This game marked both the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. It's the last single digit entry in the main series, it's the last main entry on the original PlayStation, and it was the last game to be conceived and written by series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. But damn does he go out with a bang with this game.
While Final Fantasy VII and VIII had adopted sci-fi steampunk worlds, Final Fantasy IX goes back to form with a medival fantasy setting. If you've played Final Fantasy I-VI, FFIX will make you feel right at home, as it's the ideal view of what Final Fantasy truly is. Not only does it stay consistent with the tone of the FF games from the NES and SNES era, but it's hand-fisted with references to those past games, which are a real pleasure to see.
[STORY]
Do not let those cutesy character designs fool you. This is one of the darkest games in the series, and it portrays some of the greatest character development the series has to offer. This results in a cast of characters that feel like real, relatable people despite having such mythical and rather silly designs, which is a testament to how much care was put into them. I absolutely love this cast, one of the best in this franchise.
Kuja (the main villain) is one of the most realized characters, but seriously, WTF is he wearing?? Is it a man thong? Is it some sort of medival sports bra? I have no idea, but damn is he a badass villain. And by the end of the game I actually felt sympathetic towards him.
The themes of this game mostly revolve around death and coming to terms with your identity, the cycle of life. It's a moving story about one's existence and their purpose in life, something that everyone in the party has pondered about at least once in their lives, and how their mortality is of great importance.
Why am I here?
What does death feel like? Where do we go after we die?
What reasons do we have to live on the planet? And where do I belong?
These are the questions the game dives into, and while this sounds very dated by today's standards, remember that this game came out 20 years ago. I still think it holds up strongly today. More people die in this game than any other FF game I've played, except Final Fantasy VI. Again, this game is pretty dark despite the characters looking so weird. Death is a recurring theme, it's what brings the story from beginning to end.
There's also a central game mechanic called Active Time, where when Zidane is split up from other characters, you get to see what they are up to at certain times for even more character development.
Of course for the first time, you won't fully understand the story without doing some research, but when you do, you'll realize just how complex the story really is.
Vivi, more than anyone else in this game, is the character that resonates with this theme the most, and I'm sure many others will agree with that. His character arc and his growth throughout, going from a weak and fearful child who hated the very thought of death, to a confident, determined young man who lives his life to the fullest and with purpose, makes him not only my favorite character in FFIX, but my favorite character in ALL of Final Fantasy. I was only 13 when I played this game for the first time, but damn, watching Vivi's resolution at the end of the game made me cry my ass off.
This isn't to say the game is entirely bleak. It does have a lot of light-hearted, wholesome, and funny moments. The sense of humor in this game is so damn charming and memorable. This game made me both laugh and cry. It has a perfect balance between its humor and character-driven moments.
This is one of those games that you come back to mainly because of how timeless it is, not just because of gameplay, but because of one very important thing: Characterization. It's very clear that Square wanted to create believable people that you really want to care about and root for. Character development is one of the biggest factors to this game, it's not Final Fantasy VI levels of developed, but it's pretty close.
[PRESENTATION]
Even today, this game's presentation holds up really well. It's the best looking FF game on the PS1, in fact, it's one of the best looking PS1 games, period. The FMV cutscenes are beautiful and hold up even to this day. The character designs are definitely the most odd looking ones in the series, but that's what makes the game stand out. The attention to detail is exquisite and the world is very colorful. And the pre-rendered backgrounds are among the best on the PS1.
[MUSIC]
I honestly can't stress it enough, the soundtrack to this game is in a master class of its own, some of the greatest music ever produced in video games. FFIX's soundtrack is my 2nd favorite in the FF series, my first being FFVI. This is some of Nobuo Uematsu's greatest work.
There are so few composers in this industry whose music have left as much of an impact as his did. The lack of voice acting in FFIX meant that not only the dialogue, but the music was used to define the tone and characters in the game and it works wonders.
