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Final Fantasy IX was a blast!
May. 15th, 2022 04:32 pmIt's been a few weeks since I finished this game, but I'm excited to finally talk about it. I guess you can assume I'll be mentioning spoilers here, so skip this if you wanna play this game with fresh eyes or you just generally don't wanna see me fanboy about video games again. Long post ahead, so sit tight.
Gameplay/Mechanics:
Like with FFVIII, I have never played this game before and had no idea about the storyline prior to playing. I was vaguely familiar with a handful of the character cast, namely Zidane, Vivi, and Kuja, but no one else. I was also aware of the premise of the game being "returning to one's roots," and that it was intended to be an homage to all the previous Final Fantasy games, specifically the pre-FFVII titles. I really enjoyed the blending of high fantasy and steampunk elements, and I absolutely adored the colorful, immersive environments and the character designs. It isn't "chibi," but strikes a comfortable balance of being whimsically cartoon-ish while still being realistic enough to carry the emotional weight of the story; they seem like characters that fit seamlessly within the world around them, as opposed to the unsightly, clunky polygons of FFVII. As always the music was fantastic, but that's a given for pretty much any Final Fantasy title.
Playing the PS4 HD version, the game does suffer the same issues as FFVIII in that the pre-rendered backgrounds don't get much of a polished upgrade compared to the character and enemy models. This can make traversing the more complex environments a challenge at times, but it is more of an occasional inconvenience than anything else. PC gamers should be able to find some decent texture mods to upgrade their gaming experience if they so choose.
In the spirit of "returning to roots," the game THANKFULLY goes back to the traditional leveling, magic ,and abilities systems that have been a mainstay in pretty much most J-RPG's in existence. While we are still given an annoying optional card game (one I ignored for pretty much the entire game, as I did with Triple Triad), gone are the junctioning system, the draw system, the GF's, and the refining system. In this game, we are once again given a wide selection of equippable items and accessories, each endowed with their own sets of abilities, passive effects, and stat buffs. If enough AP is accumulated while the item is in use, these abilities can be permanently inherited by the wearer. With leveling, every character is able to collect special "magic gems" which allows them to expand the limit of abilities they can have simultaneously active.
A teensy downside is that all abilities - both inherited and exclusive to currently equipped items - need to be manually added and are not always automatic, especially the passive effects. Little ol' me didn't realize this until I was at end game and was struggling with a very difficult boss fight that was leaving me perplexed. Specifically, it was Tiamat - one of the many bosses you encounter in Memoria. Basically, she can cast a type of multi-target status effect capable of instantly killing a party member the moment it takes an action. Luckily, if all your characters have the "Body Temp" ability, they can be completely immune to the status.
So for 70% of the game, I was completely ignorant of this untapped potential and was basically relying on weapons, leveling, and sheer luck to pull me through some of the trickier late game fights. Once I had that first "holy shit" moment, the following fights were significantly less daunting and I was way more successful. To my surprise, I even managed to make it through the triple fight with the Silver Dragon, Kuja, and Garland with only one full party K.O.
Needless to say, this game made me appreciate the art of managing buffs/debuffs and status effects/wards so much more than I used to as a long-time J-RPG player. In years past, I would simply rely on luck and hours upon hours of grinding. I would try to get strong enough to where I could simply take more hits and basically breeze through any late game challenges without a sweat. I disregarded items that offered anything but stat increases and avoided concerning myself with abilities and skills that weren't strictly for dealing direct damage or healing. FFVIII was my first moment of reckoning where this paradigm was challenged, and I was forced to change the way I approached these games. With FFIX I could theoretically go with my initial play style and probably wouldn't have been worse for wear, but having gone through the tedious process of grinding in FFVII so many, many months ago, I didn't want to go through millions of mind-numbing random encounters again. I wanted to see the end of the game NOW, damnit!
While there was a point where I did do a small bit of grinding, it wasn't an excessive amount, and it was really to make sure my party had enough HP and defense to avoid being one-shotted, not because I wanted them to be comically overpowered. When I changed my mindset and actually started to strategize, I ended up having a blast and feeling a greater sense of accomplishment as I powered through each new challenge I encountered.
Characters/Story:
As for the characters, I pretty much fell in love with them in some way or another. In terms of strictly gameplay, I had a huge soft spot for the non-human characters, Freya and Quina. Freya is a Burmecian who plays the dragoon/red mage role; my favorite strategy with Freya was to use her Jump ability, which rockets her above the field until her next turn. This allows her to evade damage or negative status effects between turns, while still dealing significant damage. It's not foolproof, but it comes in handy in a pinch. Quina is a member of the Qu, a group of marsh inhabitants that are present on every major continent in Gaia. They are a Blue Mage and are a character primarily devoted to inheriting skills from enemies that they consume, kinda similar to the Enemy Skill ability from FFVII. The process of "eating/cooking" enemies is tricky - they must be eligible to be eaten and low enough in HP to be vulnerable - however the results can be quite rewarding. One move that saved my ass many times was the status effect "Bad Breath" which can cast Blind, Silence, and Confuse on multiple targets. They can also learn to use other powerful moves like Holy and Death, which sharply contrasts with their cutesy and innocent design and demeanor.
