After the worldwide breakout now-in-3D sensation of FFVII, and the more experimental, out-there FFVIII, FFIX returns to the same style of adventure as the older games. The tone and setting is a lot more traditional fantasy as you journey around the world of Gaia that is shrouded in mist (and mystery). The first half of it really did remind me of the structure of FFIV and how your party members are often swapping in and out as the story progresses and sometimes you'll even play as other members off doing other things. Eventually though you do get more free reign over the world, the ability to pick and choose your party members, and in my opinion is where the game starts to fall apart a little bit.

Gameplay-wise it is your standard ATB. Bars fill up and each combatant takes their turn, and Limit Breaks have been replaced with the Trance gauge. A secondary bar fills up under various circumstances and it augments that characters appearance and allows them to take some unique actions. Zidane gets access to his powerful Dyne skills, Vivi the black mage can do two black mage spells a turn, and so on. It's definitely an interesting take on Limit Breaks, and I thought the Trance designs were very cool. Of course too, the main gimmick is the ability system. Each piece of gear has different abilities or spells attached to them that different party members can learn. Use that gear for long enough and the party member can equip the ability regardless of if they are wearing the gear. On paper it seems like a nice idea, but especially once you have your full party it just becomes cumbersome to check every piece of gear with every party member. It really feels like the game just wanted to encourage the player to focus on zeroing in on their favourite three party members and forget about the rest. If they really do remake this game, I hope this gets a massive amount of QoL to not make it so cumbersome to interact with.

The story itself is alright. There is a recurring theme of finding meaning in one's own life, and that shines through in some of the characters (Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, and Steiner in particular) but sadly everyone else feels like they are missing the rest of their arcs. I love every playable character to varying degrees, but I wish I got to know half of them better.

The world itself feels quite compact. The various towns and dungeons you do go to are gorgeous thanks to the lovely 2D background art, but I was really surprised that there weren't more things to go see and do as part of the story especially after FFVIII which felt comparatively massive. On the topic of artstyle too, I never did get used to the human 3D models (particularly in the many pre-rendered cutscenes). The shape of their faces imposed on the sort of chibi models drifted into uncanny valley for me, so I really just felt all the budget (and storage space) that went into those could've been better used anywhere else.

While it has perhaps sounded like I have been overly critical of Final Fantasy IX, I do think it is worth playing for FF fans. There is a solid soundtrack as always, cool bosses to battle, and if I really want to be honest Vivi alone is worth it - just maybe wait for that rumored remake.

I genuinely don't know where to begin. This game in my opinion has the best characters (Zidane is genuinely so cool and I love Vivi so much) out of the whole final fantasy series. The style they chose to make this game felt like the perfect 2D to 3D progression for Final Fantasy. I love this game so much and the message it kept trying to enforce. Life really is about living each day to the fullest and striving to find your very own meaning to your life. This game immediately has earned a place into my heart. Words would not be enough to praise this game. Final Fantasy IX really feels like the magnum opus of the Final Fantasy franchise.