Final Fantasy IX is my favorite Final Fantasy, and one of my favorite RPGs period. It has its flaws, which I will cover. This game, however, presents a very fun experience to me despite its problems.

The story is fantastical, a tribute to the Final Fantasies that we saw on Nintendo's home consoles. A "Fantasy" can be many things. It could be a love story with sorceresses and soldiers. It could be a world of deceptive preachers of an ancient faith, where an abominable monster threatens the lives of everyone, and their homes. In the case of Final Fantasy IX, it is back to what you most think of when you hear the word "Fantasy" - swords, colorful creatures, monsters from a mysterious mist, princesses, and knights. I like this approach. However, this is where a roadblock comes for some people: the character design. The characters are short, no longer proportioned realistically as they were in Final Fantasy VIII. It's fitting, however, to the game. There are many races, a lot of which represent animals such as hippos and rats. It is a very unusual medley of characters to interact with. There seem to be many who dislike this direction in design, and I was among them when I first played this game at a young age. When I returned to it years later, though, I came to like it a lot more. In summary, I feel that the atmosphere, setting, and characters of Final Fantasy IX are very well done.

The story takes place on Gaia, and begins with an attempted kidnapping of Alexandria Kingdom's Princess Garnet by a troupe of thieves, led by the boy Zidane. It turns out that the princess wants to be kidnapped, eager to escape for her own reasons, which involve a recent change in the behavior of her mother, Queen Brahne, who resembles a fatty mass of mint chocolate chip ice cream crossed with the Hamburglar. The story's troubles begin to spiral into an even greater scale as time goes on, eventually culminating in a fight for the biggest stakes you could possibly have on a battle. I am a great fan of the story of Zidane, his friends, and the mysterious man, Kuja. This is what I love most about this game.

With that said, there are flaws.

One is the Trance system. Final Fantasy VII and VIII have Limit Breaks, X has Overdrive, and IX has Trance. These are all super powerful attacks, unique to each character, which can be unleashed once certain conditions are met. With Trance, every time your characters suffer damage from an enemy, a Trance Gauge fills. Once it is full, a character automatically goes into a "Trance", where they receive their own unique commands that will greatly benefit you in battle. The problem with Trance is that it is automatic once that gauge fills. This means that it can happen at the very end of a battle, one which contains weak enemies, with only one small fry left. Your Trance is wasted, because after any battle in which characters switch into Trance, the Trance goes away and you must wait for the bar to fill all over again. The only positive for me is that Trance is actually an important part of the story in FFIX.

This game was also, unfortunately, somewhat rushed. This means that there is an unfulfilled potential with FFIX. It could have been better. Certain moments that were going to be included in the story were left out, for example.

I could write so much more about this game, from the many locations, enemies, and sidequests to the Abilities system, where you learn new spells and skills from the equipment that your characters carry. I'll cut it short here, however, and conclude with what I said at the beginning: this is my favorite Final Fantasy, and one of my favorite RPGs period. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Final Fantasy.