Third Final Fantasy I've played, and this one was a pretty big mixed bag for me, unfortunately. When it's on, it's really on. Although it doesn't attempt anything remotely as interesting as 6's prolific fusion of story and battle mechanics or 7's distinct, offbeat humor and interactive fiction elements, it's hard to deny that most of its story is anything less than a resounding success. What the game excels at most are character interactions. They're used expertly for both comedic and dramatic purposes- the naive Vivi being lectured by the just-as-naive-but-slightly-more-emotionally-intelligent Eiko on the other party members' relationships and the quiet bombshell question that Dagger drops on Zidane in Maiden Sari regarding his personal motivation were the respective standouts from my perspective. A bold decision that might not seem significant is the game's consistent willingness to cut characters out for hours at a time when they're not important to what's currently going on. Steiner, for example, is just gone for huge chunks of the story after being introduced, which really works well with the stage play motif that surrounds the game. Adding to this, the story also starts off as a briskly paced, wonderfully small scale sequence of events that mostly has the party traveling from interesting location to interesting location. The game's initially focused on having the characters learn about themselves, each other, and the conflict that they're currently involved in rather than learning how to defeat some intergalactic being.

But, in the end, despite how good the game is at getting your hopes up, it has Final Fantasy in the title. I don't care about Kuja's plan to merge the planets and kidnap the Sandy Claws or whatever. Despite eating up so much of the storyline it's simply not interesting, and it also takes what should be a quiet, personal narrative and regresses it into standard sci-fantasy schlock. This disappointing third act turn of events and also some weird, seemingly unfinished details like certain side characters being built up with zero payoff mean that the narrative isn't perfect, and therefore it has to lean on its gameplay to at least some degree. And man, maybe it's just me, but this game is just so unenthusiastic about being an RPG. What feels like the vast majority of fights, at least in the first half of the game, are scripted, mid-cutscene bouts that you're not really supposed to lose. The amount of time spent in areas containing random encounters is purposefully minimized. Trance is the only unique part of the battle system but it's not well thought out at all and it adds absolutely nothing. The bosses are uninspired, usually being some nondescript creature being plopped in front of the party with no buildup- gone are the days of Jenova, of Shinra higher-ups, of ghost trains. There's nothing to their fights mechanically, either. I can think of only one boss in the entire game that isn't just one target that you can attack, and likewise only one that even reacts to your actions. The sole semblance of a saving grace, gameplay wise, is the abilities system. It's clever in more ways than one, as it encourages you to actually think about which equipment you put on and also gives you a nice feeling of growing your collection of abilities, but it's not enough to really affect anything in a major way. The game's also extremely easy. Final Fantasy 7's low level of difficulty gets a pass because of how enjoyable it is to mess around with the Materia system (although that has its own issues that I won't get into here), 9 does not, especially considering it's heralded as a throwback to the older games in the franchise. The story clashes, and the gameplay clashes. No matter how much I wanted to love it, Final Fantasy 9 has less to offer than either of the other games in its series that I've played before it.

Final Fantasy IX is one of the most amazing, magical, and wonderful games our beautiful medium has to offer.

Im going to get the negatives out of the way so I can gush about the many positives this game offers. The battle system is, to be as positive as I can, is not good. The load times while not awful are noticeable although you do eventually get use to them. The actual battles are, for most of the game, too easy. The main reason for this is Zidane is overpowered as hell. Final Fantasy IX goes back to the job class system and our main hero Zidane is a thief. If you’ve played any Final Fantasy game you know the thief class is a quick character that can steal but isn’t much in the physical front or in the health department. However Zidane is quick, can steal, hits like a truck, and is built like a tank. He alone makes most of the game a breeze. I was also not a fan of the trance system at all. It really felt meaningless as it rarely helped and even if it did it triggers automatically so you may have to use it against a simple enemy one fight before a boss thus wasting it. Which again isn’t really wasting it as it isn’t much of an upgrade, unlike something like Limit Breaks from FF7.

