Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
It's funny I used to prefer IX much more than VIII, and thought it was maybe the best until a recent playthrough when i realized it's more of a tribute to a series than it is actually one of the titles in it. It doesn't stand alone nearly enough as VIII does, which is really distinct from the others. Obviously the Draw system didn't play out as well as the creators thought, but someone with moderate knowledge of it can find the game fun.

I remember when it came out they billed it as The King of RPG's, and i thought that was blasphemy then but now I'm starting to understand it.
*LONG POST AHEAD*

Bingo! FF IX is pretty good if you played the previous FFs and know about all the references, but on its own its pretty mediocre... Not to mention the superbosses are the worse ever except for Tantarian which in my opinion is the best FF boss ever, if fought on disk 2...

Since to me one of the biggest components of FF is challenge/fighting fun... I was horribly disappointed to know there isnt a single boss in FF IX that goes over 65 K hp.. its just lame.. yeah theres no 9999 hp breaker in this game, but all you need is 2 rounds to beat any boss assuming they dont kill anyone.. I always loved Emerald/Ruby/Omega fights because of the huge amount of hp that made them epic, unless you used cheap tricks like lucky seven or mimed omnislash/angermax, the fight was sure to last a few minutes...I hear many people saying Ozma is one of the hardest bosses in the series... Most luck based and pointless? Yes! Hardest? NO!

And Square was well aware of this since they pumped FF X bosses hp to the sky.. And having said this, the custom limit breaks of FF VIII also kicked major ass, specially Squall's and Irvine's.. you can argue that the limit system was borked because you could do it every round, but when the average lvl 100 monster had 60 K hp (malboros actually have 140 K), it was still fun as hell...

Also I never got why people say the junction system is so hard? ITs SO EASY to understand... it isnt any more complicated than FF V job system or whatever

Yet another point would be the card game... FF VIII card game owns, FF IX is pointless and stupid, AND based on how lucky you are to get decent arrows in the cards

Next, summons in FF IX are totally worthless, specially considering they are a major part of the plot.. When I first saw Ark I thought "damn this looks cool, I hope it is another 9999 breaker like Eden" ha! how wrong I was... I couldnt believe the 7500 damage after that huge animation

Last but not least, you get the best items way too late in the game in FF IX, late to the point that they are useless, including Hades synth shop.. Unless you go through memoria to get them and go back to the world map which is stupid, because if Im gonna go to the last dungeon it means I want to finish the game, not collect some item, which btw, with a 9999 cap and 50 k average boss hp, is pointless anyway... FF IX is a pretty good game for lvl 1 challenge though

So, story wise FF IX might be better, but gameplay wise FF VIII kicks it any time any day

For the record my favourite ff list is something like

FF VII/FF VIII -> FF V - > FFI/II -> FF IV and never played III

(why didnt I include VI in the list? I hate all the characters except for Terra, Celes and Edgar, plus it has a stupid "IM GONNA KILL ALL MUAHAHAHA" villain, one of the things I usually love about FF villains is that they have a point, instead of just being evil for being evil (and for the FF VII haters thats why sephiroth gets so much love, for being a villain that actually makes you go "he isnt all that bad, I wish we didnt have to kill him")