Third Final Fantasy I've played, and this one was a pretty big mixed bag for me, unfortunately. When it's on, it's really on. Although it doesn't attempt anything remotely as interesting as 6's prolific fusion of story and battle mechanics or 7's distinct, offbeat humor and interactive fiction elements, it's hard to deny that most of its story is anything less than a resounding success. What the game excels at most are character interactions. They're used expertly for both comedic and dramatic purposes- the naive Vivi being lectured by the just-as-naive-but-slightly-more-emotionally-intelligent Eiko on the other party members' relationships and the quiet bombshell question that Dagger drops on Zidane in Maiden Sari regarding his personal motivation were the respective standouts from my perspective. A bold decision that might not seem significant is the game's consistent willingness to cut characters out for hours at a time when they're not important to what's currently going on. Steiner, for example, is just gone for huge chunks of the story after being introduced, which really works well with the stage play motif that surrounds the game. Adding to this, the story also starts off as a briskly paced, wonderfully small scale sequence of events that mostly has the party traveling from interesting location to interesting location. The game's initially focused on having the characters learn about themselves, each other, and the conflict that they're currently involved in rather than learning how to defeat some intergalactic being.

But, in the end, despite how good the game is at getting your hopes up, it has Final Fantasy in the title. I don't care about Kuja's plan to merge the planets and kidnap the Sandy Claws or whatever. Despite eating up so much of the storyline it's simply not interesting, and it also takes what should be a quiet, personal narrative and regresses it into standard sci-fantasy schlock. This disappointing third act turn of events and also some weird, seemingly unfinished details like certain side characters being built up with zero payoff mean that the narrative isn't perfect, and therefore it has to lean on its gameplay to at least some degree. And man, maybe it's just me, but this game is just so unenthusiastic about being an RPG. What feels like the vast majority of fights, at least in the first half of the game, are scripted, mid-cutscene bouts that you're not really supposed to lose. The amount of time spent in areas containing random encounters is purposefully minimized. Trance is the only unique part of the battle system but it's not well thought out at all and it adds absolutely nothing. The bosses are uninspired, usually being some nondescript creature being plopped in front of the party with no buildup- gone are the days of Jenova, of Shinra higher-ups, of ghost trains. There's nothing to their fights mechanically, either. I can think of only one boss in the entire game that isn't just one target that you can attack, and likewise only one that even reacts to your actions. The sole semblance of a saving grace, gameplay wise, is the abilities system. It's clever in more ways than one, as it encourages you to actually think about which equipment you put on and also gives you a nice feeling of growing your collection of abilities, but it's not enough to really affect anything in a major way. The game's also extremely easy. Final Fantasy 7's low level of difficulty gets a pass because of how enjoyable it is to mess around with the Materia system (although that has its own issues that I won't get into here), 9 does not, especially considering it's heralded as a throwback to the older games in the franchise. The story clashes, and the gameplay clashes. No matter how much I wanted to love it, Final Fantasy 9 has less to offer than either of the other games in its series that I've played before it.