Final Fantasy IX – Review

Playing Final Fantasy IX immediately brings back memories of being a young 15 year old. And not because I played a lot of Final Fantasy back. Actually I didn’t even play many video games back then. Final Fantasy IX takes me back to a place of pure wonder and fascination, and that’s where FFIX shines. It’s a lovingly crafted tale of adventure in a mystical land filled with wonder and fantasy. And for my first time playing Final Fantasy IX, I am surprised to realize that a 17 year old game might actually be my game of the year in 2017. Everything about Final Fantasy IX withstands the test of time, and some minor tweaks make it an easy to enjoy experience on the Playstation 4.

You start off as part of a pirate crew trying to infiltrate a castle and kidnap the Princess. Turns out that the Princess herself has a few ideas of her own, and soon enough you set off on an incredible adventure filled with emotions, dangers, camaraderie, and betrayals. Along the way you make many friends and enemies, and almost all of them are personable. Many call Final Fantasy IX the culmination of everything the series has done before, and this sentiment has been expressed by the creator himself. This is especially true now when you see how well the game holds up on a modern console.

While the aspect ratio is the ancient 4:3, the art style is still absolutely gorgeous. The textures have been improved over the original, and I was blown away by how detailed the environments look. You can enter and explore almost every building and room, and talk to many of the residents. Even the characters looks sharper and animate better than before. The cutscenes still look incredible, and I was always looking forward to the next big story moment. That’s not to say that the smaller moments aren’t meaningful, because they very much are. There are many times when the game takes the time to develop the characters, and gives you the chance to interact with them and know them more. For example, when the “kidnapped” Princess tries observing the local town folk to learn to speak like them, it shows the game’s attempts to humanize the characters and make them more believable and relatable.

The combat stays the same for the most part, with some “cheats” to make things much less of grind. It’s a turn based system when you have a party of members who attack as a gauge fills. Different members have different attacks and abilities. For those looking to ease through the story, there are a few options available to make things go a lot faster.

In the pause menu you can turn on speed mode – which increases the game’s speed, battle assistance – fills up ATB (Active Time Battle) gauge and makes combat simpler, 9999 damage – you guessed it, No Encounter mode – turns off non-essential combat encounters. These do not disable trophies, and removes much of the grind if you just want the story. There are some options in the menus which unlock more abilities and power-ups and they cannot be disabled once activated, and will turn off trophies. All of these make for an overall improved experience, especially for a 17 year old game with some outdated gameplay systems.

There are also tons of side activities to indulge in, including a card game. It’s easy to understand and actually kind of fun once you understand the rules.

And for a game with no voice, it’s easy to read through the text sitting back on a couch. And it’s not overburdened with text either. On top of that, the music is absolutely fantastic, and among the best I’ve heard in video games.

Final Fantasy IX is easily among the best games I played this year, and I can now understand how the series became so popular back in the 90s. The story and the visuals hold up really well, mostly because of the love and attention poured into creating them. The combat is still pretty solid, and can be made easier using the in-game options. With so many needless remasters in 2017, it’s surprising that a 17 year old game holds up the most.

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