Squaresoft doing what it does best

Squaresoft started with fantasy RPGs like this one, and finished its run on the PSX with a classic. This game is like every Final Fantasy you've played, but at the same time totally original.

Graphics

Total perfection. Squaresoft has listened to fans who have complained about problems with speed, blurry backgrounds, and so forth. The graphics are top-notch, the background images as good as the ones you've seen in FF8. The FMVs are dramatically better. Unlike previous games where they mostly just swing a camera around a gorgeous city, in this game there are actually FMVs with action and tons more special effects. For example, you'll have a treat watching Bahamut destroy Alexandria, followed with Bahamut getting destroyed by something greater. (for sake of not ruining the plot I won't say what.) If you have trouble finding chests in previous FF games due to blurry backgrounds, you won't have any problem in this game provided you walk around. An exclamation point appears over the character's head when you are in the vicinity of a treasure chest. Finally battle speed and run speed are reasonably fast, unlike FF8's slightly sluggish run.

Battle System

Hurray for battle system! FF9 utilizes something very similar to the job system in FF5. For each armor, weapon, etc. that you get you can learn certain abilities. You master these abilities by getting AP points which you receive from battles. When you master the ability you no longer need the item to utilize it, you can equip the ability whenever you want.

In order to equip abilities you get a certain number of ability points, dependent on your level. This offers a lot of customization and a whole lot of incentive to fight battles. So basically by the end of the game, you can create counter, auto-haste, auto-regen, auto-float, auto-reflect super powerful characters that you've always wanted to have in FF5 but couldn't. There's plenty of rare items in this game as a result, providing rare abilities for your characters to learn.

The enemies in this game vary! That means you won't be expected to hold the attack button down all the time as I did for FF7 and 8 for the most part. Sometimes you'll meet cacturs who will use their 1,000 needles move as a counter, wiping out your party if you're not paying attention. Other times you'll meet friendly creatures which will ask for certain items and give you new ones in return. All in all, there's plenty of diversity among enemy battle techniques and more strategy than any other FF game in the series.

Plot/Characters
Wonderful plot. There's a sense of humor in this game, unlike FF8 which had dry bland, tasteless characters. I found nothing funny in FF8, nothing really remotely entertaining. For one you had silent boring Squall lugging his gun blade around acting all seriously. The funniest line in FF8 was him mumbling about how the objective of Seed was to plant trees all over the place. But after I contemplated it for a while, he was under torture and it wasn't really that funny. The rest of the party wasn't amusing either, Rinoa was a chirpy but 2-d character.

FF9 does not do that. The most serious character is the mage. He seems like a goofy character who falls down a lot, but he's not. He's got this whole must-discover-my-identity thing going. To alleviate the enormous pressures of this overwhelmingly serious character are just about all the other characters in the case. Steiner, the knight on the other hand, looks awful serious but provides some of the more light-hearted moments in the game. Let's just say he tries to be serious, but ends up looking like a clown for the most part. Garnet and Vidane are good characters, with an actual RELATIONSHIP THAT BUILDS, unlike the non-existent you-saved-my-life-I-love-you-in-return ploy that echoed throughout FF8. The two characters get to know each other. Vidane at first seems like a girly character with his funky hair and his ugly outfit turns into a pretty cool thief. Garnet seems like your typical princess, but has a troubled childhood, making her a excellent character as well. There's also Quina, a cool tongue-chef master type character. There's are a couple of silent, deadly character such as Jen and Red-Haired man. Both are powerful, silent types, in a light-hearted quirky world where they seem so out of place.

The plot will keep you guessing. No simple evil badguy vs. entire world type of thing. There are a couple of possible bad guys and you'll have to guess between possible candidates until the end of the game, adding a more intriguing twist. You ACTUALLY WILL NOT KNOW WHO THE LAST BOSS IS. The plot develops quite nicely, there are segments for each character, allowing you to really get to know them if you choose to. (They are optional and can be skipped)

Music
I don't care what the other reviews on GamePro or Gamespot say. The music is wonderful. It fits the world of FF9 perfectly. For the battle music, you'll hear parts of FF5's battle music, and there are other nostalgic tunes placed throughout the game. The music varies quite a bit. For example there in Treno there is a bit of a blue-like tune playing in the background. During the play in the beginning, there is a spanish-like battle music. It isn't as memorable as some classics but it's still very good and innovative. The theme music, Melodies of Life is excellent, and fits the game wonderfully.

Gameplay
Finally there is the gameplay. FF9 is bustling with quests. Tons of quests, so many that it pisses me off entirely because I can't get all the stuff in the game. Some of it is just disgustingly impossible. Like for RPG-freaks you can try to get the Excaliber II sword for Steiner by beating the game under 12 hrs. Or you can work on becoming a Tetra Master, equivalent of being Master Card Player of the world on Earth. It takes a ridiculously long amount of time. The good thing is that the hard side quests are just for fun, and you won't be missing out on any ridiculously powerful weapons. They won't be easy to get, but it is possible to get all the powerful weapons in the game without too much hassle.

There is a card game in FF9, just like there was in FF8. However it doesn't count as much as it did in FF8, where getting the cards was key in gaining the most powerful weapons in the game. FF9, it's just for fun. So you don't have to be obsessive and save before every card game you play. It's okay to lose.

Final Score = 10.0/10.0

Nothing wrong with this game. I'll say this though, it might not be as appealing to some of you FF8 fans, and you can probably tell from my complaints nested in this opinion. This game doesn't have the serious-tedious gameplay in FF8, and I'm sorry if you enjoy that type of stuff, but I don't. I'm consider myself a classic gamer, and FF9 has it all. Moogles, black mages, a complex multiple bad-guy plot, a light-hearted story with a realistic romantic relationship.

I might have one gripe and that is the characters have giant heads, which makes them kind of creepy. However you'll get use to that most likely, and it's not a tremendous drawback that I would lower this score by a tenth of a point. Trust me, you'll love it. 40 hrs of gameplay on average, about 60 if you want to be very very thorough and as low as 12 if you are a veteran. There is replay value, at least once more after you're done.

An excellent game, and well worth every bit.