Everything thats great about final fantasy

[Rowan]

Is represented within this game. Literally just finished playing through again (Its been many years since my last playthrough) and I sincerely believe that ff9 is underrated. I never fully appreciated it until now. It has the charm, charisma, characters, style, complexity and basically everything that made a great final fantasy that's missing from modern day FF titles (everything beyond X). I managed to defeat Ozma for the first time which helped my FF ego, since I use to always lose to it. Anyway, I made this thread more-so to just mention those few things, tell us how much you liked/disliked/loved/loathed ff9.

Also, how would Steiner kiss Beatrix with a mouth like his?

And yes, I made the picture myself.

[Freya]

*looks at her nickname*
I suppose I don't need to mention that I love the game.

What I especially loved about the game was the positive atmosphere throughout the game. Zidane has a hard time to go through, particularly towards the end!, but he keeps on smiling and trying - there've been so many FFs including protagonists who gave up or whined all the time... so Zidane was really one of the most optimistic characters in my opinion. Plus, he wasn't a classical "hero" as you see in the early FFs (for example Cecil or the warriors of light), he was just a "normal" boy who did what he could.

As for Steiner. That's a difficult question, really. Maybe he tries to eat her, his mouth would be big enough to cover her whole head

[loaf]

FFIX was my 2nd FF game to ever play and I fell in love with it from just the Play at the start of the game. The characters are great, Zidane is my favorite protagonist, he is always chipper. Just DGAF and does what makes him happy, the development he goes through is one of my favorite in the series. The locations and world map are by far my favorite, Daguerreo being my all time favorite location in any Final Fantasy. I can pop in FFIX any time and just have a fun time every time. I wish I can experience the first play through all over again, it was just to awesome. I am getting major nostalgia just thinking about those days playing FFIX. The music is amazing, I listen to the OST and Piano collections as much as I listen to some artists I enjoy.

Ozma is IMO one of the hardest if not hardest special boss out of the series. No boss in FF does the abilities Ozma does. I can't tell you how many fights I've done where Ozma casts "Curse" 3 times in a row wiping my party without giving me a chance to counter.

[Xanatos]

Final Fantasy IX got me not just into FF franchise, but entire RPG genre as well so I might be little bit biased here. I could praise it all day and night, it's a near perfect game after all, so I'll stick to what stands out to me the most. I love how it's lightharted yet dark at the same time, love it's huge amount of references to older titles, but above all else it's soundtrack which I adore to no end and what seems to be the best villain in franchise.

It's not without it's flaws (key word "near perfect"), I'm not overly fond of Trance system, it's pretty much useless, even more so since you can't save it for later use when you may actually need it.

Ozma is IMO one of the hardest if not hardest special boss out of the series. No boss in FF does the abilities Ozma does. I can't tell you how many fights I've done where Ozma casts "Curse" 3 times in a row wiping my party without giving me a chance to counter.

Ozma is one tough mofo indeed.

[Lacquer Head]

I have too problems with FF IX. The first being it was a bit too easy, just from the bosses having NO HP! They can still wipe yours out, but a final boss with 50k HP just isn't enough...the challenge I had was surviving each boss for 200 turns to steal the good shit from them. It played better than most, if not all the games...if not for the easiness.

Second: TOO SHORT ;-; I want more of the story...but I know square enix would just beat, rape and murder their magnum opus...

[loaf]

My only guess as to why the bosses have such low hp and it was short was to make it feel like the old final fantasies. FFIX pays homage to the previous titles. Most of titles were roughly 12 hours of gameplay and the bosses didn't have millions of health.

[Rowan]

One thing that I did notice, it was the only final fantasy I have played that did not allow you to chain multiple instances of damage within a single character turn. If you never ended up getting the nuke abilities such as shock, dragon crest, frog drop etc, then you wouldn't necessarily be doing Max damage either an bosses could take some time to kill. I'm sad that vivi didn't make it, I didn't remember that part of the ending. He had to be one of the most important characters in a game where the theme heavily revolved around life and death and finding meaning in life. Oh and zidane, what a charmer. "bring me beloved dagger to me" was so surprised to see that, such a wonderful ending.

Intend to think of my favorite ff titles on this way
Ff7= most epic
Ff8= best love story
Ff9= most charming/meaningful story and characters.
Ffx= all of the above, except the charm.

[Niall_farley]

One of my faves!!! It's weird how I prefer my final fantasys.... At the mo I have a huge craving for ix but that's because the last one I finished was vii so after finishing ix I will crave vii

It's always the same!!!! Hehe

But ix is a fantastic/near perfect game! I was thinking the other day how come there hasn't been a tetra master multi player game yet sort of like magic the gathering but a daft online game of tetra!!!! Awesome

[Fluffy]

I was thinking the other day how come there hasn't been a tetra master multi player game yet sort of like magic the gathering but a daft online game of tetra!!!! Awesome

There was.

FFIX is definitely a great game. It's hard for me to rank FF games because they're all great in their own way, but it pretty much ties with a bunch of my favorite FFs.

Admittedly, I liked it more on my second playthrough. I'm not exactly sure why that is.

[Nidogod]

I think it's interesting how the overall reception of IX has changed over the years. I remember when it first came out, and even up through X's release, it was generally considered a weak title. People thought (especially after VIII) that it was too kiddy and that due to its graphic style, it was attempting to be the new VII. As time went on and FF games got (arguably) much worse, people started catching on that IX was like a medley of everything we loved about the classic FF titles and possibly the last great traditional FF game. It took awhile, but it's finally getting its due love.

Even thinking back of 'best of' lists that I've seen in the past, IX was never on best PS1 or best RPG lists, and now I feel like I don't see a list without it.

EDIT: I actually just read that this game at some point references every other FF game before it. That's pretty cool.

[Cry For Garnet]

I have played through every Final Fantasy from VIII upwards at least twice, most I have played three or four times, I have played through Final Fantasy IX 22 TIMES. Why? Simply because it is the best of the series.

I could easily write a TEN THOUSAND WORD ESSAY on why I hold Final Fantasy IX in such high regard, but i'm sure no one would read it, because virtually no-one shares an opinion of this game as strong as mine, that i'm aware of...

...If you do, and would like to see a ten thousand word essay, please notify me