Final Fantasy X: Cloister of Trails analysis

So our next assignment for Game Design III is a Puzzle room, so we were asked to go and do research. So, being the Final Fantasy nerd I am, I decided to do my analysis on Final Fantasy X, more specifically on the Cloister of Trials.

The Primary mechanics featured in the Cloister of Trials are: walking/running, picking/placing spheres, pushing pedestals and touching glyphs. Your objective every time you go through this is to reach the Chamber of Fayth, which resides at the end of the Trials. In each Cloister, you have to using three different spheres to proceed and find your way through the Trials. The spheres are: Glyph Spheres, Destruction Spheres, and the temple specific Spheres. Each temple has its own unique sphere that has a special effect for that Cloister.

Besaid: Used to make the final wall disappear and turns into the elevator that takes you to the Chamber of Fayth.
Kilika: Causes a Fire to start when it is place down.
Djose: Emits electricity when placed.
Macalania: Causes ice to appear when placed.
Bevelle: Turns a pedestal into a moving platform for you to use.

For this analysis, I've chosen to analyze the Kilika Cloister of Trials. I would have wanted to do Djose, by the gap between the two is large and I didn't have to time to get there.

Kilika starts you off in a room with one door and a Kilika sphere on a pedestal. You grab the sphere and place it in the slot near the door. The door will then catch fire. Remove the sphere, and the door would've dissolve completely, allowing you to now pass.

The next room has no doors, and three sphere slots on the walls. Place your Kilika sphere in the middle slot. The sphere will emit fire that reveals a glyph on the wall.

Remove the Kilika sphere and place it in either of the other two slots. Then walk back to the middle slot and touch the glyph. The wall where the slot is will rise, granting you access to the next room.

Enter the third room, which has a wall of fire in the middle. Walk over to the shining bit on the ground east of the entrance. This will bring the pedestal from the second room (with the Glyph sphere) into the current room. Walk down south a bit and pick up the Kilika sphere in the wall.

Go place this somewhere, probably in the second room. Grab your Glyph sphere and place it in the wall. This will cause the wall to rise, revealing the Destruction sphere. Leave it for now. Doing this will cause the fire in the room to go out.

Go a grab one of the Kilika spheres from the second room, and place it in the pedestal. Then push the pedestal all the way to the shining bit on the floor from before.

This causes that bit of ground to crumble, revealing a new sphere slot below. Now grab the Destruction sphere and go place it in that slot, this will reveal a treasure chest. Snag your treasure.

Grab the last Kilika sphere and make you way to the door at the end of the third room. Place the sphere in the door slot, let it catch fire, then remove the sphere. Ta-da! The Kilika Cloister of Trials has now been passes.

Now the design of the level. Once the Cloister began, you where in the 1st room. The only thing you could do (from what the previous level has taught you, was to pick up the sphere. After placing it in the door, the player will learn what the Kilika spheres do. I believe it was helpful to do it this way. Rather than starting you off with another sphere, they introduce to only the Kilika sphere. This was done so that the player would be able to understand what the particular sphere does.

The 2nd room has 3 slots and one pedestal. It's a bit trickier, but once you place the Kilika sphere in the middle, a glyph appears. This reminds the player of the first Cloister, where touching the glyph allowed the player to proceed. The third room featured that wall of fire, and a Kilika sphere, however removing it did not stop the fire. At this time, the player had access to the Kilika sphere and the Glyph sphere. Since the Kilika sphere did not work, the player would try to use the Glyph sphere. This stops the fire, allowing the player to see the last door ahead, and to have a path to it. Since the first door you encounter could be burned, the player can try using the Kilika sphere to see if the same rings true for this door. Once that's done, the player completes the trail. (The Destruction sphere is extra content, but not required).

This level plays on the player's memory, as well as showing the player what the new sphere can do. Allowing the player to figure out and solve the puzzle in their own. Granted, there are six Cloisters, and this was only the second one.

I think the Cloister of Trials follows the "Unusual use of an object" closely. After all, you use these sphere to get many different effects. Such as the Kilika sphere, which reveals a glyph once placed in the correct spot. I also think it follows "Trial-and-Error" to an extent. You have to try placing the spheres in the slots in order to see what it does, but if it doesn't work, you have to go back and try another sphere.

Well, there it is. My analysis on the Kilika Cloister of Trials from Final Fantasy X.