Pointy Hats & Kupo Nuts: One Man's Journey Through Final Fantasy IX

[+ Revenant +]

As you can see, I'm new here, and I wanted to celebrate my membership with something special. So I'm going ten years back in time, when the FF series and games in general really meant something to me...back to THIS.



I haven’t played it in three years, and never all the way through. Maybe it's not as beloved as 6-8, or even 10, but I've held onto it because I knew I would have a great experience with it one day. So think of this as the mad diary of a new Final Fantasy IX fan’s experience. Every day or three, I’ll be making entries about where I am in the game and what my impressions are. And if you would take the ride with me and tell me your opinions too, I'd be honored. Wish me luck! (Needless to say, there will eventually be big spoilers here.)



CHAPTER ONE: Screwing Up Royally

FFIX has a really nice opening with awesome cutscenes; I suspect these will be among its best features. I really like the setup. You start experiencing this colorful, whimsical world in three primary roles: a horny monkey boy trying to abduct a celebrity, a naive magician teaming up with a rat to sneak into a play, and an incompetent but devoted knight trying to comprehend the resulting chaos and retain what shreds of dignity remain with being male in the kingdom of Alexandria.

The first thing you see is a tiny ship--more of a raft, really--being thrown around on a storm-tossed ocean. Two figures aboard, a mother and a daughter...then the princess wakes up, and we see it was a dream. We're actually in a nice medieval-style castle. There IS a ship coming, but this one's a cool-looking airship called the Prima Vista, and into it we go...

IT BEGINS: VIDEO -
"Final Fantasy IX: Title and Opening"

I like that your first action in the game is lighting a candle in a darkened room (the hold of the ship, as it turns out). Here you meet your surprisingly endearing shipmates and fellow actors; it seems you are a bunch of traveling performers called the Tantalus Group. But you're not just cruising into Alexandria to bemuse the sheltered elite. You're here to kidnap Princess Garnet! Why? Um...well, I'll get back to you on that. She's hot, and that's good enough for me!



Your captain/director, a loud obnoxious pig-man called Baku, lays out the plan (with puppets and a model) and tells Zidane at what point during the play he should sneak into the castle and do his thing. Zidane is supposed to say, "that's when I kidnap Princess Garnet, right?" But of course I always say…

Zidane: That's when I kidnap Queen Brahne, right?
Baku: You bet! You're gonna kidnap the fat-ass, butt-ugly Queen Br- Wait...what'm I sayin'!? You're gonna kidnap the most babe-a-licious beauty in all of Alexandria, Princess Garnet!

He even has a puppet of Brahne, the vain, obese, and very bluish Queen of Alexandria. A dumb joke, but I laughed so hard I had to stop for a minute and the game's just barely started. But we move on to our first sight of Vivi (the magician) and the title cinematic, which is one of the best I've ever seen. It's not Squall and Seifer battling to "Liberi Fatali," but it still takes my breath away. The sight of the Prima Vista approaching the castle stayed with me. Though they don't realize it, these bumbling thespians are an agent of change. Their visit will soon affect the life of every major character, and peel back the bright, opulent facade of Alexandrian society to reveal the darkness rising inside...



But I won't get ahead of myself. Now they're just trying to perform a play called "I Want to Be Your Canary." (Shakespeare's still kicking himself for not coming up with that title.) But before we see it, I explore the streets of Alexandria as Vivi, sniff out some cool items, practice at the Tetra Master card game (losing my good cards in the process), and meet Puck, an annoying rat-boy with whom I traverse the treacherous roofs of the kingdom and sneak over the castle wall to view the play.

WALK CLUMSILY AND CARRY A BIG EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: "Final Fantasy IX Music - Vivi's Theme"

And the show does go on, despite some alarming mishaps wherein Princess Garnet VOLUNTEERS to be kidnapped, and runs onto the stage with Zidane (the monkey-boy) and Steiner (the knight), forcing everyone to improvise a new ending to this surprisingly fun Romeo and Juliet variant. Everyone hightails it to the Prima Vista, even Vivi. Despite Queen Brahne's violent efforts to stop the airship from making off with Garnet via some grappling hooks and a Bomb monster, the unwieldy theater ship gets a safe distance away from the kingdom before it crashes in... *cue scary music, deep echoey voice*



That's as far as I’ll go for now. Some notes…when I play RPGs without voice acting, I read most of the text-boxes aloud myself. With different voices for all the characters. FFIX is one of the more entertaining games to do that with. I love Active Time Events (ATE’s), because I can actually see what the other characters are doing when Zidane's not around, and I really feel like I know them better. I'm already impressed by how much color and detail can be seen in this game. The first locale, Alexandria, is interesting because of its history--on which women have left the deepest mark. As Vivi read on a statue, one famous general led her own army at the age of 13. Perhaps this explains the current roster of 13-year-old female palace guards patrolling the kingdom in tight spandex.

This epic journey shall continue. I will soon tell you much more about my experience, including but not limited to Regent Cid's mustache. So stick around!

[charliepanayi]

I like this thread already, keep it up

[Xithor]

FFIX is one of the most underrated games in the whole series, hope you enjoy your run through

[+ Revenant +]

Here's my next crazy entry on a game that seems to be after my own heart. After hearing that FFIX's music was totally uninspired or a dull rehash of old stuff, I have to say the soundtrack is actually pretty damn good. Every theme is a good fit for the location it plays in, and already a few tracks have stood out (particularly the Evil Forest).

EVIL IS APPARENTLY A SYNONYM FOR 'FREAKING BEAUTIFUL': "Stirring the Forest"



CHAPTER TWO: “Get That Repulsive Bug Off the Throne”

Speaking of the Evil Forest, plenty has happened since then. Zidane, everyone's favorite male stripper (well, look at his outfit!), quit the Tantalus Group to save Garnet and Vivi's asses (one very attractive, the other possibly nonexistent). I can't blame him, since Garnet is Garnet, and Vivi is so cute you just couldn't bear to let him die, no matter how much he whines later...

Now I know what you may be thinking--it's gloomy, yeah, but what makes this forest "EVIL?" The answer is: crazy plant monsters. They're all after you. Good lesson, kids: in the FF universe, this is what happens to your plants when you don't water them. They take matters into their own hands. Or pincers, rather. But our hapless heroes are lucky enough to kill the HEAD plant monster, which somehow causes the entire forest to begin turning to stone. This is shown in one of the more amazing cutscenes I've seen on the PSX, where everyone's racing to get out of the forest, and one of Zidane's friends (named Blank) sacrifices himself to help them.

A "BLANK" SLATE (get it?! HAR HAR): VIDEO - "Final Fantasy 9 - Evil Forest, Blank Petrified"



Once they're out, it's time to get to higher ground. We get there by going through the Ice Cavern, where everyone is overwhelmed by a blizzard and Zidane alone stays awake. Turns out an evil-looking mage called the Black Waltz, sent by Brahne to kidnap Garnet, is causing it all. Zidane fights him and his pet monster alone, and wins. (Here we get our first indication that the thief is a lot more than meets the eye.)

Steiner insists on taking Garnet back to the castle. Instead, she adopts a fake name, "Dagger," and opts to continue this crazy quest. Which is good, or else the game would have ended 1/4th of the way through Disc 1. This implausible crew goes on to a rural village called Dali, where the innkeeper has a bad case of narcolepsy and Vivi gets kidnapped Deliverance-style by the locals. I officially become a fan of Zidane when he remarks on the selection of books in his hotel room with a frankness almost unknown to FF characters.

Dali Inn Library, for your reading pleasure...
"How to Save One Million Gil"
"Earn Money the Easy Way"
"Makin' Crazy Money! Vol. 2"

Zidane: These books suck.

But before we can find out just how sucky the books are, we discover an underground factory that's manufacturing black mages to be used as soldiers in the war Alexandria is planning to start. Since Vivi is a black mage himself, this doesn't sit well with him, and a long identity crisis on his part begins. Blowing away a second Black Waltz mage, our heroes steal an airship. As they're climbing onboard, Zidane accidentally touches Dagger's butt in one of my favorite moments. ("...Ohh, soft." "Eeeeeeek!") That was the kind of thing you just didn't see in, say, FFVIII, and it makes this game a lot more fun. Dagger forgives him, at least long enough to ride illegally across the border to the neighboring regency of Lindblum--with Black Waltz No. 3 (the final one, of course) hot on their heels.

"BUT SOUTH GATE LOOKED LIKE THAT WHEN WE GOT THERE, HONEST!": VIDEO -
"Final Fantasy IX - Breaking Through South Gate"

I'm liking these guys more and more. They may not look like much, but they know how to get results, and already they feel familiar and real in a way that other FF casts (particularly 7 and 8) never did. Once in Lindblum—one of the most awesome RPG cities ever created—we explain our suspicions about Alexandria to Regent Cid. Until recently he was human, but got turned into a slimy frog-like creature. I promised to tell you about his mustache, so here goes: it's big and gray and looks ridiculous on an oglop. But Cid listens and promises help, revealing that HE was the one who ordered Tantalus to kidnap Garnet in the first place, just to get her away from her mammoth mother’s malevolent machinations. It's also here that my favorite character in this game appears...



...Freya, who owns you and the entire world. She looks like a rodent, but is called a Dragon Knight, and hails from Burmecia where such beings are common. After a crazy-ass thing called the Festival of the Hunt, where vicious monsters are basically turned loose all over Lindblum and whoever kills the most wins (Zidane won, thanks to me), we learn that Alexandria is getting way too big for its gilded britches, and for some reason has attacked Freya's hometown...so off we go to kick some more ass, as the party splits up. This wasn't intentional, but Zidane wants Dagger to stay in Lindblum and out of the war. She shows her resolve by drugging their food with sleeping weed, allowing her and Steiner to vamoose back to Alexandria in hopes of finding out what the hell is going on.

