Final Fantasy X was released for the Playstation 2 in December 2001, by Squaresoft. It follows the story of two main characters: Tidus, a youth from a futuristic world of technological wonders called Zanarkand... and Yuna, a young woman from the more traditional fantasy world, Spira. The story begins when Tidus is somehow sucked into Spira and finds himself wrapped in its struggle for survival.

A big part of Final Fantasy X was the characters -- Squaresoft has always prided itself on colorful casts in its Final Fantasy games. And with the addition of voice acting for all the main roles, the cast of this Final Fantasy was more alive than ever before.

Tidus Tidus is our protagonist. He is a young man from the future-fantasy city of Zanarkand, and the star player of the local blitzball team, the Zanarkand Abes. Tidus' father, Jecht, was an even more famous blitzball player, and Tidus is constantly struggling to get out from under his father's shadow. Tidus goes from celebrity to nobody as the game begins and he is sucked into a far different world.

Personality wise, Tidus is optimistic and determined at his best, and whiny and annoying at his worst. He takes a while to adjust to life in Spira, and his constant ignorance about basic facts of life can wear on the other characters. Their explanations help the player as much as Tidus, though, so it's all good.

Tidus is voiced by James Arnold Taylor, who also voiced, among other roles, Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank series and Captain Jack Sparrow in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Yuna Yuna is the female lead of the story. In fact, it's not too much of a stretch to say this is her story. Yuna is a young, small-town girl with a big reputation to live up to -- her father was a famous summoner, and the most recent to succeed on his pilgrimage. Most of the story revolves around Yuna's attempts to follow in her father's footsteps and bring peace to the land. At the start, Yuna is calm but demure, and rather unsure of herself. With help and encouragement from Tidus and the rest, she gradually gains confidence in her abilities as the game goes on.

Yuna is voiced by Hedy Burress. This was her first voice acting job.

Wakka Wakkka is a large blonde man with an impossible haircut and an unexplainable accent. Nobody else in Spira has that accent. It is a mystery where it came from. Anyway, Wakka is another Besaid native, and captain of the infamously bad blitzball team, the Besaid Aurochs. Wakka has been playing Biltzball for years, and he and his team have never won a match.

Wakka can be rather thickheaded and set in his ways, especially when it comes to steadfastly following Yevon's teachings. He has a good heart, though. He takes Tidus under his wing pretty much immediately. Apparently Tidus reminds Wakka of his brother...

Wakka is voiced by John Dimaggio, who also voiced, among many other roles, Bender from Futurama, Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible, and the Scotsman from Samurai Jack.

Lulu An older, black haired woman with a rather goth style and a serious thing for belts. Lulu is another of the villagers from Yuna's hometown of Besaid. A gifted black mage, Lulu has travelled as a Guardian before, although the summoner she protected did not succeed in her journey. She had some sort of relationship with Wakka's brother, Chappu.

Lulu is stern and rather cold, but she quickly settles into a sort of motherly role for the party. A lot of the knowledge Tidus picks up about Spira comes from Lulu.

Lulu is voiced by Pala Tiso. She also voices Silvia Christel from No More Heroes and Laughing Octopus from Metal Gear Solid 4, among other roles.

Auron Auron is a mystery for much of the game. He somehow exists both in Zanarkand and Spira. In Zanarkand, he was an old friend to Jecht, Tidus' father. In Spira, he is known as an powerful warrior and legendary Guardian to Lord Braska. As Braska's daughter, Yuna is highly grateful to have him as a Guardian, although his motives for joining are unclear.

Auron is voiced by Matt Mckenzie.

Rikku A young, perky Al Bhed girl with a talent for machinery. Despite her people's history of opposing Yevon and it's teachings, she cares about Yuna and wants to help her in any way she can. She does have a rather different view of the teachings than the rest of the party, though.

Rikku is eternally optimistic and extremely outgoing. She is the first person Tidus meets in Spira, and takes a liking to him— as she does with just about everyone she meets.

Rikku is voiced by Tara Strong, who also voices, among many other roles, Timmy Turner from The Fairly OddParents, Raven from Teen Titans, and Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls.

Kimahri A tall, heavily muscled, blue-furred cat-man with a broken horn. Kimahri is a member of the Ronso race, and despite his fearsome appearance he is considered a runt among his own people. This may be part of the reason he left them to be a Guardian. Kimahri has been Yuna's Guardian since her childhood, and is fiercely protective of her.

