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Final Fantasy IX is the greatest Final Fantasy game

G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
There, I said it.

For one glorious season it appeared that Final Fantasy games would once again be returning to the swords and sorcery that made the franchise, and would move away from the brooding heros. Zidane was likable and inspiring, unlike the troubled and confused Cloud and the genuinely asshole-ish Squall. X brought things back around to a much less charming universe, however.

It also happens to contain the single greatest character in any Final Fantasy. Vivi is the only character in any videogame ever that I've ever truly cared about. His storyline is probably the greatest (and saddest) in any RPG, FF or not. Imagine living life knowing what he knew (anyone who posts keep it spoiler-free or use the tag, por favor).

Although actually having likable characters goes a long ways towards justifying my statement in the thread's title, that alone isn't enough. What makes FF IX so damn great is the world that these characters get to run around and explore, and the tone that that world sets. Even in the game's darkest moments, the world of FF IX and it's inhabitants are still extremely charming. It's a very cheerful and quirky game, all-around.

It's like square wanted to have one final fairwell before abandoning the fantasy landscape and lighthearted storytelling that made the series great in the first place.

Top it all off with a fucking FANTASTIC ending, and you have yourself one of the greats, and easily the greatest Final Fantasy. There's a lot to be said about good drama in games, but I'll take Zidane's unbridled optimism and Vivi's cute innocent nature over any of that drama any day.
 
B

BuddyC

Member
My stay here will be brief, as I don't wish to see the ending of 9 spoiled. From what I have played thus far, this man is correct.
 
N

nubbe

Member
Definitely the best FF. Awesome scenery and amazing music, I love it.

I kind of wish they made a remake on Gamecube with the CC engine.
 
D

Dujour

Banned
I commend you for this thread. I loved this game and all it's characters, I just didn't like the final boss. :/ A minor flaw on this nigh-perfect diamond.

I didn't understand the last part when Dagger meets Zidane and before they embrace, she throws away the jewel shard around her neck. Why? Was it to signify her seperation from her mother and her royal line? Anyone?
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
"Zidane was likable and inspiring, unlike the troubled and confused Cloud and the genuinely asshole-ish Squall."

Squall is highly likeable when you view things like him. :) Greatest RPG lead ever. I actually thought he was a breath of fresh air compared to the majority of RPG heroes.

My problem with FFIX is that I just didn't care for any of the characters outside of Vivi. They were all just fairly boring. Yah they were always up and happy but i'd seen that done before and better so it didn't do much for me. It wasn't bad or anything, and the world design is one of the best in gaming. But it just didn't work for me like FF8.

Also it should be mentioned that Beatrix should appear in a new FF or her own game because they completely underused her.
 
B

bjork

Member
Only thing I didn't like was the amount of hoops you had to jump through to get that special sword for Steiner.
 
B

Bizarro Sun Yat-sen

Banned
For one glorious season it appeared that Final Fantasy games would once again be returning to the swords and sorcery that made the franchise, and would move away from the brooding heros
Click to expand...

...which they did, since FFX, XI and XII all feature a more swords-and-sorcery-ish setting and more cheery heroes.
 
J

jiggle

Member
Good game. I like it more than VII, but VIII and X are the best imo.


GDJustin said:
It's like square wanted to have one final fairwell before abandoning the fantasy landscape and lighthearted storytelling that made the series great in the first place.
Click to expand...


Huh?
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
For one glorious season it appeared that Final Fantasy games would once again be returning to the swords and sorcery that made the franchise, and would move away from the brooding heros. Zidane was likable and inspiring, unlike the troubled and confused Cloud and the genuinely asshole-ish Squall. X brought things back around to a much less charming universe, however.
Click to expand...
Yeah Zidane was really cool, unfortunately he had possibly the most uncool design of any FF character ever (though it looks like Vann may be worse). Though I would say his child-like optimism made me feel a bit detached from him. If you're the only hope for the whole world it's expected you have a little doubt.

Cloud was confused because Sephiroth mindraped him, it wasn't a character fault in Cloud it was another aspect that made Sephiroth the best villian ever. And I think Squall was very understandable and human taking everything into account, he really warmed up faster than most think, you just have to be able to read him.