She's long gone when Zidane, Vivi and Freya wake up. Since they have no choice, they continue across the world map and pick up a goofy, overweight...THING called Quina. Its entire identity is eating. Even its gender is unknown, which perhaps is for the best. Our path leads to a Burmecian cave called Gizamaluke’s Grotto. Gizamaluke himself is a vicious floating snake who used to be friends with Freya’s race, but has now gone crazy and attacked them. He is probably the first boss to present a serious challenge. Everyone’s HP is getting really low by the time Freya finally knocks him off. Then we move on to Burmecia, which is an even damper and more depressing place.



Alexandria’s black mages have already decimated the kingdom by the time we get there, but we’re just in time to save a few people and get totally destroyed by the amazing General Beatrix. Probably the only way we survive until the end is that Zidane trances (the first time that status has EVER been useful so far) and waffles her with a Shift Break for 1800 HP. But at least we see that Queen Brahne is indeed behind this, and the villain behind her is Kuja—a very confusing man who looks as gay as humanly possible, yet is apparently straight because he soon gets attached to Garnet. Best of all, this one version of his theme music is like an evil, RPG version of "We Will Rock You."

Y2K...uja: "Kuja's Theme (Millennium Version)"

I guess he's a Queen fan, in addition to looking like a bit of a queen himself. Anything can happen in the FF universe. So stay tuned for more “anything” in my next entry. Kupo!

[Johnny]

FFIX is one in the whole series that i will never tire of. i would love if you would tell the whole tale again.

[charliepanayi]

'After hearing that FFIX's music was totally uninspired or a dull rehash of old stuff'

Whoever told you this was clearly crazy, it's one of the best soundtracks in the series.

[Blackbird VIII]

I have never played all the way through either. The furthest I have reached was disc 3. However, when I went back to the game (two years later) I realized that I didn't know what the hell was going on. Anyway, I have just restarted it as well, so, you are not alone in your adventure.

Good luck

[+ Revenant +]

It is between Discs 1 and 2 when Final Fantasy IX really gets a hold of me, and I start to take the whole experience more seriously.

You can cruise through the first disc without too much trouble, but after that the game starts to test your commitment and your grasp of the battle system. It’s also when extracting abilities from items gets very important and keeping up with the Mognet mail delivery gets interesting. Fortunately, I’m all over those things. Garnet is determined to go back to Alexandria and talk her crazy mother out of destroying the rest of the Mist Continent. Knowing the princess must remain incognito until she’s within her kingdom’s borders, Steiner smuggles her through South Gate in a bindle bag full of gysahl pickles. (The smell is so strong that the guards can’t bear to check his luggage.)



I love that part for reasons I can’t explain. This, along with the intense battle in Burmecia, really makes me feel something for the characters. Even the villains are gaining some depth, which will become especially true of Beatrix as we play on.



CHAPTER THREE: Save the Trees! (Whoops, too late…)

Steiner and Dagger run into Cinna and Marcus of the Tantalus Group at a train station. Marcus travels with them to Treno, a large city where it’s always night...and “I Love the Nightlife” is always playing. *shudder* Just kidding, it's actually this very smart piano theme.

SO HOW DO PLANTS GROW HERE, ANYWAY?: "Sleepless City Treno"

You can bid on rare items in an auction house, play in the Tetra Master tournament and trade stellazio to a strangely hot duck-woman for cash. Great place to have fun, although I wouldn’t want to live there. Compromising their royal honor, the princess and her knight help Marcus break into a shop to find the Supersoft, which can cure Blank--who is still very much on the stiff side, as it were. In the process they meet one of my favorite side characters. This funny-looking birdman (no, not the rapper) named Dr. Tot reveals an underground route that will take them straight to the basement of Alexandria Castle.



Meanwhile, Brahne’s path of senseless destruction is leading from Burmecia to Cleyra, a village built on a large tree in the desert where other rodent people still live. A giant sandstorm has protected the place for a thousand years (someone must have forgotten to turn it off), but Zidane and Co. manage to sneak into the beautiful settlement and reunite with some interesting Burmecians. Remember Puck, that rat-boy who Vivi watched the play with at the start of the game? He’s actually the runaway prince of Burmecia, and a monster has a hold of him near Cleyra’s trunk. Do we have to do ALL the work around here?!

The vicious Antlion is without a doubt the toughest boss fight for me so far. Even more so than Beatrix, because you actually have to beat the thing. Towards the end of the battle it goes crazy and unleashes deadly sandstorm attacks that nearly kill everyone in the party. For a little while I’m throwing Phoenix Downs and Hi-Potions around just to stay afloat, and ordering Freya to jump just to keep her out of the boss’ range—when finally a Counter Horn attack knocks out Zidane, Vivi and Quina and I put down the controller, knowing that’s the end of the line. That's when Freya comes down out of nowhere with her final spear attack, finishing off the Antlion in the nick of time. You couldn’t ask for a more dramatic finish to a boss fight. Did I mention I’m in love with Freya? Yes, I know I’ve only been playing a few days, but it’s already serious. And I don’t have to justify our love to you! I know she has claws and looks like a rodent, but I can depend on her, dammit.



So just when everything seems fine…wouldn’t you know it, the sandstorm stops (I’m guessing Kuja is the culprit) and the Alexandrian forces invade. As Zidane, I managed to herd a bunch of NPCs to safety without any of them getting killed…only to start another fight with the badass general. We survive, but she swipes the magic crystal that used to power the sandstorm. The black mages are teleporting out on magic orbs that fly them back to Brahne's airship, the Red Rose. We hitch a ride on these things just before Cleyra is completely destroyed by Odin, an eidolon summoned by Brahne. (Forgot to mention, Dagger has the hidden power to summon eidolons. Upon her return to the castle, her psycho mother captured her and used Zorn and Thorn's magic to steal that power.)

SOME REALLY SEVERE WEATHER: VIDEO - "Odin Destroys Cleyra"

I’m going to miss Cleyra, even though its music was annoying. Perhaps the most memorable development before we left was the reappearance of Sir Fratley, Freya's lost love who hasn't been seen in five years. But what should be a joyous reunion is an awkward and almost tragic scene, because Fratley is suffering from amnesia and can't remember a thing about his former life, not even Freya. It says a lot about her that even when everything she held dear is now gone, she's able to continue on and fight another day.

The Red Rose is headed back to Alexandria Castle, but we have to get there first or else Queen Brahne will have Garnet executed. Using some orbs again, we beat her there by half an hour. The imprisoned Steiner and Marcus finally escape and run into us on their way out of the dungeon, so all that’s left to do is wake up the sleeping princess. Zorn and Thorn try to stop us, but we completely destroy them. With the help of Cinna and Blank, who’s finally been cured, we make it to Dagger...only to run into General Beatrix yet again.

By this time I know she doesn’t want to kill us and will pull her punches on purpose, so I just throw Phoenix Downs on anyone who gets KOed and leave them at low health while other characters keep hitting her. Then comes the inevitable Stock Break that takes everyone down to 1HP and ends the fight. Zidane reasons with her, and when she realizes the enormity of Brahne’s crimes, she stays behind with Steiner and Freya to cover our backs. It's great to have her on our side (as a PC in combat, no less), but getting Dagger out of this royal nuthouse is even better. We make a break for Lindblum, and it’s there that our journey will truly begin…

…So I’ll just leave you hanging for now.

[Rocky]

this is amazing, I'm getting the popcorn!

[+ Revenant +]

One thing I didn’t notice so much before is how dark Final Fantasy IX really is. Its colorful, exotic locations, goofy character designs and amusing NPCs are not just a childish throwback, as some gamers suggested; they were necessary elements to distinguish the game from previous Final Fantasies. Beneath that cartoonish façade, IX’s story is as serious and moving as any of its predecessors’—and I suspect darker days are ahead for the protagonists as they push stubbornly onward.

The plot thickens and the story quickens. Dagger, Vivi and Zidane stumbled across a beautiful wooded area en route to Lindblum called the Pinnacle Rocks. Here, the spirit of the eidolon Ramuh (who really needs to trim the ol’ facial hair) offers his services to the princess, who after all is a summoner by blood—but more on that later. Even as they approach Lindblum, Queen Brahne’s forces have already closed in and conquered the city with a new eidolon called Atomos.

IT'S HARD TO COME UP WITH FUNNY TITLES FOR SCENES LIKE THIS: VIDEO - "Lindblum is Destroyed - Atomos"

Unlike Burmecia and Cleyra, Lindblum is not completely devastated; I’m guessing Alexandria left it functional because they want to exploit its superior technology and control the other side of the Mist Continent. So here we go into the next chapter…and there’s quite a bit of ground to cover.



CHAPTER FOUR: “Did Ye Frizzle It Wi' Some o' Yer Mejick?”

Though Brahne may think she has wiped out her pesky daughter and fellow rebels, she got to Lindblum just a little too soon. The jailbait Alexandrian soldiers don’t recognize us, and we stroll through the disheveled city buying supplies and preparing our next move. You’d think our faces would’ve been on wanted posters throughout Alexandria after all the trouble we caused; plus our friends Beatrix, Steiner and Freya are no doubt imprisoned there. Since Kuja is the one behind all of this trouble, and Brahne merely a pawn, Regent Cid suggests we visit an unexplored place called the Outer Continent. Maybe there we can find Kuja and show him what’s what—except we don’t even know what’s what. But at least it’s a plan. Since going by air or sea is out of the question, we meet up with Quina and find an excavation site in the Qu’s Marsh, which takes us to an underground passage called Fossil Roo, which takes us to Le Continent de Outer. Except the first place we reach reminds me far more of the Scottish than the French…



I love this place almost immediately. It is a village of dwarves--greenish, aggressively stereotypical, and not very nice to look at--but at least nice to talk to. Their Scottish-type accents and expressions came across surprisingly well in the translation, reminding me of how far Square’s localization efforts had come by 2000. For example, look at Final Fantasy VII just three years prior; remember the strange, woozy dialogue? I mean, the characters spoke in their own distinctive ways and most of their R’s and L’s were in the right place, but there was no guarantee that what they said would actually make sense. You could feel how labored the translation was. Final Fantasy IX, while not perfect, was a dramatic improvement.

