DISCLAIMER:This thread reflects only the opinion of it's own writer,It's not an objective critique on what you should like or dislike so if you saw me criticising a game you like like Final Fantasy XIII or any other I hope you don't feel offended and I hope you keep on enjoying what you like regardless of what I say.
Thanks to my friend Ross at the Super Gaming Bros fan group,he encouraged me to go back to Final Fantasy IX and finish the game as I stopped at the end of disc-2 a year and a half ago due to fatigue from the franchise caused by me playing Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII in February of 2014.Lightning Returns was honestly the worst RPG I’ve ever played in my life which caused me to stay away from Final Fantasy for like 2 years.....well not exactly as I managed to finish Final Fantasy X in around the tail end of 2014 and I loved that game a lot but I’ll save for it later but after that,I haven’t touched Final Fantasy again until few days ago when as I said above,Ross convinced me to go back and finish Final Fantasy IX
Welp I finished it just now so I might as well write my thoughts on it while it’s still fresh on my mind but if you’re not into reading long reviews then I’ll sum it up like this:
Final Fantasy IX is a fantastic game in almost everyway,it’s my second favorite Final Fantasy game right behind Final Fantasy VI and it’s and it’s one of my favorite games of all time.
The story of Final Fantasy IX takes place in the world of Gaia where Zidane,our main protagonist and member of the Tantalus crew,was heading to the city of Alexandria on a mission to kidnap Princess Garnet,daughter of the greedy fat Queen Brahne,during a theatrical show that Tantalus was arranging at the time.The mission is successful but it turns out that the Princess wanted herself to be kidnapped as she was sensing something wrong with her mother ever since she met a man named Kuja thus she decided to join Zidane and the others to discover the truth behind the sudden change in her mother’s behavior and what she and Kuja are plotting.
Throughout the game Zidane meets a colorful and charming cast of characters such as Vivi the Black Mage,Steiner the Captain of Alexandria’s Pluto guards and Garnet’s bodyguard,Freya the Burmecian dragoon,Quina the weird food-obsessed cook and the red-haired monk Amarant.
Each with their own unique personalities and backstories and throughout the game each of them(except Quina of course ) grow and develop as characters in a really interesting way especially Vivi,Zidane,Garnet and Steiner.I won’t spoil much but to keep it short the plot of Final Fantasy IX,despite some issues endgame, is beautifully written with a memorable cast of characters and set pieces that makes it very unique among other FF games especially the other two PS1 titles FFVII and FFVIII. It also has a TON of homages and references to older FF games that came before it especially the Final Fantasy I,and I’m sure fans of the series will notice a lot of them throughout the journey
Gameplay-wise,Final Fantasy IX admittedly isn’t a big jump from what we’ve seen in terms of the ATB battle system that started in FFIV and carried over to later entries such as FFVII and FFVIII but what it does is that it made it more accessible.For example,the materia system from 7 and the junctions from 8 are gone and instead abilities can be learned through equipment.Each equipment you get can teach your character a specific spell,skill,status immunities and stat increases by gaining the amount of AP listed on it through battles and once your character is done learning it you can pass that piece of equipment to another character so they can learn it too,provided that the character can learn it or can equip it of course as some are unique to a specific class such as Zidane’s thievary,Steiner’s sword arts and the different eidolons that Garnet and Eiko can summon.That encourages you to keep your early game equipment since they’ll be of some use later down the road either through passing them to other characters or synthesizing them into new ones so don’t sell them immediately because gaining gills in FFIX is not an issue since battles provide you with a sufficient amount of gill that by the time you reach the next town or dungeon you’ll have enough money without ditching your old equipment.
The Trance mechanic is kinda works like limit breaks from FFIX except they’re moreso transformations that buff up your stats and have their own spells rather than a one powerful attack.Trances are activated automatically as soon as the orange bar under your ATB bar fills up.Honestly I don’t like how Trances activate here because that means that they can activate on any time in battles you don’t need them in,completely wasting your trances that you’ve been saving for an upcoming boss fight and that can be irritating at times.
Navigating through Towns,dungeons and the world map is largely the same as before with sidequests and hidden superbosses but in specific places an ATE(Active Time Event) will pop up which are special type of cutscenes that for the most part are optional and you can choose to either watch or skip most of them.
Like I said Final Fantasy IX doesn’t add much but what it does is taking what’s already there and refine it,make it more fun and accessible for both veterans and newbies to the JRPG genre and it does that remarkably well especially when compared to it’s other Ps1 big brothers.And sure some dungeons can get irritating with some questionable level designs(I really hate Kuja’s Desert Palace,I really do) but they’re not that big enough of an issue that can bog the game down
Presentation-wise, Final Fantasy IX is the best looking of the Final Fantasy games available on the Ps1 and one of the best looking games on the system period.the CGI cutscenes look beautiful and characters are more expressive and well animated here compared to the ones in VII and VIII but unfortunately that comes at a cost specifically in battles.
Sure the movement,spells and summons are well animated but they go on for way longer than they should and it really bogs the pacing of battles,couple that with the slow transitions from map to battle and the load times and Final Fantasy IX has the slowest battles in all of the first 10 Final Fantasy games which can make grinding for levels really tedious and tiring.
One thing that I find absolutely perfect about Final Fantasy IX has to be without a doubt the amazingly magnificent soundtrack by the legendary composer Nobou Uematsu.
By far this is Uematsu’s best work on a soundtrack for the series alongside his composition for Final Fantasy IX,he absolutely knocked out of the park with almost every track in the game from character themes to dungeon themes and battle themes especially the game’s new prelude called “A Place to Call Home” which has around 6 remixes in the game and I love each one of them
Seriously give this soundtrack a listen either by buying it or looking it up on youtube,it’s a thing of beauty that you gotta listen to even for once.
Despite the few issues I had with it,I love Final Fantasy IX to death.Had FF6 didn’t exist this wouldn’t been my absolute favorite Final Fantasy game but it is still just as good if not better but it’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to which one I prefer but it doesn’t change the fact that what I played was one of the best games I’ve played in my entire life.
In a time where the Final Fantasy franchise has lost it’s way and stumbled into mediocrity for almost a decade I’m still glad that Final Fantasy IX exists to remind fans of the genre of what a titan Final Fantasy used to be in the past and what made this franchise so close into the hearts of it’s fans before the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy came in and robbed that since of awe and joy from the series and painted a pathetic and grim picture for the franchise
I’m glad that Final Fantasy IX is here to remind me that,maybe things aren’t so bad after all and there is still some hope to be found for the series with games like Bravely Default and Bravely Second(yes they’re not named FF but they have the core that make one) calling back to the glory days of Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy IX is available on Ps1 and it has been released on PSN(it can be played on Ps3,PSP and PS Vita) and had an HD remaster on Steam and and smartphones so there are lots of ways you can pick up the game and play with but I highly recommend the STEAM version in case you can run it on your PClaptop as there is a fan mod that fixes the slow load times and animations and also make temporarily playable characters like Beatrix fully playable
Again,I have to thank my friend Ross for encouraging me to come back to Final Fantasy IX as it reignited my interest in Final Fantasy games again.
Hopefully the future of Final Fantasy won’t look as grim as it was six years ago,Final Fantasy XV looks really good from what I’ve seen so I hope the final product would deliver on the game’s potential.And World of Final Fantasy on Ps4Ps Vita looks so adorable and charming and I’m excited for that too
Please don’t fail me again Square Enix,I don’t want to abandon Final Fantasy again due do a half-assed product so please make Final Fantasy XV as good as it can be
Edited by Smash Mega Koopa