Final Fantasy IX (2000)

The story is filled with a lovely cast of characters, each of them having their own character development through the story, even though the story was kind of predictable, there were some twists that actually caught me off guard, and I love how existencialist and nihilist can get, I think it was a beautiful story to be honest, it was effective and when it tried to make me feel something, it managed to do it. At the end of the day, it´s a story about life and death, trying to find a meaning to life itself and being aware of our mortality, really makes who think who you are and what is your role in life. The combat system is pretty fun and addictive, the game makes you try new equipment so you can get new abilities and I think it´s cool that way since it gives you a reason to use gear you wouldn´t use in the first place. Visually speaking, I think it´s beautiful, loved the fixed angles and how the game use them to its own benefit, there were times where the game looked genuinely amazing. What about the soundtrack? It´s really great.

There are a few things that I think they could do better but it didn´t ruin my experience with the game, such as the villan or antagonist, they are kind of lame. There are side quests and stuff but they feel more like they must be there so the game gets longer, either way, despite the bad stuff, I had great time playing Final Fantasy 9

Final Fantasy IX feels like a love letter to the franchise's NES and SNES era entries, especially I through V, with the way it makes a return to the classic medieval fantasy aesthetic which had been absent for the past few games. It borrows heavily from and makes fun little nods to past games' characters and areas while doing a pretty great job of integrating them all together into a world that feels fresh and unique.

I also felt while playing through the game that this is probably the most "consistent" entry thus far in the series. The pacing of the story and quality of writing feel like an upgrade over VIII while the item-based character progression and magic/skill system feel more fun to engage with than in VII (maybe a hot take, but I'm just not a big fan of materia).

It's not necessarily my favorite entry in the series, or even my favorite among the three PSX games, though. The coming months could sway my opinion, but I think that while IX does an amazing job at being pure fun and keeping my attention throughout it's ~40 hour playtime while also keeping the story progressing at a comfortable pace, its greatest moments never felt like they hit as hard as they could have. I'm not really sure why that is yet. I wouldn't call them underwhelming, but they rarely blew my mind like some of the best moments from previous games.

This game may have my favorite party of characters so far though. Garnet/Dagger is fantastic and it honestly kind of feels like she's the main protagonist throughout much of the game, rather than Zidane. Hell, she's the featured artwork for the Steam library image, too. Vivi is probably my favorite. I love the classic black mage design and his character arc is really great. I very much enjoyed how it ties into some of the game's central themes about what the point of life is and what it means to accept its eventual end-- death. Initially I found Steiner irritating but the way he grows as a person over the course of the game really worked for me. Quina is odd, but works very well as a comedic relief character who occasionally is able to offer a unique perspective to the other party members. Freya gets kind of pushed aside after the game's halfway point, but really shines during her time in the spotlight. Eiko adds a funny extra dimension to Zidane and Dagger's dynamic. And finally, Amarant works really well as a disgruntled edgy guy who's just generally at odds with the rest of the party but follows along anyway.

I just wished I liked the protagonist, Zidane, a bit more. I already had some negative bias towards him going into the game because, well, I really dislike monkeys. So the main character being a little guy with a monkey tail and vaguely monkey facial traits wasn't a great start. But he doesn't really get much backstory or development until the last 20% of the game and when he does finally get some it just doesn't feel like enough for me to see him as much more than a bland anime protag type character. He's a hero because the plot needs him to be and his greatest contribution is the way he helps the other characters learn more about themselves. And that's fine, but it's hard to find him all that interesting because of it.

There was a satisfaction to the simplicity of the magic/skill system of this game after just coming off of Final Fantasy VIII. I love the draw mechanic in that game but setting up your GFs and spells took way too long. IX feels much more pared back in comparison. Wear equipment to access new skills. Wear the equipment a lot and you get the skill permanently, but you can only turn on a limited number of skills at one time. Simple, but effective. I had a lot of fun grinding out battles to master a few extra skills prior to the final dungeon but never felt like I needed to do so to progress. The game does a good job of providing you with ample opportunity to focus on the skills you want most while still using equipment with decent stats.

