mash, or some combination thereof when prompted on-screen. A successful attempt will release additional orbs or life as a reward, while failure may result in damage to Kratos. Bosses can only be finished via these minigames, allowing the programmers to guarantee them graphic and cinematic demises.
New features in God of War II include additional relics introduced in the game. These allow Kratos to reflect magic spells back to their target, to slow down time when near special statues, and to open locked doors. Additionally, Kratos takes flight on the back of Pegasus with the combat similar in nature to rail games such as Panzer Dragoon Orta. A new "Challenge of the Titans" mode allows the player to attempt 7 different challenges with increasing difficulty after they have completed the main game once. There is also an "Arena of the Fates", in which the number and types of opponents can be customized. The experience points gained therein carry over to the main game. An overall rank of Titan must be achieved in the Challenge of the Titans in order to unlock the Arena of the Fates. Finally, a series of Grecian urns hidden throughout the game allow the unlocking of additional abilities when starting a New Game Plus, known in this game as a "Bonus Play".
[edit] Plot
God of War II takes place some time after the events of the first game; Kratos, after his defeat of Ares, has become the new God of War, but has not been accepted by the other members of the Greek pantheon due to his ruthless treatment of the other Greek city-states. Kratos is still haunted by memories of the deeds from his past while working under Ares. He finds enjoyment the only way he can, by leading and aiding his Spartan army in conquering Greece. Athena pleads that Kratos stop, telling him that she cannot protect him much longer from the wrath of the gods and that he should not turn his back on her because it was she who made him a god. Kratos replies that he owes nothing to her and descends to Rhodes to assist his Spartan army.
As Kratos arrives to destroy the city, a bird (Zeus), which Kratos believes to be Athena in disguise, robs him of almost all of his godly power, infusing them into the Colossus of Rhodes and bringing it to life to kill Kratos. After a protracted conflict with the metal giant that rages across the city, Zeus offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus, which Zeus himself used to overthrow Cronos and the Titans. At Zeus' behest, Kratos infuses the blade with his godhood, rendering him mortal but enabling him to destroy the Colossus from the inside. As Kratos jumps from the falling Colossus, he shouts to the gods if he needs to prove anything more to them. However, Kratos is crushed and severely wounded by the Colossus' falling hand after the battle. Kratos realizes he must retrieve the Blade of Olympus to save himself. As he slowly gets up and limps his way to the sword, Zeus reveals himself as the eagle that stole his power. Zeus explains he betrayed Kratos to save himself and Olympus from the same fate as Ares. He then offers Kratos one final chance at being a god, provided that he forever serve Zeus. Kratos says he serves no one, and Zeus, claiming Kratos has left him no other choice, slays him. Zeus tells Kratos that the path was his own choosing and, though mortally wounded, Kratos still defies Zeus, saying that 'a choice from the gods is as useless as the gods themselves'. An enraged Zeus drives the blade further into Kratos' chest. Zeus whispers that everything Kratos has ever known will suffer for his sacrilege - Kratos will never be the ruler of Olympus and 'the cycle ends here'. He then pulls the sword out of Kratos and uses the weapon's power to destroy the fighting warriors of Sparta and Rhodes. As Zeus is walking away, Kratos gives him a warning as he dies: "You will pay for this, Zeus... be certain of that."
However, as Kratos is being dragged towards an eternity of torment in Hades, he is saved by Gaia, the mother of the Titans who reveals herself to be the franchise's narrator and offers an alliance; when the Titans were defeated by the Olympians, they were punished and humiliated, and they want Kratos' help to exact revenge. Kratos escapes the Underworld and is bidden by Gaia to find the Sisters of Fate in order to change his past. She gives Kratos the aid of the magical horse Pegasus to traverse the distance to the Fates. Kratos and Pegasus, after a detour to a mountain that houses the Titan Typhon and the former Titan Prometheus, fly to the Island of Creation where the Sisters of Fate (the Moirae) await. As he explores the island, Kratos encounters the likes of Theseus, whom he kills in battle to determine who is the greatest warrior of Greece (and to take his key in order to venture onward), Perseus, who is there to change the fate of his beloved Andromeda, and the revived Barbarian King from the original God of War who has fought his way out of Hades to change his fate. Kratos also encounters an elderly Icarus who is on the brink of insanity and tackles Kratos off a cliff, saying that it is his fate, none others, to seek and audience with the Sisters. While both are falling, Kratos rips off Icarus' wings and sails below the Earth where it is being held up by Atlas, as Icarus falls to his death far below.
