Where's the love for FFIX?

[dickywebster]

From what i understand, those who have played only ff7 onwards, do tend to rate the ps versions higher than the later ones, iveh eard a lot of people comparing the ps with the ps2 and even 3 versions and siding with the older games.
Now personally i like them better as well, thoguh id place 7 over 9, but ffs 7 - 9 seem to be the ones ive heard get the msot praise, probably cause its the ones more people have played or something, idk.

Oh and btw, my fav is still the original, dug it out a few months back and clocked up like 30 hours on one save file over a long weekend :3
but hey, I love the old ffs, got issues with the new ones sure, but i just love to replay the old ones
Remakes however, they might screw it up, its happened before...

 

[anthony87]

-Snippero-

End result: Game felt childish, the characters felt hollow (if not outright annoying), and both the setting and story were bland.

So a world war, genocide, slavery, destruction of cities/villages/worlds, child kidnapping, searching for the meaning of your existence, struggling to come to terms with your own mortality and a few other pretty heavy story points are childish?

Look past just what you see and FFIX has one of the most mature stories in the series.

Again, its been a long time since I played the game (and I know I didn't finish it), but given the fact that pretty much all the issues you brought up were addressed in other FF games, and I REMEMBER THEM, I'm forced to say that either you've got your nostalgia/fanboy goggles on, or the combination of the visual style and the means of presentation of the plot simply didn't appeal to me on a personal level.

You have to admit, MANY of the topics you just mentioned ARE quite prevalent in cartoons specifically designed to target children - it's the presentation of these issues that may (or may not) make them seem childish. For example, both Ducktales and Black Lagoon bear story-lines involving child kidnapping, but the presentation varies VASTLY between the two. FF9's plot may well have been very adult in content, but their presentation may simply have been too childish to appeal to me at the time (I may have to give it another play-through to see if that's the case).

Also I really really hate to be the guy but:

"FF9 transitioned from a sort of scifi-fantasy setting (see FF7/8) to a more (cartoonish) fantasy setting, and it really didn't sit well with me."

A cartoonish fantasy setting? You mean the same kind of fantasy setting used in Final Fantasies 1-6?

That could be the case.
Frankly, I don't know - I started at 6, which admittedly had more of a steampunk feel as I remember it (as opposed to the more scifi-ish bent that 7 and 8 started to show); but still had that technological angle that I don't remember being particularly prevalent in 9 (whether it was there and simply didn't jump out at me, I can't really say).

Beyond that, the cartoonish-ness of FF6 was due in large part to the graphics of the day - FF7 and (particularly) 8 seemed to be moving away from the super-deformed character animations towards something vaguely resembling realistic figures, while 9 seemed to 'take a step back' towards (what I would call) a more cartoonish style.

While its easy to say one should 'look past what you see', this is a video game - what you see is going to vastly color your perceptions of what is taking place, and (in this case) my personal perceptions were of a cartoonish world, with childish characters and plot presentation.

Everyone has their own tastes in games, and by no means would I intend this as an 'attack' against a game obviously loved by many - but I have no intention or reason to pretend that I am one of those many.
I didn't enjoy the game, reasonings been stated, feel free to agree or disagree - either way, that's just, like, your opinion man.

Wow, the only thing I can really say to that is....I abide.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

9 is the only one i didn't bother playing through to the end so i can't really sing it's praises. 10 was my favourite for the gameplay, not so sure about the story but thats just the sprinkle on the top for me. I liked the advancement system and blitzball was a good side game.

 

[LilithSlave]

I would like to say this as inoffensively as possible.

But I think if you judge things like Final Fantasy IX as more childish than the others, you have a childish view on what childishness and maturity is. Or rather, a shallow one.

Because it's really not. And being impressed by a "mature appearing" atmosphere that doesn't actually add to the maturity of something isn't very mature.

Also I really really hate to be the guy but:

"FF9 transitioned from a sort of scifi-fantasy setting (see FF7/8) to a more (cartoonish) fantasy setting, and it really didn't sit well with me."

Well then, allow me to be that guy, too. As someone who grew up on the Sword and Sorcery Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII didn't sit well with me. I learned to get over it and it grew on me quite well. But it was quite an uncomfortable transition and I honestly wouldn't mind it if the transition never happened. And IX was a breath of fresh air for me.

I respect Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, especially now that I have grown to look past their departure from traditional Final Fantasy. But I wouldn't find it inferior to VII and VIII as a whole. And it is just my personal taste, but IX is my favourite on the PlayStation console. Or rather it would be second place if Tactics counts.

 

[Nilsenator]

You're not alone in having IX as your favorite Final Fantasy, as most of the replies to this thread clearly show. Whenever I look back at the series I always feel that it is the most complete game of them all, despite often being the second most overlooked one after V. But I'm not craving for a remake or anything, I think the game is great as it is (I'm usually very forgiving with outdated graphical technology as long as the game has an interesting/beautiful visual design - that stuff never ages).

 

[genericusername64]

I loved it, but I only liked it because of three reasons
1. The gameplay was tight and required less grinding
2.The plot was paced extremely well
3.ViVi

The actual plot was as original as final fantasy got, but it still sucked. Zidane was a whiny twat after he found out he was a clone. Steiner is the worst character of all time. The main villain started a fad of androgynous rivals who may or may not have a mancrush on the protagonist. The love interest was bland.
I liked it but I can see why some hated it.

