FFIX fails to get back to the series' roots

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

Note: This is not intended as a troll. While I don't care much for FFIX, I am interested in other gamers' thoughts about this.

FF9 has often been touted as "getting back to the series' roots". I've played FF since FF1 on the NES, but for me this game just didn't capture the feel of FF1-6 at all. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I mostly attribute it to two related problems: an excessively cartoony graphical style, and a plot with far too many "lighthearted" and generally not serious elements in it.

FF9's graphics are distinctly cartoony, while FF1-6's generally were not (granted they each had their own individual style) except for the SD character and townspeople sprites. FF6, for example, had excellent and mostly quite serious monster art that still holds its own today. The same goes for the dungeon and town art. Compare these with FF9's and the difference is immediate. FF9 used a cartoonish style for the dungeons, towns, FMV, and character portraits (again, compare these to those from FF2, 4, and 6). Alexandria reminds me of something from "The Wizard of Oz", not FF1-6, and Brahne's ridiculous design has no precedent anywhere else in the series (compare her to the other "initial villains", such Garland, Golbez, or Gestahl (sp) for example) . Even FF1 often seems more serious, with any cartooniness coming more from a limited art budget and NES graphical limitations than anything else.

FF9's plot and characters also have a non-serious tone about them that, again, was totally new for the series up to that point, with the partial exception of FF5. I'm aware that there are some very serious moments in the game, especially towards the end, but the the whole setup with Queen Brahne (complete with totally absurd appearance) and her army of pointy-hatted, yellow eyed black mages seems like it belongs in a Disney movie. Steiner and Quina's character development and designs are also out of place for the series. Quina is the only overt joke character I can think of, and Steiner's "bumbling prejudiced fool" personality becomes tiring and annoying, and it also turns him into a borderline joke character.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but all in all the game ends up feeling more like "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest done right" than anything that recaptures the feel of FF1-6. It's ironic that FF12, a game that's a radical departure in many ways, actually succeeds more in capturing the "epic sweep" of the earlier games than FF9.

Thoughts?

[Mirage]

Yep.

[Garnie]

i liked ff9 purly for that. its all part of the fun to have a little comedy plus the cartoony feel difines the game. Everyone has their favorates, mine is VII(which had a cartoony feel as well) but it still works as does IX

[DeStyle]

I absolutely LOVED that game!

For me it was the cartoonish style and beautifull soundtrack
that really made me be "in" the game. It was my first
FF/RPG though alot of my judgement may depend on
that. I never really had a problem with the "lacking"
story (I was like 10 at the moment I played it) in fact
it had the best storyline I had ever seen. That plus
the fact that I wanted to buy dbz: budokai but a
salesman persuaded me in buying FF IX instead so
I had no expectations for it, really made the game
my best gaming experience ever.

[Zeromus_X]

FF9 has often been touted as "getting back to the series' roots". I've played FF since FF1 on the NES, but for me this game just didn't capture the feel of FF1-6 at all. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I mostly attribute it to two related problems: an excessively cartoony graphical style, and a plot with far too many "lighthearted" and generally not serious elements in it.

What is so wrong with some lightheartedness in a storyline? The entire story does not need to be gloomy and dark all the time. Not that there wasn't a fair share of that in this game's story anyway.

FF9's graphics are distinctly cartoony, while FF1-6's generally were not (granted they each had their own individual style) except for the SD character and townspeople sprites. FF6, for example, had excellent and mostly quite serious monster art that still holds its own today. The same goes for the dungeon and town art. Compare these with FF9's and the difference is immediate. FF9 used a cartoonish style for the dungeons, towns, FMV, and character portraits (again, compare these to those from FF2, 4, and 6). Alexandria reminds me of something from "The Wizard of Oz", not FF1-6, and Brahne's ridiculous design has no precedent anywhere else in the series (compare her to the other "initial villains", such Garland, Golbez, or Gestahl (sp) for example) . Even FF1 often seems more serious, with any cartooniness coming more from a limited art budget and NES graphical limitations than anything else.

I do not see what is so wrong about a 'cartoony' art style. FFI, II, III, IV, V, and VII all had super-deformed characters. FFVIII was the only game up until that point that even used realistically scaled characters.

