PS1 A thread all about Final Fantasy IX!

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

(Art made and sold by MagicSheepArt on Etsy)
**THREAD WILL INEVITABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR FFIX. CONTINUE WITH CAUTION.**

So, FFIX is my favorite PlayStation game and the RPG that stuck with me the most of the ones I’ve played in my life. The last hurrah for the Final Fantasies on the original PlayStation, FFIX distinguishes itself as very very fantasy, but more of the fun and varied kind than the kind seen in games like FFIV. It feels like the final culmination of the series before the new millennium, which fits considering it released at the very dawn of the 2000’s.

With a world of war, a character roster full of fanciful weirdos, and a lot of great side content, the game just really hit for me and has continued its long standing impact ever since I first played it. It’s like a storybook! A really dark… really messed up storybook.

But still fun! Which is something Final Fantasy has always been good about: having a mix of serious elements with silly ones.

I don’t know how popular this thread will be among people. Final Fantasy VII is by far the PlayStation’s most popular Final Fantasy, and I’m sure more seasoned RPG fans are tired of hearing how “underrated” Final Fantasy IX is. (it’s really not. It was praised like nothing else when it came out and sold very well. It’s just that it didn’t sell as well as Final Fantasy VII or X and a lot of people saw it as “kiddy” because it was the early 2000’s where everybody who played games had to be highly insecure.)

All I know is, is that I love it. I played the actual PS1 version, which is not the best one to play nowadays, as the PC release and modern system’s release has many quality of life features that do away with the slowness that IX has in its original form (it can sometimes be rather slow).

Happy Celebrations, Final Fantasy IX! And here’s to your 25th anniversary!

 

[Elwiwi]

Vivi and Steiner my beloved

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I don't think you'll find much argument from most Final Fantasy fans. FFIX is one of the consistently top rated games in the series and for good reason. It is lacking in some aspects (for example, a compelling antagonist), but it makes up for it in charm. The main cast of characters is kind of hit or miss, but the core 4 or Zidane, Garnet, Vivi and Steiner do a lot of heavy lifting for the game. Quina is a memorable comic relief side character frog person, Beatrix is a memorable double agent type character, but the rest of the cast is forgettable.

The thing I appreciate most about Final Fantasy IX is that it is refreshingly not ashamed to be a Final Fantasy game! The game is chockful of references to older games and goes back to the vibes of the SNES era of FF. There are dragoons, black mages, white mages, summoners, blue mages, thieves and knights in the game as playable characters. That was contrary to the trends that eventually would win out with the series with Nomura/Nojima turning Final Fantasy into scifi anime people with swords and guns.

It was also the sendoff of the great Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series creator. This would be the final game he would direct and it is incredibly appropriate that it would be a love letter to the whole series. The series lost a lot of its soul with his departure.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Cool! Haven't played FF9 in a long while too. Wanna try the Moguri Mod and maybe finally get my hands on the Excalibur II.

 

[MemeAlert]

Too bad the battles are so slow, the speed up function they introduced in later ports doesn't count.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I opened up my heart to the whole cast, generally. Aside from Amarant, I love every one of them.

I THINK my final team comp ended up being Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Eiko. Because they ended up being my favorite characters as a whole (design, story, theme, gameplay, team dynamic, etc.)

I have to admit that I found myself being very drawn to Freya. Just a character that came together very well, and I’ve always been drawn to the FF characters that are non-human simply for the novelty. Her little dynamic with Zidane is great, so is the section between her and Beatrice, and I just really loved the dragoon gameplay she had. I knew she would fall off in the story thanks to getting spoiled, but I refused to let her go from my party no matter what. Carried her with me to the end of the game. She ended up being the only character with a 9999 dealing move by the end of my first playthrough, thanks to me grinding out Dragon’s Crest like an insane person.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 9:09 PM

When I play the game next time, I would like to see if I can use some different cast members. I’m not too afraid to be experimental with a game like this, so I can see myself pouring a lot of resources into Quina.

My main issue is what it always is in a lot of RPG’s: you can’t remove the main hero. I love controlling Zidane in the overworld, but he wasn’t my favorite to use in battle compared to nearly everyone else.

I wonder what a team called “Zidane and the three magic people” would be like? Just Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, and Eiko.
You’d probably be burning through MP like nothing else!

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Quina is absolutely busted if you grind her up by eating enough frogs in the pond. Her frog spell starts dealing ludicrous amounts of damage.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Quina is absolutely busted if you grind her up by eating enough frogs in the pond. Her frog spell starts dealing ludicrous amounts of damage.

So, a question about that minigame, I remember hearing that about her spell but I recall having trouble catching frogs. I thought “surely it isn’t this hard. There must be something I’m doing wrong!”

Is there any strategy to reliably get frogs? I know I could ask the internet, but I might as well ask another FF fan because that’s more fun! :)

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

So, a question about that minigame, I remember hearing that about her spell but I recall having trouble catching frogs. I thought “surely it isn’t this hard. There must be something I’m doing wrong!”