It also happens to contain the single greatest character in any Final Fantasy. Vivi is the only character in any videogame ever that I've ever truly cared about. His storyline is probably the greatest (and saddest) in any RPG, FF or not. Imagine living life knowing what he knew (anyone who posts keep it spoiler-free or use the tag, por favor).
Click to expand...
Eh, I thought Celes had him one-upped.

Although actually having likable characters goes a long ways towards justifying my statement in the thread's title, that alone isn't enough. What makes FF IX so damn great is the world that these characters get to run around and explore, and the tone that that world sets. Even in the game's darkest moments, the world of FF IX and it's inhabitants are still extremely charming. It's a very cheerful and quirky game, all-around.
Click to expand...
This is true. I love the characters and art in the whole game. It's upbeat and full of life and personality, but you also have to keep in mind that this can't always be maintained for every RPG. The whole point of FFVII was that the life was getting sucked out of the planet and people were opressed. Yeah not everyone is going to be upbeat, but the bit of hope and strength they have is very admirable because of that. It's easier to valliantly respond to recent atroscities than it is to overthrow the powers that have defeated many who attempted to defeat them in the past. I'd say that gives more weight to 6 and 7 than other FF games.

It's like square wanted to have one final fairwell before abandoning the fantasy landscape and lighthearted storytelling that made the series great in the first place.
Click to expand...
I think often this lightheartedness is read into the series because of it's simplistic nature in earlier versions. Playing the remakes on PS1 and checking out the new FMV's helps differentiate the intended from the perceived.

Top it all off with a fucking FANTASTIC ending, and you have yourself one of the greats, and easily the greatest Final Fantasy. There's a lot to be said about good drama in games, but I'll take Zidane's unbridled optimism and Vivi's cute innocent nature over any of that drama any day.
Click to expand...
I'll give that to you in respect to the characters, but in terms of the overall storyline that ending was awful.
 
B

Belfast

Member
Eh, if you didn't like the characters in FFIX I'd say go back and play it again and pay a bit more ettention to the story (its easy to miss things one time through when you're concentrating on levelling and finding hidden stuff and all that which can distract you from understanding the finer points of things). Eiko's slightly annoying, but the only one I really don't like is Amarant. I think the story could've done without him. Dagger's a *little* stale, but ultimately the same as most recent main FF heroines (I find them all to be more or less similar in looks and attitude). However, Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Freya, and most of the supporting cast rocked!
 
C

Chrono

Banned
man FF IX was my first Final Fantasy and I LOVED it. :D

The music.. the word.. the battle system.. everything rocked. I was on my feet in the last battle and my heart was beating like drum. I have to go with Dice on the ending though. In terms of the story line it just sucked.


As for 7 and 8, I'm waiting for the remakes to play them. Sooner or later it will happen. ;)
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
vivi is one overrated fuck. Spewing shit like "he's the only character I ever cared about" makes me want to knock over magazine racks.

plus the game was the slowest of the slow... it had some nice ideas... but it was all overshadowed by the slowness.... overwhelming slowness. (slow load, slow animation = painful battles)
 
B

Bizarro Sun Yat-sen

Banned
Compared to FF8, FF9's animations are a bit quicker (especially the standard attacks) and of course there's not a GF summon overkill issue. The load times are (even) longer, though, and the spell animations look worse which kinda cancels out the small difference in length. In the end, both are unacceptably slow, if for different reasons.
 
Jumpman

Jumpman

Member
Final Fantasy IX is great. From the art (excluding Zidane's monkey look), to the story, and the interesting cast of characters, FFIX excels. I still like FFVIII the best out of the modern Final Fantasy's though. I think Squall is the best FF main character yet. The junction system was awesome, and would of been perfect, if they could have found a way to make 'drawing' less tedious. FFIX's combat system was to simplistic for my tastes. Other than that, it is very close to VIII in overall greatness. Despite my fondness for FFVIII, I love the swords and sorcery angle of FFIX, and would welcome it's return in FFXIII.

My ideal Final Fantasy would have Squall as the main character, with a supporting cast of Vivi, Steiner, and Rinoa, just for starters. Sephiroth would of course, be the villian. The art style would use reallisticly drawn characters, in a FFIX type universe. And lastly, the battle system would be simular to FFVIII's junction system, but 'drawing' would be completely discarded. Instead, the strength of characteristics would be tied to your experience level, and also to how often you use them.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Belfast said:
Eh, if you didn't like the characters in FFIX I'd say go back and play it again and pay a bit more ettention to the story (its easy to miss things one time through when you're concentrating on levelling and finding hidden stuff and all that which can distract you from understanding the finer points of things). Eiko's slightly annoying, but the only one I really don't like is Amarant. I think the story could've done without him. Dagger's a *little* stale, but ultimately the same as most recent main FF heroines (I find them all to be more or less similar in looks and attitude). However, Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Freya, and most of the supporting cast rocked!
Click to expand...

