[Pete]

Nobody realizes that FFIX is a tribute to the past. I remember reading way back in early 2000, in an EGM when they put out their first sneak peek at FFIX, that the whole premace of the game was a throwback to pay tribute to the good ole single digit FF's of the past. Castle towns and sprawling medeival cities were what was up back in the day, and in IX they wanted to acknowledge that and kind of say "thanks for the good times, but now we're moving on." Everything in the game is so wonderfully retro, from the air ships being flying boats, to the class system, and even adopting FFVI's learning system, where you need to either have gear equipped in order to perform special skills, or take the time and learn it by levelling up with the gear equipped.

Mages, summoners, knights, theives, monks and dragoons were all a huge part of the early FF games, and square wanted to bring back the "super deformed" style of the past for one last go. They wanted to do this so much that they had even gotten Amano back on the job and designing people. Amano was the driving force for the character design for FF back in the day, and they wanted him to bring back that feeling of the past while playing IX. Quite frankly, I think he did an outstanding job with his character design. He has one of the best senses of style and design in the business.