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Final Fantasy IX :

Last updated June 14th, 2000

Email - Cloud Strife

Links To My Final Fantasy IX pages Final Fantasy IX Plot Final Fantasy IX Card Mini Game With Final Fantasy X and XI already officially announced for the PlayStation2, Final Fantasy IX, which is now currently scheduled for a July 19, 2000 release in Japan, will mark Square's final Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation. The previous two games in the series that appeared on the PlayStation, FFVII and FFVIII, have already reached astronomical sales figures with both selling over five million units worldwide, making it PlayStation's largest franchise on the planet. Unless the world's economy crashes before the end of this year, Final Fantasy IX will likely reach the same lofty figures despite the fact that many gamers will be already on the PlayStation2 bandwagon. The biggest surprise regarding Final Fantasy IX has been with the change of the overall look of the game. While FFVII and VIII had a distinct, futuristic cyber-look to them, Final Fantasy IX, with Yoshitaka Amano returning, has more of a fantasy, swords and sorcery-type look to it. In terms of design, the game looks a lot like Chrono Cross, with pre-rendered backgrounds and super-deformed character style. There are a grand total of eight characters that will be playable in the game. The first three that were released were as follows: Adelbert Steiner, who is 33 years old, a Knight of the Royal Family, and a loyal servant of the princess. Then there's Zidane Tribal, who is a 16-year-old boy that just happens to be a thief that has a strong love for girls (now, what 16 year old boy doesn't?). And, finally, there's VIVI Ornitier, a nine-year-old black wizard. Square has finally released details on the last five of the game's playable characters. First, there's Eiko Carol, a cheerful young six year old girl who's sharp and will surprise those around her. Second, there's Freija Crescent, who is a female knight that seems to be troubled by something from her past. Next up is Quina Quen, who is a very odd creature that's only interest is eating. Quina is followed by Garnet Til Alexandros 17th, who is the princess of the royal family. Most of the people in the country think of her of a spoiled brat. Finally, there's Salamander Coral, who is a man who trusts nobody and trains under the concept that strength and power are everything. He looks quite dependable, if you can become friends with him. That's not all of the cast, of course. Outside the playable characters, there will undoubtedly be numerous supporting figures; including, for example, the statue that VIVI encounters, who evidently "looks important." A lot has been made about the switch in the basic design of the characters, with most people either loving or hating the idea, but the bottom line is that the most important aspect of the game will be its storyline. While not much is known about the story at this time, the chances are that it'll be of epic proportions and will likely capture the hearts and minds of everyone who plays it. We do know that an evil will arise in the land - Square has revealed a dark winged figure in search of an airship, who certainly seems to have malign intentions towards our heroes. However, based on screenshots of the game that have surfaced and information that has been revealed in Japanese magazines over the past few weeks, we have been able to figure out a few new tidbits about the game. Firstly, there's a floating building that you'll see in some of the screens -- this building is a theater house that can be seen from the castle, where travelling performers and circuses come to give performances for the palace. The theater is known as Prima Vista and the parts of it that you'll see in the game's screenshots below are of its Grand Stage, Orchestra, Waiting Room, and Engine Room. At the game's onset, this theater is being controlled by a group of thieves. Like many of the game's areas, there are a great many accessible sections of the pre-rendered background. You can explore rooves and other out-of-the-way spaces if you poke around for more obscure paths. Furthermore, we've also learned that there will be eight total characters that will be able to join your party (not all can fight at one time). And since the game will have more of a fantasy setting, the characters will include more non-human character types -- making it more like Final Fantasy VI, than VII or VIII. For instance, the game has a rat-like character and a "monster-type" character in the game. Also, since Amano is back for the character designs, expect to see a lot of things like princesses, castles, and dragons making a return. Expect a more mystical and fantastical world, and in particular expect the return of the Mogs, the cute little flying puffballs from Final Fantasy VI. By the way, yes, we know about the Chocobo & Mog summon in Final Fantasy VII, so there's no need to e-mail us on the subject. Anyway, the Mogs will have a much larger role in FFIX, appearing throughout the game world. They live all over, although individual Mogs prefer to stay in one place. Since they don't get out and travel very much, they'll ask you to deliver letters for them, a favor which might be rewarded with information or items. The game's main character appears to be Zidane Tribal, who is the young 16-year-old thief, but players will take control over numerous other characters in the game's 40 plus hours of promised gameplay. One example is near the beginning of the game where the player will take control of a solider who is chasing a young boy for about five minutes. Afterwards, the player takes control of the fleeing boy for a period of time. FFIX's story beings with Steiner protecting the princess and VIVI Ornitier searching for himself. VIVI, who is the young Black Wizard, appears to be one of the central focal points of the game and a lot of the game's story revolves around him. Early town exploration sequences have focused mainly on VIVI, as he searches a town, goes shopping, and helps a young boy named Tom find his lost cat. Hey, heroism isn't just about saving the world from certain doom. We're also a bit in the black with regard to the specifics of the game's battle system because all we've really seen of the game was what was shown at the Square Millennium Event, held in Japan in late January. However, based on what was shown and what we've been able to gather since then, the game will once again have an active battle system like the previous games in the series. For those new to the series, the active battle system gives a pseudo realtime feel to the battles because both the characters and enemy monsters have a different amount of time needed to be ready for attack. Basically, when the bar fills up, that character is ready to attack and depending on the attributes of the character, magical items he or she may be wearing, or spells that have been cast, the bar will fill up at varying speeds. One thing that we've been able to find out is that the game will use a type of "job" or "class" system. So, characters will have a class such as thief, knight, magician, and so on. However, characters can have their traits customized within the course of the game. We don't know any specifics about the game's magic system either, but Square EA did ask for our opinions a few months back about the length of the Guardian Forces, because Square Japan had heard a lot of complaints from Japanese gamers about the length of the spells. We told them that we agreed with the complaint about the length of the spells, so hopefully Square has taken our advice and the advice of the gamers and don't include overly long and drawn out spells in FFIX. (The first couple of times they're great, but after a couple of hours...) Square recently revealed some new information on FFIX's item and weapon system. First and foremost, each item or weapon that you equip will add to the player's abilities in a certain way, ala Diablo. For example, a bracelet could give a 10% HP boost. Finding items is often a matter of careful searching - as you wander through areas, if an exclamation point appears over your character's head, that means searching the area (a la Dragon Quest) might yield the discovery of an item, or at least some interesting information. However, no detailed information regarding equipment, abilities, or menu screens have yet to be released by Square. Additionally, the items will give the characters different abilities depending on the particular character and item in question. For example, a certain item may increase magic points for one character, but increase strength on another. Also, rare items in the game will likely give you extra special abilities. One unique feature of the game is that special abilities given to the user by the item can actually be learned if it is used often enough. In most games, if an item give you the ability to cast a spell, it only allows you to do it while that item is equipped. In FFIX, once the spell is used enough and learned by the character, it is no longer needed. Overall, the game doesn't really appear to be a revolutionary leap over Square's previous games, like FFVII/VIII, Chrono Cross, and Vagrant Story, but instead just an evolutionary progression. It's probably safe to say that when all is said and done, Final Fantasy IX will go down in history as one of the most visually stunning games on the aging PlayStation. Final Fantasy IX hasn't been given an official North American release date from Square EA at this time, but our trusted sources have informed us that the game is headed toward a late October shipment.