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Not FFVII or VIII, but still fabulous.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Square strikes again with another epic tale in the Final Fantasy saga. In this tale, our heroes are as follows: Zidane (a swift and clever bandit and the hero of the story), Dagger (the princess of the kingdom, whose real name is Garnet), Steiner (the queens royal swordsman and Garnets loyal guardian), Vivi (a freaky little black mage), Freya (a rat-like dragoon from the rat like Burmecian tribe), Quina (a member of the frog-like Quen tribe that eats a lot), Eiko a little mog-caretaker), and Amarant (a mysterious scarlet-haired young man). The story is very silly, and the style is more like some of the earlier games in the series: short, stubby characters in a more medieval setting. It doesn't have the length of FFVIII or the simply amazing soundtrack of FFVII, but it has some very colorful CG's, and is still amazing and will keep you occupied for hours. Bottom line: it kicks ass!

in my opinion, the best of the PS series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This one is my favorite of all the ones in the playstation series. While FF8 was more serious and realistic, this one takes a spin and makes the characters look younger, shorter, and for the most part a more animated, lusch vibrant world. Everything, even the graphics, are improved in this final fantasy, plus i like the plot the best. It seems to be a little more light hearted and less serious. There are some great mini games in this one, as well as some great characters (Vivi is so cool) as well as some great villians. Some may agree FF7 is the best, but i disagree... that one comes in a close second place. This one has more of the goods. Get this one if you are beginning final fantasy- in 7 there are so many annoying places you get stuck in... get this one.

not quite good enough

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The series of psx disappointments continues. FF 7 was fun but not really a Final Fantasy game, FF 8 was fun enough to finish (intresting how the limit break system was just a less random one of final fantasy 3/6's) and now 9, well 9 was the first final fantasy game that I will not be finishing. It's sad, but the story is neither gripping nor exciting. The creators tried to recapture the greatnest of FF 6 but failed miserably, the humor is well [bad]. The dialogue is one of the few average parts, and the graphics were just a FF7 and FF8 mix.

Another long nail in the coffin of story-driven RPGs.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you like your RPGs contrived or if your intelligence and maturity levels are forever arrested at an adolescent age, then you'll surely love Final Fantasy 9. Don't be fooled (though it's obviously too late for that) by this game's deceptive marketing touting a "return to the style of early Final Fantasy" because the only similarity between this game and, say, Final Fantasy 2, was my feeling like an eight-year-old when playing both of them. If you like overt, heavy-handed, overly simplistic dialog (and most of you bought 7 so I assume that you do), then this game will serve it up for you disc after uninspired disc. Get yourself a Vagrant Story or a Suikoden or some well-orchestrated Baldur's Gate for the PC. Or don't. It's your eighty-some-odd hours.

Final Fantasy says an awesome farewell to the Playstation

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I first bought my Playstation back in '99 I was kinda new to the whole gaming thing. Sure, I'd played Game Boy Color and had a Sega Genesis before. But I wanted to become a gamer, and FF9 was the first RPG I ever played. It introduced me to the world of RPGs and Final Fantasy too, and it was a good choice. As soon as I started playing I was immersed in what was going on in the game. The storyline wasn't much at first but soon it became more interesting and exciting. The random battles are quite good and teaches you to be on your toes at all times, although sometimes your characters are near death and you want to get to an inn before you die and random battles don't help at all. But besides that, this is a very immersive game with many personality-filled characters. It keeps you interested from the opening cutscene to the closing credits. Plus, there's a little mini-game you can play at the end of the credits, but you'll have to enter in a certain code of buttons in order to play it. The music is also beautiful, adding a mood to each scene. This is a definite must buy for any RPG fan.

Hands down, the best Final Fantasy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As is always the case with final fantasy, everyone will have their favorite. Most, it seems, favor Final Fantasy VII for, I assume, the epic plot and... well, the characters looked cool. I personally found the characters a bit dry, uninspired, and under-developed. Each character (other than Cloud and Tifa) had 1 segment of developement and were then quickly forgotten in the wake of Cloud's trauma. I say this only to express how different the case is in Final Fantasy IX.

Every character in IX was thouroughly explored. Every angle of each character was observed until you would swear that you knew these people. This is facilitated with "ATE's" (Active Time Events), which are little segments which will be available to you on occasion to see how the other characters are doing. To truly get a handle on your characters, you'll want to see as many of these as you can. Square went so far as to develope the enemies in this installment, and trust me, you will HATE the twins and Kuja every bit as much as you hated the great Sephiroth.

