I agree, I like splitting up the party, if anything it adds to pacing for me. It drags out more importance for the more obscure characters instead of just whoever's in your party at the time. And because FFIX's characters are all very unique, it adds a lot of variety to the game. When you throw in the customization options of the ability system, you get a really awesome gameplay package from FFIX.

But I do agree with Arrow about the story pacing somewhat. Some of the best RPGs are so great because they know how to be respectful of your time. That means getting a point across or serving a purpose in all the time you need to do it, then keeping the player moving. While FFIX has a lot of story elements going on at the same time, it could have been achieved a lot quicker. I guess to me, the visuals were so wonderful and music was so endearing that I didn't mind when the game stopped to show me a scene. It's one of my favorite games of all time and some of my favorite characters.

That's another reason why this game needs to be left alone and not have any spin-offs.