But back to Conde Petie. Upon seeing one of those allegedly soulless, bloodthirsty black mages buying something at the local store, we deduce that maybe Vivi isn’t the only nice mage out there—and that others like him come from a nearby village, “sae deep in the forest, that even owls dinnae live there!” So off we go, to Where There Are No Owls (remember that part?), to enter the hidden and sealed Black Mage Village. Some of Alexandria’s mages, though manufactured for war, managed to attain sentience and deserted the army to live on another continent in peace. Although Vivi is a differently colored midget version of these guys (maget?), he quickly identifies with them. The mages don’t like us at first—they’re afraid we’re here to attack them, or suspicious that we’re just going to use them like Brahne and Kuja did. But they come to trust us and tell us their stories.

These scenes, though not fancy AMVs, are among the deepest in the game so far. Not only does Vivi learn some of the truth, but Zidane moves beyond simply flirting with Dagger and opens up to her. (Reading the dialogue aloud, as I insist on doing, makes it even more effective.)



SOME THINGS ARE BETTER SHOWN THAN TOLD: "Final Fantasy IX walkthough part 61: Vivi Learns The Truth"

The black mages have seen a silver dragon in the area, and the only such dragon we know is the one Kuja rode when he made his grand exit from Burmecia. So at least we know we’re on the right continent. Most conspicuous is a place called the Iifa Tree, which is accessible from Conde Petie—but due to their unique customs, only married couples are allowed to pass through. Surprisingly, Dagger agrees to “marry” Zidane without a second thought, and Vivi must marry Quina in similar fashion. (Because of this and the pastel clothes, I’ve always thought of Quina as female…even though her gender is never revealed in the game.) Sadly for Zidane and luckily for Vivi, these marriages are never consummated, but at least now the dwarves will let us travel the mountain path. And it’s on this path that we meet another one of my favorite characters: Eiko Carol, the last survivor of an ancient summoner tribe. The blunt, precocious six-year-old boasts some serious magical powers and lives with a surrogate family of moogles in the ruins of Madain Sari. (Cue another particularly good piece of music.)

COME FOR THE EIDOLONS, STAY FOR THE FOOD: "Ruins of Madain Sari"



Eiko’s feisty attitude and advanced white magic win me over right away, and she becomes a fixture in my party. The Iifa tree was sealed centuries ago by a force field, but since she’s tired of having no other people to talk to and has a crush on Zidane, she agrees to help get them inside. (She recites an impressive-sounding spell, when really all she had to do was touch the thing. Funny stuff.) And thank goodness we have her services here, because tackling the Tree is no easy task. Undead plant-related monsters are everywhere on those branches, and once we get inside the tree things get even freakier. It’s very green and misty, seemingly half-tree, half-machine. Actually, it seems to produce mist—the same kind that brings dangerous monsters and powers airships on Zidane and Dagger’s continent. Also unnerving is the fact that a “failed eidolon,” or rather an evil spirit that the ancient summoners couldn’t control, is sealed in the Tree—or was until we got here...

LIKE THE EVIL FOREST BUT MUCH, MUCH WORSE: "Iifa Tree"

Riding a strange leaf-like platform, we spiral down to the Tree’s core, fighting off more living saplings and zombies. Finally we land at the bottom, or as close to the bottom as human feet can go. And it’s there that we meet the Soulcage, that failed eidolon Eiko warned us about earlier. He (or it) produces the mist which Kuja has been using to create Vivi and the other black mages. Being sealed in the Tree has bred a sort of cold, distant insanity in this thing. While sentient, it knows the mist has caused centuries of suffering to those above the surface, and relishes it. To stop that suffering (and throw a wrench in Kuja’s plot), we have to stop the Soulcage. It seems impossible—I mean, this thing is a damned eidolon—and in fact it almost was.



We get off to a good start with Vivi blasting the thing with Bio and Eiko strengthening the party with a Carbuncle summon…but then it totally screws us up by casting Level 5 Death a few turns into the battle. Zidane drops dead, then Dagger, then Vivi…and Eiko stays alive. I don’t know how, but she did. For a terrifying moment she’s staring this monster down all alone—but somehow, she goes to work with magic and drags the rest of the party back from certain doom. From there it’s a desperate struggle to keep ourselves alive and get off some attacks at the same time. Somehow it seemed fitting that if anyone scored the final blow here, it would be Vivi—and he did just that, with a Bio spell for over 1000 HP. The Soulcage falls, the Iifa Tree stiffens like it’s dying, and the mist finally stops. Zidane and Co. have made a real impact after so many days of just running and fighting for survival. They’ve picked up two summoners, stopped the production of black mages, extinguished an ancient evil and changed the face of their world.

Your move, Kuja.

[Tallulah]

You can cruise through the first disc without too much trouble, but after that the game starts to test your commitment and your grasp of the battle system. It’s also when extracting abilities from items gets very important and keeping up with the Mognet mail delivery gets interesting.

I'm just halfway through your thread, and this paragraph really resonated with me. I have been off work for a few weeks now with a broken leg and have been filling the time with video games, and I started replaying Final Fantasy IX, as I had been meaning to replay it for quite a while. Disc One is easy, mainly back story, and can be done really quickly without really levelling up, but if you haven't done enough levelling, the difficulty curve shoots up, and it can get really frustrating.

I'll read on; thanks for posting this.

[+ Revenant +]

I generally do not fare well on long RPGs of three or four discs. I’ll make it about halfway through and then get tired of the game, or just forget about it for long enough that when I come back I’m totally lost. I never even finished Final Fantasy VII or VIII; I made it about two-thirds of the way through each game before losing interest. With IX, it’s different. I’ve reached and surpassed the point where I stopped in my previous attempt, and knowing what I know now, it’s hard to imagine not seeing the game through to the end. This game has done what VII and VIII couldn’t do for long enough: made me care about the characters and what happens to them. Since the death of Soulcage, a lot has happened on both fronts.



CHAPTER FIVE: Hold Grudge, Will Travel

After our desperate assault on the Iifa Tree, we stop back at Madain Sari for some R & R…or that was the plan, anyway. Before you know it Eiko finds that the ancient village’s precious stone has been stolen, and is then kidnapped by the thief—Lani, the bounty hunter we ran into in Fossil Roo. Suddenly her red-haired, blue-skinned partner Amarant Coral shows up and drives her off because he doesn’t work with hostage-taking scumbags. But he’s not necessarily on our side, either. Zidane beats him in a duel and he decides to hang around—sort of an “honor among thieves” thing, I guess.



Back at the Tree we encounter not only Kuja, but Brahne. Having brought the whole Mist Continent under her control, the queen doesn’t need Kuja’s help anymore and thinks she might as well take him out of the picture.

The Alexandrian navy launches an impressive attack. Brahne herself summons Bahamut, who breathes massive fireballs at Kuja and his dragon. But the evil drag queen emerges with only a cut on his forehead and summons a giant eye from the sky above. (I’ve seen that somewhere before.) Somehow the eye possesses Bahamut, who turns on the Alexandrian forces and blows them away—including Queen Brahne, who is left to die on the beach. After running back down the tree pursued by monsters, we manage to reach her. In her last words with her daughter we glean that she became bitter and angry at the world after the death of her husband (Dagger’s stepfather). Soon after his death, along came Kuja to act as an arms dealer and unofficial advisor, and it’s likely that he manipulated her into starting the war.

But that doesn't mean I forgive her for everything. You can only take out your pain on others for so long before it catches up with you.



With Brahne gone, the party returns to Alexandria so Dagger—or rather, Princess Garnet—can be crowned the new queen. Zidane is having trouble processing these developments, and he’s not the only one. A poignant scene occurs when Garnet, dolled up in a fancy dress and again bound by royal etiquette, bids farewell to her friends from the second floor of the castle. Zidane retreats to drown his sorrows at the bar and soon travels to Treno with the rest of the party. There’s a card game tournament happening there, and at the moment he has nothing else to do. Perhaps unlike him, I have considerably more fun in the nocturnal city than I did during my last visit. I buy a few funky items at the auction house, Eiko talks with Dr. Tot (who is fascinated with her tribe and its history) and Vivi goes back to a nearby cave called Quan’s Dwelling, where he was raised by a strange creature (Quan) who looked rather like Quina and has since died.

You have to win the card tournament to progress in the game. I was dreading this because I had not been a very hot Tetra Master player so far. But we’ve picked up some very decent cards by now, and winning isn’t as tough as I thought. It turns out the reigning champion is a cute sailor girl named Erin, whom Zidane previously met in Lindblum. But she’s really just playing for Regent Cid, who was too embarrassed to enter the tournament as an oglop. (Even if we hadn’t seen them arriving at the stadium, Erin using all oglop cards would have raised our suspicions.) After Zidane dethrones Cid, Eiko appears and says that Kuja’s forces are attacking Alexandria. Oh, boy…



THE BATTLE OF ALEXANDRIA: VIDEO - "Alexander v Bahamut - All Clips"

As Steiner and Beatrix fight through the streets taking down mist monsters left and right, Garnet finds herself ensnared in a force field at the palace that forces her upstairs, while Kuja summons Bahamut to begin destroying the city. Zidane and Co. are heading back in the Hilda Garde 2, an extremely rickety airship (Cid’s engineering skills just aren’t the same as an oglop) when Eiko feels that Dagger needs help, and jumps right off the airship to the roof of the castle. I always thought there was something strange about that place, and soon I find out what it is. In an amazing scene, Eiko and Dagger combine their powers to summon the dormant protective eidolon, Alexander. Sort of a giant machine with wings, he rises up from behind the palace and blasts Bahamut right out of the sky. Just when we think the kingdom is saved, a giant eye comes down from the clouds. I’ve seen this nasty thing before, and now we realize it’s an airship called the Invincible.

