Customer Reviews
A modern masterpiece.
While this will make my review sound one-sided, I hold Final Fantasy IX very dear to me. At one point in my life, I was very depressed. I'm talkin' "don't eat anything and just sit around and mope all day" depressed. If only out of sympathy, my parents got me FFIX back then. I'm still not sure why I wanted this over the likes of Suikoden II (which I probably should've chosen given how rare it is), but I'm glad I did, as it took me out of that depression and now ranks as my favorite in the numbered series, and just behind FF Tactics as my favorite of the entire FF series. And I'll have you know that I try not to go "oh, [x FF] isn't as good as [x FF]" since they're all different games. There's no point in saying VIII isn't as good as VI- they had completely different systems. IX has it all- memorable characters, a great plot, a good villain, a fun ability learning system, breath taking FMVs, and so much more. The only things that keep this from being the best rpg I've played are minor- I prefer Kefka over Kuja, the battle system has an annoying second waiting period in between attacks (I'll get to that in a minute), and oddly enough, it could've used more side-quests. Despite those minor things, IX is the ideal rpg for the 3D representatives of the genre.
Boy does this one have a long, inter winding plot. There's a lot going on in the first hour that you're better off just getting the game rather than reading through this. Zidane is part of a band of thieves who are given the task of kidnapping princess Garnet. They plan on taking her during a theatrical performance, and everything looks like it's going to fall into place. Meanwhile, Vivi, a young black mage, is new to the kingdom comes to see the same play, but it turns out that his ticket is fake. So he goes out looking for a way to see the play. And then there's Steiner, the captain of the Queen's knights...well, a small portion of them anyway. He's clumsy, but means well, and will do anything to protect the princess. But then there's the princess- who ends up running away on her own, which makes things even easier for Zidane since she demands he kidnaps her. Things go well for a while, but then Zidane's ship crashes in the middle of a dangerous forest. The princess goes missing again, and he, Vivi and Steiner have to look for her. Once they're all out, they learn of a dark plot with the black mages- they're all manufactured. Naturally, Vivi freaks out, and begins to wonder the meaning of life, his in particular. It's the Queen's doing, along with the person that delivers her the goods to her- Kuja. Through thick and thin, our party of heroes need to put a stop to them, and find out the deeper meaning behind everything. Why is there a strange mist that shrouds their world? What's the huge eye in the sky that's capable of destroying entire cities in one blast? Why is the Queen so corrupt? There are more questions than your standard rpg here, and they all come together perfectly- there are no loose ends.
Final Fantasy IX is as great as it is thanks to a perfect cast of characters. They're all great, and none of them are there just for the sake of being there. Zidane is a great lead character, and seems like a combination of Locke from FFVI and Irvine from FFVIII at times. He means well, but takes time to check out the ladies even when wandering around towns. Vivi, only 8 years old, is very mature, but you can see how helpless and vulnerable he is. Crying at the right times, questioning his existence, and wondering why everyone like him is made for destruction is a lot to deal with, no matter how old you are. Garnet is somewhat stereotypical- a princess who wants to be free of the whole royalty thing, but at least she remains an individual through the game. Later on, something devastating happens with her, which changes not only the way she acts, but the way others see her. While not tear-inducing, it'll change the way you look at her if you thought she was spoiled at first. Then there's Steiner, the oafish knight. The poor guy gets made fun of constantly by Zidane, being called "Rusty" at any given time. While he is a person that plays by the books, when he sees that what the Queen's doing is hazardous to Garnet, he snaps out of it, and makes sure protecting her really is his #1 duty, no matter what the costs. And you gotta love his little romantic bit later on in the game with Beatrix. Quina is...just plain odd. S/he is basically genderless, and cares only about trying new foods. She's a chef in training, and uses this in combat as well. Eiko is a little girl who's the last of her tribe of summoners. She lives with Moogles, and joins the gang once she realizes what they're doing, and to get closer to Zidane. Amarant is 100% bad-ass and tied for my favorite character in the game. He's a huge bounty hunter who never changes. Even when Zidane's having a very tough time with his life later on, Amarant helps a little, but remains the same bad-ass. Freya is my other favorite- a female mouse-person lancer. Her former love lost his memory when things were getting serious between them, and he just up and left. Her quote, "to be forgotten is worse than death" rings a heavy toll over everything. She also probably gets the short end of the stick in everything story-wise. Her lover is practically gone, her people are under attack, there's no one in the party to really relate to, and things go even worse shortly after she joins your party.