FF9's plot and characters also have a non-serious tone about them that, again, was totally new for the series up to that point, with the partial exception of FF5. I'm aware that there are some very serious moments in the game, especially towards the end, but the the whole setup with Queen Brahne (complete with totally absurd appearance) and her army of pointy-hatted, yellow eyed black mages seems like it belongs in a Disney movie. Steiner and Quina's character development and designs are also out of place for the series. Quina is the only overt joke character I can think of, and Steiner's "bumbling prejudiced fool" personality becomes tiring and annoying, and it also turns him into a borderline joke character.

There was enough seriousness mixed in with silliness throughout the entire story.

Anyway, it seems to me that your only complaint is that this game wasn't serious enough for you (when there really was just as much or more seriousness as any of the other games in the series), or that you don't like a 'cartoony' art style (which is just silly, the only game with realistically scaled characters up until then was FFVIII), which are rather superficial complaints to me. The reason FFIX is often regarded as 'going back to the series's roots' is because as well as returning to a more fairy-tale like world atmosphere, it also brought back many midieval elements that weren't in FFVI, VII, or VIII (the three games that pushed the series into a much more technological world atmosphere). There are also more references to past games in the series than any other game in the series that I can think of.

[Mirage]

He's not saying cartoony style is bad, he's saying it doesn't make it get more "back to the series' roots".

[Frostwake]

I agree... It definitely lacks the "epic" feel of previous final fantasies... And about the cartoony thing, this game does take time to get used to it because of the lack of humans.. Most FFs since 1 had mostly humans with the occasional whatever-race character thrown in (such as Red XIII in 7) so at first I hated most characters :P they all looked stupid and silly to me... And dont even get me started on how Quina, a clumsy frog-eater is the most powerful character in the game...

Again, in my opinion, FF V succeeded much better at the whole humorous plot thing, specially because of Gilgamesh :P

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

He's not saying cartoony style is bad, he's saying it doesn't make it get more "back to the series' roots".

Exactly.
I also addressed the point about FF 1 -6 having super deformed characters in my original post.

[abrojtm]

FFV had just a cartoonish style (compare to FFIV), and even more comedy thrown in than FFIX, in my opinion. Just about every locale had either Bartz or Galuf doing something stupidly funny.

[Shotgunnova]

FF9 has often been touted as "getting back to the series' roots". I've played FF since FF1 on the NES, but for me this game just didn't capture the feel of FF1-6 at all. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I mostly attribute it to two related problems: an excessively cartoony graphical style, and a plot with far too many "lighthearted" and generally not serious elements in it.

You're disappointed because it's not just one big amalgam of previous games? Sorry, but not even those games as standalones represent everything the series has to offer. FFIX is supposed to be eclectic, cherry-picking the best from previous games. I wouldn't say the artistic stylings are 'excessively cartoony' either -- it's a shakeup from the overly-humanistic FF7/8 worlds where many FF games had most of the 'fantastical' elements squeezed out of 'em and replaced with a bit o' magic, a summon, etc. FFIX goes the whole nine yards in delivering the 'fantasy' that the series namesake touts, and I for one am very glad they did. 'Course, if you're not even sure why you don't like it, that's that.

FF9's graphics are distinctly cartoony, while FF1-6's generally were not (granted they each had their own individual style) except for the SD character and townspeople sprites. FF6, for example, had excellent and mostly quite serious monster art that still holds its own today. The same goes for the dungeon and town art. Compare these with FF9's and the difference is immediate. FF9 used a cartoonish style for the dungeons, towns, FMV, and character portraits (again, compare these to those from FF2, 4, and 6). Alexandria reminds me of something from "The Wizard of Oz", not FF1-6, and Brahne's ridiculous design has no precedent anywhere else in the series (compare her to the other "initial villains", such Garland, Golbez, or Gestahl (sp) for example) . Even FF1 often seems more serious, with any cartooniness coming more from a limited art budget and NES graphical limitations than anything else.

You're comparing games with low GFX capabilities to a modern-age game -- naturally there is going to be disparaties. I wish I could compare Brahne to previous baddies, but then I think, "Gestahl was five pixels wide and Brahne has CGI sequences built around her."

