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Simply Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I must say that I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, so perhaps my opinions are not the most unbiased, but it is undeniable that FFIX is simply an amazing game. Every aspect of the game is beautifully and careful worked to create an unforgettable experience. First, the graphics, by far the easiest thing to show the magnitude of this game. As usualfor Final Fantasy game, the CG movies are beyond compare, even moreso here. The movies are extremely detailed and bring a smile to my face whenever one appears, which is very often. Unlike the previous games, FF9 takes advantage of the CG movies to add a bit of action here and there to the story without having the player go through a battle. It really adds a lot to the game and it is nice not having to wait eternities between movies. Also, the in-game graphics are superb as well. Though not as crisp as the new PS2 games, FF9 shows an incredible amount of detail in the characters and backgrounds of the common areas. These graphics are virtually the same as those int he battle sequences which helps the flow of the game tremendously. Second great point of the game, the music. I must admit, many of the tracks in FF9 are not as memorable as those in some of the previous games, particularly FF7, but comparing it to such high standards doesn't do it justice. There are still some amazing songs to listen to, and you will probably be spending some time on Napster to grab a few of your favorite tracks fromt he game. Third point, the characters. This is such a great part of the game, because the characters themselves are quite distinct. All have their own temperment, goals, and actions that define them from the others and keep you interested in them. Also, none of the characters get to be as annoying as some in previous Final Fantasy games (You know who 'm talking about if you've played them *Shudder*) and the dopiest of characters is still enjoyable to have around. Fourth, gameplay. Basic Final Fantasy fare, but that is what is so great about it. If you have played FF games before, FF9 is the easiest system to organize by far. You won't spend hours staring at your menu screen configuring your characters, just strap on an item, learn the skills, and get a new one. If you haven't played an FF game before, the simple system will quickly be learned and you won't have trouble at all. Battles are generally fast paced, and while the random battles can be annoying when you want to explore an area, the game seems more balanced than the others and you will spend less time "leveling up" characters than you have in the past. Finally, fifth, the story. This is where FF9 takes a lot of guff. I won't go into it too as to ruin the surprise, but there are some similarities between the story of FF9 and the previous games. Many claim that this is a huge blemish on the game, but I don't believe it is that big of a deal. There are some very interesting new ideas in the plot so don't get the idea that it is exactly the same, and you still won't know what is coming next when you play, so when it happens you will probably enjoy it just as much. Overall, this game is absolutely wonderful. It's gorgeous, sounds great, plays well, and keeps you interested for hours on end. I could hardly put it down, and I'm sure if you buy FFIX that you will enjoy it just as much.

Possibly the greatest game of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Yes, i admit that I have taken risks in writing the title of this review sincem after all the title was highly opinionated, but here me out. Ill look at it from a reasonable angle.

When Final Fantasy IX (FF9) was released, it was very differant than it's predecessors, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. It had gone from a harsh 'sci-fi' feel to a soft 'fantasy' feel. The main character was not a silent and melencholy introvert. And overall, the game had a very prelavent tone of charm and whimsy, whereas VII and VIII had, for the most part, more depressing tones. Like I said, very differant from its predecessors.

For anyone who doesnt like simple RPGs, this isnt for you. Everything in this game has been made slightly more simple. No Junction or Materia systems here. Every character has unique abilities that only he/she/it can learn. While I enjoyed VII and VIII's systems, XI's felt more believable. Believe it or not, this simplification adds some serious challenge to the game. Because not everyone can learn 'cure' or 'revive' you will have to be careful on forming your groups. and since you can't junction switch at all, you'll find that keeping all of your characters at high levels is a good idea. You cant simply put 'curaga' on someones hp and have it skyrocket. youll have to do alot of levelling up. This doesnt mean that Final Fantasy IX is impossibly hard. In factm if I were to rate its difficulty level, I would say it was 60%.

these differances in abilities add to the very well written characters. Each character feels alive, and you believe what it says. In past final fantasies some characters, although important to the story line, just didnt feel real (Cait sith, anyone?) but in Final Fantasy IX, each character seems 100% believable. Their dialoge matches their personalities seamlessly. some scenes which have no importance to the story are written in just to make you 'feel' the character. Such as when Eiko scolds Vivi for looking the wrong way and vivi says "I was just looking at the mountains".