Kimahri is stubborn, quick to anger, and not much of a talker. He is not particularly fond of Tidus when they first meet, but he becomes a steadfast ally over time.

Kimahri is voiced by John Dimaggio, the same guy who voices Wakka.

Tidus Role: Tidus is quick, lightweight sword-fighter. He does less damage than Auron and Wakka, your other two primary fighters, but thanks to his higher speed he will have more chances to attack. He also has a higher accuracy than either Auron or Wakka, allowing him to more easily hit the agile lizard-type enemies. Tidus's abilities are quite varied. He has extremely useful buff spells like Cheer and Haste, the ability to delay a enemy's turn, and the very handy ability, Flee. Flee is noteworthy for being the best way to escape tough battles— it gets your whole team out of combat on one turn, instead of each character having to run away individually.

End-game strategies: Tidus can become surprisingly powerful if you are willing to work for it. At the end of his sphere grid, you will pick up the Quick Hit ability. Quick Hit is perfect for Tidus: it is an attack that also shortens the time until Tidus' next turn. Combine this with Haste and Delay Attack, and he can easily go four or five turns in a row. Send Tidus down Auron's Sphere Grid for a while and he'll get enough Strength bonuses to do considerable damage on every one of those turns, too. And if you can manage to obtain and upgrade Tidus' ultimate weapon, Caladbolg (which is no easy task), he will deal tremendous damage on every one of those turns.

An alternate strategy is to take advantage of Tidus' speed by equipping him with a Death Touch weapon. These are expensive to make, but worth every penny, especially if you intend to run the optional Omega Ruins. Have a hasted Tidus attack or Quick Hit for a few turns in a row, and one-shot every monster on the field!

Overdrive: Tidus' overdrives are called Swordplay, and they are really just fancier ways for him to hit things with his sword. He starts with just one (Spiral Cut), an can learn more by using his Overdrive often. All his overdrives use the same activation method: press X when the moving bar lines up with the crosshairs.

Yuna Role: Yuna fills up the White Mage role in your party, as well as being your summoner. She is nearly useless when it comes to actually attacking, at least until you get her some offensive magic. Yuna is statistically one of the best characters in the game, especially with regards to Magic and MP. At lower levels, she is very useful for Cure spells and the Nul spells— spells that nullify the next spell of a certain element aimed at your party. She can also use Esuna to get rid of status effects, and Pray to heal the whole team one-tenth of their HP, for no mana cost. Not bad!

End-game strategies: At higher levels Yuna has the highest magic stat in the game. If you give her some Black Magic spells from Lulu's portion of the sphere grid, Yuna becomes a very powerful force. Get her to the end of Lulu's sphere grid and learn Double Cast, Ultima and Flare, and you'll be hitting damage cap (twice) on just about every turn. The only problem with this strategy is that it will drain your MP very fast. This can be avoided by getting Yuna's ultimate weapon, Nirvana, which, conveniently, is one of the easier ultimate weapons to obtain. Getting Nirvana fully upgraded will also allow Yuna to break her damage cap, making the double Ultimas even more devastating.

If you don't feel like rendering Lulu useless, you can still take advantage of Yuna's white magic capabilities by equipping someone with a Zombie Touch weapon, or learning Zombie attack. Zombify your foes, and Yuna can tear them apart with Curagas — or just Life them to death instantly. If you go this route, you can also get earlier access to Yuna's excellent end-game White Magic abilities, such as Auto-Life: automatically revives an ally when they fall.

Overdrive: Nothing fancy about Yuna's Overdrive, but it is one of the best. She only has one: it is called Grand Summon, and it summons one of your Aeons with a full overdrive meter. It may not be particularly interesting, but it is certainly useful.

Yuna is also unique among the characters because her stats do double duty. Every summon in the game derives its stats, at least partially, from Yuna's. Basically, the higher Yuna's stats, the stronger your summons will be. If you plan on using summons a lot, I recommend giving her a lot of the stat-up spheres (Agility Spheres, Strength Spheres, and so on).

Wakka Role: Even in combat, Wakka still uses his beloved blitzballs. Don't laugh, they work. Wakka is one of your heavy hitters, alongside Auron. He's not as accurate or as fast as Tidus. But since he uses ranged attacks, he has the advantage of being able to reliably attack flying enemies and enemies far away. He also has some very useful abilities. Nearly all of Wakka's abilities inflict some sort of debilitating status effect in addition to doing damage. These come in two varieties: the Attack abilities, which sometimes inflict the effect… and the Buster abilities, which always inflict the effect (as long as the enemy is not immune), but only last for one round.

