Everything Wrong with Final Fantasy IX

[NC1234567]

As was already pointed out, 9s drop in sales, was mostly due to its release (which you totally ignored in your response). It was released after ps2 had already dropped, and people were anticipating 10. Not because of the quality of the game. Again, it's been shown 9 has for the most part, always been high up on the ranking of ff games.

I don’t trust mainstream websites, IX doesn’t deserve that high of a rank, in the “1001 games to play before you die” book, it barely gives IX a small article while VII and X had full double pages and even pictures, also what the book said about IX wasn’t that positive, it even said that IX SHUNS REALISM. (which is completely correct by the way, as evidenced by over the top cartoon villains like Brahne, and Garnet’s stupidity)

That's fine if it's not enough for you, but it was enough for most people. You're in the minority here. Don't you get that?

Majority doesn’t equal objective truth, Galileo was in a minority of saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun, unlike the majority, guess which was correct? This is where the term overrated comes from, and whoo boy is IX overrated, it has so many problems, like the poorly done love story and Garnet being an idiot, etc. it does not deserve it’s praise.

Heck even TV Tropes says this: “Hype Backlash: A small but growing segment of the fanbase is getting tired of hearing this game getting praise and acclaim while VIII and to a lesser extent X get spat on.”

You say you want to bring to light the big issues, prior to the possible Remake and TV show. The problem is, MOST people disagree with you.

Again, majority doesn’t equal facts, especially since those people have nostalgia googles on. Heck the fans who have played IX is technically a minority because, again, IX sold quite less compared to other games, if IX did get more attention I’m pretty sure more people who aren’t wearing rose coloured glasses over it would be pointing out it’s problems. Heck, this is what one of my FF.Net commenters stated:

“I did used to frequent the forums back in the day; two of the biggest ones are still around (TFF and EoFF), although they’re a shadow of what they used to be. The main thing I can recall was people complaining about the plot being cliched, the characters being shallow, and that the overall development was rushed because Square were already making FFX. They also thought Trance was crap compared to Limit Breaks and that the battles were frustratingly slow, even with the battle speed turned up to max”

“The false sense of entitlement you have, is astounding.”

Oh you mean like you have a false sense of entitlement to say I’m automatically wrong without even looking at all my arguments or what I’m even talking about? Like Garnet? Pot meet kettle.

 

[NC1234567]

I think 7 takes the cake on that one.

No, VII deserves a lot of it’s praise, because it was really revolutionary, not to mention that a lot of the stuff in VII has aged like wine, especially the commentary on Capitalism and Corporations. Which the Remake is even improving on. IX meanwhile has not aged well.

...29 chapters is a lot of writing over dislike of a 22 year old video game. And you rant against other people for supposedly being overly attached to said video game, but you spent 29 chapters dictating how much you hate it and yet excuse yourself of obsession?

...also, I'm getting that vibe that Mako is talking about. Might do you some good to do a little introspection about that, too.

This again? For the bajillionith time, it’s so long because it is USING THE GAME SCRIPT AND COMMENTING ON IT AND DOING THE ENTIRE GAME, of course it is going to be long, how do you not get that? I’m not “dictating how much I hate it”, I am analyzing the dialogue and pointing out inconsistencies, plot holes and bad writing. Not everything about it is entirely negative, I have said that the beginning of the game is decent until you get to Lindblum, and that the second half of Disk Two was also mostly okay.

And I agree that Beatrix's faceturn seemed a bit rushed to me, but not overly note-worthy-so. And Garnet annoyed me, but just that.

It should be noteworthy considering the game forces you to lose to her three freaking times in such bullshit fights and her moral conflict coming right out of nowhere after committing war crimes with no hesitation and even laughing a few times. Garnet should be doing more than annoying you considering that she renders all of your effort to get her out of Alexandria and to Lindblum at the beginning of the game completely pointless and never getting called out on it.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I don’t trust mainstream websites, IX doesn’t deserve that high of a rank

Heck even TV Tropes says this: “Hype Backlash: A small but growing segment of the fanbase is getting tired of hearing this game getting praise and acclaim while VIII and to a lesser extent X get spat on.”

......

"I don't trust mainstream websites..."

>Proceeds to quote Tvtropes

So you only trust sources that parrot your already met conclusion. Gotcha.

Majority doesn’t equal objective truth, Galileo was in a minority of saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun, unlike the majority, guess which was correct?

...You're equating your opinion on a JRPG to the heliocentric theory of the solar system? The actual, physical evidence of the planets in our galaxy? Do you fucking hear yourself?

Do you understand how deranged you come off? No. Your opinion is not anything close to that level of importance or tangible fact. You sound absolutely ridiculous. This is beyond immature, at this point. Unbelievable.

Again, majority doesn’t equal facts, especially since those people have nostalgia googles on. Heck the fans who have played IX is technically a minority because, again, IX sold quite less compared to other games

They're in the minority? Really?

NHK 2020 Poll of Everyone's favorite FF games, characters, etc

All-Final Fantasy Grand Poll Results:
1. Final Fantasy X (2001)
2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
3. Final Fantasy VI (1994)
4. Final Fantasy IX (2000)
5. Final Fantasy XIV (2010~)
6. Final Fantasy V (1992)
7. Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
8. Final Fantasy IV (1991)
9. Final Fantasy XI (2002~)
10. Final Fantasy XV (2016)

All-Final Fantasy Grand Poll: Characters
1. Cloud Strife – Final Fantasy VII
2. Yuna – Final Fantasy X
3. Aerith Gainsborough – Final Fantasy VII
4. Vivi Ornitier – Final Fantasy IX
5. Zidane Tribal – Final Fantasy IX
6. Emet-Selch – Final Fantasy XIV
7. Tidus – Final Fantasy X
8. Lightning – Final Fantasy XIII
9. Tifa Lockhart – Final Fantasy VII
10. Zack Fair – Final Fantasy VII

2018 Nico Nico Favorite Final Fantasy Character Poll

1. Cloud (6059 votes)
2. Sephiroth (3789 votes)
3. Tidus (2745 votes)
4. Yuna (2600 votes)
5. Squall (2561 votes)
6. Lightning (2215 votes)
7. Tifa (2150 votes)
8. Bartz (1471 votes)
9. Locke (1393 votes)
10. Noctis (1379 votes)
11. Auron (1370 votes)
12. Cecil (1362 votes)
13. Terra (1340 votes)
14. Zack Fair (1296 votes)
15. Zidane (1154 votes)


Favorite Final Fantasy Game Results
1. FF7
2. FF10
3. FF6
4. FF5
5. FF4
5. FF8
7. FF9
8. FF3
8. FFTactics

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1604453351512383491

You need to wake up. FFIX has been scoring in the top 10s of favorite characters and games consistently. It's not just nostalgia (or at least, no more nostalgia than literally any other older FF title) nor is it in the minority. You are either laughably ignorant or in denial. This is beyond parody at this point. Just say you hate it and move on with your life.

 

[NC1234567]

......

"I don't trust mainstream websites..."

>Proceeds to quote Tvtropes

So you only trust sources that parrot your already met conclusion. Gotcha.



