very cozy, very magical - but it loses steam as it goes on. probably best exemplified with Freya, the cool rat lady who was my favourite for a bit, who has plot relevance and her own agency in the narrative which is then promptly thrown into a volcano as she is relegated to complete obscurity within her own game. She's just one of the characters that happens to but the entire game feels like that as it goes on. In its back half, FFIX feels more like its going on out of obligation. there's a lot of creative, fun setpieces towards the beginning of the game like with the entire opening stretch, the hunting festival, the black mage village. contrasted to the entire ending segment and final boss which feel less like a creative decision and more of the devs throwing their arms in the air like 'whatever, let's just get this done.'


also the trance mechanic is stinky