What's Wrong With This Game?

[Rad Bromance]

Really, it seems like, of all the post-FFV Final Fantasy games, this one gets the least recognition, as do it's characters. Why do you suppose this is?

I personally loved it, but I know a lot of people hated it. I never really figured out why.

[Darth Cid]

Originally, it was because people only played up from FFVII and/or FFVIII, and didn't get it.

Now that people have had opportunities to play the Nintendo and Super Nintendo eras. People want to hold on to things like the "downgraded" graphics and character models and try to say the game is all "Kill Kuja" and of course get angry when FFIX fans argue that FFVII is just "Kill Sephiroth." Because they know deep down we fans of the nostalgic enigma are correct in saying that FFIX is just as good as any other Final Fantasy made even rivaling FFVII. I know I may get countered with Cloud can Omnislash away Zidane's Trance but the fact that Zidane doesn't an attack that does 15 hits of 9999 damage nor does Garnet/Dagger or Eiko have have a summon that does 13 hits of 9999 damage means you actually have to strategize to win battles, and people don't want to have a challenge which is something you had to do back in the days of NES.

[Kyros]

One thing I don't get about IX's fanbase is how everyone talks about nostalgia or references to past FF games that are within IX's gameplay, but all (or almost all) Final Fantasies have references to past games.

[Darth Cid]

Where other FFs had their references, FFIX brought the oldschool feel, a FANTASY setting away from the Sci Fi feel that started at VI all while having a very good story that doesn't just toss references in your face (Vivi excluded).

[Kyros]

I really could care less about the feel/settings/whatever of it being similar to pre-VI titles. I guess thats why I'm one of those guys that doesnt like this as one of their favorite FFs.

[Christmas]

People dislike FFIX because they're horrible idiots. - Kawaii Ryûkishi

[Rantz]

Heh, this topic pops up just about as often as the "Am I the only one who liked Quina?" topic. :D The answer is quite simple, at least at this particular forum. No, this game isn't underappreciated. A number of polls on the forum through the years indicate that IX is in fact one of the most popular Final Fantasys. I compiled a list of such polls in a post some time back, but I don't know exactly when or where so it'll be hard to find. If my memory serves, some polls even gave Kuja more votes than both Sephiroth and Kefka for Best Main Villain.

And no, most people love Quina. ;-)

[Rad Bromance]

No, this game isn't underappreciated. A number of polls on the forum through the years indicate that IX is in fact one of the most popular Final Fantasys.
That may be so on this forum, but not everywhere. With the exception of Vivi appearing in Kingdom Hearts II (which really surprised me) and Zidane/Kuja in Dissidia, no other games have any homage to FFIX, nor does it have any spinoff games, or a single port to another platform. VI has several ports. FFVII...I don't even need to go there. FFVIII has a PC port, and has Squall and Selphie in the KH games as well as numerous references to it including a Lionheart keyblade. FFX has FFX-2, and FFXII has Revenant Wings.

I don't get it.

[Darth Cid]

FFIX's greatness is, as I've said, overshadowed by FFVII and FFVIII because these are where people think Final Fantasy should always be from now on, it should always be futuristic, you should always have moves that break the battle system, main characters need to have unrealistically big swords, females need to show 80% of their skin(not that a little skin is bad, I'm a straight dude and all, but if your female characters are that sexy and beautiful all the time they shouldn't have to try so hard all the time), females need to get the attention of males (instead of the other way like ZidaneXDagger, and the real world). Yeah, I'm gonna get "quit applying real life", I don't apply real life with summoning, magic, etc. but relationships are a real world trait and should be treated as such.

[Moon Rabbits]

IX was awesome in every way.

[PeneloRatsbane]

its a brilliant game, but for me it feels so complete and right at the end that I never saw a need to discuss it a lot.

[Kyros]

I wish it had a hard boss :(

[arcanedude34]

I think the thing about this game is that anybody who gave it a serious chance (ie- didn't immediately judge it on the "kiddy" graphics, as most people seem to think it has) loved it, but a lot of people just never gave it a chance.

[Mirage]

Slow and boring battle system.

[Quindiana Jones]

Absolutely nothing. GTFO. ALL OF YOU.

That includes all those who argue in support of FFIX.

[Flying Arrow]

Slow and boring battle system.

This, plus a bafflingly cluttered and poorly-told story that starts out enjoyable and ends up a complete and utter mess. This is, of course, purely subjective, but I find the adventure begins to stutter and becomes less interesting once the party leaves the Mist Continent. Everything from the world design to the scenarios starts to grate on me (although I liked the interspersed bits with Steiner and Tantalus, if I'm remembering the chronology correctly, and the Vivi plot is among the best ever conceived for an RPG). The Iifa Tree sequence is pretty thrilling, but again, it drops off again after that and the Terra to the ending section feels kind of tacked-on and lifeless.

