Where's the love for FFIX?

[LilithSlave]

I love it. But then again I'm a Sword and Sorcery in Final Fantasy. Also I like cuter to go along with my adult themes of death and misery.

For all I talked by about the "machoness" of the main character and described by annoyance with his appearance, while I'm indeed quite a bit annoyed by machismo. I'm just as annoyed as anyone by brooding. Cloud and Squall both have a lot of brooding. Adam merely has bigger muscles to go along with it. Overall adding to a package that annoys the all heck out of me. Or perhaps "brooding" isn't the right word, I don't mind a few evident regrets. But I generally dislike an overly serious, irritated, "I'm hard to get along with" disposition. Or just an overly business attitude from a main character. I don't want all my main-characters to seem like sophomoric, immature young adults and kids. But I'm not exactly entertained as much by the "strong, silent types" as much, as people put it.

Along with being cute, has themes of war and existential struggles, it's well balances and has the balance of things that is honestly at the very least, a lot more relaxing and comfortable to me. It actually has a lot of death and suffering, but a lot of people don't recognize it because it doesn't bog you down with the imagery. And that's a good thing in my book. The protagonist is quite plucky instead of brooding. And while I don't have anything against anti-heroes, it was quite a refreshing departure from Cloud and Squall's constant brooding.

I can understand how people do make criticisms of IX having it's story go slightly downhill toward the end and perhaps being wrapped up and concluded overly quickly and bizarrely. But Final Fantasy VIII also goes downhill past disc one where things go from a coherent political struggle, to an off the wall story moves far too quickly ones the party reaches Estar, and mostly has romance going for it. I wouldn't say that IX paces itself worse than VIII.

And the setting was certainly a breath of fresh air, and the kind of Final Fantasy I wanted to play since it left the PlayStation. A lot of people were alien to it since many were introduced to the series since Final Fantasy VII. But for me, it was Final Fantasy IV. And IX was the Final Fantasy I always wanted to see on the PlayStation.

 

[Lord Quirk]

6 and seven were better, in my opinion. 9's good, I enjoyed it, but I think the battle systems, heroes and villains were all better in those games. Well, maybe not Sephiroth. He wasn't actually that cool.

 

[Lawnmooer]

I didn't like FFIX...As much as other FF's.

The artstyle wasn't my favorite (The large heads and what not)

The characters where annoying (Especially Zidane... Who you were forced to have in your team)to the point where the only character I liked was Freya

Oh god the grind... (In order to learn skills, you need to wear specific items and do battles which may or may not have good stats (Thus affecting the stats you gained as you leveled when you eventually (Which you would with the annoyingly high amounts of points needed to learn skills))

Items on bosses where also a bit of an annoyance for me, either they would be one time only - must steal from the fight or they would be sold in the next town for tuppence...

Though other than that it was pretty solid game in my opinion.

Bonus points for one of my favorite cinematics:

Spoiler: Bahamut vs Alexander

Hurrah for Bahamut being an actual dragon (Being the dragon king...) instead of a weird bird hybrid (FFX) or a plane (FFXIII)...

 

[Manji187]

Regardless of its qualities, what would more "love" for this game accomplish nowadays exactly?

Whether it is or isn't underrated...why does it matter?

 

[Dresos]

I really liked XI and I had a lot of fun with it but I can't argue with that it was a odd one.

 

[funguy2121]

The Love was taken away by Final Fantasy I through VIII. Also, by the Spirits Within, Chrystal Chronicles et al.

 

[The Hero Killer]

IX was my favorite Final Fantasy, its VI that I always thought was somewhat overrated.

 

[Instant K4rma]

IX was pretty solid. I really didn't like the Trance system, but aside from that, the story was solid and I liked a majority of the characters. My favorite Final Fantasy game remains VII, as cliched as that may seem, followed by IX and X. No love for VIII from me.

Piss off, Squall.

 

[Azurian]

I don't remember much about the plot outside Vivi's story god I loved that little guy!

 

[Atmos Duality]

First and foremost: Freya is fucking awesome, and a good (rare) genuine example of a more "mature" character in the FF series. She tries to become the voice of reason, and yet has a slightly more complicated set of issues that she keeps mostly to herself. Nothing convoluted nor preachy. She's also the dragoon of the group, so props are automatically due.

With that out of the way...Final Fantasy 9.

Uh, yeah. Not my favorite, but it's not nearly as bad as some...others I can mention (FF8, FF10, FF12...or the very worst in Dirge of Cerberus).

Just about every other character drove me nuts, and I cannot to this day quite place why.
The overall plot felt...devoid of anything meaningful for me. I had a similar problem with FF5, in which nothing I did felt as though it had consequence; the bad guy(s) was always one step ahead of me because the script said so (and there was no foreshadowing leading up to some major twist or a mystery to unravel as you went along, which was the saving grace of 7) so that when I did reach the end of the game and fought the Big Bad, I didn't really find it all that believable (nevermind the colossal WTF-bullshit moment as the Final Boss Battle, but I won't spoil that here).

When FF9's "twist" did arrive, it did so far too suddenly and too late in the game for me to care; by this point, so much of the story had already focused on Garnet and Vivi with Zidane acting as a sort of "life-lessons coach" for the both of them.

On the Gameplay-side, it's one the BEST in the series (I have it just below FF6 and FFT; it's close). It's not nearly as busted as 8, bland as 10/12, nor as face-rollingly-easy as 7 (which has maybe TWO POINTS in the entire game where it's remotely challenging).
The game allows for grind-to-power OR clever approaches; which is something you just don't see in JRPGs anymore.

