Final Fantasy IX — To The Nines!
Today being 9-9-09, I feel it is only appropriate to review quite possibly the greatest Final Fantasy game to have been made, to date. Okay, I admit, your mileage may vary, especially with the Final Fantasy series, but I feel in my not so humble opinion that Final Fantasy IX is the best game in the series.
I find it odd that Final Fantasy VIII was the one released on “9-9-99”, ten years ago today, but I guess IX wasn’t ready yet. At any rate, on with the review!
… No. No he’s not.
Also introduced in IX is an exclamation mark within a bubble that appears above characters who are willing to talk to you. The same bubble symbol, when it appears elsewhere, usually indicates a hidden item that you can pick up. The system is well incorporated into the game, and I found no problems in its execution. Characters aren’t right next to each other when you try to talk to them, which can get annoying in other games when you’re trying to talk to one NPC and you end up talking with the other for a second time. And then a third… The bubble may have made finding items and money too easy, but in a game that seemed like it was made in an effort to be more accessible to modern fans who were spoiled on VII and VIII’s ease of use (and even VI’s ease of use, in a way), IX’s bubble indicator was a perfect fit.
Each game has had their own system of learning or acquiring skills, and IX is no exception. Although the game has its roots set deep in the old school, the developers still managed to reinvent the wheel by coming up with a brand new system for the acquisition of skills. When a character equips a weapon or piece of armour, he or she is granted access to a skill or a spell or a special effect, and after gaining a certain amount of AP, they permanently learn it, and can equip a different piece of equipment. Certain skills are command skills (spells, etc.), and can be used right away, but other skills are for support only, and can be equipped if you have a high enough magic stone rating (for some reason, you gain them upon certain level ups). The system serves to add a little bit more strategy to planning your character, although most people will probably opt to only have a certain few skills equipped during the final dungeon, with no exceptions.
Vivi’s first time: 3 billion guys were never more jealous than they were of him at that moment
Some equipment you need in order to add certain spells or skills to your character aren’t sold in regular shops. Instead, if you go to a synthesis shop you can combine two already existing weapons into a brand new weapon, and suddenly have access to a skill you otherwise would not have. It then becomes a balancing act between whether you still need a certain piece of equipment, or whether you can get away with using it to help create a brand new piece you don’t have yet. This synthesis system makes its debut in IX, although you could combine items into weapon upgrades in VIII.
In past games in the series, scenes featuring the main enemy would be shown, just to give you an idea of what he’s up to, but for the most part, your party was the main focus of attention. In VIII, the developers chose to bounce the action between certain groups of people, but the main action always seemed to happen in one place at a time. IX introduces the Active Time Event system, where you can watch other events that unfold at exactly the same time as the events your main character experiences, even events that have nothing to do with the story itself, but help to add to the setting.
He only spent three minutes with Wii Fit before the taking of this screen shot
The world itself is vibrant and lush, exactly what the series needed after two (arguably two and a half) games with bleaker landscapes. VII’s was alright, but the spectre of Shinra hung over everything, including the meadows and forests. Once you’ve been to Midgar, you never forget it. VIII’s was alright as well, and certainly more clean in the Gardens than anywhere in Midgar, yet nature itself seemed to take a back seat to technology. And in VI, the second half of the game was so very bleak, after the disaster that shook the world… IX is a breath of fresh air the series needed, and demonstrated just how versatile the PlayStation’s colour palette is. Nature took over, and it was glorious.
Colour isn’t the only thing that Final Fantasy IX has going for it. The music from the game has stuck with me for years. I don’t know whether it’s because it was the kind of music I was into at the time I first played the game, or whether it’s because it’s Nobuo’s best work ever, but I still listen to music from the game and smile at the fond memories the tunes bring up. Granted, they’re fond memories of characters and events that never happened in real life, so it’s not like I can’t relive them again, but still. Even if you forget your first, you never forget your favourite.
…a couple of guys in their underwear.
