too many references in ff9 to be an actual ff?

[Drift]

so what do you people think? too many references to the great series to make this one an actual final fantasy? even though it was still unique and the final bosses were quite easy...

[SeeDRankLou]

The references themselves did not make up the story of this game, they were just there. The story itself was still unique and that's what counts. And some of the bosses were rather tough, but all in all they were average until disc 4.

[My name is...something..?]

I liked the throwbacks to the classic games.
They were there without taking anything away from the old storylines and reminded me of when I played the old games(remembers Garland from Final Fantasy 1, aaah pure bliss)
As for the bosses in this game, I thought they were pretty average, not too hard and not too easy.

[Llanowar]

ok the references and names from old games were GREAT for nostalgic value and to remind us why we all love the FF series and cant wait for more. The only problem i had with the game was the bosses. The only way to make this game difficult is to take on the challenges such as excalibur II or level 1 Ozma challenge. Otherwise you just get frog drop, thievery, and what not to just WIPE out all of the bosses that are supposed to be tough later on. In reality the bosses in IX were a JOKE! Yes you can do this with the challenges but good luck getting them A. powered up in under 12 hours. or B. living long enuf at level 1 to use them a bunch on a boss. (trust me both are tough)

[Destai]

I thought the refernces were one of the best things about it.

[Gwelenguchenkus]

so what do you people think? too many references to the great series to make this one an actual final fantasy? even though it was still unique and the final bosses were quite easy...


Uhh, this is definitely a 'real' final fantasy for god's sake. How the hell anyone can say this game is so much like the previous ones that it isn't one of them at all? Not only is that flawed logic, but it's not even true. FF9 has a lot of interesting elements to it that none of the games in the series had.

...more demi-humans than you can shake a stick at.
...more mini-games than any of the games before it (and better mini-games than FFX)
...new races that have never been seen before (quina, freya, zidane all original races)
...A strange and unique atmosphere that defines it as an original in the series. Note that FF9 is not even entirely 'medieval', in fact, most of it isn't.

Just because FF9 has tons of references does not mean it is not original in many other ways. The plot consists of a meshing of a bunch of earlier final fantasies, but it still has a unique and interesting concept that none of the other games have incorporated, dealing with the crystal, existance as a fabric of memories, kuja's mortality and selfishness leading to him attempting to destroy existence. Black mages are made from the mist, produced from the roots of a giant tree. This is all new and unique material, and just because there are many lines that can be drawn between this and the older games does not make it not a 'true' FF.

FF9 is one of the most unique in the series in many ways, and every FF is known for some kind of uniqueness in atmosphere.