 

[blizzaradragon]

Believe me, the love for IX is heavily present. Other than VI it is considered the most loved game by most Final Fantasy fans. However, it doesn't seem that way because the fans of VII are easily the most vocal out of the entire Final Fantasy fandom, so people who don't go looking through the forums or talk with the true fans of the series write it off as VII being the almighty Bahamut of the Final Fantasy world.

Here's a much better question: where is the love for FFIV and FFVIII? I love those two games a ton yet I rarely if ever see anyone talk fondly of them...

 

[LilithSlave]

Ah, IV, now THAT'S my favourite. Now THAT'S my childhood.

It's true, you often hear spiteful, vile debates between Final Fantasy VII fans and Final Fantasy VI elitists out there. But you rarely heard of the magnificence of IV. I love that game, it still remains my favourite Final Fantasy to this day.

I've heard a lot of people talk fondly of both IV and VIII by the way. IV just gets overshadowed by VI, and I think slightly wrongly so. And VIII was a culture shock for VII fans, having an inferior battle system for starters. But nonetheless has a lot of followers. It probably gets talked about more than IV for the mere fact it was on the PlayStation instead of the SNES.

 

[ninetails593]

Zidane. Zidane. Mother fucking Zidane. Best character evar

 

[Feylynn]

IX is my favorite hands down, existentialist themes, fun story, good soundtrack, lovable characters, interesting locations, amazing ending, etc.

But really there is quite a bit of love for 9, it's overshadowed by some of the others because there is like 16 others, not just one or two that people like slightly better.
If it was 6, 7, and 9 that people always talked about then you'd hear a more 9 but there is a lot of 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, Tactics etc so it's understandable that there is less of any individual game that you hear of. Still, I pretty consistently see a lot of people putting IX the highest on their personal list and I'll take that.
If some people don't like it then who cares? The people that do like it are more important in my grand scheme of Final Fantasy.

Edit: Also, shout-out for Tactics, second place in my heart. D=

 

[Frankster]

Dunno if ff9 is my absolute favorite, but it's definitly in the final fantasy god tier imo.

Music was amongst best in the series for my tastes , there was a lot of exploration and hidden secrets to be found, characters were likeable (zidane=the counter to all the jrpg emo stereotypes, though my fav character was steiner the bumbling knight), gameplay mechanics was solid as it used a modified job system that had both simplicty and depth, and visuals were quite pretty for ps1 gen so has aged relatively gracefully.

 

[AtmaPhil]

Zidane. Zidane. Mother fucking Zidane. Best character evar

I hope for you that's sarcasm, or maybe FF9 was your only RPG.

 

[LilithSlave]

What's wrong with Zidane exactly?

He was a lot more plucky and a lot less brooding than the other PlayStation Final Fantasy protagonists.

 

[Wayneguard]

It has (barely) tolerable graphics today

Whaaaa? FFIX has beautiful graphics. The misty forest place and the sandstorm city are two of the most beautifully crafted 2d backgrounds in any game... ever. Alexandria is fantastic as well.

OT: From what I can tell, FFIX is the cult classic of the PS1 era while FFVII is the far, far front-runner for most popular. Imho, IX is one of the best, if not the best of all the ff games.

 

[AtmaPhil]

What's wrong with Zindane exactly?

He was a lot more plucky and a lot less brooding than the other PlayStation Final Fantasy protagonists.

Yes he was but characters before and after him had a LOT more to offer (in other series mostly tho).
But yeah thinking about it I probably would think any character is the best evar if It was presented to me after I got done with 8.

 

[Insanityblues]

You're not the only one. PS1 was my first console and FFIX was my first console game so I do definitely have a lot of love for it. Its soundtrack is one of my favourites in the FF series.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I like FFIX... it just tends to get overshadowed.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

The summoners were next to useless unless you go on a very long grueling fetch quest to collect different rocks. The idea of summons only doing minimal damage unless certain things are done really pisses me off.

From what I remember (been a while so who knows) the summons did the 'long' animation that did more damage the first time you brought them out, and had a chance to get the 'long' one each time. However if you gave your summoner the correct accessory and learned 'boost' then it would do the 'long' one each time. Which was miles better then the FFXIII system of making you mash buttons on a timer to charge-up the power of the summon. If I recall correctly my 4 man party in 9 consisted of both summoners Eiko and Garnet(Dagger). Eiko's holy summon would do damage-cap almost every time.

 

[LilithSlave]

Eh, the graphics aged okay. It doesn't take much to impress me graphically. It looks pretty great with all of the settings turned up, though even with a lot of anti-aliasing, at 1080p quite a few textures look quite pixelated. Especially 2D textures. It's not so much the graphics that are good but the aesthetic is charming. And looks better to me because of that than plenty of modern games that would push my HD 6870. Graphical power should go to an aesthetic you like to impress you, and this impresses me more than a lot of graphics heavy modern games.

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/finalfantasyix1080pshow.jpg/]
I also decided to make a quick 1080p video capture just to show off. That hopefully turned out okay. A couple of them, actually. Just for this thread. I needed an excuse to do this sort of thing.