Other than my distaste for Zidane, I think my only real gripe with the game is the final set of bosses. The final string of fights before the credits felt like a major jump in difficulty from the rest of the game, which up until that point had been mostly a cakewalk. I spent most of my time in these fights playing damage control trying to keep my characters healed and constantly reviving them as they got one shot over and over. I would have gladly gone back a bit to grind in the dungeon just before these fights but the enemies in that dungeon give no experience points for some insane reason. I wasn't about to leave and have to trek all the way back so I toughed it out. It felt like a sour note for the game to end on when it had been pretty good about balancing bosses, enemies, and experience distribution prior to that spot.

That aside, it's tough to find any big flaws with Final Fantasy IX. I guess the battles were a bit slow? But I've been playing Pokemon too long to let that bother me much. This game does so much incredibly well that I felt like I couldn't help but give it the full five stars. I was never bored and never felt like the game was railroading me through its major plot points with little freedom like some other JRPGs. Plot is solid, character roster is overall great, and exploration/side content always felt rewarding to engage with because of the way equipment allows you to learn skills. Just a really really great game on almost all fronts.

10 hours in and the characters range from annoying me to boring the hell out of me. I know this is a good game, but I can't seem to enjoy it. It irks me a lot because it has all the things I should like (high fantasy setting), but it's better to cut my losses than to literally force myself through the game.

I'm aware that characters develop, the story gets darker, and it's overall more interesting in the second half, but I don't have time in my life for "I promise bro, it gets better 20 hours in" when I could be playing things that actually do interest me.

I don't hold this against the game. It's probably good. Just not made for me. What isn't good is the insanely long animations and loading times, but that isn't the reason I'm dropping it, anyway.

I was 27 years old when I finished this game for the first time. I never got around to play it in the Golden Era of Final Fantasy in the PS1, so nostalgia is not a factor in my experience. I was already a FF veteran by that point and got into this with high expectations, being the last of the classic ones for me to complete.

Here comes the hot water...

It's fine, yeah.

It is remarkably polished and cute. Graphically is by far the best of the lot and the design is so, so charming. The music is very good (I mean, is a Uematsu score. Even his mids are absolutely superb) and the story hits some very high, emotional points.

But even then, I don't know. I did not quite connected with it. I mean do not get me wrong I will probably replay it at some point (especially because I missed the f***ing Stiltzkin achievement), but it defintely didn't create as impact in me as big as the other two classic FFs. Arguably it didn't create in me the impact that FFVI did. It is weird because my objective, conscious mind KNOWS and RECOGNIZES that FF9 is a better game than FF8. The story is tighter, the characters are better designed and waaay more charming, even the battle system feels better. But alas I didn't get to play it in those formative, impresionable years, and the weight of nostalgia carries FF8 a little bit farther in my heart.

Anyhow it is a great, great game. You will live forever, Vivi.

P.S.: There is something to say about the Steam version: Please remove those stupid kill count achievements. Killing 10000 enemies? In a single playthrough? If you want to encourage replayability, why not make it cumulative? It's so absolutely stupid. I only got it by using an auto-clicker, because holy shit that is WoW-levels of mindless grind right there (no hate but damn).

I knew very little about FFIX when I went into it - it's not as iconic as something like FFVII where everyone (even people who haven't played it) know about Cloud, Sephiroth, Tifa etc. I knew Vivi from Kingdom Hearts 2 and had heard of Zidane, but everything else was completely new to me. I'm glad I was able to go in blind and not be influenced by other people's opinions as it meant I had no expectations or bias. I can honestly say, without hesitation that this is not only my new favourite Final Fantasy game, but one of the best games I've ever played.

For those who don't know, this game follows the story of a thief named Zidane who, along with his crew known as 'Tantalus', are on a mission to kidnap the princess of Alexandria, Princess Garnet. This initial kidnapping mission ends up leading to a mission to save the world. Along the way, Zidane meets various different characters who end up joining his party. The aforementioned Black Mage, Vivi, is easily the star of the show and one of the best characters in the series. Also, this game is just as much about Princess Garnet as it is about Zidane. Other characters like the young summoner Eiko, and Garnet's loyal knight Steiner are worth a mention. However, there a few characters that aren't as strong. The mercenary Amarant is quite one-dimensional and Freya, although quite interesting when first introduced, fades into the background as the story progresses. I didn't dislike any of the characters but there are definitely some that I prefer way more than others.

