Just playing through IX. Will agree with some of the points in the small section. But they are exactly that: small. Not ruining my gaming experience.

This is my first time playing it so it's quite interesting going from FFXIII to IX (especially as I still haven't opened God of War 3 which is chilling next to my PS3 - don't ask me why). The level of presentation and polish that the modern FFs is unbelievable compared to the earlier ones. But that's progress.

There is one other complaint: the battles are tediously long. I've even put it on the fastest battle speed, but what I mostly do is wait for the ATB thing to fill up. And when it does fill up, there is absolutely no guarantee that I will actually do my action then. Sometimes the enemy has like 2/3 hits on me. This is irritating me (reminds me of XII in that way actually).

Story - well I read the script so kind of know what happens (this is before I knew FFs were going to be released on PSN so thought I better know something about the game). But it was a while ago, so a little bit hazy. Seems quite cool. Definitely a throwback to older FFs. Vivi is already my favourite character in the game. Zidane on the other hand is a bit of an idiot. Poor man's Balthier in my opinion. But maybe he will grow on me. Garnet is decent and so is Steiner. Even if he is a bit irritating and archaic, it is good fun. Only about 10 hours in and now need to grind a bit so I can beat the boss and head to Burmecia (bleh), but I've been enjoying it. Quite nice having a more open world after XIII.