Retronomicon 03.10.10: Final Fantasy IX
Posted by Lee Price on 03.10.2010
This week the Retronomicon takes advantage of the release of Final Fantasy XIII to look at one of the best and yet most under-rated and unappreciated Final Fantasy games to ever be released, Final Fantasy IX.
Hello one and all and welcome to your weekly one stop shop for gaming greatness, the Retronomicon. I am your host Lee Price and I must admit that I am reveling in the Final Fantasy based goodness of the 411 Games zone right about now. I'm a big fan of the series so any opportunity to shine a light on it is fine by me. Of course there are plenty of other RPGs that need some attention too, but that will all come in good time my dears. The retro field is huge after all. I've been able to get down to some solid gameage now that work has settled down. I've been rattling through BioShock 2. My opinion is that its good, but not a patch on the first game. While the action stays the same, the story suffers from having been shoehorned after a perfectly finished storyline and narrative. Constantly protecting little sisters can get a bit tedious too, though the Hypnotize Plasmid helps with that. I've also been plugging away further at Shining Force, as well as starting to give a little bit of game time to next week's Retronomicon entry, but you'll have to wait before I let you find out what that is. Anyway enough about that because its time for the...
Comments
The Retronomicon shocks me sometimes. Games that I think are mainstream barely get commented, while more niche titles seem to do quite well. Perhaps its because the popular titles already get so much attention that people are bored of reading about them. Who knows? What I do know is that Shining Force got plenty of attention last week.
The game got plenty of love;
Guest#7375 - An awesome & amazing game. The fans of FE are quick to point out which game came first, but I think your article is correct: accessibility counts, as much as "hardcores" want to pretend it doesn't.
Armando Rodriguez - Today sir, you just blew my mind! Finally, the greatest game ever made (Ok, second greatest behind the sequel) is on the Retronomicon! This is probably the only RPG I have beaten more than a dozen times (as far as I can remember, I am up to 16 times, with 12 coming on the Genesis version, 3 on the GBA Remake and once on the Sonic's Mega Collection for PS3) and I have seen everything you could possibly see, yet I keep playing it. This is the first RPG I ever played and maybe that's why I love it so much, but I believe this was the game that turned me into a gamer for life.
Ultra Gepetto - Still one of the best titles on Genesis- I believe that Shining Force CD for Sega CD was both parts 1 and 2 of the game gear title sword of hylia (we only got the 2nd half for some reason I think) My Saturn crapped out years ago but still had a blast with SFIII even though its only 1/3 of the entire game. If they were smart they would release a compilation of them all like they did with Arc the Lad for PSOne- Hey, I'd buy it!
Jeff - Loved this game. I think I saw it as a download from the Wii store, but have yet to buy it
The Thunderthief - Hmm, looks very interesting. I'm actually a fan of the more tactical RPG's, and this one looks like one of the founding fathers of the "genre". It's cool that it's on the VC... I might look into it ;)
Semiru - Shining Force was one of my favorites in my Mega Drive days, and it's a testament to its charm that I never finished either I or II but still loved them both (I get to a certain point in strategy games and just fall to pieces, I guess).
Between this series and Phantasy Star, Sega had a pretty good counter for the Fire Emblems and Final Fantasies that Nintendo had at the time :)
The biggest shame (outside of games like Shining Force Feather, blech) was what happened with III - was it due to the Saturn's failure that Westerners never got the last two chapters?
Plenty of Shining Force love. I have to say I'm impressed by Armando's stat. 16 game completions is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when the game is an RPG. The only game I come close with is Shenmue I think. I would definitely be interested in Ultra Gepetto's idea of a Shining Force compilation, somebody needs to get on that right away, and translate the rest of Shining Force III while they are at it.
sideswipe79 is here with a bit of info;
It's also on the SEGA Mega Drive: Ultimate Collection and if you shop around you should get that for
For what? Tell us man! TELL US!
kk ponders RPG gamers for a while;
I don't get RPGs, RPG gamers and how RPG gamers made something as crappy looking as Ultima made Lord British rich enough to go to space. :)
So thanks for your perspective on what you guys see in it. :)
No problemo. While I wasn't exactly shooting for an explanation of why RPGs making my gaming nuts tighten, I'm glad you got some info our of the article. You're going to love this week's entry if you're not an RPG nut though.
We finish up with a bit of Ken debating. First we had Havok who claims;
I've never had a party that didn't include Ken, and he always gets the Valkyrie. True fact.
Which prompted the Shining Force nut Armando Rodriguez to take his second bite of the commenting cherry with;
Ken sucks...really. Mae, Pelle and Ernest are like ten times better. I tried (and actually managed to beat the game) with a party of all knights: Ken,Mae,Arthur,Pelle,Vankar,Ernest and so on. Ken and Arthur suck and since there are not enough knights I filled the blanks with Kokichi, Guntz and other similar types.