And then you have the games visuals. Are the graphics breakthrough? no. What you have in Final fantasy IXs visuals is emotion. For example, when playing Final fantasy VIII and you look at a floor tile, it just looks like some-old floor tile. But in Final fantasy IX when you look at a floor-tile,you feel a story behind it. It looks unique to each culture's lifestyles and beliefs. You feel a bit of what the "tile maker" felt when creating it. Yes, every blade of grass in Final Fantasy IX is a work of beauriful art.

One mustn't forget the music. Final Fantasy IX lives up to the high standard of its predecessors when it comes to music. Each song is beautifully well written and perfectly placed. Cooky and silly songs play where there is a village of quirky dwarves, sullen and sad music plays in a destroyed city, and so on. Some people (myself included) would get tired of certain songs after awhile in the past final fantasies. For instance, in FFVII when I was in the gold Saucer, although the music was good, it did get tiresome and I muted the volume. Same with Finl Fantasy VIII in Balamb garden. But with Final Fantasy IX i would often just sit and listen to songs re-loop so that I coud hear and feel them again.

The storyline in Final Fantasy IX is beautiful. I wont say anything to ruin it, but trust me. Its amazing.

Out of all this, why do I say that it is possibly the greates game of all time? Well, i'll explain myself.

Does anybody remember Halo? No no, not Halo2. Halo. just plain Halo. It was revolutionary. I remember that everyone played it. everyone who had an XBOX owned Halo. (partially because after awhile XBOXs started coming with a copy of Halo, but still) it was a great game. But now, with the arrival of Halo2, it has just faded out. Even big fans of the origional have said 'Man, there really isnt any reason to play the first halo anymore." Sadly, this is how it is with alot of games. Beautiful and wonderful games slowly fade out when shiny sequals come out. Yes, Final fantasy IX felt some of this when Final Fantasy X came out, but still many many fans play final fantasy IX because of its greatness. In other words, Final fantasy has lived on despite the release of more advanced graphics and things like that.

So, I urge you,(haha, I sound so devoted) if you havent played Final Fantasy IX before, play it. Make sure you buy it, because Ive been noticing that its harder to find at Game stores than it used to be.

Finally, ill leave you with one thing. You may hate this game despite everything i've said. Guess what, people are differant. If you try this game and for some unearthly reason you loathe every second of it, well then at least you gave it a shot.

Square, if this isn't one of the greatest games out there it's the best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

We've all heard of Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 10, but does anyone ever mention the game in between?

Final Fantasy 9 is, sadly, the most underestimated game in the Final Fantasy series. It's the one that pulled me into my FF fandom, and though it's around 6 years old I still love it. The reason it's not as famous as the others is probably because FF9 came out on the Playstation JUST before the Playstation 2 came out.
The storyline is spellbinding--It captures you right at the beginning and flows beautifully, through cities of eternal rain, clashing monsters, and the (Traditional plot theme in almost every RPG alive!) fate of the world itself.
Everyone can relate to FF9's characters, who struggle to find who they are or where they belong and in the end, find, or almost find, the meaning in a stunning finale. Then you'll find yourself cheering for them (or mourning over them if you become attached to one who dies.)
The music? Nobuo, you've outdone yourself. FF9's songs are masterpieces, and you'll find yourself humming YOU'RE NOT ALONE or MELODIES OF LIFE without knowing it. And of course, a couple pieces will bring back amusing scenes just by mentioning their name. (SLEW OF LOVE LETTERS, anyone?)
Any cons? Hard question. If there were a problem, then I can't target it. Perhaps leveling up your character may take a while, but then again that's a traditional part of every FF Game so it shouldn't be counted. And being able to play as a few of the "legendary" characters(Fratley, Beatrix) would be great, but that would take away their status, wouldn't it? (And that's an opinion, so I'll let it slide.) I can think about this until my head explodes, but I won't be able to target an ACTUAL flaw. I, Lyrit, find Final Fantasy 9 the perfect RPG game.
Overall, and again, this has got to be the greatest FF game out there. I've played most of the others popular in the series now, but they just don't strike me like FF9.

Wait.

