Final Fantasy IX

[Daanos]

Why do I seem to be the only one who thinks Final Fantasy IX is the best PSOne FF? Everyone is bragging about VII, but I think IX is way better. The story, the characters (especially Vivi), IX beats VII at all fronts. Please tell me there is someone here who loves IX too...

Zidane, Vivi and Kuja are better than Cloud, Aeris and Sephiroth. Really. Although it's a very close call between Kuja and Sephiroth.

[the_debaser]

I love the cut scenes. And the story. I'm sure there's a game in there somewhere.

[kaisu]

The only bit i liked about it was Vivi, He's so cute.

I adored VIII and after X i'st my favourite.IX didn't really do it for me, I found it rather boring, And Kuja was a bit of a non event.

[JoeK]

IX's a great game. I love the beginning section when you play Vivi, and you're just zipping through the city, with all those bizarre denizens there.

But, unlikely as it may seem, FF V is my personal fave, followed closely by VIII.

[fatbob]

ix is much better than x and x-2, i also prefer it to viii (more my style) though in FF terms vi is by far the best in my opinion it is epic

[Hitcher]

FFVI is the best IMO.

[Spiral]

The best thing in it was Vivi, the cute little confused bundle of mass destruction. He just seemed so much more real than the (admittedly very fitting) loners and mercs in VII and VIII, and along with Steiner you have some of the best dialogue about self discovery in a game ever. I didn't like the way the game played though. I just didn't like the abilities system, considering you were already so heavily limited by the characters jobs it took far to long to gain an ability. While the job system itself was fine and fitting with the game, forcing players to both increase the number of crystals they could use and also learn abilities so you could use them without the appropriate item was asking too much.

In summary, brilliant characters in a reasonably good story let down by a fairly poor game mechanic resulting in a merely above average game.

[Ed-E]

(SPOILERS) Because :

• Zidane was too happy. I found him irritating and one-dimensional
  
• Kuja was too feminine and a very poor Sephiroth-clone. I felt no hatred towards him during the duration of the game.
  
• It has one of the most appauling stories in a videogame ever. What the hell was the second planet all about? It was stupid, badly explained nonsense.
  
• The final boss was a joke. "I am an interplanetary force, and I'm going to destroy you, so you'd better fight me. What do you mean I haven't been mentioned in the plot at all? I'm going to try and hurt you, so you're going to have to fight back"
  

I thought it was shabby, and that everything played second fiddle to the (gorgeous) FMV. The story felt like it was made up as it went along (that shit about memories at the end was embarrasingly poor) and, although there were some gorgeous musical pieces, an awful lot of the music was uninspired filler.

Not awful compared to a lot of RPGs released, but as a Final Fantasy it was woefully lacking, part of a general post-7 trend. Let's hope XII revives things a bit, eh?

[Hackign]

I liked FF9, but not as much as FF7. I'll explain my reasons why tomorrow because I'm drunk right now.

[Sabreman]

IX was the point I became completely disinterested in the games, it was so disappointing. Nothing about it appealed to me, the characters were supremely annoying, the cutscenes interminable, the plot rubbish and unengaging. There was nothing in it that came close to the visual grandeur and imaginitive design of VII and VIII, and I can't remember any of the music apart form the main song.

On top of all that, the card game was shit as well.

I say all this as a devoted fan of VI, VII and VIII so I'm not just out to kick Final Fantasy.

[Pandy]

IX was kinda wank. I didn't like it much.

I mean, come on, the main bad guy wore a FUCKING THONG. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't a he.

Sephiroth clone? Hmm, I thought Seymour from FFX looked more like Sephiroth than anyone else. That said, Trance Kuja looked coolish.

[Flockheart]

FFVII Mixed cuteness and 'cool' pretty well and is the the best FF in my opinion. I loved the whole mix of using realistic models and SD one's in different situations throughout the game (though it was probably done for technical reasons rather than artistic).

[Preacher]

I've just recently acquired IX, but in all truthfulness, I much preferred VIII to VII or X.

But not by much, because if you're honest with yourself, you'd recognise just how little the series has moved on since VII - and VII wasn't a massive departure from it's predecessors either.

Whether that's inherent of the genre or a necessary evil of perpetuating a series isn't important, because the only way people seem to be able to differentiate between them all is to criticise the story and setting.

All the stories are essentially the same, and don't differ a great deal. The character roster is invariably the same, with an androgynous lead and a band of hilariously unlikely followers in tow, and aside from FF IX, the setting for each game has been almost identical.

Of course they're all different to a certain extent, but I'm of the opinion that if you've played through all of them, you'd find it hard to criticise the quality of any of the series.

[Comrade]

IX is the only FF I've ever finished. That said I don't necessarily think it's the best (I've only really played VII to any proper degree. I've played a bit of VI on emulator -it was OK, but it's hard to go so far back in graphics - and a bit of VIII - it was shit, a fucking joke of a battle system). I liked the battle system, just because it was simple to use really. Vivi was cool, but as soon as you did the stuff in the SPOILER Mage Village his story almost completely ended, and he wasn't really in the game any more after that.

