Final Fantasy IX: I love it but the last third felt rushed
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It never felt shorter for me because I did lots of the sidequests, maybe that's part of the design? I'm sure you're right though.
Related: I love the weird tonal shifts in the latter parts of 7, 8 and 9. It really makes me miss the beginning of the games, and that helps me empathise with the shit the characters are going through.
Related: I love the weird tonal shifts in the latter parts of 7, 8 and 9. It really makes me miss the beginning of the games, and that helps me empathise with the shit the characters are going through.
apologies in advance but you have poor taste.
i did apologies in advance, did i?
What were the key differences between your memory and replaying it? What didn't you like about it?
I disagree, the final level was brilliantly weird and more creative than the big castle and crater that closed of previous games. For a game about life and death, what it means to exist, the memories of the world being the final level and the final bosses being guardians and unknown gods near the soul gateway felt right. Terra was the bridges, towns and a big dungeon, it looked beautiful but the world is so artificial, doesn't have enough life to be interesting enough to be a second world.
A dead Vivi narrating the end was subtle but touching and the last scene with the play was amazing and felt like the end of a great Disney movie.
I agree Kuja's redemption felt out of character but overall the last act was spectacular.
Now FF XV, that was a very rushed game if somone wants to see one.
A dead Vivi narrating the end was subtle but touching and the last scene with the play was amazing and felt like the end of a great Disney movie.
I agree Kuja's redemption felt out of character but overall the last act was spectacular.
Now FF XV, that was a very rushed game if somone wants to see one.
The third game in the remake trilogy will fix your issues in 20 years. :)
The Black Mages, The Summoner's Horn, The Angel of Death
The Black Mages, The Summoner's Horn, The Angel of Death
I think this is a criticism that applies to most FFs, at least from VII onwards. I never noticed it with the PS1 games when I was a kid because they generally took me half a year to playthrough, but I definitely felt it with X, XII, and XV. When I replayed the PS1 games in the HD versions I was surprised to see they had the same problems with too much going on which is kind of glossed over. FFVIII is probably the worst for it. I don't think it's a major problem, but the pacing is definitely much better in the front end of these games.
OP
OP
Oh don't get me wrong. Memoria was great. I just wanted more of it.
And yeah don't get me started on XV
XIII might have the best third act with Pulse, lol. Just a beatiful place to hunt and the assault on Eden was pretty bad arse.
Everything is great right up until Garland shows up out of nowhere. And the final bad guy. Mr. "I don't know if you're expecting me, but I'm here to be your final boss".
Too many battles against key antagonists that end in your team being wiped to 1HP.
Out of the PS1 trio, it definitely has the weakest finale.
(RE: the other games, I sincerely didn't feel it with VII, VIII, X or XIII - cannot comment on XII until I finish it)
Too many battles against key antagonists that end in your team being wiped to 1HP.
Out of the PS1 trio, it definitely has the weakest finale.
(RE: the other games, I sincerely didn't feel it with VII, VIII, X or XIII - cannot comment on XII until I finish it)
VIII has the weakest finale because of losing your commands in Ultimecia's castle is tedious and it goes on forever. Necron is the last boss in IX and I believe he's simply the grim reaper, but the battle with Kuja Trace still feels more personal than whoever Ultimecia was meant to be. The scene with the air ships taking on the dragons was really cool as well and IX's cast get much better closure than VIII's.
I don't care for the last dozen hours of that game, but I've felt that way about almost every entry in the series. At least the actual ending stuck the landing for me, making it easier to overlook the lore dumps and final fight. I still adore the world, characters, and presentation.
Disagreed, that's 8 for me. You basically get warped through time in a cutscene to a place that has no larger significance, in a world with close to none of the locations still visitable. Then you have to work to reattain all the commans you learned over the course of the game to fight a boss you've never met that until then didn't even have any dialog (I think? Maybe a couple lines here and there).
You are not alone (damn I'm so funny)
I always feel that I'm talking to people that haven't played ff9 for 10+years. Music is great, the game is beautiful and... That's it. Boring story, boring characters, slow game (30sec between the "you got a fight" animation and being able to attack), Trance system that feels like an afterthought etc etc...
I've replayed FF9 basically once every two years or so, and you're totally wrong :P
I play the game annually and it's still my favorite video game ever.
Everything after Kuja's Palace has always been a drop off in quality for me, and I would dsay the same about everything after the gardens battle in VIII and the first visit to North Crater in VII
In particular I can barely remember anything about Memoria and I've played the game like 10 times
In particular I can barely remember anything about Memoria and I've played the game like 10 times
I replayed it a couple years ago. It's still a 10/10 GOAT contender.
Since OP just commented about the final boss and stuff, i'll assume open spoilers are okay, right?