Considering this is a PlayStation 1 game and is over 20 years old, I was really impressed with the scale of the world. "Gaia" is split into four continents with various towns and caves on each one. There's plenty to do in the world and you will have to explore if you want to find everything. There's a really cool treasure hunting mini-game which will require you to travel around the world on your Chocobo and find locations marked on a "Chocograph". Quina's frog-catching mini-game is strangely addicting (and rewarding if you see it through to the end). I also know there are few optional bosses spread throughout the world for those that like an extra challenge (I plan on going back and doing some of these).

The final thing I want to mention is the music. Legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu returns here and this is by far some of his best work. Songs like Not Alone, Rose of May and Eiko's Theme are some of my favourites but the whole soundtrack is just incredible.

Overall, if you haven't played this game and you like FInal Fantasy or JRPG's in general then I can't recommend this enough. It's an absolute masterpiece that will make you cry, laugh and fall in love with incredible characters and a wonderful story.

5/5

First time playing, blind playthrough, played on switch.

Really great vibe and atmosphere in this game -- it's got that old school charm with a solid story and covering interesting themes to boot. The cast of characters is mostly strong, with a few weak links unfortunately. The wit and jovial nature of a lot of the interactions feels really cozy.

Gameplay systems were also mint. Abilities tied to equipment is fun and I love being able to get them permanently and choose which ones I want. The battles are also challenging, with status effects mattering and needing to consider some tactics for battles. Many times I had to redo my abilities based on the baddies I was fighting. Exploration is cool too, rewarding with good drops and equipments. Stealing as well is super handy in this game which I like. One big downside - the loading times on battles are ludicrous. It takes so long to start them that 2x speed was mandatory for me when exploring, which I prefer not to use.

Tetra master sucks. I didn't dabble in many of the other mini-games unfortunately.

Overall, one of my favourite FF's now. This game definitely earns a second playthrough with some guidance to discover all the things I missed.

ADDIT Played on PC with the Moguri Mod and about half the game with Alternate Fantasy. About 46 hours total play time. Played alongside the Resonant Arc podcast. Second time playing through FFIX and this time used a walkthrough.

I really enjoyed playing through with a guide. There are so many things that I missed the first time through. Mainly side quests and mini-games like Chocobo Hot and Cold, Frog Catching, Blue Magic, Stellazio and Moogle Letters. The gameplay of the side quests are so-so but the rewards are crazy good - very fun to get great gear early. At the very least breaking up the main gameplay loop is really good for pacing.

The battle gameplay itself is really helped my playing on PC with Moguri mod. Load times into battles are reduced and being able to active 3x speed to move things along helps a lot at times. The variety of abilities and gear is excellent, and the character building super satisfying. Beating the super bosses is a fun challenge, but overall the game leans quite easy.

This game really hits a sweet spot in terms of characters, themes and story. I can't really overstate this. The medieval setting, the upbeat and charming tone, the constant comedy - unbeatable. Almost all the main characters have great journeys and they are super fun together. The themes covered are interesting and done well considering how complex they are (existentialism, death, purpose, autonomy). The story has good pacing and is fairly easy to follow. It definitely helped having the podcast in the background this time around. I understand some of the criticisms around the final boss but I didn't mind it personally. The ending is beautiful.

Honestly this is probably the best Final Fantasy I've played, and it has a strong case to be my new favourite.

Final Fantasy IX was a game that was highly recommended to me by friends. Now, Final Fantasy is a series that I hold in very high regard. FFVI and FFVII are both some of the greatest games that I've ever played, VII especially. So after hearing all of the hype that FFIX seems to get, I expected the game to live up to VI and VII in terms of quality. After all, many people consider this one to be the best in the series.

Some parts of the game, like the Festival of the Hunt, Terra, Tetra Master, and the whole ending sequence, are amazing. Truly some of the best content in the series. However, the majority of the game, I'd say around 60% of it, just drags on forever. It's simply not fun to go from point A to point B to point C to point D for 20 hours. I'd be more forgiving if the gameplay was interesting, but it's really not. The entire middle section of the game is just a slog to get through. In fact, I'd say that the game peaks during first part of the game.

