What’s so good about Final Fantasy IX?

By Duncan Heaney:
"We’ve previously discussed what’s good about FINAL FANTASY X, but what about the game that preceded it? Many fans cite FINAL FANTASY IX as the best in the whole series, but what does it do to earn such high praise?

With the game now available on all current gen platforms - PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Windows 10, iOS and Android - it seems like the perfect time to examine why it’s so beloved."

[Kakashi Hatake]

Most overrated FF game ever. A huge step back from 7 and 8. All of its flaws is completely overlooked just because the characters are liked. Terrible battle system, garbage limit breaks, etc. Well at least there's Vivi.

[Chaos_Order]

I would put 9 above 8, but for one reason only: 8's levelling system. The fact that levelling up your characters actually weakens you, and that the optimal way to play through the game is to run from every battle and keep your level as low as possible was not only broken and nonsensical, but added a layer of annoyance across the entire game. It damn near ruined the game for me, which is a shame, because in every other facet from music to art design to world design to battle system, 8 would probably be my favourite JRPG of all time. As it stands, I put it below 6, 7, 9 and 10.

[Fist4achin]

I didn't care for 8 either...

[pietro1212]

If you're doing it right FFVIII junction system could make a low party overpowered. I kept my party in the high 20s until the end of disc 2.

[Kakashi Hatake]

What game did you play? Leveling up doesn't weaken you, it makes your base more powerful. Also, think of junction as adding Super Saiyin and other levels to base Goku. Considering magic can be synthesized in 8, I don't get the irritation with the junction system.

[Chaos_Order]

@Kakashi

Levelling up increases stats... While also increasing enemy stats. The problem is, player stats hit a limit much, much earlier on since the junction system allows you to attain extremely high stats at low, low levels. Levelling up HINDERS you, and that's an objective fact. The optimal way to play is to draw the best magic, abuse the junction system, then steamroll the game, using mostly basic attacks and aura to spam limit break. Check any vid on YouTube of the FF8 final boss, and chances are their characters are below level 10. For Omega Weapon, levelling up your character is absolute suicide. So yeah, levelling up weakens you. It's like taking a pill that simultaneously makes your muscles bigger but also makes everything in the universe twice as heavy.

[Kados]

Trance is the only legit downside to the game. FFIX was the culmination of everything that made the previous games great. It was essentially the first "love letter" to the franchise. To not like FFIX is to not like Final Fantasy in general.

The combat system was great with the exception of the trance system, the story was by far the best in the series at the time, the characters were all likeable, the world was well designed, the art style was by far the best in the series, and pretty much every song in the game was right up there with the best the series had to offer.

[Kados]

Just to add to my last post.

FFVIII was an insult to the series, it was very obviously a rush job.
-No proper weapon system, with everything just being upgrades on the stock weapons,
-No shop interiors, simply entering a shop interface when you walk through the door (talk about lazy dev work)
-The combat system was arguably the second worst in the series after FFII, with the junction system where you actually loose character stats every time you cast magic.
-The completely broken level scaling system that punished players for leveling up, you don't even gain base attributes in the game when your characters level up (unless you have the GF skills later on in the game), leveling up literally was just a means for the game to know when it should increase enemy stats. The best way to play the game was to grind on the bridge in Dolet for ~16 hours, with just Seifer (kill off other party member), and all the current GFs equipped to him so they level up, transfering drawn magic to the downed characters as the inventory limit maxed out, then for the rest of the game using run/card/break/level-down on everything to avoid gaining exp. Only doing more training again once you temporarily get Edea late in the game (more GF leveling).
-The story was so bad after the first disk, it actually inspired the speculation that the whole game was just Squall hallucinating while dying.

The only reason anyone likes it is because of the cheesy love story woven in.