Now time to gush. This is one of the most wonderful, magical, whimsical, worlds in gaming. Especially for a game made in 2000 the world feels so real and lived in by the many wonderful characters. I feel like there are more races in this game than any other Final Fantasy game and all of them are a joy and unique. The characters and story are the stars of this show. Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, and Steiner’s arcs are so great and beautifully written. I genuinely cared about them, their stories and their tragedies. FF8 tried so hard to push the love story down our throats and it never came off as real to me. This game is more about death, life, our time being alive, feelings of loneliness, knowing and realizing there is always someone who will be there for you, tragedy, and how to deal with it. But amoungst all that they put together a true beautiful love story. Instead of forcing a story that felt out of place they tucked the love story perfectly inside of the main over arching story. Vivi dealing with not knowing who or even really what he is becomes more and more heartbreaking the more you learn. Steiner goes from a great knight who only follows commands with no original thought of his own to a hero who will die to protect not only his princess but also his band of friends that he originally sees as trash. He also gets a nice love arc that isn’t in the forefront at all but still feels better than FF8. Many of the NPCs or should I say barely in your party for small amounts of time, like Marcus, Blank, Cinna, Baku, Beatrix, Cid are so great and have wonderful arcs themselves. Kuja is a good villian. He isn’t Sephiroth or Kefka but a good villian none the less. The ending of this game made me feel so many emotions from pure sadness to true joy. It was nothing less than a perfect ending to an almost perfect game. Only the battle system keeps this from being a percfect 5*.

I enjoyed the art and the music is absolutely top tier. The overworld theme is beautiful. The crystal world theme was my favorite but there isn’t a bad track in this game. It fits the world and theme of this game perfectly.

I could go on and on about this game and why I love it but I’ll just stop with saying there aren’t many games that have ever been made that can match this game in terms of story, characters, and world building and should be played by anyone that enjoys JRPGs.

Why aren’t there more love games? The term “love game” itself sounds extremely weird, but love songs are practically all you hear on the radio, and for a while, it seemed like every movie regardless of genre had a romance subplot. Meanwhile, pretty much the only games about romance are dating sims, a niche genre that is frequently mocked and perceived as lesser than the highbrow and urbane violence we’re accustomed to. Maybe it's because romance doesn't translate to interactivity very neatly, making it hard to get players involved in the drama, and causing even the best emotional climax completely flop for a large portion of the audience. Recognizing this potential problem, Final Fantasy 9 did something pretty smart, setting up multiple love stories in parallel to resonate with almost anyone’s personal experience. Each party member’s personal journey revolves around a different kind of story, from a classic fairy-tale romance to something more abstract, like the love of one’s people or country. The game skillfully balances the focus on each of them by mixing combinations of characters, letting their different perspectives build on each other to give players insight into the authors' thoughts about being in love.

Of course, the amount of patience that players will have for indulging the parts that don’t resonate is another matter entirely, especially when so much of the central plot and gameplay are grounded by a love of the franchise itself. While this may include the best parts of the series, like its beautiful aesthetic and compelling characters, the worst parts are here too, like two-dimensional villains and a pace that is uncomfortably slow at times. Towards the end in particular, the love it shows for classic Final Fantasy grandiosity borders on obsession, and it muddles the beautiful individual stories with unnecessarily high stakes. It’s a case of missing the forest for the trees, forgetting that the big dramatic showdowns of the series were memorable as a payoff for emotional investment, not just for their own sake. Final Fantasy 9 may stumble when it comes to the handling and pacing of those big scenes, but luckily, the little interpersonal moments are strong enough to make up for it. It’s a game where I recognize all the flaws, and I wouldn’t say that I like it as much as other RPG's, but for the whole-hearted appreciation I have for a game trying to tell this kind of story, I guess I have to admit that I love it.

Even though after finishing it I was VERY disappointed in this game, I can see why it is so beloved and why it is a favorite of so many.