If I can give the game anything, it's that the characters are seriously great. A couple of them feel a bit half-baked, like Freya or Amarant, but characters like Vivi, Steiner, and Zidane, are some of the best that the series has ever seen. Oh, and the ending is amazing as well, easily the highlight of the entire game. I don't think it fully makes up for how boring the majority of this game is, but it does end it on a high note. A VERY high note, actually.

Overall, I can say that I enjoyed FFIX, just not nearly as much as I thought I would. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as VI or VII, but I'd put it about on the same level as FFIV. Though most of this game is monotonous and slow, there are enough really great moments that elevate the game above average. If only slightly so.

I finished 9 several months ago but it seems I forgot to record my thoughts on it. Long story short, I was really disappointed. If any game in the series has been hyped up to me (other than 7), it's this one, but it just didn't do it for me.

None of the characters are likable. I think my favorite was Black Mage #288. At least he made me feel an emotion other than antipathy.

The ability system felt stale. Abilities and summons are all lackluster. If I can normal attack with Steiner, use Grand Lethal, or sit through summoning Ark and all do the same amount of damage, why bother with anything outside the normal attack?

Like most FF titles, the game gets way too easy with any amount of grinding.

World building feels empty. The world itself feels empty, there's just so much space with nothing going on. They could have given us the hamster people town or the hippo people town or the bird people town! Maybe some more caves or travel-y-places like in FF7?

Chocobo-ing was ok. The ukulele theme is nice and Chocobo's Paradise is cute. However, Hot and Cold gets stale after a while, in fact, most of the side questing is meh (frustrating Mognet letters, and so on).

TETRA MASTER IS AWFUL.

Finally, the big thing here, is Final Fantasy 9 really wants you to feel some kind of way, with all these grand emotional payoffs, that just all end up falling flat because the game does very little in earning these emotional moments. The only impactful parts I found were with Vivi, and the plot lines of home and belonging are nice enough. It gets muddled with the half-assed story thrown at you in the last hour of the game.

Well, after finally playing Final Fantasy XI, I can finally put that 'ol cult status to rest because it seems to me that the 9th instalation in the series suffers from "CULT STATUS SHADOWING THE FACT THAT IT IS NOT ACTUALLY THE BEST", similar to what Earthbound suffers. After years and years of people telling me to play this entry saying it is the best one in the series what I get is perhaps one of the worst pacings I've seen in a Final Fantasy game, the worst side-quests, and the inability to even customise my party until like the later half of the game. Seriously, what the hell?

In terms of replayability, Final Fantasy XI is the worst to replay, it is so rigid in it's ways that you really just gotta play it in a certain way, now maybe I was spoiled by Final Fantasy VI and VII which from the get go you have a lot of options from party members to how you wanna set them up, FF9 (which i'll be calling it for the sake of not typing it out all the time) does have some interesting things such as equipable items that if you keep on them you get the chance to learn an ability, but in the end characters end up being very rigid, it's not like FF7 where you can make about ANYONE into a healer, no FF9 is traditional in which a character can only be a lancer, one a paladin and one a thief. It's not exactly Materia, or Esters.

Now, I might do a lot of comparissons to showcase how worse this game has it going, but I find that a fair thing to do considering this is the 9th entry in a series and considering Final Fantasy 9 does showcase itself boldly and proudly as an homage to the entire series, seriously Final Fantasy 9 is like a mish-mash of every single trope through out the Final Fantasy series, from aliens, steampunk, sci-fi, east vs west wars, it's like they combined FF6, FF7, FF8 and also FF4 which has some sprinkled references all around, but most get that idea from the fact that the game is designed in such a cute way to homage classic designs. I might go on a little more on how Final Fantasy XI is pretty much an homage to everything Final Fantasy and feels like a little tribute.