The music is what adds the most amount of spirit in these older FF games. Some of my favorite songs in all of gaming are in this game. I can't think of a single track that I actually dislike. It adds to the charm, uniqueness, and personality of the game. Nearly every melody is memorable, and the instrumentals used makes the soundtrack truly brilliant. I also can't tell you just how many times I listened to the battle theme and You're Not Alone religiously. So much so that it would be embarrassing to admit. FFIX has the best battle theme in the series, in fact, it might be my favorite battle theme in all of gaming. Melodies of Life is also my all time favorite vocal performance in the FF series.
Orchestra, and the use of piano, flute, kazoo, dulcimer, castanets, drums, bass, as well as motifs from older Final Fantasy games, makes the soundtrack an absolutely nostalgic masterpiece. The music defines at least half of Final Fantasy IX.
[GAMEPLAY]
While I really like Junctions from FFVIII in how complex it is, FFIX's simplicity in its mechanics are still enjoyable. Like with the story, FFIX goes back to form with its gameplay; Four character battles, characters with class specific roles, with traditional equipment and abilities.
Final Fantasy VII and VIII had this problem where everyone is able to learn the same magic spells and abilities, which can make them all feel the same, the only differences between each other being their Limit Breaks. Not to mention there were too many easy ways to get out of fights. But in Final Fantasy IX, each character have specific roles and the difficulty of battles have been ramped up.
Vivi being a Black Mage, the only party member who can cast Black Magic, Zidane being a Thief who can steal items, Eiko and Garnet being both White Mages/Summoners, Freya who is a Dragoon, Quina who...eats enemies to learn Blue Magic, yeah don't ask. Also is it a he or a she? Does no one to this day still not know??
And Steiner, oh my god, Steiner, a Knight that can use Sword skills and team up with Vivi to unleash sword spell attacks that deal massive damage. He also does like five times more damage while in Trance. Did they test Steiner during development? Because he is simply overpowered. He is incredible, easily one of the party members to have in battle.
On the other hand, Amarant can stay the hell out of my party. Seriously, have any of you ever used Amarant other than in key points in the game? Goddamn is he almost useless. All of his attacks are really weak compared to others.
This game does get challenging. FFIX isn't a hard game, but FFVII and VIII had battles that were just too easy. FFIX has much more panic inducing, tense moments in the battles, and has a much stronger emphasis on strategy, which is a very welcome change.
In this game, equipment is what teaches the characters their abilities, which is further complimented by the balance of battles. Ozma, the superboss of the game, is hands down the hardest optional superboss in the series. And the final boss Necron is no pushover either. I'd say Necron is one of the toughest final bosses. And the music that plays during that fight freaked me out when I was a teenager.
Typically in past games, you would sell equipment that you didn't need anymore because you got new equipment with higher stats. But in this game, almost every piece of equipment is important, because elemental properties play a much larger role. So even if you have equipment that have "lower stats", it's still important to hold onto it if it's capable of boosting your elemental offense and defense. The benefits of elemental defense boosting far outweigh the benefits of a higher Defense or Magic Defense stat. Also, you can get exclusive weapons and armor at Synthesis Shops, which require previously obtained equipment, so again, hold onto equipment even if you don't use it anymore.
All of this combined is what makes battling in FFIX so fun and rewarding. Battles feel fresh because of this. A sense of challenge that hadn't been felt since Final Fantasy VI. Though I still do have a couple gripes.
One thing I don't like about the battles is how slow they are. Even if I turn the ATB speed all the way up, it's soooooo slooooow, easily the slowest out of all the other games. And while you can get an ability that boosts the speed of the ATB gauge, you don't get that until at least halfway into the game, and it's missable during one part in Disc 2. You won't get it again until Disc 3 or 4. So early on in the game the battles can really drag.
I also don't like the Trance mechanic. Trances are basically Limit Breaks in FFIX but with a twist. Taking damage will fill up a red bar, when it's full, characters can go into Trance. Instead of it being a one use attack like in FFVII and VIII, instead it boosts the characters stats for several turns and the characters can use exclusive attacks that replace certain battle commands.