The story was excellent. Those who were enthralled with the epic proportions of VII may be slightly disappointed, however. Make no mistake, this is Square quality storytelling, but the feeling is slightly less intense than VII's (let's face it, the fact that the continents are getting foggier doesn't hold a candle to a meteor about to collide with the planet). That doesn't matter much, though, as the focus of this game is, in fact, the characters. I cannot express the care you begin to feel for your small band of misfits as you learn all of their troubles, secrets, dreams, and fears. Most notably Zidane's, a character whose past is ten times as confusing and disturbing than Cloud's.

The battle system some will say is a modified materia system, and this fits... sort of. Each weapon has different abilities attached to it, and you use a sphere grid of sorts to fill these in. Unlike X, however, not all characters can learn all abilities. There's a Thief, a black mage, a white mage, a knight, 2 summoners (attack and defense), an assassin, a lancer of sorts, and a red mage of sorts. There are also some instanses in which you will command other characters, but these are few and far between. The limit system is a bit frustrating, as you MUST use your limit as soon as you fill your gauge. No saving for the impending boss this time.

So, what isn't awesome? Well, I think this game has more random battles than VII, VIII, or X. And as for the gamers out there who prided themsleves in being able to beat Sephiroth in 1 hit, or who leveled all of X's characters until Lulu attacked for 99,999 every time, you can't do that. This game is much harder than VII, and 20X harder than the painfully easy X. Sorry, but no giveaway bosses here. The strategy guide was also a HUGE disappointment. Just read the reviews.

Other than that, this game is Gold. The best overall Final Fantasy ever in terms of gameplay and character developement. A must have for fans of the "series" and a great way to break in to RPG's. This is the game that started me, and since this game, nothing has come close. So buy it, play it, love it, and play it again. It never gets old. Hats off to the last great PSone RPG, Square did everything right

sleeping giant

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is perhaps the best of the Final Fantasy games, and sadly, the most under-appreciated. IX had amazing animation and backgrounds, a beautiful music score, and solid gameplay. The characters are some of the most delightful in the series. Personally, I think Vivi and Zidane are the coolest characters ever. Lastly, the gorgeous cut scenes deliver a beautiful and epic storyline.
On a sidenote, This game definitely deserves a remake. There's a lot of hype about final fantasy VII, its own prequel and a remake coming for PS3. I feel that Final Fantasy IX should be remade on the PS3. I love the story line better than VII, the graphics were way better, and the gameplay was incredible.

Not Square's Best, But Better Than Most

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I LOVE Final Fantasy games. They are the reason that I still have my NES and SNES. This really does take me back to the early days of Square. Admittedly, I've gotten older and my tastes have changed in the past 15 years (I think its been that long since FF1 was released), but this game just makes me smile.

Completing the Chocobo Side Quests, making sure mognet gets back online, defeating Hades and Ozma, power leveling like a mad man, laughing at Zidane for being as bad with the ladies as I am. All in all, the important parts of the game are what kept me playing. Now, I will say there are a few annoying parts.

You should never sell any equipment. The Synth shop is a wonderful idea, but for some items at the end of the game, you need weapons that you got at the beginning of Disc 1. Also some weapons disappear from the face of the planet as you switch discs. That little fact causes quite an annoying problem for those of us who like to see every ability fully mastered for every character (if you cant tell, I was the kid that spent 3 months in the downed Shin-ra plane getting everyone to 255 stat points).

Overall this is an outstanding game. It keeps me wanting to play, it makes my chronic insomnia relapse, and I love just watching Vivi dance during fights and watching Zidane get shot down over and over in the interim.

The Graphics of this game are simply beautiful. Its not something that will ooooo and ahhhh you, but if you give them a second look (after you get over the cartoon-like feel) you'll notice that they someone took their time with this production. Someone made sure every single detail was perfect. FFVII felt 2D and while you knew the scenery was a 3D endeavor, it felt like a 2D isometric drawing rather than a fully 3D rendered scene. When you look at FFIX you KNOW you are looking at a fully 3D environment. It was a really great thing to see especially on the PSX (even though the XBOX 360 is now out).

Characters...what can i say about the characters. I love them. They all make me smile. I relate completely with Zidane's social life, and then his story took me off guard the first time i heard it (I wasn't expecting it, and it made me want to play longer). Garnet is interesting. She is that naive girl we all knew in high school. It just seems every character has their own story and it is pretty well explored (really, what do you know about Yuffie, Zell, Quistis and Irvine) .