But whereas Kuja was controlling it before, now it's being piloted by Garland—a new enemy whose power seems to rival Kuja's. Using the eye, he destroys Alexander and the whole kingdom along with it. Kuja had intended to absorb the new eidolon and take it for himself, but Garland screwed up that plan. Outraged and even frightened by his interference, Kuja retreats, leaving another fallen city behind him. Zidane just barely manages to rescue Garnet from the wreckage.

HANGING BY A THREAD: VIDEO - "Zidane Rescues Dagger"

Demoralized, the party retreats back to Lindblum. This city is struggling along, but recovery is still a long way off. At least with the Alexandrian army no longer a threat, Regent Cid has control of the city back. After the death of her mother and the destruction of her home, Garnet is so traumatized that she can’t even talk or fight effectively in battle. (Half the time her commands fail because she can’t concentrate.) All we can do now is hope she gets better with time, and go after Kuja to make him pay for what he’s done. But we can’t do that without an airship to travel on, and the Hilda Garde 2 is in no condition for the job. An attempt to turn Cid back to a human with potions fails; it only turns him into a frog. Not any bigger, but a good deal less slimy. Cid is fed up. The only way to turn him back to his old self is to find his wife Hilda, who cast the spell on him in the first place before stealing the Hilda Garde 1 and leaving the city some weeks ago.



Lindblum was an amazing place in those glory days so recently ended, and hopefully it can return to them someday. For now Cid manages to obtain a small ship called the Blue Narciss, so at least we can travel by sea. Once again we’re venturing into the unknown, and our prospects look grim. We don’t know where our enemies are or if we would even stand a chance against them in battle. But this journey will start a chain of events that slowly but surely evens out the lopsided balance of power. Zidane and his friends will soon evolve from a ragtag bunch of drifters into a force to be reckoned with. Plus, I’m actually getting into Tetra Master…

[+ Revenant +]

As I put the last touches on this chapter, I’ve actually finished the game already. Once I got to Terra and the places beyond, I just couldn’t stop playing for long enough to write about it first. But no worries; I plan to complete this thread anyway and tell you all about it—which characters I stuck with until the very end, how I felt about their new revelations and how this game has earned a permanent place in my heart.

This is the part of Disc 3 where Final Fantasy IX’s story truly comes into its own. Until now it’s been pretty standard fare; just us hopping from place to place in a linear fashion, with the plot moving rather slowly. As it turns out, IX’s plot is like an iceberg, and what we got in the first half was just the tip of it. Disc 3 suddenly plunges us underwater, where we can see the true enormity of things to come.



CHAPTER SIX: “My Sweet, Lovable Morons”

During the Battle of Alexandria, we noticed a number of black mages assisting Kuja. This was an unpleasant surprise, since no more new ones have been manufactured—and that means they could only be our sentient pals from the Black Mage Village. That’s our first stop as we leave the Mist Continent once again, and we find the place mostly deserted. Only a few mages remain, including No. 288, who we met in the cemetery. Finally Vivi manages to get the truth out of him: the other mages discovered how limited their life spans were. One day Kuja arrived and promised to make them live longer if they joined him; many couldn’t resist. 288 admits that they left for the Forgotten Continent far to the west. We are, like, so there it’s not even funny.

The land is mostly inhospitable, so it’s no wonder this continent is so sparsely populated. But after a while of exploring the desert and avoiding dangerous sand pits, we inspect a strange-looking one that isn’t moving. Unfortunately we all fall in, to find ourselves in a well-furnished underground castle—Kuja’s, to be exact. For the third time we meet, and for the third time we can’t touch him; he holds half of the party hostage and orders Zidane to steal an ancient artifact for him in exchange for their safety. This thing is called the Gulug Stone, and it’s in Oeilvert, a long-abandoned fortress on the other side of the desert. Those damn jesters Zorn and Thorn escort us there on Kuja’s airship—which Regent Cid recognizes as the Hilda Garde 1, the ship his wife Hilda left Lindblum in. (Uh-oh.)



Oeilvert is a dark, depressing old heap. Some of the monsters are brutal—especially the Epitaphs, living tombstones that summon a mirror image of one of your party members. If the member it picks happens to be in your party, the evil twin will knock him or her out right away, so those fights can get pretty dangerous. The place also contains some bizarre machinery that our heroes never knew existed on Gaia. Hell, maybe they weren’t even made on Gaia. The machines are all recording devices, and what we learn from them isn’t pleasant. The wall of giant sculpted faces is especially freaky. They hint at the plight of another world called Terra, and I don’t like the sound of it at all.

“FACING” THE PAST: VIDEO - "Final Fantasy IX walkthough part 89: Oeilvert part 1" (Jump ahead to 8:55.)

Zidane, Steiner, Freya and Amarant grab the Gulug Stone and totally waste a flying security device. Back at Kuja’s palace—wouldn’t you know it, he’s going back on his promise and plans to kill the other party members anyway. But Regent Cid [ribbit] avoided capture, and he manages to swipe the key to the dungeons. Soon Dagger, Eiko, Quina and Vivi are loose in Kuja’s opulent castle, revealing secret doors and stealing items all over. Kuja is a bit surprised when all eight party members reunite and storm into his private room. He kidnaps Eiko and escapes on his ill-gotten airship, but the Blue Narciss is hot on his heels.

The chase leads us to the fourth and final major landmass on the planet—formally called the Lost Continent, also known as the Freeze-Your-Balls-Off Continent. After cruising through a small, creepy town called Esto Gaza, we go inside Mount Gulug where Zorn and Thorn are trying to extract Eiko’s eidolons like they did Dagger’s. It isn’t working this time, because not only is Eiko too young for the process, but her friend Mog—a small Moogle who is usually hiding in her clothes—emerges and reveals herself as a new eidolon called Madeen. She helps Eiko blow away the obnoxious jesters. To cover his escape, Kuja reanimates and combines them as a disgusting creature called Meltigemini. We destroy it without breaking a sweat, and that’s the end of Zorn and Thorn. Couldn’t have happened to two more deserving jesters. (Not even Dane Cook. *rimshot*)



Entering the adjoining room, we meet someone else Kuja had been holding captive: Lady Hilda of Lindblum. After hearing how she got mad at Cid over an affair and turned him into an oglop with magic, I pictured her as a scornful, matronly older woman. So imagine my surprise when she turns out to be perfectly nice and a major hottie. I suspect Kuja kidnapped her just to get his hands on an airship. (Whoever Garland is, I doubt he would trust Kuja with the keys to the Invincible.) After listening to his ravings, Hilda has a good idea of what his plans are, and she tells us when we return to Lindblum. She also changes Cid back into a human at last—and with his human mind back, he can finish building the Hilda Garde 3. Soon we have an airship of our own.

But at the worst possible time, Dagger goes missing without warning. There’s no place she would have gone but her ruined kingdom, so we’re off. Steiner, Beatrix and the Tantalus Group help with the search, but it’s Zidane who finds the princess at Queen Brahne’s grave. She has recovered enough that she’s talking again. She came back intending to become queen, but realizes she is not yet ready for the burden (would you be?) and asks to stay with Zidane a little longer. Finally, she borrows his dagger (the same one she named herself after), says “Remember the way I was...for me” and runs off. For a scary moment I think she’s going to commit suicide or something. Instead she does something less gruesome, but perhaps equally symbolic.

CUTTING THE GRIEF SHORT: VIDEO - "Garnet Cuts Her Hair"

An aside: Final Fantasy IX has a leg up on some of its prequels (and sequels) in how it portrays its main villain. Instead of using a stereotypical dark lord or monster going bump in the night, they made Kuja an effeminate, spoiled misfit who wants everyone else to do his dirty work. And rather than use the “invincible bad guy” trope, they show us a shortsighted narcissist with limited powers. He rattled off most of his plot to Hilda without a care in the world, and is constantly ducking us when we challenge him to a real fight. Without his Queen Brahnes, eidolons, mages and fancy machines around, Kuja wouldn’t be much of a threat—and he’s lost access to most of those things.



By now we suspect this guy has something to do with Terra, that other planet we heard about in Oeilvert, and Hilda advises a visit to a forgotten landmark way up north: Ipsen’s Castle. But first we make a stop in Daguerreo, a really cool city and noted haven for scholars all over Gaia. It’s here that I really start putting my party through the paces by fighting one of the most difficult monsters in the game: Grand Dragons. They’re insanely powerful and take a ton of damage before going down. At first I’m getting killed five times for every battle I manage to win. (Ironically I’ve never lost a boss fight yet, but have died plenty of times in random encounters.) Over time we get stronger, and once I’ve gotten the latest weapons from Daguerreo and made the Dragons my bitches with every combo excluding Quina and Amarant (two characters I decided to leave on the shelf at this point), it’s time to hustle. Also, I become semi-competent at cards and visit some more Qu Marshes for fun. Before I forget, I must throw in the awesome marsh theme music.

WE...ARE THE FROGS. THE BIG...DUMB...FROGS...: "Qu's Marsh"

Coming up in Chapter 7: Ipsen’s Castle, the Four Shrines and the FF9 characters take their awesomeness to a new world…

[Alpha]

Man this review/reminisce is awesome! I really want to play IX again -- it is my favourite, and you've really hit home with why. Plus, I love the way you write: cogently, with the perfect balance of detail and humour to make it thoughtful but not dull. You should take your skills into journalism! Lord knows they need it.

Looking forward to the next (last?) instalment.

[+ Revenant +]

Man this review/reminisce is awesome! I really want to play IX again -- it is my favourite, and you've really hit home with why. Plus, I love the way you write: cogently, with the perfect balance of detail and humour to make it thoughtful but not dull. You should take your skills into journalism! Lord knows they need it.

Looking forward to the next (last?) instalment.

Thanks! Actually I majored in journalism at my college, but I prefer fiction writing or reviews like this, because I can be a lot more creative there.

I can see myself getting a few more chapters out of the game. I'm aiming for nine (appropriate, huh?). In the meantime, I touched up the previous entries with better writing and pictures, etc. I think you'll like them even better now.

