This month, I finished playing my third Final Fantasy game – Final Fantasy IX. And I loved it! There was so much to enjoy about my journey across Gaia, but my biggest take away was how many times it took me by surprise, sometimes by doing the unexpected and other times by sticking to conventional JRPG fare but really excelling at it at the same time! Here are 9 ways Final Fantasy IX stopped me in my tracks:
1. Every Time Someone Said ‘Bastard’
I’m not sure why this was so jarring to me, possibly because FFIX is a very cheerful game for the most part and not only was I not expecting anyone to drop a hard swear word, but I also did not expect the first character to do so to be a Moogle. As a side note, I absolutely love that it is consistently just the Moogles who are swearing. I just love Moogles in general, actually. In light of this, please enjoy this compilation of my favourite ‘bastard!’ usages.
2. By Being Genuinely Funny
Actually, I was pretty surprised overall at how much this game had me chuckling aloud. I think I hadn’t anticipated it much due to my experience with Final Fantasy VII, which does have its funny moments but tends to rely on being absurd (sometimes bordering on bizarre). The humour of IX just seemed much more up my street, and treads the line between funny and corny quite well, for the most part.
3. Six Dragons
‘Six Dragons’ is an ability that can be used by Freya, and the only description it carries is ‘see for yourself’ which is both enticing and intimidating in a game where abilities range from fleeing to straight up eating enemies. I don’t want to spoil anything for people who aren’t familiar with this or haven’t gotten around to playing the game. Let’s just say, I used it once in my whole play-through, and I never dared to use it again.
4. The Gorgeous Backgrounds
I was a little disappointed when I learnt that Square-Enix stuck with the original pre-rendered backgrounds for the remaster, which consequently look pretty fuzzy compared to the nicely polished character models. Beyond this however, there’s no denying that Final Fantasy IX still holds up as a very pretty game. It leans into the medieval-fantasy aesthetic hard, resulting in a mix of warm cosy spots and breathtaking views.
5. By Emotionally Compromising Me
Vivi, our special black mage companion, gets a shout out for this one. I did not expect things to get so emotionally deep, and I certainly did not expect to see a nine year old wizard ruminating on death, friendship and the purpose of life. Not only was this highly affecting, I found it a lot less cliche than attempts to do this in the other two Final Fantasy games I have experienced. Vivi’s character arc in general pushed me to keep playing, and the adorable little wizard has gained a place in my (so far theoretical) list of favourite video game characters.
6. Creating the Most Lovable Cast of Characters
Speaking of beloved Vivi, I was taken aback by how many characters in this story I came to love. I know that in comparison, one of the reasons Final Fantasy VII is so cherished is because of the connections players who experienced VII as children felt toward Cloud, Tifa and the like. As a late comer to Final Fantasy, I felt like I missed the boat there – but with IX, it all made sense to me at last. In particular, I loved Freya and Beatrix. They (and maybe even Dagger) also addressed some of the gripes I had about female characters in VII, making this entry in the series even more special to me.
7. How High Fantasy It Is…Until It Isn’t.
I’ve frequently heard IX described as ‘the most ‘Final Fantasy’ of all the Final Fantasy games’, and I think that’s a big reason why it appealed to me so much in the first place. Theatre troupes, knights in not-so-shining armour, Princesses and Empires – this is my bread and butter. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the world of Final Fantasy IX is not exactly as it seems and, without spoiling too much, the story begins to get put on its head a little. I’m not saying every JRPG needs to reinvent the genre, but it certainly makes it more interesting when they try.
8. That The Dwarves Had That Accent
In retrospect, I suppose Dwarves in film do tend to have Scottish accents, but as the residents of one of the very first major towns you visit in a different land to the starting continent, it’s just not what I expected.
9. How Much I Enjoyed the Combat
Overall, I found Final Fantasy IX to involve much less grinding than I expected. Just by walking around and not avoiding random encounters, I found my crew was always up to scratch for most boss battles. I loved the fact that losing a battle doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go away and grind for an hour – sometimes just switching out a piece of gear or just trying out a new ability can be enough to tip the scales in your favour. This held up for the entire game except the last two hours, where boss after boss (for which you gain zero xp!) took its toll on my team, and things started to feel a little more hopeless, like a certain other difficult game I played recently. But for the most part I felt like I was scaling up naturally rather than having to break story immersion to level up.
So that’s VII, IX and XV now ticked off my list. What Final Fantasy game do you think I should tackle next? Let me know in the comments below!