FF9's plot and characters also have a non-serious tone about them that, again, was totally new for the series up to that point, with the partial exception of FF5. I'm aware that there are some very serious moments in the game, especially towards the end, but the the whole setup with Queen Brahne (complete with totally absurd appearance) and her army of pointy-hatted, yellow eyed black mages seems like it belongs in a Disney movie. Steiner and Quina's character development and designs are also out of place for the series. Quina is the only overt joke character I can think of, and Steiner's "bumbling prejudiced fool" personality becomes tiring and annoying, and it also turns him into a borderline joke character.

See, it's stuff like this that doesn't make sense to me. Steiner is portrayed as an Alexandrian zealot, overly protective, has a strong sense of duty, doesn't want to be involved in wrongdoings, etcetera...and then he gets a complete one-eighty later on, choosing to rely on Zidane, the thief who abducted his princess. He even goes so far as to say something like "I haven't decided if you're the right man for the princess!" Naturally three discs' worth of development can't be summarized in one post, but there's no sudden OOC change that occurs -- he's pretty well-rounded when it comes down to it. Quina, on the other hand, isn't supposed to be anyone's foil and is, in essence, single-minded (like whoa).

Just as you say that things are "Disney"-like, I have to wonder: there's nothing wrong with the animation, the black mages aren't shown as happy-go-lucky things that want to play in flowerbeds, Brahne's never portrayed in an overtly comical moment. Since dialogue really pushes the game forward, and that can definitely be less-than-serious, I think that might be part of the problem. 'Course, I don't watch anything Disney so I'm not really up to speed on that sort of thing (KH is foreign, yeah), but the game has a distinctly dark tone for quite awhile -- a fat elephant-lady and some mages that are shown in that respect doesn't equate to Disneyesque things, to me.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but all in all the game ends up feeling more like "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest done right" than anything that recaptures the feel of FF1-6. It's ironic that FF12, a game that's a radical departure in many ways, actually succeeds more in capturing the "epic sweep" of the earlier games than FF9.

FFXII has a more world-centric point of view than character-centric, so while you could say that the "sweep" was done better, I'd have to say that FFIX didn't attempt to be epic. It takes four discs, yeah, but it doesn't have that air of trying to be something it's not, overexerting itself and falling drastically short. I played XII, wrote a guide for it, debated plot points...I wouldn't call that game better than anything. Characters are just 'vessels' for the player to live through; FFXII is very, very hollow in that respect, using video sequences to advance the story as opposed to intrapersonal dialogue. Funny how people perceive radical changes, huh?

Naturally, yer entitled to whatever you want to think. At least you didn't say you hate the game because the main character has a tail.

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

You're disappointed because it's not just one big amalgam of previous games? Sorry, but not even those games as standalones represent everything the series has to offer. FFIX is supposed to be eclectic, cherry-picking the best from previous games. I wouldn't say the artistic stylings are 'excessively cartoony' either -- it's a shakeup from the overly-humanistic FF7/8 worlds where many FF games had most of the 'fantastical' elements squeezed out of 'em and replaced with a bit o' magic, a summon, etc. FFIX goes the whole nine yards in delivering the 'fantasy' that the series namesake touts, and I for one am very glad they did. 'Course, if you're not even sure why you don't like it, that's that.

The game disappointed me on several levels, and I'm quite clear on why that is, but that's not the point. Perhaps I worded my original post badly, but I'm just trying to argue that this game does not capture the look and feel of FF1-6. I'm not trying to debate its merits. The cartooniness is excessive relative to that of FF1-6. If this game were called "FF:MQ 2", then its visual style would not be out of place.
When I walk around Alexandria, I'm half expecting to see Mickey Mouse in a wizard's robe, or the Cowardly Lion. Not so when I'm wandering around Narshe or Doma.

You're comparing games with low GFX capabilities to a modern-age game -- naturally there is going to be disparaties. I wish I could compare Brahne to previous baddies, but then I think, "Gestahl was five pixels wide and Brahne has CGI sequences built around her."

That's true, but at least you can compare Brahne's appearance to Amano's paintings of Gehstal. There's also enough detail on Garland in combat, and certainly Golbez, to see that the look the artists were aiming for wasn't anything as absurd as Brahne.

