Platform: PlayStation 4 (Via PlayStation 5)
Date Started: February 8th, 2024
Date Finished: February 14th, 2024
Time Played: 15 Hours
"You taught me that life doesn’t last forever. That’s why we have to help each other and live life to the fullest."
Final Fantasy IX is probably my favourite in the series up to this point - a return to the traditional aspects of the series, it captures the magic of the earlier games whilst making advances in storytelling and presentation, taking us back to the medieval routes, maintaining a unique feeling of an strong world and introducing us to a solid set of characters.
The story here is initially great, but it does, in traditional Final Fantasy fashion, get more convoluted and strange as it goes on - the main party can't quite hold things together, either. Some of them were definitely more in the spotlight than others, as members such as Quina and Freya join and sort of get forgotten as the game moves on, but Zidane, Dagger and especially ViVi are solid characters that I enjoyed spending my time with. The villains were decent as well, and it was nice to see the layers peel off as the story unfolds and more are revealed, but while it was all decent, I didn't find anything to be necessarily standout or all too captivating.
The Active Time Event system emphasised the characters even more, too, letting you see what people are up to in other areas or parts of the world when they are away from you, and the game switching perspectives quite often made the story feel more grand, reminding me of a fantasy novel.
The combat is traditional, and although I do prefer when there is just no ATB, I still had a good time, although admittedly I did, for the most part, throw on the 9999 damage boost to blast through this one as I didn't want to spend too too much time on the game, and I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun without both that and the speed up modifiers.
Final Fantasy IX is the culmination of the series up to that point - it feels like it builds upon everything that came before to create the almost ideal version of the concept of Final Fantasy on paper, but I just didn't fully connect with the story or characters by the end.
Date Started: February 8th, 2024
Date Finished: February 14th, 2024
Time Played: 15 Hours
"You taught me that life doesn’t last forever. That’s why we have to help each other and live life to the fullest."
Final Fantasy IX is probably my favourite in the series up to this point - a return to the traditional aspects of the series, it captures the magic of the earlier games whilst making advances in storytelling and presentation, taking us back to the medieval routes, maintaining a unique feeling of an strong world and introducing us to a solid set of characters.
The story here is initially great, but it does, in traditional Final Fantasy fashion, get more convoluted and strange as it goes on - the main party can't quite hold things together, either. Some of them were definitely more in the spotlight than others, as members such as Quina and Freya join and sort of get forgotten as the game moves on, but Zidane, Dagger and especially ViVi are solid characters that I enjoyed spending my time with. The villains were decent as well, and it was nice to see the layers peel off as the story unfolds and more are revealed, but while it was all decent, I didn't find anything to be necessarily standout or all too captivating.
The Active Time Event system emphasised the characters even more, too, letting you see what people are up to in other areas or parts of the world when they are away from you, and the game switching perspectives quite often made the story feel more grand, reminding me of a fantasy novel.
The combat is traditional, and although I do prefer when there is just no ATB, I still had a good time, although admittedly I did, for the most part, throw on the 9999 damage boost to blast through this one as I didn't want to spend too too much time on the game, and I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun without both that and the speed up modifiers.
Final Fantasy IX is the culmination of the series up to that point - it feels like it builds upon everything that came before to create the almost ideal version of the concept of Final Fantasy on paper, but I just didn't fully connect with the story or characters by the end.