Let's get this out of the way first: The final boss in this game is bullshit. Yes, I love every bit of this game, but it was still bullshit. BIG difficulty spike. I tried at least ten times, but kept dying off to its overpowered attacks. I thought about cheating (I'm a grown man, I've got shit to do), but I wanted it do it 'right,' because I had grown to love this game and didn't want the last bit to be spoiled like that. I didn't want a second healer in the party either because my favourite character, Vivi, had to be there for the last fight. So I changed my equipment around, tried some new tactics and it wasn't so bad after all. And now that I avoided ruining the final boss for myself...
The further this game went on, the better it got. It started off as a good game, was hitting greatness by the end of Disc 2, and in the endgame - helped by some incredibly moving and epic music by Uematsu - became excellent. This is among his best work. This is among everybody involved's best work. The game feels like a look back on the series up till that point as it said goodbye to the PS1 era. Designs from the 2D games return, but never at the expense of FF IX's own identity.
I loved the cast. Vivi is my guy, of course, but everyone's personalities are a good mix of cartoonish and sympathetic. The story got better and better as it went on, where most games fizzle a bit at some point, and even the villain felt like he had a point. Also the villain is incredibly sexy so even if he didn't have a point I'd root for him.
The combat is straightforward and rewarding, the level scaling is appropriate, and the game is really good at making you feel your progress. If there is one thing I had to nitpick, it's that the Trance/super saiyan mode was irrelevant to most battles and couldn't be influenced much by the player, but it doesn't really matter.
There is also so much to do in the towns aside from the main story. They'll make a minigame out of anything. The card game is really fun and I'd love to play it irl, and it's easy to get sidetracked by something to do so long as you wander around. Both the in-game graphics and the FMVs are astoundingly good for the PS1, and the remaster makes them even better.
This game feels like one of those stars-aligned moments where a bunch of creative folk got together, decided they were going to make something good and did it, without pressure. There's almost nothing to criticize in it. Nothing feels like it had to be compromised on. The game doesn't have the weight of being the end of an era, or a retrospective, or anything like that on it - it's just there to be enjoyed. Highly recommended to people who like RPGs and people who don't, because this is as good an introduction as could be.
The further this game went on, the better it got. It started off as a good game, was hitting greatness by the end of Disc 2, and in the endgame - helped by some incredibly moving and epic music by Uematsu - became excellent. This is among his best work. This is among everybody involved's best work. The game feels like a look back on the series up till that point as it said goodbye to the PS1 era. Designs from the 2D games return, but never at the expense of FF IX's own identity.
I loved the cast. Vivi is my guy, of course, but everyone's personalities are a good mix of cartoonish and sympathetic. The story got better and better as it went on, where most games fizzle a bit at some point, and even the villain felt like he had a point. Also the villain is incredibly sexy so even if he didn't have a point I'd root for him.
The combat is straightforward and rewarding, the level scaling is appropriate, and the game is really good at making you feel your progress. If there is one thing I had to nitpick, it's that the Trance/super saiyan mode was irrelevant to most battles and couldn't be influenced much by the player, but it doesn't really matter.
There is also so much to do in the towns aside from the main story. They'll make a minigame out of anything. The card game is really fun and I'd love to play it irl, and it's easy to get sidetracked by something to do so long as you wander around. Both the in-game graphics and the FMVs are astoundingly good for the PS1, and the remaster makes them even better.
This game feels like one of those stars-aligned moments where a bunch of creative folk got together, decided they were going to make something good and did it, without pressure. There's almost nothing to criticize in it. Nothing feels like it had to be compromised on. The game doesn't have the weight of being the end of an era, or a retrospective, or anything like that on it - it's just there to be enjoyed. Highly recommended to people who like RPGs and people who don't, because this is as good an introduction as could be.