Disc one definitely had good atmosphere. Too bad they forgot to think about where the plot should go after that
IX is really probably the most balanced PSX-era FF when it comes to the story. It knows what it wants to say from start to finish and paces everything well. This is in stark contrast to FFVII and VIII, of which discs 2 and 3 respectively just toss all sanity out the window and nothing makes sense anymore. Worked way better in VIII than VII tbh, because while in VII it just felt like someone didn’t know what they were doing, with VIII it was just so enjoyably campy and insane.