Yes, the all mages/healers one I tried to and yes, I managed to beat the game, but F! that...it was the hardest thing I have ever done!
I have to go with Havok on this one, Ken is one of my favorites too. But then far be it from me to argue with a man who has put so much time into the series that he has managed a mage/healer run. That's just sick man, get help!.
Anyway that's enough talking amongst ourselves because our new entrant needs some attention, so strap on those rose-tinted specs because this week the Retronomicon looks at Final Fantasy IX.
The Background
I think I shall refrain from covering the entire history of the Final Fantasy series. That's a whole other article right there I think. Instead lets take a look at the series PlayStation history. Final Fantasy VII had of course been released in 1997 to massive sales and critical acclaim, reviving the ailing Square and making the JRPG truly mainstream for the first time on Western shores.
Two years later Square finally unleashed the sequel. Final Fantasy VIII divided gamers who had loved the seventh installment. Those that had been clamoring for a continuation of Cloud and company's adventures were left sorely disappointed, as FFVIII took a more mature approach, both graphically and in terms of storyline. While divisive, the game was still superb and if the PS1 run of Final Fantasy games had ended with FFVIII it would have been a pretty damned good way for the series to bow out.
The only real constant across these two games had been the series composer, Nobuo Uetmatsu. He returned for the PS1 eras last hurrah, alongside new developers to produce a game that both a great RPG in its own right and a wonderful homage to the Final Fantasy games that had come before. That game was Final Fantasy IX
The Game
Final Fantasy IX was released at the tail end of the PlayStation's life-cycle and as such had never received the attention it really deserved. While some of its detractors claim that the game is Final Fantasy for kids, these people never really seemed to get the fact that the title was meant to be drastically different to the Sci-Fi esque worlds of FFVII and FFVIII. This was Final Fantasy returning to its roots and is both an amazing homage and immensely well made title.
The game starts off with one such homage. Zidane, the game's main protagonist, is a member of a gang of thieves and ne'er-do-wells called the Tantalus Theatre Group. They combine their desire for thievery with their flair for acting to get away with the numerous escapades. The order of the day when the game begins is for the group to kidnap the heir to the throne of Alexandria, Princess Garnet, who is in the middle of her birthday celebrations. They intend to do this by acting out her favorite play for the citizens while their operatives secretly smuggle her onto an airship to whisk her away from the kingdom. Anybody getting whiffs of the Opera House scene from Final Fantasy VI is bang on the money, especially as the plot involves sneaking her off in a giant Airship.
Its during this time that we are introduced to Vivi and Steiner, two of the other main characters of the game. Steiner is the head of the Knights of Pluto, which would be a distinguished title if the knights weren't so incompetent when compared to the Royal Guard. Vivi is just a small child who is obviously a mage and also becomes the most emotionally engaging character in the game as the storyline progresses. For now though he is looking to find his way into the play after his ticket is revealed to be a forgery.
Vivi eventually gets to a position where he can see the events unfold as Zidane and company are led through a merry chase round the castle by the Princess. Eventually she is whisked away by the group, along with Steiner and Vivi who become embroiled in the chase and eventually stuck on the Tantalus ship. After crashing into the Evil Forest and having to rescue the Princess before their very narrow escape, the group learned that Garnet intended to stow away with them anyway because she is wary of her mother, Queen Brahne, and her growing desire for power, which has seemingly increased since the appearance of a sinister figure named Kuja. After Garnet's name change to Dagger, and contrary to Steiner's repeated protestation, the group head for Lindblum to talk with Regent Cid, and the game starts proper.
Final Fantasy IX has one of the more light hearted plots of the late 90's Final Fantasy games. While FFVII and FFVIII had broody antagonists and deep seated and complex plots, FFIX is a visual and dramatic departure back to the days of the 16 Bit games. The whole game feels brighter and much more cheerful, which both serves to give the game a much different tone to the other games in the PS1 era, as well making the emotionally impacting moments even more pertinent.
The game also includes something called Active Time Events, which allowed the player to view bits of story that were happening to somebody else at the same time as their own adventure. This was a clever little way to expand the plot to involve other character's and served to add a few more interesting little bits of plot at times.
The gameplay doesn't differ much from previous titles in the series, a perhaps deliberate attempt by Square to evoke memories of older titles. Many of the traditional RPG tropes are present. Battles are turn based and winning them grants your team experience points that are used to raise their levels and stats. Health and Magic are measure by the usual HP and MP meters, and there is plentiful grinding to be done when you need to reach a more powerful level to take care of a baddie. Each character has special attacks that they can unleash after taking a certain amount of damage, and magic and summons are used widely, though are restricted to particular characters in this go around.
