Originally posted by PhoenixAsh
Why do people say it's just graphics lovers and people who hate medievil styles that hate IX. From what I've seen it's usually only IX fans who even mention that stuff. "Ooh it returns to medievil it's great!" Who cares when it's set?

The reason I though IX failed to compete was the gameplay. It was beyond simplistic.
Not being able to decide character abilities is annoying, but forgivable. Not being able to have much control over their developement rate is annoying but forgivable.
Doing this and then not allowing the player to even choose which characters they use for a huge chunk of the game is annoying. Making it so that there is almost no freedom of where to go for a huge chunk of the game is annoying.
Adding Excalibur II to meant making bosses easy which is annoying. Having this make a perfect save impossible is annoying.
Making most mini-games be annoying and repetitive or have near to no rewards just left nothing redeemable in the gameplay aside from the chocobos.

It was play by numbers, and if the characters were better it might have been decent to just watch. The characters were by large annoying and underdeveloped so it didn't.
The setting was good. I could say ff7's setting bites but that doesnt mean its true. Oh and by the way, since when did FFIX fail? FF8 was the one that wasnt even able to tie knots in the plot with misisng peices and explenations. You can also greatly control how the charachters level up. You decied what to equp and which skills they learn, so I guess they DO have control after all eh? Lets not make unjustifiable statements shall we? You could choose which charachters you used for over half the game. The reason you couldnt was for plot development. I liked it however, because it helped you level up without having to worry about the other charahcter's stats. As stated. Excalibur 2 was optional and received at the end of the game, so it actually wasnt that easy. The mini games may be repedetive, but so were FF7's. I mean come on. How many times can you play the snowboarding games and Mog House before you throw up your innards of boredom? As for the charachters bieng better, FF7 and FF8 could have done lots of work. The main charachters were pissy little twits with massive weapons that did nothing but complain. Oh and by the way, squall wasnt underdeveloped? Yeah, he was. Imo he was seriously underdeveloped. Phoenix Ash, you need to look on the good side of the game. Its easier to insult something than it is to make good complements about it. YOu did nothing but bash the game in the other thread. Lose the bad attitude. HOnestly. As for not being up to standard, I think thats all opinonated. I loved the game. Its my absolute favorite. Personally, I thought the other FF's stank to heck (especially 10).