I think you make some good points Vyk, but many of those things is actually why I liked it. Maybe I was just ready for a different than VII and VIII.
While I enjoyed Squall and Cloud's development too, the rest can't be said for the rest of the cast in those games for me, although I do like all of X. IX made me care about everyone except Quina (comic relief what can you do), and I typically like games to be very focused and not all over the place. I really felt like they did good job keeping the spotlight on Zidane and Garnet while giving everybody else a chance to strut their stuff. Not everybody got equal treatment, looking at you Freya, but it was much more balanced than most RPGs I've ever played. I guess that's why I liked it so much.
I didn't mind the plot either... I think IX's plot is less debatable simply because it's clearer and doesn't use so many metaphors and hoopla to explain itself. Which is good in a lot of ways, since we have theories like Laguna is a Shumi or some crap running around out there. I don't really want Vivi = Quina theories.
But I do like the more expansive and complicated plots too... IX is kind of a throw-back in many ways. It was more complicated than I ever expected it to be at least. Now if only that trance system didn't exist
Still, for me it goes 1)X 2)VII 3)VIII 4)IX and I have a feeling XII is going to bitch-smack itself into the number 2 all-time favorite spot. So I can't really argue that IX is the greatest of them all because I don't think so either... But I can say many people don't give it a chance or are unfairly harsh on it.
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