...You're equating your opinion on a JRPG to the heliocentric theory of the solar system? The actual, physical evidence of the planets in our galaxy? Do you fucking hear yourself?

Do you understand how deranged you come off? No. Your opinion is not anything close to that level of importance or tangible fact. You sound absolutely ridiculous. This is beyond immature, at this point. Unbelievable.



They're in the minority? Really?

NHK 2020 Poll of Everyone's favorite FF games, characters, etc

All-Final Fantasy Grand Poll Results:
1. Final Fantasy X (2001)
2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
3. Final Fantasy VI (1994)
4. Final Fantasy IX (2000)
5. Final Fantasy XIV (2010~)
6. Final Fantasy V (1992)
7. Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
8. Final Fantasy IV (1991)
9. Final Fantasy XI (2002~)
10. Final Fantasy XV (2016)

All-Final Fantasy Grand Poll: Characters
1. Cloud Strife – Final Fantasy VII
2. Yuna – Final Fantasy X
3. Aerith Gainsborough – Final Fantasy VII
4. Vivi Ornitier – Final Fantasy IX
5. Zidane Tribal – Final Fantasy IX
6. Emet-Selch – Final Fantasy XIV
7. Tidus – Final Fantasy X
8. Lightning – Final Fantasy XIII
9. Tifa Lockhart – Final Fantasy VII
10. Zack Fair – Final Fantasy VII

2018 Nico Nico Favorite Final Fantasy Character Poll

1. Cloud (6059 votes)
2. Sephiroth (3789 votes)
3. Tidus (2745 votes)
4. Yuna (2600 votes)
5. Squall (2561 votes)
6. Lightning (2215 votes)
7. Tifa (2150 votes)
8. Bartz (1471 votes)
9. Locke (1393 votes)
10. Noctis (1379 votes)
11. Auron (1370 votes)
12. Cecil (1362 votes)
13. Terra (1340 votes)
14. Zack Fair (1296 votes)
15. Zidane (1154 votes)


Favorite Final Fantasy Game Results
1. FF7
2. FF10
3. FF6
4. FF5
5. FF4
5. FF8
7. FF9
8. FF3
8. FFTactics

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1604453351512383491

You need to wake up. FFIX has been scoring in the top 10s of favorite characters and games consistently. It's not just nostalgia (or at least, no more nostalgia than literally any other older FF title) nor is it in the minority. You are either laughably ignorant or in denial. This is beyond parody at this point. Just say you hate it and move on with your life.

Which is why IX is OVERRATED, I don’t care what these rankings say because they are clearly biased, like Rotten Tomatoes. IX wasn’t even in the top three in any of those examples, you also said nothing about the “1001 Video Games to play” book I mentioned before.

Also I only quoted TV Tropes for that one line, there is a bunch of stuff on that page I don’t agree with on IX, keep in mind I did put an “even” before TV Tropes to clarify that I don’t really like that website, can you please pay attention to detail instead of cherry picking everything I say?

...You're equating your opinion on a JRPG to the heliocentric theory of the solar system? The actual, physical evidence of the planets in our galaxy? Do you fucking hear yourself?

Do you understand how deranged you come off? No. Your opinion is not anything close to that level of importance or tangible fact. You sound absolutely ridiculous. This is beyond immature, at this point. Unbelievable.

No, I was just using an example to show that majority thoughts aren’t inherently right, which you were trying to argue as objective proof that IX is an objectively good game storyline-wise.


You are being immature because you don’t want to even slightly admit that maybe the “Best FF game EVAH” isn’t such the best.

Since you refuse to see all my arguments, I will just post my big criticisms here (other than the ones I have already posted about Garnet and Beatrix)

Speaking of which, this is the problem with Kuja, he spends most of the game being a moustache twirling cartoon villain, doing stereotypical cartoon evil behaviour and generic JRPG stuff, but then at the last minute, the game forcefully tries to make him out to be "complex, tragic and sympathetic". Instead of drawing inspiration from a Shakespeare antagonist, Square apparently decided to base Kuja on the attention-whoring snots who get rejected at their auditons to play Shakespeare antagonists.

Overlooking the man-thong, the effeminate hair tosses, the mincing, the temper tantrums, and the embarrassing attempts at poetry, there just isn't much going on with this guy. He's like that one insufferable drama brat you knew back in high school: he always has to be the center of attention, he never shuts the hell up even when he has nothing worth saying, and even while doing something immorally, he acts like he's standing in front of a full-body mirror and practicing for his role as Scar in the spring semester production of The Lion King. His only real interesting moments occur when he's ripping off Blade Runner and is revealed as Zidane's brother, but as said above that happens so late and forcefully that you wonder why they even bothered (it's like the revelation that Lynx was Serge's father in Chrono Cross). But I will address that all when we get to it. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/7/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Zidane "Oh, come on! Why do you think everyone stayed behind!?" "Yeah, they're fighting for you, but also, they know, deep down inside, that they have to fight!" "Beatrix, Freya, Marcus, Blank, even Steiner..." "Sometimes, you can't think everything out. You have to listen to your heart." [Dagger nods and walks in] "Alright..." [The gargant moves, and Zidane jumps in]

And that's the typical moral of any typical JRPG.
Actually, Zidane you dummy, there is not the slightest weight in these "fights", , you do not gain anything in your fictitious fights. The fact that you spend a lot of time killing random monsters, you remember only on big holidays when you need to prove something to someone with pomp. This is empty illusory shit.

This is what one of the problems with Zidane is, he doesn't act like a real teenage boy, all he does most of the time is say really corny and clichéd lines and speeches, nor does he get rightfully mad with Dagger for what she did. Plus, to respond to Zidane's "Why do you think everyone stayed behind" line, it was because Dagger had got them all into that situation in the first place because of her stupidity, which Zidane is glossing over.

Also it's really ironic that Zidane is claiming that "you can't think everything out" considering that "not thinking things out" is exactly what Dagger has been doing since abandoning Zidane in Lindblum up to this point, with really bad results. Zidane is just spouting
bullshit.
———
If this is triggering any Deja Vu for you readers, it's because this is literally a repeat of back in the beginning of the game when Brahne sent the Black Waltzes after the party to capture and bring back Garnet as we saw at the end of chapter 1. In fact this whole Alexandria segment this chapter was a carbon copy of the Alexandria segment on Disk 1 at the very beginning of the game with the kidnapping.

This is what I meant earlier when I said that we went in a big circle because of Dagger, Zidane helps her escape from Alexandria on Disk 1, gets to Lindblum, runs back to Alexandria like an idiot, Zidane helps her escape from Alexandria again, goes to Lindblum again, we just go in one big circle for the first Disk and a half, and if you still don't see it, I'll list the similarities bit by bit:

- You infiltrate the castle to find Dagger and get her out both times, obviously

- You fight a knight trying to stop you both times (Steiner and Beatrix) and both knights happen to be fought three times (except Steiner wasn't an unbeatable Mary Sue, unlike Beatrix)

- The Queen finds out and tries to stop you by sicking monsters on you both times (a monster Bomb and Bandersnatches)

- You get on an escape ride but something goes wrong and you crash both times (Prima Vista and the Gargant)

- The Queen sends a bunch of assassins after you both times (The Black Waltzes and, as we are seeing right now, Lani and Amarant)

- You wind up in a different location from your intended location in the crash, that you have to get out of both times (Evil Forest and, as we will see next chapter, Pinnacle Rocks, and both locations even happen to have the exact same theme music, "Awakened Forest")

- You go to Lindblum both times

Sure every other single little detail isn't exactly the same (like no play being involved again), but it sums up how completely worthless the whole beginning of the game and the kidnapping was, as Dagger completely defeated the purpose of all that by going back home like an idiot and making us get her out all over again, except there is more devastation and destruction as a result now, because Brahne got her hands on Dagger's Eidolons.

