Final Fantasy IX Message Board

Final Fantasy IX might not be the best Final Fantasy game, but it's definitely the most stylish. Yep, even before FFXII's massive world and FFXIII's jaw-dropping hair particles, Square's popular series was blazing a trail in art direction, putting its own inimitable spin on fantasy and steampunk. And Final Fantasy IX, the last game in the main series to appear on PlayStation 1, had some of the most fascinating environments you'll ever see in a video game. Don't believe me? Check out this great concept art, uncovered by NeoGAF sleuth Mama Robotnik, who dug through the web and found a whole bunch of images that most of us probably haven't seen before. First up, a selection of high-res environments from artist Jake Rowell, all of which had to be scaled down for the PS1's low native resolution. This stuff should look very familiar if you've played Final Fantasy IX—and it'll probably make you angry that there hasn't been an HD remake. Here's some concept art from Cecil Kim, a designer who now runs a company called Section Studios. You might recognize some of these scenes from the cities of Lindblum and Madain Sari. This is concept art by longtime designer Christian Lorenz Scheurer, showing off some of Final Fantasy IX's more surreal locales, like Terra and Memoria. Finally, here's some character design by Francisco Cortina, featuring some early versions of protagonists Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, and Freya (and a special appearance by Zidane's buddy, Blank).

There's a part at the beginning of Final Fantasy IX—a game that was once underrated, then overrated, and now feels properly rated as "totally awesome" by most RPG fans on the web—where you have to pretend to fight with swords. You, as the roguish, tailed hero Zidane, are putting on a play for the heinous Queen Brahne and her entourage of rowdy nobles. The play is called 'I Want To Be Your Canary,' and part of it requires you to mock-swordfight against your troupe buddy, Blank. To do this, you have to quickly press buttons as they appear on the screen. If you perform well, and quickly, the nobles will throw money at you, and you'll win a prize. This is a little mini-game that we never see again in Final Fantasy IX, and it's also an example of something that has characterized the Final Fantasy series (and many great JRPGs) over the years: little moments that matter. See, when we play JRPGs, we spend a lot of time thinking about their major features: how the combat works; what the characters want to accomplish; where to find the best equipment. But really, I think it's the little things that make JRPGs great: those scenes that break up the monotony with something unexpected, like a performance at an opera house, or a slap fight on the barrel of a cannon, or a spontaneous play-sword-fighting mini-game. I've been replaying FFIX, recently, and it's roughly as awesome as it was a decade ago (though I could do without the ridiculous load times). More on that in the near future. I've been getting the urge to write a multi-thousand-word treatise about the game. Stay tuned. But one big thing I've noticed, that I'd like to share with you on Random Encounters today, is that Final Fantasy IX is totally unafraid to throw you into totally ridiculous situations, like one in which you, as the misguided knight Steiner, have to alternate the left and right directional buttons in order to rock back and forth in a giant hanging cage so you can swing it into a wall and escape. I think that the most successful JRPGs are the ones unafraid to be silly—unafraid to embrace the little things. Let's move the conversation to the comments. What are some of your favorite little moments in JRPGs? What are some JRPG cenes that made a game special for you? Random Encounters is a weekly column dedicated to all things JRPG. It runs every Friday at 3pm ET.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Everyone loves getting wistful about old games, old experiences, old characters that they worshiped and cherished. It's fun. What's less fun is revisiting those old games and finding the flaws you've forgotten. I recently re-bought the PS1 classic Final Fantasy IX to play on my Vita, and while it's a great game, and I love being able to play it anywhere, it's got one major crack that can't be smoothed over: loading times. We're looking at three to four seconds per new area. Almost ten seconds to enter a battle. It's excruciating. You can go into your Vita's settings (by holding down the touchscreen in PS1 mode) and set "Disc Load Speed" to "Fast," which helps a bit, but doesn't entirely solve the problem. What would solve the problem is a fast forward function: an optional command that you can assign to any button and tap at any time in order to make things go faster. This is a default option in most homebrew emulators, which you can download online for free. Why isn't it available on Sony's official machine? As Gabe Newell is fond of pointing out, piracy is a service issue. People pirate when it's more convenient than not pirating. The way for big companies to fight this—as Steam has successfully proven—is to create an environment where people want to buy their products. I bought Final Fantasy IX when it was on PS1, and I had no problem dishing out another $5 to play it again on the go. But why do pirates get a better experience than I do? Why do they get functions that I don't? Why do I feel like I'm getting short shrift because I did the right thing and paid again to play this game? With the PS4, Sony seems to be targeting an audience of hardcore gamers. Beefing up PS1 Classics mode and adding functions like fast forward would be a good way for them to show that they care. Image: Dusit/Shutterstock

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.