Anyways, going back to comparissons: The ff9 trance system is just a worse limit break that you don't get to control, and it seems that you always get it at the worst moment." Hey guess what you received enough damage so your character is now tranced! But at the end of the fight so you won't get most out of it" FF9 has very poor replayability incentive, like I've said before: ff7 you can arrange multiple means as to your charactrers, you have many to choose already, you can have fun experimenting with things such as Berret being a healer for some odd reason. FF9 is so funny from my standpoint because it's like, some people complained FF7 battles were long when every single enemy fight in FF9 takes 1 minute (it doesn't help that there is a in-game lag) and FF9 every battle is just like a boss battle that takes 5 minutes or more, while FF7 has some timed-hits and some fun mechanics, FF9 clings onto some old stuff. But by far, the worst offender of FF9 has got to be the high encounter rate, everyone I've heard talk about this game has once complained by the high encounter rate.

Final Fantasy 6 is the most epic of all the entries, Final Fantasy 7 is the funnest entry, Final Fantasy 8 is the weirdest entry, Final Fantasy 9 is the silliest one. To comment on how bad the pacing in Final Fantasy 9: 90% of the plot is either this generic war shit going on or vague as hell, and then the last 10%: HEY, WHAT IF WE MADE A STORY ABOUT GODS, MORTALITY AND MAKE IT IN BIBLICAL PORPORTIONS, I KNOW WE'RE PRACTICALLY SOME OF THE VERY LAST PEOPLE TO HOP ON THE TRAIN OF EXISTENTIALIST STORIES, AND BLADE RUNNER PROBABLY DID THIS ALL IN A VERY MORE NUANCED MANNER BUT. And to Final Fantasy 9's favor: it is a good story about clones, being made for the sake of war, what it is to be someone, with some final fantasy bullshit thrown in the mix like SOULS or planets, which are like tropes in the series now, again it's got about everything in the series, and Final Fantasy 9's theme is basically death and nihilism and its alright however you gotta often dig a lot to find that, and most of that is only available on Disc 4, because the pacing is fucking shit.

Speaking of "Digging to find something"! Final Fantasy 9 has an ok overworld (in fact it doesn't help that it's pretty much the last one in the series), but good lord does it feel empty, I mean sure there is a variation of towns but, a lot of them just either feel clunky (due to loading times and the need to just sparce everything to showcase how big they are) or easily replaceble maybe? The CGI backgrounds art is wonderful of course but every place feels the samey and you barely return to do some extra stuff so they end up being forgotten.

The towns are ok, but the overworld? Now that I cannot defend. First of all I need to say: Worst side-quests ever, like between a side-quest essentially being: mash buttons until your fingers hurt to find treasure in 1 place and then use that same mechanic for another location to just get some extras you might not even use! (With maybe you using the summons), remember that one digging mini-game in Final Fantasy 7 to find a key item? What if we made an entire side-quest about it! And after that what do you get? Well you upgrade your chocobo, that's how you upgrade the bird. But what does the bird do?

Well mostly find the most hectic hidden secrets in any otherworld I've ever seen, good luck finding these without a guide or anything, I'm pretty sure it's impossible, if it isn't, how do you explain the last boiling water spot that isn't EVEN SEEN on disc 4? It's ridiculous, the entire world feels empty and is mostly for the sake of this horrible Chocobo scavenger hunt. I've indulged this to it's fullest limit, but in the end it really felt as if it wasn't worth all of it. Now a lot of Final Fantasy games do have some very cryptic stuff but FF9 takes the cake because at least the other games had more variety and didn't rely on CRYPTIC shit. I'm not shoving under the rug how in Final Fantasy 7 to get Aeris ultima you need to do something almost nobody would do but at least that made more sense than scavenge hunt for spots you can't even see an indication.

The other side-quest is also a doozy, it's this "hey don't forget to always check with the moogles you find to deliver their mail, if you do forget, chances are you won't be able to complete it because you got stuck once swapping discs and now that place is permantly locked, you can never return". Newsflash: Out of all of the Final fantasy games, in this one I felt the most locked out of content, it doesn’t warn you, it doesn’t pace them well either, and FF9 only has 1 extra boss! AGAIN THE SIDE-QUESTS SUCK. The side-quests in Final Fantasy 9 are so bad that they somehow make me wish for the Ultima Weapons in Final Fantasy 7, those things I had to grind for a lot and clearly could have been paced better rather than “reach level 99 to have a fair fight with these dudes”. Mognet is bad, there's not much incentive for it either as it's just silly dialog of moogles.

