Yesterday, Final Fantasy IX arrived in my mailbox, which made me pretty happy. I played the game for two hours and dug it quite a bit, but I just doubted that I'd finish it because it doesn't really have too new of a hook that would keep me playing it over Dragon Quest V or Persona 4 (again). Well, after a good night's sleep, a few hours of Shadow Dragon and another two hours of Final Fantasy IX, I can officially say that I FF9's friggin' awesome.

Yesterday, Final Fantasy IX arrived in my mailbox, which made me pretty happy. I played the game for two hours and dug it quite a bit, but I just doubted that I'd finish it because it doesn't really have too new of a hook that would keep me playing it over Dragon Quest V or Persona 4 (again). Well, after a good night's sleep, a few hours of Shadow Dragon and another two hours of Final Fantasy IX, I can officially say that I FF9's friggin' awesome.

Oh, that reminds me of how disappointed I was about the fact that IX's story basically went nowhere after the second disc. But still, sweet title, better than anything that came after. It's interesting, though, how many people complained about Lost Odysseys battle loading times when IX's are in fact a lot longer. It takes IX about 30 seconds from the encounter till you're actually given command of the characters. That's what killed a lot of the fun of combat for me.

Yeah, loading is surprisingly long, but I don't find it getting in the way much. If Lost Odyssey's are better than maybe I should pick it up too.

Hey Red,

I pretty much played through 1-5, 7, 9, 10, FFT, FFTA and of course 10 shit loads of FF XI online. I haven't yet played 6, not sure if I want to do a retro playtrough on that one. I haven't yet finished 8, just played the first 3 hours of the game. I am currently finally doing a playthrough on 12 (so far 8 hours in) and taking a liking on this one. Baltier is the f*cken man in the game, Fran is an akwardly hot bunny-lady, and I just don't like the bitch-ass main character Vaan who by so happens to look like Micheal Jackson. As for FFIX, that was the one i didn't want to like, but ended up keep thinking back how good it was. Watching other people play the game, turned me off and I was quick to judge how juvenile the game looks. Then I played a copy I rented from the video store, and just couldn't put it down. I secretly played the game and wouldn't want to admit, I loved it. FFIX was the last FF on the PS1 and man,.. Square did a beautiful job.

I know its hard to stay away from spoilers and people who get over excited and spill the beans. I am glad there is a bit of a break on big title releases. I am tying to finish as much of my back log as possible before Bionic Commando, Batman: AA and FF XIII.

If you ever get a chance, go play some Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) or FFT: The War of the Lions (PSP). The story takes place in my favorite world of Ivalice, which gets revisited the most in the FF francise. The PSP version is a beautiful remake of the original.

Keeping in mind that Lost Odyssey came out nearly 10 years after FFIX I don't think that that's a valid complaint.

If you install it to the hard drive it goes from 25sec load times to 5sec.

yeah, the load times may be cut a bit on LO, but the graphics looks gorgeous. For it being 4 discs long, you would think there would be more content than there really is.

"Yesterday, Final Fantasy IX arrived in my mailbox, which made me pretty happy. I played the game for two hours and dug it quite a bit, but I just doubted that I'd finish it because it doesn't really have too new of a hook that would keep me playing it over Dragon Quest V or Persona 4 (again). Well, after a good night's sleep, a few hours of Shadow Dragon and another two hours of Final Fantasy IX, I can officially say that I FF9's friggin' awesome.

Before I give my actual thoughts on FF9, I have to say that I've played Final Fantasy 1-7 and 12, but I've only beaten one and two. I stopped playing 3 because it was just really bland. I stopped playing 4 because I got lost somewhere and didn't really care for the combat. I stopped playing 5 because I didn't really care for the story, characters or music. I stopped playing 6 because I was at the last dungeon, and needed to grind/do sidequests for 10 levels in order to beat it, and 10 hours of extremely frequent Random Encounters didn't sound too fun. I stopped playing 7 because of the slow pace and the bad control. I stopped playing 12 because of every reason I could ever think of.

The thing that's different about FFIX is that it holds up pretty dang well. Graphically, the game is still pretty stunning, and the FMVs are top-notch. The combat's decent, the Random Encounters aren't too frequent, but I still think that Final Fantasy 7 got the frequency of the REs better. The music's good, and it feels like a remixed soundtrack of Final Fantasy 1--which had a pretty awesome soundtrack. It supports analog control, which is nice, but those aren't the actual reasons why I'm loving this game.