However what ruins the potential of it is when the bar is full, the Trance activates automatically. This makes it incredibly difficult to use them strategically. They can't be saved from one battle to the next, the transformation takes a while, and it can't be skipped. All of this makes Trance more of a pain in the ass than something game changing and useful. Luckily the balance of the battles make up for this.
So about side content, it's very hit and miss for me. I've heard a ton of people complain about the card game tournament in Treno. Yeah, I don't like Tetra Master either, and I still think that it's bullshit that the developers took something that was originally a minigame and made it mandatory to progress through the story.
Even to this day, I still don't understand how Tetra Master works. Even if you have a card that is technically stronger than your opponent's, it's still possible to lose, so it's completely random. That is total bullshit. Even so, I didn't have as much of a hard time as what others were saying about the card tournament. All I do is just select random cards and mash buttons until I do win. It's definitely not impossible.
If I lost too many times I would just reset. And after I win one round I just go to a moogle and save my game. This is important because the third and final round only gives you one chance to win. And if you do win, you get the Rebirth Ring which teaches every character the Auto-Life ability. This is the earliest point in the game you can obtain it.
Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad is way better designed, it's completely optional, and you get some amazing rewards for playing it. But Tetra Master? It sucks ass through a bendy straw.
Now that I think about it, pretty much every piece of side content relies on RNG. The Chocobo side quest is better but it can still be tedious because it relies on RNG to give rewards to the player. And if you wanna fight Ozma, you have to turn your chocobo into a golden one, by finding Chocographs. Chocographs are items that are used to find treasures containing exclusive loot.
You get these by playing a minigame called Chocobo Hot and Cold. There is no skill involved, you just mash the Square button to dig into the ground in certain areas until you find the item that you're looking for, which is just repetitive and it drags a lot. This type of randomness plagues a lot of RPGs, but if this doesn't bother you, then all the power to you. However the rewards you get for obtaining the Chocographs and finding the treasures are amazing, some of the best in the game, like Zidane's and Garnet + Eiko's ultimate weapons.
The Mognet side quest is also hit and miss because it involves delivering mail from one moogle to the next. It's actually possible to miss certain moogles which will prevent you from fully completing the side quest. I've never completed it myself and frankly I never cared about completing it anyway, the payoff is nowhere near as good as Chocobo treasure hunting. The letters themselves though are fun to read and it's something that's cool to look out for as you're journeying through the game.
[BEST VERSION]
My favorite version of FFIX is the PS1 version. The easiest way to get it is either on Amazon or downloading off the PlayStation Network on the PS3 or the PS Vita, it's very cheap.
They re-released the game on PS4 with both pros and cons.
(PROS)
For starters the game has a fast forward button, which makes the side quests and grinding go by so much quicker. It also makes going for the Excalibur II side quest so much easier. The Excalibur II is Steiner's ultimate weapon, and can only be obtained by reaching the final dungeon in less than 12 hours. You can also skip the FMV cutscenes which is cool.
There is also a No Encounters Button, a button that gives the characters God Mode with infinite Trance, a button that lets you do 9999 damage, a cheat that gives you max money, and a cheat that lets you auto-learn abilities as soon as you equip a piece of equipment. But why in the hell would you use all of this shit?? That just sucks all the fun out of the game.
(CONS)
The game has gotten enhanced textures and they changed the font of the menus to try to give it a much cleaner look, but personally, I absolutely hate it. The menus now look so bubbly and messy, it's disgusting to look at. The font they chose is shit, the font from the PS1 version is a million times better.
This "enhanced" remastered version released on mobile first, so someone thought that it would be a good idea to port this version to PS4 and Steam. The PS4 had to get a patch that shrunk down the menu size because half of the battle screen was taken up by the cell phone menu graphics. WTF is up with that nonsense?? But the Steam version? They didn't get any fixes for this. The only way to remedy this is with mods.
There is also an issue with the audio sampling. The sound effects don't sound the same like the PS1 version. Again, you can fix this with mods, but the PS4 version has not gotten a fix for this.
