Final Fantasy IX
- Thread starter DrakeClawfang
- Start date
Dark and Divine
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- D&D
Another thing that I like particulary about FFIX is also the spells' and Eidolons' animations.
is still one of my favourite of all the series. The special effects are particulary beautiful, specially considering that this is a PS1 game.
And
is also amazing, imo
And
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There are so many things a little bit off on this quote it's hard where to begin.
First, I didn't describe her attributes, I described what she didn't do. I said things she didn't do, and did not list was she wasn't. I already mentioned that she got captured for a brief moment but managed to rescue herself.
Second, not getting captured, feeling weak, or relying on other people aren't personality traits, much less personality flaws. You wouldn't list those if you were already compiling a list that had the words: funny, caring, smart, and tough.
Third, even if getting captured was part of the personality of a character, how does not getting captured make them boring? I'd rather not have to rescue a girl for change instead of the countless other rpgs/anime plotlines.
Um yeah her twelve year old hair cut and serious case of bed head combined with her turtleneck sweater and cape make her the sexiest? Since square enix fucked up FF7 so much I haven't even figured out if it's actually Cloud or not, getting drunk and entering another world dressed a girl.
I agree with this statement, the spells' and Eidolons' animations were especially good for a ps1 game.
On another topic, I was playing this game on my PS3 and 1080p tv, and the bitmapping looked amazingly crisp and clear, and all of the characters looked smooth and refined. Vivi looked especially good because the lack of complicated clothing or hair. I thought that the HDness would make the game burn out my eyes from being a PSone game but it looked really good IMO.
Dana Scully
Special Agent
- AKA
- YACCBS, Legato Bluesummers, Daenaerys Targaryen, Revy, Kate Beckett, Samantha Carter, Matsumoto Rangiku
Don't hate on Lightning's design just because Squeenix made Cloud so effeminate.
And the fact that she can be sexy even while wearing a turtleneck and cape should speak volumes.
Touche.
Maybe, but Fang was still the hottest out of the FF13 girls overall.
Dana Scully
Special Agent
- AKA
- YACCBS, Legato Bluesummers, Daenaerys Targaryen, Revy, Kate Beckett, Samantha Carter, Matsumoto Rangiku
Zee
wangxian married
- AKA
- Zee
you said:
Except she was captured during Junon, and more than half of the game did feel weak, insecure, and unsure regarding Cloud's condition and how to approach it. Yes, her tendancy to hide things and second guess herself is a flaw (quite a common one that most of us have), and yes, trying to spin those things as though they aren't take away a lot of the obstacles involved in her character development. Having a character who never has moments of weaknesses or doubt they must overcome makes them completely flat.
But anyway, this thread is about Dagger, not Tifa.
u mad
Except she was captured during Junon, and more than half of the game did feel weak, insecure, and unsure regarding Cloud's condition and how to approach it. Yes, her tendancy to hide things and second guess herself is a flaw (quite a common one that most of us have), and yes, trying to spin those things as though they aren't take away a lot of the obstacles involved in her character development. Having a character who never has moments of weaknesses or doubt they must overcome makes them completely flat.
But anyway, this thread is about Dagger, not Tifa.
u mad
I already discussed how she was captured and RESCUED HERSELF and when I was USING her she never DIDN'T attack, and she didn't WHINE about Cloud. She was just confused about Cloud like THEY all were, and us the PLAYERS all were, until we finally figured him out.
I meant a flaw in character design, not as a person overall.
I already said she rescued herself, and you talked about how she finally understood Cloud, and then there's the little thing of Sephiroth killing her father and destroying her home town and wanting to destroy the world but those things make her flat just because she didn't spend the game whining about her dad being dead. Yes, there are characters who whine over other characters being dead the entire game. And finally, no, neither Cloud nor Vincent whined about Aerith or Lucrecia during the original game, just in the shitty Squeenix additions.
But anyway, this thread is about Dagger, not Tifa.
This thread is actually about FF9, not Dagger. But if you don't like talking about TIFA then don't quote me about her and make the wrong assumptions about what I was saying!
Mad as in insane or mad as in angry? I'm not angry, but me being insane is debatable.
Celes Chere
Banned
- AKA
- Noctis
How can we agree so much on Celes and disagree so much on Lightning?