The source of my disappointment may have come from either the fact that this game is considered to be the best of the franchise by far and that no other game compares to it, which raised my expectations a lot, or also from the fact that in terms of gameplay alone, this game is not very outstanding, but be that as it may, after some time of reflection, I have calmed down a bit my emotions and finally I have determined to give a worthy review to this title, because at the end of the day I enjoyed it a lot and I had a nice time playing it, so I plan to talk about this game at length.

First of all, I love the characters in this game, my favorites were without a doubt Zidane and Vivi, very different from each other, but both with very characteristic and nice personalities. Vivi is the kind of innocent person that you know would never do anything evil and he is just very nice and strong despite being just a kid. His story through the game and how he is learning about life is simply charming and sad at the same time. And Zidane on the other hand, is a very lively guy, someone who for being a thief knows everything and is able to read people in the blink of an eye, but what I really like about him is how he always has a very friendly, patient and understanding attitude with all the characters without exception, he is the kind of friend who always finds the right words at the right time and who will always be there for you even if you are all alone. The other characters are also quite good, but for me the two of them take my heart and are in my opinion the best protagonists of this series, starring a quite emotional story that brings up mature themes, that despite many times being taken lightly, are able to evoke a lot of emotions and it's a simply lovely story, that in its ending made me shed a few tears.

Another thing I love are the Active Time Events, which sounds like something super complex and innovative by name, but they are simply scenes in which your party members go exploring the villages on their own, and in these little sequences we see how they get through different types of situations that are funny most of the time, but allow us to know a lot about the characters that accompany us throughout the adventure. This is a simple addition, but it adds sequences to the game that I consider valuable.

The music, for many FFVIII has the best soundtrack of the series, but in my opinion I think this one is superior by a little. Nobuo Uematsu really composed a lot of songs that are very good individually, but I think many do not shine much because they are used very little or almost not given prominence. There are others that are simply some of the best songs Nobuo Uematsu composed in the entire franchise. Just listening to the battle theme which is possibly (along with FFX's) the best battle theme in the series, you'll never want to stop listening to it. It's world map theme is adorable, it's not the typical heroic and epic theme you would hear in this kind of games, but a more calm and emotional song that heals my heart whenever I listen to it. And there are a bunch more of other songs that I love with all my soul, like the boss battle theme, Zidane's theme and some other songs that you must listen to by yourself to know how good the OST is.

I also quite like the art direction of this title, I think my favorite PS1 title as far as visuals go, it looks simply beautiful. It's almost at the same level of FF8, but here the prerendered backgrounds I like more for being based on fantasy and colorful locations, and the 3D models look simply dazzling, they have a lot of detail and I'm surprised how well done many of the animations in this game are, both inside the battles and outside of them, because speaking of it, the way the characters move and their body language while talking in the scenes helps to show more personality.

Moving on to the bad things about this game, well we have a few to be frank, starting with the battle system. If you're observant, you may have noticed that the ATB battle system had the flaw that every time a character or enemy performed an action, everyone's ATB meter would freeze, which meant that the battle couldn't resume until all the animations were over in case you had chosen your commands earlier. Well, FFIX gets rid of this and brings with it something I always imagined but thought impossible, a true ATB where the meter will continue to fill even when a character or enemy animation is in progress. This, along with the fact that the gameplay went back to a more traditional state where there is no character customization system sounds pretty good, right?...well, no, since it is given a very poor execution. Enemy and character animations are designed as if they were for an FF game with the old ATB, which makes many battles break down. For example, I always liked how you can revive an ally and heal it immediately in the previous FF, because you could execute the heal action once the ally was revived and no one could take your turn, well, not in FF9, any enemy can take your turn because as the animations take a long time they will also have time to fill their ATB meter in the meantime and simply by the fact of being controlled by CPU, they will be faster than you, which makes things like the above mentioned more difficult or directly impossible to carry out. Normally this is not a problem since the game is not difficult, but it shows how unpolished it is, and I can think of two other examples, these being the regeneration magic, which will always heal you completely given how long the animations last, which can make you practically immortal in many battles, another example is that the magic that increases your defense or spell resistance is now almost useless, as it runs out before all the animations do and last example, the final battle, which I will not make spoilers, but you can tell that the developers realized that this new ATB system is broken and that's why they designed it the way it is designed.

