Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation)

Story:
Final Fantasy IX is a fantastical adventure of a monkey tailed thief, Zidane, as he kidnaps the willingly kidnapped Princess Garnet. You see, Princess Garnet is concerned about her mother's recent behavior since a very sexy and feminine looking man started coming around, and suddenly the Queen has decided to wage war on the continent. Zidane and Garnet also meet some other colourful characters such as a knight with a stick up his rear, a Black Mage kid, and some weird chef creature who eats a lot.



Before long, the story takes our heroes away from the war torn Mist Continent to other, largely unexplored continents in order to seek solutions. They all learn more about themselves along the way and learn that the events that have been happening are much more involved than they had previously thought.



Gameplay:
This game is a turn based RPG, similar to many of the old school Final Fantasy games. Your characters stand in a row facing the enemies, and they each have bars under their names that slowly fill up as they await their turn. Once the bar is full, an action can be selected depending on the character. Some characters can steal, while others can use magic, for example. Once battles end, you can receive items, experience, money, and points towards skills. In Final Fantasy IX, skills are dependent on equipment. A skill can be used while the equipment is on the character, but if it isn't learned, it won't be available once equipment is switched out. Each skill has a certain number of points it needs in order to be mastered, after which it can be used at any time, even if the piece of equipment is no longer equipped on the character.



Aside from fighting, there are a number of other things characters can do. You can shop, explore towns, see events regarding what your party members are doing while you explore towns, play cards, synthesize items, or get your Chocobo to dig up treasure for you. The game is overall pretty well paced to allow you to take a breather and complete sidequests or go exploring when you need a break from the main storyline.



World:
The world of Final Fantasy IX is vast and will open up and expand across the four game discs. There are four continents in total to explore, although the later continents are sparsely populated. Previous towns will sometimes grow and adapt with the changing storyline though, and there are a good number of hidden locations for you to find. You'll even get to explore some very interesting areas later in the game. You'll also receive a number of vehicles to help your exploration as time goes on. There are towns, dungeons, and a world map to explore.



Characters:
(ordered from favourite to least favourite)
Vivi: A young black mage, still naive to the world. He recently lost his grandfather and gets swept up in the adventure when he sneaks in to see a play. He is still fraid of his magic, but he means well and wants to help. Uses offensive magic
Quina: From the odd Qu Clan, Quina is still naive to the ways of the world as well, and is sent with the party to try cuisines from all of the world. S/he likes to eat and cares about his/her friends in his/her own special way. Can eat enemies to learn their abilities
Steiner: A knight with a stick up his butt sent to retrieve the Princess from the dastardly thieves, he's stuck learning that things aren't as black and white as he thought. Uses a sword and can sometimes use sword magic
Zidane: Our protagonist, a master thief who isn't afraid to speak his mind or hit on the ladies. Under his flirtatious exterior, Zidane cares about his friends and always keeps a smile on his face in order to encourage them and keep them going. Can steal from enemies
Freya: A dragon knight who left her home in search of her lost lover. She is dedicated and strong and not afraid to do what she needs to. She can use a special jump command to escape damage as well as deal damage when she descends
Garnet: A naive young Princess who wants to stop her mother from her warmongering actions. She needs to learn to tone down her royal town and blend in with the common folk as she travels around. She can cast healing magic and summon creatures to help her
Eiko: A young summoner who thought she was the last of her kind. She has a crush on Zidane and isn't afraid to make it really obvious. A headstrong young girl with great respect for her ancestry. Like Garnet, she can use healing magic and summon creatures to help her
Amarant: A surely and mysterious man who has a grudge against Zidane for making him a wanted man. He is very selfish and doesn't much care for teamwork. He can use many monk techniques in battle

Overall:
As I am sure some of you know, Final Fantasy IX is my favourite game of all time. Everytime I play it, I get swept up in to the magical adventure, still just as excited to see what happens next, to learn more about our heroes. The world is vast and fun to explore, the music is beautiful, the story is enthralling and entertaining, and the characters make me care about them and their journey more than most games can. This game is always there to comfort me during the rough times, to sweep me up in to the fantasy, and to make me excited and happy. With all of that being said, the game has its faults. The gameplay is extremely slow and the trance system, which allows your characters to become stronger and access new commands, is very poorly set up and usually ends up wasted. The graphics can also look very rough sometimes. But for me, no other game has matched the beauty and magic of this game, and I wouldn't be nearly as in to RPG's, or video games in general, if not for Final Fantasy IX.

Verdict:
LOVED IT