The rest of the story was a bit dull. I liked the fact that Zidane was happy instead of being a moody twat, but there wasn't really much depth to his character, he just took most of the revelations in his stride. Steiner was good, as was the rat-woman thing, but most of the rest of the characters were pretty dull (including Dagger). I liked the general graphic design though, and of course the FMV.

[Sabreman]

Gawd, I wished I could reach into the screen and throttle Steiner. One of the most frustrating characters I've ever encountered in a game.

[bucket]

I really enjoyed IX too but VI is still my fave.

[picto]

I never finished IX. After about 40 hours and onto the third disc I got bored. Now I have no idea what is going on and really can't be bothered to start again. VII and VIII were great though, well not so much VIII which was still quite good. I much prefered the cyber-punk style.

The mini games in VII were what made it for me. The hours I spent raising chocobos, snowboarding and the roller coaster. The crappy card games in VIII and IX just couldn't compare.

Now I think I'm finally going to buy X and X-2.

TTFN

[Sabreman]

Don't diss the Triple Triad, man - I would sometimes load VIII just to play that for an hour or so.

[Djx]

Ah! The truest topic that was ever written. FFIX is my favourite RPG of all time as well. Excellent Story, Graphics + Music. Everything was top-notch and really impressive. To be honest any FF story that followed FFVIII (great game, weak plot) would have been loved by me. Even FFI's manual had more characterisation than that sod Squall but to stay on topic, yes Daanos I absolutely agree, FFIX is the pinnicle of PSOne RPGs, if not RPGs, in general.

[Daanos]

Ah! The truest topic that was ever written. FFIX is my favourite RPG of all time as well. Excellent Story, Graphics + Music. Everything was top-notch and really impressive. To be honest any FF story that followed FFVIII (great game, weak plot) would have been loved by me. Even FFI's manual had more characterisation than that sod Squall but to stay on topic, yes Daanos I absolutely agree, FFIX is the pinnicle of PSOne RPGs, if not RPGs, in general.

Finally someone I can talk with

I just loved everything about it, Vivi in trance is so cool to see. And I can mention a million other things. Everything was perfect, except Kuja's thong maybe. But that didn't bother me

Hmm. Time to play it. Alexandria, here I come

[Boutros]

VIII was the best for me. I liked the realisticish (?) gfx, and the characters were a-ok as well...

[ianwuk]

FFVII was the only titile in the series that I played fully. I started to play FFVIII but soon got bored, FFVII brought RPG to the mainstream and I think it is the pinnacle of the series in my opinion.

[Pandy]

I won't play 5/6 til they come on GBA. Assuming they do, or I'll be waiting a long time

[Guest nomenclature]

I've tried a couple of times to get into IX but it just isn't happening. Everything is just too slow, loading up the battles just takes an age. Not really a problem with the game as such (even though from what I have seen it's all depressingly grey), but definitely a hindrance to my enjoyment.

Mind you, my favourite two "modern" FF games are the most exploitable/easiest when it comes to the battle system: VIII and X-2. I quite enjoyed X too, apart from the PAL-o-vision.

[Hackign]

Strangely enough the reason I don't rate FFVIII is because of the realistic character proportions.

FFX was ok because the story was mildly good.

[Alan Stock]

I think FFIX had some nice characters but the plot was abysmal. The game never caught me up lke FF7 or FF8 did. As someone already said, it was nice to have a cheery character instead of a clone for once, pity his girlfriend was the same rehashed character. The big fat knight guy and the black mage were great though.

For me the game really started to sour towards the end, roaming the world was completely boring and everything that Ed-E said I agree with. The last section of the game was appaling, both storywise and imaginationwise.

FFIX did have it's good points though. The presentation was very lush indeed and the FMV as ever was nice. I liked the emphasis on lots of mini games and more gameplay than story. Also the introduction of symbols over the characters head to show you when you had found a secret was a great touch - finally gone were the days of roaming environments hammering X like a madman hoping you'd not missed something.

Unfortunately the music was one of the worst from any Final Fantasy. I did like the medieval twinge to it though. The game itself left me feeling hollow as a whole and the end really ruined it for me. FFXII is loking pretty swishty though, maybe thigns are finally going to get great again in the FF series?

[hub2]

I've only played two discs of FFIX, quite recently though - over easter.

I have to say I loved it, got into it more than VII & VIII which I enjoyed too. Dissapointed to hear it falls down in the latter stages but while playing I found it compulsive and quite charming.

[pretentious_helvetica]

VII does it for me. It all made sense as soon as you hit Wonder Square - so much stuff to do, really opened up the game. Had the coolest characters too. Barrett always reminded me of Mr T, which considering he's a character from the Final Fantasy world, is a big achievement...

[Meat]

I enjoyed them all (except X which was a bit of a chore), but VII was the pinnacle for me. I wish i could erase those weeks when i was completely absorbed and start again. But i cant , not yet anyway. I'm not the sort of person who can play through an RPG again. I think IX had the best card game though. Frustrating randomness. Made winning a card more satisfying.

Also, being a football fan, calling the lead character "Zidane" seemed just so very wrong. And no, I don't like to change the default names either. It's immoral.

[Daanos]

I finally started playing again. I started all over again, at the beginning. At the moment I'm in Evil Forest, looking for Princess Garnet