Why is Final Fantasy IX so Underrated?

Actually you'll be surprised on how many people do love FF9, If I'm not mistaken it's the 2nd most loved FF game by most FF fans majority of the time, first is almost always FF6. FF7 was great back in the day but it's lost it's charm over the years so now and days you see people talking about FF6 and FF9 more and more.

Because it's the best, most artful game in the series but people apparently prefer the interactive version of a horribly written, angst-ridden anime and thus FFVII and VIII are talked about the most.

good rebutal.... did i offend you in some way? or basically did I hit the nail on the head.

Ladies and gentlemen, I presented the case, this man presented the point.

Na the first two ff games most talked about I always see is 6 and 7.Though 9 isint far from topics.

Honestly Cloud's angst made more and more sense when you found out what kind of childhood he really had ( Or lack thereof ).

FF8 was just crazy and all over the place concerning the plot, however I still think it's a good game with one of my favorite settings.

Usually the top two I see that are talked about are 6 and 9, then 7. FF8 is like the red headed step child of the FF games cause ether you like it or you despise it, then FF10 is mostly talked about with people whom that was their first FF game (which I sight at them).

I'd have to say 6,9 and 4 are the best ones.

Depends where you live. In Japan, FFX is one of the most popular in the series (it topped Famitsu's all-time top 100 poll in 2006, for example). In the English-speaking world, it often gets a lot of hate.

You're right that the characters have a lot to do with the hate though. But what bothers me about the Tidus hate is that his hyper-active quirky personality is actually quite similar to Zidane, yet Zidane is loved and Tidus is hated by FF fans. Maybe the voice acting his something to do with it as well?

I don't remember Cloud having a bad childhood, but it was the traumatic experiences of his teenage years that led to his post-traumatic stress disorder. And after Tifa eventually cured him of his disorder, whatever angst he had went away... until it returned in the Advent Children movie for no apparent reason.

As for Squall, he's probably the most angsty protagonist in the series, and there aren't any traumatic experiences to justify it either, so I think the hate for him is understandable. However, it's not uncommon for orphans to grow up into angsty teens in the real world, so his angst is at least believable, even if he isn't a likeable guy.

IX is underrated? It's far surpassed VII in fan appreciation and has aged much better than both VII and VIII.

VI and IX are two of the most popular in the series. If you really want talk about an underrated Final Fantasy look no further than V, Tactics or XII.

I liked 9 and the combat system.I still need to play 6 but the reason im not in the mood is cause I found 4's combat boring as dirt.I liked the cast and story but my god it got boring fast.Also I found the final dungion poorly designed.So since 4 and 6 are from the same era it makes me iffy to jump in.

@Jag85: I would say it's purely the voice acting in Tidus' case. I think voice acting for most JRPGs really brought to light just how corny the writing generally is.

FFIX is tied for my 3rd favorite game in the franchise with FFVII. Can't decide which one I actually like better.

FFX is my favorite followed by VIII though. Love the hell out of those two games.

Cloud has that whole jelousy/ accident at mt nibelheim with tifa. his teenage years refers to the sephiroth/zack meeting (as he is only 16 then remember)... thereafter ... I dunno, having your town/family massacred, new best freind killed, tifa nearly killed ... your childhood hero is the murderer... and to top it off you are then taken by a crazy scientist and poisoned with cells of an ancient alien being that wants you to destroy everything... and made you lose your real identity.

Cloud's character was far more developed than most of the leads of any other final fantasy. (DISCLAIMER : not saying all. )

Advent Children.... his mourning of Aeris and Zach (having you know... not time before to do so) is what causes his "emoness". since he believes he caused both of them to die. hence why it wraps up with him moving on.

Zidane? oh so artful ... cheeky little thief guy head over heels for a princess, stereotypically flirty... has a tail... because. oh wait, he was made.... and has another made twin arch nemisis with a very questionable genre identity crisis.

Zidane had barely any back story until it was shoved towards the end.

