Criticize This Game

[Quindiana Jones]

It's not like it makes any considerable difference, though.

[Ouch!]

I never understood the purpose of stat-maxing when every boss in the game can be completed--thoroughly trounced, even!--without going to the trouble. This isn't like the international version of FFX where the secret bosses required that you max the sphere grid.

[Quindiana Jones]

I could understand trying to stat-min if you're avoid power-levelling, as it might make the game more challenging. Of course, if you do this, you are a right wally.

[Rantz]

I've kind of done the stat maxing thing, although I tried not to be a nutter about it (ie. I accepted the odd level up without being perfectly equipped unless I'd saved very recently). It was a pretty fun and challenging playthrough, but I wouldn't do it again. I do still take stat increases into account when choosing what equipment to wear, but I don't give it very much priority.

[Aulayna]

This isn't like the international version of FFX where the secret bosses required that you max the sphere grid.

You mean paying Yojimbo enough money to cheese one shot everything

(well apart from Dark Yojimbo that I had to do the legit way because Yojimbo was an arse and wouldn't comply with my demands to Zanmato his Dark counterpart in each encounter)

[Wolf Kanno]

It's not really much of a factor since you literally have to go out of your way to make the most of it, but the real isue here is why bother when you're going to be spending the end game spamming Thievery/Dragon's Crescent/Shock/Frog Drop which all have either grossly overpowered damage algorithms that can easily be exploited without min/max. Just play the the game and have fun without sweating all the minor details.

[Skyblade]

It's not really much of a factor since you literally have to go out of your way to make the most of it, but the real isue here is why bother when you're going to be spending the end game spamming Thievery/Dragon's Crescent/Shock/Frog Drop which all have either grossly overpowered damage algorithms that can easily be exploited without min/max. Just play the the game and have fun without sweating all the minor details.

*Sigh* If only my brain let me do that. It doesn't. I've wound up building spreadsheets to calculate ideal stat growth setups in games before. Even though they don't really matter. Just because my brain rankles at imperfection in my save files.

Honestly it hurts my enjoyment of the games. But I can't stop doing it. And its part of why I hate so many stat growth systems in the FF games. I far prefer ones which let you manipulate or grind, rather than those that rely on randomness, or ones like this that use a stilted growth pattern. It's why I actually liked the Sphere Grid and Crystarium. I actually enjoyed maxing the sphere grid and going back to figure out which nodes to wipe, in which order, in order to most efficiently max out all stats. Or XIII-2, where I had to calculate which jobs to level in which order to get the best stats.

[Quindiana Jones]

In that case, I blame your brain for your lack of enjoyment and not the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Ditto, I used to be like that Skyblade, but I honestly came to the revelation that it utterly ruined my ability to enjoy the games. While I still like to take an active role in min/max for my characters, I no longer let it dominate how I play games and I just try to enjoy them in more of natural state now.

[Spooniest]

Ok, first a caveat: I played through this game beginning-to-end only once. That should tell you what my opinion of the game is right there.

In a 9-page thread, there isn't a lot I can do not to repeat what others have said, but I'll give it a college try.

I remember being excited at the idea of the game when I read about it in the gaming magazines (hehehe...no internet for me back then). Ok, so you're going to do a Neoclassical Final Fantasy? Sounds tasty, thought I. So I thought I'd give it a college try.

The most common criticism in this thread is quite rightly said: this game moves too molasses-in-January (in Chicago, IL!) SLOW!! Oh, good FuSoYa Almighty, it is SLOW! And it's not just the battles! The plot progression is mired in all kinds of ridiculous crap about Alexandria and Kuja and Garland and the Black Mage Army and...

Remember back in Final Fantasy 1? Yeah, on the NES. The game that this game, IX, is supposed to be a tribute to, first and foremost. That game told you what was going on RIGHT AWAY. Like, at the TITLE SCREEN. "World's smurfed, you gotta fix it, bucko." IX seems like it's trying to build suspense for plot points that, in the endgame, turn out to be underwhelming, stereotypical, and sometimes just plain confusing! It just seems so hard to care what's happening when there's no ultimate goal in sight! You might say that "of course the ultimate goal is to save the world. It always is." But you'd fail to understand that you can't tell a story and have forgone conclusions like that. Someone who has never played Final Fantasy before might play this game and not know that; they'd be lost in endless scenes of Steiner moronically bitching out Zidane; of Zidane being the DUMBEST smurfING ladies man in the history of lotharios (what is the guy, 5'5"?). Of Garnet being the STOOPIDEST Princess in a series known for having princesses being kidnappable by GRABBING THEIR ARM. Vivi is a clever character, that I'll grant, and he never seems to get on my nerves. He's a bright spot. But everyone else just smurfing pisses me off, all the time.

The music is passably composed, but there's something about the PSX synth that makes me want to wretch. Gone (if you'll pardon the pun) are the crystal-clear digital delays of the SNES era. It's all muddy reverb and gimmicky modulation. As a side note here, I should mention that the main battle theme serves as a symbol of the game's glacial pace...how long is it supposed to take to kick up the tempo? I get it, you're building tension! Just get ON WITH IT!

The framerate is awful during battles. Gotta save those processor cycles for pushing those polygons, yessir! Have you ever seen Cyan and Sabin's limit breaks from Final Fantasy VI? Oh my God! They just smurfing JUMP forward and WRECK trout, and then it's over in a split second. It's...it's just a kick in the teeth to the enemy! It's almost violent! Final Fantasy IX gives me big swirly colory explosions. Woo hoo. And when Steiner jumps to attack, he goes from being in the air for one frame to having sliced through the enemy with the next. That just screams cheapo cheapo to me. It looks ridiculous!

Then they split your characters into 4 parties, and at that point in the game, I was almost ready to like it. But they don't get to DO anything as 4 parties! You don't switch between them like in Final Fantasy VI, in Kefka's Tower! No puzzles, no deciding which way one party goes over another! That's just a blatant cocktease. Square ran out of money to make this game before it was done.

The wrap-up in the story is meandering, tacked-on, and unsatisfactory. I've stopped caring about the story at that point, and I just want the game to be over so I could say I finished it. So he gets the girl. Ok, thank God I can stop playing.

Give me Final Fantasy VI any day.

Critical enough for ya?!

EDIT: tl;dr version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YmS_VDvMY

[Mirage]

I agree with all the technical issues you brought up! Also, now that you mention it, the music does kind of get its face bashed in by the PS1 synth.

[Quindiana Jones]

yer dum

[Cuchulainn]

I've played though IX more than any other Final Fantasy. Anyone who doesn't like it has clearly been affected by many of the issues raised in this topic

http://home.eyesonff.com/eyes-each-o...ll-dating.html

[Ouch!]

First I find out that people hate Final Fantasy IX. Some of whom I genuinely respect and usually agree with. I find this difficult news to swallow, but I manage. "It's not the end of the world, Ouch!," I tell myself. "Different people have different tastes." Life will move on, and I shall let it pass. But then... But then.

The music is passably composed...

Some of Nobuo Uematsu's greatest work is passably composed? Criticisms of the console's limitations and how the music is adversely affected, I can understand. But that the music from this game is only passable in composition? What manner of herb are you smoking, and where the smurf can I get some, because that trout must be strong.

[Forsaken Lover]

FFIX is overrated as hell.

But I will not criticize the soundtrack whatsoever. I love every piece on it and it has around 5 or 10 of the best tracks in the entire series.