I think the thing with Kuja in the end is not that simple. Zidane felt that he needed to save Kuja because he knew his "brother" didn't had the same opportunity to meet people and care about them. Had not meet Baku, Tantalus bros etc, Zidane would be just another Kuja.
I really like the idea between Zidane and Kuja. Both came from the same place and were created for similar purposes, but one meet a lot of people while the other existed in complete solitude. When Garland told Kuja about his limited lifespan and he decided to end all existence, it was the first time i felt a "destroy everything jrpg trope" villain has ever made sense. Kefka was kinda similar but not really, since his origins was not exactly explained (Aside from some Ultimania book?) and his actions were pretty much suggested as "dude got crazy and broken due to experiments with magicite stuff".
The part about Kuja giving hope is interesting because he's probably the one that gave life to the black mages, Vivi included. Not for nice motives, of course, but i don't think it matters for Vivi.
I like that Necron is up to interpretation, it's pretty fun to discuss about what the hell it even is imo. Kuja used the Ultima spell and destroyed the crystal, which could be what sustains life in the entire universe? It's not clear if the actual universe was destroyed or just that "simulation" thing inside Memoria, but i would assume it's the earlier since it was Kuja's objective after all.
I think it's kinda obvious at this point that Necron is the personification of death. It doesn't seems like an actual creature with motives or personality, he looked more like a kind of Eidolon that Kuja summoned with the crystal destruction. The thing is, Necron should be undefeatable, doesn't make sense that 4 (somewhat strong) people would just defeat death itself, as Necron says in the end.
Kuja's will could be what summoned Necron, and maybe watching Zidane & co resisting made his reasoning weaker? Someone reverted that hill of despair state of the existence and brought Zidane's gang back to Iifa Tree, and i can't think of anyone else but Kuja himself.
It's kinda silly that none of this Memoria/Necron/Crystal/Hill of Despair elements were explained. Lore explanation was never a strong point in the series anyway. Maybe FFX aside.
Fratley's arc is complete bullshit tho. He was just completely forgotten and sandwiched in the end lol
I think the thing with Kuja in the end is not that simple. Zidane felt that he needed to save Kuja because he knew his "brother" didn't had the same opportunity to meet people and care about them. Had not meet Baku, Tantalus bros etc, Zidane would be just another Kuja.
I really like the idea between Zidane and Kuja. Both came from the same place and were created for similar purposes, but one meet a lot of people while the other existed in complete solitude. When Garland told Kuja about his limited lifespan and he decided to end all existence, it was the first time i felt a "destroy everything jrpg trope" villain has ever made sense. Kefka was kinda similar but not really, since his origins was not exactly explained (Aside from some Ultimania book?) and his actions were pretty much suggested as "dude got crazy and broken due to experiments with magicite stuff".
The part about Kuja giving hope is interesting because he's probably the one that gave life to the black mages, Vivi included. Not for nice motives, of course, but i don't think it matters for Vivi.
I like that Necron is up to interpretation, it's pretty fun to discuss about what the hell it even is imo. Kuja used the Ultima spell and destroyed the crystal, which could be what sustains life in the entire universe? It's not clear if the actual universe was destroyed or just that "simulation" thing inside Memoria, but i would assume it's the earlier since it was Kuja's objective after all.
I think it's kinda obvious at this point that Necron is the personification of death. It doesn't seems like an actual creature with motives or personality, he looked more like a kind of Eidolon that Kuja summoned with the crystal destruction. The thing is, Necron should be undefeatable, doesn't make sense that 4 (somewhat strong) people would just defeat death itself, as Necron says in the end.
Kuja's will could be what summoned Necron, and maybe watching Zidane & co resisting made his reasoning weaker? Someone reverted that hill of despair state of the existence and brought Zidane's gang back to Iifa Tree, and i can't think of anyone else but Kuja himself.
It's kinda silly that none of this Memoria/Necron/Crystal/Hill of Despair elements were explained. Lore explanation was never a strong point in the series anyway. Maybe FFX aside.
Fratley's arc is complete bullshit tho. He was just completely forgotten and sandwiched in the end lol
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Necron wasn't even a thing in the handful of other endings that they wrote before they changed to this lol
IIRC Square made 7 or 8 different endings before Necron, who fits the story's themes.
Imo, the last third is fine: Terra/Pandemonium and Memoria are interesting places, with string visual identities and bewitching musical themes. I have a soft spot for Branval, so melancholic.
I'm still a little frustrated since I wanted to know more about Oeilvert and Ipsen's Castle but hey, it's a minor inconvenience.
Imo, the last third is fine: Terra/Pandemonium and Memoria are interesting places, with string visual identities and bewitching musical themes. I have a soft spot for Branval, so melancholic.
