Final Fantasy IX appreciation thread

[vaderSW1]

I love Final Fantasy IX. It is a near flawless game. My only gripe is the damned Tetra Master card game. It's completely random and non-sensical. I loathe that you are forced to have to play in the fucking Treno Tournament. However, outside of that the, the game is a love letter to everything that made Final Fantasy great. The art direction is beautiful. The music is gorgeously orchestrated. The characters are, for the most part, very well developed and interesting. I love the ability learning system. The battle system is your classic ATB system nuanced with Trances. The story is well told. Damn near flawless.

 

[Flintlock]

Tetra Master is not random or nonsensical. It does have a random element, but then so do 99% of minigames in the whole series, and so do battles themselves for that matter. I do think the game could have done a better job of explaining it, however. The idea was to scatter clues around the world, but by the time you're playing someone in Esto Gaza in disc three, you probably don't remember what the note in the item shop in Dali back on disc one said...

 

[vaderSW1]

Tetra Master is not random or nonsensical. It does have a random element, but then so do 99% of minigames in the whole series, and so do battles themselves for that matter. I do think the game could have done a better job of explaining it, however. The idea was to scatter clues around the world, but by the time you're playing someone in Esto Gaza in disc three, you probably don't remember what the note in the item shop in Dali back on disc one said...

I'm sure there is a logic to it but it your chances of winning are based more on luck rather than skill. There seems to be no real strategy for winning a game of Tetra Master. It's more random and a bit nonsensical. Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad card game was far less random and made more logical sense. It was easier to grasp onto and figure out the best strategy to win. I found Triple Triad to be far more enjoyable and more intuitive (that is until you start getting into some of the awful rules in other parts of the world). I found that Triple Triad was best played defensively rather than offensively. Tetra Master seems to have no such strategy.

 

[Lex]

Tetra master does have a similar strategy when you work out what each digit represents, but putting a card next to another card that is a cert to beat it still has a chance of failing so yeah it's completely fucking dumb. Flint just likes it because there's a chance he could fail even when the maths is right, so it makes it more satisfying for him to win. Conversely, I hate that you can get the maths right and still lose. Hooray rng game lottery! Said no one ever.

 

[Ite]

The numbers in Tetra Master are
Attack/Type/P-Def/M-Def
4M15 would have a magical attack power of 4, a magical defense of 5, and a physical defense of 1, therefore if it went up against a 6P64 it would probably win, but a 0M08 might take over your attacking card.

As Flint said, there are unseen variables that add chance to it. And there are basically no rewards (unlike FFVIIIs cards which can be traded for 100 Meteors and such) so I understand the dislike. I think it's fun though!

 

[Flintlock]

Flint just likes it because there's a chance he could fail even when the maths is right, so it makes it more satisfying for him to win. Conversely, I hate that you can get the maths right and still lose. Hooray rng game lottery! Said no one ever.

You like to put words in my mouth, don't you? You've made a number of posts recently purporting to know what I think, often incorrectly.

I like the game despite the random element, not because of it. Triple Triad is probably the better game but it has its own problems.

 

[Splintered]

*people talking bad about Tetra Master*

Tetra Master is a fun card game and a I enjoyed it much more than Triple Triad, which never failed to aggravate me.

 

[Lex]

You like to put words in my mouth, don't you? You've made a number of posts recently purporting to know what I think, often incorrectly.

I like the game despite the random element, not because of it. Triple Triad is probably the better game but it has its own problems.

Oh lighten up

 

[Blade]

I will admit that the first time I played FFIX, I did it simply because of the motifs... that is to say I was "actively looking for easter eggs" (since my previous two games were FFVII and VIII, VIII being my all-time favorite).

After playing FFVII and VIII, I did my homework on previous titles, just reading summaries and such, just to get some impressions, but wasn't really that all in to them (at first, FF Origins changed my opinion overnight).

The music and atmosphere is by far one of the best things going for it (and to this day Memoria and a few other places are my all-time unforgettable dungeons).

Battle-wise, it could've used some sprucing up, even based on older games, though it did try to stand out on its own.