There really wasn't anything wrong with IX's characters. They were just kinda bleh imo. Like I said i'd seen the characters done before but just in a better way. It didn't make IX's character bad or anything, just not so memorable. Even lesser so coming off FF8 which had a cast that I loved.
 
H

Hero

Member
FFIX was awesome. I wish Beatrix was a secret character though.

FFT had the best character however. Ramza Beoulve was the man. All the shit he goes through and he never lost himself.
 
S

Spiritreaver

Member
Yay for FFIX props. Second favorite FF after 6, never was a fan of VII, VIII, or X and never really got a chance to play the older ones. Though, I do love XI and it's my third favorite of the series.

I don't care, Vivi overrated? Fucktards, he was cute, cuddly, funny at times, yet innnocent. Overrated my fucking ass. The Zidane and Vivi "relief" moment is so classic. The only character I really didn't enjoy in 9 was Garnet... mainly because I just hated that whole "I won't talk.." segment of the game, but other than that I loved all the characters much more than the other recent games, as well as the basic storyline.

Kuja is also my second favorite villain, following Kefka. The eccentric and weird villains are always the best and the cut the cake well.
 
B

Bizarro Sun Yat-sen

Banned
The problem with the characters is that most of them kept up fairly simple schticks which, while perfectly entertaining or endearing or whatever in a Disney-cartoon sort of way, just weren't interesting enough to carry the high volume of character-centric events the planners apparently felt impelled to include. As a result the events often felt redundant and tiresome after a while. They should either have made more realistic/complex/subtle characters or cut down on the events. (This is my biggest problem with the game apart from the load times.)
 
M

Mumbles

Member
FF9? Let's see...the game was slow and painfully repetitive (go to dungeon, get to town, town gets wrecked, boss fight, everyone gets knocked down to 1HP, repeat), the characters weren't all that likable (apart from Vivi, who eventually gets pushed to the background anyway), trance had this annoying habit of triggering right before the last enemy died, learning skills from items was just tedious, forced parties constantly led to you using characters/classes that you couldn't stand.

In short, no it was really a very poor game, and certainly not the best FF.
 
Late Stage Marxist

Late Stage Marxist

Member
I loved FFIX, but FFVI taught it everything it knows. They are my top two in the series, with #3 being VII by default. I agree that the game should be updated graphically, and think it would be possible, assuming that Square kept the raw data from the CGI movies.
 
T

TheGreenGiant

Banned
hated the superdeformed look and never got into the game. AND it could easily have been superb.. instead.. it was lacklustre and dumb with the worst / most bland ending / boss fight yet.

weaksauce 5/10

FFIII>VII>VIII>>>>>>>>>>>>>IX>X

OMG.. so its true... the FF games are getting increasingly worse.
 
B

bionic77

Member
FF9 really was spectacular. Not my favorite FF of all time, but definitely the best psx FF. FF3 is still heads and shoulders above all the other FF games. I really loved the characters of FF9, totally made the game for me. It is hard to get into a rpg story like in FF8 or 10 when you think the hero is a total jackass, but the whole cast was great in FF9. I really don't like the direction Square is going with their FF games, they are trying to make the characters too emotional. I wouldn't mind if they suceeded, but more often then not you get the 'laughing scene' in FF10. Then again, I guess it comes down to the voice actors as Kindgom Hearts was an emotional game and Square absolutely got it perfect. Oh well, I guess it is hard to be innovative and keep your core audience pleased with every game.
 
J

JackFrost2012

Banned
GDJustin said:
Final Fantasy IX is the greatest Final Fantasy game
Click to expand...

triumph_headbb.jpg


Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: ...for me to poop on!
 
M

Mock

Banned
belgurdo said:
"Increasingly worse"=less like VI and VII? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Of course, because as we all know, Final Fantasy VII - despite its cheap plot devices, poor localization, bad pre-rendered backgrounds and slow ATB system - was the best game ever.

