Final Fantasy IX - 14 today

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APZonerunner

Network Boss-man
Administrator
UFFSite Veteran
Site Staff
Jul 25, 2013
1,134
926
35
Solihull, UK
www.rpgsite.net
#1
Today, June 7th, marks 14 years since FF9 came out in Japan. I wanted to note the fact because, for me, this game is massively significant. This is the game that led to UFFSite, and thus led to RPG Site, Save Continue, and countless others, including Mognet. It's the game that, ultimately, led to me writing about video games for a living, and that, in turn, introduced me to some of my greatest friends (and not-friends, ahem) and stuff. I owe a lot to it.

On top of that, it's a wonderful game, nearly perfect, and is, in my opinion, the best in the series. I love this damn game.
 

yeah_93

Warrior of Light
Sep 27, 2013
1,512
570
Venezuela
#2
Nice story. It's a great game overall, the only thing going against it is the slow pacing of battles. Not my favorite FF but it's definitely one of the best. So, happy birthday FFIX.

PD: I always thought this was one of the most underrated songs in a game that's full of excellent tracks. Pandemonium.
 

Azuardo

Keyblade Master
Moderator
Sep 26, 2013
755
279
#3
Yeah, the odd minor niggle aside (slow battles, no way to lower/avoid encounters, and maybe one or two other little things I think I'm forgetting), I feel FFIX is the most complete FF game. Beautiful in many ways. I started at VII, so that one holds more personal meaning and is what I'd probably say is my favourite, but I feel like IX perfectly brings together so much of what makes an FF game an FF game.

Went through it again last year, and really knuckled down in absorbing the story fully. It was quite possibly the best experience I'd had with the game since picking it up over a decade ago... and I've been through the thing countless times.

A very happy birthday indeed, FFIX!
 

1Truth2Lies

Sphere Hunter
Jul 3, 2014
224
129
London
#4
It's my favorite of the PS1 era by a large margin. I love almost everything about it. Loved the cast, art direction, pre-rendered backgrounds, story, music, and especially Active Time Events (ATE). I never really understood the criticism of the battle speed, though. It may be slower than FFVII and FFVIII, but it's not game breaking. Being able to control a party of four people made up for the speed reduction, IMO. What I did have issues with was the loading times between exploring and battle. However, the opening bassline of the battle theme always made me forget about it, as I'd be to busy dancing to the beat. LOL!

FFIX is a great game and the end of an era for the series in many ways. Also, it's great that your experience with the game inspired you to get into video game journalism. :)
 

Azuardo

Keyblade Master
Moderator
Sep 26, 2013
755
279
#5
The loading times contributed to the battle speed issue for me. I take that into account really. But it was also based on the fact the Speed stat had no great effect on things - no matter if you used Auto-Haste constantly, you would only be able to get in one attack for all characters before the enemy. i.e. it was impossible for Zidane to squeeze in two attacks before a foe. Battles played out in rounds, basically, with Speed having little factor other than maybe making your ATB bar raise faster than somebody else's. It's certainly a far slower system than VII and VIII, and that could take a little adjustment when coming right off the back of playing either of those two.

That's the niggle, anyway. Doesn't detract from what is quite clearly an exceptional game.
 
Likes: 1Truth2Lies

1Truth2Lies

Sphere Hunter
Jul 3, 2014
224
129
London
#6
The loading times contributed to the battle speed issue for me. I take that into account really. But it was also based on the fact the Speed stat had no great effect on things - no matter if you used Auto-Haste constantly, you would only be able to get in one attack for all characters before the enemy. i.e. it was impossible for Zidane to squeeze in two attacks before a foe. Battles played out in rounds, basically, with Speed having little factor other than maybe making your ATB bar raise faster than somebody else's. It's certainly a far slower system than VII and VIII, and that could take a little adjustment when coming right off the back of playing either of those two.

That's the niggle, anyway. Doesn't detract from what is quite clearly an exceptional game.
I understand what you mean, especially concerning the Speed stat. There's a reason for it, though. I read that Hironobu Sakaguchi wanted the FFIX battle system to feel like a hybrid of ATB and traditional turn-based based. Basically, he wanted all entries in the mainline series up to that point distilled into one battle system. That's probably why battles played out in rounds, even despite it still using the ATB bar.

On one hand you could say FFIX has a slow battle system, and I'd agree with that, but on the other hand you could say it actually has a good merger of traditional turn-based and ATB, and I'd agree with that too. I personally think it's quite respectable that Sakaguchi wanted elements of traditional turn-based found in FFI, FFII, and FFIII to make their way into the FFIX battle system. That shows he really wanted to make FFIX a culmination of the entire series up to that point, even the NES games.
 

buddhafied

Sphere Hunter
Sep 30, 2013
241
126
Vancouver, BC
#7
I FINALLY finished the game, after 14 years of its released, two nights ago, and this is after almost 9 months of on and off game play.

I actually really like IX (for a reference, my favourite non MMO FFs, prior to playing IX, are VI, VII and X). What I love the most about the game is its story and returning to more of a traditional role of job classes.

Everyone has background or struggle in this entry, just like VI, and it's hard not to fell in love with the characters, even Quina. And who can forget about Vivi... I mean, I can see why people love Black Mage so much after IX...

I did find the story fell sort of short towards the end though, but it could be just because I was playing the game on and off and forgotten about some storyline.

Like for example, Kuja was nothing but "evil" to begin with, and towards the end, even though I can understand where he was coming from, feeling hopeless he is just another puppet and all, I can't relate to him or his action. I'm pretty sure there were some hints about his struggles that I've missed somewhere prior to the last couple of battles towards the end.

Music was fantastic. Nobou really did some amazing stuff and everything is so whimsical and magical. I also love the art direction of this game, although I still can't stand the character portions. I know it's a throwback to what FF was before VII, but goes every time I look at Dagger...

Overall, I fell in love with his entry. It's not my favourite, as like Azuardo, my first entry to the Final Fantasy world, FFVI, had more of an impact to me than IX, but this is definitely my top 5.

Happy belated birthday, FFIX!