Also, the move to motion-capture animation. While 16/32-bit JRPG's also had to overcome the obvious barrier of translation, the move to voice acting and motion-capture animation added additional barriers: dubbing and cultural differences. In English and Japanese, there are different expressions, mannerisms and ways of speaking which often don't translate that well across languages and cultures. For example, the Japanese reaction to Mass Effect 2's characters was surprisingly similar to the Western reaction to FFXIII's characters. Certain dialogues, facial expressions and bodily mannerisms might feel natural in one language/culture, yet might come across as strange or awkward in another.

Because there's certainly no pretension in deeming people's ideas "hipster" based on a standard that you (presumably) make up as you go along for no apparent purpose...

I see. I had almost forgotten about Cloud's childhood part. I didn't quite like what they did with his character in Advent Children, but it makes sense now.

As for Zidane, his back-story seemed like it was borrowed from DBZ, e.g. him finding out that he belongs to a master race, having a tail, powering-up with a Super Saiyan like trance, the rival who also belongs to that master race, etc.

all the game did was simplify everything and play it safe. Very safe.

After you play FF6, then FF7 and even FF8 you play FF9 and it's like you go from high-school to kindergarten again.

Yea, I could of went into further detail, advent children doesn't really explain it very well.

also factor in by that point cloud is also emo because the meteor was his fault, and now the population, including himself and that little boy that they look after are dying of the stigma (which at the time was believed to be caused by the lifestream saving them from meteor) and that he couldn't save the child, or the people or himself even. It one of those weird different to our culture Japanese things I suppose, he was giving up on life because he felt he was directly responsible for pretty much everything going on... which he kinda was... but not intentionally.

I really can't think of any deep back story for zidane... or any of the characters from FF9, they were all decent for the most part.... but not very well developed, I kinda laugh when people make out it has the best story.... it has good scenes and a lot of variety, and ofcourse brought back the "old charm" ... but to say its story was well written and its characters well developed seems like a flat out nostalgic lie to me.

"best most artful" , "interactive anime trash" ... oh please, you can't get more hipster than that.

all the characters in FF9 look like friggin chibi children, everyone is wearing mascara including the males. they are some of the most hideous character designs i've seen. honestly, looking at dagger is like looking at a little girl...

what was not anime about ff9? ridiculously porportioned characters with whacky over exagurations of their class roles. the "little puppet" black mage? the really fat ridiculous looking queen that wasn't clearly even a human. oh I could go on.

"art" ... sheesh.

What does it matter, nobody wanted a CGI version of zidane vs kuja because they are mediocre characters.

lol poor virgin weeaboo trying hard.

Its my second favorite FF game of the series (VI being my favorite) one of three that i would say are must plays from the series if you enjoy rpg's.... VII being the other.... its too bad there hasnt been a good one since... maybe some day...square-enix will look back and realize what made these games so special.

The combat system in 6 is a huge upgrade from IV, its one of my favorite battle systems from any jrpg and ive played most of the best ones. You have 12 playable chars to choose from all with unique skills, then on top of that you can customize each further with what espers.relics you choose to equip.

It's not, it's one of the most overrated FF titles IMHO. I would put VI, VII, VIII, X all above it.

IX is right near the bottom for me like IV. They're not bad, just not as good IMHO as the others.

I like it a lot. Need to restart it and finish it. Bought it and FF Origins (FF 1+2) off PSN. It is my second favorite FF behind FF7.

FF9 is the best FF game by a long shot.

Have my babies

It wasn't just Tidus voice that annoyed me, it was his looks and attitude that I hated that made me despise FFX and it sucks cause FFX had a really good cast like Auron,Lulu, to some extent Yuna and even Rikku had her moments. I had to pay my friend (with pizza) to finish that game for me cause I couldn't stand Tidus as a whole, every time I saw him on screen I just wanted to punch a baby puppy.

It seems after FF9 SE just shat the bed when it came down to making characters for their FF games, the only exception is FF12 since it had an awesome cast except Vaan, although he was slightly less annoying than Tidus and was actually bearable. FFX-2, FF13, FF13-2 had no likable characters (at least in my opinion) compared to the previous FF games, hell even Crisis Core had a likable cast even though I already knew what was in store for Zack (so sad).

