fully dedicated to its charm, sense of whimsy, and fantastical elements, final fantasy ix is one of the better games of the final fantasys. it almost reads like a lighter-hearted shakespearean play, and if that sounds like something you'd enjoy, i highly recommend this game. i don't believe the story is all that memorable, but the characters and world are. vivi is one of my favorite characters ever and i love his storyline.

also, this particular version of the game has several quality of life improvements, and i recommend it if you don't want to waste your time on random encounters or the like.

Final Fantasy IX is the culmination of JRPGs, plain and simple.

Developed by the last of the old guard at Squaresoft in 2000, Final Fantasy IX stood as a love letter to every single game that came before it. Seeing as how it was a bit of a watershed moment for Squaresoft mainstays like Hironobu Sakaguchi, who was planning to leave to engage in other ventures during the development of this game, it is truly the Final Fantasy game of Final Fantasy. It's most potently-FF game imaginable.

You have high fantasy, lovable characters, and cartoonish delight that make this game the most lovingly characterized video game of the 1990s. Few video games hold a candle to FFIX's truly unique identity. And as you can imagine, that identity not only extends from its legendary... uh, legacy, but also to the experience of playing it.

I had a bit of trouble following IX once I got to the third disc. Like with VIII, the first and second discs are AMAZING. AMAAAZING!!!! It reminded me almost of the extremely well-designed pacing of The Witcher 3, which is in my opinion the greatest RPG experience available. But FFIX's genius focus on cities/locations to create memorable story moments out of them allowed for an intriguing story to unfold almost flawlessly. It wasn't until the third disc, or rather, when the party arrived at Conde Petie that the pacing started to take... well, a nosedive.

One of FFIX's greatest strengths was its worldly plight. To me, the firstly-developed antagonist was much, MUCH better than the bait and switch typical of FF storytelling that is given to players around the 2/3s mark of the story. This is unfortunate, as the gameplay experience for me, especially as someone who had played EIGHT of the series' games up until this point, made playing the game exhausting.

It wasn't until the very end of FFIX where I felt it had came all together. Something about its ending made it feel like a closing-of-the-book to the old era of FF, and into its middle period. For someone like me who has now fully finished the NES, SNES, and PS1 era of FF, that felt like an amazing release of the ATB system, into new and rockier territory. As a player of these games, I truly do appreciate left turns artistically and mechanically.

But considering the previous entry, VIII, and its incredibly deviating junction/GF system, something about IX's simplicity was appreciated. The most complex the gameplay gets is with item-abilities, which at first seem interesting, but get very annoying to deal with as crucial spells like float, protect, shell, and thundaga are locked behind items that you don't know even hold them when purchasing them from vendors. I did not like this feature. It led to me choosing to use this version's special features to make every battle a cakewalk.

Still, had the game literally done one thing and showed item descriptions in vendor screens, literally all of this would go away. I just hate the hassle of going into your cluttery item screen only to realize the hat you just bought has a completely useless ability for your playstyle.

And whats more -- FFIX has the slowest combat ever in the series. I am not joking about that. Even I-III were quicker considering its turn based combat systems. The ATB bar fills soooooo slowly in FFIX that it might as well be considered a complete design misstep. Had the porting devs changed up this stuff, and somehow optimized FFIX's offensively slow pre-battle load times, we would have one of the best FF combat systems imaginable. No joke! Literally all it would take for me to love this game's combat are:

1.) Show item abilities on purchase screen
2.) Speed up ATB bar filling even past the max battle speed option
3.) OPTIMIZE LOADING TIMES!!!

But other than these undeniably harsh gripes, I have to be honest. FFIX's story was second to none in the entire series. It may not have a Kefka-quality villain, and its mid-story switchup may be undesirable, but what this game has to say about life, what it means to live, and love, is simply some of the best storytelling in video game history.