VII was also quite overrated, it was actually a good game unlike VIII, but not nearly as good as alot of people pretend, certainly not as good as VI or IX. The main reason so many people like it is simple nostalgia, it was the first FF game on the PS1, which happened to be the start of video games becoming main stream (gaming during the SNES days was still quite niche and most adults frowned on the idea), it was the first FF game probably 80% of gamers at the time had ever played. It also was the first 3D FF which created a ton of appeal just for that alone, and caused people to look at the other aspects of it much less critically.

[Razmiran]

If IX is a love letter then VIII is a hate letter
Terrible story, terrible gameplay, terrible characters

[Kados]

Further adding to my last post, as strange as it sounds, i would actually like to see FFVIII remade. The game had quite a bit of potential outside of the story. It was just really badly done the first time around. I could see it being a great game if the other things i mentioned were fixed. Primarily ditching the level scaling and making it so your own characters actually gain stats from the get go (dumping the corresponding GF abilities in the process, since they would no longer be needed), and fixing the junction system so that magic casting and stat/resistance equips are seperate. Fixing the weapons in some way would be nice also. Maybe have alternate options for each upgrade, similar to Dark Cloud, where you can choose the form and associated stats to upgrade to.

[Kakashi Hatake]

How was the combat system great? It was barebones compared to 7 8 and 10.

[Kados]

Loads of white/black magic, loads of summons across 2 different characters, loads of unique skills/abilities like blue magic, cook/eat, jump, throw, etc. It also had the ability stones which allowed you to freely optimize your characters for different mobs/bosses. It was comparable to X in its complexity, and easily surpassed VII & VIII. Hell in VIII you pretty much just used run/card/break on 99% of enemies if you are playing the game properly. 2 bosses requiring level-down was the only variation.

[FalconofLucis98]

Agreed mate

[Ogygian]

The most overrated Final Fantasy game is FF7.

[Ripsta7th]

Forget Vivi!
We have puck!

[Segata]

No FF7 is the most overrated FF game and it's not even close. IX is underrated.

[Kakashi Hatake]

How is 9 underrated? People act like it's the best game ever even with its crippled combat system.

[thejigisup]

The game isn't about limit breaks necessarily, they are just ultra attacks not really a huge thing to complain about, the over world was believable, tons of mini games and side quests, great graphics, for the time, game mechanics to build and grow your chocobo that actually effected how you play the game, the story made sense maybe until after kujas death did it get a tad weird for like a half hour, and naviagtine the underground in treno was overly difficult the first time, at least for me but all the characters had great stories and felt believable. Number of weapons to collect was great and if you didn't want to do it and learn the abilites of the weapon by using them you had options to speed up the process, the game doesn't force you to have every ability and every sword to complete. The battle system was fine. Everyone likes Vivi but what about Steiner, he was a great character, you learn to love and hate him all at the same time blank was cool as hell and so is zidane, one of my favorite protagonists in the FF series bc they took time to show off more than one dimension of his character.

[SegaSaturn669]

I really didn't like 9. It's not even a horrible game. The colour palette is very boring, the characters are uninteresting.

That "you are not alone" scene falls flat.

[kreate]

What are u talking about? FF9 is one of the best JRPGs of all time.

It's a traditional RPG. Perfect fit for the era.

[pyroxxx]

Nothing really, except I found the art design very charming.

[BlahBlahWhatever]

Just the FMV's & I'm talking for back in 2000 other than that the only thing I can think of is the part where princess hide her identity & her relationship with Zidane that was actually fun, but that's it I can't think any other positive only negatives a lot of them...

[FalconofLucis98]

Very overrated imo

[Kakashi Hatake]

Definitely, I've seen people say 9s combat was better than 7 and 8s. That's absolutely hilarious.

[Ogygian]

The people who liked Medieval Final Fantasies consider IX the best, or at least one of the best in the series (alongside VI).

The people who liked more futuristic Final Fantasies consider VII the best, or at least one of the best in the series.

There's really no point arguing which is best because to do so would be as pointless as arguing whether The Elder Scrolls is a better series than Fallout (which setting you prefer is ultimately a matter of taste, as each have their strengths).

