Tidus - FFX

"Listen to my story. This...may be our last chance."—Tidus

Tidus is the main character in Final Fantasy X. As the leading character, the player controls Tidus through the world based in the game (apart from one instance, in which Yuna is controlled), manipulating his actions through the unfolding storyline in true traditional Final Fantasy style.

Story
The storyline of Final Fantasy X revolves around Tidus, a rising blitzball star player from Zanarkand. After a mysterious creature attacked his hometown, Tidus was transported to the world of Spira. Lost, confused, and seemingly out of place, Tidus meets a newly-fledged summoner, Yuna, and her guardians. The summoner is soon to set out on a pilgrimage in an attempt to put an end to the very creature that destroyed Zanarkand, so by joining them Tidus hopes he will find his way home.

The game starts with an in-game cutscene showing the party around a campfire, backdropped by the wreckage of Zanarkand and Nobuo Uematsu's To Zanarkand playing in the background. Tidus climbs a small hill and looks out over the devastation.

The suggestion that Final Fantasy X is Tidus' story is further enforced by Tidus' first-person narration throughout the game, and is mentioned at various points.

At the beginning of the game, Tidus, an inhabitant of the city of Zanarkand, is about to play blitzball in the Jecht Memorial Cup - a tournament in honor of his lost father, Jecht. Ten years prior to the game Jecht mysteriously disappeared while on a blitzball training expedition out at sea. A successful blitzball player, people would talk about how his skills were unmatched, which left behind pressure on Tidus to match if not surpass his father's skill. Tidus clearly holds Jecht in disdain for this, and for his distance as a father.

During the tournament, Zanarkand is attacked by an immense creature shrouded in water. The city is destroyed in its path, and Tidus manages to escape a similar fate before the blitzball stadium collapses. After falling to the ground and while the destruction still occurs, Tidus sees Auron, an old friend of Jecht and mentor to Tidus. Auron claims he has been waiting for Tidus, and claims the creature is called "Sin". Auron and Tidus fight their way towards Sin, to much confusion on Tidus' part. Once there, Auron drags Tidus into the depths of Sin claiming his story begins here.

Tidus awakens to find himself in the world of Spira, where he quickly runs into the eccentric salvager race, the Al Bhed, and learns from a young Al Bhed girl named Rikku that 1000 years have passed since the destruction of Zanarkand. After another attack by the monstrous Sin (who Rikku says has been a plague on humanity ever since Zanarkand fell), Tidus arrives at Besaid Island. It is here he meets Yuna - a summoner who plans to embark on a pilgrimage to bring about the destruction of Sin. Along with her guardians Lulu, Wakka and Kimahri, Tidus navigates his way throughout Spira in hope of finding his way home. Along the way, Tidus reunites with Auron, who does little to help ease Tidus' confusion. Even Rikku, the Al Bhed who met Tidus previously, also joins the party as a guardian.

Tidus accompanies the party to Luca and the annual Blitzball World Championship. It is here he meets Auron, who offers his services to Yuna, who takes both Auron and Tidus as her guardians. Tidus, of course, has little idea of what is involved by the summoner's pilgrimage. He does know it involves customary visits to shrines, praying to the Fayth and gaining the allegiance of the Aeons under their control, and by eventually summoning the Final Aeon to ultimately defeat Sin. He also knows that Yuna's father, Lord Braska, achieved this ten years ago (with the help of Jecht and Auron), but for some reason Yuna must trace her father's footsteps. Other than that, he has only a cryptic warning from Lulu, who tells him not to fall in love with Yuna, but despite the warning, he does so anyway. Auron later confirms to him, something Tidus had not wanted to admit: that Sin is actually Jecht.

On the group's travels, Tidus gradually wins the respect and friendship of his companions, most notably Rikku and Wakka. However, there always lurks the knowledge that there is something still being held secret from Tidus. Why is Jecht Sin? Why is Sin able to return if it had been defeated ten years previous? Has Jecht been Sin all this time? Why is everyone so sad about the idea of Yuna defeating Sin?

Eventually the truth is revealed: If Yuna summons the Final Aeon, it will destroy Sin - and then the person who summoned it. Yuna will have to sacrifice her life to bring peace to the world - a period of time known as 'the Calm' - only to have Sin return ten years later. As the party approaches Zanarkand, another disquieting fact is revealed: neither Tidus nor Jecht are actually real. They, and the Zanarkand they hail from, are merely dreams of the Fayth, ordered into existence, after the destruction of the real Zanarkand with the formation of Sin. The Fayth want Tidus to defeat Sin permanently, so that they can finally rest. Unfortunately, if he does that, the dream will end and Tidus himself will disappear. However, all is not lost, as the player is left with these words, as said by Bahamut's Fayth: "You have been touched by Sin... you're more than just dreams now." When the party reaches Zanarkand, they are presented with yet another bizarre revelation by Lady Yunalesca, and the last questions are answered: Jecht is Sin because the Final Aeon is dead, and a guardian close to the summoner will have to sacrifice him or herself to become a new one, as Jecht did. Unfortunately, the question of how to defeat Sin/Jecht becomes murkier: he's an Aeon, and now he has become Sin, and Yuna doesn't wish to sacrifice any of her guardians.

Yunalesca becomes dismayed at the party's unwillingness to follow the rites of the pilgrimage and offers to end their suffering through death. A fierce battle ensues, and Yunalesca is defeated. Unfortunately, without Yunalesca, the Final Aeon cannot ever be attained. Summoners will never be able to temporarily defeat Sin again. The party leaves Zanarkand without the Final Aeon, but still determined that there is a way—another way, besides the Final Aeon—to defeat Sin.

The storyline unfolds further to reveal exactly how Jecht became Sin. Sin is actually the protective armor for an entity named Yu Yevon, the ruler of what was once Zanarkand, whose skill in summoning was so great that he could actually possess the aeons he called forth. Every time the current Sin is defeated by a Final Aeon, Yu Yevon simply possesses that Final Aeon, corrupting it, and making it into a new Sin. If Yuna can defeat the current Final Aeon, Yu Yevon will take whatever is nearest to hand—the normal Aeons; they can then be defeated and Yu Yevon left spiritually and ecumenically naked, which is when the party will destroy him.

To do this, they invade the gigantic hulk of Sin's body and encounter within it the man called Jecht, the man who was Braska's Final Aeon. He is defeated, and he urges Yuna to summon her remaining Aeons and defeat Yu Yevon once and for all. The Fayth depart, relieved and thankful... but so must Tidus meet the same fate. As he disincorporates, he apologizes to his friends, bids a tearful farewell to Yuna, and takes a running leap off the deck of the airship. But as he falls into the farplane, he sees the faces and forms of those who have also passed on, and he gives his father a high-five, showing that Tidus has forgiven his father.

Tidus in Battle
Tidus is the classical Warrior character of the party and uses basic Swords and Shields during battle. His stats are fairly normal for an allrounder: he lags behind Auron in terms of strength (explained in the game as being "inexperienced with the sword", if you cast Scan on him) and defense but makes up for it with high Agility and Evasion growth allowing him to easily dispatch the speedier fiends. Tidus begins the game with no commands but will quickly learn the abilities Cheer, Flee, Haste and Delay Attack, which are very helpful in the early battles.