We all fail a little sometimes. *pats your shoulder* >XD
ForceStealer
Double Growth
Lightning and Sazh were great, stfu
This. IX has my favorite summon animation for Bahamut and Leviathan. The sonic boom after Bahamut sweeps over the battle is so cool. And all of the FMVs involving the Eidolons are badass. I'll never forget Odin galloping straight down into Cleyra.
This. IX has my favorite summon animation for Bahamut and Leviathan. The sonic boom after Bahamut sweeps over the battle is so cool. And all of the FMVs involving the Eidolons are badass. I'll never forget Odin galloping straight down into Cleyra.
Dark and Divine
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- D&D
I'll never forget Odin galloping straight down into Cleyra.
The music that plays during that FMV is also excellent.
What am I'm saying? All the themes played during the FMVs are all excellent!
Ite
Save your valediction (she/her)
- AKA
- Ite
The FFIX Plus album is pretty much the greatest thing. I wish they had used the orchestra even more, but I'm sure it would have been ten discs at that point.
FFIX was hell of impressive for a PS1 game. The characters' heads swiveled if you walked past something or someone interesting. That blew my mind. I don't think a Square game has done that since.
And yeah, using the summons to do real-world damage was an awesome nod to FFVI as well as the fuel for the best FMV sequences of any game in the series.
I love FMV sequences - short, awe-inspiring clips interrupted by delicious morsels of adrenaline-fueled gameplay. That was the PS1-FF's strength. I suppose it started with the Northern Crater in FFVII's disc 2, then the Midgar Siege. Final Fantasy VIII was basically hopping from one FMV sequence to the next. The Dollet mission, the Train Mission, the Parade, the Garden Mission, the Airship Battle, the Lunar Cry.
FFIX had the Opening/Alexandria Escape, Black Waltz 3, Cleyra Attack, Lindblum Attack, Iifa Tree, Alexander/Bahamut, Terra, White Dragons... just thinking about them makes me pumped.
The only FMV Sequence I remember from FFX was fighting Sin on the airship - everything else just seemed to be five-minute long FMVs by themselves.
FFIX was hell of impressive for a PS1 game. The characters' heads swiveled if you walked past something or someone interesting. That blew my mind. I don't think a Square game has done that since.
And yeah, using the summons to do real-world damage was an awesome nod to FFVI as well as the fuel for the best FMV sequences of any game in the series.
I love FMV sequences - short, awe-inspiring clips interrupted by delicious morsels of adrenaline-fueled gameplay. That was the PS1-FF's strength. I suppose it started with the Northern Crater in FFVII's disc 2, then the Midgar Siege. Final Fantasy VIII was basically hopping from one FMV sequence to the next. The Dollet mission, the Train Mission, the Parade, the Garden Mission, the Airship Battle, the Lunar Cry.
FFIX had the Opening/Alexandria Escape, Black Waltz 3, Cleyra Attack, Lindblum Attack, Iifa Tree, Alexander/Bahamut, Terra, White Dragons... just thinking about them makes me pumped.
The only FMV Sequence I remember from FFX was fighting Sin on the airship - everything else just seemed to be five-minute long FMVs by themselves.
Also I thought Zidane's tail movements were cool for the time, and all the characters had loads of detail on their clothing for PS1. The rating for this game on PSN isn't a lie.
Dana Scully
Special Agent
- AKA
- YACCBS, Legato Bluesummers, Daenaerys Targaryen, Revy, Kate Beckett, Samantha Carter, Matsumoto Rangiku
So I quite literally just beat this game (still have a stupid grin on my face from the ending) after ~35 hours of playtime. This'll probably be a bit of a long post so here's the tl;dr:
Loved it. This is what Final Fantasy game should be.
I'm gonna type up my thoughts on it before I go reading through this thread so I don't colour my opinion, so apologies if I repeat or bring up things that have already been discussed.
Spoilers abound, btw.
First impression:
This game had me making the
face from minute one. By the time I'd kidnapped Garnet and was fleeing Alexandria under cannon fire, I could already tell that this was gonna be one fucking fantastic game.
Characters:
This is the only Final Fantasy I've played where none of the main characters irritated the fuck out of me. The only part I felt any real dislike towards someone was when I got annihilated because DAGGER CAN'T CONCENTRATE and I had just played for about an hour without saving, but I got over that after a few choice swears.
I in particular liked Zidane's character, mostly because he didn't (at least for a good chunk of the game) have a personal stake in anything, he was just an honestly good guy who stood by his friends.