Kratos lands upon the Titan Atlas below the earth and tries to communicate with him. At first, Atlas refuses to help Kratos, bent on crushing the human for what he has done to him. However, Kratos manages to persuade Atlas to help him so that he may change his fate and kill Zeus. The Titan accepts the offer, giving Kratos the last of his magic and helping him back to the surface so that he may continue his quest. After an expedition through the Sisters' Palace, Kratos encounters an unknown warrior who is also seeking to reach the Sisters. Without either of them knowing who the other one is at the time due to the darkness, Kratos rams the man through a stain-glass window after a fight and is shocked to see that the man is the very Spartan he had told to return to Sparta and prepare for a battle against Olympus. The Spartan reveals that Zeus has destroyed Sparta and that he was seeking the Sisters to change that. He tells Kratos as he dies that he has faith that Kratos will finish what he has started. Kratos is despondent and bereft of the will to carry on, but is inspired by Gaia to continue the battle. She promises Kratos that Zeus will fall, saying 'this battle is just the start of a great war that is to come...'
Kratos finally confronts the Sisters, Lakhesis, Atropos and Clotho, who operate and defend the Loom of Fate, which rules the lives of mortals and gods alike. Kratos first encounters Lakhesis. She reveals that it was she who decided the Titans lose the Great War and allowed Kratos to come this far. They fight and Kratos defeats her, but she then summons Atropos, who takes Kratos back to the time of his final fight with Ares in the first God of War. As Kratos and Ares disappear (as Kratos fights to protect his family in an illusion caused by Ares), Atropos attempts to destroy the Blade of the Gods - the sword that Kratos used to kill Ares - reasoning that if the sword is destroyed, Ares can kill Kratos, causing him to die in both the past and the present. He stops her and goes back to the present to face Lahkesis one more time. As he fights Lahkesis, Atropos intervenes from the three mirrors in the room, meaning Kratos must fight both at the same time. Kratos destroys Atropos' first two mirrors, then traps Lahkesis and Atropos in the last mirror and destroys it, trapping the two Sisters in the past for eternity, and opening the path to Clotho, who pleads with Kratos as he approaches that his manipulation of fate will destroy everything. It should be noted that before entering Clotho's chambers, Kratos sees three murals describing past, present, and future events, the last alluding to the journey of The Three Wise Men toward the birth of Christ. Upon reaching Clotho, Kratos impales her in the head with a swinging blade, leaving him to control the loom.
He first goes back to his death at Zeus' hands in Rhodes, reclaiming the Blade of Olympus and inciting a lengthy battle with the King of the Gods. At the end of the fight, Zeus is striking Kratos with an unstoppable lightning storm, leaving Kratos to call out to Zeus that he surrenders. Kratos asks him to release him from his life and his torment, and as Zeus is about to execute Kratos, stating that "I would release you from your life, my son, but your torment is just beginning", Kratos dodges the blow and pins Zeus' hands to the rock with his blades. Kratos then takes the Blade of Olympus and begins driving it into Zeus' abdomen.
