one of my favorite games ever. the combat is so slow and takes forever to load. limit breaks suck because you have no control over when they activate. the chocobo hot & cold minigame is straight up painful to 100%, but is necessary to get some of the best equipment in the game, as well as complete various other sidequests. the ability system is a joke compared to materia or even FFV and FFVIs systems for character customization. half the character arcs are not particularly well done, or get dropped halfway through the game. tetra master is a disgrace. i don't actually give a fuck about any of this, though.

final fantasy ix is a game i want to live in. every single background in this game is jawdroppingly beautiful to me. the characters are endearingly cartoonish, and their animations are overflowing with personality. i love dagger's cute little formal bow, vivi constantly adjusting his hat, zidane kicking the ground if you make him fall down the sand on cleyra's trunk, the fact that steiner clanks loudly whenever he moves. the little details are truly what make this game so special.

FFIX also has hands down my favorite environments in the series. every city and dungeon is a joy to explore. i love lindblum's multiple districts and public transportation system. a lot of other rpgs have towns that are just one or 2 screens. this makes sense a lot of the time, because of technological limitations, or the fact that really, all you actually need from a town is an equipment shop and a couple NPCs to drop useful hints. but FFIX going above and beyond makes its world feel so much more real and alive and memorable. the npcs are so charming, especially the ones who are inexplicably animal people. shoutout hippaul for having probably one of the best NPC names ever. also, kuja has impeccable taste because the desert palace looks cool as fuck.

despite my issues with some of the character writing, i find the cast incredibly endearing. i love a JRPG party with a healthy portion of strange little creatures. i also love the ATE system, and how when dagger leaves the party you still get to play as her. the ability to follow the other characters actions, even when they're not in the main party, makes it feel much more like they're people with their own goals, rather than people who just disappear from the plot for a bit before rejoining the main character. for the characters who do have fairly consistent growth for the entire game (zidane, dagger, vivi), their journey is incredibly compelling... and while freya's arc is basically over after the beginning of disc 2, she also gets a pass from me because i love her and think the concept of a rat girl dragoon is awesome. also, she has the ability that's easiest to get consistent max damage with. which is fun.

the actual story of this game...is interesting. it feels very solid for discs 1 & 2. almost every new location and character and event is exciting, and has a good amount of time to breathe. a lot of the plot points are just so fun. a thieves guild going undercover as a theater troupe to kidnap a princess... a high speed chase through an airship gate, pursued by a villain who looks mysteriously like one of your party members but, like, way cooler... the hunting festival...all of this is so charming! the gorgeous fmvs also definitely pay off here. the game bites off a bit more than it can chew in discs 3 & 4 as it starts running out of time to cram in more plot, explain the lore, and fill out the second half of the world map. i feel like this is pretty par for the course with a lot of JRPGs, but i definitely benefited a lot from a second playthrough, because i'd basically lost track of a lot of the lore by disc 4. i still think a lot of things in memoria kind of come out of nowhere, and zidane's identity crisis deserved more time to breathe, the iifa tree could've been explained much better, and necron definitely should've been foreshadowed more...but after all is said and done, i still love a good hopeful ending, and i love the journey. <3

in my first review of this game, the only word i could come up with to describe my experience was "delightful". this is still the most succinct way i can sum up my thoughts on FFIX. it's a game filled with a lot of joy. it's a game filled with a lot of love: for its world, its characters, for the final fantasy series. it's a game trying to balance a lot of things, and while it often reaches for something it can't quite grasp, it still ends up in a place i'd like to be, and a place i'd be happy to return to one day.

one of my favorite games ever. the combat is so slow and takes forever to load. limit breaks suck because you have no control over when they activate. the chocobo hot & cold minigame is straight up painful to 100%, but is necessary to get some of the best equipment in the game, as well as complete various other sidequests. the ability system is a joke compared to materia or even FFV and FFVIs systems for character customization. half the character arcs are not particularly well done, or get dropped halfway through the game. tetra master is a disgrace. i don't actually give a fuck about any of this, though.

final fantasy ix is a game i want to live in. every single background in this game is jawdroppingly beautiful to me. the characters are endearingly cartoonish, and their animations are overflowing with personality. i love dagger's cute little formal bow, vivi constantly adjusting his hat, zidane kicking the ground if you make him fall down the sand on cleyra's trunk, the fact that steiner clanks loudly whenever he moves. the little details are truly what make this game so special.

FFIX also has hands down my favorite environments in the series. every city and dungeon is a joy to explore. i love lindblum's multiple districts and public transportation system. a lot of other rpgs have towns that are just one or 2 screens. this makes sense a lot of the time, because of technological limitations, or the fact that really, all you actually need from a town is an equipment shop and a couple NPCs to drop useful hints. but FFIX going above and beyond makes its world feel so much more real and alive and memorable. the npcs are so charming, especially the ones who are inexplicably animal people. shoutout hippaul for having probably one of the best NPC names ever. also, kuja has impeccable taste because the desert palace looks cool as fuck.

despite my issues with some of the character writing, i find the cast incredibly endearing. i love a JRPG party with a healthy portion of strange little creatures. i also love the ATE system, and how when dagger leaves the party you still get to play as her. the ability to follow the other characters actions, even when they're not in the main party, makes it feel much more like they're people with their own goals, rather than people who just disappear from the plot for a bit before rejoining the main character. for the characters who do have fairly consistent growth for the entire game (zidane, dagger, vivi), their journey is incredibly compelling... and while freya's arc is basically over after the beginning of disc 2, she also gets a pass from me because i love her and think the concept of a rat girl dragoon is awesome. also, she has the ability that's easiest to get consistent max damage with. which is fun.

the actual story of this game...is interesting. it feels very solid for discs 1 & 2. almost every new location and character and event is exciting, and has a good amount of time to breathe. a lot of the plot points are just so fun. a thieves guild going undercover as a theater troupe to kidnap a princess... a high speed chase through an airship gate, pursued by a villain who looks mysteriously like one of your party members but, like, way cooler... the hunting festival...all of this is so charming! the gorgeous fmvs also definitely pay off here. the game bites off a bit more than it can chew in discs 3 & 4 as it starts running out of time to cram in more plot, explain the lore, and fill out the second half of the world map. i feel like this is pretty par for the course with a lot of JRPGs, but i definitely benefited a lot from a second playthrough, because i'd basically lost track of a lot of the lore by disc 4. i still think a lot of things in memoria kind of come out of nowhere, and zidane's identity crisis deserved more time to breathe, the iifa tree could've been explained much better, and necron definitely should've been foreshadowed more...but after all is said and done, i still love a good hopeful ending, and i love the journey. <3

in my first review of this game, the only word i could come up with to describe my experience was "delightful". this is still the most succinct way i can sum up my thoughts on FFIX. it's a game filled with a lot of joy. it's a game filled with a lot of love: for its world, its characters, for the final fantasy series. it's a game trying to balance a lot of things, and while it often reaches for something it can't quite grasp, it still ends up in a place i'd like to be, and a place i'd be happy to return to one day.