I think my all-time favorite Easter-egg is the "Magic Finger" side quest for Excalibur, since it references Gogo the Great (again, one of my favorite characters in the FF series beyond Gilgamesh).

@Splintered: It's the complete opposite for me. Tetra Master was aggravating rng nonsense while Triple Triad made more sense!

 

[ForceStealer]

Happy 15th Anniversary, Final Fantasy IX

 

[Ite]

Happy 15th Birthday, Final Fantasy IX!!

OC Remix is also excited. They just announced a new FFIX album!!

 

[Kuja9001]

Happy 15th Birthday, Final Fantasy IX!!

OC Remix is also excited. They just announced a new FFIX album!!

I'd love a badass version of both Dark Messenger and Final Battle/Grand Cross

 

[Cthulhu]

I'd love a badass version of both Dark Messenger and Final Battle/Grand Cross

 

[RedFFWolf]

Happy 15th Birthday, Final Fantasy IX!!

OC Remix is also excited. They just announced a new FFIX album!!

I'd love a badass version of both Dark Messenger and Final Battle/Grand Cross

Agreed!

This made me look around for a good remix of the Dark Messenger in the meantime.

I couldn't really find a solid all-rounder - some had better intros, others had better middle sections etc.

The intro on this one lacks a bit, but it's pretty good if you like your music HEAVY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HslPfV6EaMI


And check out the intro of this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ykEzKmNrM

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

Decided I'd update my thread with something neat and FFIX related. This is incredible.

 

[RedFFWolf]

Decided I'd update my thread with something neat and FFIX related. This is incredible.

I love, love, love this piece!

I found it months ago, and it has reached many plays on my iPod at this rate - naturally, at a 5-star rating too

 

[Ite]

Amazing that this song only appears once, but it is one of the soundtrack's most iconic pieces. (like One Winged Angel or the Oath I suppose, Nobuo you scamp)

 

[trash panda]

I actually stopped playing this to do a FFVII playthru. Soon as I finish at the Northern Crater, it's right back to Tetra Master. I WILL figure how to play Tetra Master one day but for now I'm just collecting better cards than my opponents and winning that way....I think...No, I'm actually not sure how I've managed to win whatever TM games that I have won.

 

[Team_Wingless]

Though FF9 is my favorite Final Fantasy (and only one I've actually finished to this day lol), I consider it an unfinished game and from what I've read up on so do the devs. There really was no ending planned, it went through like a million revisions and came down to deadline, so they stuck a final boss in it that didn't appear or wasn't even mentioned anywhere else in the game and called it good. I'll forgive them their tresspasses, since the rest of the game was so engaging. But aaarg I feel like a couple more lines of dialogue at the end would have pulled the whole story together and made a perfect score. Alas...

If anyone wants to read a novel version of FF9 (or moreover a novel that was obviously ripped right out of FF9, though the author will never admit it), check out "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch.

 

[Flare]

FF IX was my first final fantasy I ever played, though I often watched my sis, cousin, and aunt play FF VI (which I never played until I was a teenager for some reason, and when I played it I loved it). Being my first FF, it has such a special place in me. It's so charming, so very fantasy-like, and I love the characters, the world, and the story.
I'm planning on playing it again this year, as soon as I finish XII.

Also, Tetra Master is awesome. It's one of my favorite minigames in a FF game ever, along with hunting for Chocographs and playing Blitzball. I spend hours into those minigames each time I play them.

 

[trash panda]

To this day I have never defeated Ozma.

 

[Flare]

^Glad to know I'm not the only one. Next time I play it though, I'm gonna challenge that dinky planet.

 

[Ite]

Dinky indeed. I've never lasted longer than a minute.

 

[RedFFWolf]

That period of terrifying uncertainty when you've just made Steiner perform 'Shock', knowing you almost have the bouncy ball down, but there's no action from either side for a few seconds - who is about to attack first!?

Game Over

 

[Kuja9001]

My brother's first FF title

Spoiler

I got 100/100 nobles impressed and he just defeated Steiner w/a tad bit of help.