Athena arrives and defends Zeus. Kratos angrily battles her, snarling at her for having the gall to stand against him. Athena replies she doesn't wish to fight, but she will defend Olympus. The badly wounded Zeus attempts to escape, telling Kratos he has started a war he cannot hope to win, as the Fates have already deemed Zeus victorious. As Kratos tries to charge forward and slay Zeus as he flees, Athena interposes herself, saving her father at the cost of her own life. Her dying words reveal that Zeus' actions are meant to break the cycle of son killing father, which goes back to Cronos killing Uranus, and Zeus defeating Cronos. By killing Kratos (the son) before he can kill Zeus (the father), Zeus had hoped to break the cycle - thus confirming that Kratos is, in fact, Zeus' own son, and begs him to relent in his quest for vengeance. After a moment of apparent shock and shame, Kratos darkens and snarls that he has no father. Athena dies in Kratos' arms, saying that all the gods on Olympus will deny Kratos, defending Zeus so Olympus will prevail. She says that even though Kratos wishes to kill Zeus, Zeus IS Olympus. Kratos then vows to exact retribution on Zeus and any god who will deny him his vengeance, screaming that their time is at an end, swearing that 'If all on Olympus will deny me my vengeance, then all on Olympus will die!'
Returning to the Loom, which is now collapsing, Kratos uses it once again to go further back in time to The Great War as it ends. Kratos screams to Gaia, "Gaia, we can win the Great War! But not in this time! Together, we will destroy the petty gods and we would see Olympus crumble before us! Return to my time. Victory awaits." He then brings Gaia and the Titans back to the present with him. Meanwhile, Zeus rallies his fellow gods Poseidon, Hades, Hermes and Helios together (the identities of these gods were confirmed in God of War: Chains of Olympus), urging them to unite and defeat Kratos. As Zeus spits out triumphantly, "Olympus shall prevail!", the entire temple of Olympus begins to shake. The gods run over to the balcony to see the Titans brought forward in time by Kratos beginning to scale the mountain and bearing Kratos with them to end the Great War between the Gods and the Titans once and for all. As Zeus looks down in horror, Kratos shouts up to him, "Zeus! Your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!"
The game finishes with a prophetic warning: The End Begins....
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main characters
Kratos: At the start of God of War II, Kratos is the God of War after defeating Ares but not being released from his torment made his sorrow boil into hatred. He turns to his mortal army of Sparta to wage war on cities across the land, which raises the anger of Zeus and the other gods. Soon, he finds he is betrayed by Zeus and reduced to a mortal. Kratos must travel to the Sisters of Fate to exact revenge and destroy Zeus once and for all.
Athena: The goddess of wisdom, defensive war and industry. Though a constant companion in the first game, Athena appears only three times in this sequel: once to warn Kratos that his actions are displeasing the other gods, a second through a statue (as in the first game), and the last to save Zeus by stepping in the way of Kratos' killing blow. (Ironically, when Athena's mother, the Titaness Metis, was pregnant, Zeus attempted to kill both for fear that the child be the prophesied overthrowing son.)
Gaia: Mother of the Titans, and connected to all things of the Earth. Along with the other Titans, she was banished in the War of the Titans, and seeing Kratos' quest for revenge on Zeus, offers to lend her power to his cause. She helps Kratos throughout his journey in hopes that together they can bring about the fall of Olympus. She also acts as the narrator.
Lakhesis: The middle (matron) of the three Sister of Fate bears a feathered robe and wings along with a staff. She mocks Kratos by telling him that she was the one responsible for deciding both the defeat of the Titans in the Great War and letting Kratos reach the Sisters. She refuses to accept Kratos and tells him that he will fail in his quest to change his fate.
Atropos: The oldest (crone) Sister of Fate who was inside Lakhesis until she split off to fight Kratos. She mocked Kratos' attempt to change his fate, demonstrating her power by altering the event from the first God of War and attempting to destroy the Blade of the Gods so that Kratos would die by Ares' hand. Kratos is forced to fight in his own past (with the final battle of the first game raging in the background) in order to defeat her and preserve his existence.
Clotho: The youngest (maiden) Sisters of Fate that Kratos encounters, although she looks like anything but. She is a morbidly obese silkworm-like creature with multiple arms and breasts that sits within the multi-leveled Loom Chamber. She spins the thread of every mortal, god and titan. Kratos must defeat Clotho and learn how to work the loom in order to kill Zeus and change his fate.