End-game strategies: Wakka is a very solid character. Not much needs to be done to make him powerful in end-game. By the team you reach the final dungeon, he will probably be hitting harder then anyone else in your team. And his final Sphere Grid Ability, Triple Foul, inflicts three very nasty status effects at the same time, as well as doing damage. Of course, he can be made better by obtaining his ultimate weapon, World Champion. And if you want him to do even more damage, send him down Auron's sphere grid once he finishes his own, to take advantage of even more Strength spheres.

Overdrive: Wakka's overdrives are called Slots. They are all activated by slot machine. Press X to stop each reel, and try to line up three of the same to maximize his damage. His first Overdrive is Element Reels, and you can unlock more by winning them in Blitzball tournaments. Fun fact: it's easier to deal max damage on his final Overdrive, Auroch Reels, if you've kept most or all of the original members of your Blitzball team.

Lulu Role: Lulu is the Black Mage of the party. Like Yuna, she is almost useless when it comes to attacking physically, so rely on her magic. Lulu is your only source of magical damage for about half the game. She is therefore your best bet for taking out those annoying flans and other enemies resistant to physical damage. As is the usual for Final Fantasy Games, each of her basic attacks (Fire, Thunder, Blizzard and Water) has three levels: the basic, the "ara's," and the "age's". For example, Fire upgrades to Fira, which upgrades to Firaga. She can also cast Focus to raise the party's Magic and Magic defense.

End-game strategies: Sadly, Lulu gets less and less impressive the closer you get to the end of the game. Yuna completely overshadows her in terms of both Magic and MP. The only thing Lulu is better at is Magic Defense, in which she is the best character in the game. All the same, you can still use the same strategy on her as you would on Yuna. Learn Doublecast, Ultima/Flare, and get her ultimate weapon (Onion Knight) to break damage cap and cast all spells at 1 MP cost. And hey, nothing stopping you from sending Lulu down Yuna's sphere grid for a bit to take advantage of all the Magic bonuses in there.

Overdrive: Lulu has only one overdrive, but it is very powerful. It's called Fury. When you use it, choose which spell to cast. Then, rotate the right analog stick as fast as you can in the time allotted. Lulu will cast the spell you chose as many times as you have rotated the stick. The spells are cast at lower power than normal— about 40% damage— but the sheer number of them more than makes up for it.

Auron Role: Auron is the third of your physical fighting trio, after Tidus and Wakka. He hits hard, moves slow, and has a lot of Hp. His weapons all have the Piercing quality, meaning they can easily cut through thick armor. This makes Auron your character of choice for thick-skinned enemies. Auron's abilities lower the enemy's stats in some way: Power Break lowers their attack, Magic Break lowers their Magic damage, and so on. Armor Break is quite useful, as it literally breaks an opponent's armor, allowing anyone to attack armored enemies. In following with his Guardian role, Auron can also learn Guard, which lets him take damage for another party member.

End-game strategies: Auron gets a handful of excellent techniques towards the end of his sphere grid. Threaten can shut an enemy down completely for a while, as long as you don't attack it— useful for battles with multiple foes, or in case you need to heal uninterrupted for a bit. And Entrust can give Auron's overdrive meter to an ally, charging their overdrive. This has all sorts of potential— especially for boss fights, where Auron's overdrives often aren't particularly useful, but two Grand Summons in a row can be devastating. Like Wakka, Auron does fine for himself in stats by end-game. He has supremely high Defense and HP, and his Sphere Grid gives you a lot of Strength bonuses towards the end. Wakka still wins out in terms of Strength, though, so send Auron down Wakka's sphere grid if you want him to be hitting even harder.

Overdrive: Auron's overdrives are called Bushido. Activating them is fairly simple, just quickly press the buttons that appear on the screen— the faster you press them, the more damage they deal. Of particular note is his second overdrive, Shooting Star, which will remove an enemy from the field entirely. This is amazingly useful for taking out the unusually strong random monsters that appear more and more as the game goes on. To get more overdrives for Auron, collect the Jecht, Auron, and Braska spheres scattered across the game.