Is there any strategy to reliably get frogs? I know I could ask the internet, but I might as well ask another FF fan because that’s more fun! :)

Nah, it is super annoying to catch those golden frogs (like most minigames in FFIX, to be honest). I kind of remember just being patient and coming back to the pond every chance I could after advancing the story a little bit, probably like every 30 minutes of real time.

If you want the full breakdown, check: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Frog_catching

 

[diapered]

The main cast of characters is kind of hit or miss, but the core 4 or Zidane, Garnet, Vivi and Steiner do a lot of heavy lifting for the game. Quina is a memorable comic relief side character frog person, Beatrix is a memorable double agent type character, but the rest of the cast is forgettable.

>forgettable

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Nah, it is super annoying to catch those golden frogs (like most minigames in FFIX, to be honest). I kind of remember just being patient and coming back to the pond every chance I could after advancing the story a little bit, probably like every 30 minutes of real time.

If you want the full breakdown, check: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Frog_catching

Dang… it makes sense why I never got more than thirty or so!

Well, I’ll see how I feel when I play next time.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 9:41 PM

>forgettable
View attachment 47437

It makes me so upset that this is the only CG moment she gets aside from the ending.

Like, dang, imagine making a character whose whole thing is the pain of being forgotten… and then forgetting her storyline like halfway through the game. At that point I just felt bad for Freya and kept her around in defiance.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

It makes me so upset that this is the only CG moment she gets aside from the ending.

Like, dang, imagine making a character whose whole thing is the pain of being forgotten… and then forgetting her storyline like halfway through the game. At that point I just felt bad for Freya and kept her around in defiance.

Yeah, for all the Freya fans, I apologize for using the word forgettable. I should've clarified that she was underused by the plot. Not her fault at all. But she does get a small segment of the story to shine and it is a shame she falls into the background afterwards.

 

[thanonyx]

Oh boy! A thread about the best FF game!

I could play Tetra Master for hours! In fact, I think I played more Tetra Master than the actual game!

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Did you guys ever really engage with the Moogle mail quest line? I thought that was pretty fun! Though, I remember there was a letter I couldn’t deliver, and that jammed things up for me. I think that was around the mid point in disc 3.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 9:50 PM

Oh boy! A thread about the best FF game!

I could play Tetra Master for hours! In fact, I think I played more Tetra Master than the actual game!

You could say you’re the Tetra MASTER?

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I forget what was the point of the whole mognet questline. Its been a while since I played FFIX. But it was kind of cute, IIRC.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I forget what was the point of the whole mognet questline. Its been a while since I played FFIX. But it was kind of cute, IIRC.

I don’t really care if there was an item at the end of the quest or not. Monger was cute and helped make the world feel more alive, so that was enough for me!

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I don’t really care if there was an item at the end of the quest or not. Monger was cute and helped make the world feel more alive, so that was enough for me!

Yeah, the letters are pretty much in universe lore delivery devices, if I recall correctly. And there's some little subplot that resolves at the end of the letter chain, but I forget the details.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I have vivid memories of grinding out the “Festival of the Hunt” to get a high score like it’s some arcade game.

By the end, it must’ve looked like to the in-universe characters like Zidane had omnipotent knowledge.

 

[Zachery2112]

Final Fantasy IX: Memoria Project

www.ffix-memoria.com

Have any of you guys seen the Memoria Project. It started out as a group of 3D-modellers remaking Alexandria and has slowly expanded into a full on nonplayable remake. It's pretty cool.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

Vivi and Steiner my beloved

This duo carried me throughout my playthrough.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Final Fantasy IX: Memoria Project

www.ffix-memoria.com

Have any of you guys seen the Memoria Project. It started out as a group of 3D-modellers remaking Alexandria and has slowly expanded into a full on nonplayable remake. It's pretty cool.

So, this is the best thing.

Vivi my beloved.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 1:17 AM

Vivi is the rare character who is so good and so pure that nobody cares if they market him into the ground. We will ALL collectively buy a Vivi plushie.


Very marketable Vivi plushie.

 

[diapered]

I forget what was the point of the whole mognet questline.

Turns out you were a drug mule the whole time >_> Mognet was just a cover for distributing the dankest kupo nuts ;_;

 

[GardeniaSky]

Freya is best girl

 

[Yithan]

My favorite game ever. I grew up watching my brother play it, and it was probably the one that made me realize that games can have touching and emotional stories. It also became my standard for what 'fantasy' looks like, which is funny because this game is so influenced by classic fantasy tales. It's crazy how experiencing something for the first time as a kid can really touch you.

And then, after much time on the road, he had to ask Colin something:

"Why did you come with me? "Because you said you were leaving"​

 

[diapered]

Freya is best girl

truth

I think all the characters are memorable except for Amarant. I have no idea why he stuck around. Whenever he speaks I think, "Oh... right you're here...why?"