[+ Revenant +]

Here I was, well into Disc 3 with no plans to stop. There’s still plenty left to do, but this is where the events that will determine the end of the game are set in motion. My curiosity was rivaled only by my fear, because I’d always heard strange things about who and what Zidane was supposed to be. He’s an unusually strong thief with the most brutal Trance abilities in the game, and he had to get power like that from somewhere…



CHAPTER SEVEN: Armageddon (And Not the Fake-Ass 2012 Kind)

This game is no slouch when it comes to giving us cool environments to run around in, and some of these have interesting quirks that add more variety. It’s always raining in Burmecia, it’s always night in Treno, and you can’t use magic in Oeilvert. But Ipsen’s Castle has a lot of quirks, enough to make it the weirdest place since the Iifa Tree. From the outside it looks like two identical castles put together, with one upside down. On the inside it’s a large and disorienting place. The monsters are rather unique, and your strongest weapons will be useless. To do the most damage to them, you have to equip your weakest arms instead. At least I have the whole party at my disposal now, and Dagger has recovered enough to fight effectively.



This castle does indeed show the heroes how to get to Terra, this other world whose fate seems linked with Gaia’s. At the top floor, they steal four mirrors that can be used at four hidden shrines—the Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. Now there’s a trope that goes all the way back to the first Final Fantasy. (Man, we’ve come a long way since then.) There’s a guardian called Taharka that tries to stop us, but we completely waste him. Amarant navigated the castle on his own, out of stubbornness and pride, and Zidane has to rescue him on the way out. This act finally earns his loyalty, if you can call it that. (At any rate he won’t run out on us again.)

The party splits up into four pairs, each going to one of the shrines to use their mirror. This will activate the Shimmering Island, a gateway to Terra that’s up north by Esto Gaza. Zidane has to enter the Earth Shrine with Quina (damn, he and Freya would be a much more effective pair). The four Guardians of Terra await us. Kuja apparently warned them that we were coming, but he didn’t expect us to attack all the shrines at once. All the guardians are overwhelmed, and very soon we’re off to see the wizard (or whatever Kuja is)…and kick his ass.

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: "Terra"

Some serious work was put into Terra. They really labored to make it look and feel as different from Gaia as possible. This place is all bluish and alien and inorganic, beautiful in its own way. The monsters are different too, and possess tricks that make them tougher than most creatures back home. Not even fighting Grand Dragons for two hours could prepare us, but we struggle gamely on. Right away, I dislike this place more than any environment I’ve ever visited. I feel like we don’t belong here at all, and the sooner we leave the better—but not without our answers.



JOIN THE HIVE: "Bran Bal, The Village Without Souls"

A mysterious girl appears and leads us through the Terran “wilderness.” “Follow me,” she tells Zidane, “And you will understand us…and maybe your own heritage as well.” One thing about her really stands out, besides her cuteness: she looks just like Zidane. Odd legs, blonde hair, monkey tail and all. She is the only person we’ve seen who resembles him; certainly no one on Gaia did. Her name is Mikoto, and she leads us to Bran Bal, a bizarre city full of more people who look like Zidane. But while he is an animated thug, actor and skirt-chaster, these people are all...zombies. In Bran Bal, there is no emotion or individuality. Only function matters. It's hard to believe that our monkey-boy could have come from this world, and he goes off without telling anyone to meet with Garland. That’s where the whole sordid tale comes out.



Terra is a world that once teemed with prosperity and potential, but at the height of its power, something terrible happened to it. We’re not sure what. It's evident that most of the population was wiped out and the planet itself is dying. In real life that would be the end of it, but the Terrans were an extremely advanced race in both technology and magic. They were so powerful that they could absorb the resources—and even weirder, the souls— of a nearby planet to renew their own. They had done so several times before. The survivors of this latest disaster decided to try it again, and for that purpose they created Garland. Garland is some combination of a sorcerer and mad scientist, and he created Zidane’s race (called the Genomes) to use as empty vessels to assimilate the souls of Gaia. But he also made a few special Genomes to lead this effort. Genomes with personalities, emotions and a ton of power. One was Kuja. Another was Zidane.

When we first saw Kuja in Burmecia, he remarked, “This boy could become a problem.” At the time I wondered who he was talking about; now I know he meant Zidane. He recognized his brother on sight—while Zidane had spent most of his life on Gaia and never known him or Garland. Because the souls of Gaia would be easier to absorb if they were weak and in turmoil, and this is best accomplished by war, Garland sent Kuja there to drag the planet’s population down into chaos, stop its souls from being reborn and channel them into Terra through the Iifa Tree (another one of Garland’s creations) instead. This would ultimately turn Gaia into Terra. But the wizard’s ulterior motive was to lure Zidane back to Terra, tell him of his origins and make him his true “angel of death.” Kuja is trying to fill this role, but he was just an older and less powerful version of Zidane; plus he’s crazy and uncontrollable, and Garland wants him out of the way. It was Kuja who dumped Zidane on Gaia as soon as he was born, because he couldn’t stand to be around one stronger than himself. (No wonder he was so distraught when Garland intervened in Alexandria; he paraded around like a badass for months, only to be shown up by his geezer dad.)



It was Garland, using the Invincible, who destroyed that kingdom recently—and Madain Sari long ago. Dagger and her biological mother managed to escape from there, sailing a tiny boat through a storm to Alexandria. (We saw that in the first cutscene of the game.) Her mother died in the journey, but Dagger survived. She was adopted by Brahne and her husband, who had her horn (a genetic trait of people from the summoner tribe) removed, and brought her up as Princess Garnet til Alexandros the 17th. Dagger had guessed most of this before she came to Terra, but Zidane never know of his own heritage until now. He was raised as a bandit on Gaia. Baku and his Tantalus buddies were the only family he knew. For the first time, the unflappable leader breaks down and loses all hope. I guess you would too, if you found out you were not a human born on Earth, but an alien artificially created to destroy it.

TO HELL WITH DESTINY: "Final Fantasy IX OST - You're Not Alone!"

A weaker person with less dedicated friends might sink into despair and end his journey here. But as it turns out, Zidane Tribal is not that person. The rest of the party finds him at Pandemonium, the dark and nasty-looking laboratory of Garland where Terra’s departed souls still sleep, and together they talk him out of his depression. And like him, I realize that I love Gaia. I don’t want it to be devoured by a parasitic zombie planet. The only way to stop this is to go into the blackened heart of Pandemonium and settle the score with our enemies.

Let’s leave things hanging right there for now…

[Zidane77]

I think IX is the best one after VII.
VI and X don't even come close to it. IV and VIII do on the other hand

It would be awesome to remake it for the 3DS, battle mode needs to be made faster and better and some extra/longer features would be frickin awesome
Of course vocals would screw things so that would need to be left out..

[+ Revenant +]

Strange how this thread has turned out…I thought it would all be like Chapters 1 and 2, really casual and lighthearted. But as I played I got sucked in more and more. Now my descriptions are longer and more cohesive. I’ve even gone back and edited the previous chapters to add better pictures and plot details that I missed, because I care that much.

I knew Final Fantasy IX was a fun game; I remembered that from my first attempt. But as I started to replay it last month, I didn’t expect to fall in love with it. It started to happen somewhere in Disc 2. Before I knew it I was reciting the dialogue as if I were on a stage, mimicking Freya’s dance moves in the Cleyran ceremony (she did a much better job), trying to teach the characters every ability they could learn and referring to the party as “us” instead of “them.” A buddy of mine who played it long before me once said, “I don't know where I started to notice it, or at what point I truly became aware of it, but I realized what this game has. What separates it from (and, at least in this one aspect, places it actually ABOVE) the other games in the series. This game has more heart and spirit than probably any other game I've ever played. Final Fantasy or not.”

Not only do I understand what he meant now, but I’m able to enjoy everything in the game, even the parts he didn’t like. It's been everything I hoped it would be and much more. Now, time to review the showdown on Terra…



CHAPTER EIGHT: “I, GARLAND, WILL KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!!! ...WITH MY MIND”

Here we are in Pandemonium. With the help of his pals, especially Dagger, Zidane has sidestepped a complete breakdown and we’re ready to take our revenge on Garland. Zidane’s promise (“I AM the new angel of death! Yours!!!”) has yet to be fulfilled.

(Who says IX’s character design doesn’t allow for a scary-looking villain?)



Figuring out a way through the security systems is not too difficult for an awesome group like us, and soon we’re confronting him face-to-face at the top of Pandemonium. He doesn’t promise to knock us all down, but the difference between our philosophies is spelled out pretty well before the fight.

Garland: You told me you'd become my angel of death. But think for a moment... isn't life death itself? It must kill other life-forms to survive…sometimes it even kills those with whom it shares blood. To live is to give life meaning, yet one must take others' lives to survive... A mature civilization becomes aware of this paradox. Terra's souls will sleep until they forget such nonsense. They will begin a new life in a new dimension. It's a world in which life and death become one... That is the dimension in which we are meant to live, as beings that transcend life and death! Zidane... I'll ask you one more time. Who are you!?

Zidane: You're a sad man, Garland. We know more than you... We're not perfect, but we have friends who help us. That is reason enough for us to live!

Steiner: I may not know who I really am, but that is my question alone to answer!

Freya: We live not to forget our past, but to learn from it!

Dagger: We may be weak, but that's what makes us work together and help one another!

Garland: ...Then show me! Lecture me again when you are on the verge of death!

However, the old mecha-sorcerer overestimates himself. He can pull some neat tricks with magic and psychokinesis, but he can’t stand up to us in a good old-fashioned fight, and that’s exactly what we turn it into. Soon enough he backs down, greatly weakened. But while we were distracted, Kuja has seized the opportunity to steal the show. I wondered where he was during all this time. Turns out he swiped the Invincible and plans to destroy both his father and brother. He comes down and taunts Garland, then challenges us. Delighted with the chance to finally get a piece of this guy, Zidane & Co. bash him from pillar to post. The tables turn when Kuja actually goes into Trance and casts Ultima, nearly killing us. Drunk on power and visions of being Terra’s new master, he kicks Garland off the platform, where he falls to his death.