I normally don't really care for princess characters, due to the mountain of clichés that tend to come with them, but I felt that Dagger's character development was well handled - the whole 'I'm so aggrieved over Alexandria being destroyed that I've lost my voice' thing was a bit much for me - and in general I liked her as a character.
I think if I had to pick a favourite, though, it would be Vivi. You really can't help but feel for the poor guy, and even though he was often terrified/outmatched he didn't back down from anything.
Steiner would be my second fave, I just love him. Quina was random, Freya was cool (and I was like ouch,when she finally sees Sir Fratley again and he's like "Who are you?" I mean damn.), Eiko was a good mix of typical kid and loner-orphan, and Amarant was a bamf who didn't go running for no one (like, literally, I think in the entire game he only runs once. The rest of the time he just struts while everyone else is all hurrying urgently). Beatrix was also win, really captured that dilemma of loyal-to-queen or loyal-to-country.
As for villains, I thought Kuja was fantastic. He's a flamboyant, narcissistic bastard, but still manages to have some complexity to his character (and he exploded an entire world. Badass, that). Garland was okay - at first I didn't like him because I felt he took away from Kuja, but by the time you fight him on Terra I was pretty much neutral towards him.
Brahne was just a dick who deserved what she got.
Story:
Pretty much typical FF fare, people band together to save the world yada yada, but for the most part well delivered. The story evolved a lot over the course of the game (kidnap princess > ???? > PROFIT: the ???? part was damn complicated) but I hardly ever found it confusing or totally nonsensical.
I was a bit iffy on the whole Terra thing at first, but having a planet that is essentially a parasite is a neat idea and it grew on me. It helped that Bran Bal was a creepy, empty fucking place, so one could really see why Terra needed to suck up some souls and get some personality.
The final boss seemed totally random, but it was a fun fight and it didn't really subtract from the story, just didn't add anything either. Thought it was unnecessary, really, but whatevs.
As for the very end, they got me with their trickery, the bastards. At first I was confident Zidane was still alive, but by the time it reached that "farewell" bit I was all holy shit they really did kill him. As soon as it showed 'Marcus' in his hidey-cloak, though, I knew that Zidane had indeed survived - but damn, they really had me going for a moment. The dramatic reveal/declaration of love was rather predictable but still managed to make me feel gooey inside, and it's the first game I've played in a while that had an honest-to-god happy ending, so hurrahs to that.
(It also, for a moment, occurred to me that maybe it was Kuja under that cloak, and that he had put aside his blood-soaked past to pursue a life of professional acting, which I imagine he would have been quite good at. Alas.)
As far as the Zidane/Dagger storyline goes, I thought it was well done and will admit to grinning like a fucking idiot at several of their interactions. I also loved the Steiner/Beatrix bits, and I actually cackled in glee at the whole Eiko love letter debacle.
Gameplay:
I still prefer the combat systems of both Tactics and XIII to the typical ATB of the rest of the series, but that 'typical ATB' is still pretty fun. I felt that the various party members were all pretty balanced (I used Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner for most of the end, but that was more because they were higher level than anyone else), and I particularly liked Quina's Eat/Blue Magic mechanic and Amarant's Flair. The trances had a nice bit of variety but still managed to be of around equal power-wise - though I didn't actually understand what Dagger's did until Memoria, because generally things died on the original summon. It also wasn't until Memoria that I found the game to be actually difficult, mostly because of MP management. Between MP attack and regularly casting spells, I went through ethers like they were candy, and would often be running around with 0 MP for large periods of time. Vivi's Osmose ability helped a bit, but it was still damn rough.
I liked the Ability system, though a few seemed fabulously overpowered (mm, delicious Auto-Regen/Return Magic) and others pretty much useless (the various ones that made you immune to status debuffs) unless you knew exactly what you were about to fight. The Synth system was okay, but it felt lacking compared to the weapon upgrade systems in a lot of other games.
The card game. Oh, the card game. Because I am mildly retarded, I didn't read the instruction manual or the interwebs on how the game actually works, so I pretty much blundered my way through some matches by randomly placing cards that had big numbers next to cards that had small numbers. I only bothered actually looking up the mechanics once I got to the tournament in Treno (Ohhh, so THAT'S what those letters mean). It was kinda fun, but didn't do much for me.
