~B
-- Final Fantasy X (US) Affection Levels FAQ --
-- by CB! (Christine Bomke, circe@san.rr.com) --
-- Version 1.0, 12/28/01 --
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide is for PERSONAL USE ONLY, copyrighted to me,
Christine Bomke. Do not put this FAQ on your site without first emailing
me for permission. If permission IS granted, you are not permitted to
change a single word of this FAQ when you post it, and must leave it as a
.txt file unless I've explicitly told you otherwise that you may change
it. Do not steal information from this FAQ for your magazine, or other
form of media - printed, online, or otherwise. Do not pass GO, do not
collect $200. If you violate this disclaimer anyway, know that I have the
means and the mettle to pursue this matter legally, and you _will_ regret
it.
NOTE TO WEBMASTERS: If permission is granted to post this guide on your
site, it is _your_ responsibility to get the most recent version from my
site or GameFAQs.com periodically. If you can't be bothered to keep it
current, then you may not post it.
Avast ye matey, thar be spoilers ahead.
-- Table 'o Contents --
I. Version History
II. Foreword / Contact Information
III. Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are 'affection levels'?
2. What do affection levels influence?
3. How can I increase or decrease my characters' affection levels?
4. If I responded in the wrong way early in the game, can I make up for
it later?
5. Do affection levels in any way affect a certain FMV late in the game,
or the ending?
6. Why an affection levels FAQ?
IV. Thanks, Credits, Shameless Plugs
-- I. Version History --
v1.0 12/28/01: Began and finished FAQ, going partially by memory, by some of
the information in the Ultimania Guide, and an astoundingly informative post
by Olivier Hagué on the GameFAQs FFX message board. I hope this clears up any
questions on how the "Affection Levels" are tabulated.
-- II. Foreword / Contact Information --
This is not a gameplay FAQ. This is an overview of how your responses to
party members throughout the game affect certain cutscenes, and who throws the
Blitzball to Tidus in his final Overdrive. If you need help figuring out the
Sphere Grid system, or want a walkthough, look elsewhere.
This FAQ discusses specific things you can do throughout the game to make
characters like you more, so obviously, THERE WILL BE STORY SPOILERS. Let me
repeat, THERE WILL BE STORY SPOILERS. No major plot points are spoiled, but
if you haven't played at least two-thirds of Final Fantasy X, and/or you're
very spoiler-allergic, please do not read any further.
The latest version of this guide, and all the other ones I've written, can
always be found at GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) and my site
(http://home.san.rr.com/circe/). Please reference them before finding fault
with what may be an out-of-date version. Some scans and pictorial translations
of key pages from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania books can also be found at my
site.
If you have a submission or a question regarding affection levels that I
haven't covered in this document, you may email me at cb@positronrecords.com
or circe@san.rr.com, or contact me via AOL Instant Messenger as "Ceebsie".
I'm also on the GameFAQs boards as "Ceebs". Please try to use a modicum of
grammar and politeness, and please make sure your question hasn't already
been answered. If you don't, I can pretty much guarantee your message will go
ignored. I'm an extremely busy person, and have tried to make this FAQ as
thorough and self-explanatory as possible, so I have neither the time nor
desire to regurgitate material from it. Let's put it this way - the more time
I spend reading your email, the less I have to work on this FAQ. Understand?
-- III. Frequently Asked Questions --
1. What are 'affection levels'?
'Affection Levels' are exactly what they sound like - the level of affection
or friendliness your party members feel towards Tidus, determined by how nice
or mean you are to your other characters during the game. If this seems
familiar, Star Ocean 2, Final Fantasy VII, and several other games have had
similar systems.
2. What do affection levels influence?
Affection levels influence certain cutscenes, and who throws the ball to
Tidus in his final overdrive, Blitz Ace. (Or Ace of the Blitz, if you're
playing FFX in Japanese.)
The cutscene changes are as follows:
- After visiting the Farplane for the first time, a slightly longer
conversation may occur with either Lulu or Rikku depending on your
affection level with each one.
- En route to Macalania Temple, depending on who your affection level is
highest with, you may either a) ride the snowmobile with Lulu or Rikku, or
b) ride the snowmobile alone, with Kimahri or Auron next to you. If the
affection level for two characters is in this event equal, the priority
goes like this: Lulu > Rikku > Auron > Kimahri.
- After fighting Sin's fins, the character with the highest affection level
for Tidus will jump from the airship first.
- After fighting Sin's Core and Sinspawn: Genais, and Tidus wants to jump
off the airship again to fight Sin, a conversation may ensue with that same
character, or a different one - during the battle, if Tidus heals, the
affection levels will change.
In all other cases excepting the Farplane and snowmobile events, if the
affection level between two or more characters is equal, the priority is this:
Yuna > Auron > Kimahri > Wakka > Lulu > Rikku.
With regard to Blitz Ace, the character who throws the ball to Tidus will
_always_ be female - if that character is absent due to story reasons, dead,
or petrified, the one with the next highest affection level throws Tidus the
ball. If all three girls are unavailable, the ball comes out of nowhere.