Another thing that is a bit disappointing is how the gameplay elements don't feel connected to the plot, something that in previous games did happen, again, I don't want to make spoilers, but in what before many scenes were translated to gameplay and gameplay elements, here they are reduced to cinematics and battles with predefined values that you can't alter, which is not so bad, but a little bit disappointing.

Talking about the gimmick of this FF9, which I won't say it's bad, but I won't say it's amazing either, let's say it's good in concept, but it's never exploited in outstanding ways. I'm talking about the system of learning skills through pieces of equipment, which in principle sounds fantastic, but ends up being very trivial and reduced to having to access the menu a bunch of times every time your character learns a skill to change their equipment and see if there's another piece that has a skill you haven't learned. This wouldn't bother me at all except for the fact that there are a lot of skills that are just there for filler and don't really add much to the gameplay, which is odd to me considering how creative the developers of this franchise tend to be when it comes to talking about unique and interesting systems. It was something very strange, but still something I could enjoy, as it was always fun to find a way to optimize battles by choosing which support abilities to activate and which not to, which allows you to customize your play style a bit, but still leaves a bit to be desired. I'd like to talk about Trance state, but it's not worth mentioning, since you won't really get the chance to use it much in the game anyway, although I like that when it's activated it changes the look of the characters.

Something I don't like either are the side quests in this game, that stupid hot-cold mini-game of the chocobo didn't seem fun at all, and let's not talk about the Tetra Master, which although I didn't think it was terrible, I really don't understand the appeal of these two things. I would have preferred side quests in the form of optional dungeons with hidden objects or sub plots that expand the story.

Conclusion
Final Fantasy IX is beautiful, but also a pusillanimous game that doesn't make up for its "back to basics" entirely as far as gameplay is concerned, because despite being simpler than Final Fantasy V, it's not excellent at anything, which makes sense when you see that this game was made in record time, but still, because of the story and setting of the game, and heck, because it's Final Fantasy in its classic state, it's a game that I enjoyed playing a lot and I was also very disappointed at the beginning, but that I've learned to accept little by little, and although it's far from being my favorite FF, it's an adventure that I will treasure in my memories and that I hope will receive a Remake that will improve the gameplay and make this the true best Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy IX: A Obra mais Coesa de Toda a Série... E o meu Final Fantasy Favorito!

FF IX é definitivamente um jogo que eu estranhei no começo, principalmente por conta da direção de arte que esse jogo tem... Ele se diferencia dos jogos anteriores, ao mesmo tempo que me lembrava bastante os FFs lançados na era Pixel

No final das contas isso não se demostrou um problema mas sim um ponto extremamente positivo... Enquanto jogava esse jogo dois dos meus amigos estavam conversando sobre possíveis Remakes da série e um deles disse as seguintes palavras... "Se a Square fizer Remakes de Final Fantasy VIII e IX o do oito tem que ser realista que nem o do VII mas o do IX tem que ser com gráficos diferentes, talvez com um estilo do Hi-Fi Rush que lançou a pouco tempo, ou um Ghibi"...

Sinceramente, eu concordo, a direção de arte de FF IX é peculiar, diferente das outras demostradas antes e depois dele, e também é apresentada da melhor forma possível nesse jogo, e olha que eu não a considero o seu ponto mais forte na jornada dessa experiência.

Eu também gostaria de ressaltar a trilha sonora desse carinha aqui... Olha, ela é muito boa, na verdade, praticamente todos os Final Fantasys do V pra cá tiveram ótimas trilhas, algumas melhores do que as outras... Devo dizer que a de FF IX definitivamente está entre as melhores, se não for a minha favorita... Ela me deixou com lagrimas nos olhos em diversos momentos na história...

