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Final Fantasy IX
Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Square Co., Ltd. Square EA Square Europe Infogrames
Designer(s)	Hironobu Sakaguchi (producer) Hiroyuki Ito (director) Nobuo Uematsu (composer) Hideo Minaba (art director)
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	July 7, 2000 November 14, 2000 February 16, 2001
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, limited multiplayer

Final Fantasy IX (ファイナルファンタジーIX, Fainaru Fantajī Nain) is a console role-playing game developed by Square Co., Ltd. in 2000. It was published in Japan by Square, in North America by Square Electronic Arts, in continental Europe by Infogrames, and in the United Kingdom and Australasia by Square Europe. It was the last original game in the Final Fantasy series to be produced for the PlayStation. This incarnation of the series was influenced heavily by the original Final Fantasy, and the game subsequently has nostalgic qualities for long time fans. Reviews were generally positive, and the game was voted the 24th-best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu.

Set in the fantasy world Gaia, Final Fantasy IX's plot centers around a queen's desire to dominate the world. Players follow a young thief named Zidane, who teams up with others to defeat the Queen. Soon after embarking on their quest, they discover that the queen's campaign is merely a coverup for a greater plot involving parallel worlds and Zidane's past.

The game was developed alongside Final Fantasy VIII, but took a completely different path in line with fan's requests to return to the series roots via castles, allusions to other games in the series, and deformed character designs. Although primarily designed as a closure to the series, Final Fantasy IX introduced the Active Time Event, Mognet, and a revamped equipment and skill system.

Gameplay

Exploration

Final Fantasy IX is presented in third person perspective — the playable character is fully visible as it is navigated throughout the game world. Most of the game occurs in towns, dungeons, caves, and similar areas, collectively referred to as the "field screen." To aid exploration on the field screen, Final Fantasy IX introduces the "field icon," an exclamation mark appearing over their lead character's head, signaling that an item or sign is nearby. Players speak with moogles to record their progress — a deviation from pervious installments, which use save points or inns.

The field icon indicates that an object can be inspected, as is the case with this ticket booth

Players journey between field screen locations via the world map screen, a three dimensional, downsized representation of 'Final Fantasy IX's world presented in top-down perspective. Players can freely navigate around the world map screen unless restricted by terrain, such as bodies of water or mountains. To overcome geographical limitations, players can ride emu-like Chocobos, sail on a boat, or pilot airships. Travel across the world map screen and hostile field screen locations is interrupted by random enemy encounters, a trademark of the Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy IX offers a new approach to town exploration with Active Time Events (ATE). At specific points, the player is given the option of viewing events that are occurring simultaneously in different locations. While most ATEs are for plot enrichment, some ATEs provide items or prompt key story-altering decisions. ATE is occasionally used to simultaneously control two teams when the party is divided to solve puzzles and navigate mazes — a concept based on events in previous series installments.

Combat

In this early boss battle, Steiner attacks the enemy while Zidane awaits the player's input

When a random encounter begins, the environment shifts to the "battle screen," where the player's characters and computer-controlled enemies line up on opposite sides of the playing screen to attack each other. A character's action is limited by the Active Time Battle (ATB) gauge positioned along the bottom of the battle screen; only a character with a full gauge can be issued commands. The character's command list is presented in a window opposite the ATB gauge list; while all characters can physically attack the enemy or use an item from the player's inventory, they also possess unique abilities. For instance, the thief Zidane can steal items from the enemy, Eiko and Garnet can summon "eidolons" to aid the party in battle, and Vivi can use black magic to damage the opposition.

These character-specific commands change when the player goes into "Trance mode," which is activated for a short duration when an uncontrollable gauge fills as character sustains damage in a style similar to Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII. When the gauge is full, the character's strength is amplified and the player can choose from special attack commands. Zidane's "Skill" command list, for example, changes to "Dyne," allowing him to execute extremely powerful attacks, and Vivi's "Black Magic" command evolves into "Double Black," allowing him to cast two magic spells in a single turn.