Vivi, or just the chemistry of the characters and setting as a whole. The translation's great; it feels like nothing is lost, even in Dagger's attempts at being less formal. I can't really say I like Zidane or Steiner, but they do keep things interesting. Zidane's kind of a jerk, though, and he totally reminds me of Naruto, which isn't a very good thing. For the first two hours or so, the game felt a lot like Tales of Vesperia; it was just lighthearted fun in an interesting and whimsical world.

From the last half an hour or so I played of the game, it jumped beyond the lighthearted fun and whimsy to friggin' epic, all while keeping its original merits. Seriously, I think I like this cutscene more than any of the cutscenes in MGS4. I liked MGS4's cutscenes."

"Hey Red,

I pretty much played through 1-5, 7, 9, 10, FFT, FFTA and of course 10 shit loads of FF XI online. I haven't yet played 6, not sure if I want to do a retro playtrough on that one. I haven't yet finished 8, just played the first 3 hours of the game. I am currently finally doing a playthrough on 12 (so far 8 hours in) and taking a liking on this one. Baltier is the f*cken man in the game, Fran is an akwardly hot bunny-lady, and I just don't like the bitch-ass main character Vaan who by so happens to look like Micheal Jackson. As for FFIX, that was the one i didn't want to like, but ended up keep thinking back how good it was. Watching other people play the game, turned me off and I was quick to judge how juvenile the game looks. Then I played a copy I rented from the video store, and just couldn't put it down. I secretly played the game and wouldn't want to admit, I loved it. FFIX was the last FF on the PS1 and man,.. Square did a beautiful job.

I know its hard to stay away from spoilers and people who get over excited and spill the beans. I am glad there is a bit of a break on big title releases. I am tying to finish as much of my back log as possible before Bionic Commando, Batman: AA and FF XIII.

If you ever get a chance, go play some Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) or FFT: The War of the Lions (PSP). The story takes place in my favorite world of Ivalice, which gets revisited the most in the FF francise. The PSP version is a beautiful remake of the original.


"

Yeah, I've played Tactics, and Tactics Advance (and TA2). I didn't really care much for Tactics (I didn't beat it), but I really liked Tactics Advance. 

Dude play Final Fantasy X, you'll love it. It combines the qualities of IX with a way better battle system (probably the best of the series).

"You've played almost all of them and skipped the best game in the whole series, Final Fantasy VI? How could anyone do that and like Ivalice. I hate Ivalice and what it has done to the series."

"Ivalice is a pretty generic fantasy world. Doesn't even really have airships."

Psh, the only airship song is "flying high now"

I always liked Zidane as a main character because he's laid back and chill. Sure, he's a dick to Steiner, but that's just because Steiner is being a dick to him.

Expect the game to keep getting better and better, dude.

"Red said:

"Ivalice is a pretty generic fantasy world. Doesn't even really have airships."

Ivalice is more high lore in the Tactics series. FF XII takes place further in the future with Airships. Now you can play your song "I'm on an Airship" when ever you fly."

I think I like the characters in FF9 to be the best of any in the series.  Especially Vivi.
While Zidane does come off a little bit Naruto-ish I find it a bit better than the loner  "... It's not my problem" Cloud or Squall or the bitchy, whiny Tidus.  Then there's Vaan who you could really forget even exists...

I've played pretty much all the FFs to date except for some of the spin offs. And I must say, FFIX is easily one of my top 3 favorite FFs, maybe even number 1. This is one of my favorite Sakaguchi games. It has a lot of great homages to his early Final Fantasys. I loved the overall character development in this game. The battle system was simple but had great depth. If I had to choose which FF to get remade, FF7 or FF9. I'd choose FF9 9 times out of 10

Do an endurance run!

I just wanted to get out in the open that I, for one, like Ivalice. The FFT games were all great, Vagrant Story is brilliant, and FFXII is fun. Yep.

I know right? FF IX is one of my FAV games of all time. I have beaten it over 20 times, and it never gets old, seriously. Amazing game.

FFIX is definitely the best FF IMO. Four-man parties, retro class system, abilities learned from equipment, f*cking phenomenal graphics for the PSX, plus great characters and a decent fantasy storyline that didn't get too heavy on either the politics, or the cheesiness.
 
Of course I'm one of the three people in the world who really like FFXII as well, so maybe I'm just wrong.  :P

Final fantasy IX was always my favourite, 'cause it was my first. 
TRANCE!

im currently waiting to get final fantasy ix in the mail. Bought it from eBay.