The characters have their own skills and roles, yet EVERY ONE OF THEM is useful at several points during the game (including late/end game; whereas in the other FF games in the series, the characters are either too similar to even classify, or a few are just so innately broken in the end game that they take over).
My only complaint here is that Freya is noticeably absent from your party for a good third of the entire plot...but that's just me.

The closest case of "outmoding" of a character is Eiko taking over for Garnet; (Esuna and Holy are just that damn good) which doesn't occur until fairly late into the game.

 

[azukar]

No, it's my favourite too. I don't know if it's the story, the animation style or the gameplay, but it's almost the only FF I replay once in a while.

Definitely has the best music of a Final Fantasy game, which is saying something.

 

[synobal]

I rather liked FFIX it was the only one I actually finished and enjoyed. My only complaint was the replacing of Kuja as the big bad at the end. Why build up a villain the entire game only to go 'oh here is the guy really behind it' blah blah. Also seriously calling the guy 'necron'? Talk about lame. Other than that though I really enjoyed that game.

 

[twaddle]

final fantasy was the first final fantasy game i ever owned. Not the first i played through but the first i owned. I received it with my first playstation and ape escape and the game will always hold a special place in my heart. My mum didn't buy the memory card when she got it, but that never deterred me from playing it. I now own a second copy of the game after my first copy was stolen. I also have it on my android to play it when ever i need a break from college life. To lose myself in the fantasy once again.....

 

[ronald1840]

Ever since buying FF9 from the PSN store for my PS3 about a year ago, It's the longest game I've ever played to complete at 75 hours. I had no clue as to what FF9 was about save for taking a chance "This could be alright". It is the best game I have ever played (persona 4 right behind) and it left a strong impression on me as a person.

Whenever I reflect back on it, or have it brought up in conversations one moment in the game particularly sticks out in mind involving the surprising ending. I shead plenty tears staring at that ending cutscene knowing my long quest with Garnet to her kingdom was finally over.

Thank You Zidane & Crew, from the bottom of my heart.

Forever and Beyond.

 

[Furioso]

I went straight to the bottom of this page to comment out of fear of seeing spoilers, I haven't finished the game (working on it) I was one of the people who never had a playstation but always wanted one, I had the N64 while my friend had a PS1 so I could only briefly see the games, so I didn't grow up with FFIX but I have 7-9 on PSN and have been working my way through them, so far 9 is probably my favorite. (Not to say I didn't love the hell out of 7 and 8)

 

[Seneschal]

I haven't really heard many people profess their hate for the game. It's usually regarded as being "not bad", but kinda meek, humble, cute, fan-pandering and traditionally kid-friendly enough to pass under the radar. Besides, after the hype of VII and the disappointment of VIII, I think the FF-mania was at its lowest level at the time. Also, the PS1 was nearing the end of its reign.

But I noticed that a lot of people have a soft spot for it. I personally love it, even though it has some of the typical JRPG pitfalls. The first disc, most of all, has a cute, imaginative, adventurous, even a little tragic storyline. Plus, the gameplay is simple and unobtrusive throughout, not like the baroque and abstract Junction monstrosity of VIII.

Actually, now that I think about it, I would describe my affection for Indiana Jones movies in a similar way. It just has that kind of charm.

Have you never read forums about final fantasy?

In every single ff thread the majority of fans says final fantasy 9 is the best one, and most underrated, since the playstation era. As far as i can tell(this being only ps1+ not nes) people favorites in general go in order of 9,7,8/10,12,13.

Aww, well that's nice to hear. It's pretty much exactly how my own and my friends' favourites go. It's just that, regardless of quality, FF IX seems to have the smallest pop-culture footprint of them all. Not a whole lot of iconic stuff in it (except maybe Vivi, Brahne, and Kuja's ridiculous hips).

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

You need to spend more time on internet forums as I think at this stage of the game it is fair to say that FFIX and FFVI may be even more over rated than FFVII as people always seem to need to point out they prefer FF insert number here over VII. I get it you like a different FF saying it is your favourite already says you prefer it over FFVII I do get sick of the redundant line from time to time.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I loved FF9 as well actually. Part of that is the nostalgic value from my childhood, but I really love the art style, steampunk setting, fun strategic gameplay, plenty of exploration, likeable characters (most notably Vivi) and the excellent transistions into the FMV graphics. Sure the game has it's flaws; there are quite a few plotholes throughout, some of the characters can be annoying (Quina I want to strangle you with your own tongue), Kuja just makes me facepalm everytime he comes on screen, the ending is rather dissapointingly plain and the final boss comes out of absolutely fucking nowhere. But despite those grievances I really did enjoy the game, not sure why there's an apparent indifference to it among the FF community.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

IX is ok, I bought it from PSN a while back and it gets boring after a few battles. It's very reminiscent of VII (which I hate, sue me) and the plot isn't as coherent as it could be, but it's still a solid game. Traveling is my favourite part.

 

[chinangel]

I LOVED this game. Easily and by far my favourit of the FF titles. why? IT HAS BEATRIX! Honestly, why is she so over-looked? She is a villain charater who you NEVER beat. ever. In any context.

her only downside is that she fell in love with steiner. I hate Steiner. but beyond that she's an awesome character!

FF9 deserves more love. Srsly. >.>