Final Fantasy IX confirmed for PSN in Japan

Linearity ain't a black and white issue, there is alot of shade of grey in the middle. The balance in FF13 is just too one sided for i think most of the older FF and JRPG players; sadly this makes the game extremely tedious and repetitive. It is all about the gamers perception.

Dude EVERY FF IS LINEAR the only difference in the others is the fact that instead of a straight path, you have to find out where youre going on an overworld.

@Lonewolf349. I have finished Final Fantasy 13 and found it to be kinda disappointing for a final fantasy; the game is extremely linear so much that there is little or no chance that i will revisit the game even to complete the quests. The battle systems really only revolves around switching the battle paradigm and pressing auto-manual or whatever it was called. As deadnburied say the dynamic plot comes at the cost of the linearity; the mini quests in previous games increased the game time and also the connection between us and the game as a whole. However the storyline was very good but i felt short changed by the ending; don't know why but i did. I do think that what Square-Enix are doing is wrong, it is clear that they are aiming for a Western-RPG market but i believe they need to produce new RPGs instead of trying to make the FF into a Western-RPG.

@DeadnBuried Before I make another long section, did you actually get to the overworld in FF13

@Lonewolf 349 This discussion's been fun, nice to have one that doesn't fast descend into name-calling, so thanks! Now, next point ;] FF12 had the same ATB system as the others, it was still a bar that went up, then you attacked when it reached the top. The only difference was that you could move freely and that they took out the loading battle screens and fanfare sections - both things that you don't NEED to see at the end of every battle. It looked different, but really think about it, and it's the same thing! FF13 didn't have a fantastic battle system at all, every battle revolved around pressing "Auto-something" and letting the game do it all for you, the only thing you had to do was switch roles over and over again. And if the playable character dies it's game over, what? You're right though, it is faster to progress through the story and it keeps it focused. But it's *too* focused, with every single area being a thin straight path, it's just boring as hell. They were all linear, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but all the others had at least some freedom that opened it up and made it feel bigger. FF13 has none of that, it's small and confined. I could quite easily never play it again, but given that I bought the collector's edition, I'll have to play it sometime to justify the purchase. When I do, I'll track you down to let you know if my thoughts have changed. xD

@DeadnBuried Linear is in all the ff games, the overworld is just a big place that seperates the areas so you feel like the game is nonlinear, FF7 is one of my favorite games and I have found about 4 or 5 sidequests only 1 of which I even cared to do. finding summons bores me because I don't enjoy going around searching for some frickin old guy who's gonna tell me to go find something that I have to look up to find cuz its so well hidden only to go back so that he'll tell me where the next old guy who has the summon is. I would much rather advance the plot or be fighting using the FREAKIN ATB SYSTEM not some real time crap like ff12. The combat system in FF13 was fantastic, the story was also fantastic, I have no problems.

@Lonewolf349 Are you actually serious? Finding summons "tedious"? "Lowers the challenge"? If that's what people are looking for then they're looking at the wrong franchise entirely. Sure, now it's open to a bigger fanbase, but if I were to play 13 as my first FF experience I'd never play another, I'd dismiss the series as linear, mind-numbing and repetitive. The first time I played 7 it blew my mind and has been my favourite game ever since. We don't need a new look at RPGs at all, every other RPG out there is doing that, they all have a different approach. Star Ocean, Resonance of Fate, Disgaea, they all have their own takes on it that are keeping the genre fresh, but they all pale in comparison to Final Fantasy. "Mixing it up" has become a trend among RPGs, and so now the norm is untouched and in fact desirable again cuz people are no longer doing it! Making the game noob friendly is nothing but a bad thing, there's no silver lining to that. I understand how expensive it is to make such a game and that they need more money, i.e. more sales. And so they have to appeal to a bigger crowd, but making a vastly inferior game and taking a dump on your flawless core franchise isn't the way to do it. My only hope is that, now that they've lured new players in, with the next installment they'll actually make a REAL FF again, one with limit breaks, stats, summons, a REAL timeless experience. If 13 is the direction they're going to continue to take; I'm out.

@DeadnBuried FF13 may not be what everyone wanted but its what the industry needs to quote x-play, we need a fresh new look at RPG's and I can except that. Its not all that different from the old games it just subtracts the tedious task of finding all the summons and adds something new (the "transformers" you mentioned) just like every other game. making the game "noob friendly" isn't a bad thing, it increases the fan-base and lowers the challenge for those who found previous games hard.

I'd pay top bucks for an HD remastered set of VII, VIII, and IX. Anyone else down?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME. to bad i already have it for my Playstation

I really hope this comes to America as well. I wanna test the goods of ff series.