It's bad enough that IX cheaply rehashes plot threads from previous FF games, but IX also rehashes it's own as well.
From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/9/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Regent Cid "It's my job to know the land surrounding my country." "However... I sometimes lack foresight." "Brahne was after the gwok eidolons. That much, I knew." "But I underestimated the power of the eidolons." "Maybe I deserve to be cursed with this body."

…And there it is… *sigh* Let me get this straight, Cid, you knew this whole time that Brahne was after the Eidolons… and you DIDN'T MENTION THIS INCREDIBLY CRUCIAL BIT OF INFORMATION TO EVERYONE THE FIRST TIME THEY WERE HERE IN LINDBLUM ON DISK 1, ESPECIALLY TO DAGGER, THE HOLDER OF THOSE EIDOLONS, SO SHE WOULD'T DO ANYTHING STUPID?!

This is what I have been referring for the past several chapters about Cid knowing about what Brahne's plans were and never telling anyone until too late. What is with this game and characters never telling anyone anything when they should?!

All this bullshit and the beginning of the game being rendered pointless could have been avoided had Cid simply told everyone, especially Dagger, all this from the start (though as I said above in my earlier rant about Dagger, even if you remove not knowing about the Eidolons from the picture, it doesn't really justify and excuse Dagger's stupid and extremely selfish behaviour), and the "underestimating the Eidolons" hand waved nonsense isn't a valid reason.
———
Zidane "So we crush the source of the evil!"

Minister Artania "Yes. Kuja will find other clients, even if we defeat Brahne."

Great plan… all except for the fact that THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF FROM THE START BACK IN DISK 1 WHEN WE GOT TO LINDBLUM! Remember near the end of chapter 4 when I said I would explain how that part of the game should have gone? Well here it is now:

When Kuja shows up in Alexandria and starts to corrupt the Queen, Doctor Tot is suspicious of him and doesn't trust him, so he warns Garnet to be wary of Kuja and leaves to go to Lindblum to warn Cid about this (as I've explained before in chapter 7) and then Tot goes to Treno to keep an eye on Kuja while staying in contact with Cid, and this is how Cid knew things were up with the Queen and had eyes on her (and about the Eidolons), Tot then says they need to get Garnet out of there, so he and Cid think of the kidnapping, Garnet also wants to run away because she wants to find out who Kuja is and stop him because she has actual common sense and correctly deduces that Kuja is the cause of her mother's behaviour and the source of the problem, when Tot hears the kidnapping was successful, he leaves Treno to take an airship to Lindblum to meet Garnet alongside Cid, they tell her, Zidane and etc. that her mother is after her Eidolons (since Tot should know that Garnet is a summoner) and she doesn't act like an idiot and abandons Zidane, since Cid knows about Pinnacle Rocks and Tot knows a lot about the Eidolons, they talk about rumors of the Thunder Eidolon, Ramuh, being seen in Pinnacle Rocks, so Garnet and Zidane go there to learn about the summoners and the Eidolons, they learn about the Summoner tribe from Ramuh, Garnet gets Ramuh, they go back to Lindblum where Tot and Cid tell everyone about Kuja being the source of the problem and how they should be focusing on him, they talk about Kuja possibly being from the Outer Continent and how to get there. Tot also explains the legends of the Summoner Tribe being on the Outer Continent. When the wounded Burmecian comes in, this point should have been a scenario like the one in FFVI where after fighting Ultros in the river you play through three scenarios (that you get to choose to do in whatever order):

First scenario: Zidane, Garnet and Vivi go to the Outer Continent to find out more about the Eidolons and the Summoner tribe, and to find Kuja and go after the source of the problem.

Second scenario: Freya, Steiner and (eventually) Quina go to Burmecia to aid them, making more sense since they're experienced Knights, it would have also gave more development between Beatrix and Steiner, instead of Steiner being absent from Beatrix's actions during that point (also Beatrix should have be the Queen and Garnet's mother instead of the stupid Brahne)

Third Scenario: The Tantalus crew go to Dali to destroy the Black Mage factory: it never made sense how Tantalus found out about Blank's petrification so quickly, they couldn't have still been in the forest when it happened since they would be petrified too, and they couldn't have been nearby otherwise they would have joined up with Zidane and Garnet in the Ice Cave, instead they don't find out about it until they get back to Lindblum and Zidane and Garnet tell them about Blank, so they find out about the Supersoft and make plans to go to Treno, and Cid asks Baku to destroy the Black Mage factory in Dali on the way, to weaken the Queen's forces (you know, ACTUAL STRATEGIES, instead of just forgetting about that whole factory?!). It also would have continued and resolved the subplot regarding the Dali residents and their thoughts on the factory as we saw in chapter 3. It was also implied that there is a Black Mage factory in Treno and that the nobles or at least the Auction House was in on it, so when Tantalus gets to Treno they have to find that factory and destroy it, and also to infiltrate the Auction House to see if Kuja is there and spy on him.

Also as I said above in scenario two, Beatrix should have been the queen and Garnet's mother instead. They can still have Brahne as a different character. Maybe a flamboyant, eccentric tutor of Garnet's? (it would certainly subvert the "overweight and unattractive people are bad" negative stereotype) The IX fanfic called "The Thief and his Princess" does this very thing, Beatrix is Garnet's mother, it does Zidane's and Garnet's love story much better and it even gives a better story for Amarant, check it out!

Getting back to the point: There, I gave a much better way the game should have gone than what the writers went with. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/10/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

[FMV. Kuja raises his hands, as the sky goes black. The eyeball which destroyed Madain Sari appears in the sky.]

Here is a big question, how does Kuja have control over the Invincible? After what Kuja did with stealing away Zidane and dumping him on Gaia, Garland wouldn't let Kuja have control of or even anywhere near the Invincible, as Kuja clearly showed that he wasn't trustworthy.

Brahne "I...I am empty now... Free..." "Free...of that...terrible...greed..."

Well, I just exploded. No, no, NO. It's simply impossible to do this, Brahne left a moral event horizon behind already when she blew up Cleyra and ordered to have Garnet's head cut off. This is not greed, this is excessive and unmotivated cruelty, for which there is no justification and is cheap, over the top, edgy try-hard juvenile nonsense - and this pathetic attempt to knock out a drop of sympathy compassion for this dolt-elephant looks really wretched. She was just another Emperor Gestahl/President Shinra/Vinzer Deling clone (with a dash of Disney cartoon villain thrown in) whose only purpose was to serve as a fake main antagonist until getting back stabbed and killed off.
Brahne had a good upbringing with tragedies like loosing her biological daughter and husband being recent things, but she still had a nice adoptive daughter, this shouldn't have made her go off the deep end and pulled a one-eighty flip into a moustache twirling cartoon villain that wants to kill everyone, Kuja himself says that Brahne wanted this, granted he is an unreliable narrator. But the game never explains what Kuja's "push" was.