Never actually got a chocobo (I don't actually know how to get one in this game), so never played Chocobo Hot N Cold, but it's something I'll definitely do when I do my second, full sidequests playthrough.
Lastly I want to add that it is little events like the mock sword fight in the beginning (or the parade in FF7) that help make games awesome. I repeated it several times until I managed to get the 'Queen Brahne is impressed' thing.
World:
Between the world and the music - which I'll get to in a bit - this is what nailed the game for me. Like FF7, all the towns and places in this game had their own personalities (the whole time I was in Memoria I kept thinking of Temple of the Ancients) and quirks. The different races and cultures, the Mist, the good old airships and monsters, the three 'lost' continents - I loved all of it. I was running around Treno and thinking damn, now I remember why it really is such a damn shame FFXIII didn't have any towns. There's so much stuff to explore, and after playing IX I really, really hope that Squeenix remembers that towns are a big part of what makes the FF series so cool.
Graphics:
Oh sweet Jesus the FMVs in this were simply fantastic. I think my personal fave would be a tie between A) the Black Waltz 3 (IIRC) fries all the black mages and Vivi can only watch helplessly, and B) the airships vs dragons battle towards the end, especially when the one airship pulls an INTERCEPTION! on the dragons that were bearing down on The Invincible. All of the FMVs were colourful and well-animated (I was especially impressed by how well they animated the faces/showed emotion) and most of all they were well-directed; my eyes were glued to every single one of them.
Considering I only played about twenty minutes of VIII, I was mostly comparing the character models to those of VII, and needless to say the improvements were many and vast. The pre-rendered backgrounds were up to their usual excellent standard, and I appreciated the effort that went into the fight backgrounds - there was a pretty much a separate background for every single room you were in, rather than a generic one for each area.
The eidolon summons were also pretty damn epic. Bahamut is my fave, mostly because every time that Mega Flare appeared it was like calling in an orbital bombardment in WH40K, and everyone loves orbital bombardments.
There were also some sweet spell animations, especially Doomsday (the first time I cast that spell, I didn't bother reading the description and pressed X twice very quickly, assuming it would target just the enemy - by the time I realized it would target everyone, it was too late, and I ended up killing the enemy, Dagger, Vivi, and putting Zidane and Steiner in the yellow. It was rather fantastic).
Music:
Music is my number one passion in life, so it's a huge factor in how much I like a game - and Nobuo fucking rocked it with this one. Every time I started the game up it was a struggle to actually load the save file because I wanted to sit there and just listen to that opening song.
In particular, I thought Kuja's Theme was excellent. The snare/clap/bass combination gave it that same heavy, resistance-is-futile feel to it as the ShinRa Company track from VII, while the high-octave piano melody gave it a creepy undertone.
Vamo'Alla Flamenco - I can't get over this song, possibly because I've been in love with the Distant Worlds version for several months now and hearing it play during that epic sword fight sealed the deal on how fucking awesome it is. It's a totally different style from most FF pieces, and it's the kind of song that really makes me appreciate what a genius Nobuo truly is.
Eternal Harvest - holy shit look at Freya dance! This is the kind of song I could see fiddlers rocking out on, and the piano collection version made me love it even more.
Mage vs Mage - the song that plays during the aforementioned FMV where Black Waltz kills all the other black mages. Heartbreaking, and then just anger in those last few seconds. Fits the scene perfectly.
As usual, the character themes were fantastic. The Final Boss theme, while I thought it took a bit too long to get going, was pretty sweet once it kicked into gear (though I didn't find it nearly as memorable as either OWA or Birth of a God).
I could go on and on about the soundtrack, but this is a fucking long post already, so I'm gonna end it here. Will probably post more once I read through this thread.
Edits after reading thread:
Somehow I never made the connection that it was Vivi narrating that last part. I knew he was dead, but just never made the connection. Hurp durp.
As far as Garnet's character goes, I have to agree with everyone who said that she was, above everything else, believable.
Beatrix takes the IX heroine cake for me, though.
Loved it. This is what Final Fantasy game should be.
I'm gonna type up my thoughts on it before I go reading through this thread so I don't colour my opinion, so apologies if I repeat or bring up things that have already been discussed.
Spoilers abound, btw.
