Final Fantasy IX
Review by Heath


Storyline

The game starts out with a very unoriginal introduction and many people have made point about it in the past -- "the old kidnap the princess"; however this is given an unexpected twist, as the princess wants to be kidnapped, which was nice. It had some wonderful comedy parts to it, mainly involving Zidane, the main character. One of the characters, Freya, had a very interesting story at the start though afterwards she doesn't seem as important to the plot, which is a shame, but at least Freya is getting development. The plot really gets more apparent and interesting on the third disc. I've always seen the story in two parts. Discs one and two the first, with discs three and four being the second, due to how the villain seems to change. There are some touching pieces of drama in it making this a great storyline. 		9.0
Characters

I like the majority of the characters in this game. Some were left out quite a bit storyline-wise for some parts, as I said about Freya in the storyline section above. I felt for the characters of Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Steiner, Freya for the first and second discs. Kuja and Beatrix were well thought out and added drama and, in Steiner and Zidane's cases, comedy as well. Some characters others seem to find annoying, Eiko, Zorn and Thorn for example, and I will agree with the latter two to an extent. Overall, the characters were well thought out, added some touching moments to the storyline and a pleasure to watch and play as. 		9.0
Music and Sounds

As with the other Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy IX is no exception to have a great soundtrack. Pieces like "Melodies of Life" and "The Dark Messenger" are great. "The Dark Messenger", for example, really does add drama to what was a disappointingly easy boss battle. Others like "The Skirmish of the Silver Dragons" really build up a climax as you head towards the end of the game and fits in almost perfectly with the FMV for which it is a part of. Others, however, such as the normal battle theme wear thin after a while due to hearing it so often; I did find it quite nice upon hearing it for the first time. The sound effects are only very short and I never found any annoying. 		8.5
Graphics and FMVs

When watching the FMVs in Final Fantasy IX you really can appreciate just what great graphics the Playstation and Squaresoft can make, and how very realistic it all is, and with the generally impressive music it really looks and sounds realistic. The backgrounds and scenery in game are of a great standard; unfortunately the character graphics and in-battle graphics are not nicely put together and tend to get on my nerves. The spell casting in-game does look impressive, especially when looking at the summons Bahamut and Ark and the magic spells Flare and Holy. 		8.0
Battle System

The limit-break system in this game is rather disappointing. The Trance system occurs in the battle and must be used in that battle, so it can't carry on, and the spells aren't that amazing either, and many aren't much more useful. Freya, Quina and Zidane have attacks that will do maximum damage without a trance, so to those characters the Trance is pretty much pointless. Vivi, however can use his Black Magic twice so it isn't a completely pointless--allowing Vivi to do maximum damage twice. Outside of battle, however, Trance adds an integral part to the storyline. The battles, though fairly frequent, aren't so frequent that they become annoying. The return of characters having specific jobs allows you to plan your teams more strategically whereas in seven and eight it was more dependant on the magic they had equipped, which is nice nostalgia from the older Final Fantasys. 		9.5
Overall

Overall a great game to play, and with it now being Platinum and easily accessible second hand at cheap prices, there really is no excuse not to play this game unless you don't own a Playstation. 		8.7

- Heath