Despite its cartoonish graphics, FFIX has a great story and a loveable cast of characters.

User Rating: 9.5 | Final Fantasy IX PS
When I first picked up an actual copy of FFIX with a Greatest Hits version of FFVII recently, I didn't know that I was going to enjoy this game so much. The game is about a young bandit (and a womanizer) named Zidane Tribal, who has a tail and part of the Tantalus Theater Troupe (who are also a band of thieves). At the start of the game, Zidane & the rest of Tantalus perform a play for the sixteenth birthday of Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII as a disguise to kidnap her, but she wanted to be kidnapped anyway. Zidane and Garnet are joined by Vivi Orunitia, a nine-year old Black Mage, and Adelbert Steiner, captain of the Knights of Pluto whose sworn to protect Princess Garnet and her mother, Queen Brahne. The reason why Garnet wanted to be kidnapped by Zidane was because she noticed her mother was becoming more power-hungry and greedy after the death of her husband, the king of Alexandria. During their travels, Garnet adopts the nickname 'Dagger' to hide the fact that she's a princess. Zidane and the others find out that the queen is making Black Mages to conquer the rest of the Mist Continent and then the rest of the world. Later on, Zidane and co. are joined by Freya Cresent, a female rat Dragon Knight of Burmecia looking for her lost boyfriend; Quina Quen, a genderless Qu who can learn Blue Magic from eating enemies; Eiko Carol, a six-year-old summoner/white mage and the last of her clan; and Amarant Coral, a monk/ninja with a grudge against Zidane. They learn the reason behind the change in the behavior of Queen Brahne is because of Kuja, a weapons dealer. He was the one supplying the queen Black Mages and eidolons that were extracted from Garnet. The truth about Garnet is that she is from the same clan of summoners as Eiko and she was adopted because she looked very similiar to the real Princess Garnet who died from an illness. Zidane and co. decide to stop Kuja by following him around Gaia and then Kuja's home planet, Terra. A new aspect of Final Fantasy IX is the Active Time Event. The ATE lets you see what other characters are doing which allows more character development than in the other Final Fantasy games. Also, the Limit Breaks from earlier Final Fantasy games like FFVII return, but it's called Trance mode. Each character have their own unique Trance mode like Vivi and Eiko can doublecast black and white spells respectively for example. Another new thing introduced in FFIX is the Mognet, a postal service for Moogles. One of the things I like about this game is the way characters learn new abilities. The characters learn new abilities by equipping new weapons, armor, and accessories. A downside to this is the abilities are not permanent when equipping the characters with new items. The only way to make the abilities is by gaining ability points (AP) from battle. Some abilities are common for all of the characters and other abilities are unique for each character. A few of the abilities can protect your characters from status effects or boost their health for example. It also makes it fun for you to customize characters the way you want. I find this part of FFIX very addictive. Despite the cartoonish look of the game, I love the graphics of this game. The cutscenes are beautiful to look at. There are some noticeable rough spots in the graphics. The music for FFIX is amazing. Nobuo Uematsu did a great job doing the music for this game. The main thing I dislike about this game is when a character leaves the group and then returns that they are at the same level when they left. So you have to train those characters so they can catch up with you higher-leveled characters. Also, the story of Final Fantasy IX has many aspects like love, death, fear, and the nature of existance. Each of the eight main playable characters are unique and interesting in their own way. There's a lot of nostalgia and references to the first eight Final Fantasy games along with other games like Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy Tactics. There are also references to movies and literature in FFIX like someone saying the "Damn it Jim! I'm a doctor, not a ...!" line from the original Star Trek series. One of the movie references is Steiner saying "Bah! It's only a flesh wound.," a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I really enjoyed playing this game. It has a lot of things that I love about the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy IX is definitely worth playing.