Final Fantasy IX
[Playstation]

You are Zidane, a member of Tantalus, a combination theatre troupe and thief band. Your mission is to capture the Princess Garnet of Alexandria. There are just a few things standing in your way, a castle full of guards, an over-protective Captain of the Guard, and a princess with plans of her own . . . Plans go awry and the Tantalus theatre ship ends up crashed in Gaia's Evil Forest with a few un-planned guests. Not only do you have the willful princess, you've got the overbearing Captain of the Guard, Steiner, and Vivi, a pint-sized wizard with attitude. What was Garnet running away from and what will become of Gaia as diabolical plots unfold and threaten to destroy the very planet?

Final Fantasy IX is a step back from the futuristic approaches taken by VII and VIII. It was hard for me to adjust to the story at first but like all Final Fantasy stories, it pulled me in and kept me guessing and gasping till the very end. There aren't any secret characters this time around. That's right, all eight characters in the game are a part of the main story. Every character has a purpose, and is some how connected to another of the characters in the party. Once again there's a mysterious man with white hair who is all knowing and has sinister plans. In the middle of all this is a beautiful Princess and a cocky, brave young man. Starting to sound more like a Final Fantasy game now ain’t it? My only issue was trying to find a character I really connected with. None of them really did anything to stand out. It's impossible to not fall in love with Vivi though. He's so adorable. Okay, here's how IX stacks up...

This is a standard Final Fantasy with many different towns, a world map and various ways to travel from area to area. The airship isn't acquired until disc 3 so most of the side quests can't even be considered until then, which makes it a little linear up to that point. The attributes system in IX is one of the few things I don't care for. Abilities are gained by buying/stealing new weapons, armor and accessories for each character. When the item of choice is equipped, characters can learn new techniques by getting AP from battles. When the ability is learned or when the weapon with the ability attached is equipped, the ability can be selected and will be available for use in battle. I don't like this system because it limits the number of abilities that can be equipped at any given moment. If you want Auto-Regen and Auto Reflect both available at the same time, it takes up about 30 AP points just for those two. At the end of the game I only had 60 AP points to spare. My point is that, even if you do learn the abilities, you're forced to pick and choose which ones you want equipped. The battles now consist of 4 members in the party. Every member has varying attributes. Zidane and Steiner are physical attackers, Dagger is a healer and summoner and Vivi is a black mage capable of unleashing devastating magic. It's turned based combat (unless you change it in the options menu). The strange thing is that some enemies are capable of attacking 5-6 times in a row if their speed is high. This makes things very heated, but also very annoying when fighting tougher foes. One strange addition is the option to add in a second controller for combat. It is possible to have 2 players battling at the same time (think Gladius). Crazy huh?

I completed all of the side quests and leveled up a little extra to take on the super side boss (Ozma) so it took me just over 65 hours to complete. I finished with my 4 main characters all leveled around 70. This is without a doubt the easiest of the PSone Final Fantasy games. When I got to about level 60, it started getting kind of slow because I was to a point that I could whip any of the regular enemies but I still couldn't lay a hand on the final boss. This is when I was forced to just go out a find the best enemy's to quickly raise my levels. This isn't a first for me in a RPG though, and it isn't really a negative because you can always learn some new abilities or gain that extra level or strength. I'm just saying it's the slowest point in the game. The controls are there and they do what they're suppose to do, get you from point A to point B. Controlling Zidane is sometimes a pain because the level design can make it hard to see where you can and can't go. One or twice, I found myself stuck somewhere because a random person would walk up behind me in a narrow dead end path and I would just have to wiggle until I scooted by them. That rarely happened, but when it did you can believe I got angry. Flying the airships and riding the chocobo is as easy as ever. Some towns allow you to dock in an air station which is pretty neat. The gold chocobo can now fly, which is also a neat extra. He can only take off and land in a forest, but it's still a welcomed change. Speaking of chocobos, the side quest is no longer racing or breeding them. Instead, you are given a chocobo which you use to dig up treasures. It's mildly entertaining, but in the end I found myself suffering trying to obtain a Gold chocobo.

The graphics are outdated but the FMV's are still amazing. The cities are flowing with life and the characters you run across are all very distinguished, even if they are just little congealed jaggy's. Sometimes finding secret items is a pain because you can’t see stuff. You just kind of have to push X a lot in hope of finding it. For items that aren't hidden or for interactive things, a ! will appear which lets you know there is something there that can be interacted with. Monsters are very well crafted, as are all of the main characters. It's neat to see some of the old baddy’s return with new names and new attacks. I just like being able to say "I remember you!"

Final Fantasy IX isn't my favorite in the series. In fact, it's probably third out of the four I have played. The thing is, it still makes my top 20 games list. There's absolutely nothing major to bog it down, and the story is one that I'll remember. If you can get past the somewhat slow starting story, you'll be in for one hell of a ride.

9/10

---Frayed