I will get this no matter what even though I liked this one the least but its final you have to by law get them all if you are a true fan

I will totally get this if it comes to the states (which it will) due to my PS1 copy glitching out on the third disk during a cut scene which makes further gameplay impossible.

@Lonewolf349 I was annoyed about FF11 taking a number as well at first, but because that was made by a different team, it didn't waste waste years of development time and shatter hopes and expectations like FF13 has done. I'd love to love, or even *like* FF13, but I just can't, they ripped the flesh off the bones and made it noob friendly. One eidolon per person, with no secret ones? That was always half the fun. Then there's the fact that they're now Transformers, urgh, how could they have defiled it any further? >_>

And people saying that FF13 is worse than previous - they are totally right. The 12th and the 13th are made dramatically short of gameplay and much smaller scale of world - everything put into graphics. 7th Final fantasy was a lot of fun to simply raom the free world after completition of main story, but these ones get boring rather fast.

The 7th to 9th were much larger scale than last ones (or maybe I was just a little kid and everything looked much larger then:)). And if I recall correctly you could miss some summons (not like nowadays when everything is given to you on the silver plate) during your playthrough. Of course graphics are worse, but the gameplay was much better then - more secrets, more "special" bosses, more things to upgrade including leveling up summons.

DEadnburied and nortiousgamer20, quit arguing 13 is a good final fantasy, 12 is a good final fantasy (even though i dont't like 12 as much), what we should be complaining about is the fact that they made 11 online instead of making a spinoff called ff online, 12 should be 11 and 13 should be 12.

YES! Been waiting for this since FF7 came out on PSN

And for your point of 12 being a different game and 13 being back to basics? That's wrong. In 12, you could control all three party members, commanding each one. Sure, you COULD use gambits but it was a choice. And the open battle system was just a streamlined version of the system they'd always used. In 13, you can ONLY control one character and every battle just relies on you selecting "Auto-whatever". That's far-removed from traditional FF, and not in a good way.

@nortiousgamer40 The only reason I left out FF6 was because I was talking to someone who felt the graphics of 7-9 were too bad to play, so he's hardly going to want to play FF6 is he? FF12 was 1000 times the game and 1000 times the Final Fantasy that 13 is. 12 had huge amounts of weapons, armour, spells, techniques, optional bosses, marks to hunt, places, secret places. Each area was huge with many places to go. FF13 has none of that. The entire game is one straight line, every location is a straight line, up until one wide open space which is fantastic, but upon reaching the other side - you're forced right back into a straight line. There's no weapons, no armour, only one memorable location, even the bosses aren't as good. Dahaka was a fantastic boss but the others are just instantly forgettable. The characters of 13 are better than that of 12, and the story's slightly better, but overall it's awful, shallow, empty. It lacks everything that made the other games so good. There's not even any defence or MP stats, or even limit breaks! I bought a PS3 three years ago just because at the time the PS3 was the only console that FF13 was going to be on, so I looked forward to it more than anyone, but it's a horrible shallow game. It's not even in the same LEAGUE as FF6-12. It's like a lesser-known japanese studio trying to rip off FF rather than a genuine FF.

i bought final fantasy 7 and 8, even though i have 'em for ps1. i sure hope 9 comes to psn fast :)

@DeadnBuried i'm sorry but no what you say is completely untrue.... because if i recall final fantasy 12 was called a whole different game,its not final fantasy there changed everything when final fantasy 13 went back to the basic's. to be honest final fantasy 13 is much better then 12 but my favourite will always be 10 and how dare you leave out final fantasy 6, its more better then 7 or 12. i can back that fact up with anyone. final fantasy 13 deserves the sells its getting and i can't wait for 9 to come out I've got 7 and 8 on my PS3 i can't wait to complete the package

@Hvac0120 No Sir, don't do it. FF7-12 (not including X-2) are five of the best games ever made. 13 is an abomination, it's a mockery of the franchise, a nasty stain that leaves nothing but a nasty taste in your mouth. It's NOT a Final Fantasy, it's a stripped down skeleton of a game that happens to have fantastic graphics. If you play 13 because of the graphics - and ignore the others - you're an absolute fool. Not you personally, I mean no offence to you, but to anyone thinking "Oh that one looks great, I'll play that." That's a fatal error that's more likely to leave you with a hatred for the franchise than to play others.

@Du_Hast_Mich Ahhhh the trance system. Yeah it annoyed me too, if you accidentally took one too many hits before a major boss you'd lose the trance and the boss would be waaaaay harder. And it took ages to get back up as well. >_>

@Binzen yes i know it wasn't the limit break system, i just can't recall what it was called. i just didn't like how once you filled your gauge you had to use it, and couldn't save it.