Do you ever wonder how Reeve controlled Cait Sith while he was talking to Scarlet and Heidegger? I really do not have a lot of unanswered questions like that with FFIX, just some things that could have been elaborated on (like the summoner's village), but all-in-all i think the story was pretty perfect. My only BIG complaint and is the length of the game. There is a lot of stuff to do, but the end of the game can be reached in UNDER 12 hours (4 months of work to get a certain sword....stay with Ragnarok if you are reading this...saying "I got Excalibur II" is not worth the heartache).

This game gets 4 stars because while it is a good game, I just wish there was more of it. There's plenty of side quest stuff, just not enough story time. 12 hours of story is just about as long as Aeris stays breathing in FF7.

Hope this makes your purchasing decision a little easier. Its definitely a great game and heck, if worse comes to worse, it's a good time killer for a rainy weekend.

Don't buy it yet.....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: April 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

You've read all the five star reviews.It is undeniable that FF IX has regained the popularity that FF VII once obtained.But,do not be mislead by hype.Heck,this game is the candy-bubblegum pop of all RPGs,the same ol' ... recycled all over again.Take this;a group of various personalities planning to stop the plans of an evil queen from world domination.FF trademark.And too,the return of the dreaded random battle system,the addictive(duh...)card game from FFVIII which promises no rewards but..satisfaction(woohhoo..rare cards! But i can't turn them into rare materials!!).And to compare this to FF VII is absolute ...,even ... First of all,the mini-games are,very,very little compared to FF VII.You don't even have FF IX's own Gold Saucer,and the mini-games are just the card game,the chocobo "hot and cold"(go digging like a ... to upgrade your chocobo and get rare items),and a numb mini-game which involves the big,fat Quina catching frogs hopping around the marshes.What about the gameplay,it's a drab too.You have your typical stereotype Zidane dominating the game and even characters like Vivi,Dagger(what a...dumb name the so hyped translators give)and Eiko,with powerful spells and summons,is deemed useless.Unlike previous Final Fantasies,each character have it's own specific abilities.You have Zidane hacking around with his sword,and absolutely useless in magic(except his trances),Vivi,the good-for-nothing little wizard whose magic skills are incomparable to Zidane's strength(until very,very later in the game),Dagger a.k.a Princess Garnet,with powerful summons(which are useless when you go hop into the last dungeon),Quina a user of blue magic who eats his enemies to learn spells(only a portion of his spells worked).While these characters are like you typical Walt Disney characters or Ben Hur type casts(sarcasm),again compared to Zidane,like extras instead of support characters.And compared to even Square's "flop" FF VIII has more balanced cast of characters.

If you think random battle is bearable,like FF VII and FF VIII,this is the most frustrating game after FF VI(for PSX)to date,and prepare for countless hours of head banging moments.There is no moogle charm(FF VI) or Diablos's Enc None (FF VIII)to ease or diminish random encounters.Worse,every battle is just tiresome,with slow loading times and slow ATB bar.This problem even effects your haste spell,where there is no difference in enemy's frequent attacks even when you cast it.

Finally,this "light hearted" Final Fantasy is just not really funny.There is a handful of situations that will only gives you a mere sneer in you face.The dialogue,even with good translators,is lifeless,bland,and lacked with emotion.And it is time for Nobou Uematsu to retire,because 70% of the game's soundtrack is pure ...,with MIDIs still his favourite tool.Overall,if you want good graphics..only good graphics and a pure Square fanboy(i know almost everyone do),don't go cursing at your fellow FF fanatics when you buy and beat the game.

Final Achievement on the PS1

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'll make it brief. The game is by far the best Final Fantasy for the Playstation and the second best in the nine game series (fans will remember FF6). In honor of FF7, super attacks, called Trance, have been brought back. Basically if the enemy beats on you enough you become super powerful for about two or three turns. The music is absolutely beautiful. Nobuo did an excellant job. The graphics are nice eye-candy and are only rivaled by the beautiful CG animations. The characters are very innovative as well. You can have a black mage, a guy with a monkey tail (why does he have that anyway), or a big freaky-looking guy with red hair, to name three. Abilites and spells are gained from pieces of armor and weapons. The same piece of armor can also hold three different abilities for three different characters making it important to figure out who gets what when. Another good idea as it keeps your characters from becoming god-like very quickly. To all those who liked the old !school version of Final Fantasys, who could like the modern ones all that much, 1-6 will enjoy the nostalgia of this game. I, for one, can only hope that SquareSoft keeps with this idea and keeps the series from becoming more Sci-Fi than medieval. Anyway, I can't say that there is anything negative about this game. So why are you still reading this. Buy it now, Amazon seems to never run out of this game and I'm surprised that it hasn't become a greatest hit yet.

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