Remember that in an RPG, the gameplay is a vehicle for the story, characters, and setting, with these factors being the fulcrum of such games - the elements upon which it thrives or fails (an RPG with great characters, setting and story but awful gameplay will at least become a cult classic).

[FalconofLucis98]

The FF fanbase is cancer

[Segata]

I don't hate Sci-fi in my RPGs as I love Phantasy Star & Xenoblade. I don't hate the idea in FF either but it's been nothing but sci-fi for almost every entry since 7 with a couple exceptions. It's time FFXVI becomes the new FFIX and I believe at the very least there have been rumblings the next one will be more based on Fantasy than sci-fi.

[pietro1212]

Prefer Sci-Fi or modern settings for my JRPGs, but I'd still place FFIX over VII and VIII (VIII ranks pretty high for me as well).

[thejigisup]

The main story was fun and lively with a crazy dark twist, all of the side quests helped build the lore and flesh out the world. Kuja was a great villain, Garland could used more screen time. The world felt cohesive and believable from madain sari to cleyra, all the way back to treno it all meshes well, the music is definitely up there with the best of the series and did a great job scene to scene location to location. If you like chocobos this game had one of my favorite chocobos games, world travel via chocobo, blue red black chocobos. kwehhh!!! Trance system was a bit of a let down but let's see how the ffvii remake does and maybe, hopefully they'll remake viii and ix in the same fashion.

[Segata]

Music. Characters. World. It's a love letter to the SNES RPGs. Easily the best FF on PS1. One of the best in the series period. I adore this game and how can anyone hate Vivi? You are a bad person if you hate Vivi.

[Relientk77]

Almost damn near everything. My favorite FF game and one of my favorite games of all time.

[pietro1212]

The game is underrated to be honest.
Great cast of characters, story, charming art style. My only complaint is the trance system and it can be very grind heavy at times (learning abilities)

[FalconofLucis98]

Underrated? More like overrated.

[pietro1212]

FFVII is overrated if anything (good game, but overhyped).

[ShadowWolf712]

Short answer?

E V E R Y T H I N G

[Kakashi Hatake]

9 fans are the most vocal but that doesn't mean 9 is the best. The only complaint people have about 8 is the junction system but the gameplay is far superior to 9. Disagree all you want.

[Segata]

ow the edge

[AceRimmer302]

Right on the money. I just recently played 9 again for the first time in 15 years. The story is disjointed (yes, even more-so than 7/8). Amarant is dull. The combat is terrible compared to nearly all previous entries. Everything feels like a slog. Don't get me wrong. I still think it's a really good game. It still has great moments and some great characters (Vivi especially), but it's my least favorite from 4-10.
And you're also completely on point with 9 fans. Geez, they infest any article on the PSX FFs.

[Traecy]

Agreed. I think FF 9 might have been a rushed titled seeing it released one year right after FF8. FF 9 gameplay was very simple/basic.

[Traecy]

Agreed.

[Gamingsince1981]

Although ff8 and ff10 plus 10 part 2 will a plays be my favourites, I think 7,8,9,10,10 part 2 and 12 are all amazing rpgs. I wish they didn't turn to crap from 13 onwards.

[Sirk7x]

Easy. The story was amazing, it had a fantastic, long soundtrack, good characters with a great art style, far superior character animations to the games before, great translation. I wish awful things upon whoever decided the steal rate on bosses though.

[Tzuno]

the world in which the story takes place

[AK91]

Everything

[Traecy]

It's not a bad FF game but imo it's my least favorite out of all the numbered SP FF titles.

[Gamingsince1981]

You would rate 13 and 15 higher than 9 ? ....That's an interesting opinion I guess. I can't agree though, I mean 9 is lower than most ff games to me but the exceptions are def the abortions that are ff13 and ff15.

[Traecy]

FF X,FFXIII,FFVIII & FF XV are my top favorite FF games.

[DafunkyRebel]

Umm it’s good that’s what

[Harkins1721]

Play it in 2000.