Final Fantasy IX turned 20 years old last year.

This is one of the best Final Fantasy titles in the franchise, in my opinion of course.

Every character is memorable and unique. The sheer amount of dedication to the characters and their arcs is on a whole other level. Nearly every one of them has a committed arc in order to show their own struggle and viewpoint – including the villains. Zidane is a confident thief with a mindset of not needing a reason to help people. Playful and glib, he travels with a no-nonsense attitude. With no memory of his past, Zidane lives only for the present, the day-to-day. But his journey here opens up the door to the path of the truth of his origin, which is lingering haughtily in the background, threatening to ensnare him.

In fact, IX has a villain with major character development, despite it being only one title – Kuja. Playing the first 3 discs of the game will probably make you think that Kuja is just an ordinary villain. It’s not until the end of disk 3, during his conversation with Garland where his entire character is reworked. He went from a vicious narcissist who killed just for the entertainment to someone that was the protagonist of his story. Kuja wanted to reject the meaning of his own existence and tries to assert his own individuality, with a very precise goal in mind. From disk 3 to disk 4, Kuja is humanized and then transformed into a tragic hero. Kuja is a far more multifaceted character than he appears at first glance.

The music is absolutely splendid, and quite diverse. Nobuo Uematsu's absolute genius is perfectly crafted in this game. This is one of the games where a lot of the music only plays once during the game. The actual album reached #4 on the Japan Oricon charts (Oricon. 2010-06-24), and sold 101,000 copies as of January 2010. Josh Bizeau and Roko Zaper of Soundtrack Central especially liked it, finding it to be "a blessing for Final Fantasy music", (Gann, Patrick; Schweitzer, Ben. 2008) and both Patrick Gann of RPGFan and Isaac Engelhorn of Soundtrack Central felt it was Uematsu's second-best work to date, behind only the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VI. (Engelhorn, Isaac; Bizeau, Josh; Zaper, Roko; Tilton, Chris 2008) When the story goes through a dramatic change, best believe the music will follow.

The story and narrative is something that leaves you feeling complete. It is undeniable, astonishing, and well-structured. You start off with a thief trying to kidnap a princess, to discovering the escalating intercontinental and inter-dimensional war, and being caught in-between them both. It’s a bright and motivational story that will keep you on your toes… But it’s also a dark narrative that is filled with dark human misery, existential reflection, slavery, pathological vanity, genocide, cold orphans, and unforgettable warfare.

The graphics have aged very nicely for a game that is 20 years old. If we are subjectively comparing this to Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII that came before it, Final Fantasy IX perfected what they were trying to do. The models are chibi-like, yet the models are more polished. The cutscenes are splendid, which hold well even today.

There are pretty of side quests to do – plenty. If I just stopped to think about how many hours I put into the side quests of this game, I’d know that I should have gone pro gamer a long time ago. From playing with Chocobos, to being in auctions to win bids, to playing card games, to frog hunting, to skipping games and running games; there’s so much to do to keep you busy. This is a game that will have you going across the entire planet just find one animal, only to feed it to someone else in order to get an item or ability.

The battle system is strategic but yet simple. It’s a four party member squad that does battle at once. It’s a nod to the old style of Final Fantasy before Final Fantasy VII and VIII took center stage. The characters all have their own set of abilities, which is based off of their class.

The very world itself is pretty much a classic fantasy setting, but it is indeed extremely wide and diverse, separating to different continents, worlds and even dimensions. Players are able to explore across a number of areas on multiple continents, truly exploring a world with many faces. Players can travel on foot, maybe on a Chocobo, on ship, through airships, and even through portals. Some of the villains even travel by dragon.

It’s pretty much a perfect game. Even the creator of Final Fantasy agrees, as it’s his favorite game in the franchise. (Hironobu Sakaguchi. Vamers. 2017)

ファイナルファンタジーＩＸ オリジナル・サウンドトラック (in Japanese). Oricon. 2010-06-24.

Gann, Patrick; Schweitzer, Ben. "Final Fantasy IX OST". RPGFan. 2008-03-01.

Engelhorn, Isaac; Bizeau, Josh; Zaper, Roko; Tilton, Chris. "Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack". Soundtrack Central. 2008-03-02.

Hironobu Sakaguchi. Vamers. 2017-07-19