My thoughts about this one.
NOTE: THIS IS NOT A HATE OR BASH TOPIC, I SIMPLY STATE MY OPINION ABOUT THE GAME.
It has been a while since I finished IX. A month or two, I think. But this evening I battled Trance-Kuja and Necron again. I sat back and enjoyed the ending scene. But when I saw the credits roll by, the beautiful 'Melodies of Life' in my ears and the FMV pieces shown, I suddenly realized again what I realized when I first finished the game. And what I realized was this: Beautiful, simply beautiful. There can't be enough words to describe how I feel about this game.
I'll try to describe what I felt, remembering all the great experiences from the game.
1. Characters
First thing first are of course the characters. Well, what can I say? I've been playing VIII and VII these last two months and while I greatly enjoy Squall's emotions (please go away, Cloud, it's nothing personal, but I just do not like you), it was great to see Zidane and the whole cast again. The party of four in a battle, the well made models of each characters, their backgroundstories and personality, it is simply perfect.
This game offers verything when it comes to characters. We have to optimistic and helpfull hero/teenager, who completely acts like a teenager should. Zidane was a perfect main character. He was how boys liek him are supposed to be, the facts of his past are well made plottwists when you'll find out about them. And I like his Ultima Weapon.
We have the Princess and her loyal Knight and Paladin (Beatrix). What can I say? I liked Garnet. She was just like a girl her age should be, and that's fine. No though girls who use their fists or pinwheels. Back to the classic white-mage = rod bearers. And it suits her just fine. Steiner is like a knight should be and I wished Beatrix was a playable character.
We have other great characters, such as young mage Vivi, a character with much personality. Or Freya, the Dragon Knight with her deep background story. We have the man/woman Quina, a nice Blue Mage with a scary fork, the lone wolf Amarant Coral and Eiko Carol as young kid. All these characters added so greatly to a well build up story.
2. The story
Simply amazing, how deep it was. The plottwists, the overal feel it gave, it was just plain simply perfect. I can't help it. With all the bad emotions of the world, I cannot see this story as bad. it's impossible. Guys, this IS a final FANTASY story. This reflects how Final Fanatsy was originally intended to be! You are not a FF fan if you dislike this story, because this story IS FF!
3. The villain: Kuja
Another good character in the game is its villain, Kuja. While I hear many complaints about him, I find them all PATHETIC.
Guys, okay, he looks a bit like a girl and he wears revealing clothes. What? He had a perfect plot, managed to plummet a whole continent into war, became almighty, destroyed a whole world all by himself and outsmarted his master! And than you guys would go and complain about his CLOTHES??? What the smurf? I hear nobody complain that Rikku is next to naked in FF X-2, and yeah Kuja is a man, but so? It's a nice change.
4. Necron
Oh yes, the biggest complaint of the game is its Godly Final Boss. Throwback at NeoExDeath, the almighty (in a certain way) Necron. What I hear is people complaining about how 'random' he is. Let me tell you, he's not. Let me give backup for that sentence:
Necron appeared right after Trance Kuja destroyed the Crystal, source of all life and existence. I've always imagined that Necron was sealed in teh crystal, it's exact counterpart.
Think about it, Necron is destruction, The Crystal is the bringer of Existence.
Inside the crystal, Necron saw all of Trance Kuja's actions and made his own conclusion about it all: Kuja wanted a total destroyed world, so he would not be alone in death. Necron concluded: All life desires a world where there is no pain, or suffering, or all the other problems life brings.
The crystal was destroyed and Necron came free. His mind was set on his ultimate and only goal: give life what they desired. A world without all those problems caused by life. How? By destroying every existence, where there no longer could be a crystal to give life and suffering.
You can't call that random. He had a goal and that goal was caused by Kuja's actions. Some sort of chain reaction. Necron can be seen as a better worked out version of NeoExDeath (which is logic, they even use the same smurfing attack, Grand Cross).
So, random? Don't think so.
Now, the place where you fight him... That's a harder cookie.
Well, I see it like this, and I think it kinda makes sense.