The main character, Zidane, was generally unimpressive on the battle field until his Trance abilities were unlocked. It was incredibly satisfying when I could finally whip out Grand Lethal and deal 9999 damage on an imposing foe. As for the character himself, Zidane could be annoying at first with his excessive flirtatious behavior, but I became deeply empathetic to the way he responded to the complicated and tragic circumstances witnessed on his journey, and the knowledge about his origins as a Genome. I wouldn't say it was a strictly "loss of innocence" type narrative, but I could relate to the turmoil of emotions that come along with understanding the darker and less idyllic aspects of the world, and knowing that you have to act instead of going back to that state of innocence.
Similarly, I could sympathize to Garnet's own turmoil with regard to her feelings towards her adopted mother, Queen Brahne, despite the queen attempting to extract Garnet's powers to cause worldwide mayhem and destruction; her guilt and conflicting feelings about the other characters putting their lives on the life for her sake somewhat resonated to a certain degree with my own difficulties with accepting outer community support and help. It was quite wholesome and memorable to see Zidane talking her through her feelings for reassurances, and to help her reframe the situation in her head as being not just about others fighting for her sake, but that each of them have their own motives and goals.
Kuja, Zidane's brother who was also a Genome created by Garland, was probably one of my favorite villains out of the games I've been able to play so far - not because of his unforgiveable acts, but for how he is portrayed and his role in the story. Not only is his design extremely striking and very unique, but there is something palpable about the raw rage and jealousy that drives his heinous, omnicidal rampage. Unlike Sephiroth and Ultimecia, who's motives (in my opinion) leaned towards the otherworldly and metaphysical, Kuja's childlike insecurity, narcissism and hatred are rooted in strong emotions that are probably to some degree relatable on the level of an average person: his feelings of rejection by his "father," his feelings of being useless and being replaced, and his shame over his origins as a being created solely for the purpose of Garland's soul transfer experiments. As others have pointed out, it was also interesting to see Kuja have what appeared to be a genuine change of heart at the end and realize the weight of the pain and destruction he's caused.
Overall, I was VERY satisfied by this game and can definitely see myself returning to play it again. Rumors are circulating about a remake and a children's TV show being in the works, so I wonder what plans are in store for potentially reviving this game's legacy. It is a shame that it did end up getting swept under the tide of notoriety on the cusp of Final Fantasy X and the PS2's release, and I'm glad Square had the basic sense to make it accessible to new players on multiple consoles.
My Ranking List:
1) FFVII
2) FFIX
3) FFVII: Crisis Core
4) FFVIII
Gameplay/Mechanics:
Like with FFVIII, I have never played this game before and had no idea about the storyline prior to playing. I was vaguely familiar with a handful of the character cast, namely Zidane, Vivi, and Kuja, but no one else. I was also aware of the premise of the game being "returning to one's roots," and that it was intended to be an homage to all the previous Final Fantasy games, specifically the pre-FFVII titles. I really enjoyed the blending of high fantasy and steampunk elements, and I absolutely adored the colorful, immersive environments and the character designs. It isn't "chibi," but strikes a comfortable balance of being whimsically cartoon-ish while still being realistic enough to carry the emotional weight of the story; they seem like characters that fit seamlessly within the world around them, as opposed to the unsightly, clunky polygons of FFVII. As always the music was fantastic, but that's a given for pretty much any Final Fantasy title.
Playing the PS4 HD version, the game does suffer the same issues as FFVIII in that the pre-rendered backgrounds don't get much of a polished upgrade compared to the character and enemy models. This can make traversing the more complex environments a challenge at times, but it is more of an occasional inconvenience than anything else. PC gamers should be able to find some decent texture mods to upgrade their gaming experience if they so choose.
In the spirit of "returning to roots," the game THANKFULLY goes back to the traditional leveling, magic ,and abilities systems that have been a mainstay in pretty much most J-RPG's in existence. While we are still given an annoying optional card game (one I ignored for pretty much the entire game, as I did with Triple Triad), gone are the junctioning system, the draw system, the GF's, and the refining system. In this game, we are once again given a wide selection of equippable items and accessories, each endowed with their own sets of abilities, passive effects, and stat buffs. If enough AP is accumulated while the item is in use, these abilities can be permanently inherited by the wearer. With leveling, every character is able to collect special "magic gems" which allows them to expand the limit of abilities they can have simultaneously active.
A teensy downside is that all abilities - both inherited and exclusive to currently equipped items - need to be manually added and are not always automatic, especially the passive effects. Little ol' me didn't realize this until I was at end game and was struggling with a very difficult boss fight that was leaving me perplexed. Specifically, it was Tiamat - one of the many bosses you encounter in Memoria. Basically, she can cast a type of multi-target status effect capable of instantly killing a party member the moment it takes an action. Luckily, if all your characters have the "Body Temp" ability, they can be completely immune to the status.