A character's performance in battle is determined by numerical values (called "statistics") for categories such as speed, strength, and magical power. Character statistics, in turn, are driven by experience; when players win battles, they are awarded "experience points," which accumulate until characters gain "experience levels." When characters "level up," the statistics for their attributes permanently increase. Winning battles also awards the player money (Gil), Tetra Master playing cards, and ability points (AP).

Equipment and abilities

Final Fantasy IX deviates from the relatively interchangeable characters of the last two titles and revives the character class concept. Because characters are less customizable, players are forced to weigh the mission objectives against their character's abilities; if players travel to an area with an anti-magic field, they are best suited to bring warriors rather than mages.

Equipment's basic function in Final Fantasy games is to increase character attributes; arming Zidane with a Mythril Vest, for example, increases his base defense statistic. In Final Fantasy IX, equipment also supports character development through an ability system. Abilities are character skills embedded in weapons and armor, which may be used by the character when he or she equips the item. Additionally, the ability may be used without the item equipped, as long as the player accumulates enough ability points in battle.

Abilities are classified into action and support categories. Action Abilities consume magic points (MP) and include magic spells and special moves that can be used in battle. Support abilities are special abilities with passive functions (e.g., the support ability "Antibody" nullifies poisonous attacks). Support abilities must be equipped with magic stones to be functional; the maximum number of these stones increases as the character levels up.

Story

File:Ff9 screenshot gaiamap.png

A geographical map of Gaia

Setting

Main article: List of Final Fantasy IX locations

The majority of Final Fantasy IX's plot talkes place on the fictional world of Gaia. At the time the game's events take place, the planet is divided into four continents. Most of the world's population resides on the Mist Continent, named so because the entire continent is blanketed in thick mist; lands outside the Mist Continent are uncharted territories. Gaia is essentially a dying planet; only sparse vegetation dots the lands outside of the Mist Continent.

Gaia is the first world in the Final Fantasy series to show different races actively engaging with humans. Demi-humans populate all of the cities. Gaia features an enormous amount of nonhuman races; Burmecians, for example, are rat-like in appearance, while summoners have horns on their heads. (This paragraph was only the start of how I was going to go on about the demihumans)

In Final Fantasy IX, the game's developers sought to make the game's environment more "fantasy-oriented" than its PlayStation predecessors. The game's distinctly medieval setting breaks from the "futuristic images of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII." The advent of steam technology is only just beginning to rise; the population relies on hydropower or wind power for energy sources, but sometimes harness Mist to power more advanced engines. Continuing with the medieval theme, the game's setting is inspired by Norse and Northern European mythology. According to director Hiroyuki Itou, "We're attracted to European history and mythology because of its depth and its drama." (source: IGN FF9; this could use a little expanding and a better concluding sentence)

Prologue

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Terra must assimilate into Gaia to survive

At 5,000 years old, Gaia is relatively new. At the time of the planet's birth, a much older planet, Terra, reached the peak of its prosperity, but the people realized that their planet would soon collapse upon itself and they would be destroyed. As they had done before, they planned to save their civilization through the assimilation of another planet, and they turned their sights toward Gaia. A Terran named Garland was created to deal with Terra's plight and oversee the assimilation. For Terra to absorb the planet requires that Gaia — which, in its infancy, is vibrant with life — be weaker than Terra. Garland's first forceful attempts at destroying Gaia's life failed, so he waited until Gaia's civilization evolved enough to gain tremendous power: the power to use destructive "eidolons, summoned beasts of incredible strength. Garland proceeded to create an entity known as Necron, physically manifested as the "Iifa Tree," whose purpose was to block Gaia's souls from returning to the planet. Deprived of its vital cycle of souls, Gaia would eventually weaken enough to allow Terra's souls to fill the void. The Iifa Tree's secondary function and the complement to Garland's master plan was intended to speed up the delivery of souls to Necron: the Tree channels the stagnant souls through its roots in the form of "Mist" which, in turn, spawns monsters, foments abnormalities in the human mind, and stimulates the fighting spirit, all intended to increase the likelihood of war.