Before I wrote this review, I've argued this with others online, and they've made the claim that Kuja used the Mist to make Brahne unstable (as Steiner said before in chapter 2 about the Mist causing abnormalities in the mind and what the Soul Cage says) but what we see with the Mist isn't consistent, Burmecia, Gizamaluke's Grotto and Qu's Marsh are within the Mist yet none of the people there seem to be influenced by it and are mentally unstable and none of the players characters seem to be affected from wondering through the Mist earlier in the game. How did Kuja even use the Mist on Brahne anyways? Did he have a syringe of Mist and injected it into Brahne to make her go crazy? How did he do this without anyone noticing? How is Kuja able to maintain the Mist's effects on Brahne without it wearing off and Brahne regains her senses? If Kuja could just control someone through the Mist, why didn't he do the same to Garnet so that she wouldn't run away like at the beginning of the game? From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/15/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Zidane "I couldn't say anything!" "I had a whole speech ready for her." "But it would've been a lie! How could I lie to her!?" "'Good luck, Dagger! I'll be watching you from afar.'" "'Come find me if you need someone to talk to.'" "It's a big fat lie! That's not how I feel at all!" "That's not how I feel...at all."

So? What the heck, now that Garnet is Queen can she not just spit on the dumb Status Quo and be with the one she loves? Why do this quick "meeting" at all, why not just invite Zidane and her friends to a banquet? Why does Garnet not turn to Zidane, and the others, for love and support in this "most important moment"? Why doesn't Zidane say "screw it" and sneaks in through a window to see her? This is what I'm talking about, this is all such blatantly forced drama and not good romance (not that it has been good before this point as it wasn't even majorly and properly focused upon since the beginning of the game), and what's worse is that it will all be rendered moot and forgotten by even more forced drama later. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/16/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

[FMV: The Invincible charges up and unleashes a full blast on Alexander. An ENORMOUS explosion erupts, destroying virtually all of Alexandria, which we see from above]

And that's the last we will see of Alexander. I'm not even kidding, all that build up towards Alexander since the freaking beginning, such as the opening FMV emphasis shots focusing on Alexandria Castle which the strongest Gaia Eidolon seems to be connected with, the pieces of the Alexander jewel, especially Garnet's pendant which the FMVs also had some shots of (the pendant is even on the game over screen!), and Alexander's whole role was to just to have one cool scene and then get easily devastated and blown up by the Invincible and drops out of the rest of the story, never appearing again with few mentions, the rest of the game might as well be considered a completely different story (which will definitely feel like it when Terra is thrusted in), and the whole thing will be rendered even more pointless once we get to the "Kuja goes Trance" part.

Also keep in mind of the story-breaker power that is the Invincible because it causes some of the biggest plot holes in the game, which I will explain once we get to Garland and his reveals. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/18/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

[Tot steps aside. Cid is now a frog]

…yep all this pointless fetch quest did was change Cid from an Oglop to a Frog. This is some of the most blatant padding in an FF game (and that's not even mentioning the "Red Light, Green Light" minigame later that also involves Cid), they'd rather waste time on this than focus on Zidane's and Garnet's love story or finish the Freya/Fratley arc or make Amarant an actually interesting character. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/19/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

[The group returns to the boat. They travel to the desert area on the easter side, and enter the necessary whirlpool of quicksand. The screen fades to black]

Now there is this nonsense! When the team finds out that Kuja's lair is "somewhere in the desert" (which it actually isn't), what do they do? They JUMP INTO THE FREAKING QUICKSAND. ALL. SIMULTANEOUSLY.

"Huhaha... I knew you'd come. Everything is going according to plan..."

And everyone immediately falls into the trap of Kuja, who EXPECTED them to dive headfirst into the shithole of quicksand. And it all happens behind the scenes.

Enough with this "all according to plan" BS. There is no way Kuja could have predicted this, especially when it looks like the Black Mages from the Village went to Kuja BEFORE the events of Alexander being summoned, and as I've said above, the Palace is actually within the mountain range that is quite a distance away from the desert and those quicksand holes, the quicksand should not have lead the party here to the palace.

From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/20/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Kuja "So...an eruption of anger against one's surroundings induces a complete Trance!" "It's not the will to live, nor is it the desire to protect another!"

Okay soooo…

-Kuja was in Burmecia when the party fought Beatrix and used trances.

-Mog didn't use trance, she just reincarnated into her natural form, Madeen.

-In what way is Trance an "eruption of rage against the environment"? Trance accumulates over a dozen battles and activates at the most inopportune moment.

-In the party, everything, even the worthless crap-eater Quina, even the rusty tin-can and the six-year-old, are able to trance with might and energy - and Kuja never knew about any this? What nonsense! Even Steiner of all people had some knowledge of it, with what he said when Zidane first Tranced in the Evil Forest. There is a frigging library in the Desert Palace where Kuja lives, he never looked through any of those books on Trance or the Alexandria Library? (Especially with how Terra archives should have way more knowledge about Trance) Heck one of the whole reasons that Zidane was supposed to be superior to Kuja was that Zidane could Trance and Kuja couldn't (as stated in the Ultimania), Kuja never found that out from any data files?

Before this point, as I've explained in chapter 2, Trance was just a gameplay gimmick with absolutely no references or lore outside of battle, but now, out of nowhere, and pretty nonsensically in regards to Kuja thinking that Mog "Tranced", Trance has suddenly and forcefully become a major plot point, and makes Kuja's whole hunt for the Eidolons, which took up 70% of the game, a huge waste of time. From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/22/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Okay, to make this clearer, here is a quote from the FFWiki: "Soulcage's goal was to halt the flow of souls in Gaia and replace them with the souls of Terra, eventually transforming Gaia into a new Terra when enough of Gaia's spirit energy has turned into Terran energy. The stagnant Gaian souls that could not be reincarnated turned into Mist as a byproduct of this process, which was used to spark war among Gaians to increase the rate at which they died, thereby allowing the Terran souls to replace the Gaian souls faster."

"Garland's ultimate plan is for Terra to assimilate the planet of Gaia via replacing the Gaian souls with Terran ones. To accelerate the process Garland created Kuja and sent him to Gaia to incite war so Gaian souls would be replaced faster. However, Garland initially deemed Kuja a failure. According to the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, Kuja was created as he is and never experienced a childhood. Thus he never developed full human emotions and would never be able to enter Trance, the world's ultimate power."

