22. Final Fantasy IX
Today’s feature posits that Vivi is the central figure in Final Fantasy IX, a position I have difficulty refuting! So… I’m not really sure why I didn’t include Vivi in any of the artwork in this article. I guess I’m some kind of jerk or something. And now poor Vivi is up there in automaton heaven, crying his little glowing eyes out. Yeah, I’m pretty much the most horrible webmaster ever.
15 thoughts on “GameSpite Quarterly 2, #22: Final Fantasy IX”
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I loved it, Kat. Thanks for the write-up. It makes me want to revisit the game soon.
I enjoyed FFIX, though I never beat it. BTW, Steiner is Zenigata. Look at his face. Look at the guyliner. Also the way he is an authority figure that chases the thief Zidane and ultimately teams up with him.
While I’m not fond of enhanced ports that just update the graphics, I would surely buy FFIX again if they fixed the slowdown, and made the play models indistinguishable from the cut-scene models.
I understand that this is all very subjective, but I’m really surprised that this game made it on the list. I tried to re-play it recently, and couldn’t make it through the first disc. VII and VIII may not hold up as well either, but they both really start out great. IX just feels a little soulless to me, and frankly, Kat’s article doesn’t convince me otherwise.
Sorry for the above post. I have signed up for Talking Time over a month ago and am awaiting activation. Now that Parish has deputized a new co-administrator, I was wondering whether he will eventually get to my registration, or if I should re-register? Thank You!
I personally found FF IX’s attempts to be both “classic” and “modern” to fail on both ends. Zidane grabbing a little too much of Garnet/Dagger was just something I never wanted to experience in a video game.
Final Fantasy IX is my favorite game in the series, mostly because the oddball cast of characters give it that same kind of light-hearted spirit as the SNES games that made me fall in love with the genre (Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Super Mario RPG).
Coincidentally, I actually just beat FFIX again with one of my friends two nights ago. The endgame wasn’t quite as good as I had remembered.
Still, it has to rank as the best main-series FF for me. The dialogue is always humorous, and all the characters are well-developed. I absolutely loved the item-ability system. The music is probably the best in the series– I’m surprised the music wasn’t mentioned in the article, as it’s really the best part about the game.
Another main selling point of the game is that you could play along with a friend. That really increased the enjoyment of playing through such a funny and well-made game when compared to all the other single-player FFs.
“I’m really surprised that this game made it on the list”
You’ll have to take it up with all the people who voted it in. There were a lot of games on the final list that I wouldn’t have expected, but that’s what made it interesting.
Kat mentioned Sakaguchi. Even in his current purgatory, the man is still very ambitious. I hope he finds a way back to commercial and critical success. I like to imagine that he’ll pull a Steve Jobs and find a way back into the company that kicked him out. Maybe Mistwalker can become a 2nd party for Square-Enix?
You’re right, Parish, it does make it interesting. But this particular one is interesting, mainly because I rarely hear of it being considered one of the best in the series. I’m a hater, sure, but I can at least cede that most fans find it pretty middle-of-the-road.
Gotta agree with David – as much as I dislike this game, it has some top-notch music.
Don’t feel too bad about excluding Vivi. There is no Automaton Heaven. It’s just something we tell the kids so they won’t cry, like Dog Heaven. He’s been gone for years now.
I played like 4 hours of this and just couldn’t get in. Nevertheles I watched a roommate play through most of this game until he got to the very end and someone mysteriously appears in a pretty bitch move by square. He quit the game at that instant and vowed to never play it again. I don’t blame him. In regards to Vivi being the main character, Square couldn’t possibly make that happen. He neither had spiky hair, a super emo attitude, had 30thousand inexplicable zippers, or looked like a girl.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard that anyone didn’t consider FFIX the best – or at least one of the best – in the series.
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why I find FFIX so appealing. I don’t think this article has helped me any, except that I’m sure the ATEs are a part of it. It’s probably not nostalgia, or humor, or even Vivi, but rather all the little touches and details that are usually overlooked in anything but the most in-depth discussions.
I always rather liked FFIX, even if the change of pace from Neil Gaiman’s Stardust to, ah, something else entirely was a bit jarring. I’ve also not often heard heard it mentioned in consideration for this kind of thing, but I find it to be a pleasant surprise. Charm doesn’t usually take you too far in this kind of feature, especially in consideration of the series it’s a part of. Good stuff.