I will not go into detail about it, but just know -- the characters of Steiner, Garnet, Eiko, Freya, (definitely not Amarant), Brahne, Beatrix, ViVi, and of course, ZIDANE!, are now my favorites in the series. Not in JRPGs, because DQXI still takes that cake... but for what its worth, this game's story is the most heartfelt in the entire series up until this point. And for that, I have to give it chops. Had the game's combat system been tweaked, and its story quality improved upon its second half, we would truly have an all-timer contender when it comes to deciding the best RPG.

But for now, I have to give it its rating.

FFIX gets...

a 95/100

Without a doubt the best FF on the PlayStation and one of the best FFs ever!

Even after playing through it for the fourth time, I still find new ways to enjoy the simple yet intriguing combat system. I especially love how well thought-out the entire world and experience are.

There is a nicely-paced balance of linear, story-heavy sections and the more open-ended exploration sequences of the world map with fantastic side quests. Not a single location feels pointless or underused. Rather, even the tiniest spot of the world map has its purpose.

And the story and characters just get me every single time. I love the entire cast, the writing is great and the pacing and the emotions are just perfect.

Final Fantasy IX's Remaster is such an amazing experience, it took the game I loved as a child and improved on it in nearly every way, the story in the game is still fantastic, the art style is bright and cute while the game's tone itself isn't afraid to go dark to throw the player off, the cast is super memorable (mostly) and the mechanics are great. The only thing keeping it from being higher, is some of the trophies on the PS4 version are obnoxious and Tetra Master still doesn't measure up to other mini games.

"Final Fantasy IX" definitely feels a bit slower to play than some of the others in the series, that's with both its story and it's combat, but where the story's concerned it's worth it, easily some of my favorite characters in the franchise and the game gives you a lot of time to really get to know these characters, well most of them anyway "Amarant" is a bit underwhelming and "Quina" got on my nerves as they just act as comic relieve that I found got old fast but beyond those characters I was really invested in everyone else. I also like the sort of fairy-tail feel this game has it sets it apart from pretty much every other game I've played in the franchise so far, (I haven't played one older than "VI" yet) the game also has an art style that still holds up really well today particularly because the game wasn't trying to go for realistic looking characters so the PS1 graphics really compliment the aesthetic they were going for.

The combat feels a bit overly slow in places particularly in comparison to "X" and "VI" I'm not sure why this is the case, you get used to it and with this modern release of the game you can speed up battles which make it a bit better. I also don't like how the overdrive mechanics are used, you have no control over when you're characters overdrive is activated so most the time they are just wasted in random encounters, still these are minor issues for me and don't detract from the strengths of the game.

Probably my second favorite in the series behind "X".

Good
- Soundtrack is amazing!
- Battle system is a great comeback for ATB Turn Based.
- Equipment and skill AP makes it fun.
- QOL upgrade of a quicker battle makes grind less boring.
- Storyline has a really good pacing, enough for you to be invested in the characters as well.
- Did I mention the soundtrack?
- Vivi is bae.

Meh
- Final boss is way too tough (cheated my way through just to watch the ending).

Bad
- Still don't like Quina or whatever his/her name is.

I never played this when it came out, as FFVIII was my childhood Final Fantasy, but after finishing 9, I really wish I had played this back then as well.

I think the characters are easily the strongest element of this entry of the neverending series. Zidane and the crew are very memorable and the fantastic writing brings these unique personalities to the forefront.

The battle system is the classic ATB-style, so there's not much to write home about. The ability system is pretty cut-and-dry, but works well. It's nothing as fun or broken as the Materia system from 7 or the Junction system from 8, but it does what it needs to.

The story is really well-written as well and gets REALLY good around disk 3 & 4. I don't wanna talk about the story here, but yeah, I just finished it and I cried per usual. It really hits home with its themes of belonging, friendship, purpose, and meaning. So damn good.

If you enjoy the Final Fantasy series and never played this one like me, please play this. I promise it'll be in your top entries.