No Cloud, or Squall will hinder this game

The first Final Fantasy game I played was 8, while not horrible it made me more then skeptical about buying FF7, if I didn’t get FF7 for just a dirt cheap price I would never have bought it. I loved FF7 and my newly acquired FF chronicles but was still scared to buy this game, would Square make the same mistakes they made in 8. So I rented it and decided to buy it, and after spending about 80 hours of playing it so I could beat it I loved it. So what is FF9 about.

Story.
You play the role of Ziadane Tribal, a actor in Tantalus a traveling band of actors, and a part time thief. You have been hired to kidnap Princess Garnet of Alexandria. The kidnapping plan goes awry when it find's out that the Princess wants to be kidnapped, and that's only the beginning of the crazy adventure.

Graphics.
Remember the realistic characters from FF8, well Squares taken a step back and made them a bit more cartoonish. Ziadane a blond hair kid with abnormally big hands and a monkey tail (no he isn’t Goku). This is just the start of the cartooinish characters, there is a night that has clanky armor, a half human half mouse knight, a kid with a horn, and a asexual swamp creature with a big tongue that eats everything. While the graphics are a bit scale back the animation is a lot smoother, and the backgrounds are a lot less blurry.

The spell special fx are just has eye dropping has it's previous outing except that the spells and summons are a lot shorter. For those of you who think that this is a bad thing have never played FF8, this means an average battle lasts a minute not an hour.

Sound.
The music in this game is great, the main theme that is listen to and sung at the end of the game beats FF8 eyes on you theme hands down. The classic victory music is back, to go with other great fantasy type theme music. The over world music is far more entertaining and memorable then FF8. Also the crystal theme is back being played in the background of several places, the game over screen, and at the ending.

Gameplay.
Now for that makes and breaks Final Fantasy games. The battle system in FF8 wasn’t very good. The GF junctioning system in 8 was confusing, and relied on you having to summon monsters in long animated attack scenes that seemed to take forever. Luckily 9 is back to more of a classic equip weapons, and classes of characters of day’s of old. Each character is completely different from each other in skills, weapons, and trance ability’s. So what are the characters like. Well here they are

Ziadane.
Ziadane is different from Squall and Cloud of the previous 2 FF games is that he is blessed with a likable personality who gives people hope, has Cloud and Squall’s friends only followed him because they where order to. Ziadane has some pretty good match of stats plus the ability to steal items from the enemy. When Ziadane trances he gains Dyne skills which can easily finish off more then one of the bosses. He’s a pretty good character which is good because you’re stuck with him

Steiner.
Steiner is Princess Garnet body guard, although Garnet wants to go with Ziadane to escape the castle Steiner does not but get’s stuck with traveling with Ziadane. Because of this he uses every trick in his arsenal to try to return the Princess back to Alexandria. On top of that he has no respect for Ziadane thinking of him has only a thief and a monster. Steiner has some of the best physical stats in the game, is later special sword skills do tremendous damage to all monsters. If paired along with the dark mage Vivi he can use magic attacks with his sword. In trance he doesn’t learn any new skills or abilities but his stats go through the roof.

Vivi.
Vivi is an odd looking dark mage that came to Alexandria to see the play that was going on at Alexandria castle, and got roped in going on the quest. Things get more confusing for Vivi when Ziadane finds a weapon making shop that produces soulless black mages that can be used to destroy entire country. Vivi is the only one who can cast dark magic attack spells which makes him a valuable asset to your team.

Garnet (Dagger)
While Garnet grew up has princess of Alexandria she lately has been having a nightmare about being a ship at the sea. On top of that she is able to summon powerful monsters called Ediolons, the secret to this lays in the summoner village. In the mean time these eidolons and the pennant she wears around her neck is the whole reason why Ziadane was sent to kidnap her. Now Garnet can use white magic spells to heal the party she however is a better summoner. She starts off with Ramuh, then learns the basic summons like Shiva and Ifirt, her most powerful summons though are Bahamut and the powerful Ark. In trance mode her summons spells become more powerful.

Freya.
Freya is a half mouse half man (or women) creature from Burmecia. If you have played FF4 then you know she is exactly like Kain. She carries a spear like Kain and uses the powerful jump attack to do inflict damage to her enemy. She also has some pretty strong dragon moves. She’s not a bad character but she is overwhelmed by Steiner has far has the muscle department.

Quina.
Quina is a gluttonous creature that lives in Qus marshes. She travels the world to eat new food, or in his/her case it’s eating monsters. Quina can learn blue magic spells from eating monsters, blue magic is enemy skills. This can lead to strong magic attacks like mighty and level 4 holy. The problem with him/her is that her stats are a mixed bag. She deals random damage with her physical attacks and has very little defense, she is not a great character to begin with but with a little work she isn’t bad.

Eiko.
Eiko lived alone with her muggles in the village of summoners. She thought she was the last of her kind until Ziadane showed up with Garnet. Although not old enough to use many summon spells the summons she uses aren’t bad, her Phoenix allows you to cast life on all your team mates. She also uses white spells like Garnet only better; in trance she can use two of them in one turn. If you’re wondering which one is better in your team Eiko or Garnet just remember if you want a better summoner go with Garnet, better healer go with Eiko.

Amarant.
Hired to kill Garnet and Ziadane he joins Ziadane after he is defeated by Ziadane and his life spared. He travels with Ziadane to find out what exactly make Ziadane tick. Amarant is an arrogant pain in the neck, he’s not has bad has Quina but not by much. He can use Chakra which gives him the ability to revive people or even give magic power back. However is attack strength tech’s are not up to Steiner of Freya making him dead weight in your team.

The villain Kuja
While Kuja is no Sephronth he’s still good enough villain to be loathed and to keep the plot from falling apart. Kuja was created for the wrong reason and is sole goal is basically to goes war and general havoc on the world.

Other aspects of the battle system

Trance.
The trance is a new system that replaces the limit breaks, and it’s quite an improvement. There is a trance bar that works like the limit break bar in FF7 but it feels much more slowly, it can be improved with the use of the high tide ability. When the bar get’s filled your guy will transform into a powerful version of themselves and there stats will go up. The trance skills can come in handy especially later in the game, so equip the high tide ability.

Learning and equipping abilities.
You learn special techs, spells, and abilities through the use of weapons. Each item you can equip has a move you can use if your character is compatible. At first your character can only use the skill while it’s equipped, but when they gain enough AP they will learn the skill permanently and won’t have to relay on the weapon. This can mean that you have to stick with a weaker item in order to gain a more powerful spell or technique.

On top of that there are abilities that you have to equip some abilities. For example there are abilities that allow you to be immune to poisons, auto regenerate HP, and trance faster. Each move requires a certain amount of jems and you will have to choose which abilities you want for certain situations.

Mini games and side quests
There are a lot of mini games that you can play from a new card game to jump roping, to playing hot and cold. Even a game of black jack can be played after you beat the game. Each game (except black jack) and quest can give you items that help you learn important skills. Squares packed this game with plenty of things to do.

Final Recommendation
With lots of things to do and a battle system that is easier to understand but does by no means limit the game this is one game you should pick up.