The battle system, as mentioned is turn based. Following on from Final Fantasy VIII, your battle party contains four members, however Final Fantasy IX signaled a return to the class based system that had been absent in the last two titles. It is clear who in the team is mean to be the Black Mage, or the Healer, rather than giving the player the opportunity to create a team full of all rounders of craft their own classes. This serves to offer the characters increased personality within the battles themselves as it becomes more vital to ensure that you have the right combination of characters for the job at all times. Its no good going into a fight without a healer, unless the game forces you too, and this in itself is a great touch that returns from the older games in the series because, no matter how good the characterization may have been outside a fight, in battle the characters in FFVII or FFVIII could be made interchangeable due to all being able to learn the same skills.
Characterization is also vastly important in separating Final Fantasy IX from its most recent forebears. The game is much more light-hearted, which is reflected in the almost relentless optimism of Zidane. There are precious few moments when his belief falters, and when it does it impacts the story in a much different way to the broody loners slowly coming out of their shells in FFVII and FFVIII. However the star of the show is definitely Vivi. While all the characters have interesting stories, from Steiner slowly stripping away the shackles of self imposed servitude to Quina's discovery of the wide world, Vivi is infinitely the most interesting character of the troupe. Starting out as a quiet and unassuming child, Vivi's journey takes him through masses of uncertainty as he comes to grips with the secrets surrounding the Black Mages and his search for others of his kind. His emotional journey sees him grow from a child into the most emotionally strong character in the entire game and it is a testament to Square's storytelling when it comes to him that you still find yourself wondering whatever became of him and if he found the answers to all of his questions when the game is done.
Like most Final Fantasy games, FFIX is laden with side-quests. There is the obvious Treasure Hunting pursuits to be followed by a thief, as well as raising a Golden Chocobo, a side-quest made much more interesting with its very own little story branch, making it much more than a method with which to earn little rewards. There is also a card game in a repeat of Final Fantasy VIII's crowning side-quest, but this particular game just doesn't match up to the addictiveness and appeal of its counterpart. Best of all is the Mognet quest, which serves to provide Moogles with much more character than they had had in recent iterations of the series, even if you do find then little gits just slightly annoying.
Outside of this though the core gameplay remains unchanged from the other PlayStation Final Fantasy games, or indeed the ones that had come previously. There are tweaks and changes to the battle system that give the fans of the series something new, but the game still essentially revolves around traveling from area to area, leveling up as you go and experiencing the story along the way.
Graphically the game is simply astounding. This is one of the few PlayStation titles that has managed to age beautifully. The slightly more caricature-esque character design fits in with the fantasy locales on offer absolutely brilliantly, and everything is at the absolute pinnacle of what the PlayStation was capable. Final Fantasy IX pushes the console to its limits with graphics that are a match for anything else released during the era.
Of course special mention must go the the FMV. While companies now tend away from Full Motion Video, in the PlayStation era it was an important tool if you wished to display scenes that the regular graphics engine simply wasn't capable of. FF VII and FFVIII both had their moments, but Final Fantasy IX was the pinnacle of FMV usage within the Final Fantasy series for one reason, the destructive force of the summons, known as Eidolons in this game. Final Fantasy IX utilized FMV to show some of the most destructive set-pieces that had been devised in a game up until that point, set-pieces that simply would have been impossible with the regular graphics engine and helped give the game that extra wow factor. Anybody who has played the game has their favorite summon scene, my personal one being the confrontation between Bahomet and Alexander, and the FMV in Final Fantasy IX perfectly complements the story that is told around it.
Do we really need to talk about the sound in the game. Nobuo worked on it. That is pretty much all that needs to be said really. But if that's not enough, the soundtrack is quality. While it doesn't reach the lofty heights attained by FFVII, or indeed FFVIII, it is still a soundtrack worthy of any game and there are plenty of memorable tunes, as well as little flashes of older tunes like the Junon Parade theme from Final Fantasy VII.
Overall then, Final Fantasy IX deserves a damn sight more recognition than it got. While critically acclaimed and loved by a small section of fans, it has nowhere near the following of the titles that came before, or indeed after. This needs to change though because Final Fantasy IX is one of the best entries into the illustrious series. Some will claim the game was made too childish, both in look and difficulty, however they are missing the point. Final Fantasy IX is a tribute to all that came before, while also providing the stepping stone to the new era of Final Fantasy games.
The Aftermath
I'd love to say that Final Fantasy IX sold a heap of units, and I wouldn't necessarily be wrong. The game did indeed do very well for itself, selling approximately 5.3 million units. It just didn't manage anything close to the sales of FFVII or FFVIII. This is partially due to the subject matter and tone of the game being changed so drastically, but the fact that it was released at the end of the PlayStation's lifecycle played a huge part. People were going to be less likely to buy a PS1 game when the PS2 was just around the corner, and that proved to be the case with Final Fantasy IX.