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The Iifa Tree, guided by Necron, prevents Gaia's departed souls from nourishing the planet

Garland also created "Genomes," superior humanoid beings designed to serve as vessels for the souls of Terra's people. Twenty four years prior to the game's events, Garland gave life to a defect Genome whose strong will and ambition were unbecoming of a proper vessel. Rather than discarding the Genome, Garland used him to his advantage and sent Kuja, his "angel of death," to wreak havoc upon the world, speeding the process of reaping souls and further draining the planet of its life. Kuja, however, was designed only to last until a worthy Genome –- Zidane –- came of age. Unable to see a Genome with more power than his own, Kuja discarded Zidane onto Gaia, the world he would destroy.

Eventually Garland grew to fear the power of the eidolons he had longed for, and so he destroyed the summoner's village of Madain Sari with his warship, Invincible. One of the summoners, Jane, managed to escape the destruction with her young daughter, Sarah, and sailed to the kingdom of Alexandria. Jane didn't survive the trip, and Sarah was taken in by the king and queen of Alexandria, who noticed that the girl looked remarkably similar to their own recently deceased daughter. The king and queen adopted the girl to raise her in their daughter's place as Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII.

Characters

Vivi, Zidane, Garnet, and Steiner in a full motion video sequence

Main article: List of Final Fantasy IX characters

Neither Zidane nor Garnet are left with recollections of their past. After his arrival on Gaia, Zidane is taken under the wing of Baku, the leader of a band of thieves called Tantalus. Under that brotherhood, Zidane grows up as an impulsive, cheery, and flirtatious youth. Eventually, however, Zidane searches the continent for his true birthplace. In his travels, Zidane meets Freya Crescent, a dragon knight from Burmecia, and the solitary vagabond Amarant Coral. For her part, Garnet lives the life of a princess, unaware of her summoning powers; she is protected by Adelbert Steiner, a pompous and overly principled knight in Brahne's service. One of Kuja's golems, a prototype black mage named Vivi, is another character, who is raised by one of the Qu tribe. Another Qu, Quina Quen, is a chef. Finally, Eiko Carol is a summoner from Madain Sari.

As the enemy of Gaia, Kuja is the game's primary antagonist. Using the dregs of souls pumped out by the Iifa Tree's roots, he creates an army of black mages. One of these black mages, Vivi, is taken in by a Qu named Quayle. To fulfill his role as Gaia's grim reaper, Kuja approaches the militant nation of Alexandria. Under Kuja's influence, Queen Brahne (Garnet's adoptive mother) provides means for his army of black mages (one of which is Vivi), and she prepares to extract powerful eidolons from Garnet. Cid Fabool, regent of the technological superpower Lindblum, recognizes the potential signs of war and upholds a promise made to Garnet's surrogate father –- to protect her in times of danger –- and so dispatches Tantalus to "kidnap" Garnet. (OK, you might be able to see that I was trying to make Prologue > Characters > Plot flow nicely by connecting them. That's why I went from Zidane/Genomes and Garnet in the Prologue to talking about Zidane and Garnet, the two main characters. You can see where I just kind of gave up connecting everything (for example, "...Vivi is another character. Another, Qu, Quina Quen, is a chef. Finally, Eiko Carol is a summoner from Madain Sari), although it's still promising. I tried to fit Vivi in in this second paragraph too, but it didn't work out that well. Basically, the best part that bridges the prologue and the story are the mention of Kuja approaching Brahne to finance his black mage army, and Cid recognizing the danger and dispatching Tantalus, which is where the game begins)