However, Garland’s life doesn’t end with the loss of his physical form. A guy like him would know how to leave something behind—in this case, his disembodied voice. Kuja’s been a bad boy lately, so he gets a good scolding…

Garland: Do you think a defect like you could last forever? ...I built you to last only until the worthy Genome, Zidane, grew. It was too dangerous to let you last any longer than that.

Kuja: What are you saying?

Of course, he’s saying not only that Kuja is mortal, but that he's going to expire any day now. Needless to say, he doesn’t take it very well.

Kuja: I don’t believe you! Why would I believe such a silly story? You’re telling me that I’ll die soon, now that I’m more powerful than anyone? I’m gonna…die? Lose my soul? Ha…HAHAHAHAHAHA! What comedy! Zidane, isn’t it hilarious?! I’ll die just like the black mages I so despise! I single-handedly brought chaos unto Gaia, but in the end, I’m nothing but a worthless doll!

KUJA THROWS A TANTRUM: VIDEO - "Kuja Destroys Terra"

I doubt if Kuja was ever playing with a full deck, but this revelation sends him completely over the edge. He refuses to let the world exist without his services, and begins tearing apart Pandemonium and the remains of his homeland with Ultima spells. We’ll be damned if we’re going to die in this god-forsaken place, and showing our usual initiative, we excuse ourselves and steal the Invincible. Zidane insists on evacuating his fellow Genomes from Bran Bal before it’s destroyed. He saves them all—including his “sister” Mikoto (who was the third special Genome Garland made, after Kuja and Zidane). The most powerful airship in existence warps out of Terra and back onto Gaia. It’s good to be home.



NOT THIS $#!+ AGAIN: "The Evil Mist's Rebirth"

Or it would be…if most of the planet's surface wasn’t cloaked in fog. The Iifa Tree is back to its old tricks, and worse than ever. It’s producing a crapload of mist everywhere and its roots have spread all over Gaia, even blocking access to some towns and cities. A reddish-purple sphere of dark energy—Memoria—appears above the Tree. From what I can gather, Kuja has reactivated it to serve as a portal from Terra to Gaia. (Putting aside the whole business about halting the cycle of souls, that’s the Tree’s most basic function.) Having finished off his own world in fairly short order, Kuja is going after Zidane’s world next. What’s our next move? I’ll tell you in the final chapter, the ninth. ^^

[Xithor]

Before I knew it I was reciting the dialogue as if I were on a stage, mimicking Freya’s dance moves in the Cleyran ceremony (she did a much better job), trying to teach the characters every ability they could learn and referring to the party as “us” instead of “them.” A buddy of mine who played it long before me once said, “I don't know where I started to notice it, or at what point I truly became aware of it, but I realized what this game has. What separates it from (and, at least in this one aspect, places it actually ABOVE) the other games in the series. This game has more heart and spirit than probably any other game I've ever played. Final Fantasy or not.”

What a great job you are doing with this journal of your play through Final Fantasy IX, it is truly such a wonderful game and it's great to see it put into words. Your friend put it very well when he said that it has more heart and spirit then any other game because there isn't a moment when you are playing it that it doesn't pull you in, tug at your heart strings, and keep you on the edge of your seat all at the same time.

I have yet to find another game that I have felt so connected to the characters as I was playing through it and watching them develop. You are a great writer Revenant, and a great addition to the forums =) Hope you post around other places too.

Just had to post again to let you know I'm enjoying your synopsis of the game.

[+ Revenant +]

***
Everything from here on = extreme ending spoilers. If you care about that and you haven’t finished the game yet, don’t read! The last part of FFIX is something you should experience for yourself.
***



CHAPTER NINE: To Make the World Go Away

It’s remarkable how much there is to do in Final Fantasy IX. You can find the characters’ ultimate weapons with the help of a chocobo, restore the dwindling Mognet mail system, hunt down secret bosses like Hades and Ozma, exchange priceless relics for useful items all over Gaia, and become the best Tetra Master player in the world. Maybe someday, I’ll do all of those things. But this was my first complete playthrough, and it had already been a very rewarding 50 hours. I was ready for the final battle—or as ready as I ever would be. We resettled the Genomes in the Black Mage Village, and thankfully the Mages accepted them. We camped in front of the Iifa Tree for one more night, possibly our last, and then flew the Invincible into the burning void to begin the end.

HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THIS ON A PSX?!: VIDEO - "FFIX - Memoria (1) - Assault of the White Dragons"

Many games I’ve played have entertained me and even inspired me, but very few have captivated me. Final Fantasy VII and VIII didn’t. Even X (my second favorite game in the series) rarely affected me that much. But during its last hours, Final Fantasy IX did. It started here with the incredible scene of our assault on Memoria, set to music so rousing and dramatic, it makes you want to be a Final Fantasy character yourself. An army of silver dragons (like the one Kuja used to ride) swarms out of the globe to stop the Invincible from entering. But Regent Cid and General Beatrix have summoned every airship on the planet to back us up. Led by the Hilda Garde 3 and the Red Rose, Gaia’s first Air Force sends the dragons down in flames. The people (and animals, and animal-people) of the world know what the stakes are, and now they’re just fighting for their own existence. With its path cleared, the Invincible breaks through. Our first opponent is the Nova Dragon, a more powerful creature than the ones we just encountered. But we blast through him and find ourselves here…



Ahh, Memoria.

How I learned about that place is a story in itself. Years ago in college, I knew a guy who happened to be a big fan of the Final Fantasy series. He lent me his FFVIII strategy guide during my sole attempt to get through that game, and gave me a FFIX guide for free. Lucky me, because that book was an insult to gamers and would have pissed me off if I’d paid for it. (“Enhanced by PlayOnline.com?” The whole reason I use guides is so I won’t have to look online every time I get stuck in a game. Square Enix needs to produce a decent guide for FFIX, if only as a belated apology to their fans.) But at the very least, I enjoyed reading the book just for the screenshots and cool locations—and I think this was before I even had the game. The blatant lack of information only made it seem more intriguing, and soon I just had to play it.

I especially liked looking at the last chapter of the walkthrough, “Memoria.” It seemed like such a wondrous and threatening place, with a seemingly insurmountable lineup of Bosses, that I was rather intimidated by it—even scared. Long before I would ever see the area, I had high expectations for it. But I’m thrilled to say that the game exceeded them. Memoria is, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest RPG environment I have ever played through. Pushing the PSX hardware to insane lengths and crafting wonderfully detailed areas were par for the course in this game, but even by those standards the final level was breathtaking. As the name suggests, it’s a place imbued with the memories of Zidane and his friends, and no doubt millions of other people. It is beautiful, haunting and extremely dangerous, as its music so perfectly conveys. That theme (one of my favorite pieces of music in the series) sends chills down my spine to this day, and it left no doubt that this was the end of the road.

THE PERSISTENCE OF TIME: VIDEO - "Final Fantasy IX - Memoria"



As great as it looks, Memoria is much more like purgatory than heaven. When the party isn’t being haunted by uncertainty and regrets, they’re taking on some of the toughest regular enemies in the game. Worst of all is the truly formidable group of bosses. After blasting our way through a Nova Dragon to enter the area, we have to fight the four Guardians of Terra—similar to their forms on Gaia, but much stronger. First is Maliris (fire). She wasn’t terribly hard to kill since Vivi abused Blizzaga and we were protected against Heat. She did cast Raining Swords on the party before dying, which would have killed us if we were at low HP. (Can’t say enough good things about Auto-Regen.) The second was Tiamat (wind), a real pain in the ass to beat. He used Float on Zidane and then blew him straight out of the party, forcing Steiner, Vivi and Eiko to fight the rest of the battle alone. Somehow they still managed to win.



It only got harder as we went deep into Memoria. The third guardian was Kraken (water), who gave us a huge knock-down, drag-out fight. Dagger’s Ramuh and Vivi’s Thundaga saw us through, but it was Freya who finished him off with her invaluable Jump. We struggled on to meet the final guardian, Lich (earth). Talk about deadly. We protected ourselves against his Earthquake attack with Auto-Float, so he started casting Doom and Death spells all over the place. But we outlasted him too. These were all fights that I could easily have lost if I were less focused, plus my characters’ levels weren’t even particularly high (somewhere in the 50s), but nothing was going to stop me from getting to Kuja and taking him down.



At the center of Memoria is a portal to the Crystal World, a realm that seems to exist in outer space. The Crystal that supports all life in the universe is here, and Kuja is about ready to destroy it when we show up. First he sics his pet Deathguise on us. This is a truly nasty creature that does a ton of damage, and we may have been in big trouble had Zidane and Freya not Tranced and ripped it a new one. Kuja gets frustrated and erases Deathguise. Now there’s nothing left between us and him. Trance Kuja is not an easy fight by any means, but nor is he the toughest enemy in Memoria. What makes him really dangerous is that he casts Flare rather often, and even a version called Flare Star that hits the whole party at once! But the spell is even more deadly to him than us, as Vivi proves when he Trances and double-casts it himself. We outlast Kuja and take away all his HP, but he still hangs on long enough to cast Ultima, killing us outright.

Assuming Kuja is still alive, there’s nothing left to stop him from destroying the Crystal and the universe—and Zidane and his friends are no more.

As I suspected, that isn’t quite where the story ends.


