Shut Up Rusty!

History
When I got my Play Station, along with Final Fantasy VII, I was hooked on RPG’s from then on. I played FFVII day and night and couldn’t seem to stop playing.

Then some time later, Final FantasyVIII came out and was suppose to change the RPG world for the better. It had good graphics, but the rest, well, sucked. Many people were disappointed in Square Soft’s decisions they made on FFVIII. A lot of people had started losing faith in the Final Fantasy series, which dates back to the Nintendo Entertainment System, until Final Fantasy IX was released...

Plot/Story
A group of thieves called Tantalus, are sent by Regent Cid in Lindblum to kidnap Princess Garnet at Alexandria Castle because the Regent has had a feeling that Queen Brahne is planning to start a war.

When Zidane, a mix between a human and a monkey, tries to make the attempt to kidnap Garnet, they find out that she WANTS to be kidnapped.

A little bit later Brahne’s plan starts working as Kuja, the one who is aiding her in her plan, starts producing Black Mages as warriors. Soon after this compelling story starts unfolding Brahne turns on Garnet and takes her eidilon powers away from her to start her destruction.

Now after a couple of twisting events happen, your job is to protect Dagger(Princess Garnet), and to save the world.

Characters
Now before I start babbling on about different characters throughout the review, I figured that I’d introduce them to you.

Playable Characters
These are your combat buddies throughout the game. You won’t have all of them at the start, but by the end you’ll have them all. Gotta catch em’ all huh?

Zidane
He’s the main character of the bunch. Always helpful and falls in love with Garnet. He’s the only combatant that can use the steal command. He’s got a good physical attack and his main weapon is the dagger.

Dagger(Garnet)
A beautiful princess who wants to get away from the safety of the castle and she thinks that something’s wrong with her mother. Throughout your adventure she starts falling for Zidane. Dagger uses Rods to attack and is best used for curing your party. She’s also an Eidilon master, which are the Guardian Forces like Phoenix, Bahumut, Ifrit, and Leviathian.

Steiner
A member of the Knights of Pluto, he is sworn to protecting the Princess and is very annoying throughout the first 3 discs. Then he lightens up in the fourth disc. He’s got awesome sword attacks that are stronger than any of the other characters.

Vivi
A black magic with some pretty awesome attacks like Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga. You should always keep Vivi in your party because there aren’t any other black magic users and you’ll be in trouble if you have no black magic to use. If you have Vivi and Steiner both in your party, Vivi can use black magic to give Steiner some sword magic attacks.

Eiko
A mini version of Dagger, only a lot uglier. However she does have Eidilon powers and has some very strong white magic. If it wasn’t that Dagger was so dag-gone hot, then I’d use Eiko rather than Dagger.

There are other characters, but they’re not worth it.

Non-Playable Characters that play a role in the plot
These are the characters that you aren’t able to control, but play s small or big or huge role in the plot.

Queen Brahne
A kind of heavy set lady, who wants to take Dagger’s Eidilon powers to start a war.

Zorn and Thorn
Two little jester looking fellows who rhyme like; “You are in trouble” and then the other one would say, “Trouble you are in” I guess it keeps you wrapped in the story better.

Regent Cid
The leader of Lindblum, he’s Princess Garnet’s uncle. For the majority of the game, Regent Cid is an Oglop, a little frog like creature. You’ll find out the story once you’re really into the game.

Kuja
Here’s the villain of the story. He dresses like a girl but is also cooler than the great and powerful Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII in some ways. Kuja and Brahne are tied in with each other in Brahne’s plan, but Kuja soon branches off so HE can rule.

In the heat of battle
As you explore the world or are trying to advance in the game, you’ll be randomly attacked by different monsters and sometimes bosses will show up out of no-where.

In this game, you have certain characters that are specially trained in different areas. Such as Vivi is a black mage, therefore he is the only one who can use black magic like fire, thunder, or blizzard.

When you equip either weapons, armor, or special items, you’ll have certain abilities or attacks that you can activate to be used in battle. When you gain a certain amount of AP, ability points, your character will learn the ability that the AP meter is filled up. Thus meaning when you equip a different weapon you can still use the ability. But if you haven’t learned an ability, and you equip a different weapon, you’ll only be able to use whatever that weapon has.