But here is a big question, why did Garland even need to make Zidane and Kuja in the first place when he could have simply just used the INVINCIBLE to cause death on Gaia? This is what I meant back in Alexandria a few chapters ago when I said that the Invincible causes some of the biggest plot holes in the story, the Invincible is really overpowered, it devastated an entire settlement of the summoners, it can enslave Eidolons like we saw with Bahamut, and not even Alexander, the most powerful Gaia Eidolon, could stand up to it and got blown up easily. Why does Garland need an "Angel of Death" when he can just take the Invincible and blow up every city and densely populated area on the Mist Continent to speed up the soul switching process?
———
Zidane "My home is with them in Gaia!" "If you say I have a motive, then it's to punish all of you who brought pain to my friends!" "I'll destroy Terra! That's reason enough for my birth here as a Genome!"

…Wow, how "heroic", Zidane. "I am a benefactor, so I will now arrange genocide for all my people."

Way to demonize an entire group of people for the actions of two individuals (Garland and Kuja), one of whom was more well intentioned if still an extremist. (the other was just a narcissistic d-bag)

This is one of the things that I hate most, this stuff with Gaia and Terra is actually some of the most interesting stuff in IX, but it all happens way too late into the game and is thrown so forcefully in, it's presented as some momentous revelation and then ends up having all the impact of a badly-timed non-sequitur (It's like in Chrono Cross with the revelation that Lynx is Serge's father, it happens so late into the game that you wonder why the writers even bothered), doesn't really go into details about Terra's culture and lore, and how it's just disgustingly reduced to this black and white "us or them" bullshit, especially with how Zidane's and Garnet's love story could have factored into all this, but that is to be talked about during the ending.

Even The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, did this whole thing better with Hyrule and Lorule, and that game's story didn't even have that much depth and complexity.
———
Garland seems to be nullifying Zidane and removing his soul from his body, lowering him to the level of an ordinary genome, well, in any case, what we can understand from his words, and he himself is clearly able to do this, he is a demiurge here, after all.

And Zidane himself is saying: "yes, I'm empty" ... and then immediately recognizes Vivi and Eiko. What the heck? Here you can't even say that he prevented Garland from sucking out his soul with some dumb POWER OF WILL or LOVE FOR FRIENDS (which just undermines the love story of Zidane and Garnet), there is nothing like that in this scene, he sits on a black background and laments "I'm shit, I'm empty, screw everyone, I'm screwed up." This, firstly, is not what Garland promised to do (Zidane remained Zidane), and secondly, it is completely out of character for no reason.

And Garland just lays him in a random chamber some where in Pandemonium WITHOUT LOOKING OVER AND GUARDING HIM?! Garland just effs off to the top of Pandemonium, leaving Zidane to be found and rescued. Wow, "smart". Why doesn't Garland have Zidane's soul somewhere within a jar already?
———
Zidane "Aww..." "I'm sorry. Let's head back... Together, this time!"

And in the end, to his "oh, I won't burden you with my problems," Garnet replies "no, we want to help," and after that Zidane is so "ok", as if nothing had happened.

And everything, all the drama was removed by hand. When everyone else wanted to help, they were left behind, when Garnet said the same thing, the point dropped immediately. Wow, what an amazing drama, "BEST GAME EVAH", ooh.

This whole forced scene was just a cheap knock off of Cloud's mind screw and being put in a wheelchair from FFVII, but the reason why Cloud's worked so well was because the entire game builds up to that one climactic moment from the very beginning. (The flashbacks and memory flashes, the voice in Cloud's head) But in IX, it's completely tacked-on, and only done because this is post-FFVII and paying customers expect at least one terrible and momentous mind screw of a revelation before the credits roll.

What also made the original better in VII than the repeat in IX was that, it was kept solely between Cloud and Tifa (Tifa staying by Cloud's side when he was in the wheel chair suffering from Mako Poisoning, and going into Cloud's subconscious) it wasn't some cheesy and cliché "friendship" thing and platonic nonsense, it focuses on romance and emphasized the love story of Cloud and Tifa since childhood and showing the memories of said childhood. (and keep in mind that VII didn't even have a love song as it's main theme like IX did, or VIII and X) Or in VIII with the scene on the Ragnarok airship with Squall and Rinoa or in X where Tidus and Yuna are kissing in the pond underwater in Macalania Woods.

IX however, didn't make it solely between Zidane and Garnet and just made it an annoying "friendship speech" thing that once again undermines the love story that this game hypes up so much, it just forces a moment later with a teleporter with eyeballs on it. (not making that up)
———
Yep, Kuja has trance now, and I've already repeatedly talked about the issues of how this was just a in-battle gameplay mechanic that was never talked about outside of battle or had a lore surrounding it, but then arbitrarily became a major plot point at the last minute. But it also renders Kuja's whole plan to get Alexander and the Eidolons, which took up roughly over two thirds of the whole game, completely pointless. Instead of wasting time with trying to get the Eidolons, he could have focused on getting Trance this whole time, and I've already said before how it makes no sense that Kuja didn't know anything about it before Mount Gulug (and even then, that wasn't an actual trance, Mog was just reassuming it's true form as Madeen, the Eidolon) when even Steiner of all people had some knowledge about it, Kuja even has a library in the Desert Palace that has to have some books on Trance.

We also never get an Ultima spell to use like Kuja in IX.
———
Kuja "That's right! It was your mother's soul. A wretched soul that clung to life to the bitter end."

That doesn't even make sense, first off, when Brahne was attacked by Bahamut, she didn't immediately die, she washed up on the shores of the Outer Continent in her "escape pod" and died on the beach, long after Kuja and the Invincible had left, so her soul should not have wound up inside it.

Secondly, didn't Brahne say she was "free of that awful greed" before she died? So Kuja's claims here are bullshit. Also why is he singling Brahne out as a "powerful soul"? The summoners who could communicate with nature and summon the Eidolons don't count as well?

And thirdly, this whole plot point doesn't really go anywhere. Okay so Brahne and some of the summoners and etc. are inside Kuja, but this is never brought up again, and we don't even see Brahne and the others appear as spirits later, so it's a completely pointless detail.

From: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/26/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Welp, here is the moment in FFIX that is the most infamous and well known for the fans, the actual final boss: Necron, that comes right out of nowhere.

But… in all honesty, Necron isn't even the BIGGEST problem with IX, I'd say that some of the biggest problems are Dagger's stupidity and the poorly done, unfocused love story of her and Zidane. Necron was at least last minute and a short appearance, and the whole "completely out of nowhere final boss" bad writing isn't even something that is unique to Necron, Final Fantasy and several old JRPG's did this cliché before, "Pulling a Necron" isn't anything new, but this guy's unexpected and arbitrary appearance at the end of IX is by far the most ridiculous example of this unfortunate practice, and the reason it's named after him. (Especially with how this is post-FFVII writing, you'd think that the writers would have moved on from this kind of bullshit) But if anything what is really irritating is that it's Necron that gets all the attention and focus as opposed to other larger problems with IX. What's also irritating is how some fans will actually try to justify his appearance.

