And for the grand conclusion of my list, it is none other than

1. Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation)
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Final Fantasy IX is the story of a thief named Zidane who is trying to kidnap the Princess Garnet. Little does he suspect that she's looking to get kidnapped. There's strange things going on in her Kingdom of Alexandria and she wants to do something about her mother the Queen who has been making some weapon's deals. This game follows our heroes during a time of war as they explore new lands and learn some things about their pasts that they wouldn't have expected.

This game plays similar to a lot of Final Fantasy titles. Battles are random and your characters stand on one end of the battle screen with the enemies opposite. Once the ATB bar fills up, a command menu will allow you to choose between Attack, Item, or any individual character commands. You also have a Trance bar that fills up, which can do stuff from increasing strength to allowing special abilities to be used, depending on the character. Characters in this game have certain jobs or roles in battle, such as Black Mage and Thief and their abilities are determined by that. Abilities are learned in this game by equipping weapons or items and obtaining points in fights which go towards these abilities. Once you gain enough points you will be able to use the ability without using the equipment. There are 8 playable characters with 4 usable in battle at a time.

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It was so hard for me to narrow down images for this review

General impressions:
Brace yourselves because this is going to be a long one. I haven't had the best life and I got passed around a lot as a child. At one point, my mother left me with her ex boyfriend, Barry, and for a few years I lived in relative stability. She'd left me with him before but he'd dropped me off with his family or strangers. I guess this time he must have felt guilty because he kept me around for a few years. Anywho, when I was around 10 or so (not sure exact age, but around there) we watched the Final Fantasy Spirits Within movie (yep) and I loved it (yep) and Barry decided to tell me that Final Fantasy was actually a video game series. If you saw my VIII review you'd know I had played VIII by that point but I'd totally forgotten the tiny bit I played and it wasn't actually until about 4-5 years ago that I remembered. So at this point I had no idea it was a video game series and I got super excited so I went on the internets and looked it up, seeing that there were 10 main games. I looked around at all the characters and wondered why I hadn't seen the girl from the movie, and Barry explained that they're all separate. But I saw Yuna and she looked close enough so I got interested in X. That's when I saw the announcements about X-2. ALL GIRLS??!?! OUTFIT CHANGES???!?!?! Sadly for me, X-2 wasn't out yet. So anyways time passed and Barry got us a PS2 along with Dark Cloud and Jak and Daxter. Then it was Christmas or my birthday or something and I got a special surprise. Final Fantasys VII, VIII, IX, and X. "Sorry, X-2 isn't out yet, but maybe these will keep you occupied while you wait." I looked at all of the covers and all of the booklets trying to decide which to play first and I saw Vivi. Adorable Vivi. I popped the game in and my life changed forever. I loved it loved it loved it. Every moment, every scene, I just ate it all up. Because of this game I joined this forum, I met the man I love, I have this beautiful home. I have my love of RPG's and the Final Fantasy series. I have a game that makes me happy everytime I play. I have a game that let me go in to another world when I was in an abusive relationship, when I was dealing with my mother's addictions, when I felt alone. I had Final Fantasy IX.

Story:
I love this story. I absolutely love it, almost every single moment of it. It's just so fantastical and it sucks me right in. I get so engaged, so engrossed in it no matter how many times I play it. The pacing is perfect for me, starting out one way and slowly building to something deeper. Learning about the characters and their pasts. Seeing the world grow and become more accessible. So many touching and beautiful moments like Vivi standing up to the Black Waltz for the first time, (SPOILER)Queen Brahne's death, Zidane rejecting his friends and them still being there for him, Alexander vs Bahamut, the destruction of Lindblum I could go on and on. Most games have a 2-3 moments that I look forward to every time I play, but this game just has so many. So many moments I want to relive and see all over again. So many sad scenes, so many happy ones. The game is overall pretty optimistic and bright which makes the devastating scenes have that much more impact. I really have no complaints about the story, I love it to pieces.

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I'M GETTING SO EXCITED TO PLAY THIS AGAIN
THIS IS A GOOD LIFE LESSON

Gameplay:
The weak point. The gameplay is actually kind of bum compared to most of the series in a lot of ways. The battles are slow, SO SLOW, the Trance is terrible and should be thrown off a cliff, characters aren't really customizable, and it's just not all that inspiring. But that's not to say it's all bad. I do love job classes and it has my favourite mini-game, Chocobo Hot & Cold. I could sink so many hours in to that, and I loved having Choco change colours and finding new treasure. So it's not the worst game in terms of gameplay but it's certainly not the best. It could have done so much better.


World:
I love the world of this game, especially since it like grows with the story. You start off on the Mist Continent, which has enough awesome areas on it as it is, and then you explore more and adventure further and see many other great areas. It had a lot of good diversity and it didn't feel like the same thing over and over again. My biggest complaint is that they could have done much more with the Lost and Forgotten Continents as they did not have much on them. My favourite areas would have to be Dali, Alexandria, Esto Gaza, and Black Mage Village, although it was super hard to narrow this down and I liked almost every single area.

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This game. THIS GAME

Characters:
I love this cast. I like every single character, although Amarant is on the lower end because they didn't do much with him. I liked how they would switch your party around to go with the story and I loved seeing them learn more about themselves. I think it's a journey of self-discovery, something I can identify with a lot, and it was awesome seeing them all learn more about their past and coming to terms with it. Some characters sadly didn't get enough time in the spotlight and they could have interacted more amongst each other.

Favourite character: Vivi sgqyVmg.jpg
Honourable mentions: Quina, Zidane, Steiner RBtEQbI.pnggKoun2L.jpg9fA3pjv.png

Oh look, the only game that has only males as my favourite characters (well Quina is debatable, but I've always seen Quina as a he). Vivi is just the sweetest most precious thing, but he's not afraid to stand up for himself and his friends. He's also incredibly powerful. His story of (SPOILER)coming to terms with his death was very well written and he took it with such grace and maturity that I can't help but admire him. Quina is who s/he is, and is also kind of a lovable goof that brings something happy and fun to the story that I really liked. Zidane is overall just a good guy and I really liked his moment of development because it showed him on a deeper level. He was an awesome friend who was always supportive of everyone no matter what there decisions were. I hated Steiner the first time I played because he was like a buzzkill but now I love seeing him grow in to his own person and learning to think for himself. I could go on about all the other characters as well because they're all pretty great but this is getting long enough as it is!

Overall this is a great game with a charming and engaging story, a strong cast of characters who develop and grow really well, some fun mini-games, and a beautiful world to explore. The gameplay is sadly on the lower side of passable. But more than anything, this game has influenced and changed my life and I love it to pieces. The butterflies in the stomach feeling I get when I play this game is something I've been searching for in games ever since and since the moment I played it it has always been my top game of all time ever.