For some of the characters, Dagger and Eiko, you must attach different gems like diamonds and Emeralds, to be able to use a certain Eidilon. Of course when you fill up the AP bar, you’ll learn that summon spell, and when you switch to another Eidilon, you can still use the one you learned.

During battle, depending on your choice of characters, you should have a variety of different attackers. For my squad, I use Zidane and Steiner as my power attackers because of their strong attack power, Vivi for his Black Magic(if I didn’t use him I probably would have never beaten the game), and Dagger as my primary healer and when everybody else is in good health, I use her summon command to open a can of whoop-butt on the competition.

When you gain experience after every battle, except for boss challenges where you just get a lot of Ability Points, you’ll move up a level. As you grow in levels, you grow in HP(Hit Points), MP(Magic Points), Attack, Speed, Magic Attack, Defense, and magic defense all go up. If you’re hit by an attack that does more damage than you have HP, then you’ll be knocked out. If your whole party is KO’ed you lose and must start over from the last save point.

I’ve found many-a-time why you should save all the time. There’s been times where I’ve played hours upon hours playing this, and then go into a big battle and lose or turn off the play station, forgetting that I’ve not saved in a while.

As you go through your adventure, you’ll have some side quests and some games to play if you get bored from the main adventure, which I doubt you will. But anyway, the best and probably most fun mini-game there is, would be Tetra Card Master Game. The rules are very confusing at first, but you start understanding once you play it more. You can play with almost anyone in the game by walking up to them and pressing the square button. If you win, you get to pick one of your opponents cards, if you lose, then you get a card taken away from you, and if you win by a shut-out, or lose by a shut-out, you’ll get all your opponents cards for winning, or lose all of your cards that you have, on, and you can only pick 5 cards to play a match with, so if you get shut-out, then you’ll just lose those 66 cards. Again, this is a fun side quest that will keep your interest in the game.

Trance!
Much like the Limit Breaks in FFVII, there are Trances where whenever you take a certain amount of damage, a bar will fill up. When it fills completely, your character will go into Trance.

Trance differs greatly between the Limit Breaks in FFVII. For one, you don’t have levels where you can only pick two, you’ll learn different attacks in which you can use. Some cause some major damage, some cause status effects.

Once you go into Trance, your bar will deplete a little after every attack. Whether you’re using an item, or using a Trance attack, it all counts towards the bar. When it’s fully depleted, or you win the battle, your Trance will end.

The Trance varies between each character. Like for Zidane, you can use these special attacks that do some major damage, Steiner’s attack will go way up, Vivi is allowed to cast two spells one right after another, and Eiko and Dagger’s Eidilon powers go way up.

Pros, Cons, and other Non-Sense
Aside from bringing back the old medieval black mages, castes, and a real “Fantasy” back, FF9 has done more good things and has improved everything since Final Fantasy 7.

Pros
~changed the materia system into something that doesn’t take away stats
~better FMV’s and all around graphics
~the new and improved Tetra Card Master game which was actually started in FF8
~characters balance out so not everyone can use the same attack
~the REAL fantasy is back

And for the cons, well, there aren’t any. That’s just in my view point though. Square Soft has always produced great games for the world, and have been more successful in the Final Fantasy series than ever. Every Final Fantasy has improved a notch or two above the previous titles. And Final Fantasy 9 has been Square’s best Final Fantasy in the series. Just wait for the PS2’s first Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy X.

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Graphics 5/5
The best in the Final Fantasy series, and the most graphical on the original Play Station as of today. The FMV’s are so real and life-like. They’re a lot different than FF8, which was more human like characters. The FMV’s are also a lot smoother than in FF7 and 8.

Control 5/5
The movements of Zidane are fluid-like. No jerky or funky camera movements to confuse you. Menus are easily navigatable and the weapons configuration are easy once you mess with the game a little.

Sound 4/5
The dungeons, towns, castles, and anywhere else you'll go all have some kind of tune that sets the feeling for the area you’re in. Battle sounds include sword slashing, magic sounds, and other sounds that get you into the battles.

Overall 14/15
If you’re new to the Final Fantasy series, then get this game. If you’re a Final Fantasy veteran, you’ve gotta have this game. If you can’t decide whether to get Final Fantasy 7 or Final Fantasy 8, pick FF9.

~Happy Gaming