There was also a problem where the music after a battle would loop back to the beginning, which was not present in the PS1 version. They did fix this in the PS4 version but I don't know about the Steam release.
The menus also have an insanely noticable amount of lag. There is a delay between button presses, which makes trying to speed through the menus impossible. This is very annoying, especially considering that the PS1 version had menus that ran at a stable 60 FPS. The battle menus also had very smooth transitions, but the remastered version's battle menus are static, which is also noticable and distracting. These may seem like nitpicks, but if you played the PS1 version and wanted to play it on a newer system, all of these issues may put you off.
The game's frame rate while on the World Wap is god awful. Again, why did they decide to port the mobile version? This is just fuckin' lazy.
I've never played the Xbox One or the Switch versions so I'm not sure if these issues were resolved or not with those versions.
Damn, I've said version a lot haven't I?
Now do you see why I think the PS1 version is the better version? Yes the PS4 and Steam versions has fast forward and all that, but that all comes at the expense of the game's asthetics. The PS1 has much longer load times but I'd rather deal with that than have my eyes be assaulted by those horrible menus and my ears disappointed by the sound effect problem. Finally, the textures also look muddier, like if someone smeared vaseline all over my TV screen, it's just ugly to look at.
[FINAL THOUGHTS]
Final Fantasy IX is a must play, it's such an amazing game. A grand, watershed reflection of what had come before. This is the longest review I've ever wrote, but you'd be surprised by just how many people have still never played this game. If I'm so passionate about it, you'd think this is my favorite FF game right? Well actually, this game is a tie for 2nd place. My all time favorite FF game is VI, then again, FFVI is my favorite video game, period. But for a close 2nd, I just don't know which FF game I love more, this game or Final Fantasy X. I grew up with both FFIX and X. The sheer impact they have left on me as a gamer is unprecedented, it's just something that I will never forget. I've played this game so much along with FFX that it's baffling, it just never gets old. And that makes it worthy of a masterfully crafted experience.
If I were to speak from an objective standpoint, then yes, it is the best representation of Final Fantasy. It's no wonder it's Hironobu Sakaguchi's personal favorite.
10/10
While Final Fantasy VII and VIII had adopted sci-fi steampunk worlds, Final Fantasy IX goes back to form with a medival fantasy setting. If you've played Final Fantasy I-VI, FFIX will make you feel right at home, as it's the ideal view of what Final Fantasy truly is. Not only does it stay consistent with the tone of the FF games from the NES and SNES era, but it's hand-fisted with references to those past games, which are a real pleasure to see.
[STORY]
Do not let those cutesy character designs fool you. This is one of the darkest games in the series, and it portrays some of the greatest character development the series has to offer. This results in a cast of characters that feel like real, relatable people despite having such mythical and rather silly designs, which is a testament to how much care was put into them. I absolutely love this cast, one of the best in this franchise.
Kuja (the main villain) is one of the most realized characters, but seriously, WTF is he wearing?? Is it a man thong? Is it some sort of medival sports bra? I have no idea, but damn is he a badass villain. And by the end of the game I actually felt sympathetic towards him.
The themes of this game mostly revolve around death and coming to terms with your identity, the cycle of life. It's a moving story about one's existence and their purpose in life, something that everyone in the party has pondered about at least once in their lives, and how their mortality is of great importance.
Why am I here?
What does death feel like? Where do we go after we die?
What reasons do we have to live on the planet? And where do I belong?
These are the questions the game dives into, and while this sounds very dated by today's standards, remember that this game came out 20 years ago. I still think it holds up strongly today. More people die in this game than any other FF game I've played, except Final Fantasy VI. Again, this game is pretty dark despite the characters looking so weird. Death is a recurring theme, it's what brings the story from beginning to end.
There's also a central game mechanic called Active Time, where when Zidane is split up from other characters, you get to see what they are up to at certain times for even more character development.
Of course for the first time, you won't fully understand the story without doing some research, but when you do, you'll realize just how complex the story really is.