Any game that can overcome those issues is never going to match FFVII, because I made up my mind years ago and touched myself when Aerith died.
 
B

bionic77

Member
Mock said:
Of course, because as we all know, Final Fantasy VII - despite its cheap plot devices, poor localization, bad pre-rendered backgrounds and slow ATB system - was the best game ever.

Any game that can overcome those issues is never going to match FFVII, because I made up my mind years ago and touched myself when Aerith died.
Click to expand...

FF7 whores....... YOU JUST GOT SERVED!!!!!
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
I thought I was alone, all this time I believed I was the only person that enjoyed FFIX more than FFVII. Zidane and Vivi are old school greatness.
 
M

Mock

Banned
Honestly, FFIX is a big favorite of mine. It just sort of fell flat on the sidequest portion and the out-of-nowhere final boss. Other than that, the experience was golden.
 
C

Chrono

Banned
Mock said:
Of course, because as we all know, Final Fantasy VII - despite its cheap plot devices, poor localization, bad pre-rendered backgrounds and slow ATB system - was the best game ever.

Any game that can overcome those issues is never going to match FFVII, because I made up my mind years ago and touched myself when Aerith died.
Click to expand...


You have serious issues man. Go to a doctor. Tell him you can't stand other people liking games you don't approve of. Especially japanese ones-- because you know that's why they like those games! BECAUSE THEY'RE MADE BY JAPANESE PEOPLE! OMG! THOSE BASTARDS!!!
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
Bad prerendered backgrounds? That kinda came outta left field.

afaik, it had some of the best backgrounds at the time. And in terms of camera direction, and atmosphere, those backgrounds still hold their own.

as for slow ATB... much faster than FF9, even if it was slow in it's own right.

What FF7 had on its side tho was it's impact. I doubt they're many games that could claim to have as much impact on it's players then FF7 did back in 1997. Its presentation, scope, style... it was all unheard of; before that we had one other crappy 3D RPG and mainly sprite based RPGs... FF7 melded what was a pretty fantastic world and decent story with a solid (although abusable) battle system with unparalleled presentation, including awesome music...

nothing that has come since, have been able to recreate that same great impact.

objectively, FF9 might have been a better game with better graphics, story, presentation... but subjectively, it's really only remembered (over FF7) by FF6 diehards that liked the medieval setting and the PSX gen presentation style.
 
M

Mock

Banned
Chrono said:
You have serious issues man. Go to a doctor. Tell him you can't stand other people liking games you don't approve of. Especially japanese ones-- because you know that's why they like those games! BECAUSE THEY'RE MADE BY JAPANESE PEOPLE! OMG! THOSE BASTARDS!!!
Click to expand...

You see, here's where you need to get a grasp on what sarcasm is. I actually was just ribbing on the game, its a game I like, what I was really making fun of are most of FFVII's fans, who happen to be fucking retarded for some reason. Like you, for example.
 
B

bionic77

Member
Zaptruder said:
Bad prerendered backgrounds? That kinda came outta left field.

afaik, it had some of the best backgrounds at the time. And in terms of camera direction, and atmosphere, those backgrounds still hold their own.

as for slow ATB... much faster than FF9, even if it was slow in it's own right.

What FF7 had on its side tho was it's impact. I doubt they're many games that could claim to have as much impact on it's players then FF7 did back in 1997. Its presentation, scope, style... it was all unheard of; before that we had one other crappy 3D RPG and mainly sprite based RPGs... FF7 melded what was a pretty fantastic world and decent story with a solid (although abusable) battle system with unparalleled presentation, including awesome music...

nothing that has come since, have been able to recreate that same great impact.

objectively, FF9 might have been a better game with better graphics, story, presentation... but subjectively, it's really only remembered (over FF7) by FF6 diehards that liked the medieval setting and the PSX gen presentation style.
Click to expand...

FF7 had a huge impact becaues it had maybe the best advertising campaign of all time, had amazing graphics and cg, and it introduced rpg noobs to the genre which Nintendo was too stupid to promote before. It was a great, but flawed game. It annoys me and some others that FF7 is somehow seen as the best FF by the majority of people because they never played the earlier (and dare I say it superior) games. But whatever, people have to start playing games at some point I guess.
 
V

Vennt

Unconfirmed Member
Well, I gave you a chance, it turned out to be a mistake, now begone Mock.

Freeburn.
 
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