E falando em história... Acho que esse é o ponto mais forte desse jogo, além de sua gameplay, que também me agradou muito... Mas dela eu falo mais pra frente... Cara, que história maravilhosa que nos é apresentada nesse jogo, seus momentos de descontração são certeiros, com as piadas e brincadeiras, o desenvolvimento de personagens também é de longe o meu favorito da série, mesmo que praticamente todos os jogos tenham personagens bem construídos e bem desenvolvidos... IX foi um jogo que se destacou ainda mais nesse quesito, pra mim ao menos...

Com relação ao gameplay, eu gostaria de usar a palavra que utilizei no titulo da analise... "Coeso"... De tudo que foi apresentado na série até então, foi Final Fantasy IX que mais me deixou cativado do começo ao fim, ele é divertido ao mesmo tempo que é desafiador, o grind existe porém é balanceado, na medida do possível...

E eu tenho vontade de voltar a jogar só por causa do jogo de cartas...

No final das contas acredito que minha passagem pela franquia Final Fantasy vai parar por aqui agora, o único jogo que sobrou foi o Tatics porém, passarei por ele em outro momento... Revisando os jogos da franquia que joguei, foram do I ao VI... Do VII ao IX... Antes eu havia jogado do X, passando pelo XI e XIV que são Onlines, ao XVI e o Remake do VII terminando assim a franquia, em seus jogos principais, ao menos por enquanto, pois ano que vem já temos Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sendo lançado.

E a nota do maravilhoso Final Fantasy IX, eu darei um 9.9/10, ou um 5/5... Um jogo que me deixou feliz, triste, e me passou muitas memorias... Um jogo belo que eu queria que fosse lembrado pelas pessoas, pois sinto que ele é uma joia escondida em meio a série... Se você ainda não jogou eu mais do que recomendo... De uma chance, você não vai se arrepender!

No fim, ele não apenas é o meu Final Fantasy favorito, como atualmente o meu JRpg favorito... Batendo Chrono Trigger, Mother 3, Final Fantasy IV e VII... Nunca pensei que isso ocorreria... Mas aconteceu😅

I feel like this was the last point in time Square could do a cute, cozy Final Fantasy with stylized proportions and NOT have it come across as some hideous funkopop claw machine plushy hell (looking @ u world of final fantasy / pocket edition / theatrhythm!!!). This game is warm and beautiful and Itahana's character designs are iconic series standouts with a lovely sense of ease to them. I think this is way less of an "old-school high fantasy throwback" in terms of narrative than people remember--a LOT of bizarre sci-fi shit happens in the back half of the story and it feels totally situatated in the middle of that pre-square-enix liminal zone.

I love this snug, rusty world and its simple but well-drawn characters, but imo like 2/3rds of the score feels like uematsu wrote it on autopilot and the combat system is also a little narcoleptic and sluggish. A jewel to remember but sometimes a little tedious to actually return to.

conflicting feelings about this one I will try my best to put into words
gonna start with saying I have a lot of problems with it, which unfortunately sully the experience overall
biggest one of all is the fact that every single character gets mishandled in one way or another, even Vivi who I consider to be the best character by far gets an unsatisfactory ending since they just let his ending happen off screen
the mistreatment is Specially bad on Freya whose character arc completely stops and gets cast aside, for a lame ending
the plot is also just, not very good at parts, specially around the end of disc 2 and the start of disc 3, and once again the characters suffer from it
which is why I do not agree with how many people call this the best FF, or even a good game if I'm being honest
BUT
that does not mean I don't understand it
because despise my problems, god do I adore this game
when it's good it is Phenomenal, some of the best out there, the experience is magical and the messages it sets out to give are beyond beautiful
if anything me being so critical of it comes from a place of love, because I Want It To Be Better

this is one of my favorite games I think, even if I don't really like it all that much all the time
it's weird, I can't explain it, so I won't try to
I love Final Fantasy

update: every time I'm forced to think about this game I lower the score

It's hard to put into words what hearing "The Place I'll Return To Someday" as I booted Final Fantasy IX almost 20 years after I first played it made me feel. Whenever people bring up IX on the FF discourse, it's inevitable that it will be referenced as the "return to the roots" of the franchise, a celebration and throwback to the old FF style of the NES and SNES day. That would be however selling IX short, as it stands as a wholy unique and standout in the series, filled with a very specific magic and craft not found in the rest of the entries.