Zeus: The King of Olympus who created the Blade of Olympus. He is the father of Ares, Athena and Kratos. He betrays Kratos in the beginning of the second game and is the antagonist for the duration.
[edit] Common enemies
See also: List of God of War Monsters
Most of the common enemies that Kratos faces are based on mythological creatures including several that return from the original God of War; these include the undead, skeletons, wraiths, harpies, nymphs, gryphons, minotaurs, Gorgons, Cyclopes, Cerberus hounds, Sirens, satyrs, juggernauts, and the armies of the Fates. Many of these common foes can be dealt a more violent finishing blow to earn more experience orbs and other benefits, though can also be finished off by repeated attacks.filho da puta corno nub
[edit] Bosses
Colossus of Rhodes - The first boss in the game. It is brought to life by Zeus (who was in the form of a bird) who drains Kratos' power and gives it to the statue. As Kratos fights his way through the city, the Colossus attempts to destroy him. Kratos eventually fights the Colossus from within. When completely drained of its power by Kratos' use of the Blade of Olympus it begins to collapse. Kratos escapes through the mouth onto a platform. He is then crushed and nearly killed by the hand of the falling colossus.
Theseus - A famous Greek hero, he wields a twin-bladed spear and can summon ice crystals and Frost Minotaurs. He serves the Sisters of Fate as the 'Horse master' for the glory of Zeus and keeps the key to the chapels on the backs of the Steeds of Time. Kratos offers Theseus' life in exchange for the key he possesses for the door; however Theseus challenges Kratos to a duel to the death to prove who is the greatest warrior in Greece. After an extended battle, Kratos uses Theseus' own spear against him by impaling him to the door, using the key to open the door, then repeatedly smashing the door on his head until he dies.
Barbarian King - One of the characters from the original game to return, the Barbarian King was seen repeatedly through the cutscenes in that game as Kratos' adversary who nearly defeated him, forcing Kratos to make a pact with Ares. Kratos is seen decapitating the King in the first game, but in this game he is a corpse riding a decrepit horse and he tells Kratos he is thankful that the Fates granted him this last duel with Kratos for revenge. After Kratos knocks the King off his horse, he uses his own hammer against him, smahing his head in until it's nothing but a huge mess. In another throwback to the original game, the ship captain whom Kratos let perish inside the Hydra is one of the souls the Barbarian King summons. Should the player decide to kill him, it marks the third time Kratos has taken the captain's life.
Cerberus - A black, three-headed hound who is faster, stronger and can breathe fire, Kratos discovers it has eaten Jason (of the Argonauts) and the Golden Fleece along with him. Kratos must retrieve the Golden Fleece from within the beast. He first stabs two of the heads then sticks his hand inside the last ones mouth ripping the fleece and his guts from inside of him killing him.
Euryale - Medusa's sister, a much larger, heavier gorgon. She wishes to avenge the death of her sister, who was slain by Kratos in the original God of War, and to get revenge for all of the other gorgons Kratos has killed. She praises the Sisters of Fate for luring Kratos to her temple. Her petrification energy is red, as opposed to other gorgons' energy being green. Kratos struggles with her at first but finally slices her head off. When defeated, her head can be used to turn enemies to stone. This is similar to "Medusa's Gaze" from the first game.
Perseus - The Greek hero appears to be on his own quest to seek the Sisters of Fate, to bring his love (presumably Andromeda) back from the dead. Perseus uses the Helmet of Hades that makes him invisible, a sling, a sword, and a reflective shield, all of which he received from various gods. He attempts to kill Kratos believing that the confrontation is a test to prove his worth for an audience with the Sisters (or at least he can bask in the glory of slaying Kratos). Kratos must first destroy his helmet to remove his invisibility then break his sword into pieces, at which point Perseus is down only to his sling and the blinding magic of his shield. After weakening Perseus, Kratos smashes his head into a wall, drowns him into unconsciousness then takes Perseus's shield and throws him through a wall into a hook, killing him instantly. Perseus is voiced by Harry Hamlin, having first played the role of Perseus in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans; Hamlin was cast specifically for this role.[4]
Icarus - Kratos runs into an elderly Icarus upon reaching the Great Chasm. He appears to have lost his sanity, reacting violently to Kratos' arrival. This causes a tussle that takes them both over the edge. Kratos manages to tear off his wings, causing the old man to fall to his death, while Kratos lands on the Titan Atlas.