Square went on to develop more Final Fantasy titles, to the surprise of absolutely no-one. Final Fantasy X was released on the PS2 in 2001 and was a huge success. The game was absolutely gorgeous and was one of the first to truly signal that the 128 Bit generation had arrived. They followed this up with Final Fantasy XI, which was an MMO game, and Final Fantasy XII which wasn't but kind of wished it was. Final Fantasy XIII has seen a release mere days ago, and there have been a slew of Final Fantasy based titles released in the near ten years since Final Fantasy IX's release.
Square themselves merged with Enix to create Square-Enix and now seem determined to become a publishing giant, securing the rights to publish many Japanese RPG's on Western shores, while doing the reverse for Western titles on Eastern shores. The company, and series, go from strength to strength, as proven by the anticipation that has built up before Final Fantasy XIII's release.
The Price is Right
Nice and easy this week as the game was only ever released on the PlayStation, after an intended PC release fell through. As usual more money for better quality.
FYI Lee, Nobou himself has stated that ff9 is his favourite score that he worked on, and it shows, it really is his masterpiece, i honestly think based on the soundtrack alone, this final fantasy blows nearly all of them out of the water. That being said, thank you for choosing to bring light to this massively underrated masterpiece. It's no wonder why its overlooked, mainly cus of the drastic change in visual style, it would be hard to go from a realistic proportioned futuristic style to a disneyfied medievil style. Make no mistake in my opinion the subject matter, the storylines and the characters have never been written better in the series, they took a old fashioned concept and modernized it for the cd age, coming up with probably the most classic final fantasy tale for the ages, i love its innocence and maturity. Gameplay wise the battle system is a little flat i thought, but all in all this is probably my 2nd favourite ff next to number 6.
Posted By: gooched (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 01:27 AM
Completely agree. IX remains one of my favorite FF. Sadly, it is also the last I got into. I found VIII to be horrendus. X and beyond didn't catch me either. Hopefully, XIII will be better.
Posted By: Hyde (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 07:56 AM
FF9 was easily my favorite of the PS1 FF's. It was a return to it's roots that the series was desperately in need of. It was nice after 7 and 8 to have a protagonist who wasn't a complete and utter douchenozzle. Also, chocobo hot and cold is the best mini game of all time.
Posted By: Archer (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 09:23 AM
I only have one thing to say about FF9:
Dramatic ending > FF7 "Tifa's breasts catch the ledge and save her" ending.
(There should be about 10 > there, but that would look tacky.)
Posted By: Kerry B. (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 09:49 AM
this is my 2nd fav ff, after 10. i even went through it all gain just last year and it was still awesome
Posted By: Guest#8418 (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 10:52 AM
IMO the best Final Fantasy on both the PS1 and PS2 (and I loved 7 and 10).
Of all the playable characters, Amarant was the only one I didn't care for. Almost like he was tacked on because they thought they had to have a 'badass' character in there.
And Quina rules all.
Posted By: Steve B (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 12:18 PM
I love FF9 as much as any game in the series. The ending is a real tear jerker (in a good way) and it tells a great story. I still pull this out every couple of years to play through it again.
Posted By: contraman (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 02:35 PM
Absolutely love this game. It very well might be my favorite of the series (neck and neck with 6). I really hope that we get a current gen game that goes back to the roots of the series like this one did.
Posted By: Penguin (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 09:03 PM
I can never decide if I like 9 or 6 more. 9 is by far my favorite playstation FF.
And yes, that fight between Alexandre and Bahamut made me giddy for weeks. I kept a save slot there so I could watch that FMV any time I wanted. Most epic.
Posted By: August (Guest) on March 10, 2010 at 09:56 PM
This is by far my favorite FF game. I just love it so damn much, haha. It was one of the first games I bought when I purchased a PS2 in 2001, since I didn't have the PS1 before then. I've played through it three times, and I feel like restarting it again soon. In fact, when my first PS2 could no longer read blue or black backed discs, I bought a PS1 just to play this game.
I really hope they return to this style of FF soon.
Posted By: RavenTazECW (Registered) on March 13, 2010 at 06:17 PM
Well it does have a lighter tone at times and some cool humor (lacking in the previous 2 installments) but make no mistake, there are still plenty of dark AND touching moments.
And it's definitely underrated and misunderstood - the only negative point to me is that there is just a bit TOO much random combat.
The plus side is that the combat is over quickly (relative to VII and VIII that is, it's still time consuming with the long swirling combat transition screens taking 5 to 10 seconds)and the skill system is fun.
But I tried replaying this recently and got about halfway through before I put it away again due to the constant combat. It's still worth playing if you've never played it though and I'd put it above 7 and 8 any day.
Posted By: Relayer71 (Guest) on March 27, 2010 at 05:15 PM
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