Gaia is the setting. A somewhat medievil world that includes kings and their kingdoms, dragons and their lairs. Struggles continue between those powerful enough to wage war, while the plights of the less fortunate are virtually ignored.

So begins the story of a 17 year old thief, Zidane Tribal of Linblum and Princess Garnet Tale Alexandros of neighboring Alexandria. The kingdom of Lindblum, headed by Regent Cid, finally decides to kidnap the Princess of Alexandria to somehow halt the atrocities and attacks being ordered by it's evil Queen.

Garnet is captured, but sides with Zidane in his quest to stop the aggression. In response, the Queen sends a group of black mages after the crew in an attempt to get her daughter back. However, a young apprentice mage, Vivi sides up with those in trouble and so begins a journey to restore peace to the land.

Peace against all odds and in the hands of the young, but determined.

I've been saying for a while now that Final Fantasy IX is one of the best game in the series. How could you possibly go wrong with combining the best of the last two games on the Playstation with the best of the classics on the Nintendo and Super Nintendo?

It would be very difficult. And Square didn't disappoint.

Story and Characters - 10

The story revolves around eight different chracters who all tie together in some way, shape or fashion with their past or their relations with others in the game. The game mainly focuses on two central characters however, Zidane and Garnet. Zidane is introduced as a thief from Lindblum, but we learn he is much more than that later. Garnet is the Princess of Alexandria. We also learn that she has much more to her past as well.

The story also follows the plight of a young black mage that goes by the name of Vivi. The mage doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself and the story progresses to him wondering if he even has a true soul.

Others in the story include Steiner, who is a knight of Alexandria assigned to protect the Princess. He is fiercely loyal to Garnet and the Kingdom of Alexandria. He also has little patience for fooling around. Another is Freya. She is a Red Mage and an old friend of Zidane. She is in search of her long lost love. Next is Quina, who is a chef of sorts out to explore the world to taste all it's foods. Quina has the ability to use Blue Magic by eating enemies she comes across and learning their abilities. There is a sex identity crisis with her because everyone refers to her as "s/he", but my personal opinion on this is that Quina is a "she" because she is able to equip items that only female characters can use.

Another is Aramant. He is a loner and a mercenary for hire. He unwilling joins the party later in the story. While he is with them, he has his own agenda. Finally, there is Eiko. She is the last of her tribe of Summoners. She is only a kid, but has been taking care of herself for quite some time with the help of her moogle friends.

There are also a host of other characters that you can control for brief periods of the game. However, to list a few of them would be major spoilers, but rest assured it is a treat to be able to use them at the times you control them.

The story itself revolves initially around a rising conflict between Alexandria and Lindblum, who were once powerful allies. This conflict leads to a special bond between the main characters after an initial attempt to abuct the Princess of Alexandria. We learn that ther are even more evil and darker forces at work and that those forces aren't just set on controlling one nation, but the entire world.

Gameplay and Graphics - 10

If there's one area that this game truly excells in, then it would be in these two areas, though FFIX exceeds expectations in many more areas than just this.

The gameplay itself has a familiar tone to veterans of the Final Fantasy series. Gone is the "draw" system of FFVIII and the level up of enemies as your characters level up. FFIX brings back the Magic Points system of days of old and the enemies stay weak in some areas, while insanely strong in others. This brings back some of the enjoyment of exploring all areas of the game and leveling up your cast.

The controls are also the same for FFIX as previous Playstation efforts.

Something also brought from previous Final Fantasy games is an updated version of the Job system. Certain characters can only learn certain abilities. Zidane, for example, can learn theivery skills. Vivi can learn powerful magic such as Flare and Meteor. Steiner depends on strong physical attacks and Eiko has the abilty to summon.

The graphics of the game are another Square strength as always. The full motion videos are stunning, yet a bit too short in my opinion. The in game graphics seem to push the PSX once again to unbelievable heights. I played the majority of this game on the Playstation 2. The PS2's texture smoothing ability made the graphics even better.

Music and Sound - 8

This is an area that I was actually a bit disappointed in. Though the in-game sounds were great considering the PSX sound limitations, the music generally sounded dated and there were very few musical scores that really stood out.

Kuja's Theme, the battle music, Burmecia's Theme, Melodies of Life, Beatrix's Theme and maybe one or two more were good. However, not one song was truly an outstanding piece of work. However, the music always fit the scene and never distracted from the story. It is still much better than most game musc today though.

Replay Value - 10

The game has plenty of secrets and it is even rumored that there are two endings. Plus there are supposedly weapons available on the second go round that you couldn't get your first time through the game. With feature like Active Time Events and many different choices to make throughout the game, it will be thoroughly enjoyable to go back through and see what I've missed.

Summary - 38/40

Overall, I have been thrilled with this game. Even while playing the game and not caring for the music, I considered it on par with the best of the series. However, my opinion did change a bit after I witnessed the end. FFVII and FVIII were Full Motion Video masterpiece endings. FFIX is a combination of in game graphics and shorter FMV's. This is something that I had a problem with during the game itself. I'm not so huge a fan of the FMV eye candy that I would take away from the game itself, but the ending itself also left a lot to be desired. Many disagree with me on this point, but I think it was too unbelievable and left questions unanswered.

However, the game itself is simply incredible and the overall fun of the game more than makes up for any shortcomings that I perceive it to have.