What are you listening to ME for? GET FF9 AND PLAY IT. Once you do, my review will look like it's degrading this game.

Final Fantasy 9 geek!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the best final fantasy game made! It is going back to old school fantasy, semi-comical characters, magic, weapons, and everything! Play control is great, music is traditional final fantasy and the story line is outstanding and the actual graphic scenes are totally amazing. I was a fanatic for final fantasy 7 but this one is by far the best one made. Don't pass this one up, this is a MUST own for ANYBODY...even if you do not like RPG's this is a must try.

the greatest game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

two words the greatest, buy this game

Can somebody say... Final Fantasy III or 6?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Well well well... If you think FF IX was bad and you liked the other Final Fantasy games, you have not played all or most of them! Lets take a recap here, the previous Final Fantasy had some nice cut scenes and summons. But there is no story, you can compare it to 12 Monkies or some Time Warping movie. Gets confusing and contridicting. Final Fantasy 7 was another great one, it had awesome gameplay, graphics and the story was great to follow through. Final Fantasy 6(japan) or 3 is the one we all played in the SNES, the soundtrack is awesome and even the orignal soundtrack CD was just as good too! (Thanks Square's very own composer Nouob Uestmesu) The first and second Final Fantasy games were really great too, FF9 is best compared closey to part 3.

Yes there are some flaws to the game, like the annoying card game and the silly mini games you have to play. The sound is truly remarkable and original, of course the oringal composer for Square has done his work again. His tunes and title music is very done well I must say. The graphics are the same as FF8, so there is nothing new or bad about it. When comparing FF9 to Chrono Cross, you're comparing an Apple to an Orange. (This apple is redder than the orange, thats why apples are better!!) Also I will admit that there is a bad Final Fantasy game. Lets say Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest for example. A release after FF2. Speaking of Chrono Cross, you get over 30 guys to play and they are basically the same, except the element colors and their speical skills. The ending was dissapointing also!

Final Fantasy 9 has been done with the orignal artist from the previous line of Final Fantasy 1-3 in the US.

This game is truly for the true Final Fantasy fans out there!

THE BEST

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game rules. I have not played all of the FF series, but I have played VII, and VIII, and IX is the best out of all of them. I'll have to say Vivi is my Favorite FF character yet. The magic system is much better than Drawing magic. I like having 4 characters on the Battle Field, especially since one character can only do one type of magic or attack. The storyline is great you get really involved. I got to the point where I didn't want to do the side Quests just to know what happended next. The score is deffinantly the best in any game I've heard before. The first time I played I reset it a few times so I could hear the music. All in all this game is awesome. I deffinantly recomend you at least rent it if not buy it.

A wonderful experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy IX continues the trend of excellence that Square has paved. The game, while keeping with the power of the playstation, is a throwback to the roots of Final Fantasy. The characters, towns, parts of the story, and even some of the music, are throwbacks to previous Final Fantasy's. You don't have to be a buff to fully enjoy this game, however.

The graphics are wonderful. The CG sequences are beautifully done. The backgrounds are nice, and the characters interact with each other wonderfully. I like how you have a party of 4 instead of 3 which has been the custom in FF VII and FF VIII. This creates more strategy with the battles. In one of my favorite throwbacks, you don't get to select who is in your party until late in the game. Most of the game people come and go from your party a la FF IV. Also, the characters are much more individualized. For example, Zidane can steal, Garnet can heal, Vivi can use black magic, etc. The class system was pioneering for all FF's, so this was a natural choice.

The game is not too challenging, but knowledge of the game system is absolutely necessary to keep the challenge down. The ability system is very neat. Each piece of equipment lets certain characters learn certain abilities. Each character has ability crystals and certain abilities can be equipped by using ability crystals, which means only so many abilities can be equipped at one time. This system is very innovative and not nearly as complex as FF VII's materia system and FF VIII's junction system.

FF IX is a wonderful experience and the story doesn't fail to please. There are so many things you can do on the side. You will likely spend 10-15 hours doing the chocobo side quest, for example. This game is well worth the money, as with all FF's. If you have not experienced this game yet, do so now.

