TEH. BEST. GAMES. EVAR.
By Andr'e Swartley

Issue #7
Final Fantasy IX
Developer: Squaresoft
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Platform: Playstation 1
Rating: T for Teen

Welcome back, and the happiest of new years to you all. We're a week and a half into another decade (unless you're one of those tiresome people who still reminds everyone the new millenium didn't begin until 2001 and therefore the next decade doesn't begin until 2011, in which case I will remind you the lunar calendar is woefully imprecise anyway), and just under two months away from the Western release of Final Fantasy XIII. If you're new to the column, or can't remember why a new Final Fantasy game is such a big deal, I encourage you to read my earlier reviews of Final Fantasy VII and VIII.

Final Fantasy IX came out on the original Playstation a couple weeks after the North American launch of the Playstation 2. Perhaps this is one reason the game was met with less enthusiasm than its two predecessors. Another reason may be that IX departed from the increasingly futuristic settings of VI, VII, and VIII and reached back to the series' pure fantasy roots of castles, knights, and dragons.

No matter the cause, Final Fantasy IX has become something of an outcast for many who follow the series. Interestingly, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has declared many times that IX is his favorite game in the entire series.

The main character this time around is Zidane, a good natured bandit with a monkey's tail. At the beginning of the story Zidane is on an airship as part of a theater crew/pirate gang whose leader is a bearded pig-man with purple skin. Zidane and company are headed for Alexandria, a fortified city perched on the edge of a thousand-foot waterfall.

In Alexandria, you meet an amnesiac black mage, Vivi, and a beautiful young princess, Garnett, whose mother looks like the leader of those evil blue things in the movie Yellow Submarine. Zidane's crew plans to kidnap Princess Garnett but the plan goes awry when the princess, for her own reasons, tries to stow away on their ship.

Throughout the game, you learn that Garnett was adopted and hidden (`a la Luke Skywalker) because she has the ability to summon Eidolons (known as "Espers," "Summons," and "GF's" in VI-VIII, respectively). It turns out that Garnett is one of two people in the world who can perform such summons. The other is Eiko, a little orphan girl with a horn growing out the center of her forehead.

Typical of FF games from IV onward there is a complicated love story, this time between Zidane and Garnett. Eiko also feelings for Zidane, but the game's writers gracefully avoided any pedophilic overtones by making her interest seem like what it should be, a child's crush.

Your characters carry or wear items that grant them different abilities, similar to the ability system in Final Fantasy VI. Except now the characters can "remember" a much larger variety of abilities, which can be equipped according to the amount of ability points each character has. The amount of points increases as the characters level up.

Also similar to VI, you get four characters in your battle party again rather than three, marking the first and last time this has happened in a Playstation-era Final Fantasy. Battles are noticeably slower affairs this time around, giving you the opportunity to input commands several turns before your characters actually perform them. Early on this is no problem. But as the enemies become stronger and less predictable toward the end of the game, you'll want to wait until right before your character's turn to choose the best move.

And nowhere is careful strategy more important than in the battle with Ozma, Final Fantasy IX's only optional "superboss." Even if you find all of the best equipment, learn all of the characters' abilities, and level your party up to 99, you will still need a healthy dose of luck to bring Ozma down.

I won't spoil the ending, except to say that if you've followed the series from the beginning, you will enjoy some striking homages to earlier games. And honestly, the same could be said for the whole game. Final Fantasy IX is a loving remembrance of the whole series to that point, and a fitting swansong for the Playstation 1.

Final Grade: B+