See, it's stuff like this that doesn't make sense to me. Steiner is portrayed as an Alexandrian zealot, overly protective, has a strong sense of duty, doesn't want to be involved in wrongdoings, etcetera...and then he gets a complete one-eighty later on, choosing to rely on Zidane, the thief who abducted his princess. He even goes so far as to say something like "I haven't decided if you're the right man for the princess!" Naturally three discs' worth of development can't be summarized in one post, but there's no sudden OOC change that occurs -- he's pretty well-rounded when it comes down to it. Quina, on the other hand, isn't supposed to be anyone's foil and is, in essence, single-minded (like whoa).
Just as you say that things are "Disney"-like, I have to wonder: there's nothing wrong with the animation, the black mages aren't shown as happy-go-lucky things that want to play in flowerbeds, Brahne's never portrayed in an overtly comical moment. Since dialogue really pushes the game forward, and that can definitely be less-than-serious, I think that might be part of the problem. 'Course, I don't watch anything Disney so I'm not really up to speed on that sort of thing (KH is foreign, yeah), but the game has a distinctly dark tone for quite awhile -- a fat elephant-lady and some mages that are shown in that respect doesn't equate to Disneyesque things, to me.

Again, I'm not interested in debating the merits of these characters. I'm just saying that there's nothing like them in the rest of the series. There are other humorous characters like Ultros and Porom, but none are taken to the ridiculous extreme of Quina. Likewise most FFs have stereotyped and cliched characters, but nothing as obnoxious and overdone as Steiner. The fact that he develops doesn't change his extremely stereotyped and borderline joke personality.

Disney movies have villains and dark elements too. "Elephant-lady" isn't out of place in a Disney movie at all - she even reminds be a little bit of the villain in "The Little Mermaid":
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/00977...tml?hint=group
It's just that the scale and nature of the threat is of a different kind than that of older FFs. The black mages just look unthreatening and weird once they are made into full-blown polygonal models. Compare a hoard of those things popping out of boxes with Baron's armies marching into Fabul.

FFXII has a more world-centric point of view than character-centric, so while you could say that the "sweep" was done better, I'd have to say that FFIX didn't attempt to be epic. It takes four discs, yeah, but it doesn't have that air of trying to be something it's not, overexerting itself and falling drastically short. I played XII, wrote a guide for it, debated plot points...I wouldn't call that game better than anything. Characters are just 'vessels' for the player to live through; FFXII is very, very hollow in that respect, using video sequences to advance the story as opposed to intrapersonal dialogue. Funny how people perceive radical changes, huh?

Naturally, yer entitled to whatever you want to think. At least you didn't say you hate the game because the main character has a tail.

Well most of the older games seemed like they tried to be epic, so if FF9 was not, then you're just conceding my point.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well the in-game designs were done in order to allude to a 2d in 3d design. I don't personally find them "cartoony" nor did I find the enviroments to be the same.

As for Brahne, I don't feel that comparing her to Golbez is right. She may start off the whole war nonsense but her role is pretty minor compared to the likes of Garland and Kuja within the storyline. As for designs, must I remind you of Borgen from FFII? He does not exactly come off as sinister or serious villain material when one looks at his designs.

The story is pretty dark actually, I think the lighthearted elements were placed in there to counter it. The plot and the way it explores it's theme of "The Meaning of Life" makes it one of the darkest games within the main series. I don't feel the characters are anymore cliche than previous installments and I feel they only help to tell the more serious parts of the story better.

The previous games always had light hearted moments thrown in to counter their rather dark stories. Only FFI and FFII are mostly serious but that is probably due to them being early installments in a genre that was just starting to grow within the video game media. FFVIII was also pretty damn serious as well with only a few humorous moments spread thinly through the game.

Overall, FFIX brought back good characters, better world design and a more interesting villain than what we got from FFVII and FFVIII. But that's just my opinion.

[Lynx]

Note:

FF9 used a cartoonish style for the dungeons, towns, FMV, and character portraits (again, compare these to those from FF2, 4, and 6).

Thoughts?

Burmecia was creepier then most of the towns in FF's. also treno a town with eternal night is a town of the rich and a town of thieves. as for the dungeons they all seemed rather creepy in FFIX which ones are you talking about that were "cartoony"? as for the FMV's half of them are of towns being destroyed whats so cartoony about that?