So for 70% of the game, I was completely ignorant of this untapped potential and was basically relying on weapons, leveling, and sheer luck to pull me through some of the trickier late game fights. Once I had that first "holy shit" moment, the following fights were significantly less daunting and I was way more successful. To my surprise, I even managed to make it through the triple fight with the Silver Dragon, Kuja, and Garland with only one full party K.O.
Needless to say, this game made me appreciate the art of managing buffs/debuffs and status effects/wards so much more than I used to as a long-time J-RPG player. In years past, I would simply rely on luck and hours upon hours of grinding. I would try to get strong enough to where I could simply take more hits and basically breeze through any late game challenges without a sweat. I disregarded items that offered anything but stat increases and avoided concerning myself with abilities and skills that weren't strictly for dealing direct damage or healing. FFVIII was my first moment of reckoning where this paradigm was challenged, and I was forced to change the way I approached these games. With FFIX I could theoretically go with my initial play style and probably wouldn't have been worse for wear, but having gone through the tedious process of grinding in FFVII so many, many months ago, I didn't want to go through millions of mind-numbing random encounters again. I wanted to see the end of the game NOW, damnit!
While there was a point where I did do a small bit of grinding, it wasn't an excessive amount, and it was really to make sure my party had enough HP and defense to avoid being one-shotted, not because I wanted them to be comically overpowered. When I changed my mindset and actually started to strategize, I ended up having a blast and feeling a greater sense of accomplishment as I powered through each new challenge I encountered.
Characters/Story:
As for the characters, I pretty much fell in love with them in some way or another. In terms of strictly gameplay, I had a huge soft spot for the non-human characters, Freya and Quina. Freya is a Burmecian who plays the dragoon/red mage role; my favorite strategy with Freya was to use her Jump ability, which rockets her above the field until her next turn. This allows her to evade damage or negative status effects between turns, while still dealing significant damage. It's not foolproof, but it comes in handy in a pinch. Quina is a member of the Qu, a group of marsh inhabitants that are present on every major continent in Gaia. They are a Blue Mage and are a character primarily devoted to inheriting skills from enemies that they consume, kinda similar to the Enemy Skill ability from FFVII. The process of "eating/cooking" enemies is tricky - they must be eligible to be eaten and low enough in HP to be vulnerable - however the results can be quite rewarding. One move that saved my ass many times was the status effect "Bad Breath" which can cast Blind, Silence, and Confuse on multiple targets. They can also learn to use other powerful moves like Holy and Death, which sharply contrasts with their cutesy and innocent design and demeanor.
The main character, Zidane, was generally unimpressive on the battle field until his Trance abilities were unlocked. It was incredibly satisfying when I could finally whip out Grand Lethal and deal 9999 damage on an imposing foe. As for the character himself, Zidane could be annoying at first with his excessive flirtatious behavior, but I became deeply empathetic to the way he responded to the complicated and tragic circumstances witnessed on his journey, and the knowledge about his origins as a Genome. I wouldn't say it was a strictly "loss of innocence" type narrative, but I could relate to the turmoil of emotions that come along with understanding the darker and less idyllic aspects of the world, and knowing that you have to act instead of going back to that state of innocence.
Similarly, I could sympathize to Garnet's own turmoil with regard to her feelings towards her adopted mother, Queen Brahne, despite the queen attempting to extract Garnet's powers to cause worldwide mayhem and destruction; her guilt and conflicting feelings about the other characters putting their lives on the life for her sake somewhat resonated to a certain degree with my own difficulties with accepting outer community support and help. It was quite wholesome and memorable to see Zidane talking her through her feelings for reassurances, and to help her reframe the situation in her head as being not just about others fighting for her sake, but that each of them have their own motives and goals.
Kuja, Zidane's brother who was also a Genome created by Garland, was probably one of my favorite villains out of the games I've been able to play so far - not because of his unforgiveable acts, but for how he is portrayed and his role in the story. Not only is his design extremely striking and very unique, but there is something palpable about the raw rage and jealousy that drives his heinous, omnicidal rampage. Unlike Sephiroth and Ultimecia, who's motives (in my opinion) leaned towards the otherworldly and metaphysical, Kuja's childlike insecurity, narcissism and hatred are rooted in strong emotions that are probably to some degree relatable on the level of an average person: his feelings of rejection by his "father," his feelings of being useless and being replaced, and his shame over his origins as a being created solely for the purpose of Garland's soul transfer experiments. As others have pointed out, it was also interesting to see Kuja have what appeared to be a genuine change of heart at the end and realize the weight of the pain and destruction he's caused.
Overall, I was VERY satisfied by this game and can definitely see myself returning to play it again. Rumors are circulating about a remake and a children's TV show being in the works, so I wonder what plans are in store for potentially reviving this game's legacy. It is a shame that it did end up getting swept under the tide of notoriety on the cusp of Final Fantasy X and the PS2's release, and I'm glad Square had the basic sense to make it accessible to new players on multiple consoles.
My Ranking List:
1) FFVII
2) FFIX
3) FFVII: Crisis Core
4) FFVIII
