Final Fantasy IX can be described in 1 word........

[reinward]

genuine.

everything in the game feels so heartfelt and inspired to me (artwork, music, characters, etc) i feel like this is the only FF game that is devoid of any pretentiousness

discuss.

[Depression Moon]

You are 100% right.

I'll say...

Magnificent

[Meltdown]

I wholeheartedly agree... though if I had to nitpick one tiny little thing, it would be the superfluous spell animations/effects (glitter overload). Oh and Lamias! I will never play another Final Fantasy if they contain premenstrual Lamias!

[ShinGundam]

Slow is the right answer :>

[Bubba]

Unplayed!

FFIX is my next port of call after I've finished my first playthrough of FFVI

[Mirage]

Slow is the right answer :>

This.

[Freya]

It's awesome what are you fools talking about? SLOW? pft.

[Rostum]

Love. As in, I absolutely smurfing love this game!

If not that, the OP's one-word is excellent.

[jammi567]

i feel like this is the only FF game that is devoid of any pretentiousness

Just out of pure curiousity, in what way were the first three games pretentious? It's very pretentious to assume that this game is the only unpretentious game in the series. You could say that the designers were being pretentious in making it as nornal as possible to make it stand out.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game as much as any person who posts in this sub-forum.

My word would be...a fitting tribute. Okay, that's three, but the point still stands.

[Mirage]

It's awesome what are you fools talking about? SLOW? pft.

Are you trying to tell us the battle system is fast?

[Laddy]

Magical.

[Wolf Kanno]

Charming, which I feel is the one thing lacking from the post 16-bit era FFs.

[>_<]

Charming, which I feel is the one thing lacking from the post 16-bit era FFs.

Yeah, the first word to pop into my head when reading this thread was "nostalgic". Consider that I hadn't really played any FF game prior to VII, and that I have only just reached the second disk of FFIX. Still, as a first time player, the whole thing smacks of nostalgia and a yearning for those oldschool days (for me, not particularly FF but oldschool gaming notions in general).

[Flying Arrow]

FF9 is a totally inviting game. The world is really, really well put together and realized. It's one of Square's best, right below IMO FF7 and Chrono Cross.

EDIT: Actually it's probably "better" than FF7's in a lot of ways if only because it really feels like Square were going on years of PS1 RPG experience at that point. There's a ton more detail and flat out things to check out in 9. I just prefer 7's game pacing more than 9's, really. Chrono Cross is still number 1 for me though.

[Bolivar]

I'd agree with genuine, but I do feel like Square was just as genuine with its previous entries and took more risks... I think FFIX was very much a concept game but they didn't want to push the envelope too much on story or gameplay outside of that concept.