This time, you won't learn abilities via leveling up stupid magical orbs or drawing spells from enemies. But instead, you gain them from armor. And this time, they're permanent. Say you equip a bracelet that gives you an immunity to poison and boosts your MP by 10%. Once you gain enough AP from fights with the bracelet equipped, you'll learn those abilities, and can equip them whenever you want, not just when you have the armor on you. The same applies for weapons- learning skills and new attacks from them. And even better, all the characters have unique abilities. Unlike the horrid FF7, there's more than just limit breaks that separate the characters from one another. Zidane can steal, Steiner has useful sword techniques, Vivi has black magic, Garnet and Eiko summon and heal (but have different techniques in both categories), Amarant throws weapons and has a vast selection of skills, Freya can jump and cast useful spells, and Quina is the blue mage. But then there's the fights in the game. It's all turn-based, as usual, but there's an odd one second delay for some reason. When your characters have all selected their attacks, they don't do them right away, even if the enemy's not attacking. It bugs me, and sometimes the enemy will be at an advantage, getting in an attack or two before you do with all 4 characters. You'll see for yourself. Also included is a fun Chocobo mini-game where you run around digging up objects, an optional uber-boss, another card game (though not as fun as Triple Triad), some minor side-quests, and finding each character's ultimate weapon. This is one of the longer FF games, actually being as long as the critics say it is. My first run through the game clocked in at 40-some hours.
Since IX came out at the end of the PSone's life span, it holds the best graphics in the PSone line of FF games. Character animations are stupendous, the FMVs run a lot smoother with less grain, and the spells look great. You'll also be pleased to know that there are considerably less jaggies here than in the last two games. As for the sound, the soundtrack nears perfection and the sound effects are all as crisp as they should be. No awkward sound effects like midi laughs or anything like that of which plagued FF7 and sometimes in VIII.
Final Fantasy IX does everything right for the most part. Aside from the small cons I've mentioned, there's nothing bad I can say about this game that would affect me leaving it out of my top 10 favorite games list. Maybe it's going back to a simple fantasy world more than sci-fi has something to do with it, or maybe it's because it's hailed as the "last fantasy Final Fantasy" by some. Whatever it is, I have no regrets in buying IX. Those who got into the series via the NES, SNES or Genesis will have no problem getting into IX.
Great but not excellent entry
The Final Fantasy series came into the next-gen with Final Fantasy VII, long considered to be the best of them, with VI in pursuit. Final Fantasy VIII was and probably still is the graphically superior of the PSX era installments but it suffered from a broken battle system. Since the next one would be the last single-digit as well as the last PSX, Square decided to have IX echo the fantasy medieval/industrial revolution styles of 6 and below. While it's a good entry it's unfortunately not an awesome entry.
Story: Zidane, our main guy, is in a band of thieves and they're planning to kidnap the princess of Alexandria. After an elaborately staged plan, he meets up with her only to find something curious: she WANTS to be kidnapped. It seems her mother Queen Brahne has been acting very strange and attacking neighbouring kingdoms for no reason. It seems there's larger forces at work only what's it all mean and what's it got to do with the Princess?
Graphics: Rather than the super-detailed character models from VIII, IX features more friendly-style designs and lively graphics. Of course the FMV's are just as outstanding and are very cinematic in their direction. It's PSX so it looks blocky and pixelly at times but that's ok.
Sound/Music: VII was probably Uematsu's last classic soundtrack and while IX doesn't have a bad soundtrack, there's not as much memorable tracks as previous installments except for a few nice ditties. Sound is of course great with clangs, monster growls and such.
Gameplay: Dormant since VI is the 4 character party instead of 3. This is nice since it's easier to play the battles and not have to worry about getting creamed. In VII you learned your abilities through collecting materia and levelling them up. In VIII you had to draw it out of enemies. Well in IX it's better. Each weapon, armor and accessory will usually have an ability: simply equip it and go into battle. Each successful battle nets you AP. If an ability needs 50 AP, you battle until you get 50 and you get that ability and don't need that weapon equipped. Should you de-equip it without learning it, you won't be able to use the ability.
Each character has a job as they're called unlike in VII and VIII where they can be anything. It's similar to VI so for example Zidane is a thief so he learns fighter/thief abilities. Black mage Vivi is a black magic user so he learns Fire and Thunder etc. You also will find Knights, White Mages, Dragoons and a Blue Magic user.
One complaint people might have: the game's kinda easy. In previous installments you pretty much had to stop the story and level up for awhile so you can beat future enemies and stand a chance. Here you can pretty much blow through and not have much of a hassle. The sidequests are nice though including a card game that I prefer over VIII's equally addicting one.
It's not really a step forward for the series. It's more like doing the splits: trying to bring the past and bring the series into the future kind of makes it stay in the middle. But that's ok cause the game's good anyway.
THIS IS THE BEST GAME I'VE PROBABLY PLAYED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I am doing this report for FF9 on PS1 and2) I've played video games but not any like THIS before!! Despite the semi-good graphics, it has a GREAT story line and even some options for easier play! If you don't like games with many disks, I might recommend it. The game is 4 disks long, but each one of them is short but on the other hand it's tricky. This game is a role-playing game that can be 2 player, but only in battles. One player controls some characters, while the other player controlsthe rest available. There can be 4 characters in your 1 party, which is more than other games so if you like having more people on your party, this would be the one. One thing I'll recommended is if a character in your party is low on HP, go on the defensive, like using a hi-potion on Zaidane when he's at 136HP. All I'll say is GET THIS if you like role-playing games. Heak, all the Final Fantasy games are GREAT! I own FF9, 8, and4 and frequently borrow FF7 from my friend. I also LOVE the Chrono Series. I've beaten Chrono Trigger and now to move onto the sequel, CHRONO CROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See me in my other reviews, after this. This is my first one