Trance Kuja destroyed the crystal with his all powerful Ultima. I think such an immensly powerful attack could easily destroy the ground our characters stood on.
Trance Kuja destroyed the crystal world and we saw him fall. It would be nothing more but logic if our characters fell with him. And where tehy landed was the Hill of Despair, with Necron's 'colloseum' up in the smoke of the fires (or clouds, whatever) around them.
It would make sense if the Hill of Despair was below the Crystal World. How else would Kuja have teleported Zidane and the otehrs to safety after the battle? So Kuja was somewhere on or below the Hill of Despair as well.
Conclusion: Necron fitted in the storyline completely and not random. His actions were caused by Kuja and so was his freedom. Can you call that random? Sure, it was unexpected that he came, but not random.
Also, you could have guessed Trance Kuja was not the end. He's too un-Final-Bossish for it. He's too small and not very impressive, ya know. He could not be the Final Boss. Making him transform again would kill the story and making his trance form more impressive would have spoiled the Final Boss form on the end of the 3 disc.
So, please stop complaining about Necron. This part may be completely wrong, but if you look it through my way, you can see some logic, I think. Trance Kuja had a great soundtrack, but it was also not very Final-Bossish, and his background was not very Final-Bossish as well. Necron had a great battle theme as well, less cool than 'The Dark Messenger', but still great and surely fitting the last battle. My only complaint was Necron's background. I found it not very Final-Bossish. I think a cross between Zeromus and NeoExDeath's background would have suited him better.
5. Music
One of teh best parts of the game is the music. Teh composer did a marvelous job at making this music. Soundtracks like 'You're not alone!', 'The Dark Messenger' and 'The Final Battle' as examples, all fit very well on teh places they are played. Of course soem tracks are better than teh others, but the music of IX is the best music I heard so far of all FF, this maybe personal opinion, but this music again gives you the classical feel of Final Fantasy.
6. Gfx
For being the last PSX FF, IX did a perfect job to drive everything teh PSX could offer to the edge or even across it. The magic looks gorgeous, the characters and NPC's are all made up very well, the backgrounds are stunning and the FMV's are beautiful which is an understatement.
7. Difficulty
Teh game was relative easy, teh magic system wasn't all that hard and leveling up went fine. Bosses could be hard but not impossible. For FF starters this is certainly a good game. Easy to learn. Sometimes things can get difficult, no matter what level you are (Grand Cross!). And if you want a challenge you can fight some optional bosses. I haven't battled Ozma or that book creature, but I did fight Hades.
8. Minigames
This game had some very fun minigames. Tetra master is fun to pass time if you feel bored or just want something else. The jumping game in the beginning is quite hard, but I never bothered getting further than lv 20. Catching frogs with Quina is amusing.
But of course, the best of it all is the chocobo hot-and-gold. It's the most fun Chocobo raising system I ever played, although I never really finished it, it was still very fun to do so. And the prizes you can get at some spots, make it all very worth to do! These minigames made the game even better than it already was.
9. Conclusion
All in all, Final Fantasy IX was the perfect Final Fantasy. It was a perfect throwback at FF's roots and in my opinion it hasn't received all attention it deserved, perhaps the PS2 was coming out soon.
This game certainly deserves a 10/10. This game simply was what Final Fantasy is about. If you do not like this game, you can't be a Final Fantasy fan, that's impossible.
For people like me who played all FF from I to VI, it was nice to see all these throwbacks. For people who just get into FF, start with this one and you'll immediatly receive the full Final Fantasy experience. For people who played FF VII and VIII and think those are the best FF's ever, nothing wrong with that, but give IX a chance to prove it's worth as well.
If I ever wanted a port of a PSX FF, it would be IX. I would love to be able to play it anywhere. After the exams I'll have two months of vacation, and I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to replay this game again and this time get all the godo stuff (except Excalibur II, it's not worth it.)
Any comments? Different opinions or disliking of the game is of course accepted, but it has to be said and stated without bashing, insulting and flaming. Thanks.
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Originally Posted by spiffing cheese on msn
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