Final Fantasy IX just hit PC this week.

[Dalisclock]

So I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been any threads on this. IX is the last main FF to hit PC(or can't be easily emulated) and is regarded by a lot of people as the last good game in the series(if not the best one, period).

Has anyone played it and compared it to PS version? More importantly, does it still have the issue with too long battle intros that dogged original?

I can't be the only one who cares. I know the forums are dying and have been for a year now but I would think it would get at least a passing mention, even if SE doesn't seem to care. They almost seem ashamed, considering it's had an uncertain STEAM release date for months now(listed "SOON" until it dropped). XV gets talked about all the time, as does the remake of VII, and somehow SE acts like IX is some bastard child that doesn't deserve mention.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Don't have it, don't intend on getting it.

I checked out what people are saying about it, though - I have a cruel sort of interest when it comes to SE brutalizing their classics. Apparently, this is one of the least altered FF's that's gotten a PC release. 95% of the assets are unmodified, and the 5% that have been redone only serve to make everything else look bizarre. Gameplay is unchanged. Controller support has been finky for some people, but works for most.

So, looks like the best port yet.

 

[Dalisclock]

Don't have it, don't intend on getting it.

I checked out what people are saying about it, though - I have a cruel sort of interest when it comes to SE brutalizing their classics. Apparently, this is one of the least altered FF's that's gotten a PC release. 95% of the assets are unmodified, and the 5% that have been redone only serve to make everything else look bizarre. Gameplay is unchanged. Controller support has been finky for some people, but works for most.

So, looks like the best port yet.

So maybe it's a good thing SE doesn't seem to have any interest in it? It's cut down on the urge to tamper?

 

[MeatMachine]

I bought it and installed it, haven't played it yet.

Enter the Gungeon, DOOM, and Hyperlight Drifter are holding my attention for now, but it is encouraging to hear that they didn't slaughter the original game and wear it like a skinsuit for a new port.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Don't have it, don't intend on getting it.

I checked out what people are saying about it, though - I have a cruel sort of interest when it comes to SE brutalizing their classics. Apparently, this is one of the least altered FF's that's gotten a PC release. 95% of the assets are unmodified, and the 5% that have been redone only serve to make everything else look bizarre. Gameplay is unchanged. Controller support has been finky for some people, but works for most.

So, looks like the best port yet.

So maybe it's a good thing SE doesn't seem to have any interest in it? It's cut down on the urge to tamper?

Seems so. FF9 appears to live in that narrow band of games that are old enough to re-release, but new enough that they couldn't fuck it up without putting any real effort into it, or fit it into a mobile port and then lazily copy-paste that into everything under the sun.

If only FF4 and FF6 lived in that narrow band.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I bought it, haven't played it yet, but I'm eager to.

Final Fantasy 9 was my first, and favorite game and yet I've never beat it. When I was a kid, I rented it and a scratched 3rd disc prevented me from progressing.

I bought a PS copy a year ago, and same thing. Only now it's on the second disc and the problem is that that characters hit trance but don't transform so the battles just get held up making the game unplayable.

so I'm looking forward to playing the hell out of it and doing all the character voices and shit in a Lets Play.

 

[Hades]

I had been eagerly waiting the game for quite some time.

As someone who never owned a playstation I sadly missed a lot of the FF's after 6 but from everything I've seen Zidane always stood out to me compared to the more modern FF heroes. Now I finally got a chance to play it.

 

[Dalisclock]

I never got to play it when it came out due to not having a PS, but I finally picked it up and played it last year on my PS3. I really dug it, except for the load times before battles and the way they chopped off Freya's Character Arc.So much that it immediately became my favorite game in the series(and having played the first 10(with the exception of 8), I stand by that). I'm glad they're releasing it, and I'm seriously thinking of getting PC copy so I have a backup and getting one for a friend.

 

[Hades]

I'm suddenly starting to remember why I'm extremely wary of pc gaming in general.

The game just keeps crashing and after the crash I tend not to get any sound until I restart my computer in general. This should not happen. My computer is hardly a first grade gaming pc but if it can run a Total War game then a glorified Playstation one game shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Sassafrass]

First time properly playing it (Played when I was younger and I can't remember jack shit about it) and it seems to be a good port. The battle intros can drag on for a small bit and they seem to hang a little bit on the black screen transition but otherwise, I'd say it's a good port. It is locked at 30fps and then at 20fps on the overworld map but that's not a massive issue. And at the very least, they added in the Xbox button prompts for the QTE near the start.

I will say it's weird though, playing a Playstation game on a PC with a Xbox 360 pad. It's sounds so wrong, yet feel so right.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Playing it now. The biggest difference is in the random encounter rate. Original FF9 had an absurdly high encounter rate, New FF9 has an absurdly low encounter rate. You can reliably get through entire areas without an encounter. There's also a fast forward button.

 

[loa]

From what I've heard, it sounds like a competent port which apparently addresses the 10 seconds battle intro for random encounters that happen every 2 steps issue which made me stop playing it on the ps1. I might pick it up sometime.

It's the last final fantasy that didn't entirely go for the fever dream type of storytelling, tried hard to establish something like internal consistency and uses it to great effect.

 

[CritialGaming]

Frankly I'm just collecting them all on PC as they come out. I have 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,13,13-2,13-3.
I will say that I like the changes to the PC port of 9. The extra speed and the control over the encounters is nice. I like to grind in FF games and since I can speed up trivial battles, life is nice in FF9 land right now.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Don't have it, don't intend on getting it.

I checked out what people are saying about it, though - I have a cruel sort of interest when it comes to SE brutalizing their classics. Apparently, this is one of the least altered FF's that's gotten a PC release. 95% of the assets are unmodified, and the 5% that have been redone only serve to make everything else look bizarre. Gameplay is unchanged. Controller support has been finky for some people, but works for most.

So, looks like the best port yet.

Character models are better, backgrounds are better, music & gameplay are the same and UI is changed. A few cheats added plus a high speed mode, you can skip battle intros.. How is that 95% unchanged?

 

[Kae]

They actually added Mouse support!
Seriously how did they not think of that before?
The battles are way faster by controlling the menus with the mouse, I'm not a fan of the walking controls though, you can walk with the mouse but you can't cross-over to the next screen with it which is kind off annoying but it's a good port otherwise.

 

[WeepingAngels]

They actually added Mouse support!
Seriously how did they not think of that before?
The battles are way faster by controlling the menus with the mouse, I'm not a fan of the walking controls though, you can walk with the mouse but you can't cross-over to the next screen with it which is kind off annoying but it's a good port otherwise.

If you can't cross a loading zone, then isn't mouse support useless?

 

[Fappy]

I'll probably pass on the PC port. SE doesn't have a good track record with those. I already have it for PS3/Vita anyway.

 

[Kae]

They actually added Mouse support!
Seriously how did they not think of that before?
The battles are way faster by controlling the menus with the mouse, I'm not a fan of the walking controls though, you can walk with the mouse but you can't cross-over to the next screen with it which is kind off annoying but it's a good port otherwise.

If you can't cross a loading zone, then isn't mouse support useless?

Well it's useless for movement but you can still walk with WASD, it works great with the combat menus, makes battles go by much faster and is less tedious than using an analogue stick or a digital pad.