Final Fantasy IX Review

Before saying anything about this amazing game, I want to get something off my back. There has already been numerous Final Fantasy games (remember, there are some for the Game Boy as well) out there, but none of them are actually sequels from one another. Yet they have the same name. I guess it's because they use the same summoned monsters in each of them (I haven't played all the Final Fantasy's, so I can't be sure), and because they have the dreaded Chocobos and Moogles. Oh well!

Now that I got that off my back, let me just say that it's about time Square decided to 'go back to their roots' with this game. In other words, expect super deformed characters with flying ships searching different midevil towns and dungeons. Ever since I was dissapointed with Final Fantasy VII (in fact, I didn't finish it), I didn't play Final Fantasy VIII because I expected the worst (I'll play it soon though!). But ever since I heard that Square was going back to their original style of RPG's, I got excited and decided to try this game out, and boy was I happy. :-)

To start off, the graphics are (as always) breathtaking. Everything looks great. It seemed a tad bit grainier than Chrono Cross though, but I guess it's because there are up to 4 people in your team at one time (See? I told you it went back to it's roots!). The game's cinemas are truly spectacular. They are better than anything I've ever seen in any video game. They're just so full of wonderfull eye candy and excitement that it'll make your eye's bleed (or at least tear up, in my case from looking at the screen too long!).

The music was also good too, although most of the tracks aren't too memorable, it suits the game well.

Now to the best part of the game.. the story. This game takes a lighter, more humerous take at storytelling without being too corny or stupid. You'll get the idea in the beginning of the game. The game starts off as a bunch of bandits try to capture a princess during a play. During this process, you'll encounter a lot of funny moments with one of your main characters, Vivi, as he tries to sneak into the play since he has a fake ticket. Once the bandits capture the princess, they realize that she wants to get captured (sorry if I spoiled anything, but I read this in a lot of other reviews!). The game goes on from there, as you start to unravel the horrible horrible things that can happen when people get greedy for power. Each of your main characters are truly unique from one another, and it's fun watching them interact with each other. Besides a story based on power, this also has a lot to do with the story of 'friendship'.

To all you fans of the past Final Fantasy's, be prepared for a little shock here and there as some parts of the game are actually borrowed from the earlier Final Fantasy games (I guess Square wanted this game to be special to all the hardcore Final Fantasy fans). I was in shock when I heard a few of the songs from FFVI playing. There are other memorable moments, but I won't spoil any of them.

The battle system is really nice. In some ways, it's sorta like the battle system used from FFV. In this game, each character has their own special ability (such as blue magic, white magic, etc.). A character can only learn certain spells that matches what they can do (for example, a person that can't do white magic can't learn the Cure spell). Magic is learned by equiping different weapons, armors, and other items. Each item will have a special crystal(s) in it that will eventually teach the character it's spell. After winning a battle, each character will not only gain experience points and money, but AP as well. AP is basically the magic points you need to learn spells. Once learned (or equiped), you can use a certain amount of spells during a battle that you like depending on the number of magic stones you have. I love the idea, but it can get annoying switching things around after battles just so your characters can learn different spells.

During the actual battles, there is a bar that slowly fills up. When it fills up, it's that characters turn (just like in other games of this type). On the bottom of the bar though, is another bar, called the Trance Gauge . Every time your character gets hit, the Trance Gauge slowly fills up. Once full, the character becomes more powerful and has a special ability that they can perform till the Trance Gauge empties out. And for all you people that hated the long summons from the earlier games will be happy to note that this game has shorter summons (you still can't speed through them though).

Even though this game is excellently paced (you'll find yourself doing something all the time), there are a bunch of mini games that you can play with. A few examples are: "Chocobo Hot & Cold", were you use your Chocobo to find treasures by digging them out of the ground; "Tetra Master", were you play a card game against other characters in the game (I can't stop playing it!); and other little ones like finding out how many times you can jump rope to collecting Stellazzio coins.

Another nice feature is the fact that if you need help with anything, you can press the select button and a moogle will pop up and tell you what something does.