The story itself starts out small and slow, like most Final Fantasy games. Along the way, it attempts to take common video game cliches and turn them on their hea
ds. For instance, instead of saving the princess, your intention in the beginning is to kidnap her. But instead of kidnapping her, she runs off and begs you to kidnap her. (Yes, that’s exactly what happens. Trust me, it works.) As the story unfolds, you meet a bunch of interesting characters, and with the possible exception of Amarant, each of them are vital to the story. (Okay, Quina’s only there for the food.) It’s like they figured they needed a ninja-style character, so they quickly designed Amarant and then didn’t flesh out his background or role in the story. I think he was supposed to be an assassin out to kill Zidane, but they only really cross paths once, and then he is suddenly a part of your party. He’s a character they probably could’ve removed without any detriment to the rest of the game.
I only have one gripe about the game, just one. Battles suck. Well, they don’t suck, they are still the same battles as in previous games. It’s just… limit breaks suck this time around, and so does the speed of battle. VIII’s battle system was probably one of the fastest in the series, with attacks and spells activating pretty much almost right away, yet IX’s system lags at times, and from the sounds of chugging within the PlayStation while it struggled to run the game, it seemed like Squaresoft had somehow pushed the console beyond its limits when designing the game, and this was most evident during battles. Three character battle systems worked well, but a four character system seemed to very nearly break the machine. If you selected “attack” all the time, the game was fine. But spells and attack skills that require too much animation seems to slow the machine down.
Limit breaks, this time around, automatically enable themselves after a character receives a certain amount of damage from enemies. Trance, as it’s called, is a mode where the character becomes stronger, and they gain new attacks and abilities for a short period of time. But after a few turns, or when the battle ends, Trance mode expires and the character returns to normal. Unfortunately, given the way Trance is executed, it’s next to impossible to save it for a boss fight, when you would really need it. The worst is when you kill the enemy and they counter before they die, then Trance activates because you were dealt enough damage to fill up your Trance Gauge. Then you don’t get to use Trance because the battle’s over. It’s my least favourite execution of limit breaks in the entire series. It’s not like you need it to beat the game, anyway.
At least there’s a nifty set of minigames to distract me from the disastrous handling of the Trance system. My absolute favourite is Chocobo Hot & Cold. Remember when you were very young and your mother hid a gift or a surprise for you and you went to find it and you would be told you were “hot” when getting closer to it and “cold” when you weren’t? Now picture the same, except you’re riding a chocobo and you have a small time limit to try to find anything buried in the dirt. Oh yes, and your chocobo’s beak can level up, which means you get at the deeper stuff, quicker, the higher a level beak he has. It’s also possible to be so successful at the game that the moogle who runs it begs you to stop, but only if you’re very good.
As fun as Chocobo Hot & Cold is, other minigames exist. Tetra Master is a card game like Triple Triad, except with a different card set, different board, and rules that no one is allowed to tell you about. It’s like the first rule of Tetra Master is you don’t talk about Tetra Master. And the second rule is the same as the first.
There’s also Mognet, which makes its debut in this game. In IX, Mognet consists of a network of moogles trying to send letters to each other. Apparently, moogles had the monopoly on mail service, and when their service broke down, no one was able to communicate anymore, so it’s up to you the player to deliver everyone’s letters. Coincidentally, you just happen to be in the right places to deliver mail to the right moogles, as the story progresses.
Final Fantasy IX is more than just a sum of its parts, it is a celebration of what made classic Final Fantasy so wonderful. If Final Fantasy IV or V had been presented on the PlayStation in glorious 3-D, this is what they might’ve been like. IX might not be the best gave ever, but it is good enough that, even now that the PlayStation 2 is almost dead and the PlayStation 3 is reaching middle age, there have been very few games that I have loved as much as it.
I’m Iron Man.
About The Author
Joseph
Panthera Editus | In the great frozen land in the north known as Canada, a little to the east of that other frozen land in the north known as Alaska, resides the gaming enthusiast whom most people know as Joseph. When he’s not gaming or writing about gaming, he likes to enjoy life’s little ironies. Twitter