The last Spartan - Silhouetted against the sky from behind a framed glass window, Kratos fights this opponent as a shadow. Neither man knows the truth as to who they are fighting until Kratos wins by ramming him through the chest with his blade then tackling him through a window, discovering to his horror that it was the Spartan he had told to defend the city at the start of the game. He tells Kratos that Zeus had destroyed Sparta and he had hoped to gain an audience with the Sisters of Fate to change the outcome. The Spartan dies having faith in Kratos' ability to save the Spartans. Kratos uses his body to place on a pressure plate during the battle with the Kraken. Midway with Kratos fighting the Kraken (after the player discovering a strategy to defeat it) he consumes his corpse whole.
Kraken - Appears after the battle with the Spartan. At this point Kratos has been through so much that he gives up fighting and will not lift his blades. He now believes he cannot change his fate and wishes Zeus to face him at that very moment. This allows the Kraken to firmly grab hold of Kratos who is still enraged. Kratos regains his fighting spirit after being convinced by Gaia (in the form of Kratos' wife) that he will be eternally tormented by Zeus unless he changes his fate. After a few rounds of battling the monster, Kratos stabs its tentacles, knocking it off balance, allowing Kratos to use a lever to extend a bridge, sending the bridge straight through the Kraken's mouth, killing it.
The Sisters of Fate - In order to use the Loom to change his past, Kratos must battle the Three Sisters of Fate that are defending it, frightened that Kratos will bring doom to the world should he use it. Lakhesis confronts Kratos alone trying to kill him using a combination of melee attacks and magic with the use of her staff. When bested by Kratos, Lakhesis releases Atropos from within her. Atropos carries Kratos through the mirror back to the time when Kratos fought Ares. She threatens that she could kill Kratos in the past by destroying the sword he used to kill Ares. Kratos defeats Atropos, bringing him back to Lakhesis' throne room. Both Lakhesis and Atropos fight against Kratos. He defeats them by throwing them into one of their inter-dimensional mirrors, and then destroying it, trapping them in a void between realms. The final sister, Clotho, awaits Kratos a few levels away. While Kratos makes his way to her head he disables five of her smaller arms blocking his way up. Once at the top level, he disables her two main arms, giving him time to bring up a giant swinging blade. With this blade he impales Clotho through her head killing the last of the Sisters of Fate, granting him the power to change the past.
Zeus - After using the Loom to return to when Zeus drives the Blade of Olympus into Kratos, Kratos must fight Zeus for control of the blade in order to change his future. Toward the end of the battle Kratos uses both Athena's Blades and the Blade of Olympus to bring him down. After an electrical storm attack from Zeus, Kratos tricks Zeus by telling that he gives up and to end his life. Kratos, with the use of the Golden Fleece, reverses Zeus' attack and uses the Blade of Olympus to nearly kill him until Athena interrupts. Kratos, while trying to run Zeus through, accidentally impales Athena who threw herself in the path of the killing blow and mortally wounds her while Zeus escapes with no concern for his fallen daughter. Corey Burton provides the voice of Zeus, who is a character Burton also played in the animated television series Disney's Hercules.
[edit] Items and abilities
[edit] Weapons
Kratos' main weapon is "Athena's Blades", bestowed on him by the goddess Athena. They function as the same weapon as the Blades of Chaos, but these were given to Kratos as he ascends to Godhood by Athena, and after Ares had taken the Blades of Chaos from Kratos during the final battle. During the game, Kratos also gains the "Barbarian Hammer" (a slow but powerful close combat weapon originally wielded by the Barbarian King), the "Spear of Destiny" (a fast weapon with piercing attacks originally used by the Dark Rider), and the "Blade of Olympus" (a divine sword so powerful it was the blade that allowed Zeus to defeat the Titans.) Each weapon can be powered up with experience orbs to increase their power and add new attacks. However, the Blade of Olympus, normally a weapon provided solely by plot developments, can only be used when during the fight with the Colossus, fighting Zeus in the last bit of gameplay, and via Bonus Play.
