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| Mega Flare News Archives Games Final Fantasy 10 Main Page Final Fantasy 9 Main Page Pictures Characters Interviews Movies Final Fantasy 8 Main Page Characters Pictures Final Fantasy7 Main Page Characters Pictures Final Fantasy6 Main Page Others Downloads Main Page Wallpapers Music Hironobu Sakaguchi Nobuo Uematsu Reveiws/Editorials Links |
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| Review of Final Fantasy 9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Graphics | |||||||||||||||||||
| This has always one of the best parts of playing a Final Fantasy, and FF9 is no different. The prerendered backgrounds have amazing detail, the FMVs are spectacular to watch, and the polygons are pretty well done. While the characters during the FMVs are not as realistic as in FF8, they show more emotion and are a joy to watch. Every time I saw a FMV, I was amazed at the graphical quality and action in each one and it was hard to beleive that this type of FMVs could be done on the Playstation. Many of the FMVs are done during action sequences, which makes it very intresting to watch. The animations during battles are done very smoothly and look very good. Every monster, and character has their own unique actions, and you do not get tired of watching them. The summons during battles are shorter than they were in FF8 or 7, so you won't have to spend as much time watching during battles, but because of the shorter time, most of the summons in FF9 are not as spectaclar as they were in FF7 or 8. The backgrounds are another step up from past Final Fantasys, and their beauty is hard to describe in words. They contain even more detail and movement, and you'll find yourself staring at the background for a few seconds each time you encounter a new place. This game might very well be the best looking game on the Playstation. Score:10/10 |
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| Gameplay | |||||||||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy 9 goes back to the 4 character battles, which is a welcomed return. With 4 characters, you get to have more stategys, and the battles are more fun to do. You learn new abilities by equipping different equipments, which is similar to the esper system used in FF6. Because you will have to buy a lot of equipment, money becomes very valuable. There are a lot of equipment on sale at the weapon and armor stores, plus you can make new items by combining 2 items in the synthesis shop, so there are a lot of combinations of equipment you can have. You will also be able to steal up to 3 items from the enemies, and the bosses usually hold very strong items. My only complaint about this is that it takes Zidane a lot of tries to steal each item, even after you power his steal up with some support abilities. Another negative is that there are still random battles. It becomes very annoying when your searching a dungeon for treasure and you have to fight a battle every 5 steps. There are a lot of hidden treasure boxes and dropped items in towns and dungeons, and it is very hard to find them all. A big help in FF9 is that an exclamation point pops up above the character's head when there is something, so it makes treasure hunting much more easier. One of my concerns about the game, is that there is little new stuff in the gameplay department. The battles are similar to the past Final Fantasys, and the way you learn abilities, like I mentioned before, is similar to FF6. You can equip a lot of stuff to each character, but that was done in the snes Final Fantasys. But most of the battles are enjoyable, the challenge level is better than some of the other Playstation Rpgs and you can customize your characters in many different ways. Score:9/10 |
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| Story and Characters | |||||||||||||||||||
| I will not put any details in here so I don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played the game yet. The story does not start out really intresting. It is basically just going to place from place for a simple objective. The story does not start to pick up until about midway through the second disc. The events that take place during the 3rd disc are really well thought out, and it could easily rival some of the memorable events in past Final Fantasy. But the good parts compared to the whole game are too little, and in the end, the storyline does not have the same amazingness as FF7 or 6. The love story between Zidane and Garnet was not explored as deeply as FF8, which may be a good thing because it draws more attention to the main plot, but if you want to see a deeper romance betweent the characters, its has a negative effect. While some of the characters look weird or uninteristing, they all are developed very nicely in part because of the ATE. The ATE lets you see what other characters are doing when you go into towns for the first time. I first doubted if I could care for characters that weren't real looking as in past Final Fantasys(the ones of the snes were done in SD during the game, but the pictures drawn by Amano showed that most of them resembled real humans), but I quickly found that they were very likable. The characters are easily some of the best in the FF series, but the story could have a little bit more innovation. Score:9/10 |
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| Music | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nobuo Uematsu, who has composed all of the music for the FF series, always amazes me with every new game he composes for. But FF9's music was not as good as some of the past FF music. Some tracks such as Melodies of Life, the character themes, and some others, are up there as some of the best in Video Game music, but some of the others are boring and not as creative as some of his past works. One of the things that might have affected not having a lot of quality in some of his tracks may be because he created so many tracks(over 140). If he had used less tracks by just keeping and using his good tracks more, the game's soundtrack might have sounded better. For example, one of my favorite tracks from the game, Zidane's theme, was used only once during the whole game. There are also some tracks making a reapearance from past FFs, such as the crystal theme, moogle theme and rufus theme, which are only used for a short time, but I'm happy that they are back. Overall, the soundtrack is better than most game soundtracks, but it does not go on the same level as some of his past works such as FF6, 7, and 8. Score:8/10 |
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| Overall | |||||||||||||||||||
| The game contains some really good moments during the story, holds the most spectacular graphics on the playstation, and has well created characters, but it has some flaws. The battle system does not contain a lot of new additions, the random battles are still there, the music isn't as good as some of the past FFs, and some of the story is not really creative. But in the end it still is a very enjoyable experience, and is one of the best Rpgs that has been made so far. Anybody who has not played this game yet should go out and buy it. Score:9/10 Written by MegaFlare |
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