Vivi, more than anyone else in this game, is the character that resonates with this theme the most, and I'm sure many others will agree with that. His character arc and his growth throughout, going from a weak and fearful child who hated the very thought of death, to a confident, determined young man who lives his life to the fullest and with purpose, makes him not only my favorite character in FFIX, but my favorite character in ALL of Final Fantasy. I was only 13 when I played this game for the first time, but damn, watching Vivi's resolution at the end of the game made me cry my ass off.
This isn't to say the game is entirely bleak. It does have a lot of light-hearted, wholesome, and funny moments. The sense of humor in this game is so damn charming and memorable. This game made me both laugh and cry. It has a perfect balance between its humor and character-driven moments.
This is one of those games that you come back to mainly because of how timeless it is, not just because of gameplay, but because of one very important thing: Characterization. It's very clear that Square wanted to create believable people that you really want to care about and root for. Character development is one of the biggest factors to this game, it's not Final Fantasy VI levels of developed, but it's pretty close.
[PRESENTATION]
Even today, this game's presentation holds up really well. It's the best looking FF game on the PS1, in fact, it's one of the best looking PS1 games, period. The FMV cutscenes are beautiful and hold up even to this day. The character designs are definitely the most odd looking ones in the series, but that's what makes the game stand out. The attention to detail is exquisite and the world is very colorful. And the pre-rendered backgrounds are among the best on the PS1.
[MUSIC]
I honestly can't stress it enough, the soundtrack to this game is in a master class of its own, some of the greatest music ever produced in video games. FFIX's soundtrack is my 2nd favorite in the FF series, my first being FFVI. This is some of Nobuo Uematsu's greatest work.
There are so few composers in this industry whose music have left as much of an impact as his did. The lack of voice acting in FFIX meant that not only the dialogue, but the music was used to define the tone and characters in the game and it works wonders.
The music is what adds the most amount of spirit in these older FF games. Some of my favorite songs in all of gaming are in this game. I can't think of a single track that I actually dislike. It adds to the charm, uniqueness, and personality of the game. Nearly every melody is memorable, and the instrumentals used makes the soundtrack truly brilliant. I also can't tell you just how many times I listened to the battle theme and You're Not Alone religiously. So much so that it would be embarrassing to admit. FFIX has the best battle theme in the series, in fact, it might be my favorite battle theme in all of gaming. Melodies of Life is also my all time favorite vocal performance in the FF series.
Orchestra, and the use of piano, flute, kazoo, dulcimer, castanets, drums, bass, as well as motifs from older Final Fantasy games, makes the soundtrack an absolutely nostalgic masterpiece. The music defines at least half of Final Fantasy IX.
[GAMEPLAY]
While I really like Junctions from FFVIII in how complex it is, FFIX's simplicity in its mechanics are still enjoyable. Like with the story, FFIX goes back to form with its gameplay; Four character battles, characters with class specific roles, with traditional equipment and abilities.
Final Fantasy VII and VIII had this problem where everyone is able to learn the same magic spells and abilities, which can make them all feel the same, the only differences between each other being their Limit Breaks. Not to mention there were too many easy ways to get out of fights. But in Final Fantasy IX, each character have specific roles and the difficulty of battles have been ramped up.
Vivi being a Black Mage, the only party member who can cast Black Magic, Zidane being a Thief who can steal items, Eiko and Garnet being both White Mages/Summoners, Freya who is a Dragoon, Quina who...eats enemies to learn Blue Magic, yeah don't ask. Also is it a he or a she? Does no one to this day still not know??
And Steiner, oh my god, Steiner, a Knight that can use Sword skills and team up with Vivi to unleash sword spell attacks that deal massive damage. He also does like five times more damage while in Trance. Did they test Steiner during development? Because he is simply overpowered. He is incredible, easily one of the party members to have in battle.
On the other hand, Amarant can stay the hell out of my party. Seriously, have any of you ever used Amarant other than in key points in the game? Goddamn is he almost useless. All of his attacks are really weak compared to others.
