I played the older ones before ps came out. The had references to them here and there in IX oh boy, doesnt make the game any better imo though. All bosses in IX were pushovers, and the card game was bad compared to Triple Triad. I didnt bother pushing to 99 in IX b/c theres no point in trying after 65-70 since everything's a breeze by then, and I didnt even bother maxing out thievery (no point when I had him hitting for 9999 w/o it) and didn't use nearly the best team..