I suppose in my naming Final Fantasy IX as my favourite game of all time makes saying ‘I love this game’ quite redundant. But I do; I really, really love this game. From the moment I started playing it, I knew it was going to be my favourite – it was the one.
It’s too easy for me to just say that it’s my favourite because of ‘everything’, so I’ll try hard to give a reasonably constructive statement as to why I love this paragon of game design, as opposed to just gushing over it and lavishing it with praise and gifts of chocolate and the joy of a child’s smile.
Maybe a bit of background: while Final Fantasy VIII was the first FF game I ever played, FFIX was the one that really made me think the series was absolutely incredible and worth looking at every game in the series. But, even then, when I’d only played two games, I just knew that no other game from the series would trump the emotion that I felt when I took my first steps in the Prima Vista, lit the candle and told them my name.
Embarrassing bit of triva – it took me about three tries to actually learn how to play the game properly. See, characters learn abilities and spells and such from equipment, but we’ll come back to that. I rented this game a few times before buying it, and for some reason I ended up having to start over after the first time. So both times I got up to this monster of a boss, Gizamaluke, who absolutely slaughtered my party. Constantly and consistently. Why did he do this? Because I didn’t know that characters needed equipment to learn moves, so I was just barely getting by on the most basic of basic attacks (which, actually sounds kinda impressive in some ways – I got through a decent amount of the first disk without learning any new attacks…). However, after looking it up and realising that I’d been so incredibly stupid, I disposed of the boss easily and continued on the grand adventure.
Why is this relevant? Even though I was getting my arse handed to me by that boss, I still loved playing this game. Even though I was young and stupid and couldn’t play it properly, I still loved playing this game. There’s just something about the game which I can never shake off or forgo.
Final Fantasy IX was the last FF game to be made for the original Playstation before the PS2 was brought out, and as such, became somewhat a tribute to all the games that came before it – paying tribute to the last generation of games before moving onto the newer ones. This meant that everything from character roles and design to random items that you pick up and never use again were references to the other games. For example, the most incredible and amazing character Vivi is a Black Mage with a design that harkens back to the very first Final Fantasy and the original Black Mage character.
That all said, the game transcends all the references and nostalgia to create a complete and strong story of their very own, including what I consider to be the best cast of characters seen in a FF game. There are eight main characters that make up your party, each of them have an interesting and compelling back story (well… except maybe one, which is pretty much comic relief… I used to hate the character when I was younger, but Quina’s definitely grown on me now) and make a useful addition to any battle. It’s very arguable that four of the eight get more focus than the others, but I never minded – I’d much rather see a more concentrated growth and development that for them to try and spread it too thin. It’s not like the others are ignored, they just slip into the background in some moments.
The story takes you all over the world of Gaia, over four very different continents and even to another world entirely. There are twists and turns in the story which always keep you on your toes, and they have a very real effect on our characters, the story and the game play aren’t segregated as much as in other games. For example, the Trance mechanic – in which a character goes into an ultra-fighting state when they’ve taken enough hits – can be triggered by the plot when a character in particularly enraged or emotional, which links the battles much closer to the story. Another section renders a character mute by a traumatising event, and this makes them freak out in battle and unable to perform moves sometimes. As a game mechanic, it gets quite annoying, but as a way of storytelling, I think it’s brilliant.
The villains were so much fun to watch – from the melodramatic to the absolutely terrifying. Characters made themselves so detestable, that battling them became catharsis, and you got desperate in helping your team of players to defeat the horrific foe. Don’t get me started on the monster designs, which were wonderful to look at and still look interesting today, even if graphics have developed further. Speaking of designs, the game captures steam-punk brilliantly, especially in the airships, which look wonderfully Victorian. Oh! And Chocobo Hot and Cold! The most incredibly addictive mini-game in the history of anything, ever! Or Mognet – in which adorable Moogles get you to deliver mail for them. And the romance! Yes, I’m a sucker for romance, but I just loved the way the relationship between Zidane and Dagger was formed, how naturally it grew and… Gah!
I’m sorry, I could just go on and on and on about how much I love this game. From start to finish, across four disks, I just adore this creation.
This isn’t a perfect game. I’ll admit it. It has some faults and some issues, but what game doesn’t? It’s a game that I could pick up at any time and feel exactly as excited the first time I placed the disk in the console – it’s an old friend that I haven’t spoken to in a while, but when I do, the conversation continues from the very sentence we finished on.
Let me end this review and this top ten list with another anecdote from my playing. There’s a section in which you need to rescue as many people as you can from a village which is under siege, and the amount of survivors at the end depend on decisions you make and facts you need to remember from earlier in the game. I played this section, trying my best to avoid the enemies and get people out okay – some people were lost, but I continued anyway. At the end of the section, the survivors sit at the top of the village and give you items. My thoughts weren’t about which items I was receiving, my thought was a very despaired ‘… I only saved eight?’ And I’m not talking ‘I could have gotten more items from this’, I’m talking, practically in tears at the thought that I didn’t save as many fictional characters as I could have.
I know it’s stupid and I know I’m probably over reacting, but the almost haunting thought that I only saved eight people from that village still crosses my mind all these years later. Eight people… When a game’s done that, it’s done something right.
And Final Fantasy IX? Gets full marks in my books.
Crazy is Perfect 