European version of FF9 is what I played. It looks exactly the same as the US version, and it doesn't look too stellar. The backgrounds look "fine" and so do the CG videos, but even the backgrounds suffer from too-many-details-on-too-low-resolution-syndrome, and the 3D models and battle effects even more so. In short, the game makes the PS1 chew off more than the PS1 actually could swallow, and the result is muddly graphics and poor loading times. FF8 had a lower amount of detail in the character textures, models and backgrounds, but in my opinion still ended up lookin better because it was more in line with what was suitable for the resolution the game ran in. Additionally, in-battle load times were a lot shorter in FF8, and the effects still looked pretty cool.

It might also have the very typical and terrible framerate slowdown caused by NTSC-PAL framerate conversions, but I honestly do not remember. I am certain that FFX had that, though.