@Du_Hast_Mich That's because it wasn't the limit break system.

i remember not liking the limit break system thing they had in the game very much, but aside from that it was and is still a great story and tremendous game so its a must buy for me when it hits the US PSN

Im pumped...... this was the first one that I played and I really liked it. I never finished it but it will be lovely now without having to worry about those easily scratched black disks and now its portable on the PSP. This really needs to come to the US.

(why is this news?) FFIX was okay, but i held on to it too long before playing; i hated 7 and 8 so when someone gave me IX i just put it in a drawer, I didn't play it until i got my ps3. Then I realized i probably would have enjoyed 9, but it looks so bad graphics wise now that i stopped pretty early on. It isn't rare, or super well loved, or expensive though - so again why is this news?

I really enjoy FFIX. I just can never get myself to go through the entire game. I tried playing through it again last year and stopped somewhere near the beginning of disc 2. I downloaded FFVII because I had never played it and wanted to check it out. I got into it for a little bit, but stopped playing it fairly soon too. I don't think I'll go back to the old games (even though I recommend it for those who are willing because they are great games). I think I'm going to wait until summer when I have more time and tackle FFXIII. Hopefully I can finish that one. _

If and when it comes to the US PSN my day will be made

@ Rizion89 What is your problem? Clearly you are some sort of genius. In a game forum 'trying' to belittle someone who is much old than 21 and better educated than you will likely ever be. Sorry I hit a sore spot with your FF game. \ \ I remember when this game was coming out, I was so excited. I thought that this was going to be the best one. I return to more of the 'roots' in theme of older FF games. However once I started to play I realized that it was boring and I never finished it (just like X-2). I even put over 20 hours into those games, as I am not too quick to judge.

Finally a chance to finish FF9. I never did back in the day because of the card game. It was a nice touch in FF8 but you did not have to play it, in FF9 they made it over complicated and forced you to play it...at least as far as I can remember it has been like 10 years since I gave it a go. Finishing FF13 made me really want to replay the others so I bought FF7 and FF8 from the PSN network and hunted out and dusted off my PS2 to play FF10 which is my favorite. Needless to say with 3 games to replay I can wait for 9, but I am still looking forward to it. They really should do all the pre FF7 seven games too, FF6 was quite good and I think is forgotten by a lot of people because FF7 was amazing in comparison to it.

i like FFIX but was not my favorite hence i was not as excited as i was when FFVIII was announced. will still download, but i really hope that square-enix would re-release parasite eve, xenogears, chrono cross, FFX and especially vagrant story pretty soon on the psn. it's great to be a ps3 and psp owner. these games are better than a lot of current gen releases out there.

Great news, but id also like to see FF1-2 4-6 + Tactics on the EU PSN

I've never played any Final Fantasy games, but I've watched the numbers these games bring in. 100 million units is quite an impressive number for a franchise to reach, especially when you consider that most games lose their luster after the second or third. To put Final Fantasy games on the PSN is just brilliant marketing to keep an aging franchise alive.

NOBOU! Seriously, in my books he's the best video game music composer of all time. His music was perfect for them, its one of the biggest things which made the old FF's what they were. Literally, that music made the old FF's that much better.

@jarvool If you create a Japanese account, you can. However, you have to buy it with yen and the game would be in Japanese. There are ways to buy the game such as a prepaid card, but you won't be able to play it in English.

@taylormederek You went to school? Your grammar says otherwise. An elementary school diploma doesn't prove much, no matter how old you are.

awesome now we only have to wait 2 years for it to come to US and EU PSN....YAY!!!! : (

@kashmiro there is the option of buying a ps2 for like less than $100...

not my fav ff, but still a respectable game that i enjoyed. ffVlll is my fav hands down but i enjoy all of them

FF9 is great, but Sony needs to get crackin on getting more PS2 games since they removed Backwards-Compatibility. I really would like Final Fantasy X or Kingdom Hearts. Both would be an instant purchase for me.

That's great, fingers crossed for a north american release. But I still think they need to get to work on a remake, along with 6,7, and 8!

If you dont like FF 9 you have no charm or personality. This is not an opinion its a scientific fact.

Awesome news. IX is in my top five Final Fantasy games. IV, believe it or not, is my #1 favourite for reasons I still can't quite explain. Speaking of which, is there a chance we'll see the Anthology and Chronicles released on PSN? Or possibly those PSP remakes that came out a few years ago?

FF9> any other FF after 6. Period.....still....today.......

Fingers crossed it comes to Europe :o

Please tell me that's going to be released over here in north america as well.

keep them coming. =D