Now… Let’s talk about the music. It’s alright, it’s like one of Nobuo Uematsu’s last major compositions, too much motifs you ask me, I think this is when he was kinda of getting stale and perhaps one of the reasons why they started switching composers. There’s not much memorable in the game outside of the main theme (it’s motifs), Beatrix’s theme song and that little Spanish vibe it’s going for, but a lot of it just feels boring, and yeah the battle music is good, but even Final Fantasy 8 had more catchy music. But I guess Final Fantasy 9 has the Dark Mage town with its silly cuicas. Now with that said, at least the Final Fantasy 9 music, despite at times feeling stock, does have a good theme going for it: and that theme is mostly sad piano music and mostly relaxing, perhaps I didn’t think it was as catchy because of those reasons, and also here’s another thing, no matter how stock and “Yeah I just want a generic medieval song here” it at least isn’t repetitive which is very hard to do for an RPG game. There’s a weird clash in Final Fantasy 9 of course with it’s silly music that uses MIDI samples straight out of a 1991 arcade game, and the ones that use fake instruments though. By far, the best song is the swamp song though. Oh and the Chocobo song is great.

I still think Final Fantasy 9 is a bit overrated and it’s not really the “best one” in the series because of pacing issues or almost never being able to let me customize my party, or the fact that most of the characters just seem very silly and it’s hard to take the tone clashes in the game seriously, it’s not as fleshed out or exciting as Final Fantasy 7, amongst other things like the high encounter rate and the fact that the battles sometimes feel like mini bosses and take a while.

FF7 is a lot easier and fast-paced to replay as a game than FF9 is, and it takes a while to even start too. FF9 has huge pauses for gameplay too and the areas are too overly convoluted, however in contrast to that complain: it has the best world building of the series (It depends on whenever or not you take Final Fantasy 7 into consideration here because FF7 also did an amazing job in making a very connected world but it might come in second because FF9 and FF7 both go out to explain how magic works, FF7 using Mako as a plot device and FF9 using the MIST and other things as a plot device).... In contrast TO THAT, it seems that most enemies or villains in the game are just... There. "We designed all of these lil bosses SCATTERED AROUND TO SEEM LIKE A BIG DEAL (probably in reference to another Final Fantasy) but we forgot to develop them at all! Seriously, half of the feel I get with Final Fantasy 9 is "SHIT JUST HAPPENS, whatever" it really is just a lot of random stuff to give the silly characters PTSD and then in the last minute connect it all.

Which is a pity because the bosses in FF9 have some of the best design ever, in fact such is with most of the things in Final Fantasy 9, there’s a lot of lovable and unique designs for races, races we barely see that much of, like I guess there’s a hippo race in Final Fantasy 9, do we see their own city? No. but eh! Lots of races and species, and all sorts of monsters. It’s also a pity how much attention Final Fantasy 9 gives towards stealing, like that’s pretty much the main meta-game FF9 offers outside of Quinoa, our non-binary representation in this game, I gotta say for both: they’re a bit of a hassle. Stealing has such this low percentage of actually happening that it’s like: why bother. Well, it seems convincing because there’s a chance you’ll get this one rare item from a fight you just want to end, the same goes for Quinoa, you gotta be so precise as to eating, that on disc 4 I had already given up on it as I would just kill them, really I don’t need that more spells I’m ok. The card game is a bit fun I gotta admit but the sound mixing is painful on this re-release, also… It’s kinda pointless.

Out of all of the Final Fantasies I think this one deserves a remake the most because honestly it's deeply flawed, there's a lot of corners that could be further developed or better paced, and meanwhile Final Fantasy 7 the most popular one is getting a remake just to show off but the thing is, Final Fantasy 7 on its own is kinda easier to replay and have fun with, it's practically on par with Super Mario RPG with replayability, Final Fantasy 9 on the other hand suffers from some mundane moments and lack of good pacing or customization.

Anyways listen up, Final Fantasy 9 isn't the worst, in fact it so far is on my top ten of the series (it's up there with the greats even), and a thought I had while playing Final Fantasy 9 a lot especially during our climate as of now is that the world is ending but at least I have the time to enjoy a mediocre JRPG that is hailed as the best. And there were many times in which FF9 was fun and interesting so yeah it's better than nothing but boy is it flawed. Seriously, I don't care how good your twists are, you gotta pace it better. Also despite the theme, the writing can be seriously overly stupid and simplistic to the point it QUOTES STAR WARS YODA AT THE VERY LAST PART OF THE GAME.