The title of my review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm not a hardcore RPG fan, but I've been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since FFIII(USversion) and I've played every US released game, up to and including the original Final Fantasy for the NES. The charming thing about FF9 is the retro-cartoony look of the characters. With the previous Playstation FF games the thinking was that the more technologically able the programmers became, the more realistic the game should look. The apex of this ideology was FF8, a game that, granted, was brilliant in appearance, but whose hyperrealism turned off many fans looking for a lighter experience, such as myself. The characters and apearance of FF9 seem to be a happy bridge between eloquently rendered art and uber-cutesy characters. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line the story-telling also became the most cartoonish, which is a little sad. The story starts off splendidly, a beautiful fairy-tale scenario involving a flying theatre ship and a kidnapped princess initiating it. From there on, we got some pretty fun character interaction, but very little plot other than a focus on warring kingdoms that drudges about for most of the game. The cosmic chaos that is very sparingly alluded to for most of the game doesn't reveal itself unto the player until late in CD3, which is pretty much the end of the game. So what I'm saying is, the story is a little weaker than previous FF games, which have ranged from oversaturated mindjarring plot-twist-every-minute sci fi epics (FF7) to immsersive, operatic fantasy realms that the player cant let go of after one runthrough. Like other FF games, the story is still thematically sound: a play introduced at the begining of the story turns out some of the more relevant themes before they are portrayed at length by the characters, and to some extent provides an allegory to the plot. But it just doesn't make up for the lack of important story development for most of the game. Alright, Enough about the plot, the game is fun to play and the ability systems let you customize your characters' special powers sufficiently. The Full Motion Videos are beautiful as always, and probably moreso given the game's colorfully fantastical setting, a return to the "steampunk" genre(anachronistic fantasy setting, this one blending industrial era technology and medieval European design and clothing.) The monsters are really big and scary. Zidane looks like a monkey, and everyone likes monkeys. I've talked too much. This game is fun and pretty. The sluggish story can be very easily ignored by the games other dazzling features.

Best of the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am perhaps unique in my position as a Final Fantasy fan. I recognize the warts on the series (and there are some pretty big ones), but I still enjoy it anyway. I won't try to tell you that this is a flawless game, because it certainly isn't, just as Final Fantasy 7 and 8 were neither of them flawless, but I will tell you that it's the best the series had done to date.

First off, the good, and there's a considerable amount of it. Again, Final Fantasy 9 is a technical revelation. The graphics are amazing--I've frankly never seen better on the original Playstation console, and this is arguably better than most of the computer games out there today. The regular game screens are colorful, well illustrated, easy to navigate (a big problem with Final Fantasy 7), and just generally aesthetically pleasing, while the FMV sequences are better described with a series of primal grunts of satisfaction than words.

Also as usual, the sound is excellent, though some fans of the series may be a little disappointed with it. Indeed, a great deal of the music in this game was borrowed from previous entries in the series and refitted for this one. Personally, I've got no problem with it, but then I also don't put much into a game's soundtrack.

The story has always been where the biggest problems have occured for the Final Fantasy series, and 9 will serve as a pleasant surprise for gamers in this regard. I can't think of a Final Fantasy game that better told or adhered to its story, and the secret to the game's success on this point is its simplicity. There are no cute plot gimmicks here as there were in the previous two entries (the pointlessly complex story of 7 and the poor reconciliation between the personal story and save-the-world theme in 8), and that allows the story to be direct, easy to understand, and charming.

Of course, there are still problems with the game. In terms of plotting, minor characters seem to show up and drop off the map an awful lot for a game as story based as this one. Just trace Sir Fratley's course through the story and tell me that's not the case. Square also falls into an old pit trap in their writing as the story itself seems to spiral wildly out of control in the last hour or two of the game. I had never even heard of the final boss before I fought him, and the story element that the game itself references on the back cover (the crystal) doesn't even enter the plot until the end.

Taken on the whole, however, this has to be considered the best game in the series to date. The many (and there are a lot of them) references to past games will provide long-time fans of the series with an entertaining Easter Egg chase, while the well developed and unique characters and well told story should speak to any neophyte. The character advancement scheme is arguably the best in the series to date, combining individual skill customization with equippability with exceptional talent, and with all the various mini-games and sidequests, you can easily spend sixty hours playing through this deceptively deep game. This truly is a must-have for any Playstation role player, and probably for any gamer at all.

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