Deep Listens is a gaming podcast series I'm recording with a few of my friends. Every two weeks we pick and play a new game and then discuss it from a literary, philosophical, and game design perspective. Its kind of like a book club for video games. We try to dig as deep as we can on an individual game every episode so check it out!

In our flagship FFIX episode Chris @zombiepie -REDACTED- and Gino are joined by the Deep Listens co-hosts Billy and Pete to discuss the first disc of FFIX. Billy lists some very specific issues with FFIX's active time battle system, ZP lays into Tetra Master, and Pete hates on the twee aesthetic as Gino stews in the corner while trying to keep everyone on board. We discuss everything from the slow opening to the somber scenes at the end of Burmecia. Hopefully the non-Gino portions of the cast get more on board once we get to disc 2... they have to, right? Right? Please?

Final Fantasy Nine Lives: Part 1

ZombiePie was yelling at me on Steam about how happy-go-lucky the intro to this game is, so I'm pretty excited about listening to this.

My favourite and therefore best Final Fantasy.

@arbitrarywater: I'm pretty stoked to have two more people to bounce ideas off of. I think we're going to have more enthusiasm next episode, but I think this episode has some healthy back and forth. I'm betting the game wins ZP over after Cleyra.

thinking of starting my first ffix playthrough ever. got it on vita, but sadly its in spanish. might as well play it. is the podcast spoiler free i wonder..

@mimakos: It has spoilers for the entire first disc of the game. We will discuss the entire game by the end of the series. I'd recommend jumping in, FFIX is worth playing.

can't wait to listen.

I love ffix.

I finished listening while running errands, was a good listen. I've been anticipating this one since the FFVIII podcast and had a dumb smile on my face almost the whole way through. I'm waiting for the characterization through gameplay-story in tandem argument once Amarant comes into the picture :P

@vasta_narada: I can't wait to see if Pete actually goes for that argument or slaps it down because Amarant is such a thin character (I assume ZP will mostly buy it and Billy won't care much either way). I'll try my darndest anyway.

I mean, Tetra Master is kinda bullshit.

@teddie: You're damn right it is. It's amazing that after the wild success of Triple Triad they followed it up with Tetra Master. "Hey people really loved our simple and very mechanically important card game, what if we followed it up with a byzantine nightmare of a game with only one tangible, out-of-card-game reward in the entire game?" "Sounds great!"