Coming at the tail end of the Playstation's life cycle, IX presents itself as the most confident and polished 32 bit FF without the awkwardness of VII's first steps into the 3D age or VIII's identity crisis. Framed as a Shakespearean tale, IX boasts the most lavished and outstanding pre-rendered backgrounds the system can offer, a fantastical believable world to explore drenched in personality, and arguably one of the best soundtracks in the whole franchise, all combining to create an impressive and engaging emotional roller-coaster.

Of course, what elevates IX even further is without a doubt its cast of characters. Moving away from the gloomy and teenager previous two entries, IX presents a group of charismatic misfits straight out of a drama play that have such wonderful interplay and banter between each other. From Zidane's playful flirtishious and carefree nature, to Steiner's obnoxious gallantry and prissiness, to Vivi's bashful inquisite and cowardly personality, it's incredibly easy to fall in love with the cast and care for each of them as the plot gets going.

It's understandable that some might look at IX as the "childish" entry in the PS1 trilogy, since it's presentation and script give a great vibe of fairytale adventuring, but it's within those expectations and constraints that IX shines the most. As the story develops, our protagonists find themselves at numerous crossroads and conflits that speak to their struggles and desires, and the game presents surprisingly poignant and mature subject matters, like confronting one's own mortality, that turn IX into an incredible personal and profound experience.

As our heroes come apart at the end of the first act when things start going south and they reunite back at the start of the third act, it becomes evident to see that IX has a firm grasp on the power of storytelling and uses it to its fullest advantage. Zidane and Garnet's natural relationship development propels the narrative forward beautifully, and the members that progressively get added to your team only end up enriching it, and by the end when IX uses the power of its medium to deliver the "Your're Not Alone" setpiece to answer the age old question of why you should strive to be good, you will know you will carry these characters with you beyond the game.

IX doesnt have the best combat nor the best graphics in the series. It doesnt have the history and influence titles like VI or VII have. The third act isnt as tightly constructed as the previous two, and Amarant gets into the team a little to late for the player to care for him. It's not perfect. But it doesnt have to be. IX is the quintessencial example of "bigger than the sum of its parts", and you will be hard pressed to not feel a tingle of joy mixed with sadness as those credits roll. It was nice to revist Final Fantasy IX, the game that first showed me that there was more to videogames than just levels to be completed. Goodbye, the place I'll return to someday.

honestly feel like i should preface this with an apology but ff9 is kind of exhausting to me. it feels like going to a shift to work at a theme park; it's pretty and sweet, it's whimsical, and it has nice atmosphere and sometimes you even see your favorite characters walking around, but at the end of the day it's still a day of work to get through. going to just chalk it up as this one not being for me until a few years down the line where i yet again try to beat my head against this game until i like it

I don't really like writing negative reviews. I only log games I complete, write about games I care about. In both cases, I'm unlikely to make it to the end of a game if I am not enjoying. But I will generally play any game recommended in earnest, and a friend was certain that Final Fantasy IX was a game I had passed over in error.

They were not correct. It is a shockingly empty game, full of ideas yet ultimately hollow, eager to work against its own systems and narrative at every turn. It is unintentionally lonely, mistaking a breakneck plot and shallow dialogue as the hallmarks of the return to high adventure it so proudly wanted to be. It leaves virtually every character's arc either unresolved or rushed to a conclusion, tears through its own cramped world with a destructive fervor that relies on bombast over substance, and approaches its themes with the absentminded languor of a high school theater teacher half-heartedly directing yet another play full of eager but painfully inexperienced children.