Rikku Role: Rikku fills the thief role. She relies heavily on her abilities, two in particular: Steal and Use. Steal is used to snag goodies from enemies in combat. Some of the items she steals can be used by anyone, such as Potions. Others are used for upgrading summons or customizing weapons. And finally, there are some that only Rikku can use— with the Use ability, naturally. Most notably, this last category includes Grenades, which are pretty self-explanatory! About halfway through the game, she also becomes a capable secondary healer. Al Bhed potions can only be used by her, and heal everyone in the party for 1,000, as well as curing some status effects. And you will find a lot of them, I guarantee it.

While Rikku might not have the punch that some of the other character have, Steal alone makes her a worthwhile addition to the cast. Try using it on bosses just about every chance you get— you can find some powerful items this way. And Steal can also be used to take out robot enemies in only one hit.

End-game strategies: Given that Rikku can't really hold her own in combat, you would think that she is quickly eclipsed by stronger characters towards the end of the game. This is not necessarily the case, though. Rikku has two potentially powerful abilities for those who don't mind throwing money around. Literally, in one case: Spare Change does damage based on how much gill you throw at the enemy. And the second, Bribe, lets you pay a monster to leave combat and give you an item. Some rare items are far easier to obtain in this way than by killing the monster and hoping it drops. On top of that, are a number of roles Rikku can fill once you have played enough to get creative with the sphere grid and weapon customization. Using some of those rare items she's so good at obtaining, you can give Rikku's weapon Death Attack. She's more than fast enough to make good use of it, and it gives her some excellent combat capabilities. You can also use White Magic Spheres or Teleport Spheres to teach her some of Yuna's best techniques, like the Nul spells, Life, or Auto-Life. This on top of the Al Bhed potions makes her into a more than adequate healer, and a much faster one than Yuna. Unlike most other characters, Rikku's power in end game is not drastically affected by finding her ultimate weapon (hers in called God Hand). It certainly helps, but it is not necessary.

Overdrive: Rikku's overdrive is called Mix, and it's a lot of fun. Basically, she can take any two items and combine them to create different effects. There are a huge number of different possible mix results, and they range from powerful attacks to party-wide buffs or heals. It's possible to determine what will come out of any given mix— combine two grenades or similar item and you will get an explosive attack, combine two healing items and you'll get a large heal or buff. Experiment and find what you can get!

Kimahri Role: Kimahri is a strange one. After his very first few levels, how Kimahri advances and what abilities he learns are both up to you. He has no sphere grid of his own, and so he has to go down one of the other characters'. The simplest options are Wakka or Auron's sphere grids. Given his starting stats, Kimahri falls nicely into the role of secondary fighter. Go with Lulu's if you want another black mage, Yuna's if you want another healer— both of these are useful early in the game. Later in the game, though, Kimahri can't really hold a candle to Yuna's magic. She simply has too much of a head start.

Another solid option is to jump around and grab the best of all the sphere grids— this can result in Kimahri having excellent abilities, but mediocre stats. Still, there are plenty of useful abilities that don't rely on stats. Having another character who can Haste, Steal, Use, or cast Life or the Nul spells is very nice. Kimahri is more or less a blank slate, upgrade him however you like.

End-game strategies: Given Kimahri's nature, any tactic that makes other characters useful in end-game can also be used to make him useful. His ultimate weapon, Spirit Lance, is fairly basic and doesn't really lend itself to any particular strategy. It does make it easier to increase his overdrive, and Kimahri can find some very powerful overdrive abilities late in the game.

Overdrive: Kimahri's overdrive is called Ronso Rage. He learns new overdrives by using his Lancet ability on enemies. On top of restoring a bit of his HP and MP, Lancet will sometimes teach Kimahri one of the monster's attacks. He starts with only Jump, a staple of Final Fantasy games, and he learns Seed Cannon in the required Lancet tutorial. Try using Lancet on different enemies to expand this repertoire. Some enemies in particular you can learn abilities from are Dual Horns, Bombs, Basilisks, Chimeras and Malboros, but there are a lot more than just those. But don't bother using it on bosses— with only one exception, bosses never give you Lancet abilities. The one exception is the boss of the optional dungeon, Omega Ruins.

Final Fantasy X was noteworthy as both the first Final Fantasy for the Playstation 2, and the first Final Fantasy game to feature voice-acting. The voice acting was subject to much critique among fans both before and after the game's release, but there's no denying it made a big impact. It was also the first to use fully 3-D backgrounds as opposed to pre-rendered ones. It also added several other notable gameplay elements to the series. The sphere grid was created in this game as a brand new leveling system, and has since been adapted and used in several other Final Fantasy titles. The combat style was slightly different as well, relying on character's individual stats to determine when they acted in battle.