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As for changes to the game itself, there are some additional bosses which players can challenge in Final Fantasy X International which neither the U.S. nor Japanese version had. FFX International also has full English language support, that is, there is an option to set the subtitles, menus, item and monster names etc to English. However, the bonus DVD is entirely in Japanese only (except for the interviews with the U.S. voice actor/actress of Tidus and Yuna of course, and even that has Japanese subtitles). I'd been worried that in addition to having to listen to English voiceovers (sorry, but I prefer the Japanese voices :p), I'll have to read the subtitles in Japanese as well. Now that there's an English option for the game it isn't so bad at all. Players also have a choice of which Sphere Grid to use: Original or International (I'm currently working on a detailed list of differences between the Japanese, U.S. and International versions of Final Fantasy X, by the way; hopefully it'll be done soon ...) Well, what are you waiting for? Go get it now, people! DARK AEONS AND ZANMATOThe Dark AeonsFirst of all, the Dark Aeons are powerful versions of Yuna's own aeons, so there're eight of them in all, as listed below. You'll have to talk to someone in order to fight some of them, while for the rest, battle is automatically initiated once you reach the correct place.
One important thing you've got to do is remember to get the Sun Crest for Tidus immediately after you fight Yunalesca, or you'd have to fight Dark Bahamut the next time you go there. Many gamers seemed to have missed this, and it's not easy trying to fight the Dark Aeons without the fully powered up Caladbolg ^^; (unless you're planning to use Zanmato, that is) There are 2 ways to go about fighting the Dark Aeons: the official train-up-your-characters-til-they're-insanely-strong method, or the lazy method =P
2) Get all the legendary weapons for your characters; you'll need them. Also get armour for them with the following abilities: Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Haste and Auto-Phoenix. 3) Practice using your Overdrives so that you can cause the most damage with them, especially Wakka's Attack Reels and Tidus's Blitz Ace. These 2 causes the most damage, for me, though some people have gotten Lulu to do alot of hits with her Fury; you can try that out too. During the battle itself, cast Protect on everybody, then use Wakka's Attack Reels followed by Tidus's Blitz Ace. After that, I suggest having the other characters use the Entrust ability to let Wakka and Tidus use these Overdrives again, since they cause the most damage (unless your other characters' Overdrives cause more damage, in which case use Entrust to have them use it many times). Once all your Overdrive gauges have been emptied, just keep using Quick Hit to attack. As for how to complete the Sphere Grid, how to get the abilities for the armour etc, refer to the Secrets section. Note that it may not be enough to simply complete the Sphere Grid; if you're still getting trashed by the Dark Aeons you may need to fill up all the empty nodes with Strength Spheres or Speed Spheres or something, and even clear some of the "+1" and "+2" stats spheres and change them to "+4"s. Also, note that levelling up would be slower in your game than what I wrote in the Secrets section, because of some changes made to the US/International/Asian/European version of FFX; the info I have is based on the Japanese version. So (with the method which uses the Loner Overdrive mode) instead of getting to S.level 99 after just one battle you may only get around 20 S.levels or less. Since you're here it probably means you're playing either the International or European version, so you should check out the levelling up guide (specially for you!) at the bottom of this page. It's still not entirely complete yet, but should be enough for now ^^ By the way, you may want to fight Nemesis at the monster arena for practice first, before you challenge the tougher Dark Aeons such as Bahamut, Anima, the Magus Sisters, etc. The second method, which would be to use Yojimbo's Zanmato, is described below:
It's a bit complicated to describe exactly how to use it, basically because I haven't written down everything yet, cos I'm still working out the finer details. In summary though, when you obtain Yojimbo, you need to select the option "to defeat the most powerful of enemies" (if you don't/didn't, then the following won't work). Then you need to get Yojimbo's compatibility with Yuna to its max. His compatibility starts at 128, and our target is at least 252. It is affected as follows:
Basically once you summon him you have to let him win the battle, and in style at that ^^; It's interesting to note that he's more unhappy about being paid 0 Gil than he is about getting killed -_- Initially, you'll need to pay him 256 Gil during battle to ensure he at least uses Wakizashi (note that he may still use Kozuka occasionally, especially initially; it's normal, don't worry. As long as he doesn't use Daigoro his compatibility won't decrease), then as his compatibility with Yuna rises, you'll find you'll need to pay him less and less. To be safe just pay him 256 Gil until his compatibility is at least 252 (you need to keep count yourself, cos it's not indicated anywhere). Once his compatibility is at least 252, get his (or Yuna's) Overdrive gauge full, and you're ready. Save your game, then go fight whoever you're trying to defeat. I recommend having someone with the First Strike ability as one of the starting characters, and Yuna as one of the 'reserves'. This is so you won't get ambushed and wiped out by the enemy, since the character with First Strike will always have the first turn, and he/she can simply switch in Yuna. Then summon Yojimbo (or Grand Summon if it's Yuna's gauge you're using) and give him 524,288* Gil. You'll have a more than 90% chance of getting him to use Zanmato. If he doesn't, just reset and try again; you should succeed very soon since the chances of him using Zanmato is so high. Just make sure you followed the above steps correctly! One thing you need to beware of is that now that Yojimbo's compatibility with Yuna is so high, when you summon him in battle there is a chance (about 25% I think) that he may actually attack immediately after being summoned, without you paying him anything. It may seem like a good thing (after all, he's finally helping you for free!), but the problem is for boss battles (or against the Dark Aeons, Nemesis etc), he'll only use something other than Zanmato (most probably Wakizashi). Then after he attacks, it'll be the opponent's turn, and if your Yojimbo isn't strong enough he'll be killed -_- So beware! *I put 524,288 Gil here only as an example, you may use more or less Gil if you wish. Below is a table of how your chances of getting Zanmato (when fighting bosses) is affected by the amount of Gil you pay him, assuming all the above steps were followed; that is, the option "to defeat the most powerful of enemies" was selected when obtaining Yojimbo, Yojimbo's compatibility with Yuna is at least 252, and Yojimbo's Overdrive gauge is full.
I personally don't recommend paying any less than 16,384 Gil (or the success rate would be too low), nor any more than 524,288 Gil (even if you pay an extra half million Gil the success rate would only increase by about 1.6%). But it's all up to you of course ^^ One more thing; I think the above table may have been somewhat confusing ... Sorry! When I write "16,384 ~ 32,767 Gil" for example I don't mean that to get a 78.1% chance of using Zanmato you need to pay somewhere between 16,384 and 32,767 Gil. What I mean is, there is no difference at all whether you pay 16,384 Gil or anymore than that up to 32,767 Gil; you'd still get a 78.1% chance. So of course, you shouldn't pay 32,767 Gil, instead just pay 16,384 Gil, since the results would be exactly the same. If you're going to pay 32,767 Gil, then you might as well pay 1 more Gil (that is, 32,768 Gil) and increase your chances of getting Zanmato to 79.7% instead. So if for example you wish to have a 84.4% chance, just pay 131,072 Gil; please don't pay 262,143 Gil! ^^;
The reason why it only works for the Japanese version of FFX is because for the other versions, a cap was imposed on the amount of AP one can gain using the Overdrive -> AP ability. In a battle, the AP gained this way decreases each time, so (for the method in our Secrets section) every time the player defends, the AP gained gets progressively lesser. It's a geometric progression with the ratio being 90% (those of you who're good in maths will realise that this means no matter how many times you defend, the AP you'll get is only equivalent to or at most slightly more than defending only 10 turns in the Japanese FFX). This means that you'd have to look for another method, whereby you can increase the Overdrive gauge (and hence get AP) tremendously in just one go (or a few at most). Alright, here's how it works: do the same preparations regarding the armour, then set the Overdrive mode to Stoic instead. For this to work your character should preferably have a low maximum HP, the lower the better. Go to the Monster Arena, and fight the Cactuar King (or some other fiend who can cause a lot of damage in one go). Try to get it to attack your character with his '99,999 Needles' (or something like that; this may not be the exact name of the skill), then revive your character and escape. Even though you've escaped, as long as that character is alive he'll get the AP. You can try being attacked a few times instead of just once, but not too many times as the effect wears off after a few turns. Like I mentioned in the above paragraph, basically each time he hits you the AP you gain gets progressively lesser. So the most AP would be obtained during the very first time you're hit. By the way, this method is actually faster than the one which uses the Loner Overdrive mode, since you only need to spend a few turns in battle, but it may be somewhat riskier, cos after all you're fighting a strong fiend. It would be even more effective to use the Comrade Overdrive mode in conjuction with the above. If your other two characters also have the necessary armour (with the auto-abilities Overdrive -> AP, Double/Triple Overdrive and Double/Triple AP etc), instead of doing nothing, have them set their Overdrive modes to Comrade (well, actually they'll still be doing nothing), while the third character (remember to choose one with the lowest maximum HP) remains with the Stoic Overdrive mode. Do the same as above, trying to get Cactuar King attack the character with Stoic mode, and all three characters will get lots of AP ^^ Go try it out! I tried with a character with about 3000 max HP, and got her (Rikku) to S.level 99 after a very short while.
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