These fans will say things like "he is supposed to symbolic!" and "he is supposed to be a physical representation of the game's themes!". Okay, it's pretty dumb symbolism and IX's themes are all over the place and are incoherent, uninspired and uninteresting, and if the writers thought they were being "subtle and clever" they were freaking wrong, because this is about as subtle as a brick to the face. (There are even pretentious, long winded Youtube "analysis" videos about Necron and trying to justify him) Some have also theorized that Necron is actually the true form of the Iifa Tree, based on what Garland said before about how Zidane "only saw the back of the Tree", which is a nice theory and all, but ultimately incorrect as the Ultimania completely josses this theory by stating:

"Eternal Darkness [Necron]
Monster created by fear of death
A being awoken by the fear, despair and hatred of Kuja, who discovered, with the fulfillment of his ambition near, that he had little time left to live. It rejects the cycle of life through the crystal and attempts to return every world, including Terra and Gaia, to nothing. The final enemy to confront Zidane's team." (From the "Lifestream Net")

Necron really is nothing more than just a random monster summoned by Kuja's feelings and the "symbolism" is nothing more than a cheap excuse and a cover up to the REAL reasons that he is here.

The first reason: Necron is actually, like many things in IX, just a cheap reference to a past Final Fantasy, in this case it's a reference FFIII and the "Cloud of Darkness", the CoD was also an out of nowhere final boss for III that was brought upon by a person that feared death (Xande, that Kuja is copying from), though to be fair in the CoD's case, it wasn't completely out of nowhere, III repeatedly talks about the balance of light and dark and how if that balance is upset with light or dark getting out of control, it brings forth a cataclysm, and the CoD is that cataclysm, so it at least had more of a connection to the story than Necron did. (and the DS Remake of III at least tried to expand on this a bit more) Then there is Necron's actual name, You didn't think the last boss's original Japanese name was Necron, do you? It was probably changed because of text space restrictions, but Necron's Japanese name literally translates to "Eternal Darkness", as stated from the Ultimania quote above, and Necron even says his actual name right here in his dialogue (though the translation mixes up the words a bit) Is there a link here? The Cloud of DARKNESS (or Dark Cloud for a literal translation) emerges at the very end of Final Fantasy III to return all existence to the Void. The Eternal DARKNESS emerges at the very end of Final Fantasy IX to return all existence to nothingness. Hmmm. There also might be some FFV thrown in, given that Necron's design looks really similar to the Necrophobe, the optional boss you fight just before the final boss, Exdeath in V (that and the similar names, but considering that Necron isn't supposed to be his actual name, that could just be a coincidence), even the Crystal World looks pretty similar in appearance to the World of Darkness and the Interdimensional Rift, the final dungeons of III and V.

The second and bigger reason: Necron is only here so Kuja can have his cheap last minute redemption, when you beat Necron, Kuja suddenly teleports you away back to outside of the Iifa Tree, and Kuja is suddenly all remorseful and the game try's to have this sad and tragic moment with him and Zidane. (will be addressing how weak that was when we get to that scene) Since having Kuja suddenly getting regretful and teleporting everyone out would have been too blatantly deus ex machina-ish, the writers threw in Necron to try and make the whole thing slightly more coherent.

TL;DR version: The real reasons Necron is a thing is to be just another cheap shout out to a previous Final Fantasy and to be a walking talking plot device for Kuja to have his forced last minute redemption.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/27/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

 

[roku]

I have some minor complaints about ix (Freya and Fratley's plot being abandoned, Beatrix face turn being rushed) but it's still one of my favorite games of all time.

Also how can Garnet be one of the worst characters ever when Lunafreya exists.

 

[NC1234567]

I have some minor complaints about ix (Freya and Fratley's plot being abandoned, Beatrix face turn being rushed) but it's still one of my favorite games of all time.

Also how can Garnet be one of the worst characters ever when Lunafreya exists.

Chapter four explains why Garnet is a horrible character: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/27/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Here is a preview:

And here it is, THIS, this is the drop off point, this is the moment that I have been building up to, this is where the whole game goes downhill into a messy wreck, here we go with one of the worst moments in the game, if not the series, where Garnet DRUGS AND ABANDONS Zidane and her friends, and makes the whole beginning of the game with the kidnapping and the first few hours of gameplay getting her to Lindblum, COMPLETELY POINTLESS, and then dragging us on a long, stupid, boring and pointless sub-quest with a painfully obvious conclusion that can be seen from miles away, and causing tons of destruction as the result (giving more power to the bad guy causing other countries to get blown up from her Eidolons) and to make things worse, she NEVER gets called out on any of this, especially by Zidane who should very rightfully be pissed with her, she just gets treated as a "victim" and then we get even more whining and wangst from her, the little sub plot of her going mute later from "shock" doesn't help things. To reply to what Garnet said above earlier: YES, yes you are that freaking naïve and it's going to get worse from here.

Most of all, it ruins the love story a lot. This game that acts like Zidane/Garnet is a big deal, as stated above, has all that romantic build up in the past, especially with the FMV a while ago with Garnet singing and Zidane watching and the emotional music, and it's all been rendered pointless by this dumb scene, and again the fact that Zidane isn't rightfully upset with her and has a heated emotional discussion with her afterwards just makes it much worse. And yet people rip on Rinoa more instead, refusing to accept that one is inept is immature. Refusing to even hear the argument because one's skills and/or status will ensure success is arrogance. And arrogance should annoy a lot more than immaturity.

I can makes pages on all the contrivances, inconsistencies, and bad writing surrounding this stupidity, but if I did all that here this chapter and rant would be too long, so I'm going to give it in pieces as this stupid subplot goes along and will explain a MUCH better way this part of the game should have gone.

Luna Freya was just bland.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Which is why IX is OVERRATED, I don’t care what these rankings say because they are clearly biased

Okay so... The opinions of thousands of fans over several years on what their favorite FF characters and games are, are to be discounted because they're "biased."

....So explain to me why we should give a single fuck what you have to say on it?

What makes your opinion and critique somehow more valid, relevant and accurate in its assessment of IX being "overrated" than other fans? What make you an authority on this subject? What makes you the... Galileo of Final Fantasy?

The sole truth teller who's descended the mountain with inarguable facts on FFIX and it's true measure of worth among it's brethren.

No, I was just using an example to show that majority thoughts aren’t inherently right, which you were trying to argue as objective proof that IX is an objectively good game storyline-wise.

It was a pretty terrible and nonsensical example. Astronomy and physics are not anything close to JRPG opinions. Comparisons should be somewhat similar and equivalent to each other. Otherwise they come off as ridiculous and stupid.

And I never once said FFIX was an "objectively" good game. That's a stupid claim to make in the first place. Taste and favorites are inherently subjective; there is no "objectively" good or bad FF game or any video game.

Since you refuse to see all my arguments, I will just post my big criticisms here (other than the ones I have already posted about Garnet and Beatrix)

I don't need to read your full screed to understand your feelings and opinions on IX. You've made those perfectly clear.

It's absolutely ridiculous how much energy and effort you've poured into a game you dislike so much. Like, genuinely it's extremely bizarre. I don't like most modern Pokemon games since Black & White, but you know what I don't do?

Dedicate hours writing pages dissecting a video game I hate or think is "overrated" and then try to farm engagement for it from people across the internet.

Like, are you even monetizing this? What is this effort for??

Tell you what. Why don't you make a youtube video of this. Start a youtube channel, make some vids on your ridiculously bad, hot takes regarding Final Fantasy. Put somes ads on it, and at least your white hot rage for FFIX will get you paid. Stack that paper with your anger towards FFIX and make it meaningful in some way. Turn what you hate into what you love and at least there will be some purpose to your frothing at the mouth rage over FFIX. Because right now this is just weird.

