IX's References to the FF Series? HELP

[Locke4God]

I think of 9, as being the game that was supposed to reflect on the series as a whole. That was it's big selling point right? What I would like to know is what you feel are the most fun, the strongest, the most interesting of these references, because I think I must be overlooking a lot of them.


Positives?

VIVI. His character stood to reference the very first black mage character as you know, and I truly think he did that well and is IMO the best black mage in the entire series. AIRSHIPS. I did love the oldschool airship feel.

Negatives?

CID STATUES. Why did none of the statues in Cid's office reference the Cid's whose numbers they correspond to. That was incredibly shortsighted I felt. They were all holding random objects that had nothing to do with the Cid they represented. CHARACTERS. There was a harken back to non-human characters, which almost worked, except,,, well. In 6, every character, or at least 12 out of the 14 had a very serious reason for joining the team. The same with 7 and 4, and other games, but in 9? What was the heck was Quina doing there? Amarant walsed onto the team extremely late for no apparent reason. Eiko was just a poor man's copy cat of "Dagger". Zidane? Sorry guys, the dude was too uber happy for me. They went to the other extreme after the emo madness that was 7 & 8.

But back to the point. What other references to the series were there? Castles? I mean ok, but ya know,, nothing grand about that that makes me love the game more than another. Anything else that I'm missing?

[Xanatos]

Character motives, and their personality have to with featured allusions what exactly?

As for Cid statues, I honestly couldn't imagine Cid Del Norte Marquez, Cid Highwind, or Cid Kramer up there, especially considering that previous Cid's in Final fantasy IX were either warriors, leaders, or both.

Here, have a nice read:

Final Fantasy IX/Allusions - The Final Fantasy Wiki has more Final Fantasy information than Cid could research

Funny thing is, God knows how many more are there actually...

[Diamond Dust]

That's a brilliant read and a fantastic find Xanatos, thank you.

I just skimming through the VII and VIII sections (being more memorable to me) and I can't believe how many I recall registering when playing! Awesome stuff.

[Zargabaath]

You know I feel like this is a very similar thread to another one Locke created Return to its Roots?. Even the whole Cid statue thing was in the OP as well. Hell it was Xanatos in the previous thread who thought it was going to be about the subject in the title (Return to its Roots) which is kind of what this thread is about. The OP turned out to be more of a review if anything.

There's nothing left to be said since Xanatos posted a link of a lot of references in Final Fantasy IX to past Final Fantasy games.

[Leon]

I loved a lot of those references, especially Josef's story when Ramuh tells you to piece that together. I also loved the Knights of Pluto and their numbers and personally Blutzen and Kohel are my favorite among them.

[Locke4God]

@ Xanatos - Thank you for the list,,,, I'll read it now, but I did find this Quote funny

"Unfortunately, despite the high quality of the translation overall, care was not taken to ensure that all of the various names and references matched up to those used in the previous English-language releases. Because of this, many of the references with which the game abounds are completely missed by the non-Japanese audience. Some examples are included below. This is a list of these allusions organized by game."

It's right there in black & white,,,,, they didn't take care to ensure the references matched up. That's exactly what this game felt like. It felt like they slacked, that was my first impression, that has always been my impression, and now here it is, an admission. I knew I was on to something.

[Xanatos]

It's right there in black & white,,,,, they didn't take care to ensure the references matched up. That's exactly what this game felt like. It felt like they slacked, that was my first impression, that has always been my impression, and now here it is, an admission. I knew I was on to something.

It seems you missed the entire point of that quote of yours, English translation has been terrible for generations now, ever since first Final Fantasy was released outside Japan, Final Fantasy VII would be prime example. Names, references, which were consistent in Japanese versions were either lost or changed during translation with every new game, not to mention remakes which were noticeably different to original titles. Thus it was hard, almost impossible to adjust all references to western market. Disturbing thing is, an already huge list of allusions is apparently not enough, it's true that Final Fantasy IX is homage to older games, but at the same time it has to offer something new, and fresh.

The way I see it, you clearly have some issues with this game, so far you've looked for even the slightest "mistake", every opportunity to bash it, you see issues where there are none, I hate Final Fantasy V more than I'm willing to admit, but even I'm not obsessed like this. Honestly I should have seen this coming, I mean who complains about characters personality, and determination in thread about references to older titles, in the opening post for that matter...you remind me of those Final Fantasy VII haters, they blinded by their hate so much they wont even admit that it's actually a decent game.

[Zargabaath]

Regardless of any translation errors that did not match the names/references to past games. There are references of past Final Fantasys abound in Final Fantasy IX. To say that they were slacking after reading that whole list is being over-critical as there are loads of references from each FF and some other games in Final Fantasy IX.

I got to say the character's motives/reason(s) for being in the party should not have been in this thread as Xanatos pointed out. Some characters may have similar motives as other characters in the series, but I think the characters were one thing that they did not try to link a reference to past Final Fantasys in Final Fantasy IX. This seems more like you [Locke] trying to grasp at straws to berate the game. It makes the "10 & 13 not included, which was the most linear game?" thread seem like another attempt to take a small swipe at FFIX. All this reminds me of Antidrall's disdain for Final Fantasy VII and everything involved with it except done in a less overt way.

[Locke4God]

@ Xanatos - I didn't miss the point. I'm playing the english version, so the translation is kind of everything, and they clearly state that care wasn't taken when it came to referencing prior games.

And yeah, I definately have an issue with the game. I'm not hiding that. Blinded by hate? LOLOLOL. No I dont' think so. It's not a decent game. I've enjoyed every other game in the series far more. It's bland, and unispired. That's not hateful, it's just a passive observation. I was bored out of my mind playing that game.

That being said, the list you provided does indeed help, as I was unaware of most of these references, and to Zargabaath's point above, I agree. So thank you for that. I'm going to keep the list handy for a 2nd playthrough in the coming year or so here, and I hope that will increase the value of this game to me. Never-the-less the sidequests still suck, Queina, Eiko, & Amarant are useless through ins, and Zidane is a gay mo-fo. ;-)

[charliepanayi]

The translation in FFIX is great, loads of the references comes through, I don't see the problem. And the sidequests in FFIX are maybe the best in the series! But haters gonna hate as they say (anyone who says Zidane is 'too happy' clearly never bothered with the You Are Not Alone bit).

[Xithor]

I liked seeing all the allusions to previous game's as I was playing through and it was great to see a character named Garland as the hand behind the scenes. There was a fact on that allusion page that said:

Garland shares his name with a character from the original game. The character Mikoto even goes so far as to mention later that, "Garland once tried to take control of the cycle of souls by force, but failed," the strongest evidence suggesting that perhaps the world of Final Fantasy IX is in direct relation to the events of the first game in the series.

That is a very interesting point and could absolutely make sense, like Garland has created another world where he obviously would take a different form and is once again trying to take control of the cycle of souls. As far as Zidane being too cheery, which is totally off topic, I have to disagree. I think Zidane as a character evolved very nicely from start to finish, beginning as a thief who was just worried about living in the now and making the most of it, and of course girls, to getting a larger perspective on what he should be thankful for, understanding who he is, and knowing that he could stand with his friends and count on them to make it through any troubles. He is my favorite character so I may be biased a little =p

[ZenMonkey59]

I've only beaten FF1 and FF13, but I've played all the games in the series to some extent.

FFIX is PACKED with allusions to the earlier games! I'm catching tons of stuff, and I feel like there is a lot of stuff going right over my head too.

Most of it is so gracefully done too. They don't shove your face in the references...very subtle.