Final Fantasy IX...Pros and Cons

[Red XIV]

Alright...I am making this thread because I have now beaten Final Fantasy VII and VIII (I actually beat them a while ago), the PSX generation games, and I have to move on to IX... I had played IX, years ago, and got to the end of the 2nd disk (for a FF game, the 1st disk was very, very short) and I hated it... This is not a hate thread! I want to explain what I thought was good and bad about it...

Cons:
1. The character designs. The characters; to me; all seemed like midgets (no offense to any small people), and looked vaguely like children. Plus the monkey tail was ridiculous.
2. The plot... Just did not stack up to the others. Also the characters were a major let down.
3. The battle system was a dramatic change from VII and VIII. I did not like that only certain people could do certain things. And, about summoning. Summons are my favorite things about FF games... If I can only summon with a character I don't plan on using...ugh! Plus, it takes along time for you to ever get to use a summon.

Pros:
1. The music was excellent!
2. The graphics were rather nice!
3. The battle system, however bad, still was interesting, especially Sword Arts!
4. Synthesizing weapons...

And, might I add, I still believe that this is the worst of the series...but, do not be angry with me! It is still a great game!

On the contrary, i feel the characters were the best part of the game.

In fact, i feel IX has the best characters out of any game.

[Angantyr]

IX is great... you need to play the whole series sir!!! Well the biggest let down for me would of been that it wasnt as much like the old 1s as it was made out to be

The best thing imo is the soundtrack..... Id buy the game for the OST alone!

[Andromeda]

Well, one has to remember that the old FF games, on the NES were very similar to FFIX. FFIX pays tribute in a manner of speaking to the older FF games. So the battle system and jobs are similar to that. You have to keep that in mind, plus Square changes things up each game, so do not expect the same thing in every game.

Pros.

Character Development, something that ended up lacking in FFVIII, FFIX did a great job of developing all the characters you play with giving them all unique personalities and stories. Each one of them was important to the story and development for one or another.
Classic Feel, it feels like the old school games, if you give the Chibi size a thought, you will realize that back in the 8 and 16 bit days, characters in RPG did not have much room. What happened, you get big heads a lot of time, just to show a little emotion or expression, because you read so much from how people look. The chibi, large heads, large hands of FFIX are almost idential to the style that was in old RPGs, so it does not seem that strange.
Soundtrack, as anyone can agree this is music you can listen time and time again, people sit in towns just to listen to it. Who does want to get to Black Mage Village just to listen the music, its everyone favorite.
Fantasy Feel, until FFVII and FFVIII and a few others in the series, FFIX is almost pure Fantasy World. You do not have advanced technologies aside from Terra's things, the closest thing to advance technology on Gaia is the steam engine, and it just being invented. And considering Terra is such a small part of it, you are treated to a world full of grandious buildings that make you think of Tolkien. You is not in awe viewing Lindblum, or Cleyra, even Iifa Tree, its a beautiful rich world.

Cons.
Random Final Boss, Necron is probably the strange ending boss, because you do not seeing him coming. You are like, yay Kuja is death, I win, even though it seemed to easy. And guess what you are right it was too easy, Necron is waiting to slap you around. They really try to work him in, but really it just seems random, only final boss in any game I have played that I did not see coming. Have to give Square credit for that.
Mandatory Card Game, I love the card game, Tetra Master, but at first I did not want to be playing it. I do not even know the name of the FFVIII card game, because I've never played it. I do not like doing things I do not want to do, to push the story along, especially when its a mini game.
Stuck with your characters, something that all the FF games until FFX had going against them, as well as most RPGs. You cannot switch characters during the battle or even outside of battle, you have to be at a special point to do so. It is not as though they are not traveling with you. And your character do not level that are unused, so if you do not level them all, you get sorely underleveled characters when you are forced to use them.

every character comes from a different race... quite nice

except for kuja and zidane...
well, they are the same...

[Ultima]

I personally liked the game. It was one of those games that draws the player into the plot and storyline. All in all I enjoyed playing it so much I played it over and over again!

One of the great things about FFIX's battle system with all the characters being able to do different things is that it gives you an opportunity to strategize! Something the newer games lack. I've played the demo for FFXII and it seems like they're sort of going back to that, which makes me happy. I definitely hate the Trance system. If you could save it like you could the overdrives in FFVII or FFX then it wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention most of the abilities in Trance suck hard core. Zidane's is good, Eiko and Vivi's double magic is useful, Freya's is all right, but everyone else's pretty much suck. Garnet's is unreliable at best from what I remember. I never really used Amarant so I can't comment on him. It was pretty hard trying to time things to make Trance occur during a boss fight, you fail most of the time, though the ability to increase the speed of the Trance bar did help a bit.

I love FFIX for the fantasy element. I'm more of a fantasy person than a sci-fi person, so I loved the era FFXI takes place in. I do like the characters too, I love the flirtations back and forth between Zidane and Garnet, it's too cute. Not to mention throwing in 6 year old Eiko who tries to fight Garnet for him. That was just too funny. I liked the plot as well, I like this game for the most part, there are just a few things that bug me.

FF lX has to be my favorite. or close to. the characters werent to memorable, but that goes along with the whole "no voiceovers" thing. soundtrack was a go time passer. i thought the story didnt do anything new but it was a solid story and no one can bash it for that. the battle system seemed normal to me. im one of those people who isnt critical on that though. the one thing that kills me is the graphics. its so hard for me to go back and play it because of that. its is so scratchy and pixilated in the battle sequences that it really takes a lot out of the game. even ff7 seemd to stay nice. but eh, it was great while it was new.

[RagnaToad]

cons: I just hate the areas where the encounter change is very high your jsut examining a wall for rare items and poof! a purple behemoth starts attacking you in the back

pros: everything else lol

[Yukin]

Hehee, my favorite FF, The Battle theme is based on FF I(I think...)

[Storm]

Yeah, none of the characters standed out to me, Vivi was cute, though, and zidane and amarant were strong. other than that, i feel you can relate more to the characters from previous final fantasies better.

I find it annoying that the only white magic and summon users are Garnet and Eiko. Eiko's quite cute, but garnet is a royal pain in the ass but you have to have her 'cause she can summon bahamut, leviathan (my two fave summons) and ark. The limit breaks are weak. What happened to good old 'duel' 'renzokuken' 'omnislash' and 'highwind' type limits that unleash lotsa damage. Vivis ones ok, but whats the point of Zidane's grand lethal (which takes off 9999 HP) if you can already do that kinda damage with basic attacks?

The story's good, dont get me wrong, until the end of disk 4, when the story goes all pear-shaped and boring. Im not saying anymore for those who havent completed it, but you'll find the ending is a serious let-down.

[Mike]

I enjoyed this game very much when i played it. i likes the look of most the characters, vivi epecially. I liked that they went back to their roots with the crystals with the jobs.

However, I was extremely dissapointed in the ending. I didn't like how after you beat kuja he suddenly as a change of heart and you save him. I really didn't like this random god, Necron, appearing with hardly any mention of him in the game. After all I did in that game I just felt cheated by the end of it. I have never played it again.

[RagnaToad]

Yeah, the ending might be a bit dissapointing but hey, how many FFs do you play for just the ending? Most of the FFs' ending boss suck (except for Sephi I guess) and theres a lot more to FF as completing the story...

[Mike]

That's like saying how many movies do you watch for the ending. if the story doesn't close well it kinda ruins the whole story.