First impression:
This game had me making the
face from minute one. By the time I'd kidnapped Garnet and was fleeing Alexandria under cannon fire, I could already tell that this was gonna be one fucking fantastic game.Characters:
This is the only Final Fantasy I've played where none of the main characters irritated the fuck out of me. The only part I felt any real dislike towards someone was when I got annihilated because DAGGER CAN'T CONCENTRATE and I had just played for about an hour without saving, but I got over that after a few choice swears.
I in particular liked Zidane's character, mostly because he didn't (at least for a good chunk of the game) have a personal stake in anything, he was just an honestly good guy who stood by his friends.
I normally don't really care for princess characters, due to the mountain of clichés that tend to come with them, but I felt that Dagger's character development was well handled - the whole 'I'm so aggrieved over Alexandria being destroyed that I've lost my voice' thing was a bit much for me - and in general I liked her as a character.
I think if I had to pick a favourite, though, it would be Vivi. You really can't help but feel for the poor guy, and even though he was often terrified/outmatched he didn't back down from anything.
Steiner would be my second fave, I just love him. Quina was random, Freya was cool (and I was like ouch,when she finally sees Sir Fratley again and he's like "Who are you?" I mean damn.), Eiko was a good mix of typical kid and loner-orphan, and Amarant was a bamf who didn't go running for no one (like, literally, I think in the entire game he only runs once. The rest of the time he just struts while everyone else is all hurrying urgently). Beatrix was also win, really captured that dilemma of loyal-to-queen or loyal-to-country.
As for villains, I thought Kuja was fantastic. He's a flamboyant, narcissistic bastard, but still manages to have some complexity to his character (and he exploded an entire world. Badass, that). Garland was okay - at first I didn't like him because I felt he took away from Kuja, but by the time you fight him on Terra I was pretty much neutral towards him.
Brahne was just a dick who deserved what she got.
Story:
Pretty much typical FF fare, people band together to save the world yada yada, but for the most part well delivered. The story evolved a lot over the course of the game (kidnap princess > ???? > PROFIT: the ???? part was damn complicated) but I hardly ever found it confusing or totally nonsensical.
I was a bit iffy on the whole Terra thing at first, but having a planet that is essentially a parasite is a neat idea and it grew on me. It helped that Bran Bal was a creepy, empty fucking place, so one could really see why Terra needed to suck up some souls and get some personality.
The final boss seemed totally random, but it was a fun fight and it didn't really subtract from the story, just didn't add anything either. Thought it was unnecessary, really, but whatevs.
As for the very end, they got me with their trickery, the bastards. At first I was confident Zidane was still alive, but by the time it reached that "farewell" bit I was all holy shit they really did kill him. As soon as it showed 'Marcus' in his hidey-cloak, though, I knew that Zidane had indeed survived - but damn, they really had me going for a moment. The dramatic reveal/declaration of love was rather predictable but still managed to make me feel gooey inside, and it's the first game I've played in a while that had an honest-to-god happy ending, so hurrahs to that.
(It also, for a moment, occurred to me that maybe it was Kuja under that cloak, and that he had put aside his blood-soaked past to pursue a life of professional acting, which I imagine he would have been quite good at. Alas.)
As far as the Zidane/Dagger storyline goes, I thought it was well done and will admit to grinning like a fucking idiot at several of their interactions. I also loved the Steiner/Beatrix bits, and I actually cackled in glee at the whole Eiko love letter debacle.
Gameplay:
I still prefer the combat systems of both Tactics and XIII to the typical ATB of the rest of the series, but that 'typical ATB' is still pretty fun. I felt that the various party members were all pretty balanced (I used Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner for most of the end, but that was more because they were higher level than anyone else), and I particularly liked Quina's Eat/Blue Magic mechanic and Amarant's Flair. The trances had a nice bit of variety but still managed to be of around equal power-wise - though I didn't actually understand what Dagger's did until Memoria, because generally things died on the original summon. It also wasn't until Memoria that I found the game to be actually difficult, mostly because of MP management. Between MP attack and regularly casting spells, I went through ethers like they were candy, and would often be running around with 0 MP for large periods of time. Vivi's Osmose ability helped a bit, but it was still damn rough.
I liked the Ability system, though a few seemed fabulously overpowered (mm, delicious Auto-Regen/Return Magic) and others pretty much useless (the various ones that made you immune to status debuffs) unless you knew exactly what you were about to fight. The Synth system was okay, but it felt lacking compared to the weapon upgrade systems in a lot of other games.