Interesting point about Japanese culture. I've noticed something similar with some anime, where characters sometimes take blame for things beyond their control even if their actions were only indirectly responsible for it. I think it would be nice if more people around the world took more responsibility for their own actions, but the side-effect is that it could put more pressure on an individual and may even lead to suicide, a problem more common in Japan than in the West. But now I can kind of see where Advent Children was trying to go with this, and it probably goes back to the whole 'cultural differences' thing I mentioned before.

Okay, what exactly was it about his looks and attitude that you hated? Because I'm pretty sure Zidane shares some of the same traits as Tidus.

@Jag85:

For starters his voice was annoying to hear, then you have his daddy issues the first half of the game which annoyed me, yes his persona was suppose to be built around that but they could've made it less annoying. Then you have his craptastic look of blonde hair and tanned skin, he looked like someone from a failed surfer movie in the 80's and I was expecting him to end every topic with "duuuude bro".

If I'm gonna play a game for a good 30-60 hours I want my character to not look/act like a failed surfer reject douchebag.

As for Zidane, he honestly looked/acted like a young Goku (Dragon Ball version) lol.

Yeah, that's the truth, I wanted to mention earlier that FFXII is severely underrated. So is V, but I think things would have been much different for that game had it released in the US initially.

Yea I dont know about that.Espcially since everytime any SE story is posted on a site you hear a bunch of annoying Remake FF7 and its the best and so forth.Also aged wise graphicly yea it does but the game still isint that highly pretty to begin with.PS1 games tend to no age well majority of the time in looks.

coz the pinnacle of FF is 12.

Well all FFs from IV till XII were great XIII was the only disappointing one and hopefully XV will be better

@princessgomez92: How was Blades of Time ? I see it on sale for 9.99

@Sweenix:

out of 7-13 (excluding 11) I have yet to finish IX. . . I will get back into it once I finish AC4.. For some odd reason I stopped on Disc 3 when Zidane found out him and Kuja..

Played FF9 a couple of year back, and really enjoyed it. I wouldn't say it was underrated, it just doesn't get as much love from the fans as 6 or 7 gets. Also a lot of people hated the final boss from what I've read.

I loved it, had a blast with it. I don't know how much that means though, since I like most things I play. :P

What games are you currently playing now ?

It's in my sig, silly. I just started Tomb Raider Legend a little over an hour ago.

got confused due to yor now watching lol

IX was a great game and was greatly received. I get what sweenix is saying though, alot of FF fans overlook it or ignore it based on character design alone or call it "kiddy". Yes there are still a bunch of morons out there who still seem to think that.

You know what I don't get, how is it FF fans think one FF is the greatest and all the others suck? X is my personal favorite with pretty much all the others clumped together for second place as I cannot rank them as I enjoyed them all so far; played VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, XIII and XIII-2 and currently playing VI at this moment and I still need to play I, II, III, IV and V. But between the ones I have played, I have liked them all and find it very hard to say any of them were bad. Maybe I just enjoy games more or something, but each game has its strong points and all were enjoyable experiences.

And I know this is getting wrong but LostProphetFLCL brings up another point I get annoyed with is the Tidus hate. Everyone calls him whiney, but hes the most realistic character out of the bunch. He act's how a normal human being ripped from their own society and thrown into a new world that his home is destroyed would act. And he has serious character growth that develops throughout the game and has him grow up and become more of a hero type, but he's still not in that "Superman" hero category.

Dunno, just starting to rant now, the extreme FF fanboys who whine and cry about each title annoy me and I like seeing other people who can like each entry in this franchise and felt like typing it out.

You didn't rant at all. I respect and acknowledge everything you say. You actually make me want to appreciate every single Final Fantasy including the XIII series and start catching up on FF9 now and stopping getting caught up in the new console games before it is too late

I didnt like FFIX, or any FF after it for that matter.

Lol you're just mad the game never came to your POS platform.

It is a JRPG. They all stink.

only part I remember is sword fighting to save some chick