underappreciated.

i own the game and would have enjoyed playing it if it werent for such a horrible skill system, i've said this before but the concept of being able to learn dozens of skills and then having to only "equip" a handfull at a time is really lame in my opinion, i feel once skills are learned they should be perrmenant and at your disposal at all times, there should be no reason to swap out skills... another hinderance was a completely useless Trance system, i never got to use Trance because it always came up about the time i delt the final blow on enemies/monsters and doesn't carry over to the next battle where it actualy would be usefull... then there are the mini games Tetra Master to be more specific was a horrible example of a card minigame, it totaly removed any and all skill for a system of pure luck, i'm sorry but if my numbers are higher i should win it, adding a random roll feature was once again a lame thng for them to do... as far as story it was good and entertaining, the weapons were awesome the graphics were great even if they were a bit kiddy, but sadly these good points are outshined by the bad, i have tried to replay and enjoy this game on several occasions but the bad points irritate me to no end and squashes any chance of enjoyment i could possibly get from what could have been a great game if not for these flaws...

Few things.

1. Tetra Master ruled.
2. Not having a million skills at your disposal at all times requires you to think strategically.

That is all :p

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Originally Posted by Karellen

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Originally Posted by Marky Tee

a

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story that eventually collapses under the weight of its plot holes

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appart from necron at the end could you elaborate please?

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Necron, the inexplicable death of the Iifa Tree and Zidane's miraculous (and unexplained) escape from being turned into Genome pulp are the biggest ones. There are also a whole load of smaller issues like the details of Garland's plan, Kuja's sudden change of heart at the very end and most of the things that revolved around the Great Crystal that I felt were pretty poorly explained or poorly integrated with the rest of the game.

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Necron, and the death of the Iifa Tree weren't necessarily unexplained. Necron, from what the game did tell us about him, (or at least hinted at), is the true form of the Iifa Tree, created by Garland to disrupt the flow of souls on Gaia, eventually leading to it's assimilation by Terra. As he did with Zidane and Kuja, Garland gave Necron a soul (why...?), it was because of this that he was able to observe the actions of Kuja, and it was because of Kuja's thirst for power and the devastation it left behind, that led Necron to theorise that life existed for one purpose only...to perish and return to the Zero World, a place that would be created by the destruction of the Great Crystal. Kuja's attempt to destroy the Crystal in Memoria after being told by Garland that he was not immortal as he had believed, only made Necron even more convinced that this theory was correct, thus he allowed the souls of Zidane & Co to enter the Hill of Despair so he could explain his theory and prove it right by destroying them and the Crystal. Defeating Necron put an end to the Iifa Tree.


Garland's plans were merely to oversee the assimilation of Gaia by Terra, and create Gnomes that would be vessels for the souls of the Terrans once the assimilation was complete. Although why he tried to take Gaia by force, and why it put him back 5000 years is a mystery that they don't seem to touch on at any point in the game from what I remember.

i thought the 5000 years was the age of gaia?
which is another thing i found strange as only 5000 years from the planets formation til a fully developed industrial revolution era human( and hippo lol) society?
bit quick eh?

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Originally Posted by Marky Tee

i thought the 5000 years was the age of gaia?
which is another thing i found strange as only 5000 years from the planets formation til a fully developed industrial revolution era human( and hippo lol) society?
bit quick eh?

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Not terribly. It's quick by the standards of real life, but that's nothing to bind how the Gaians progressed as a planet. After all, we have no idea when humans existed in their current state on Gaia and it only took the human race a couple of thousand years to reach the Industrial Revolution.

I do feel that FFIX is underappreciated because it is a fantastic game, definitely one of the strongest entries in the series. The soundtrack is fantastic and the colourful array of characters - I thought - was a welcome change from the cast of FFVIII. I do think though that some characters, notably Freya, have their moment in the limelight and then seem to be criminally underused for about half the game, which is one of my main criticisms of the game itself. Otherwise it has an excellent plot, a fantastic villain who - in my view - is probably the best in the series (except possibly Kefka). Gameplay is excellent and adore the relative amount of customisation that the game allows when it comes to skills, equipment and the like. Trance wasn't fantastic but in terms of plot it was a fantastic way to link the storyline to battles. It's an excellent game that only extremely silly people could fail to like.

FFIX isn't my favorite of the series, but it's definitely one of the best. My brother didn't like it, and I am amazed that he didn't. FFIX is such a great game! Great characters, great battle/level system, great story: this game rules.

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Originally Posted by Nog

Necron, and the death of the Iifa Tree weren't necessarily unexplained. Necron, from what the game did tell us about him, (or at least hinted at), is the true form of the Iifa Tree, created by Garland to disrupt the flow of souls on Gaia, eventually leading to it's assimilation by Terra. As he did with Zidane and Kuja, Garland gave Necron a soul (why...?), it was because of this that he was able to observe the actions of Kuja, and it was because of Kuja's thirst for power and the devastation it left behind, that led Necron to theorise that life existed for one purpose only...to perish and return to the Zero World, a place that would be created by the destruction of the Great Crystal. Kuja's attempt to destroy the Crystal in Memoria after being told by Garland that he was not immortal as he had believed, only made Necron even more convinced that this theory was correct, thus he allowed the souls of Zidane & Co to enter the Hill of Despair so he could explain his theory and prove it right by destroying them and the Crystal. Defeating Necron put an end to the Iifa Tree.

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I've read it before. Some points seem reasonable, others not so much. Ultimately though I think it falls flat for the same reason every other FF theory falls flat: the 'evidence' is so obscure that no one could possibly make the connection unless they were looking for it.

Yeah, like Ipsen beeing Kuja, getting a message to go home(Terra) traveling with a golden chocobo/fat chocobo (learning him the card game) having to open the seal, thus calling the castle for Ipsens castle.

You can make up like this if you really want, it can be true, it most likely isnt.

I agree. I think is easier the best FF game, between the mini-games, battle system, and story line. I honestly really didn't LOVE FFVII, to be perfectly honest.

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Yeah, like Ipsen beeing Kuja, getting a message to go home(Terra) traveling with a golden chocobo/fat chocobo (learning him the card game) having to open the seal, thus calling the castle for Ipsens castle.

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buh?

No, just 5.

what??

[QUOTE=Rantzien;2509292]

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Originally Posted by Elly

And then there are those of us who just love the game for what it is. :)

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Amennnn

FFIX is a great game. I think that if you want a definition of what is Final Fantasy, you just need to play FFIX.
But as stated before, it didn't bring anything new to the series. This is why it's not as popular as FFVII.
But if you think about it... What FF game have the same popularity level of FFVII? No one.
Just because VII is the most popular, doesn't mean FFIX is underappreciated. It just means that FFIX is less popular than FFVII, like any other FF game.

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Originally Posted by Marky Tee

i thought the 5000 years was the age of gaia?
which is another thing i found strange as only 5000 years from the planets formation til a fully developed industrial revolution era human( and hippo lol) society?
bit quick eh?

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5000 years ago was the time where Garland tried to take Gaia by force(when the two planets merged together).
Gaia is older than that.

In my mind, Im pretty sure its a better overall game than the likes of FFVII, VIII, X etc. But I can see why it didnt create as much of an impact and it is fair to say it was less new. I think of it as a perfectly rounded Final Fantasy which wasnt revolutionary.

Still, its my favourite game ever.