Plot

The game opens as Tantalus, undercover as a theatre troupe, fulfills Cid's request and kidnaps Princess Garnet. Zidane immediately falls for the beautiful princess. During the operation, Steiner accompanies her in his attempt to protect her, and Vivi becomes involved through circumstance. (This intro could really use work :P)

File:Ff9 screenshot brahne.jpg

Brahne harnesses the power of eidolons

Although Tantalus is successful in kidnapping Garnet, their plan soon backfires, leaving Zidane in charge of the operation. Furious with the setback, Brahne dispatches elite black mage soldiers to retrieve Garnet, who has adopted the name "Dagger" to conceal her identity. When Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, and Vivi finally reach Lindblum, Brahne launches an offensive on the kingdom of Burmecia. Freya learns of the news while in Lindblum, and Zidane and Vivi accompany her to Burmecia to battle Brahne's army. Devastated by her mother's actions, Garnet secretly follows a plan of her own to negotiate with Brahne and leaves with Steiner to Alexandria. Upon arrival, they're captured and Brahne begins the process of extracting eidolons from Garnet. Meanwhile, Zidane's party is defeated at the hands of legendary the Alexandrian General, Beatrix. Counting their losses, the Burmecians retreat to Cleyra, a kindgom shielded by a perpetual windstorm. In pursuit, Alexandria's ground forces breach the city and steal a precious jewel capable of summoning a powerful eidolon, and retreat via telepods afterwards, while Zidane and co. follow. With her newfound weapon, the legendary eidolon Odin, Brahne obliterates Cleyra in one fell swoop. Zidane's party works to save Garnet, who is slated to be executed. With the aid of a disillusioned Beatrix, they manage to save Garnet and escape Alexandria Castle.

Afterwards, Brahne attacks Lindblum, and Cid surrenders to spare the lives of his constituents. With Cid's help, the companions formulate a plan to destroy Kuja, the architect of Brahne's military campaign, who is based on the Outer Continent. On the Outer Continent, they discover a secluded village of renegade black mage soldiers. Vivi wrestles with his limited lifespan, and Garnet begins to reciprocate Zidane's affection after a while. (I really wanted to go into more detail with Vivi's fear of death and the whole gradual Garnet loving Zidane here...) There, the party learns that Kuja was sighted at the Iifa Tree. En route, they meet the sole survivor of Madain Sari's tribe of summoners, Eiko, who offers to guide them, and Amarant, a mercenary obsessed with fighting who follows Zidane to understand Zidane's strength. ('After "Amarant," the sentence sucks.) At the Iifa Tree the party destroys the Tree's mechanism for distributing the mist, thus stopping its flow. They then spot Kuja being pursued by Brahne's (who is looking to destroy the one man who can best her) fleet. To destroy him, she summons Bahamut, the king of dragons. Kuja uses the Invincible to turn Bahamut against Brahne, who destroys the entire fleet, killing Brahne.

File:Ff9 screenshot fmveidolons.png

Alexander defends the city against Bahamut

Using Brahne's escape pod, the group travels back to Alexandria. Shortly after Dagger's coronation following Brahne's death, Kuja launches an attack on the city. With Eiko, Dagger summons the forbidden eidolon Alexander to defend the city from Bahamut, and Alexander rebuffs Bahamut and defeats him. Thrilled by Alexander's display of power, Kuja attempts to capture him with the Invincible, only to learn that an angry Garland has assumed control of the ship. With it, he destroys Alexandria castle, but Zidane saves Dagger and Eiko in time, where they board a ship with the others to escape to Lindblum. They once again search to destroy Kuja, and their pursuit eventually leads them to Mount Gulug, where Kuja learns of Trance's incredible power and the party learns of Kuja's plan for destroying the world.