TO BE CONTINUED…

[+ Revenant +]

CHAPTER NINE, CONTINUED (just because of the annoying image limit)

Slowly the heroes’ souls awaken and they find themselves on the Hill of Despair, a spiritual plane where they suddenly encounter a being called Necron. It’s not clear what he is at first. Some have said he’s just the personification of death, and I used to think so too; but recently I’ve suspected he is the true form of the Iifa Tree, perhaps created or summoned by Garland to capture the souls of Gaia and supplant them with Terra’s. That would be bad enough, but now he is emerging as a sentient force and has bigger things in mind. Prompted to intervene by Kuja’s actions, Necron’s grim conclusions about life are similar to Garland’s. “Life fears death, but lives only to die…Kuja’s action proves it. The only cure for this fear is total destruction,” he tells Zidane. Remember all the creation myths about life starting out in a void of nothingness? Necron has decided to take everything back to the void and leave it there—“where there is no life and no Crystal to give it. I exist…to take everything back to the zero world. In a world of nothing, fear does not exist. This is the world that all life desires.” Garland spoke of a “new dimension” too, but it was a place where “life and death become one.” I think he wanted to bleed our planet dry so he could grant immortality to Terra’s dormant souls. Necron just wants to extinguish all life in the universe.



Needless to say, Zidane does not like this idea. I’m not exactly sold on it either. Maybe if we sat down, had some coffee and talked it over more thoroughly, a compromise could have been reached, but I doubt it. The only way to stop Necron from finishing what Kuja started is to fight him, too. At this point we’re just eight souls, no different from countless others that were taken out of Gaia’s life cycle since the Tree was created. (You can even hear them moaning on the Hill.) And only four of us can still fight, but at least you can decide which four. Amarant, Quina, Vivi and Dagger channel what’s left of their life force into Freya, Eiko, Steiner and Zidane. This battle looks like a lost cause to end all lost causes, but it’s the only chance we have, so I’ll take it.

FREYA'S TOO COOL TO DIE!: "Final Battle"



Through the entire game, I had never been defeated by a boss—partly due to strategy, mostly due to luck. This fight would be the only exception. For an immortal deity, Necron sure fights dirty. He throws an insane amount of status effects at you (inflicted by a cosmic attack called Grand Cross), and can often perform two or three actions per turn, showing off high-level spells as well as his devastating physical attack, Neutron Ring. Basically we have to equip every status buff and pray that the party survives when his turn comes around, which was my strategy for the second attempt. Even then it got ugly before too long; Zidane led the effort until he was hit with Death and Zombie at the same time, making him impossible to resurrect. This left Freya, Eiko and Steiner in their scariest and most frantic battle ever. Steiner attacked almost nonstop, Freya used Jump to keep herself above the chaos, and Eiko worked her juvenile ass off to keep them both alive. They could only sidestep doom so many times, and I was almost sure we couldn’t win…but then it happened. A Holy spell from Eiko took away whatever Necron had left, and the battle for the universe was over.

Necron can’t be killed (he’s clearly some kind of spirit or even a deity), but he can at least be driven off. “Why defy your fate?” he asks. “Is the will to live that powerful?” The answer is obvious as he crumbles and fades, unable to maintain his current form any longer.

Without Necron around to power it, the Iifa Tree slowly begins to die. (Memoria was a portal powered either by Kuja, the Tree or both, and that starts to disappear as well.) As this happens, something takes the party out of the spirit world and deposits them at a safe distance outside the Tree. I can think of only one person nearby who would be powerful enough to do that, which means…Zidane’s favorite brother must still be alive. Hearing Kuja’s voice in his head only confirms it. Cid drops by in the Hilda Garde 3 to pick them up, but all Zidane can think about is going back for Kuja. I can’t remember another FF leader who showed this much heart, or welcomed this many near-death experiences in one day. Freya and Steiner want to go with him (now that’s loyalty), but he’s determined to try it alone. After an emotional farewell to the team, the airship leaves Zidane behind as Dagger cries and watches him from the deck. He waits until they’re a good distance away, then makes his move.



That wretched thing is in its death throes, but even now it remains hostile to all other life on Gaia and will kill anything it gets a hold of. Zidane is the only thing within reach, and the Tree does its best, but the monkey-boy’s luck and superhuman agility get him past the thrashing roots and branches to the inside of the trunk…and there’s Kuja. He’s lying very still and doesn’t have much time left.

Kuja: Zidane…? What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go…

Zidane: Wouldn't you do the same for me if you knew I was dying?

Kuja: ……

Zidane: …Never mind.

(Well, at least he’s being honest.)

Kuja: Your comrades were able to escape?

Zidane: Yeah... I knew you had something to do with it.

Kuja has begun to grasp what it means to be mortal, but it’s much too late for him, physically or otherwise. He reveals this to Zidane in his last words, then dies. A few seconds later the deadly roots of the tree converge on them, and Zidane has nowhere to run. End scene.

The game ends much like it began. It’s Garnet’s birthday (now her 17th) in the Kingdom of Alexandria, and the Tantalus Group is coming to perform “I Want To Be Your Canary.” But a few things are different now. Garnet is officially the queen. Vivi doesn’t seem to be present, although we do see some “children” that all look just like him. (This suggests that he may have stopped already, but I hope not.) Freya is back together with Fratley, and they’re trying to make the best of things although he still doesn’t remember his past. Beatrix is planning to leave Alexandria, but Steiner reveals his love for her and urges her to stay. Most conspicuous by his absence, though, is Zidane. It seems he is presumed dead by everyone there, and as the play begins I’m almost sure he is…but I should have known better. In the middle of a climactic scene, the lead throws off his hooded cloak…and it’s not Marcus under there.

INTERMISSION: VIDEO - "Final Fantasy IX Ending Movie FMV Squaresoft"

Goddamn you, Zidane. You always were a showoff. The crowd goes nuts and the credits roll. That was one hell of a happy ending. I almost cried myself.



AND IN 'BEST AMERICAN ACCENT BY A JAPANESE SINGER', THE GRAMMY GOES TO: "Melodies Of Life - (English) - (Final Fantasy IX)"

And the game is over. What a journey that was. There’s so much I still want to say about it, if only I can figure out how. I hope to give you a condensed version of my thoughts soon.

[+ Revenant +]

Warning: the following post will be both long and nerdy. Not complete fanboy-ism, mind you, but a fair amount of rambling from a guy who loves this game unabashedly.




EPILOGUE: “Doesn’t It Feel Good to Let Yourself Go Under the Stars?”

A lot of people didn’t appreciate Final Fantasy IX very much when it came out in 2000. Final Fantasy X had already been promised for PlayStation 2 the next year, and the new system’s hype cast a huge shadow over the video game scene. And of the gamers who were paying attention, many seemed determined not to give IX a chance because its themes and visual style were so different from VII and VIII. Compared to them, it must have looked downright anachronistic. Square claimed to have made FFIX in response to older fans (particularly in Japan) who missed the pre-VII style, and as a fond farewell to its most successful platform. That was the company line, and maybe they meant it, but it didn’t draw a ton of enthusiasm for the game’s release.

However, as some have come to realize (though many still don’t), Final Fantasy IX is so much more than what it was marketed as. The allusions to previous FF games were nice, even if some got lost in the English translation—but that wasn’t what I truly enjoyed about it. IX stood on its own not only as a Final Fantasy, but as one of the best Final Fantasies and probably the most underrated. Despite a relatively short development time, it didn’t feel like a cynical rush job to squeeze more cash from the PSX audience. There were warning signs that it might be; they considered releasing it as a side project instead of a full-fledged sequel, and series composer Nobuo Uematsu was encouraged to take it easy on the score. Instead he worked his ass off, composing over 150 tracks in a year. Similarly, the other developers went all-out to make this game just as special as its predecessors in its own way, and I believe they succeeded.



Final Fantasy IX was a fully realized project, a title that Square could be proud of and remembers fondly to this day. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi called it his favorite Final Fantasy, as did Uematsu. Without hesitation, I can say that it’s now my favorite FF game as well. FFVII was cool and a real rush to play, but its rather shallow character development clashed with a convoluted story that totally lost me. VIII was elegant and beautiful, but had similar character and story issues, and I didn’t find the gameplay enjoyable enough to make up for it. X had one hell of a story and a combat system to die for, but the characters were an acquired taste and its linear style could be frustrating. IX is now number one on my list. I heard it was released on PlayStation Network just this month, so maybe a wider audience will come to appreciate it. Many fans are turning away from the series’ latest releases and wanting to relive the days before Square and Enix merged (blasphemy, that was), so what better time for them to experience this all over again?

From reading this topic, you already know how I feel about the game’s plot; I loved it, especially when its scope widened around Disc 3. Previous entries could get bogged down and needlessly complicated by that point, but IX remained fairly straightforward and became even more compelling as the end approached. It had one of the best finales I’ve seen in a video game, and I’ll be enjoying the whole story for a long time to come. (I started a new game just a day after finishing this one, and picked up on many details and things I had missed.)

What I haven’t focused on as much is the game’s soundtrack, which I think may be the finest in the entire series. Like the rest of the game, it’s not hugely creative; Uematsu drew upon inspiration from previous works more than usual, recomposing popular themes like FFI’s Gulug Volcano and II’s Pandemonium. But, also like the game, there was enough originality to keep things interesting. Almost every theme is a great match for the location it plays in, and I loved how parts of “Melodies of Life” were scattered over previous tracks, like the world map theme and Garnet’s song. Uematsu is a genius when it comes to evoking certain moods and tying different pieces together into a satisfying whole. There are only three video games that I liked enough to actually purchase their original soundtracks, and Final Fantasy IX was one of them. (Final Fantasy X and Xenosaga: Episode I were the others.)



Finally, I’d like to close this retrospective with my feelings on the main cast. IX was very much driven by its characters, even for a Final Fantasy. If you didn’t care about them, everything fell apart. But I guess they were up to snuff, because I cared like nobody’s business. I could feel their passion and identify with their problems. I liked some people more than others, but they impressed as individuals and as a group. Here’s a quick look at all of them…

Zidane Tribal
“…I can’t just walk away. It goes against my nature.”
Some fans have mixed feelings on Zidane due to his strange appearance and irreverent attitude. But I liked him a lot, even if he was a showoff and a shameless flirt. When things got serious, his best qualities came out: courage, persistence and a ton of heart. I found it refreshing that a FF main character didn’t have emotional issues or attitude problems up the wazoo. Make fun of his outfit and his tail all you want; many people did. But remember…if he were real, he would have dated your sister. And she’d still be calling him.

