Within the first few hours I spent playing Final Fantasy IX, I predicted that opinions over it would be sharply contrasting. Much of today's following of the Final Fantasy series consists of people who were brought on board with Final Fantasy VII, which is often credited with single-handedly bringing RPGs into the mainstream. So, we have a lot of FF fans out there who never experienced the first two thirds of the series, and never bothered to get the previous games because of a stigma against anything on outdated consoles.
Now we have Final Fantasy IX, a game which is basically a response to long-time series fans' complaints about the direction the series has been taking. I was definitely one of these complainants. While I loved FFVII, FFVIII had serious problems with both its plot and gameplay. What these two games had in common is that they almost completely lost touch with the fantasy elements of their predecessors, becoming entirely sci-fi outings instead of the blend of genres that has made Final Fantasy so interesting.
I think almost everyone who is a long-time fan of the series and enjoyed the feel of the first six installments is going love Final Fantasy IX. As for the people who are new to the series, FFIX will be different from what they've experienced up to this point. Some may be quick to embrace it, while it will probably turn many people off.
So how much of Final Fantasy IX is a retro experience? To begin with, FFIX's plot shows the effort to return to the style of pre-PSX Final Fantasies. The world of FFIX is vastly medieval, with technology playing a limited role. It's still a world of mixed genres, but when you spend the game walking through castles and cobblestone paths instead of concrete roads and neon skyscrapers, you can tell the difference.
The party is back up to four, a welcome correction after two games with the decidedly underwhelming party of three. This four-person party is very important, because like early FFs, the emphasis in FFIX is on having a well-balanced party instead of highly customizable individual characters. In FFVII and VIII, the characters were basically blank slates that you could build up any way you wanted, with very few individual characteristics (basically the limit breaks). In FFIX, characters each have classes once again-- not every character can do every technique or spell. There are fighters who will never be able to cast magic and mages who will be extremely weak fighters but powerful magic users. You also have characters who are mostly healers, and the return of FF classes like Dragoon and Blue Mage. The idea of course is to create a balanced party using these classes.
The characters not only play different, but look and act differently too. Zidane, the main character of FFIX, is a hero that harkens back to early installments of the series. The heroes of VII and VIII often lacked the kind of heart that Zidane has-- while they fought because they were ''doing their jobs,'' Zidane fights for what he believes is right. FFIX also has all the characters you've come to expect-- a humorous character (the asexual chef named Quina), a loner (the visually unique Amarant), and the naive princess (Garnet).
This leads to a complaint some have about FFIX, and that is its predictability. While I admit that many of the elements of the game are borrowed from previous FFs, I was still surprised by the plot twists and taken in by the world of the game, as any good RPG will do. FFIX takes the best elements of the previous games, puts them together, combines them with new material and presents us with an overall great package and a salute to the series in its last installment on the PSX.
