Game Review: Final Fantasy IX

When Nintendo had announced that several Final Fantasy titles were being released on the Nintendo Switch, I instantly got excited. Mainly with Final Fantasy IX seeing as it was one I've never played before and various friends of mine constantly rave about how incredible it is. I had some knowledge of this entry mainly through the Dissidia Final Fantasy fighting games. So when certain move names and song titles popped up, I got excited with the thought of "OH SNAP I KNOW THIS". Final Fantasy IX follows the story of Zidane as he's part of a grand kidnapping scheme with his friends over at the Tantalus Theatre Group. Their performance of a popular play as a cover takes an odd turn when the apparent victim Princess Garnet of Alexandria, actually asks Zidane to kidnap her instead of the other way around.

From there, of course things become all crazy with robot black mages, a greedy enthused queen burning towns to the ground for crystal pieces, and an overly flamboyant sorcerer pulling the strings behind it all. FF9 continues with its usage of the Active Time Battle system to make battles all the more urgent and that you have to think fast as the enemy can take moves while you're thinking. What's new to this entry at the time is the Trance system. Similar to Limit breaks, a bar underneath the ATB bar fills up as you take damage. Once full, the party member undergoes a very bright costume change and has a higher output in damage and magic. Plus, each character has a distinct trait/move set unlocked for some pretty powerful stuff!

I was mostly in awe of FF9 as I was comparing it mainly to Final Fantasies 7 and 8. It's astonishing how far Squaresoft came in terms of graphical power in the early modern games. The character models were fully 3D and fleshed out as opposed to 7's blocky hands and 8's super glitchy looking models in the Overworld. The scenery is also drop dead gorgeous. Final Fantasy IX was touted as a return to the more classical/medieval setting from the very modernized stories of its predecessors.

The characters were super likable from the ever curious Vivi, to the proud dragoon Freya and the child like Eiko. There were some moments that made me laugh pretty hard  (mainly from the foodie Quina) and the story was definitely of Final Fantasy caliber. Some of the story moments hit me hard and I got to admire the characters a whole lot. This version for the Switch is I believed an upscaled HD port made for the PC and it was done by Guild Studio. Some elements added to this version were made in the form of "Boosters". You can pause the game and activate such things like all damage output be 9999, speed up the game entirely, or even have no random encounters!

The way FF9 handles learning new abilities was very easy to pick up on. Mainly through swapping gear pieces that had moves attached, you'd then battle to grind out AP and once the ability is mastered, it's then yours to use forever. Having all of my party members have moves like Auto Regen really helped out in the end game areas. There were some parts where I struggled and had to grind out some levels but there wasn't a point where I really felt like I was screwed. Nobuo Uematsu once again shines in the musical component for this game. Having him on record say that this was his favorite title to do the music on, I can certainly see why. The main theme hooked me once I heard it for the first time after seeing it pop up on my Pandora Final Fantasy station many times before.

I was quite surprised with just how many CG cutscenes were placed in this game. Certainly 7 and 8 did not have this many! This isn't a complaint at all as I loved how beautiful they all looked. I don't know at the top of my head how many years passed between Final Fantasy 8 and 9 but holy smokes did the development team outdo themselves with this entry! Check out these other shots I took while playing my run!

Should you Play this Game?
Absolutely! Final Fantasy IX is a return to form for the franchise and offers so much for players who both grew up with the entries of old or those like me who haven't gotten a chance to experience them. Fantastic cast of characters, brilliant music and a captivating story all come together in a very traditional yet exciting Final Fantasy!
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