Final Fantasy IX (Sony PlayStation 1, 2000)

Alright, I was looking for a challenge. What kind of challenge? I needed a new one to break in... why not look into the older Final Fantasy series for a little fun? The games must be a low price by now, right? (Right!)

Then I looked at Final Fantasy IX (9) with a dumbfounded expression on my face. Out of all the games in the series, I have never played it! Here I thought, going: "Hey, I'm a die-hard fan of the franchise and all, but is it really worth playing Final Fantasy IX? I know many fans just seem to "love" Final Fantasy VII, but what makes this later one any good?"

I said "Why not?" and proceed to purchase this decade old game from the beloved Playstation universe we all used to know and love before the Playstation 2 left it bruised and injured--only to be forgotten. 4 discs?! Woah! I find it amazing---how does SquareSoft (Now Square Enix) do it? SquareSoft's titles containing more than 1 disc gave players more motivation to move from disc to disc than any other PSX game series! I mean c'mon, I've already gotten up to Disc 2 of Final Fantasy XI and I'm already amazed! I'm not too judgmental about graphics, but this game's location detail, plot, and characters are even trilling enough for a player in this day in age! I'm am certainly satisfied as a Square Enix fan.

Final Fantasy IX brings back the classic style of the series before VII's dark atmosphere hit the series (crystals, strange creatures, chocobos, different races, and of course--moogles!) ATB comes back as a fan-favorite in quick randomized battles we all know and love, along with a few minigames, such as the card game Tetra Master, that would keep you occupied from minuets to hours!

Starting out as just an unoriginal, thieving mission to capture an elusive princess named Garnet as a young thief of Tantalus opens up to a plot with more twists and turns that you could ever imagine! Like other Final Fantasy games, each character has a specific job class, but are unable to change these classes like in the original Final Fantasy. As you play, you will find that you'll befriend a Knight, a Black Mage, a Dragoon, a Blue Mage, and many other characters and classes as you climb your way through the story, strengthening your party. I found my favorite character to be Freya Crescent, an anthropomorphic rat, belonging to Burmecia as one of the strongest female Dragoons. Who will be your favorite? Start your journey in the world of Gaia and find out!

If you want to go back and time and discover this truly significant gem and staple of the Final Fantasy series--go back to the year 2000, rev up an old Playstation console and purchase this wonderful game!!! Just be careful... Those Black Mages that seem to be appear as if out of nowhere in this world of Gaia are not to be trusted! Stay on your guard, my fellow F.F. fans!!!

This game is like the popular guy in school. It has lots of die-hard fans, because the designers made the game in a deliberate attempt to attract them. "Everyone liked the opera scene in FF6? Then let's put a play in this one. And a card game, like in FF8. And some characters that were manufactured. And a princess, and a dragoon. And let's make everything cute. In the design of this game, eclecticism is a method rather than an influence, as in the grade-school exercise of writing a story and putting all of one's best friends in it, yet the presentation of this game still somehow manages to be more mature than that of FFX, although the plot is less compelling. The soundtrack for this game is superb, featuring a great amount of quality music, underscoring everything from the game's characters to its environments to its events. The ability to split up while exploring towns, and watch cut scenes chronicling the adventures of the estranged characters, is cool, and the characters are cool as well, but unlike in FF6, another FF game with cool characters, there is no dramatic impetus driving the story forward. As a player watching the cut scenes, it is hard to root for particular outcomes of events, because everything happens arbitrarily, and whenever it seems that the party has finally inherited a mission, the next plot point changes the whole situation and makes the mission obsolete, rather than simply throwing an obstacle between the player and the completion of the mission. This game has the least systematic innovation of the entire FF series, and the elements of the series' battle system reprised in this game were never the series' best in the first place. Battles are fought FFIV-style, with only one or two feasible choices for how to spend each character's turn, there's a lack of variety of monsters within each environment, and a lack of opportunities for the player to challenge himself by entering a dangerous environment before the plot demands it. The battle screen loads slowly, and the battles themselves seem to run less smoothly than in any other ATB-based FF game, with frequent incidences of irrational lag between character turns, and between the selection and execution of an action. Sometimes an ATB bar can fill from empty to full during this lag time, making the order of turns just as confusing as if there were no ATB bar at all. The pre-rendered backgrounds in FFIX are, individually, even more gorgeous than those of FFVII or FFVIII, but FFIX is significantly less atmospheric than either of those games, with many sections of the map seeming to have been pasted together randomly.

It is really hard to imagine what was Square thinking when they made this game, people wanted the game to be set again in a fantasy world, and that is what Square did, but after those two wonderful and mature stories that Final Fantasy VII and VIII had, now they come with an hybrid between a childish plot, psychological traumas, and childish characters. Childish characters and plot with psychological traumas is something that don’t mix very well.

