Adventures in Gaming - Final Fantasy IX

Intro

Recently I’ve been playing the PS1 classic Final Fantasy IX. The game is honestly rather refreshing for a JRPG to me. It’s a beautiful game that even on a modern display like my steam deck just makes me really makes me not miss it being on a console later than the PS1.

It’s a wonderful mix of of pre-rendered and real time rendering that really shows what the PS1 could do in the hands of an experienced group of developers. The pre-rendered cutscenes also show more of Square’s wonderful work of 3d modelling and animation with very expressive characters.

Gameplay

Gameplay wise it’s your normal Final Fantasy post ATB affair with some extra nice features like making enemies wait for you to choose items and the like when you’ve selected the menu option. This can be turned off for advanced users but is on by default. Select your action and target and the character does it when it’s their turn with flashy effects (even if the skill isn’t all that strong). While out of battle you can equip clothing that gives your characters abilities and spells either passive or active with certain characters getting certain abilities and spells. The characters then get AP(Ability Points) that go towards mastery of the abilities so they don’t need the equipment afterwards. I currently don’t have a lot of equipment but it’s still fun mixing and matching so far!

Feeling and aesthetics

The game has a wonderful aesthetic taking place in a steampunk like world with plenty of more medieval style buildings. Lots of cogs and the like are found in places like windmills, clock towers, and airships. The entire vibe is a cozy toon like setting with the aforementioned expressive characters and exaggerated building proportions.

Should you play it?

Absolutely! It’s older now but holds up great. If you enjoy JRPGs it’s absolutely worth a play. The atmosphere and graphics hold up well even now that I’d say it doesn’t even need a remaster. I believe that a remaster would actually ruin it by trying to make the pre-rendered graphics sharper. That being said you can buy the remaster if you’d like and I’m sure you’d still have fun I’m going to keep playing the PS1 original though and have fun in this wonderful science fantasy world.