Pros: Nostalgic, great graphics, sprites, and story
Cons: Average music, load times
The Bottom Line: Buy it. It has a captivating story and characters, superior music and graphics, and is a wonderful game that will keep you coming back for weeks!
fireballdw's Full Review: Final Fantasy IX for PlayStation 1
Final Fantasy IX has been touted as a return to the old style of the series. Long time fans of the series were by-and-large disappointed by Final Fantasy 7 and even more so, 8. Although 7 and 8 were bestsellers, their greatest proponents seem to be those who are new to the series. Square has heard the cries of those who have been loyal fans for over 10 years and 15 FF games, and released Final Fantasy IX, which more than lives up to it's advertising.
Final Fantasy 9 starts off with Zidane, who intends on kidnapping Princess Garnet during a show (much like in Final Fantasy 6). However, what Zidane doesn't know is that Garnet wants to be kidnapped. Garnet's protector, the valiant (although somewhat pig-headed) Adelbert Steiner, gets thrown into the whole mess, as well as a young black mage named Vivi who just wanted to see the show. And so begins Final Fantasy 9.
Good things:
Graphics: The graphics are far superior to those in 7 and 8. As usual, all the backgrounds are well done, rich, and filled with action. The main land map leaves something to be desired, but it's on par with the rest of the games in the series.
The battle graphics are a tad bit better than FF 8, although they are not as refined as Chrono Cross. The reason for this is clearly because the number of sprites on screen is greater in FF 8 (8, as opposed to 6 in Chrono Cross).
Music: The music is once again well done. It's above average, but no single piece of music really stands out. I happen to like the main world map theme the best, but that's just my opinion. One nice thing is they brough back the old FF battle music and fanfare!
Gameplay: Gameplay is WONDERFUL. First off, on the main world map, whenever you're near a place, it tells you where you are and lets you enter it, which isn't really anything special. When you're inside a city or a dungeon and you come across some secret (or perhaps something you can see, like a treasure chest) an exclamation point or a question mark pops up over your head. This is a nice solution to the problem of having people look all around for stuff when nothing is there. Bravo.
The battle system is wonderful as well. The characters are very distinct, unlike in FF 8 and Chrono Cross, where pretty much all the characters had the same set of skills. You have a knight (hard hitter, lots of hp, but slow), a black mage (powerful spells, but weak hp and strength), a white mage (curing spells, but weak hp and strength), and a thief (good hp, fast, and can steal, but doesn't hit as hard as a knight). There are also other characters, but I won't spoil the game. Each character has the ability to attack, use an item, change rank in the party, defend, or use either one of their two individual skills (i.e. white magic, black magic, sword skills). Also, the summoning and magic spells don't take forever, like they did in Final Fantasy 8. While the summons are reasonably cool, they only randomly play the long version, which is significantly less than their FF 8 counterparts. You can get through some battles in only 30 seconds, depending on the enemy and your level.
As far as abilities go, you learn them from your weapons and armor (which, for some absurd reason were completely deleted from FF 8). This can be both good and bad. It rewards the player who can micromanage and not just pick the most powerful weapon. Once you have abilities learned (or if you're in the process of learning them), you can equip a certain number of them based on how high of a level you are. Certain skills are worth more than others. For example, autopotion will only cost 3 'gems', but the ability to counterattack will cost 8 'gems'. Certain characters will learn different abilities from different items, but it's easy to check in the menu. This system is much better and true to the series than the wacked out junctioning system in FF 8, where you could essentially make all characters the same, and way too powerful at even the lowest level.
Story & Characters: The story is so well done, and all of the characters have distinct personalities and traits. It would be easy to probably write a few pages about each character -- that's how much you really find out about these people. The characters are often humorous, much like FF 6, which is great. Zidane is always competing for Garnet's attention, Vivi is often times meek and shy, Garnet is naive but intelligent, and Steiner tries his best to not ascend his position as a knight and follow orders to the best of his ability and instruction. I won't mention the other characters, but they are interesting as well (except for Amarant, who reminds me of a more-confident version of Squall from FF 8).
Nostalgia: Long time fans are really in for a treat here. The game is rife with allusions to the older games. For example, Garland from FF1, the dwarves greeting from FF4, the auction house from FF 6, and many of the eidolons from FF 4 (Rydia's summon) and FF 6 (Espers). Some more subtle things include certain items names like the Save the Queen sword, from Final Fantasy Tactics, and the look and feel of the menuing system. Of course, FF staples are always there and easily recognizable in the form of Cid, chocobos, and an airship. Also in the game are more recent additions like the ability to synthesize weapons and armor from existing weapons and items, which can be found in Chrono Cross and FF 8.
Bad things:
Load times: My only real qualm with the game is here. It takes approximately 5-7 seconds to enter a battle. The battle engine is very similar to the prior Square games on the PS1, so you are treated to a few shots of the battlefield before the sprites appear on screen. All in all, it can take up to 15 seconds to actually get into the battle, which is very annoying at times -- especially when you have to race against the clock at certain points.
Moving between rooms, as well as transitions in and out of FMV's, and saving/loading the game is all pretty fast, but since battle plays such a big part of FF, it's ok to be critical.
Summary: FF 9 is a must have for any Square fan. If you liked 4, 5, and 6 (and perhaps Tactics), but didn't like 7 and 8, you are sure to like 9. Those who enjoyed 8 may have some problem getting into 9, but it's worth a try. If you enjoy 9 and haven't played 6, you should definitely give it a try!
Out of the 10 main series games, Mystic Quest, Tactics, the Legend series, and the Adventure series, FF 9 is definitely one of the best!
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