[edit] Magic
Kratos is bestowed with magical powers as he successfully completes certain tasks during the plot. Initially, Kratos starts with the "Poseidon's Rage" magic, carried over from the original game, but loses this after sacrificing his magic power in an attempt to defeat the Colossus. However, Kratos gains other magic spells, including "Typhon's Bane" (a bow-like long range attack weapon), "Cronos' Rage" (an attack using electricity to strike multiple targets), the "Head of Euryale" (similar to the Medusa's Gaze from the first game, able to turn enemies to stone), and "Atlas Quake" (a wide area ground pounding attack). As with his weapons, Kratos can improve the potency and abilities of these spells by spending experience orbs.
Kratos also gains the "Rage of the Titans" power from Prometheus, which is similar to the "Rage of the Gods" from the first game. This power can only be activated initially when a meter has been filled either due to Kratos taking damage or collecting yellow/gold orbs from defeated foes. Activating the power increases Kratos' attack power for a short time and makes him invincible to knockback, stun, and petrify effects, though not invincible to damage. The player is allowed to activate and deactivate Rage of the Titans whenever they wish, unlike Rage of the Gods which had to be fully charged and then could only be fully drained.
[edit] Relics
There are two primary types of relics in the game that Kratos will collect. The first are special keys to open locked doors throughout the game, but otherwise have no power of their own. The other type of Relics are those that provide Kratos with a special power. Kratos starts the game with the "Trident of Poseidon" which allows Kratos to swim and breathe underwater indefinitely. Kratos also gains three additional Relics of this nature in the game: The "Amulet of the Fates" that allows Kratos to slow down time when close to a Fate statue, the "Wings of Icarus" that allow Kratos to glide after jumping, and the "Golden Fleece" which Kratos can use to reflect directed shots back at their sender.
[edit] Urns
In the game, the Urns give Kratos special abilities and attributes when activated in a Bonus Play after they are collected. Some of the abilities granted by these Urns as by giving Kratos infinite magic or unlimited use of Rage of the Titans. The Urns are either found during gameplay in well hidden spots or earned in Challenge of the Titans. The six urns are the Urns of Gaia, Gorgons, Olympus, Prometheus, the Fates, and Poseidon.
[edit] Costumes
By completing the game or satisfying other special criteria, the player can unlock various costumes for Kratos. The costumes change both Kratos' appearance and effect changes in gameplay by adjusting the values of the various types of collected orbs in both positive and negative ways, as well as affecting other factors such as Kratos' resilience and attack power. The range of costumes includes: a fish costume, making him the "Cod of War"; armour made from the Hydra Kratos defeated in the first game; Dark Odyssey, which is essentially Kratos with darker skin and gold markings; General Kratos, Kratos as he appeared before the Oracle of Athena cursed him into the Ghost of Sparta, and even complete appearance changes to either Athena or Hercules. Also, with God Armor, the Blades of Athena keep their gold regardless of what level they are at. The player can only change costume when starting a new game in Bonus Play mode.
[edit] Animal cruelty controversy
Sony's marketing campaign included the presence of a decapitated goat at a party held in Athens for the launch of the game.[5] Distribution of an issue of the "Official PlayStation Magazine" containing photos of the event was halted after condemnation from animal rights groups.[6]
[edit] Soundtrack
God of War IIOfficial Soundtrack
Soundtrack by various artists
Released
April 10, 2007
Length
66:41
Label
SCEI
The score of God of War II was composed by Gerard K. Marino, Ron Fish, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco and released on CD on April 10, 2007. A rock arrangement of "The End Begins" was also released as a free downloadable track for the PlayStation 3 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
[show]Track listing
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