Top 10 VG Countdown - #5: FINAL FANTASY IX

We have a guest poster visiting today to tell us about one of my favourite games, Final Fantasy IX (which is, incidentally, where my avatar comes from). Big welcome to Jeremy from Geeky Tendencies!

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Final Fantasy IX is a fantasy role-playing game, and the ninth game in the series. It was released in 2000, and was the third and last Final Fantasy game in the main series released for the PlayStation. This one is my favorite of the Final Fantasy games.

The main protagonist is Zidane Tribal; a thief, member of the Tantalus Theater Troupe, and womanizer. At the start of the game, the Tantalus group is hired to kidnap Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII. Zidane, in charge of the kidnapping, finds that Princess Garnet is more than willing to go with the theater group. Garnet is worried about her mother, Queen Brahne, and the wicked changes the queen is going through, and seeks help from her "Uncle Cid," who hired the Tantalus Theater Troupe to kidnap her. During the operation, Vivi Orunitia and Adelbert Steiner become involved, much to Steiner's disdain.

When trying to escape, the Tantalus airship, the Prima Vista, is shot out of the sky and lands in the Evil Forest. This begins the group's quest to find out what is behind the Queen's changing personality, and to try to stop a full-out war.

Each character has a character class and a unique set of skills that can be learned. For instance, Vivi is a black mage and Freya is a dragoon. You can expand on their classes by equipping new objects to characters. Objects carry abilities, and equipping them makes the abilities accessible. By battling, you earn ability points (AP). If you earn enough AP while an object is equipped, the character masters the ability, and doesn't need the object anymore in order to use it.

I love this game because it was made to be a salute to the Final Fantasy series as a whole. The creators have included multiple references to past Final Fantasy games, and it was meant to have the Final Fantasy feel that the earlier games provided. It was also a delightful step back to the fantasy genre after the past two games had more of a sci-fi feel to them.

Although the art style and gameplay has reverted to that of earlier Final Fantasies, the storytelling has not. The plot explores many emotions and ideas such as fear, death, hope, and my favourite, the nature of existence.

Overall, I loved the storyline, the ability system, and the labyrinth-like dungeons. There is not much you can complain about in this game except for the graphics, but they were terrific for its time. Final Fantasy IX is a must play for any RPG fan.  

Jeremy is a science fiction and fantasy addict. If he is not nose deep in a book, you can usually find him playing video games or practicing juggling.

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Thanks for stopping by, Jeremy! Inspired to play some Final Fantasy now? I certainly am.