Final Fantasy IX
For: Playstation
Genre: RPG (turnbased)
Reviewed by: Escee (Brandon)
Developer: Squaresoft
Publisher: Square EA
Released:11.14.00
 
Final Fantasy, quite possibly the most mainstream videogame series there is. When a new Final Fantasy is released, it's bound to top the charts. Well, FFVIII was a major letdown to the series, but FFIX definately delivers.

Well, the story, as usual, revolves around someone trying to take over the world, and you having to stop them. Well, actually, in FF9, they're tying to take over more than one world, but the foundation is the same. You're Zidane, and you'll join forces with the beautiful Princess Garnet; Vivi, the dark mage (and my favorite character); and others. The story starts with Zidane, who is part of a band of thieves, kidnapping Garnet. Of course, the story turn around as you'll end up having to save your home planet, Gaia. I won't unveal the whole story for you, but FF9 has a gripping story that will keep you interested the whole way through.

FF9 is turnbased, and has random battles. Random battles are a downside, but the frequency isn't horrible, and as soon as you get a Chocobo or other advanced method of transportation, your battle encounters on the world map will drastically decrease, if not vanish completely. Of course, you'll still have random battles in the dungeons, which are never really dungeons; although sometimes they are large, they are never really all that awful as far as getting you lost. Sometimes, the puzzles, which are never really puzzles, can get confusing, but that's not that large of a problem either. I do recall being aggrivated by my mana running out too fast, though.

The magic system is kind of unique. You'll learn spells mainly by equipping stuff that has the spell, and then allocating resources to learn the spell. When you learn the spell, you won't need the equipment anymore to use it. FF9 also has a Support technique system, where you learn these techniques as you would learn magic, but you also have to allocate a spot to each Support you want to have active. Support techniques are active all of the time, and you don't have to cast them. They usually do things like protect you from ailments, or reduce magic consuption, etc.

The game is long and will keep you playing for a while, but doesn't really have much replay value, unlike the Chrono series, which did.

The game also has extras, such as raising your Chocobo, and playing the card game.
 
Graphics
FF9 has the trademark high-quality Square FMVs, and good ingame graphics by PSX standards.
 
Sound
FF9 has a very nice high-quality soundtrack, which really adds to the environment. Nice sound effects as well, although the great soundtrack is much more noticeable.
 
Gameplay
The magic system could have been better, and is was sometimes confusing where in the world to go next, but the gameplay is definately great stuff.

Control
The control was A-OK. No problems here.
 
Lastability
The game is long enough to keep you playing for a while, and has some extras, but there isn't much replay value.
 
Ratings

6.22.1

click on the above screenshots for larger versions.
 
images from ign.com