Like, I genuinely don't get what your endgame with all this is. So much energy for something so meaningless.

 

[LNK]

Oh you mean like you have a false sense of entitlement to say I’m automatically wrong without even looking at all my arguments or what I’m even talking about?

You clearly can't comprehend what I've been saying to you.

Not surprised. Good luck

 

[LNK]

Also how can Garnet be one of the worst characters ever when Lunafreya exists.

I take that personal /s

 

[roku]

Chapter four explains why Garnet is a horrible character: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/27/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX

Here is a preview:

Luna Freya was just bland.

Here's the difference Garnet has actual agency. She makes her own decisions. While she can be stubborn and naive her decisions make sense for her as a character. She also has desires outside of Zidane which Zidane has to accept.

Lunafreya on the other hand has no personality or agency outside of Noctis. We don't even know why they love each other. They just do. I haven't read dawn of the future so I don't know if they fixed this.

I take that personal /s

Sorry about that. I mostly used her to defend Garnet

 

[LNK]

Sorry about that. I mostly used her to defend Garnet

Lol I'm jk anyway. While I liked Luna, I know most people didn't. It's all good.

 

[looneymoon]

 

[Rankles]

Someone has issues…

 

[NC1234567]

Nostalgia shills always bring this up like it means something. This is the same guy that nearly tanked his entire company with that awful “The Spirits Within” movie and then went on to make blue dragon and the last story. Sure. His opinion is gospel.

Why should it have any bearing on objective reviews?

Does that mean anything? He's also said in the past that V is his favourite. Does that mean that V should be placed at the top of every list entirely because the creator “claims” so? Again, no. We should grade a game based on that game's merits, not a nice statement a producer said about an upcoming game.

The golden age of FF (VII, X and XII) were all made/written/designed by people way more talented. Same went with Mistwalker. Lost Odyssey was mostly made and written by others (Daisuke Fukugawa, and good parts of the plot (like the text stories, world concept and characters) were done by Kiyoshi Shigematsu), while the games Sakaguchi did have more input on are the ones nobody fucking remembers. What input Sakaguchi DID have on the good entries with his name slapped on them were so absolutely minuscule, and usually rewritten/redesigned by other people anyway.

I’d also like to point out that Sakaguchi was going to this in the original VII if Nomura hadn’t stopped him:

Tetsuya Nomura:
But if I hadn’t stopped you, in the second half of the game, you were planning to kill everyone off but the final three characters the player chooses!



Yoshinori Kitase:
No way! I wrote that? Where?



Tetsuya Nomura:
In the scene where they parachute into Midgar. You wanted everyone to die there!



Yoshinori Kitase:
Really? Wait, I’m starting to remember …



Tetsuya Nomura:
Yeah, remember? You and [writer] Nojima-san were all excited about this. I was the one who said “No way!” and stopped you guys. You wanted to kill everyone except the final three characters the player chose for the endgame.

I have nothing personal against Sakaguchi, I’m just saying that he is better as a producer than as a writer, and IX’s writing, which he was heavily involved in, really shows.

 

[ForceStealer]

"Sakaguchi was going to do this thing!"

*quotes Kitase*

 

[NC1234567]

Here's the difference Garnet has actual agency. She makes her own decisions. While she can be stubborn and naive her decisions make sense for her as a character. She also has desires outside of Zidane which Zidane has to accept.

Lunafreya on the other hand has no personality or agency outside of Noctis. We don't even know why they love each other. They just do. I haven't read dawn of the future so I don't know if they fixed this.

You do realize that XV is very clearly an unfinished game, especially with Nomura kicked off the project. Lunafreya at least never got anyone killed due to her stupidity, unlike Garnet.

“make sense for her as a character.”? Garnet’s character sucks and is extremely cliché, she is a naïve princess stereotype.

Garnet’s decisions were selfish and stupid, She quite literally goes back and hands her entire selection of eidolons to her mother after all the hard work Zidane and Tantalus did to get her ass out of the kingdom. In the end Garnet is the one responsible for giving her mother magic nuclear weaponry that annihilated Cleyra, seriously hurt Lindblum and then Alexandria itself killing god knows how many people.

But hey, we're talking about a game where a war criminal is never confronted about the shit she did and is left to stay as an unbeatable mary sue.

“Zidane has to accept”?! Zidane risked his life for her to get her out of Alexandria and to Lindblum because he loved her, and how does she repay him? By drugging and abandoning him, If I were Zidane, I would have been really upset with her after losing a close friend in the attempt to rescue her only for her to decide to blow me off and making the whole thing meaningless.

This quote from chapter four sums it up:

"Muh independence and muh mummy"

Good lord is this woman is selfish, nobody is truly independent Garnet, and yeah because your own decision right now will work out "just fine", also you already made your own decisions before like getting out of Alexandria, yet you're butthurt because your uncle Cid already had the same idea of getting you out of Alexandria, and also Zidane and the others thinking just "talking to your mom" wasn't a good idea (especially since you didn't try to do this when you had the chance before fleeing from home, something you'd assume a woman who had an otherwise perfect relationship with her mother would do FIRST) even though you yourself claimed that Cid was the only one who could possibly talk to the queen earlier, and just spent the whole beginning of the game fleeing from said queen. Not to mention how, earlier up above, she clearly said she suspected her Mother was going to start a war, her strange reaction here makes no sense when everything she suspected turned out to be true, she should be LESS likely to just "go home and try to talk to mommy", especially with how she is going back WITHOUT ANYONE TO BACK HER UP, which was the whole point of running away from home and trying to get to Lindblum in the first place.

If her mother was so darn pleasant that Garnet could have just talked her out of it, why run away from home in the first place?

Really you should have been focusing on that "suspicious person" (Kuja) in the castle, that was clearly the source of the problem and responsible for your mother's crazy behaviour and tried to find out about him by running away from home and go after him from the start instead of trying to solve this bs mystery that's so obvious.

Zidane and Garnet's relationship is pretty unhealthy here.

 

[NC1234567]

"Sakaguchi was going to do this thing!"

*quotes Kitase*

Sakaguchi didn’t raise any objections to it, unlike Nomura.

Honestly Nomura should have been involved in IX, he would have objected to a lot of the things that Sakaguchi wrote in IX.

 

[LNK]

Nostalgia shills always bring this up like it means something. This is the same guy that nearly tanked his entire company with that awful “The Spirits Within” movie and then went on to make blue dragon and the last story. Sure. His opinion is gospel.

Why should it have any bearing on objective reviews?

Does that mean anything? He's also said in the past that V is his favourite. Does that mean that V should be placed at the top of every list entirely because the creator “claims” so? Again, no. We should grade a game based on that game's merits, not a nice statement a producer said about an upcoming game.

The golden age of FF (VII, X and XII) were all made/written/designed by people way more talented. Same went with Mistwalker. Lost Odyssey was mostly made and written by others (Daisuke Fukugawa, and good parts of the plot (like the text stories, world concept and characters) were done by Kiyoshi Shigematsu), while the games Sakaguchi did have more input on are the ones nobody fucking remembers. What input Sakaguchi DID have on the good entries with his name slapped on them were so absolutely minuscule, and usually rewritten/redesigned by other people anyway.

