Final Fantasy IX is one of those games that has been in my backlog forever now -- I'm talking like two decades. I just never got around to playing it because I was focused on the newer-gen consoles that were releasing in the years that followed its release, and I sadly just never made the time to go back and play it. This was until very recently when I decided to buckle down and jump in, and boy, was I missing out...

Immediately, the game felt comfortably familiar to me as a PSX Final Fantasy title - the visual style, overworld, and HUD/interface all shared a strong semblance with FF VII & VIII. It may just be nostalgia, but there is just something massively charming about this era of FF games, and because of that, I was almost instantly won over. The pre-rendered backgrounds, low-poly sprites, and classic interface all work for me to an incredible degree. It's apparent to me that the limitations of the PSX inspired a level of visual creativity that is sort of lost in modern-era AAA gaming, and I appreciate the hell out of these developers for what they were able to create considering the limitations at the time.

While the game nails the visual creativity, it also, undoubtedly, excels musically. Once again, we have another classic Nobuo Uematsu composed soundtrack, and he delivers once again with some absolutely classic themes. While I feel like this was my least favorite from the PSX era, I do not want that to take away from how great the soundtrack still is. Really, it just speaks volumes about how extraordinary the soundtracks from VII & VIII were. Furthermore, going back to play this after having played FF:XVI without an Uematsu composition really makes me miss his contribution to these games even more.

As usual with Final Fantasy games, the character-writing was top notch. I grew a strong attachment to nearly every party member, and Vivi really stood out as my favorite. In terms of the story - I enjoyed the slow discovery of the plot throughout the game. However, admittedly, toward the end of the game, I struggled to understand the underlying minutiae of the story. Still, the overarching theme of friendship, selflessness, and reasons for being resonated with me.

In terms of the gameplay - combat plays nearly identical to the previous PSX turn-based installments, so it was super easy for me to jump into. The novelty in this title is in the way you obtain abilities by learning new active and passive abilities from different pieces of gear. I could go on and on for a couple of paragraphs about my feelings on the intricacies of this system, but in summary, I mostly enjoyed it. I feel like it made new equipment more exciting, it kept equipment relevant for longer, and made the random encounters more welcoming considering that it is the only way to learn the abilities from the gear. Still, the random encounters can still become intrusive and annoying at times, particularly when you're just trying to actively explore a given room or area.

My final minor gripe is regarding the 'Trance' system, which is essentially the same as 'Limit Breaks' from previous titles -- only, in this game, I felt like they built up much slower than Limit Breaks, and as a result were so incredibly infrequent. Even when equipping the High Tide ability stone, which effectively increases your rate at entering this 'Trance' mode, I still found Trances were a bit too infrequent. As a result, I often would get frustrated when I would enter a 'Trance' in a random encounter shortly before a boss fight, basically eliminating any chance for me to re-enter it again in the encounters where they matter the most. Furthermore -- at least with the equipment that I was able to discover for him -- 'Trance' was the only time where Zidane gained any abilities that felt impactful, and I was left mostly using his basic attack for most turns outside of Trance. Still, despite this criticism, I still enjoyed the turn-based combat overall, and I think the ability systems within this game were my favorite from any of the PSX FF titles.

In conclusion, FFIX closed out the PSX set of FF games with a bang, and it is quite clear why this is rated among the best JRPGs from the fifth-gen. While it didn't really break new ground to completely set itself a part from VII and VIII, it still did everything right that the previous games had and continued the great trend. And as the old adage goes - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." I wish it wouldn't have taken me as long as it did to play this game, but I am delighted that I finally did.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna The Golden Country is in some ways superior, some ways inferior, to the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 base game.

Let's start with the ways that it's better.

First and foremost, tripping the game of its stupid gachas and replacing field skills with natural progression. There were very few times during TTGC's sidequests where I felt cheated or walled from progression due to a lacking field skill. Contrast this to the base game, where you can, mathematically, be walled from the main story because the gacha won't give you a blade with the skills you need.

This goes in conjunction with what I think is the single biggest improvement - giving each human character multiple blades that are theirs and theirs alone during the story's natural progression. Not only did this help from a gameplay perspective, but it was also justified from a story perspective as well, though one blade in particular was somewhat underused narratively.

The Xenoblade 2 base game had one of my favorite casts of characters in any video game I've played, and TTGC just adds to the roster. Lora and Jin are phenomenal both apart and together, as are Mythra and Addam. Hugo, well, he's cool, but it's obvious he and his blades are just along for the ride.

The combat for me compared to the base game was a bit of a wash, there were certain aspects I preferred in the base game, and others TTGC. But like the base game, when the combat clicks, it absolutely clicks and feels amazing.

TTGC, like the base game, absolutely chugs. It is remarkable that Nintendo and Monolith were able to pump this out on the Switch but there are times when, graphically, the game looks and feels like garbage.

However, what absolutely kills this game, like the base game's gacha, are the points in the story where you are forced to raise the Community (sidequest progression) level to proceed. That is one of the silliest game direction decisions I have ever experienced, and exists solely to pad the runtime of what would be a very short experience. I will say that the sidequests do help to minimize grinding through the main story... but I still find it unacceptable.

Torna The Golden Country is a worthwhile expansion to Xenoblade 2, but it shares some of its problems. It's worth the download, but unless you're a collector (like me), don't waste your money on the standalone physical edition.