Final Fantasy IX Review
- AJ Rappaport
- Nov 4
- 6 min read
Game: Final Fantasy IX
Developer: Square / Square Enix
Genre: JRPG
Release Date: July 7th 2000 on the Playstation
Completed: September, 2025 on Steam
Overall Impression
After playing Clair Obscur I needed to play something that felt lighter and more whimsical. Per a friend's recommendation, I decided to try FF9. This game had huge amounts of charm and I enjoyed playing it albeit with some quality of life issues for a 25 year old game. Still, despite being originally on the Playstation, it did impress me for how well a lot of it holds up a quarter of a decade later.
Gameplay Mechanics & Performance
Many regard the Final Fantasy series as a herald for turn based combat and it shows in games like this. The battle system, although simple, displays a wide range of attacks and spells. Many, however, have broad or short descriptions which make it a bit confusing to understand what they actually do. This is beyond spells like Fire or Cure but the niche ones that are specific to characters or FF9 exclusively.
Subsequently, I only figured out how to apply spells to the AOE/everyone until like two thirds into the game. It was never explicitly said, or I missed it so I guess I lowkey did a challenge run for a while. Finally, while Trance was a very classic take on an overdrive/turbo mode, I found it was frequently wasted, only activated at the end of battle and at other inappropriate times. It only felt useful in the string of final longer bosses.
The game and leveling system progresses at a steady and acceptable pace, with very few moments of feeling slowed down. Rather, frustration arises from some back tracking and awkward navigation. As well, many some mandatory LONG battles don’t give EXP which is infuriating. As well, the auto-battle mode would carry into the next battles and often the game would register that first melee attack despite me stopping it, which was frustrating for friendly monster encounters.
I played the game on Steam, but found some weird bugs, particularly with the save function. I would always double save before quitting, but when I would return to gaming the save would ALWAYS backtrack. Chests that I opened near the moogle before saving, would always be closed when I would relaunch the game. Furthermore, often the cutscene prior would play as well for a second time after relaunching the game. This made me very distrustful of the save function which made for an uneasy experience. Of course, many Final Fantasy games are known for their sprawling story, and while I enjoyed it, I must say that 5 hours of FF feels like 25 of Megaten.
I can see how this game was extremely ambitious for its time. The overworld map was quite sprawling and features a variety of diverse locations to travel to. A specific shoutout to Ipsen’s Castle for being turbo annoying and having the longest and most confusing back tracking of all time. I understand why they picked this gimmick but it just wasn’t fun.
Story and Characters
FF9’s cast and story are extremely cheeky, charming and although occurring in a magical realm, are very human. The story features themes of life, death, the will to live, and loyalty. Most, if not all party members, undergo some form of emotional growth, particularly Zidane, Vivi and Dagger. The 3 start out very oblivious but through their journey discover a deeper meaning and value for their existence. Protagonist Zidane’s character arc is particularly satisfying because he begins as kinda a horned up turd and through his journey becomes fiercely loyal discovering things that are worth protecting and fighting for. By the end of the game he is basically willing to die beside the only other lifeform “like him”, Kuja. The ending of this game was very beautiful and had me welled up (I did not cry though). The story shows satisfying growth in the party and world that can make players reflect on the deeper meaning of life.
As usual, especially in early FF, I do not appreciate the handling of women characters. Almost everyone sexualizes Dagger, including in her character design (She is 16 BTW). Most of the women in the party are healer/summoner types except Freya who is more androgynous. There are not one but two female kidnappings in the plot which to me is a copout, boring and rudimentary, but I don’t have high feminist plot expectations for a game from 2000.
I found Quina a very interesting character from a gender analysis perspective. Clearly not a human, most refer to Quina by s/he. To me, Quina is clearly a genderless/agender character (human or not idrc) so I wonder how Quina is referred to in the original Japanese game. This felt somewhat progressive for a Japanese game from 25 years ago, but I feel because of my identity I am probably reading into Quina a bit deeper than most players.
Overall I found each character to feel unique with some being more memorable (or likable?) than others. I know the cast is successful because even NPCs leave an impact on players like Beatrix or Mog.
Graphics and Sound
Despite being a 25 year old game, I found the graphics and visuals arguably the most enjoyable part of this game. The hand drawn maps with fixed camera angles are extremely impressive for its time. Each map is truly unique and never feels like side scrolling. I like how different and weird (especially the dungeons) maps feel. The art was handled with such care and it really shows in the diversity and intricacies of each map design. Furthermore, I love the cinematic text overlaid when reaching a new region; some fonts were identifiable which is oddly thrilling to me.
A trope I notice in some of these early games is that most NPCs, especially nameless ones, tend to be much “uglier” than the playable party. Perhaps as a means to signify the party’s importance, or as a result of a lack of assets at the time, which could be read deeper as through some sort of academic analysis I don’t feel like getting into anymore.
The battle animations were so epic, sometimes too epic/long but after I fixed the camera in battle I found this more bearable. I really like the buff animations particularly “Haste” because of its clocklike look. Summon animations go crazy and I loved the drama of it all.
The menu in this game was fairly decent, but I wish it had some extra additions like being able to sort items by how new they were. Another issue I encountered was struggle to identify status ailments by icon, especially in battle. However, the moogle help menu is not only cute but helpful in situations of misunderstanding.
The silent animated cut scenes are so beautiful and memorable. Something about the lack of voice acting creates a more striking visual that grabbed my attention more because of the focus only being on the visuals. I could see how those would have felt mind blowing in 2000.
The soundtrack fell a bit flat for me despite being composed by literal legend Nobuo Uematsu. The songs were enjoyable, but not many I would add to my playlist. The sound design in battle was good and satisfying. Lastly, and unfortunately, I encountered a sound glitch multiple times. After encounters with a friendly monster, a different (friendly) track plays. Following this encounter, the friendly monster music would continue to play over all the normal music and could only be remedied by resetting the game which was extremely frustrating because as noted above the save function was entirely trustworthy.
Comparisons, Final Thoughts, Conclusions
The jump from FFIX to FFX must have been mind blowing in 2000-2001. I am really glad I made it through this game and it was a welcomed change in narrative after completing Clair Obscur. I really enjoyed the whimsy and identity building this game brought through its story and art, and definitely think it's worth playing at least once. I think my favourite character is Vivi, a popular choice I’m sure. Slowly but surely, I will take breaks from my usual Megaten to play more Final Fantasy.
Overall Arbitrary Rating: 7/10
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