I'm still a little frustrated since I wanted to know more about Oeilvert and Ipsen's Castle but hey, it's a minor inconvenience.
It's worth remembering that IX was originally intended as a side-game celebrating the series before it evolved into something new, so the final third is basically a deliberate mash-up of past games: you've got your Four Fiends, Garland pulling a Zemus via Exdethian world-merging, Kuja playing the role of Kefka and Sephiroth's love child, Pandemonium and a time-compressed castle as final dungeons, and Necron showing up out of nowhere like the Cloud of Darkness.
We don't really know if that's true. The first information we had about the game was concept art that Andrew Vestal got from Square USA and leaked on the Internet. Vestal reported that this was concept art for the unannounced FFIX. In response to this, a journalist asked Shinji Hashimoto about it and Hashimoto replied that FFIX is not announced yet and that this concept art could be about a spinoff or a sidegame or FFIX or anything else, because they haven't announced anything yet.
So in the end we don't know if Hashimoto was genuine in his response or if he gave a vague answer simply because Square had not announced anything yet.
Similarly, I still remember Kitase before the announcement of FFXIV saying that there's no way to know if FFXIV would be more medieval or more futuristic... and then like barely a week later FFXIV was officially announced, complete with a full trailer, meaning that Kitase clearly knew the answer during the interview but was playing coy.
Yeah Disc 3 is definitely the worst in IX but the ending is still great. I love scene of Garnet and Zidane reuniting though now that I'm thinking about it...how much time had passed before he came back? Because if it was long they sure didn't age lol
Yes you're wrong. All of her dialogue is through Edea and then beginning of Disc 3 we learn about her and middle of the disc we see her. Then you meet her at the end and fight her.
You're mad a final dungeon actually made players strategize, solve puzzles and fight multiple mini-bosses making your party better prepared for the final battle? All of which you can skip and go directly to the last boss?
Yes you're wrong. All of her dialogue is through Edea and then beginning of Disc 3 we learn about her and middle of the disc we see her. Then you meet her at the end and fight her.
Do you have more information on the other endings? I haven't heard about this before and I love FF9.
There isn't much information I think.
There's this interview where Kazuhiko Aoki mentions changing the ending:
And concept art makes it appear that Hades was the final boss at one point:
There may be more information in the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania Guide, but as is almost always the case with these guides, it hasn't been translated in English :(
I never made it even close to that far because I found the constant lengthy transitions into and out of battles to be intolerable. Is there any better way to play it than the PSOne Classics version that fixes this issue? Because other than that I was quite enjoying it.
Thanks! I'll give it a read later.
Regarding this tidbit I've bolded, the FF7-8-9 Ultimania were released in English last year, is that not the same thing?
It's a bit messy toward the end, particularly the Kuja/Garland/Terra bits, but it doesn't bring the game down IMO.
A lot of Final Fantasies -- and RPGs in general -- really suffer in their final acts. Endings are hard, and RPGs' proclivity for grand, god-killing, universe-reordering madness doesn't make them any easier. Final acts/discs are usually richer in side content than main storyline, too, which can have a deleterious effect on pacing / player motivation.
Even the more grounded political entries like Tactics and XII fall into that trap to some extent.
A lot of Final Fantasies -- and RPGs in general -- really suffer in their final acts. Endings are hard, and RPGs' proclivity for grand, god-killing, universe-reordering madness doesn't make them any easier. Final acts/discs are usually richer in side content than main storyline, too, which can have a deleterious effect on pacing / player motivation.
Even the more grounded political entries like Tactics and XII fall into that trap to some extent.
OP
OP
I actually completely forgot that Zidane made a comment about how he could've ended up like Kuja :p. Makes more sense now, but I still think trying to rescue him was ridiculous
And you made a good point about the Kuja/Vivi relationship.
OP
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I played it on 4x speed the whole way through. I have no idea how I did it without the fast forward feature when I was younger
OP, I love your opening picture to the thread. It's so wonderful. Also I struggled a lot with the last few hours of the game. I really did enjoy the game but I disliked the end boss for reasons I cannot explain at the moment. I think it is a wonderful game and would totally buy a remake of it if it ever occurred.
I honestly feel like all of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX had rushed endings (it was most obvious with VIII and how the world is blocked off due to Time Compression but you can also tell in VII with the developers admitting how rushed the final dungeon was). It doesn't really detract from those games but you can tell they were running out of time. IX is the least noticeable, imho, but the hints are there.
OP
OP
Kuja saved the party by teleporting them away during the final battle. That's when Zidane realized he wasn't completely a lost cause and chose to save him.
OP
OP
Thanks I sent this to like 10 friends that don't care about video games