Like everything about this game can be so dumb, it’s just RANDOMLY DEATH ITSELF at the end like just out of nowhere with no connection other than “get it, this game is about death, go against the concept yourself” with barely any build up to it, and what’s with the higher amount of fan-service too? Ugh just, what the fuck? They literally threw random shit on the wall and saw what sticked for this one. Final Fantasy 9 doesn't really have a villain so it’s interesting that regard. It’s not a perfect game but I understand how some certain twists can make people REALLY emotional. Again, it`s like they put all of the good stuff at the very end.

Weirdly enough, I'd recommend this game to be someone's first Final Fantasy if they never played any, the other installments in a way kinda spoiled me in what is an okay JRPG.

I'd also like to say: despite being an outsourced port with some bad audio mixing, it is good that they at least accept most bluetooth or third-party controller support, which a lot of ports to PC or android do not have and make you play the whole game on keyboard or touch screen.

Playing through Final Fantasy IX for the first time in a decade definitely brought about some massive feels of nostalgia. The music, the characters, the world and the story are still as vibrant, beautiful and lovable as I remember and I couldn't help but choke up at the ending.

The game play mechanics are pretty standard fare JRPG with fixed classes given to each character who gain abilities from equipping gear which often gives you reason to use equipment that would otherwise be useless. The characters each play their own unique role in the party and allow plenty of options in party composition to vary your game play experience. I do find it rather annoying that Zidane is fixed into your party though especially since he has the worst ability set out of all the characters in the game basically leaving him to use the "Attack" and "Steal" commands.

The game also features a number glaring mechanical flaws though which knocked my overall opinion of it back a peg. Battles are slow and battle animations are long and the games internal clock continues ticking during battle animations which basically renders the ATB system, and temporary buffs and debuffs all but useless as by the time all your characters have taken there turn in battle buffs and debuffs will have worn off and everyone's ATB will have recharged (including the enemies).

These issues although annoying are not game breaking and where Final Fantasy IX truly excels is in the characters and world that it builds. Each of the cast of 8 have their own personality, backstory and character arc and the cities of Lindblum, Alexandria and Treno are the most alive cities I have experience throughout the PS1 era. The pre-rendered backgrounds are gorgeous and each location has its own unique feel. All this along with an engaging story, touching moments between characters and one of the best soundtracks in the history of games (in my opinion) makes Final Fantasy IX a game I would highly recommend to anyone that is a fan of JRPGs.

“You mustn’t allow yourself to be chained to fate, to be ruled by your genes. Human beings can choose the kind of life that they want to live. What’s important is that you choose life… and then live”
-Naomi Hunter, Metal Gear Solid

Final Fantasy IX is the ninth installment in the acclaimed series and has a prestigious position in the history of this franchise. It was the last Final Fantasy of the PS1. It was the last of the “single-digit” Final Fantasy games. In a sense it closed out that era for the franchise, like the curtain fall whence the actors take their bows.

As such, FFIX acts as a bookend for everything that came before it and it specifically paid homage to the earliest Final Fantasy games. For this reason, I recommend it foremost to those who have never played a Final Fantasy game ever. Play IX, then VI, then VII. Take it from a Red Mage.

“This title (currently in development) is based on a reflection of all the previous works in the series. The coming installment [Final Fantasy IX] is my “favorite”, it’s closest to my ideal view of what Final Fantasy should be.”
-Hironobu Sakaguchi, original creator of Final Fantasy

IX honored the original games in several different ways. After the sci-fi settings of VII and VIII, the two games which preceded it, IX spearheaded a return to the high fantasy series’ roots. Abandoning the dystopian jungle of sprawling Midgar and the gilded, mechanical wonders of Balaam Garden, IX’s world seems steampunkish, Victorian, antique, medieval, populated with rich pseudo-European cultures and castles and the series’ traditional wooden airships. Nothing wrong with science fiction but this is Final Fantasy. Just sayin’.