It is a game full of systems, minigames around every corner, secrets to find that could not possibly be found in a good faith playthrough. It is the very definition of a guide game, the apex of the Prima Strategy Guide era. Yet these systems and secrets are all disconnected, disjointed, their own self-contained ideas that are glued on to an existing beta of a game instead of being integrated in any meaningful way with the core gameplay. They are busywork, with rewards that are utterly unnecessary if the player is not planning on going after the superbosses.

And its core system, the skills-via-item mechanism at the heart of its combat, is somehow an even worse version of VI's fill-in-the-blanks magicite. At least there you could focus on giving the relevant basic spells to everyone, and then simply leave each character holding the proper stat-enhancing rock while occasionally trading them between the major spellcasters to flesh out the list. In IX, however, you are saddled with swapping clothes and boots and bracelets from the very outset, constantly shuffling wardrobes to ensure that everyone has every skill. Nevermind that virtually none of them affect your build or how you play, performing instead as a genetic switchboard you toggle in order to prevent the regional problem from being too much of a nuisance.

Which leads to the issues of just how much time you spend not playing the game. The battles are slow. Nothing new there, but the reason they are so slow is so frustrating because this was a lesson already learned, again in VI. There, the ATB system was meant to provide a more dynamic combat sequence, and was an admirable if ultimately somewhat failed attempt. Long animations would lock up the fight, forcing everyone to line up with their fully charged action bar while characters display their increasingly flashy visuals. IX commits itself to this with aggressive fervor, with even the most basic spells involving lovingly zoomed in animations and slow elemental resolutions, entire battles grinding to a halt as all involved stare at each other and the game struggles to figure out who gets to go next and then sends them on their way.

But that would be fine, forgivable if annoying, if so much of the game wasn't spent in menus. Not just trading outfits, but slotting gems in and out of various passive traits. You enter an area. You see a bird. You toggle on the trait that lets you kill birds easier. Another fight. Now someone has learned a skill, so it's time to find another hat for them to wear. The next fight: undead. Time to flip that switch as well. The next bit of combat reveals that there is an enemy that can cause the confusion status. Better make sure you're protected. Time to trade hats again.

It's all so tedious, so unrewarding and slow both in and out of battle. There's no skill, no joy in seeing the shape of an enemy and telling the game you want to be better at killing that enemy. There's zero need to commit to a build, so there's no consequence for any choices. You never need to swap in a character because the current one is built for offense and has thus neglected status protections, no need to bring spells specifically to protect that offense-oriented individual via a spellcaster if you decide you want to push through with them. Everyone can do everything, and when they can't you can brute force it all anyway.

The narrative, for all its faults, is even worse when it comes to these systems. The constant splitting of the party is bad enough as it is. Active Time Events are a clever concept, one I would have loved if it wasn't constantly used to separate characters and thus deprive them of desperately needed opportunities for interpersonal dialogue and growth. Mechanically, the party is split on a regular basis, leaving some members sorely lacking in levels. Not that it matters, as levels mean much less for most stats than gear, and the gear itself is tied to a broken itemization system. Your reward, then, is that any time a long-absent character returns to the fold you get to spend even more time rotating in items for skills, searching shops for gear with important abilities that you cannot see until you have bought or synthesized them.

That same narrative does nothing to make these faults worthwhile. I will play through a mechanically unsound game for a good story, but there is barely an element of IX that manages to be more than just barely cohesive. Dialogue is shallow, amateurish. Deep pains and existential crises are glossed over with casual apathy. A plot that has, at its heart, the idea that so many of its characters have been living a false life, one manipulated or fundamentally untrue, rarely takes a moment to consider what happens after that revelation. This is a game where one of its core systems, the emotionally-linked and narratively key trance state, is treated three times in the game as an excuse to start with a charged gauge instead of the impactful, introspective, character-baring mechanism it should be. Compare this to the eidolons emerging in XIII, deeply personal moments and fights the story lingers on, emphasizing the distress and ensuing growth of the characters and allowing the summons to function as both narrative and mechanical emblems of the same.