This game does get challenging. FFIX isn't a hard game, but FFVII and VIII had battles that were just too easy. FFIX has much more panic inducing, tense moments in the battles, and has a much stronger emphasis on strategy, which is a very welcome change.
In this game, equipment is what teaches the characters their abilities, which is further complimented by the balance of battles. Ozma, the superboss of the game, is hands down the hardest optional superboss in the series. And the final boss Necron is no pushover either. I'd say Necron is one of the toughest final bosses. And the music that plays during that fight freaked me out when I was a teenager.
Typically in past games, you would sell equipment that you didn't need anymore because you got new equipment with higher stats. But in this game, almost every piece of equipment is important, because elemental properties play a much larger role. So even if you have equipment that have "lower stats", it's still important to hold onto it if it's capable of boosting your elemental offense and defense. The benefits of elemental defense boosting far outweigh the benefits of a higher Defense or Magic Defense stat. Also, you can get exclusive weapons and armor at Synthesis Shops, which require previously obtained equipment, so again, hold onto equipment even if you don't use it anymore.
All of this combined is what makes battling in FFIX so fun and rewarding. Battles feel fresh because of this. A sense of challenge that hadn't been felt since Final Fantasy VI. Though I still do have a couple gripes.
One thing I don't like about the battles is how slow they are. Even if I turn the ATB speed all the way up, it's soooooo slooooow, easily the slowest out of all the other games. And while you can get an ability that boosts the speed of the ATB gauge, you don't get that until at least halfway into the game, and it's missable during one part in Disc 2. You won't get it again until Disc 3 or 4. So early on in the game the battles can really drag.
I also don't like the Trance mechanic. Trances are basically Limit Breaks in FFIX but with a twist. Taking damage will fill up a red bar, when it's full, characters can go into Trance. Instead of it being a one use attack like in FFVII and VIII, instead it boosts the characters stats for several turns and the characters can use exclusive attacks that replace certain battle commands.
However what ruins the potential of it is when the bar is full, the Trance activates automatically. This makes it incredibly difficult to use them strategically. They can't be saved from one battle to the next, the transformation takes a while, and it can't be skipped. All of this makes Trance more of a pain in the ass than something game changing and useful. Luckily the balance of the battles make up for this.
So about side content, it's very hit and miss for me. I've heard a ton of people complain about the card game tournament in Treno. Yeah, I don't like Tetra Master either, and I still think that it's bullshit that the developers took something that was originally a minigame and made it mandatory to progress through the story.
Even to this day, I still don't understand how Tetra Master works. Even if you have a card that is technically stronger than your opponent's, it's still possible to lose, so it's completely random. That is total bullshit. Even so, I didn't have as much of a hard time as what others were saying about the card tournament. All I do is just select random cards and mash buttons until I do win. It's definitely not impossible.
If I lost too many times I would just reset. And after I win one round I just go to a moogle and save my game. This is important because the third and final round only gives you one chance to win. And if you do win, you get the Rebirth Ring which teaches every character the Auto-Life ability. This is the earliest point in the game you can obtain it.
Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad is way better designed, it's completely optional, and you get some amazing rewards for playing it. But Tetra Master? It sucks ass through a bendy straw.
Now that I think about it, pretty much every piece of side content relies on RNG. The Chocobo side quest is better but it can still be tedious because it relies on RNG to give rewards to the player. And if you wanna fight Ozma, you have to turn your chocobo into a golden one, by finding Chocographs. Chocographs are items that are used to find treasures containing exclusive loot.
You get these by playing a minigame called Chocobo Hot and Cold. There is no skill involved, you just mash the Square button to dig into the ground in certain areas until you find the item that you're looking for, which is just repetitive and it drags a lot. This type of randomness plagues a lot of RPGs, but if this doesn't bother you, then all the power to you. However the rewards you get for obtaining the Chocographs and finding the treasures are amazing, some of the best in the game, like Zidane's and Garnet + Eiko's ultimate weapons.