Legendary Final Fantasy game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi has dug up some old notes from the making of Final Fantasy IX, and they're an interesting read for anyone who's a fan of the adventures of Zidane, Vivi and Steiner. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, especially if you love the old game (lots of fight sequences were planned differently than they went in the final code). If nothing else, it's fascinating to see the game designer's mind working to plan on paper what eventually became a classic PlayStation RPG.

Sakanguchi is both cinematic with his descriptions ("like steady cam," he says at one point to describe the game's opening shot) and very interested in characters (describing Vivi as "introversive [sic], quiet, obedient, indecisive, pure in heart and kind"). He glosses over spell and game specifics, leaving things like gearing up only described as "able to collect weapons and protective gears here."

That all makes sense, of course -- he and the team wouldn't need to figure out the numbers until later. But the little script is a fascinating look at the very early stages of a classic Final Fantasy title, and just how centered on character and storytelling Square was back in those days. Sakaguchi's notes are a must-read for fans of the JRPG genre.

The PlayStation Blog brings us the joyous news that Final Fantasy IX will finally be hitting the North American PlayStation Network on Tuesday, June 15, just in time for the start of E3. It's about damn time. Thanks Jason! More »

The final (and some would argue best) installment of the Final Fantasy franchise on the original PlayStation will, at long last, make it to the North American PlayStation Store next week. Final Fantasy IX will mimic the $10 price point of the other two PS1 Fantasies currently available on PSN and will be added to the storefront with the update next Tuesday, June 15.

If you skipped out on the ninth entry in the long-lasting series -- which isn't too unlikely, considering its sales numbers clocked in well below those of FFVII and FFVIII -- the PSN re-release is your chance to find what all the fuss is about. We wish we'd have some time to reinvest into IX next week ourselves, but, well, we might be kind of busy.

We’d like to thank everyone who has patiently waited for the revival of one of the most anticipated classics in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy IX.

Returning to the elements of what makes true role-playing games appealing — characters, grand story, engaging battles and an impressive presentation — we’re proud to offer PS3 and PSP owners a chance to relive what RPG fans have long considered a nostalgic masterpiece.

The wait is almost over and we’re proud to announce that Final Fantasy IX is finally here, again!

Look for Final Fantasy IX to hit the US PSN Store next Tuesday, June 15th for $9.99. For more information on Final Fantasy IX, please visit the official site.

#playstationnetwork Garnet wants to be kidnapped right away, and while that's all fine and good in Europe, where Final Fantasy IX is now available for purchase on the PlayStation Network, here in North America we must ignore her desperate pleas. More »

According to a recent Joystiq Superpoll[TM], 30.3 percent of our readers think Final Fantasy IX is the series' best installment on the PS1, meaning 69.7 percent of you are so totally wrong. Those belonging to the first group will be pleased to hear the game recently received an extremely imminent release date for Japan -- according to a Tweet from Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto (as translated by Andriasang), the game will arrive on the Japanese PSN May 20.

We're really hoping the release date for other regions falls somewhere around that time -- especially after Hashimoto teased us with a video of the game's intro cinematic running on a PSP. Oh, Hashimoto! You heartbreaker!

[Via Eurogamer]

Ask anybody who was old enough to go through the life cycle of the first PlayStation and they'll likely have an opinion on which Final Fantasy was the best. And "soon," a whole new generation will be able to engage in that most stimulating of debates, with the PlayStation Blog confirming that Final Fantasy IX will be the third "proper" PlayStation-era Final Fantasy game available for download on PSN, joining siblings Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.

Joystiq itself takes no part in the ongoing war for supremacy each title is unwillingly engaged in. We simply aim to enjoy the good parts of each. But that doesn't mean you can't battle it out in this here poll!
View Poll
[Thanks, Eduardo]

Classic PlayStation title available soon.

#playstationnetwork With a May 20 release date already revealed for Japan, Square Enix confirms a North American release for Final Fantasy IX, the second-highest rated game in the Final Fantasy franchise, on the PlayStation Network. More »

If you're wondering who you need to talk to in order to get your beloved PS1 RPGs onto the PlayStation Store, we're thinking Shinji Hashimoto is the man who gets things done. Last week, he said he was planning on "proposing" bringing Final Fantasy IX to the PSN -- this week, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada confirmed that the game would soon join FFVII and FFVIII on the PS3's Japanese digital storefront. No release date or pricing details have been released so far.

Impressive, Mr. Hashimoto. Most impressive. But we bet you can't do it again for Chrono Cross. Oh, and while you're at it, we bet you can't get Vagrant Story localized for U.S. release. C'mon. We dare you.

Japan gets PlayStation's final numbered FF.