It feels good to be playing through all of the mainline Final Fantasy titles like this. Final Fantasy IX is definitely one of those great games that has withstood the test of time. The game’s length is impressive and also delivers on great gameplay and a solid story. At the end of the day there is nothing to worry about as it delivers on every aspect of what you would want a video game to do. I highly recommend playing through this one whenever you have the chance.

The story introduces us to Zidane who is a wandering thief. He works with a fake theater troupe who go around robbing from kingdoms and doing whatever they want. Their latest plan is to kidnap princess Garnet but the twist occurs when Zidane finds out that she wants to be kidnapped. Well, the end result is the same now so he manages to get her away from the kingdom where her mother is trying to take over the world or some reason. She even intends to harm princess Garnet so Zidane will need to protect her. He may have finally found the love of his life so his days of being a flirt may be over.

The gameplay is more of a classic Final Fantasy than the last one. You still have active turns so you can’t think for too long about what you want to do but you also don’t have to worry about enemies auto scaling to your level. If an opponent is too difficult then you can run around fighting minions for a while to get your groove back. You learn skills based on your weapons and if you win enough battles then you will master the ability and won’t lose it when you switch weapons. For this reason, I actually didn’t learn the ability to flee a battle until later in the game. It worked out though since it forced me to fight a lot and gain a ton of EXP in the process.

There is a new mechanic in the game known as stealing though. As Zidane, you use this to take something from enemies which is often a potion or some kind of status item. Bosses can drop some really good equipment though so I recommend using this when needed. Also if you use the ability around 700 times then you will be able to use a move that does the max amount of damage possible in the game. (9999) You will need a special piece of equipment to use this but can get is decently early on through synthesis.

I aimed to use steal as much as possible but in the end I didn’t use it enough for the technique to be handy before I completed the game. So maybe this tip isn’t actually all that useful. The main character really his like a tank in normal gameplay anyway so you should be fine. The game is definitely difficult the way any good RPG should be so you will definitely need to stop and train sometimes.

Fortunately the PS5 version lets you speed up the game by 3X so that makes the battles fast. Some of the animations are quite long so otherwise it would have taken longer. The game also has other options like an instant win mode but using those would be as if you weren’t even playing the game so I wouldn’t recommend that. You still want a feeling of pride and accomplishment from completing the title after all.

Meanwhile the graphics are definitely really good. They went all out on the big budget animations but even the in game graphics are really good. The game decides to show off near the very end by doing a long action segment while using the sprites instead of the CG models. Basically the game looks really good at all times. The soundtrack is also really good. I really enjoyed the battle theme. It was a solid remix from previous games and had an excellent start.

I also liked the main boss theme which was really catchy and Kuja had a good theme too. What really stood out was the final boss theme. Like the Jenova theme from FFVII, it starts out slow and then really comes alive. When you hear that fast paced tune come on, it really changes the whole dynamic of the fight. It just gets you really hype the whole time. It felt climactic as the ending should go.

The main game should take you over 30 hours and there is plenty of replay value here. You’ve got a lot of characters to challenge to card fights and tons of side quests and islands to explore. Getting the Platinum for this game would really be quite the ordeal. The trophies don’t exactly look hard but are definitely very hard. You’ll be here for a very long time so you’ve really got a tremendous amount of bang for your buck. It’s what every Final Fantasy fan looks forward to after all.

Then even if you’re just here for the story, it’s a masterpiece as always. Characters have to deal with their origins and what it really means to be alive. You have several fake outs for different characters as well as who the main villain is. A lot of characters all have their own agendas and are given moments to shine. This also may be Bahamut’s best game ever. He is treated as an unstoppable force and while he does get power creeped later on, his initial appearance is crazy hype. You’ve even got a big romance going on here if that’s your thing.

The game also balances the quality of life features well. At first you have to run everywhere, then you get a boat to speed things up, and finally you get a high speed airship. The game makes travelling fun and allows it to get easier as you go through the game. So this was a game that really thought of the player at all times and those little things really matter. There’s also a ton of variance in the kinds of builds you can have with your characters. So your gameplay experience may drastically differ from someone else’s even when using the same characters. You get to fight the way that you want to.

Overall, Final Fantasy IX is definitely an elite game. You’ll realize that early on from just how much fun it is and that feeling never really dies. With this I’ve played well over half of the mainline Final Fantasy titles which definitely feels good. I’m not all the way there yet of course but still making progress. If the long length worries you, I’d just say to pace yourself. A long game is a good thing because it gives you more time to learn about the characters.

Overall 8/0