<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yes, it's about 3 years too late, but I finally beat FF9. In more ways than one (and personal opinion aside), this really should have been the sequel to FF6.
Unfortunately, it signals the end of the "fantasy" part of Final Fantasy; well, the pure sense of the word. FF6 and FF9 had technological advances in them, but they pale in comparison to FF7 (and FF8 from my understanding). The story was still very much a fantasy storyline and the technology in the games was more on the primitive end (with the help of magic, of course). Personally, I tend to like these storylines more, even though Xenogears still has the best storyline of any RPG I've ever played.
But in no way does this make FF9 a backwards step in the series. This game had tons of tweaks and additions to the gameplay in the series, and I liked basically everything they did. The little icon that appears over Zidane's head whenever he can find something (or in some cases, someone), really made the flow of the game better....and actually rewarded you properly for searching around, rather than just through trial and error. The Active Time Event really brought out the characters well, the learning of the Abilities added a little more dimension to the gameplay, the return and subsequent enhancement of the classic character classes was incredibly well done IMO, and the storyline was quite in-depth and excellent, not only expanding on all those ideas and characters of the older games, but also giving real character to the actual characters in the game. Also, there's an absolute ton of stuff to do, and a whack of mini-games (that auction was brilliant, as was the card game, which was surprisingly well done). Incredibly well done. My only real complaint in the entire game was the excessive random battles, ESPECIALLY in some of the towns. It was absolutely relentless and made it a bit of a chore to explore.
It basically pays homage to FF1-6 while still being every bit the next-gen RPG you would have expected at that time. I'm kind of annoyed I didn't get to this one earlier; it took me 5 years to get over the disappointment that is FF7. But along with Chrono Cross, I'm regaining my faith in Square's RPG abilities and actually wanna try another FF game now (8 or 10, but Xenosaga, RE0, and Zelda are first). I hope they can keep it up (Enix should hopefully help with that).</div>
Unfortunately, it signals the end of the "fantasy" part of Final Fantasy; well, the pure sense of the word. FF6 and FF9 had technological advances in them, but they pale in comparison to FF7 (and FF8 from my understanding). The story was still very much a fantasy storyline and the technology in the games was more on the primitive end (with the help of magic, of course). Personally, I tend to like these storylines more, even though Xenogears still has the best storyline of any RPG I've ever played.
But in no way does this make FF9 a backwards step in the series. This game had tons of tweaks and additions to the gameplay in the series, and I liked basically everything they did. The little icon that appears over Zidane's head whenever he can find something (or in some cases, someone), really made the flow of the game better....and actually rewarded you properly for searching around, rather than just through trial and error. The Active Time Event really brought out the characters well, the learning of the Abilities added a little more dimension to the gameplay, the return and subsequent enhancement of the classic character classes was incredibly well done IMO, and the storyline was quite in-depth and excellent, not only expanding on all those ideas and characters of the older games, but also giving real character to the actual characters in the game. Also, there's an absolute ton of stuff to do, and a whack of mini-games (that auction was brilliant, as was the card game, which was surprisingly well done). Incredibly well done. My only real complaint in the entire game was the excessive random battles, ESPECIALLY in some of the towns. It was absolutely relentless and made it a bit of a chore to explore.
It basically pays homage to FF1-6 while still being every bit the next-gen RPG you would have expected at that time. I'm kind of annoyed I didn't get to this one earlier; it took me 5 years to get over the disappointment that is FF7. But along with Chrono Cross, I'm regaining my faith in Square's RPG abilities and actually wanna try another FF game now (8 or 10, but Xenosaga, RE0, and Zelda are first). I hope they can keep it up (Enix should hopefully help with that).</div>
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
