With Final Fantasy 10 originally having come out on PS2 back in July, 2001, Square Enix has started off its plans to celebrate the RPG classic’s 25th anniversary this year. The company has launched a special website celebrating the title and has revealed that there is a host of new Final Fantasy 10 merchandise up for grabs.
Among the merchandise is a vinyl record set of the original’s beloved soundtrack, a variety of new figurines, as well as plush toys based on various characters, including Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Auron, and others. The merchandise can already be pre-ordered through the official Square Enix e-Store. The set will feature two discs, each with two sides featuring just about all of the most iconic tracks from the RPG, from various boss battle themes to the famous moody opening track, To Zanarkand. The soundtrack can be picked up on July 1st, and is priced at ¥9,350 (roughly $59).
Final Fantasy 10 marked the franchise’s debut on the PS2, and was one of the first showcases of just how much power the (at the time) new console hardware could offer to game developers, thanks to its striking visuals and beautiful pre-rendered cutscenes. It was also the first entry with fully 3D environments, with the previous 3D games—Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9—making use of pre-rendered backgrounds alongside their 3D character models.
The story of Final Fantasy 10 revolves around star blitzball players for the team Zanarkand Abes – Tidus – finding himself transported to an entirely new world, Spira, where the city of Zanarkand is believed to have been destroyed ages ago. With his primary goal of getting back to his own version of Zanarkand, Tidus finds himself accompanying summoner Yuna on her pilgrimage, traveling the world and encountering many of the different cultures it has to offer. Along the way, he also discovers the nature of an entity named Sin, who had previously attacked Zanarkand and continues to terrorize the world of Spira to this day.
While Final Fantasy 10 left behind its predecessors’ active-time battle system, instead opting for a purely turn-based style, it introduced its own twists by bringing in an extensive skill tree—the Sphere Grid—through which players could unlock new abilities and raise the stats of all characters.
Currently, Final Fantasy 10 is playable through an HD remaster released on PS4 and PC back in 2016, and Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019. PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 players can make use of backwards compatibility to enjoy the seminal RPG.
Just a couple of years after the original’s 2001 release, it would get a sequel, dubbed Final Fantasy 10-2. Along with being noteworthy for the fact that it was the first direct sequel released for a mainline Final Fantasy game, 10-2 also focused its story on the events following Final Fantasy 10, with Yuna, Rikku, and newcomer Paine teaming up to once more travel across Spira and potentially even find Tidus. The gameplay went back to the classic active-time battle system, and a new class system was implemented through the introduction of Dress Spheres, using which the three protagonists could switch between a variety of Jobs.