File:Trance.JPG

Trance Kuja destroys Bran Bal

They learn that Kuja is from the parallel world Terra, and so break the seal of the Shimmering Island, the gateway between Gaia and Terra. There, they teleport to Gaia, but also allow Kuja to attach to the slipstream of their journey. In the city of Bran Bal, Zidane learns the truth of his origins, and confused and distraught, succumbs to Garland's will as his war machine. With the help of his friends, though, Zidane overcomes his inner struggle for identity, and together they defeat Garland. Afterwards, they are attacked by Kuja, who they also best, but he goes into Trance and defeats them. Kuja is ecstatic over finding the power of Trance, and kills Garland. Garland's spirit lives, however, and informs Kuja of his limited lifespan. but Kuja goes berserk when he learns that his lifespan is limited and destroys all of Terra. The companions are able to escape onboard the Invincible. When they arrive back on Gaia, they discover that mist is blanketing the entire world.

File:Ff9 screenshot embrace.jpg

Zidane and Garnet embrace in front of an ecstatic crowd

Onboard the Invincible, they fly to the Iifa Tree to stop Kuja's plans for destroying the world, and battle their way into Memoria, a place created out of memories. There, they travel billions of years through spacetime to the genesis of the universe, which was born out of the Crystal, the harbinger of life. They prevent a desperate Kuja from destroying the Crystal, but with his death rattle he unleashes a catastrophic Ultima spell, killing the group, who end up in the soul-sorting process on the Hill of Despair. On death's door they are confronted by Necron, who, independent of Garland's intended role, has concluded that humanity desires nonexistence, the ideal state of the universe, and so plans to destroy the Crystal. They triumph over Necron, and a dying Kuja saves the souls of the party, teleporting them to the base of the Iifa Tree. Everyone else is picked up by airship but Zidane, who stays behind to find his "brother" Kuja. There, a remorseful Kuja dies in Zidane's arms and the Tree's violent reaction sends it upon Zidane.

The others believe that Zidane is dead and Garnet, now the reigning queen of Alexandria, attempts to cope with her new life. She invites everyone to Alexandria to watch the play "I Want To Be Your Canary." The companions arrive on her birthday, except for Vivi, who has "stopped" but has created "sons" out of the remaining Mist. Disguised as the play's lead, Marcus, Zidane throws off his cloak and Garnet runs through the crowd of people and leaps into his arms. (The conclusion isn't the best here...)

Development

File:Ff9 under wrap picture.jpg

The development of Final Fantasy IX was kept under wraps

Production for Final Fantasy IX began before Square had finished development on its predecessor, Final Fantasy VIII. As the series' last game on the PlayStation, Sakaguchi envisioned a "tribute" to the series that went back to "the old-style Final Fantasy." Sakaguchi's vision was consistent with players' feedback. In its conceptual stage, however, the game's developers made it clear that the title wouldn't necessarily be Final Fantasy IX, as it's break from the realism of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII may have alienated audiences. This led the Gaming Intelligence Agency to speculate that it would be released as a "gaiden" to the main series. By late 1999, however, Square had confirmed that the game would indeed be published under the Final Fantasy IX title, and by early 2000, the game was nearly finished. In the meantime, more details on the game's storyline, gameplay mechanics, and character details trickled in. Final Fantasy IX's release was delayed, however, to avoid a concurrent release with rival Enix's much-anticipated Dragon Quest VII. When it finally did release, Final Fantasy IX received positive reviews from Famitsu.

File:Ff9 strategyguide scan.png

In this illustration, the guide's list of armor urges readers to log onto PlayOnline for a complete listing

Final Fantasy IX was also the benchmark of Square's interactive PlayOnline service. PlayOnline was originally developed to interact with X, but as those plans fell through it became a strategy site for 9. The site was designed to complement BradyGames' official strategy guide for FF9, where players who bought the print guide had access to "keywords" that could be searched for on PlayOnline's site for extra tips and information. This caused fury among buyers of the guide, as they felt cheated for the expensive print guide. One Amazon reviewer of the print guide says "..." (The "..." can be substituted with practically any Amazon.com quote over the guide, which are all horrendous) The blunder made GameSpy readers' "Top 5 Dumbest Moments in Gaming" list, and Square dropped the idea for Final Fantasy IX. The original site is no longer accessible through PlayOnline.

