labyrinth's Full Review: Final Fantasy IX for PlayStation 1
Well, for me, I hated FFVIII. I mean, it is a good game, but I hated the way we have to play it. I think the idea of "junction" isn't too bad, but the idea of "draw" is perhaps the dumbest thing in the world. It makes the game boring, just like Chrysler Tower in Parasite Eve. However, the Chocobo Hot & Cold game in FFIX is pretty close to that level of boredom, for me, personally. But we'll get to that later.
I don't know, it seems like giving anything less than 4 stars to a Final Fantasy game is quite a sin. At least for the dough and effort they put into each game, they deserve a bit more respect at least. I would love to give FFVIII about 2.5 stars or 3 stars max; for the FMV and the story. For FF9, my heart is telling me a 3.5. However, since it has "Final Fantasy" in its title, I'll round it up to 4.
Before we start with the criticizing, I have to point out one thing. I am not a big fan of graphic eye-candy. Surely they are nice, but they're one of the last thing I'll look for in a game, since a game is supposed to be fun, instead of pretty. So, my game reviews are usually judged on how fun a game plays, and weighs less on how it looks.
So we've got that out of the way, here it comes:
The Good Scoop:
The ability system. A little deviation from Final Fantasy V's job system, but you can basically learn abilities by gaining experiences, in this case, from weapons, armors and accessories. It is a fun way to upgrade your characters, unlike the DRAW system in FF8, where you find a monster and stand there and draw the crap out of it. (if you're reading this review I presume you've played FF8) It is fun to beat up monster and strengthen yourselves in the same time.
The graphics. Well, this game has a huge amount of FMVs. I couldn't believe how many FMVs I saw playing the first few hours of disk 1. The FMVs are by far the best in any game, that's a given. I also like the calm beginning FMV of the game, it takes a different approach than FF7 and FF8.
Characters. Let me warn you first, you're gonna see this section again at the "Bad Poops" part. There are both sides to this section so I'm gonna start with the goods. The characters in FF9 are pretty well defined. Gamers and tell everyone's characteristics immediately and you can actually anticipate what they'll say next. It is also interesting that the protagonist of the game starts as a con artist, a thieve; instead of a handsome hero kind of guy from some previous FF series. It's an interesting approach. And it is actually quite a nice touch that we know from the very beginning that the protagonist has a hit on the princess. Usually they'll pretend like they never care, until almost the end of the game and they finally fall in love, whatever. It shakes off the Japanase-idol-drama formula.
Side quests. There are MANY side quests in this game, MANY. And of course, you'll get your FF9's version of crazily-strong monster, aka. FF7's Ruby/Emerald Weapon, FF8's Omega Weapon. In FF9 he's called Ozma, I'll let yourself figure him out. He's pretty hard and you need mostly luck with it. I beat him in two tries. But he wiped my level 70+ party out in 10 seconds in my first attempt. Although some side quests are rather useless, but some will GREATLY benefit your characters.
The Bad Poop:
Story Progression. It is downright SLOW. We basically play through one and a half disk without knowing what we are doing. We're just running from here and there, without a clear objective, or without any twists. It's almost like we're just walking down a straight line, there isn't much to expect. The story doesn't really start to get interesting until almost the middle of the second disk. And it doesn't impress me a whole lot from there either. It's fair, but not great.
Linear Battles. Most of the time in battles, you're just hacking and hacking using your regular weapons, with the exception of Vivi or Quina. You'll start to use different abilities in battle rather late in the game, because you don't get to learn them earlier. White Mages (Dagger/Garnet, Eiko) doesn't have attacking spells, and all other characters except Vivi and Quina doesn't have a whole lot of offensive spells early on. Steiner has a couple of cool sword spell attack but he has to be with Vivi. And you guessed it, they don't get to be together for very long until the 3rd disk.
Character Distribution. The levels of your characters are badly distributed; mainly you will are forced to play different groups of characters at different locations/times. I had three characters at level 16 and three at level 9 in the same time, because the other group had more battle chances. And later in Disk 3, I had four characters at level 34 and three characters at level 24. That's a difference of 10 levels buddy. It is really unbalanced. And did I mention when a character leaves your party without knowing, he/she gets to take away the armors/weapons/accessories on him/her? So if you're planning to have another character learn the abilities on the armors/weapons/accessories, tough luck. Let's wait.
Characterization. Although characters are well defined, they are kind of weak. Does anyone want to argue with me how weak Steiner is? And how naive he's always been? I mean, he is designed to be a naive knight with pride, but the way he persists his naiveness is out of the ordinary. It happens to other characters too. On a long basis, it takes their fun away.
Chocobo Hot & Cold. This is the most boring thing to go through with since I played Shenmue. I mean, sitting on a bird and digging on the same map for treasures that never show up isn't exactly what I planned to spend through the evening. Unfortunately, it is required if you want to complete some REALLY, REALLY cool side quests. It is downright boring, time-consuming and pointless.
Ending Theme. You know, sometimes things are better left untouched. So far, almost EVERY SINGLE translated song in videogames sound downright like crap in English (with the exception of Lunar SSS). Why can't they just leave it in Japanese instead, than translate into miserable lyrics (layers of harmony??? c'mon, be more poetic). But I do have to admit, even the original Japanese version wasn't too much better. However, MUCH better than the English version. The reason? I think Japanese game makers put more hearts into their games. American game makers probably think games are for kids, why pay so much attention to it anyway? American voice actors probably think, oh only kids will listen to us, why work so hard for it? My talents are far more suited for bigger occasions.
If you can't do a game right, it's hardly that you can do any other things right.
The Bottom Line:
So here it is. Do I recommend it? Yeah of course, it is afterall a Final Fantasy game. However, it is good, but not great. It is a fair game with plenty to look at. However, you will start to fall in love with this game after disk 3. That's when everything starts to click and you have more options with your battles. FFIX is a great game, but not one of the best. Do try it, it surely will give you hours of fun, and hours of frustration.
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