Final Fantasy X originally came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. One modder is trying to make it conform to modern PC gaming standards — with mixed results.
Naxshe has posted a couple videos of their effort to give the recently released Steam version of Final Fantasy X a full 60 frames-per-second makeover. Here’s the game’s opening cut-scene:
And here’s a battle scene:
Not gonna lie: they look damn nice. Problem is, Final Fantasy X was never intended to run this way, resulting in a myriad of issues that include animation glitches and sound syncing. When asked how long it will take for Naxshe to massage the whole game’s creaky joints into buttery 60 FPS smoothness, they replied, “Months, minimum.”
This whole episode continues a chapter of the modern PC gaming storyline tastefully titled, “SIXTY FPS OR DEATH”. The basic idea is that 60 FPS looks really smooth, and it’s something that PC — resplendent with glorious hardware — can do better than other platforms. Therefore, some believe that all games should be optimised for it, and any developer who decides it’s not worth the time or effort is “lazy”. The movement even has its own police force. Unfortunately, things don’t always go super great when people decide to mobilise and deem themselves police, even when intentions are good.
Final Fantasy X is an especially interesting case in that it’s 15 years-old and was never meant to run at 60 FPS. Moreover, it’s not a reflex-intensive game, so a higher framerate doesn’t fundamentally alter how it plays. There are also some who say 30 FPS (where FFX is currently locked) looks more cinematic. Given that FFX is a story-focused RPG, one could make a case that keeping things low and slow suits it just fine.
Still, however, plenty of people have been calling Square Enix “lazy” here, including Naxshe. The PC port of Final Fantasy X is actually pretty good, all things considered. It’s certainly a far cry from the sort of smoking heap developers and publishers would drop on PC folks’ doorsteps back when framerate locks were frequently a sign of neglect.
It’s cool that Naxshe is doing this. I hope it proves feasible, despite the obvious scale of the project. If not, though, there are worse things in life than an HD remaster of a classic RPG whose main theme I still can’t listen to without getting all teary-eyed.
Comments
16 responses to “PC Modder Says It Will Take Months To Get Final Fantasy X Running At 60 FPS”
‘sif a PC gamer is going to be happy with 60fps.
Reminding me of when Brutal Legend was ported to PC. You could run the game at 60FPS and it felt good but the animations were clearly designed for 30FPS and 30FPS only, so it looked very janky.
There have been a few games like that where I’ve had to pop up the frame rate monitor to see if it is actually running at 60. They’ll have like background elements at 60 and character animations at 30. Not good.
This shit is getting very stupid. It’s a turn based RPG. There is not benefit to it running at 60fps. The PC brigade that place frame rate as the most important thing are insufferable and annoying, not to mention incredibly shallow.
Why are you being so mad? Nothing wrong to aim for 60fps as it is the common minimum refresh rate for pc monitors.
Not mad in incredulously annoyed because it’s fucking redundant to moan about a turn based RPG not running at 60fps. It’s elitist nonsense.
Driving games, action games , fps for sure I get it. But this is just stupid.
But the problem is, everything can benefit from 60 fps, regardless of what type of game it is. It just makes animation smoother that is all. I can’t find anything that could not benefit from higher fps.
I agree and disagree. For action oriented games, I have to have 60fps as a minimum. It could be worse – there are some PC elitists out there whose baseline is up around 120Hz or 144Hz, and who’s systems include two and three way sli graphics cards to maintain that.
Where I agree with you is that it’s not necessary for all games. I’m currently playing Valkyria Chronicles on PC and I’m choosing to play it at 30fps because at 60fps the cutscenes are a little janky (they weren’t designed to run at that speed). Does it affect my enjoyment? No, not at all.
But if I’m playing a racing game, or a first person shooter – the difference between 30fps and 60fps is like night and day. It’s easy to achieve for me because I’m still perfectly happy with a 1080p monitor. It makes me laugh, all these 4K obsessions – I wouldn’t go with a resolution like that until there is a SINGLE graphics card that can comfortably push that resolution on new titles.
EDIT: I forgot to mention – Final Fantasy X would be a game that I would be happy to play at 30fps. I wouldn’t say that 60fps is necessary for that game. However, in saying that, if Square Enix found a way to make it 60fps without compromising the quality on anything, I wouldn’t complain about it. But necessary? No, not for a turn based RPG.
60FPS make a notable improvement to nearly any style of game and rarely brings any detriment to it.
If you can get a 60 solid that’s great, but most games advertised as 60 will drop frames here and there, sometimes on the highest end video cards. I’ll take a 30 solid over an unreliable 60 any day.
Well there is a benefit, it looks nicer. But it’s not needed, not for this game anyway.
Guys!! I found the console peasant
/s
Oh good a console/PC fight has broken out!
Playing FFX using emulator of playstation – the original animations at their intended frame rates etc. still look janky regardless, because that was the best they could do in those days with the hardware they had. We are talking PS2 here….
Why is everyone complaining its a 15 year old Turn based RPG not an Action game. Its not even noticeable. People just love to complain over nothing.
Exactly. It’s nauseating. It makes zero difference to gameplay. Graphics nerds make everything into a conflict for extremely shallow reasons.