Musical score

Final Fantasy IX is the last Final Fantasy game with music composed exclusively by Nobuo Uematsu. It was also his most prolific score, as the original soundtrack for the game had a whopping 110 tracks, and an additional soundtrack was released with 42 more new tracks. Many people speculate that the reason why Uematsu no longer composed game soundtracks on his own after this game was that he was simply overworked.

Much of the music in the game revolve around the themes of the J-pop ballad, Melodies of Life, which was composed by Uematsu and performed by Emiko Shiratori. The song itself was sung in Japanese for the Japanese release of the game, and in English for the North American and European releases of the game. (I didn't edit this)

Reception

Reviews and awards

Publication	Score	Comment
PlayStation Magazine	9 out of 10	Game of the Month
Edge (magazine)	8 out of 10 (80%)
IGN.com	9.2 of 10	Editor's Choice
GameSpot	8.5 of 10
Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	92 of 100 (based on 51 reviews)
Metacritic	94 of 100 (based on 22 reviews)
Awards
4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards	Console RPG of the Year Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Outstanding Achievement in Animation

Final Fantasy IX, though a top seller at the time, did not sell as well as Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII in either Japan or the U.S. There are several reasons why this game allegedly failed to live up to the sales of Final Fantasy VIII.

First, Final Fantasy IX was seen as an attempt to return the Final Fantasy series to its fantasy roots, after the other two PlayStation incarnations featured many sci-fi elements and were darker than the older pre-Playstation versions. Although this appealed to older fans, fans of the newer games were likely turned off by the change in direction; in particular, Zidane was more cheery and hyperactive than Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII or Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII. Additionally, the game returned to the super deformed style as opposed to the more realistic designs in the previous game; and was more colorful than Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy IX also re-introduced non-human main characters like Zidane, Vivi, Freya and Quina; whereas Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII had predominantly human casts.

Second, Final Fantasy IX was released shortly after Sony's next-gen console, the PlayStation 2. While the PS2 could play old PlayStation games, people who bought the new system spent their money on new games to get the full power out of it, instead of older titles.

The strategy guide was also criticized. With its release, Square tried a new marketing push for its PlayOnline service, by releasing a stripped-down strategy guide that had links to the web site to get more in-depth info. In Japan, there was no strategy guide at all, and all the info was on-line. The European strategy guide, while being a completely different guide created by Piggyback Interactive, included codes which could be input on the official European Final Fantasy IX site for in-depth info. This was widely regarded as a bad move, as people buy strategy guides to have the info conveniently collected and in front of them while playing; this was especially true for Final Fantasy games, because of the many secret locations, side-quests and hidden items. The US book's given links are no longer accessible on the PlayOnline website, yet the European Final Fantasy IX site is still up.

Finally, there were other concerns people had over the game. Some felt the game used too many FMVs, the vast majority of which never reaching the length of one full minute. The Trance system was considered to have shortcomings (see Gameplay), and the battle system was generally considered slower than the battle systems in its two predecessors. The Mini-game Tetra Master was also seen by many fans as inferior and confusing compared to Final Fantasy VIII's mini-game Triple Triad, as the rules for it were only vaguely explained in the game and there were very few rewards earned from playing it despite its extensiveness. (All I did was delete the single-most POV sentence)

See also

• List of Final Fantasy IX characters
• List of Final Fantasy IX locations

External links

• Official
  • Official Final Fantasy IX website (North America)
  • Official Final Fantasy IX website (Europe)
• General resources
  • Template:Dmoz
  • Final Fantasy Wiki category list for Final Fantasy IX
  • Template:GameFAQs
  • Final Fantasy IX at MobyGames