The Mognet side quest is also hit and miss because it involves delivering mail from one moogle to the next. It's actually possible to miss certain moogles which will prevent you from fully completing the side quest. I've never completed it myself and frankly I never cared about completing it anyway, the payoff is nowhere near as good as Chocobo treasure hunting. The letters themselves though are fun to read and it's something that's cool to look out for as you're journeying through the game.
[BEST VERSION]
My favorite version of FFIX is the PS1 version. The easiest way to get it is either on Amazon or downloading off the PlayStation Network on the PS3 or the PS Vita, it's very cheap.
They re-released the game on PS4 with both pros and cons.
(PROS)
For starters the game has a fast forward button, which makes the side quests and grinding go by so much quicker. It also makes going for the Excalibur II side quest so much easier. The Excalibur II is Steiner's ultimate weapon, and can only be obtained by reaching the final dungeon in less than 12 hours. You can also skip the FMV cutscenes which is cool.
There is also a No Encounters Button, a button that gives the characters God Mode with infinite Trance, a button that lets you do 9999 damage, a cheat that gives you max money, and a cheat that lets you auto-learn abilities as soon as you equip a piece of equipment. But why in the hell would you use all of this shit?? That just sucks all the fun out of the game.
(CONS)
The game has gotten enhanced textures and they changed the font of the menus to try to give it a much cleaner look, but personally, I absolutely hate it. The menus now look so bubbly and messy, it's disgusting to look at. The font they chose is shit, the font from the PS1 version is a million times better.
This "enhanced" remastered version released on mobile first, so someone thought that it would be a good idea to port this version to PS4 and Steam. The PS4 had to get a patch that shrunk down the menu size because half of the battle screen was taken up by the cell phone menu graphics. WTF is up with that nonsense?? But the Steam version? They didn't get any fixes for this. The only way to remedy this is with mods.
There is also an issue with the audio sampling. The sound effects don't sound the same like the PS1 version. Again, you can fix this with mods, but the PS4 version has not gotten a fix for this.
There was also a problem where the music after a battle would loop back to the beginning, which was not present in the PS1 version. They did fix this in the PS4 version but I don't know about the Steam release.
The menus also have an insanely noticable amount of lag. There is a delay between button presses, which makes trying to speed through the menus impossible. This is very annoying, especially considering that the PS1 version had menus that ran at a stable 60 FPS. The battle menus also had very smooth transitions, but the remastered version's battle menus are static, which is also noticable and distracting. These may seem like nitpicks, but if you played the PS1 version and wanted to play it on a newer system, all of these issues may put you off.
The game's frame rate while on the World Wap is god awful. Again, why did they decide to port the mobile version? This is just fuckin' lazy.
I've never played the Xbox One or the Switch versions so I'm not sure if these issues were resolved or not with those versions.
Damn, I've said version a lot haven't I?
Now do you see why I think the PS1 version is the better version? Yes the PS4 and Steam versions has fast forward and all that, but that all comes at the expense of the game's asthetics. The PS1 has much longer load times but I'd rather deal with that than have my eyes be assaulted by those horrible menus and my ears disappointed by the sound effect problem. Finally, the textures also look muddier, like if someone smeared vaseline all over my TV screen, it's just ugly to look at.
[FINAL THOUGHTS]
Final Fantasy IX is a must play, it's such an amazing game. A grand, watershed reflection of what had come before. This is the longest review I've ever wrote, but you'd be surprised by just how many people have still never played this game. If I'm so passionate about it, you'd think this is my favorite FF game right? Well actually, this game is a tie for 2nd place. My all time favorite FF game is VI, then again, FFVI is my favorite video game, period. But for a close 2nd, I just don't know which FF game I love more, this game or Final Fantasy X. I grew up with both FFIX and X. The sheer impact they have left on me as a gamer is unprecedented, it's just something that I will never forget. I've played this game so much along with FFX that it's baffling, it just never gets old. And that makes it worthy of a masterfully crafted experience.
If I were to speak from an objective standpoint, then yes, it is the best representation of Final Fantasy. It's no wonder it's Hironobu Sakaguchi's personal favorite.
10/10