I have mixed feelings when it comes to the 32-bit Final Fantasy trilogy. It was off to a great start with the seventh game, but the following sequel was an absolute train wreck. It was clear that Squaresoft was being pulled in multiple directions at the same time. They were losing their focus. Then came Final Fantasy IX. This brought the series back to the fantasy medieval worlds fans loved in the previous iterations, as well as other longstanding franchise conventions. It felt like a return to form. The thing is I haven’t played it since it was released. I decided to give Final Fantasy IX another go to see if it held up as well as I thought it would. The answer is yes, but only for the most part.
Final Fantasy IX takes us away from the steampunk and futuristic settings in the previous installments. This story takes place in the magical medieval world of Gaia. The largest and most powerful country here is called Alexandria. It is run by the hideous queen Brahn who little by little is being consumed by her own greed. Our tale begins with a group of honorable thieves in a group called Tantalus. They travel under the guise of a performance troupe. their latest mission is to kidnap Brahn’s daughter Princess Garnet and bring her to the nearby benevolent kingdom of Lindblum. The kidnapping goes off without a hitch as her royal highness was already in the process of running away, but the group’s airship is shot down during the grand escape.
The main protagonist in Final Fantasy IX is a wisecracking thief named Zidane who stands out from the rest of Tantalus because he is the only one that has a tail. Things start off rocky with the cast of characters whose biggest problem in the beginning is that no one gets along. Zidane is a smart aleck, princess Garnet is too prim and proper, and her personal knight Steiner is too stiff and by the books. Black mage Vivi (who basically has no backstory until later) is the only likable member of the cast early on in my opinion.
At first I found this offputting. With the way the story develops this is gradually fixed and makes the journey all the more charming. Late in the adventure things become very generic with your typical existential crisis antagonists and protagonists alike which the franchise is known for. I didn’t care for it, but up to that point it’s a fun ride. The world of Gaia is a fun one to explore and a significant amount of effort has been put into the lore here. It’s a place that feels lived in, and that’s one of my favorite aspects of this game.
Final Fantasy IX was a real return to form after the trainwreck that was part 8. Squaresoft went back to the basics here. This is a very traditional role playing game wherein you traverse a world map, towns, and dungeons. It was refreshing at the time that Final Fantasy IX didn’t throw any major curveballs at players like the previous iteration did. Back then it was like chicken soup for the weary gamer. Final Fantasy IX makes use of a modified version of the active time based system introduced back with IV. This means each party member has a bar at the bottom of the screen which fills up gradually, and when it does you can enter a command for said person.
Where Final Fantasy IX shines (especially in comparison with the installments that it followed) is in character individuality. Everyone has specific weapons and armor (and accessories) that they can equip which alter their stats in different ways. Additionally they each have a special skill (or multiple) at their disposal with a variety of different effects. Zidane for example can steal items from foes, Garnet can use white magic and summon eidolons in battle, Vivi has black magic, Steiner sword arts, etc. This helps establish roles for each character in the framework of strategy. In the beginning you’re forced to use specific characters as per story events but later on it’s largely left to you.
The game takes an interesting approach to learning new skills and spells. These are learned from your equipment, and come in the form of abilities. Each item has their own abilities which can be learned while they are equipped, but only when you gain SP from battles. It’s an oddball system which was never replicated anywhere else in the series. At first I found it a little off-putting but it works, and it makes equipment more significant in the grand scheme of things. This leads to situations where you don’t want to upgrade your equipment which I found offputting at times. Despite this it’s a unique and pretty decent progression system which I liked overall.
Final Fantasy IX benefits most in my opinion from the increased party size. At a time when most RPGs let us use just three party members at once this game surprised everyone by allowing for four. The cast isn’t particularly big which is disappointing. To be honest I wished for a little more crossover in skills. For example, Steiner, Freya, Zidane, and Amarant are your primary fighters but two of them are noticeably weaker and I couldn’t justify using them. Their additional skills just weren’t interesting enough to get past this weakness. The mages suffer a pretty similar issue. Why use anyone except Garnet and Vivi when the other two options are obviously not as good in this regard? If you use anyone other than Zidane, Steiner, Garnet and Vivi it feels like you’re artificially increasing the difficulty.
With that said the encounter rate is just a little higher than I like. Sometimes it feels like you take only a few paces before another battle engages. With loading times and camera rotations above the battlefield it takes quite a bit of time before the action starts. That’s probably the biggest detriment of Final Fantasy IX; everything takes too long. Waiting for your characters to use the commands you’ve selected for them is almost agonizing compared to other JRPGs. I’m a veteran of the genre and even I grew impatient. I suppose a fair amount of time is wasted to mask the loading but by the end of this adventure I grew weary.
I loved the triple triad card game in FF8. Thankfully it returns in this game with something similar. Here it’s card Tetra Master, and you can challenge just about anyone in the world to a match. You gain cards from battle (and other sources such as story developments) and have to line up cards with higher attack power than your foes. There’s little strategy involved and the winner is basically whoever has the better deck. It’s a decent diversion however and I enjoyed taking a break from the main story to play it. In addition there are a few other mini-games that are somewhat enjoyable. In this regard FF9 has a lot to offer and you really get sucked into the world. This holds true even when not playing the main quest.
Where Final Fantasy IX absolutely excels is in its difficulty level. FF7 was far too easy, and 8 punished you for actually playing the game. This installment offers a fair challenge if you choose to zip through the story. Grinding is encouraged, but only if you aren’t willing to explore the abilities of each character. Gaining what you can from weapons and armor, and paying close attention to this mechanic can absolutely break Final Fantasy IX. It’s pretty complicated though, and in this case feels downright rewarding when you can progress by exploiting your knowledge of the mechanics.
At the time of release Final Fantasy IX was compared to many Dreamcast games. That wasn’t fair in my opinion because this certainly doesn’t look like any of them. On its own merit, and compared to other PS1 titles however this one is pretty darn spiffy. The pre-rendered backgrounds are among the best you’ll find on the platform. Outside of battle the characters look fantastic with more polygons and frames than ever before. The most impressive part is that Steiner’s armor has reflective qualities. Even though the effect is faked they look great. Inside of battle the game looks pretty similar to Final Fantasy VIII. The backgrounds are chock full of detail, characters animate well, and the spell effects are colorful and varied. The only thing I don’t like is how blocky and blurry characters look when zoomed in. That only happens in the victory poses, fortunately.
The soundtrack however is one of the best in the entire Final Fantasy franchise. The world map theme is an electro pop composition which does a fantastic job in making Gaia feel vast but lonely. Town themes are adequate, but they don’t kick it into high gear until you reach the Black Mage Village where things sound downright otherworldly. Most fans of the game will recall the one vocal track in the game which is haunting and catchy. Where the game harkens most to classic Final Fantasy however is in the standard battle theme. It starts off very high energy and hits some very classic notes. Overall the music is fantastic.
