The ninth chapter in the Final Fantasy series is truly a come-back to the series' roots in every way.
The games story is also very good and it is again about a war that has broken among several nations. The story is not only about that but I'll just leave it at that because I do not always like to go into the story so much in case of people who want to still play it and do not want spoilers. The game's story is very good and very engaging and will keep yoo concentrated till the end.
Now onto combat. Unlike Final Fantasy VIII's weak combat in my opinion, the combat has improved ten-fold. The combat system is amazing. Each character in your team has a special trait, like a character class or special abilities. Zidane is a thief and can steal items from enemies, Vivi is a black mage and can perform black magic, Freya is a Dragoon like Kain from Final Fantasy IV, Garnet is a white mage and can also summon monsters, Steiner is a knight and so on. The game has the Active Time Battle System (ATB) which was originally from Final Fantasy IV and it works very well. You can also equip an ability on your party members and if you earn enough Ability Points (AP) you can learn the move and use it wothout the item. You also earn Experience Points (EXP) when you win a random battle or boss battle. You can cast spells and special techs by using Magic Points (MP) like in many other RPGs. There is also a system called Trance which is like a Limit Brake from Final Fantasy VII. The more damage you get your Trance meter gets more filled and when it is filled up your characer will be more powerful. This is also a great addition after it being removed from Final Fantasy VIII. The name of summoned monsters are called Eidolons and they are very beautifully designed and most times inflict alot of damage. Your parties will also sometimes split into two groups and with the help of Active Time Event (ATE) you can solve puzzles sometimes and do other things more easily and faster, but this is only sometimes not always that you split up into two teams. You will surely get to know alot about every character in the game or at least get to know enough about every character because every character is taken enough time to explain about sometimes or almost every character. The combat is exceptional in every way and it is how a true Final Fantasy game's combat is meant to be played.
You can also explore in towns, cities, dungeons and other places and you explore them on the Field Map. This map is where you can see your characters in full 3D in a pre-rendered type of area. Then there is the Battle Screen where everything is in 3D, the enemies, the characters and location of the area you are fighting in. You can also get to interact with Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). The World Map is where your characters are shown from a top-down perspective and you can navigate them around the World Map to get to different locations in the world of Gaia. You can travel by foot, airship Chocobo or by a boat. Exploration is very fun in the game but can get frustrating on the World Map because the random encounters occur too often sometimes and before a fight is begun some time goes which makes the beginning of a fight slow, that is before you get to start fighting.
The music is good but not as good as other Final Fantasy games' songs and music scores. I think because they had only year because the Playstation 2 was going to start having games the next year so they had to rush abit on the music scores. I don't know but I think that is the reason they are not really as great as its predecessors' owns. The music scores are good but not that memorable but more of forgetful.
The graphics are great again but haven't changed much after Final Fantasy VIII except maybe the cartoony-looks of the characters. The Playstation CD must have been pushed to its limits and the graphics weren't really a complte improvement like Final Fantasy VIII's improvement over Final Fantasy VII's graphics. Graphics don't matter much but they hadn't really changed much from Final Fantasy VIII, but they are still a beauty to look at. The CG cutscenes are also beautiful and amazing and the designers also did a great job with the CG cutscenes.
Final Fantasy IX really is as good as its predecessors and has a great story, humour, characters that are memorable and a fantastic combat system. Only the music scores are abit forgetable. In my opinon, the ninth chapter of the Final Fantasy series is truly a come-back to the series' roots in every way.
Reviewer: (spooky102)
Score: 9.3/10