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| A return to form. |
In the world of Gaia, four nations stand tall: Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Cleyra. The story begins when hero Zidane and his theater group called Tantalus, kidnaps Alexandria's Princess Garnet to serve as a hostage and prevent the nation's greed-filled queen from launching a full-scale war between nations. Despite it's cheery start, the story didn't shy away from dark moments with grim deaths being left to your imagination. The plot-twists kept things from being boring and characters get extra story scenes via "Active Time Events" that detail their thoughts and motivations over the course of the game. While interesting, it gets cumbersome with it interrupting the flow of main story occasionally.
As for the cast, they range from Zidane, a petty thief with a tendency to flirt; sheltered Princess Garnet, who wishes to explore the world; uptight and strict knight Steiner, who loyally serves Garnet; and Vivi, a curious young mage who aims to uncover his past. More characters include Quina, a cheery creature with a bottomless appetite; Eiko, a young summoner with an upbeat personality; Freya, a lancer with a duty to protect her kingdom; and Amarant, a rogue bounty hunter who works alone.
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| Zidane and crew will take you on a wild adventure. |
Each had their stories to tell like Garnet finding her purpose in life, Vivi searching for a place where he can be accepted, and Zidane learning of his mysterious past. While cool and interesting, Freya, Amarant, Eiko, and Quina didn't get the same amount of depth in their arcs as they felt shallow. That said, the apathetic and narcissistic villain Kuja was great and his motives, fuelled by the fear of his mortality and being forgotten about after death were understandable-- apart from killing many innocents.
FFIX's gameplay is turn-based with you fighting monsters, levelling up, recruiting party members, and exploring the world. New in FFIX is controlling up to four party members, as opposed to VII and VIII's three. The signature "Active Time Battle" system returns, where once your action meter is full, you can choose a command such as attacking, casting magic, or using items. Characters have their own classes like Zidane being a thief, who can steal rare items from enemies while also attacking; Vivi is the black mage, dishing out strong magic spells; Steiner is the knight, focusing on strong physical and elemental attacks; and Garnet is the white mage who heals and use Eidolons, magical beings that deal heavy elemental damage (basically Summons/Guardian Forces from VII and VIII, respectively).
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| The gameplay is straightforward while having a solid amount of depth. |
Also new in FFIX were the ability and Trance mechanics. Weapons and armor come with built-in perks that offer increased health, status immunity, and magic spells for characters when they equip it. Fully levelling up the ability allows you to equip it without needing said weapon, though not all characters can learn the same skills as each class have their own equipment. It's similar to VII's Matera system, which encourages you to buy and craft better gear for characters across the game, creating stronger builds as a result.
When characters are attacked their damage meter fills up, allowing them to enter a "Trance", a state where they get boosted attacks and special skills to use in battles. Annoyingly it only triggers automatically and in the worst times, like right after a difficult battle. Initiating it manually at will would've been really helpful and saved a lot of frustration. Trance doesn't get properly explained in the story aside from being a unique ability only a few can access, but admittedly, it was a life-saving mechanic when it works in your favor.
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| The boss encounters were among the gameplay's best moments. |
Exploring the world was enticing as it was packed with secret treasures, optional towns, and tough enemies to beat-- fortunately the random encounters rates are low. Exploration is limited during the first half but Gaia opens up considerably when you unlock the boat, airship, and bird-like creatures called Chocobos. There's even a mini-game with the latter, which rewards you with rare items and weapons, though I felt it got repetitive after a while. You can also challenge NPCs across the world in a card game called Tetra Master, which has you building a deck of cards and battling against others in exchange for their cards. It doesn't add much to the gameplay aside from being a nice distraction, and I enjoyed it a lot compared to VIII's Triple Triad card game. The side-content like finding a legendary weapon, hidden medallions, and exploring a hidden town were great and I enjoyed most of them during my 40 hour runtime.
The HD remaster includes boosters and game modifiers like turning off random encounters, battle assistance by having infinite Trance and HP, max Gil (the game's currency), and high speed mode to name a few. They're neat additions if you're replaying FFIX again or just want to experience the story. Personally, I only used the high speed mode as it made slow segments like grinding and overworld traversal less boring.
By late PS1 standards, FFIX holds up nicely with its stylish art-style and detailed pre-rendered backgrounds. I find that the fantasy/old-school designs made it age more gracefully compared to VII and VIII's realistic takes. Square also went all-out with the battle animations and FMV cut-scenes, which were always entertaining to watch. The remaster cleans up the character models and menus, though the backgrounds are left looking low-res and blurry. There is no voice-acting, so you'll be reading and imagining the voices just like I did. Series composer Nobou Uematsu is behind the soundtrack and it's a mesmerising listen, fitting of the game's captivating world. Tracks such as the "Main theme", "Battle theme", "Treno", "Black Mage Village", "Iifa Tree", "Airship", "Esto Gaza", and Kuja's final battle theme were among my favorites.
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| As expected from PS1 era Square, the presentation was stunning. |
Final Fantasy IX was a captivating and enjoyable experience overall. The story can get convoluted (expected from FF games) but was a great one, I found myself resonating with Vivi's journey the most. I enjoyed the return to classic gameplay with the boss fights and customization being standouts. Even though it's a PS1 game, the production values are still good by the console's standards. All in all, Final Fantasy IX is my second favorite in the series after VII and I'm glad I had the chance to finally experience it. Fans of the series and turn-based RPGs should definitely consider giving it a play.
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