Story 6,5/10:
For me Final Fantasy IX is divided in two parts, the first part is covered by the first two CD’s, and the second one by the other two of course. The first part is simply perfect, reminiscent of the magnificence we used to find in all the previous Final Fantasies. The beginning of the game is as furious as hilarious, with a group of bandits called Tantalus assaulting queen Brahne’s castle and taking princess Garnet as a hostage, but the funny thing is that the princess wanted to be kidnapped. All the things these bandits do to kidnap her and how Steiner, her loyal bodyguard, tries to stop them is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Everything keeps being this good until the second half of the game, that is when everything gets messed up, when the horrible main bad guy and the nauseating rest of your bunch appears and the game ends, all the amusing events of the first part of the game suddenly end and we are presented a completely out of place story because as I said before, childish characters with more mature themes just don’t mix.

Graphics 10/10:
Thank god we still have pre-rendered backgrounds (or it is only rendered?, I don’t know exactly), the thing is that they are beautiful, so sad the music and characters are not at par with these magnificent scenarios.

The Cg scenes are terrific as always, and the good thing about them in this ninth installment is that there are a lot more of these scenes than in the other two Final Fantasies for the PSX combined, ok maybe not that many, but there are a lot more.

Music 5/10:
This is one of the game’s biggest flaws, Final Fantasy have always been one of the flag ships in terms of video games music, some of the best music themes ever made (and not only in terms of video games I think) have been part of the series soundtrack, Nobuo Uematsu appeared in the Times magazine as one of the best musicians of the century (or decade I can’t remember exactly), and this soundtrack is intolerable for a game like this one and for a genius as him.
I can’t remember any memorable tune in whole game (excepting for the one played at Village Dali), while in the previous games I would be able to talk about tons of them. The ending song is also pretty bland. It seems that Nobuo Uematsu it’s is running out of inspiration.

Gameplay 8/10:
In terms of controls everything is exactly the same, the same menu, the same options, the same everything, they work perfectly, everything is very intuitive.

Overall I rate this game 3/5 which is average

I love it. It's made very well and ver fun to play and love the soundtrack. Why can't more games be like Final Fantasy. As with the other games in the series, Final Fantasy IX has the ability to grab your attention from the time you fire it up until the last boss is put down. Previous entries into the game's lineage took a more dramatic, cinematic route to do what a role-playing game does best--tell a story. That style led to some complaints from headstrong fans and role-playing gamers alike. In response to this, while not sacrificing what new technology they've built into the series, SquareSoft has backtracked a bit. To put it simply, they've gone back to their roots while forging ahead.
When we last left the Final Fantasy characters, Princess Garnet was starting to break out of her shell and put to rest the notion that she was a snob. The kidnapping attempt by Zidane, oddly enough, started a few new friendships. Story elements continuously roll on, never leaving you to wonder for too long. Vivi, you may remember, started out as a Black Mage, and the Queen of Alexandria's story was left far from finished as well.

But even players with no experience in this series can pick this up as a new game. Final Fantasy IX's story follows a group trying to stop Brahne, the evil Queen of Alexandria, in her quest to rule the world. Zidane, a skilled thief, teams with a young mage, a royal knight, and a princess, who all soon discover that the queen's threats are fronting an even more sinister plot involving a powerful sorcerer named Kuja. It's your job to control the eight playable characters--each of whom begin the game with one weapon, one piece of armor, and one special power--and to uncover Kuja's motives before he carries out his deadly plan.

Final Fantasy 9 is truly one of a kind. You'll meet characters of all types of personalities. I think People tend to really keep Vivi close to heart, since he was really the main one battling with his existence. I mean i would have hated to have been him, and knowing that ANY minute, something was going to happen.

The battle system is nice. the magic is animated pretty good. there are FOUR party members present in battle mode instead of your normal 3. You'll have your regular world map to explore.

There are 4 disks, so you'll have alot to do, plus alot of sidequests

***SOME SPOILERS***
The game is about a 16 year old girl that was lost at sea with her mom when she was little, she was found drifting in a boat near the Alexandria Palace Shore and was adopted by the queen and became princess. Garnet is now at a point in her life where she is miserable. she wants to leave. Zidane, your main character along with his buddies made plains of kidnapping the princess on behalf of the orders of her uncle, Cid. When Garnet learns of this, she approves and willinging goes along with them while her body guard, Steiner awkwardly and drmatically tries to save her and fails, but stays by her side. Its also about a greedy queen that knows of Garnet's hidden aiblity to summmon and later orders that they be extracted from her body and uses it for her selfish desire. Along her journey, Garnet realizes the origins of her ancestry when she meets a little girl, Eiko. Zidance also has a big twist to his existence too.

Play the game to find out more! :P