Final Fantasy IX is one of the most highly regarded RPGs of all time, one I'd been looking forward to playing for a while. While some people were put off by it's more colorful and cartoony aesthetic, myself and others really enjoy the game because of it's throwback to a more traditional style of Final Fantasy. It's more lighthearted tone and upbeat characters serve as a refreshing breath of fresh air after dealing with ennui-exuding protagonists such as Squall. It helps, too, that Final Fantasy IX is one of the best looking 32 bit RPGs ever made, rivalling Chrono Cross.
The plot stars Zidane, a happy-go-lucky bandit who, along with his band of merry men, tries to kidnap Princess Garnett of the kingdom of Alexandria. They are pursued by her loyal knight, Steiner, as well as a black mage named Vivi. I'm not very far into the story- I only just got out of the Ice Cavern- but so far, while the characters are clearly meant to invoke RPG archetypes (paladin, white mage, thief, etc.), they are still an interesting group of characters, and so far they don't seem generic or boring in the slightest. This is a game where use of classic RPG storytelling tropes serves it well.
Final Fantasy IX also has a very interesting character development system. Character abilities are tied to their equipment- by equiping a piece of armor or a weapon, characters will be able to use the ability tied to that piece of equipment (unless the character is unable to use that ability in the first place). Once enough AP is earned in battle, though, the character masters the ability and no longer needs the equipment to be able to use it- it's theirs to keep. If I could have one complaint about the game so far, it's that the Trance mode, the game's Limit Break system, takes a long time to build up, considerably more than those in other FF games. I've heard there is an ability later down the road which speeds up Trance mode, so we'll see if this remains an issue.
I enjoyed FF9, though there are two things that bothered me.
ReplyDelete1) Advancement. I get the appeal of being able to use new abilities right when you get equipment, but making them permanent takes WAAAAAAAAY to long. Granted, the mechanics with the magic stones is pretty good, but there's so little AP gained from battles.
2) Trance. I feel its poorly implimented in-game because the amount of effort put into it doesn't justify the brief payoff, some of the commands are pretty awesome, though.
@Mildra It takes a bit of grinding sometimes to earn the abilities you want, especially if you're like me and are trying to earn every ability you see right now. Still, I dont think it's too large a problem so far. I do agree on Trance, though. It's powerful, but it happens rather infrequently, and it's positively infuriating when a random mook triggers the ability instead of an actually challenging foe.
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