Garnet til Alexandros
“I have no right to rule over this country…”
Princess Garnet/Dagger was a good character, too. She fell into the “damsel in distress” role too easily at times, yet she didn’t rely on Zidane to solve all her problems. The princess had to grow up quite a bit during the game, and it didn’t happen all at once. It was mostly in the little things: small changes in her speech, still answering to “Dagger” long after she came back home, cutting her hair, dropping her royal pendant and leaving it to greet Zidane. I suppose she’s my least favorite of the officially female characters, but I still liked her a lot. Few video game heroines have worked harder to earn my respect.

Vivi Ornitier (Orunitia)
“I won’t let you make any more instruments of murder!”
Vivi was an incredibly strong, moving character. I don’t want to go on and on about him, because most of you already know how admired he is, even by players who didn’t like the rest of the cast. (Sort of like Auron from FFX.) His cute appearance and clumsiness were endearing, but his resolve to find out about the other black mages and face his past was what really “made” him. The little guy has a tough time, and I felt for him every step of the way. He also had the best design out of all the protagonists.

Adelbert Steiner
“…I shall follow you to kingdom come if I must. You remember that!”
I didn’t mind Steiner, although his sanctimonious yelling and clanking armor drove some gamers nuts. Even he starts to change after a while—you can see it happening as early as the first visit to Treno, though he tries mightily to resist it. The banalities of chivalry have defined his entire life, yet he must venture beyond them in order to find himself. Steiner talks the same way for much of the game, but he’s a man of action—and through his actions, we see what is most important to him: Dagger. For her sake, he compromises his duties along with his loyalty to queen and country. Sure he’ll always be a stubborn stick in the mud, but at least he stops blindly obeying orders and takes matters into his own hands. (Too bad his romance with Beatrix didn’t get a little more time, because that was an interesting subplot.)

Freya Crescent
“I climbed the highest mountains only to hear rumors of your victories…searched the deepest valleys only to find your footsteps.”
Now we come to my favorite character in the game, hands down. I have a soft spot for strong female characters, and she really fits the bill. She had a story as inspiring as it was tragic, even if it was put on the back burner too soon. She suffers personal hardships that would cripple most of us, but her discipline as a Dragon Knight is unwavering. Whereas Steiner’s convictions tended to hold him back at first, Freya’s compel her ever onward. Her design emphasized function over form; she’s a Burmecian warrior, not a beauty queen. But I still think she was pretty cute for all that. I love everything about Freya. The reds and oranges in her outfit, the unique way she runs when escaping a fight, the combination of grace and power in her Jump attack, and how you can just catch a glimpse of her eyes when she ends a battle. She became a fixture in my party in the second half, much like the next person…

Eiko Carol
“I’m like a beautiful young heroine in turmoil, don’t you think?”
Eiko was great. I liked her friendship with all the moogles, her limited but effective summons, even the silly dances she does after ending a battle. Not content to make her a requisite “cute kid” character, Square gave her a strong, infectious personality as well as a good story. She’s the last survivor of a dying race, living in a ruined city with only a group of Moogles to keep her company. Her reactions to Soulcage ("He's really ticking me off! Can I kill him?") and Garland (“Oooo, THAT's a sinister name!”) get me every time. She’s fearless in battle, but melts when Zidane’s around. Those scenes where she and the moogles fix dinner for Zidane & Co. were great. I hear the results are hilarious if you try to cook as bad a meal as possible, but I don’t have the heart; I always do my best instead.

Quina Quen
“World have only two things: things you can eat and things you no can eat.”
Quina was a lot of fun. I liked how she could learn abilities no one else had access to. A mixed bag in battle, but she added plenty of comic relief to the story in all the right places, and I liked catching frogs. Yes, I’ve always thought of her as a she. The pastel colors and the silly marriage to Vivi were enough. Now Quan, there was a male-looking Qu…if the Qus have genders at all, that is. No one knows for sure. Eating is one of the few things I love as much as writing, so Quina resonates with me on a very basic level. She also showed more intelligence than she got credit for, with her scenes in Terra and Madain Sari standing out the most.

Amarant Coral
“How did this wimp end up beating me?”
To me, Amarant was the only character who came off as truly unnecessary. We already had a thief in Zidane, a warrior in Freya, and a weirdo with unique abilities in Quina. Amarant was sort of a combination of the three, to house whatever abilities they couldn’t give the other seven characters. But it’s not that I dislike him. He had a pretty good story behind him, and I liked his deadpan remarks and unique design. His attitude reminded me of Cloud or Squall sometimes (except they had sense enough not to make such an abrasive guy the hero of the story).



Finally, an aside about the two main villains. (Neither of which is Queen Brahne, although she certainly made her mark in the first half of the game.) A lot of the bad stuff that happened in Final Fantasy IX happened because the antagonists couldn’t accept their own mortality. The Terran people created Garland to save them from it, and eventually channel their souls into immortal vessels (the Genomes) at Gaia’s expense. Kuja couldn’t cope with death either, and lashed out at both worlds in his terror. Yet Zidane and his friends looked death in the eye on many occasions just to save a few lives and have a chance of stopping the devastation. They may have been funny-looking, but they were very easy to root for.

On one hand, I didn’t especially dislike Garland. It’s uncertain how much of him is human as opposed to cybernetic, and at any rate he’s just doing what he was made to do: salvage Terra at any cost. The ones at fault were the people who made him, and I suspect they’re all dead now anyway. Garland himself has no ego, is quite intelligent and cares about his “sons,” just in a very pragmatic way. He even lent Zidane advice and support, helping to guide him through Memoria. On the other hand, I had less tolerance for Kuja. No stretch of the imagination could make his motives seem virtuous. He is a hopelessly insecure narcissist, who got off on the death and destruction in Gaia as personal entertainment. He didn’t become redeemable until his final moments, when he acknowledged the suffering he had caused. IGN’s David Smith wrote a pretty decent review of FFIX, and while I don’t agree with all of it (especially his unwarranted criticism of the music), he certainly made good points about Kuja.

Perhaps the best thing going for Final Fantasy IX as far as character is concerned is the presence of a proper villain, especially in the later movements of the story. Kefka, from my point of view, was the last FF bad guy to really sink his teeth into the role. Sephiroth was certainly a good-looking fellow, but his motivations were about as clear as mud, and Final Fantasy VIII hardly had a villain at all. There was that sorceress everyone was going on about, but she spent the balance of the game merely being talked about behind her back. Kuja, on the other hand, who represents the forces of evil in FFIX, does his thing quite impeccably, blending a little of Kefka's cackling villainy (always a reliable shtick) and plenty of the bishonen-osity that made Sephiroth such a hit with the ladies. There are some interesting reasons behind why he's such a miserable bastard, and in his peculiar way he's one of my favorite visual designs of the series...

As for Necron, fans' reaction to him was almost universal: "what, Kuja as a final boss wasn't 'final' enough?!" His role in the game, however, is still debated today. I’m with the “core of the Iifa Tree” camp at this point, because otherwise the Tree dying at the end doesn’t make much sense, and he said some of the same things Garland did before the fight. A L3ke9999 on Youtube may have put it perfectly when he commented, “I think Necron wasn't the god of death but the spiritual form of Soulcage. Necron stopped the flow of souls of Gaia from returning while Soulcage processed them to Terra. Kuja did not destroy the Crystal when he used Ultima, but he did kill the party and when the party died, their souls were blocked by Necron and so to return the flow of souls to Gaia, Necron had to be stopped. Garland mentions this to Zidane near the end of disk 3.”

After losing the battle, Necron conceded and allowed life to continue, including our lives. Kuja teleported us outside the Tree during his near-death change of heart, and there you are. So what’s left to say? Not much, except that this was an awesome game and a unique achievement in the Final Fantasy series and RPGs in general. This was basically the series’ last ride on a celebrated platform before creative issues and the Square/Enix merge began to take away its soul. If you have a copy that you haven’t touched in a while, I urge you to give it another go. The trick is to forget everything you learned in FFVII and VIII, and enjoy the game on its own merits. It is a rich, engrossing blend of new and old, sci-fi and fantasy, substance and style. An overlooked gem in its time, Final Fantasy IX was not without flaws; but at the end of the day, or the decade, a diamond in the rough is still a treasure.



I’d like to thank everyone who read and offered comments. I hope this wasn't too long or wordy, and of course nothing I write could measure up to the experience of the game, or fully convey what it now means to me. Games like this were the reason I got into RPGs.

Until next time, kupo!

[Leon]

Awesome reviews!

IX is one of the greatest games of all time. Thank you for posting all of this. Loved the pics in the last post, btw!

[ekrezem]

Awesome reviews..

I'm glad that someone did this even though it's a bit (complete) spoiler. I didn't mind about it because I'm curious what's left in the game after I'm stuck. D:

I was stuck at Disc 4 at Memoria after defeating the first boss, and poof black screen of dead (with sound keeps playing so on).

[Zidane77]

Best game that ever existed.
Great review, but i don't agree with Amarant having a great story, he nearly had one? (not much uncovered)
Basically his encounter with Zidane and that's pretty much it

Liked your opinion on Necron, didn't occur to me that he was Soulcage but yeah, i want a remake and sequel,prequel whatever of this game, as long as they go back to the roots.

[Lavos]

You, sir, deserve a medal.

Final Fantasy IX is a phenomenal game of its own right and actually set off my entire love of Final Fantasy. I am overjoyed that there is someone out there that not only loves the game with as much passion as few others, but also the intelligence and skills to properly describe them for all to understand and express their true feelings about it. You provided enough insight to make anyone feel like a child listening to an epic tale that happened long ago, and your dedication knows no bounds. Never before have I been so captivated as I was after your first post, and read through every word until the end. Had I had the technique of expressing this beautiful tale as you have, I would have done so ages ago. You are a hero to Final Fantasy IX fans, myself included.