I agree... It definitely lacks the "epic" feel of previous final fantasies... And about the cartoony thing, this game does take time to get used to it because of the lack of humans.. Most FFs since 1 had mostly humans with the occasional whatever-race character thrown in (such as Red XIII in 7) so at first I hated most characters :P they all looked stupid and silly to me... And dont even get me started on how Quina, a clumsy frog-eater is the most powerful character in the game...

how does this game lack an epic feel? you travel the world to unexplored continents. you go to another planet you watch town after town be attacked and destroyed. Or if not destroyed sevearly leveled in some areas. you even are attacked by the waltz in the airship and at one point they have to plow through a ton of flying dragons. you go to memoria which is idk some kinda other dimension where memories are forged. what isn't epic about this game?

as for races all FF's have a variety of races.

as for the characters sure they all seemed a little bit carefree but then again they were all pretty young and thats how they should be. besides freya and armarant were serious enough for the rest. steiner was serious too but kinda a clutz. FFIX had a good cast of characters. but i wont get into it becase that would end up makeing this post massive.

it seems that everyones real complaint was that it had some light hearted characters instead of typical emo's. or the graphics were either not as good as FFX or not as crappy as FFI.

as for FFIX going back to the basics it was they scrapped the idea of incredible technology. brought back crystals and there importance in the game. not as important as some FFs but come on were crystals even mentioned in FFVIII or FFVI? materia were basically crystals in my book so FFVII is ok when it comes to the crystals. also i thought it was about time we had a character who had a dragoon class. also unlike FFVII and FFVIII everyone had a unique set of abilitys besides there limits/overdrive/trance/whatever.

[Neo-Omega Mk XXV]

Well the in-game designs were done in order to allude to a 2d in 3d design. I don't personally find them "cartoony" nor did I find the enviroments to be the same.

Perhaps the graphics weren't massively more cartoony than those in FF1-6, but trying to mimic the visuals of those games with pre-rendered backgrounds and low polygon count models somehow looks "wrong" . But have a look at
http://www.warmech.net/special/bosses/bosses.html
and compare the boss art from each game. What I have in mind is stuff like the Shell Dragon, Catoblepas and the Tantarian in FF9,
or http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/...enemies_04.jpg.
As for the environment, two examples are:
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/screens/ff9_112.jpg
and
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/screens/ffix_34.jpg
If those don't look cartoony to you, then we must just have different conceptions of "cartoony".

As for Brahne, I don't feel that comparing her to Golbez is right. She may start off the whole war nonsense but her role is pretty minor compared to the likes of Garland and Kuja within the storyline. As for designs, must I remind you of Borgen from FFII? He does not exactly come off as sinister or serious villain material when one looks at his designs.

But she's presented as the main villain at the beginning of the game, and later we learn that she isn't. Golbez is the same, but he's got a bigger role in FF4's story than Brahne has in FF9. Garland is ... both the main villain and not the main villain at the same time (and there really isn't much of a story in FF1).
Borgen looks a bit silly, but he's certainly not very important in FF2's story from what I remember (less important than Brahne in FF9).
I know that all of the games have some designs that aren't serious (PuPu in FF8 for example, Ultros/Orthros in FF6, the Magus Sisters in FF4), they just didn't give me the same impression that FF9 did. Actually FF2's art style might be the least serious out of FF1-6.

The story is pretty dark actually, I think the lighthearted elements were placed in there to counter it. The plot and the way it explores it's theme of "The Meaning of Life" makes it one of the darkest games within the main series. I don't feel the characters are anymore cliche than previous installments and I feel they only help to tell the more serious parts of the story better.

I certainly don't think that game is the darkest in the series by far (I'd go with FF6 and 7), but keep in mind that atmosphere is produced by many different things, including visual style, music, and characters. I didn't say all of the characters are more cliche than previous installments (but I think they are more stereotypical and uninteresting than those in FF7 and 8), just that no other characters were so totally stereotypical and overdone as Steiner.

The previous games always had light hearted moments thrown in to counter their rather dark stories. Only FFI and FFII are mostly serious but that is probably due to them being early installments in a genre that was just starting to grow within the video game media. FFVIII was also pretty damn serious as well with only a few humorous moments spread thinly through the game.

I'd say only FF5 even comes close to not being "mostly serious", unless you just mean that only FF1 and FF2 don't have any lighthearted moments, which might be true.

