I give you, sir, the same challenge I issued to MeDrewNotYou 
There was no handwaving and no bits which “didn’t fit”. There was simply stuff which was never explained outright, and left to the player to thik through if they cared to. The actual plot does make sense, but they didn’t exposit it all explicitly. It was actually one of the most rational of the games.
Seriously, if you have a problem with FFX, well… the problem is with you. The others, yes, I can understand some confusion. Not FFX.
To be fair, I’m playing X right now, so everything is still fresh in my mind.
1000 years ago, Bevelle and Real Zanarkand go to war. On the verge of defeat, the ruler of RZ, Yu Yevon, summons Sin. (I think the population becomes the fayth, but I’d have to check.) Eventually a church is founded around Yevon and summoners start to go after Sin. Meanwhile, because being a fayth apparently* sucks, they start dreaming and create Dream Zanarkand. One day, Jecht goes out to sea in DZ and somehow Sin takes him to Spira, later followed by Tidus.** Other than that, I think its a pretty basic ‘save the world’ plot with the wrinkle of doing so for good and not killing Yuna in the process.
*-They do kinda just sit there all day, and this seems like something reasonable to accept as just the way the world works.
**-I think this is the biggest hand-wave. All I remember is Auron saying something like Sin was the link between the two worlds.
I think one and a half hand-waves is pretty good for a story, much less a JRPG one.
I think your standards differ significantly from mine. And it doesn’t even seem that you are counting that Bored Fayth somehow = Dream Zanarkand and the “somehow Sin takes him to Spira”
Plus, all you’ve really done is explain the background.
I remember hating that water polo-like game (was it 10?) and I quit then and there.
My second asterisk was for the Sin/Spira link (1 hand-wave) and I agree that there wasn’t an explanation at all. The fayth dreaming (half hand-wave), though, sounds plausible enough that I can live without an explanation. A full explanation would be better, but IMO is just icing.
The reason I just went with the background is because I think that’s where most confusion lies. The main story is pretty simple, you just have to figure out how Tidus and Jecht fit in.
Before posting, I thought a little about what I’m glossing over. Other than what I mentioned, I can see blitzball and the sent/unsent being issues. Maybe Seymour wanting to marry Yuna, that seemed a little awkward as well.
I didn’t like it either, but you didn’t really have to play it, did you? Just once and you didn’t have to win.
Unless you wanted to get Wakka’s ultimate weapon. I wasn’t even gonna try that one. Same with Kimahri’s and that damn butterfly catching. Strangely I found the lightning-dodging and getting below 0 seconds in the chocobo race to be pretty easy.
You really did have to play it, in order to get Wakka’s ultimate weapon, and also it was a way to get items. I was able to get Wakka’s UW, and Lulu’s, but I could never win that chocobo race or catch those butterflies.
Apparently a lot of people hate VIII. I loved it, except for the Selphie character, and the “we were all (except Rinoa) orphans in the same household when we were toddlers/preteens” subplot. I think they could have easily omitted that little detail. Once I figured out that my characters didn’t have to level up, it was a lot easier. I did a LOT of carding, which meant that I had items to use and sell, and my GFs gained levels while my characters didn’t. I would have preferred to level up my characters, as I usually do, but I was able to adjust easily.
Also, I rather like grinding.
Let’s combine powers. I can handle the chocobo race, you do the blitzball, but we still need someone who can catch the butterflies…
(I seriously never understood how you were supposed to do it. I read every walkthrough and guide to butterfly catching I could, but I never even got close.)
I did it all except Blutzball. It wasn’t that I couldn’t. I just didn’t care to bother. My brother loved playing through it, though, and did it repeatedly.
I was never able to even get close to finishing the butterfly catching game, either. I think that the game cheats in some cases. I think it cheats in the chocobo race, too, because the other bird would be behind me and then all of a sudden it would be in front of me. How’d that happen?
I finished the butterfly catching quest once, out of the three playthroughs that I tried to do it.
How the hell did you do it? I’ve started FFX several times, and I always quit playing when I get stymied by the butterfly catching or chocobo racing quests.
After failing the other two playthroughs (and at least 3 goes at it in all 3), all I can guess is pure dumb luck.
Or maybe I went after it after overlevelling seriously enough that I could take out the monsters in the wrong chests before they ate too badly into the timer. (Except I didn’t manage it on the one I set out to fill everyone’s grids, so, very likely, only Rikku was significantly levelled when I did, which brings us back to dumb luck.)
I don’t think the game cheats on that one - it’s just hellishly hard, like the lightning dodging.
The chocobo race, though - the rubberbanding on that is obscene, and transparent. On top of being hellishly hard, even when it’s not rubberbanding.
Dodging lightning isn’t hard at all, it just takes a long time. Doesn’t even require much concentration - just turn the sound off, find the spots where there’s barely a few seconds between each lightning strike and hit the button when the screen flashes. The butterfly catching is all right too, provided you have a “no encounter” item. Then it’s just a matter of figuring what the route you have to take is, and there are guides for that.
On the other hand, the chocobo race you have to win in 0 seconds, with random fucking birds striking you ? That one’s Evil. I wish the dev who came up with it is forced to play it forever in Hell.
Not that it really matters, since you don’t need the ultimate weapons unless you also want to finish the Arena bosses and the dark Aeons.
My main problem with the lightning dodging involved my husband and daughter wanting to Discuss Things with me when I’m at the 175 count. I finally impressed on both of them that when I’m playing my games, I should not be disturbed, or I will become very, very disturbed. However, I don’t feel that the developers were really responsible for that particular problem. Once I was able to convey the idea that I really, REALLY meant that they shouldn’t even pop their heads into my room even to say “Hi!” I was able to get that weapon.
My husband, for some reason, feels the need to check on me periodically. I don’t want or need to be checked on, unless I’m particularly sick, in which case I won’t be in my room.
! Ah! That must be how I did it - which explains the lack of getting it on my fill-the-grid run, since there was no way I was turning off encounters on that one.