The card game. Oh, the card game. Because I am mildly retarded, I didn't read the instruction manual or the interwebs on how the game actually works, so I pretty much blundered my way through some matches by randomly placing cards that had big numbers next to cards that had small numbers. I only bothered actually looking up the mechanics once I got to the tournament in Treno (Ohhh, so THAT'S what those letters mean). It was kinda fun, but didn't do much for me.
Never actually got a chocobo (I don't actually know how to get one in this game), so never played Chocobo Hot N Cold, but it's something I'll definitely do when I do my second, full sidequests playthrough.
Lastly I want to add that it is little events like the mock sword fight in the beginning (or the parade in FF7) that help make games awesome. I repeated it several times until I managed to get the 'Queen Brahne is impressed' thing.
World:
Between the world and the music - which I'll get to in a bit - this is what nailed the game for me. Like FF7, all the towns and places in this game had their own personalities (the whole time I was in Memoria I kept thinking of Temple of the Ancients) and quirks. The different races and cultures, the Mist, the good old airships and monsters, the three 'lost' continents - I loved all of it. I was running around Treno and thinking damn, now I remember why it really is such a damn shame FFXIII didn't have any towns. There's so much stuff to explore, and after playing IX I really, really hope that Squeenix remembers that towns are a big part of what makes the FF series so cool.
Graphics:
Oh sweet Jesus the FMVs in this were simply fantastic. I think my personal fave would be a tie between A) the Black Waltz 3 (IIRC) fries all the black mages and Vivi can only watch helplessly, and B) the airships vs dragons battle towards the end, especially when the one airship pulls an INTERCEPTION! on the dragons that were bearing down on The Invincible. All of the FMVs were colourful and well-animated (I was especially impressed by how well they animated the faces/showed emotion) and most of all they were well-directed; my eyes were glued to every single one of them.
Considering I only played about twenty minutes of VIII, I was mostly comparing the character models to those of VII, and needless to say the improvements were many and vast. The pre-rendered backgrounds were up to their usual excellent standard, and I appreciated the effort that went into the fight backgrounds - there was a pretty much a separate background for every single room you were in, rather than a generic one for each area.
The eidolon summons were also pretty damn epic. Bahamut is my fave, mostly because every time that Mega Flare appeared it was like calling in an orbital bombardment in WH40K, and everyone loves orbital bombardments.
There were also some sweet spell animations, especially Doomsday (the first time I cast that spell, I didn't bother reading the description and pressed X twice very quickly, assuming it would target just the enemy - by the time I realized it would target everyone, it was too late, and I ended up killing the enemy, Dagger, Vivi, and putting Zidane and Steiner in the yellow. It was rather fantastic).
Music:
Music is my number one passion in life, so it's a huge factor in how much I like a game - and Nobuo fucking rocked it with this one. Every time I started the game up it was a struggle to actually load the save file because I wanted to sit there and just listen to that opening song.
In particular, I thought Kuja's Theme was excellent. The snare/clap/bass combination gave it that same heavy, resistance-is-futile feel to it as the ShinRa Company track from VII, while the high-octave piano melody gave it a creepy undertone.
Vamo'Alla Flamenco - I can't get over this song, possibly because I've been in love with the Distant Worlds version for several months now and hearing it play during that epic sword fight sealed the deal on how fucking awesome it is. It's a totally different style from most FF pieces, and it's the kind of song that really makes me appreciate what a genius Nobuo truly is.
Eternal Harvest - holy shit look at Freya dance! This is the kind of song I could see fiddlers rocking out on, and the piano collection version made me love it even more.
Mage vs Mage - the song that plays during the aforementioned FMV where Black Waltz kills all the other black mages. Heartbreaking, and then just anger in those last few seconds. Fits the scene perfectly.
As usual, the character themes were fantastic. The Final Boss theme, while I thought it took a bit too long to get going, was pretty sweet once it kicked into gear (though I didn't find it nearly as memorable as either OWA or Birth of a God).
I could go on and on about the soundtrack, but this is a fucking long post already, so I'm gonna end it here. Will probably post more once I read through this thread.
Edits after reading thread:
Somehow I never made the connection that it was Vivi narrating that last part. I knew he was dead, but just never made the connection. Hurp durp.
She does, actually. So does using items. The only thing I never had it proc on was Defense or Change.
As far as Garnet's character goes, I have to agree with everyone who said that she was, above everything else, believable.
Beatrix takes the IX heroine cake for me, though.