Overall, FFIX brought back good characters, better world design and a more interesting villain than what we got from FFVII and FFVIII. But that's just my opinion.

I disagree sharply with this last sentence that's basically the opposite of how I feel. FF9 has the worst world design in the series (except for the mist continent, which is just decent), a disappointing villain who is not in the league of Sephiroth (himself arguably overrated, but villains haven't generally been a strong point of the FF series), and uninteresting characters except for Vivi. This isn't the place for another debate about this though .

[Wolf Kanno]

WARNING MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR FFIX!!!

Perhaps the graphics weren't massively more cartoony than those in FF1-6, but trying to mimic the visuals of those games with pre-rendered backgrounds and low polygon count models somehow looks "wrong" . But have a look at
http://www.warmech.net/special/bosses/bosses.html
and compare the boss art from each game. What I have in mind is stuff like the Shell Dragon, Catoblepas and the Tantarian in FF9,
or http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/...enemies_04.jpg.
As for the environment, two examples are:
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/screens/ff9_112.jpg
and
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff9/screens/ffix_34.jpg
If those don't look cartoony to you, then we must just have different conceptions of "cartoony".

The envirements look normal to me and as for the enemies the only ones that look remotely cartoony are the knights that fight Steiner's side. I think we have a different conception of "cartoony" I'm afraid.

But she's presented as the main villain at the beginning of the game, and later we learn that she isn't. Golbez is the same, but he's got a bigger role in FF4's story than Brahne has in FF9. Garland is ... both the main villain and not the main villain at the same time (and there really isn't much of a story in FF1).

Brahne is more like President ShinRa when you think about it. Sorta've comes in and creates the basis of what the threat is and then dies only to reveal the true evil. She's not nearly as involved as Golbez was with the events in the story. Hell it becomes pretty damn obvious that Kuja is just using her as a pawn so it's difficult to think of her as "main villain" material.

As for Garland, he's basically the source of the whole mess in each respective FF he shows up in.

I certainly don't think that game is the darkest in the series by far (I'd go with FF6 and 7), but keep in mind that atmosphere is produced by many different things, including visual style, music, and characters. I didn't say all of the characters are more cliche than previous installments (but I think they are more stereotypical and uninteresting than those in FF7 and 8), just that no other characters were so totally stereotypical and overdone as Steiner.

I'll give you the fact that FFIX doesn't have the "dark atmosphere" of FFVI and FFVII but I do feel it's story is perhaps darker than theirs on a purely philisophical level (though FFVI may be on an equal level now that I think about it). I mean we are creating artificial life forms out of the dregs of souls that escape from the Iifa Tree, who eventually become self aware and begin to learn about what living truly is.

We have a man pumping out the life force of the planet and replacing it with his own worlds so he can assimilate his race into the foriegn world. To do this he creates bio-weapons to start war and destruction to kill people all fo his plan to revive his race. Lord we don't even go into the consequences of what happens to the souls that don't make it back to the planet outside of them becoming Mist and ingredients to manufacture Black Mages.

Kuja ends up trying to destroy all life cause the idea that the world will go on after he dies offends him, so now everyone should die with him. I mean the whole game is about facing your mortality. It's about learning what's important to us before we lose it. IX has a higher bodycount and property damage than both FFVII and FFVIII. It's due to the fact that death is everywhere in the game and we only begin to face our own mortality when death is staring us in the face. I find all of this to be pretty damn dark compared to some of the other games.

I'd say only FF5 even comes close to not being "mostly serious", unless you just mean that only FF1 and FF2 don't have any lighthearted moments, which might be true.

I agree, and FFI and FFII have really no light hearted moments put into them but I stated that it was probably due to the time they were made.

I disagree sharply with this last sentence that's basically the opposite of how I feel. FF9 has the worst world design in the series (except for the mist continent, which is just decent), a disappointing villain who is not in the league of Sephiroth (himself arguably overrated, but villains haven't generally been a strong point of the FF series), and uninteresting characters except for Vivi. This isn't the place for another debate about this though .

I feel we will have to agree to disagree. To me FFIX is the best of PS1 generation, but that is my personal opinion. I do feel that is a debate for another time though as it's been discussed to death in the General FF forum.