It's not all bad. The music is excellent. The character designs are often vibrant, despite Zidane's utterly needless Monkey King inspiration, and the world itself is well-represented in lovingly pre-rendered backgrounds. There are some clever ideas in the plot, despite the fumbling and lack of follow through. But none of it is enough to make up for the slow trudge through an unfinished game that sabotages itself at every turn.

"Don't call me if you don't need me, Kupo!"
"You're starting to tick me off, Kupo!"
"I'm sharpening my knife, Kupo!"
"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! Ku-pheh!"

Funniest shit i've seen in my life.

Every character's narrative development halts halfway through the story so the Plot can kick in

Nearly every square rpg has this issue to a degree, but this is the first one to leave me disappointed when the credits rolled.

Still a very good game!! Just not as good as its siblings.

I’m sad it’s over, but I’m glad I experienced it.

Final Fantasy IX is not a perfect game. The battles are somewhat lethargic and the Chocobo Hot & Cold minigame is RNG-based and tedious. But that’s pretty much where my complaints end.

I don’t need art to be perfect. I just want it to be impactful, and in that respect FFIX is just what the doctor ordered. It’s a bittersweet rumination on death disguised as spiky-haired turn-based weeb nonsense.

This is only my second Final Fantasy game, but after the similarly brilliant X opened the floodgates, there was no going back for me. This is my life now. I like Final Fantasy.


Also Quina is unfathomably based.

I am not particularly enamored with the Final Fantasy series despite playing most of the numbered entries. Final Fantasy IX, however, is easily one of my favorite games of all time. Admittedly, a significant amount of my reverence for it has to do with the time and place in which I first played the game, and the state of mind I was in. Without dumping a bunch of personal details out on the internet, I will say that I was having to reckon with the loss of a loved one and was in a particularly poor place. Final Fantasy IX deals heavily in themes of death, especially with how the main cast of characters deal with the concept of mortality and their embrace (or rejection) of it.

I wasn't really expecting that. Most of my memories of Final Fantasy IX prior to actually playing it were watching a few friends struggle with the final boss and thinking it just looked "cool." Which, it is. But I think most people have forgotten this game, or lack the sort of affection for it that is typically heaped upon FFVII and VIII. It's a bit of an odd one, the middle child of sorts, stuck in that transition from Final Fantasy's golden years into the next generation of gaming. And yet, I think it's not only the strongest in terms of the story it tells, but in how it plays as well.

Sure, I've complained in the recent past about Final Fantasy's core battle system not really evolving, and it's true that IX doesn't make any attempts to break the mold. But the characters are so well-defined in battle and have a practicality to them that helps add some excitement to combat. You are greatly limited in how you compose your party, as whoever is active in battle is typically dictated by whoever the story deems the most important at the time. But Square tailored encounters and dungeons around who you would have in your party, which goes a long way in ensuring combat stays engaging.

I also think I have an inherent appreciation for Final Fantasy games that primarily adopt a more medieval aesthetic, especially when they work in some anachronisms. IX really feels like it's playing up the "fantasy" in Final Fantasy, and it's refreshing given how strongly the series leaned into high tech futurism after the success of VII. At the time it came out I'm not sure that's what people really wanted, but I sure as hell appreciate it. In fact, FFIX holds up better graphically than VII or VIII, or indeed many other games of its era. This is thanks in part to releasing so close to the end of that console generation, at a point when Square had a proficiency with the hardware and a team large enough to take on something so large in scope; but a lot of it is thanks to excellent visual design. The character designs are really some of the best in the entire franchise.

I think about this game a lot, and I really ought to go back to it for another playthrough. I wouldn't say FFIX helped me understand death or carried me through a hard time or anything so dramatic, but it did resonate with me more strongly than it would have if I played it in a vacuum. So maybe I'm a little biased, maybe I like it more than I should, but I do think it holds up incredibly well and is worthy of a second look if you dismissed it back in the day. You can also buy it brand new, physically, from Square's online store. That's crazy.