Likewise, when fighting underwater, if Rikku's affection level is lower than
the other two girls, the ball also comes out of nowhere.
3. How can I increase or decrease my characters' affection levels?
Well, how do you get people to like you in real life? BE NICE TO THEM! If
one of your party members is wounded or dead, use a curative item, status-
restorative item, curative spell, or a Phoenix Down on them and they'll like
you more. This applies to your male party members as well as your female
ones. Using Guard or Sentinel in conjunction with Provoke may improve
affection levels. For example, if you want to protect Rikku from attacks and
therefore raise her affection level for Tidus, have her Provoke the enemy,
then have Tidus use Guard or Sentinel to take the hits. Provoke isn't
absolutely nescessary, but Guard and Sentinel are too unpredictable without
it.
The affection level also rises if when all your characters are standing
around, you talk to one first before anyone else. If talking to a character
leads to a conversation about that character's past, the affection level also
rises. Also, the rate at which the affection level rises is more quickly for
female characters than male ones.
Another way to make the girls like Tidus more is by pulling a Zidane - in
other words, get your mack on, tiger. Flirt like it's going out of style.
(There aren't any instances where Tidus can flirt with the male party members,
therefore it only applies to the girls.) If you want Yuna to like you, on
Besaid Island, when Wakka asks you if you like Yuna, say yes. Lulu fans, on
the other hand, should respond that Yuna's not their type when Wakka asks.
(I'm not sure if saying that increases Lulu's affection level, or simply
makes Yuna's not rise.) Then at Guadosalam, when Lulu rambles on about who
Yuna should marry, tell her you've fallen in love with Yuna if you don't want
Lulu's affection for you to rise (this may increase your affection level with
Yuna, I'm not positive), or tell Lulu you want to marry her instead if you do
want your affection level with Lulu to rise. Lastly, at Thunder Plains, when
Rikku's throwing a tantrum outside of Rin's shop, do not walk away with your
party if you want Rikku's affection level for Tidus to rise. Go back and
comfort her. There may be more instances where you can play Don Juan, I'm just
writing this from memory until I have a chance to play FFX again.
Now onto decreasing affection levels. This may sound twisted, but if you want
your party members to hate you, repeatedly have Tidus kill them in battle. If
their evade rate is too high for you to hit them (hi Master LL!), use a
Petrify Grenade to petrify them, then attack the unlucky character to shatter
them. If one of your party members is habitually low on HP, and you can't be
bothered to heal them, their affection for Tidus _may_ decrease.
4. If I responded in the wrong way early in the game, can I make up for it
later?
Yes, by being a jerk to the character you don't like as described in the
final paragraph of the preceeding section, while simultaneously being
super-duper-über nice to everyone else.
5. Do affection levels in any way affect a certain FMV late in the game, or
the ending?
No. Regardless of how mean you are to Yuna, or nice to anyone else, she and
Tidus still smooch in the pond in Macalania Forest while "Suteki Da Ne"
swells in the background. Kind of scandalous, considering she's married, and
"'till death do us part" apparently isn't a tenet of the Yevon religion. :)
The ending is.. well.. the ending! Square was reaching critical mass on one
DVD disc from all of the voice acting - this is why there wasn't a Japanese
voice acting option in the North American release of FFX - so there wouldn't
be room for multiple endings depending on who likes Tidus more.
6. Why an affection levels FAQ?
Why not? The question comes up a LOT on the GameFAQs FFX message board, and
some of us are getting tired of answering it. Isn't the point of any FAQ to
answer common questions? Moreover, none of the commercially released US
strategy guides touch on this subject at all, and the Japanese Ultimania
books - which normally excel in every area - barely do. I hope you've enjoyed
reading this FAQ, and I hope it helps you win the heart of the lady of your
choice. Happy affection levelling!
-- IV. Thanks, Credits, Shameless Plugs --
First and foremost, HUGE thanks to Olivier Hagué for explaining certain
affection mechanics I didn't know about. This accounts for most of question #3.
Big thanks go out to Tronix (http://www.tronixweb.com/) and National Console
Support, Inc (http://www.ncsx.com/) for selling me Final Fantasy X and a
Japanese Playstation 2, respectively. Best import shops on the web, they are!
Thanks as well to Amazon Japan (http://www.amazon.co.jp/) for stocking the two
FFX Ultimania guides, and being kind enough to ship overseas.
Thanks to my friends and family for putting up with me throughout the writing
of this, and my other Final Fantasy X guides, especially my sister Annie
(ajbomke@yahoo.com). Show your appreciation by flooding her email box with
marriage proposals. Really. She likes it.
Extra special thanks to Square (http://www.playonline.com/) for creating FFX
and many other quality titles, and GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) for
hosting FAQs on every game imaginable, and respecting FAQ author's rights,
and last, but not least, thanks to you-know-who for teaching me more about
"affection levels" than Yoshinori Kitase ever could. Wink wink.
