Well well, look who hasn't made a post in nearly a month. That's what happens when you play lots of stuff over the month, as well as get involved in a big Final Fantasy game with lots of sidequests and such. In many ways, IX is the underrated gem of the Final Fantasies, everyone knows it exists, but take it to the side to continue talking about VII or VI or what not. It's the kind of Final Fantasy game with loads of imperfections but lots of charming stuff to outweigh them. Trying to return to the roots of the original Final Fantasies but also keeping to the tune of modern stuff. Lots of FMVs were really well done (other than a noticable sound issue I had to deal with) and the ability system I sort of was okay with for the most part.
Those sidequests compared to others took quite a while, especially having to do Chocobo Hot and Cold. I neglected some things, like the jump rope and racing minigames, because the rewards are just little titles no one cares about. I decided not to fight Ozma because of ending fatigue, but got basically every other sidequest here. Thankfully the balance is decent enough that I managed to beat the game with under level 50 for all characters. Synthesizing weapons was a supposedly neat idea but not entirely original, the idea of hoarding your inventory instead of actually selling old equipment made it so that synthesizing was actually useful.
There were quite a few things about IX that bothered me. Zidane's steal rate, even with the Master Thief ability, isn't good at all. I can spend 4 consecutive turns of Zidane stealing while everyone else attacks, and yet he won't steal anything. There's a number of abilities for status protection, but they sadly lack it for all statuses, and particular virus and instant death protection aren't present (unless you count Auto-Life, but this applies to all KOs and not necessarily insta-kill, plus it can be set with Amarant or Quina's own abilities anyways). Necron of course I hate, just a random "here's a new bad guy without a single inch of backstory when you got used to the awesome Kuja for the entire game" not to mention him taking up to three turns which is so unfair. Sure, a challenge is a challenge though. Above all else, my biggest complaint with IX is the awful encounter rate, probably the worst in the whole series so far, you can barely get anywhere and bam, another encounter. And the pacing of battles is really slow. It made the Nero Brothers sidequest in particular (have to go back and forth between the endgame dungeon after "checkpoints" are reached) so annoying.
As I said though, IX does do the good parts good. Kuja is so much more interesting than Ultimecia, Sephiroth, Kefka, Exdeath, etc. Zidane's backstory came out of nowhere but it actually is a pretty memorable moment, plus his character as a whole is great. Cid in this game is quirky good. Steiner is definitely devoted. Zorn and Thorn are appropriately annoying comic relief. Dagger and Eiko do their parts well, and so on. The storyline of course gets apocalyptic and suspenseful in multiple parts, sadness reigns, and the heroes still prevail. It's an appropriate Final Fantasy story and it's enriched in goodness all around (well aside from Necron's stupid reveal).
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