However!, Squaresoft being the master of presentation and direction still manages to make it a pretty good, moderately-compelling game (although arguably the weakest of the PS1 trilogy as a top-to-bottom package). I've played IX more times than games I've owned for just as long or longer that I consider to be better.

[Jibril]

Slow and boring battle system.
Yep

That's also the only valid reason to dislike the game, since it's rock solid in every other area. Sadly, it's also arguably the most important and often-seen area, making its mediocrity particularly noticeable. I mean... it's slower than the SNES games, which it was quite obviously attempting to emulate. I dunno who thought that would be a good idea.

[Jessweeee♪]

Not just in this forum, but people I know IRL too, most people prefer FFVI and FFIX to the rest of the games in the series.

[The Man]

We shouldn't be looking for flaws in the game; we should be looking for flaws in the people who don't like it.

The only real flaw with the game is the way trance works. The battle system isn't even particularly simplistic, at least when you compare it with FFIV's, or particularly slow, at least when you compare it with FFII's. Everything else is fine.

[Mirage]

So it's a strength that the gameplay of a game from 2000 isn't worse than that of a game from before 1990. Wow, that's putting the bar a bit low.

[Jiro]

Not being able to save your Trance annoyed me, but that's only because you could save your Limit Break in VII. If you look at Trance in its own context, it makes sense that you can't save it (build up of extreme feelings etc etc).

A lot of people hate Tetra Master but I enjoyed it, despite its seemingly randomness and bias against the player.

I love IX because after playing VII and VIII, I went backwards and saw where the series had come from. I don't think you can truly appreciate the magic of IX without enjoying the earlier instalments.

[Mirage]

There is another thing I think made people like TT better too. Your card game skills had a very direct impact on the rest of the game, because of card mod and refining abilities. You could actually replace time leveling up/drawing with time spent playing card games and not suffer from it when you met the next boss.

[The Man]

So it's a strength that the gameplay of a game from 2000 isn't worse than that of a game from before 1990. Wow, that's putting the bar a bit low.

It's functional. If you're playing Final Fantasy games for their gameplay then you're doing it wrong anyway.

[Jibril]

So it's a strength that the gameplay of a game from 2000 isn't worse than that of a game from before 1990. Wow, that's putting the bar a bit low.

It's functional. If you're playing Final Fantasy games for their gameplay then you're doing it wrong anyway.
And if you're playing them for story, you're doing it wrong too. Hmm...

[Craig]

this game had its flaws, just like any other game, but overall it just had this charm to me that made me love it. i think a big help was the soundtrack which to me is definately the best in the series.

i dont even pay much attention to music in games, im quite a casual gamer and just like gameplay, but i actually bought the official soundtrack for this game

[Mirage]

So it's a strength that the gameplay of a game from 2000 isn't worse than that of a game from before 1990. Wow, that's putting the bar a bit low.

It's functional. If you're playing Final Fantasy games for their gameplay then you're doing it wrong anyway.

I don't play games that I think have poor gameplay. I can get over a poor story if the game is fun enough to play (Hi FFX-2), but I can't force myself through a game that makes me want to throw the controller through my TV even though the story is decent.

If you don't think games should progress in terms of gameplay over the course of ten fucking years, then we're probably not on the same page in what we value in games. Heck, we're probably not even on the same planet.

Do you like DQ8 per chance?

[arcanedude34]

I like the battle system and the story. =D

[Rantz]

I agree with arcanedude. :}

[Freya]

I think that the way the FF's were going with the whole guns and what not people expected IX to be heading in that direction too. Thus when they found out it wasn't they just kinda said ef that and skipped it.

Also, I love the battle system so much more than VIII. I'd rather have one blue mage (quina) then everyone having to be a blue mage. But I think if you had been playing VII then VIII you're getting use to things so by the time you hit IX it seemed like a step back in gameplay mechanics when really it wasn't. I don't think so much that it was slower just that it took more thought and with the way the game was presented (cartoony) it didn't seem like it'd be a game that required that much. So when people are smacked with "oh snap I should pay attention more", t usually ends up in frustration because they went in thinking it was something it was not.

It was the tech thing and the fact the graphics weren't as realistic, they were more cartoony that it probably lost most of it's VII's FFers.

[Kyros]

The trance took 6 years to get even with High Tide, and most of the time it wasn't needed much at all. The main villain claimed to be a guy, but I don't believe it. The card game was terribad overall.

One the other hand, the ability learning then equipping them was cool, and CHOCOBO HOT/COLD TOOK TOO MUCH OF MY LIFE AWAY!!!... Seriously overpowered stuff from chocobo hot/cold if you do it while you're playing through the story *cough*ROBE OF LORDS BEFORE TERRA OR EARLIER*cough*

[The Man]

DQ8 was fine. Expecting games to have more complex battle systems just because the rest of the game got more complex seems kind of silly. If the battle systems worked fine ten years ago, why shouldn't they work fine now?