I’d also like to point out that Sakaguchi was going to this in the original VII if Nomura hadn’t stopped him:

Tetsuya Nomura:
But if I hadn’t stopped you, in the second half of the game, you were planning to kill everyone off but the final three characters the player chooses!



Yoshinori Kitase:
No way! I wrote that? Where?



Tetsuya Nomura:
In the scene where they parachute into Midgar. You wanted everyone to die there!



Yoshinori Kitase:
Really? Wait, I’m starting to remember …



Tetsuya Nomura:
Yeah, remember? You and [writer] Nojima-san were all excited about this. I was the one who said “No way!” and stopped you guys. You wanted to kill everyone except the final three characters the player chose for the endgame.

I have nothing personal against Sakaguchi, I’m just saying that he is better as a producer than as a writer, and IX’s writing, which he was heavily involved in, really shows.

Troll on

 

[NC1234567]

Okay so... The opinions of thousands of fans over several years on what their favorite FF characters and games are, are to be discounted because they're "biased."

....So explain to me why we should give a single fuck what you have to say on it?

What makes your opinion and critique somehow more valid, relevant and accurate in its assessment of IX being "overrated" than other fans? What make you an authority on this subject? What makes you the... Galileo of Final Fantasy?

The sole truth teller who's descended the mountain with inarguable facts on FFIX and it's true measure of worth among it's brethren.

The examples you used didn’t even have IX in the top three.

Because I am actually analyzing the script of IX, copy and pasting the script and then reading through it to point out any inconsistencies, plot holes and bad writing as factually as possible. Actually when was the last time you played IX? I’m asking because your memories of it could possibly be fuzzy, the first time I played IX I clearly hated what Garnet did and thought she was stupid, I also saw disappointing pay offs for other things like Terra and the truth about Zidane.

Maybe you would get that if you‘d actually read my commentary.

 

[ForceStealer]

Sakaguchi didn’t raise any objections to it, unlike Nomura.

Honestly Nomura should have been involved in IX, he would have objected to a lot of the things that Sakaguchi wrote in IX.

Sakaguchi was the producer on VII, why would he have been involved in this? By this logic every single Square employee not referenced in this interview was involved in the plot to kill off the cast of VII, lol.

 

[NC1234567]

Sakaguchi was the producer on VII, why would he have been involved in this? By this logic every single Square employee not referenced in this interview was involved in the plot to kill off the cast of VII, lol.

Regardless, Sakaguchi is not a good writer.

Troll on

Again, not trolling, I am being completely serious.

 

[NC1234567]

It was a pretty terrible and nonsensical example. Astronomy and physics are not anything close to JRPG opinions. Comparisons should be somewhat similar and equivalent to each other. Otherwise they come off as ridiculous and stupid.

And I never once said FFIX was an "objectively" good game. That's a stupid claim to make in the first place. Taste and favorites are inherently subjective; there is no "objectively" good or bad FF game or any video game.

The argument was about majority vs minority though, and thinking that majority automatically equals fact, which is a fallacy. Let’s just drop the whole sales thing already.

Oh really? Not even Superman 64? Or Atari E.T. which caused the great video game crash? Those aren’t OBJECTIVELY bad? You are just playing the “relativism” card now, which is bullshit. Also I never said IX was a steaming pile of shit, at worst it’s one of the weakest mainline games.

I don't need to read your full screed to understand your feelings and opinions on IX. You've made those perfectly clear.

It's absolutely ridiculous how much energy and effort you've poured into a game you dislike so much. Like, genuinely it's extremely bizarre. I don't like most modern Pokemon games since Black & White, but you know what I don't do?

Dedicate hours writing pages dissecting a video game I hate or think is "overrated" and then try to farm engagement for it from people across the internet.

Like, are you even monetizing this? What is this effort for??

And yet you asked up above on why what I am saying should be considered valid facts, which you would get if you read my commentary. If you are so curious as to what my thought process is, just read it already! You aren‘t even going to read the legit things I pointed out like the huge plot hole of why did Garland even need to make an “Angel of Death” like Zidane and Kuja in the first place when he already has the perfect weapon of the powerful Invincible airship that not even Alexander could stand up to help speed up the soul swapping?

You are just making strawman views on me.

Also why would I want to make money from this? This is isn’t about money, this is about effort and passion. I‘ve already said this before so I’ll just quote it here:

I am not just “shitting” on FFIX, it’s constructive criticism, stop making ad hominem attacks, I want IX’s issues to be fixed and improved on, like the VII Remake did with the Midgar Segment (let’s leave the whispers out of this), I’m trying to draw more attention to problems like Garnet’s stupidity and the poorly done love story, so that, hopefully, the upcoming IX cartoon, and a potential IX remak will change these things.

And finally…

Tell you what. Why don't you make a youtube video of this. Start a youtube channel, make some vids on your ridiculously bad, hot takes regarding Final Fantasy. Put somes ads on it, and at least your white hot rage for FFIX will get you paid. Stack that paper with your anger towards FFIX and make it meaningful in some way. Turn what you hate into what you love and at least there will be some purpose to your frothing at the mouth rage over FFIX. Because right now this is just weird.

Like, I genuinely don't get what your endgame with all this is. So much energy for something so meaningless.

I don’t know how to even make a YouTube video, that’s part of why I did this review commentary instead, did you consider that? Stop making assumptions about me, hating IX isn’t my entire life, I am not going to become another money launder on YouTube, which has been going downhill every since it gave in to capitalism and commercialism, I especially am not going to give into dumb ads.

I don’t need your advice.

I’m not the only one who has heavily criticized IX, this Russian guy called “Final Fantasy? Whatever” did as well: https://www-finalfantasywhatever-co..._sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_sch=http

 

[LNK]

Again, not trolling, I am being completely serious

There's no way lol. You act as if you're bringing objective facts, when what you said about the crystals and Garnet, clearly aren't. As Mako said, you're being as subjective as everyone else with your review.

The argument was about majority vs minority though, and thinking that majority automatically equals fact, which is a fallacy. Let’s just drop the whole sales thing already.

And as pointed out, your example was horrendous. A good example would've been something else subjective.

Also I never said IX was a steaming pile of shit, at worst it’s one of the weakest mainline games.

And you're entitled to that opinion. Nobody is taking that away from you. What people are disagreeing on (at least I am) is that, it isn't true for everyone. It's not nostalgia that's driving our opinions either.

 

[LNK]

I’m not the only one who has heavily criticized IX, this Russian guy called “Final Fantasy? Whatever” did as well: https://www-finalfantasywhatever-co..._sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_sch=http

This review puts ff9 at number 10/100, of all ps1 games

Top 100 PS1 Review: #10 – Final Fantasy IX (1999)

I Haven’t Cried This Much Since… FFX 😢. Has there been a more relatable, unrelatable character than Vivi?

thetop100.blog

 

[LNK]

And since when was 7, 10 and 12 considered the golden age? Lol