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The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
That was a fun review to read. Thanks for sharing with us.
Dana Scully
Special Agent
- AKA
- YACCBS, Legato Bluesummers, Daenaerys Targaryen, Revy, Kate Beckett, Samantha Carter, Matsumoto Rangiku
My pleasure.
Actually, I have a question - at the end fight against Kuja you have the following conversation:
This confused the shit out of me. Kuja blew Terra to hell and gone, so how is it still assimilating anything? I mean in the end, Alexandria seems fine and dandy (and I assume that the final scene takes place at least several months after you defeat Necron), so where is this 'cataclysmic destruction'? Or has it just not happened yet?
Dark and Divine
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- D&D
Kuja left Terra in ruins and utterly destroyed, but he didn't blew it up. If that were to happen, Gaia would blow up too, since Terra is inside Gaia. So, Terra still exits physically, although is just a wasteland now.
The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
As D&D mentioned, the physical world of Terra still existed inside Gaia (these FFIX Ultimania translations should help make some sense of things), though razed, and the assimilation would have still taken place, resulting in that cataclysmic destruction Kuja spoke of.
As for why the assmilation stopped, that would be because the Iifa Tree died. The cause of its death has been the subject of some debate for the past 10 years, actually.
Some think that Necron was the true form of the Iifa Tree (I'm in this camp), while others believe that Zidane either physically killed it or somehow stopped it by singing "Melodies of Life" (I'm not joking).
Dark and Divine
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- D&D
No wonder, "Melodies of Life" is still the best FF theme up until now.
The song is so beautiful that it would even stop evil giant trees, except Exdeath, who would throw it in the Void.
Masamune
Fiat Lux
- AKA
- Masa
Yeah, Kuja pretty much razed the surface of Terra and never destroyed the planet itself.
Great review, btw! Final Fantasy IX happens to be a personal favourite of mine. I remember going into the game with some reservations about the character designs, yet within the first 10minutes of the game I was truly captivated. FFIX easily has the most sincere and compelling characterization of the series and shouldn't be taken at face value. Zidane is just the man, and I loved how he quickly became like an older brother to Vivi, and despite his womanising ways he was always noble at heart. Charismatic, swashbuckling heroes such as Zidane & Balthier will always be more memorable than the angsting, humourless patent their main studio is churning out in the character department.
I'm glad you gave special mention to Beatrix as well. The crowning moment of awsum is when she joins your party...TWICE!
Just a side-note: Steiner's Thunder Slash is 100% useless, correct? I know there's a glitch in the programming, but does that mean it never strikes?
Great review, btw! Final Fantasy IX happens to be a personal favourite of mine. I remember going into the game with some reservations about the character designs, yet within the first 10minutes of the game I was truly captivated. FFIX easily has the most sincere and compelling characterization of the series and shouldn't be taken at face value. Zidane is just the man, and I loved how he quickly became like an older brother to Vivi, and despite his womanising ways he was always noble at heart. Charismatic, swashbuckling heroes such as Zidane & Balthier will always be more memorable than the angsting, humourless patent their main studio is churning out in the character department.
I'm glad you gave special mention to Beatrix as well. The crowning moment of awsum is when she joins your party...TWICE!
Just a side-note: Steiner's Thunder Slash is 100% useless, correct? I know there's a glitch in the programming, but does that mean it never strikes?
ForceStealer
Double Growth
YACCBS said:
Oh, you mean Uematsu's "We Will Rock You" cover?
Somehow I always found it as very appropriate that Kuja would be a Freddie Mercury fan
Dana Scully
Special Agent
- AKA
- YACCBS, Legato Bluesummers, Daenaerys Targaryen, Revy, Kate Beckett, Samantha Carter, Matsumoto Rangiku
I never once had it hit, so that would explain a lot. I thought I just had terrible luck with it or something (but once I got Darkside I stopped caring
).Oh, you mean Uematsu's "We Will Rock You" cover?
Somehow I always found it as very appropriate that Kuja would be a Freddie Mercury fan
That's the one. I kept picturing that scene from A Knight's Tale every time I heard it.
Actually, if he was not busy being dead, I bet Heath Ledger would play a fantastic Kuja.
looneymoon
they/them
- AKA
- Rishi
WHY have I never considered this. Jfc they really are brothers. Kuja is like the Haylie Duff to Zidane's Hilary.