When it was released in Japan on July 7th, 2000, it sold over two and a half million copies in just two days, and when it arrived in America on November 14th, 2000, the title met with somewhat similar results, and quickly overtook the number one position on the retail charts. Now, my feelings toward the Final Fantasy series have been understandably positive in the past, but after playing through the rather futuristic installments known as Final Fantasy VII and VIII, I began to question whether Square had really taken into careful consideration that long-time fans, like myself, might not have wanted the radical departures that we received. In my opinion, we wanted just the opposite; the continuing devotion to the refinement of the story-driven experiences, familiar gameplay systems and options that we had all come to know, love and expect. Gone were those carefree days of lighthearted fun and folly, impending doom and fantastic escapades, when a story could make you laugh just as much as it made you cry.

  Instead, Square chose to hand the reins over to plots straight out of science fiction novels and corny melodramatic "acting". And while I did enjoy both Final Fantasy VII and VIII immensely, they just were not what I was looking for. I longed for the medieval landscapes, industrialized cities, fantastical creatures, steam-powered airships, and, most of all, moogles. That said, you can probably imagine my overwhelming sense of skepticism as I began to play Final Fantasy IX, the latest title in the series that I had just about given up all hope in, for the first time. After carefully opening the package, I set the first disc of the four-disc set in my PlayStation's disc tray and pressed the power button. Before I could figure out what was happening, I was slowly being beckoned into a strange, yet oddly familiar, new world by a gentle song and a simple, yet inviting title screen. The series largely responsible for making console role-playing what it is today had finally returned to its old fantasy roots and I was right in the middle of it all.

  Now, I really can't say very much about the storyline, as I would probably ruin the whole blasted thing in my frequently unrestrained, enthusiastic ramblings, but one thing's for sure: Square has ending each disc of a multiple disc game down to a near artform now. Unlike the festivals of full-motion video that were Final Fantasy VII and VIII, Final Fantasy IX puts its full-motion video sequences to much better use. Not only do prerendered movie clips help progress the story in ways that the in-game engine couldn't possibly hope to handle, many clips are actually used to bring the vibrant, yet static backgrounds to vivid, incredible life. I marvelled at how well this technique worked in Lindblum, a city filled to the brim with moving gears and pistons; you really must see it in action to truly believe it. The characterization and animation put to use in Final Fantasy IX is just as staggering. Just watch as your characters' attentions are illustrated by their pivoting heads, vivid textures, various facial expressions and reflex actions.

  The large assortment of characters in the game are further fleshed out, brought to life and individualized by all of their witty dialogue and hilarious banter. From Zidane's flirtatious, and often times lecherous, behavior, to Vivi's polite, shy, yet insightful manner; from Steiner's unquestionable loyalty and hardheadedness, to Dagger's determined, yet naive attitude; from Quina's unsatisfiable desire to eat everything that moves, to Freya's honorable journey to find her long lost love; from Eiko's cute, little mannerisms and very blunt opinions on everything, to Amarant's quiet, lone wolf attitude. Every single character in the game is distinct, likable and very necessary. In other words, I haven't seen a cast this likable and motivated in a long, long time. Both exploration and battle animations alike are remarkably fluid, with a surprisingly solid frame rate, especially when you take into careful consideration all the over-the-top spell effects used, such as realistic fire, shattering ice, gushing water currents and shocking bolts of lightning; visual effects that probably push the first PlayStation very close to its processing limits.

  Nobuo Uematsu, the man behind the music, has done a fantastic job on the soundtrack for Final Fantasy IX. Not only is the soundtrack one of the best in the series to date, it also has a few very subtle, yet quite recognizable hints to other classic Final Fantasy tracks within its one hundred plus tracks. However, don't let the nostalgia fool you; a large majority of Final Fantasy IX's songs are catchy and original enough on their own. In fact, while many of the tracks are lighthearted, some are touching and a few are just plain unforgettable. A couple examples of the excellence found within the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack include Emiko Shiratori's lovely vocal piece, called "Melodies of Life", which acts as the game's conclusive theme, and the primary battle theme, which harkens back to Final Fantasy battle themes of old, with a very familiar, tension building beat and an equally familiar, adrenaline filled lead-in, with an extremely strong tempo.

  And while we're on the subject of battles, Final Fantasy IX also harkens back to the good ol' days of Final Fantasy IV on the Super Nintendo, when individual character classes and unique abilities became a major feature. Anyone who has played Final Fantasy IV, V or VI will instantly be familiar with the simplistic, yet elegantly refined battle system, which incorporates the best portions of each of the three aforementioned titles' primary gameplay systems into a single, seamless equipment and ability system. You see, the system in Final Fantasy IX requires each character to learn their various abilities (such as magic, special commands and attributes) from their equipped weapons, armor and accessories, so the player is given a choice. They can leave each respective item on their characters until they acquire enough Ability Points (or AP for short) to master the ability within permanently, or they can remove the equipped item and thereby lose the ability, or abilities, currently associated with that item that are not fully mastered.

  This allows the player to play the game in one of three very distinct ways. First is the conditional method, in which players can buy any new weapons, armor and accessories, just as they become necessary, and continue to equip them regardless of whether they have learned each of their previous item's abilities. Second is the diligent method, in which players can meticulously equip each weapon, armor and accessory just long enough to learn each and every ability that the characters are capable of learning. Third is the conventional method, in which the player equips each new weapon, armor and accessories when necessary, but only chooses to learn a certain amount of specific abilities from each individual item. Each method has specific advantages and disadvantages, but I encourage anyone who plans to buy Final Fantasy IX to play the game in any way they see fit, as not one of these three methods is better than the others.

  The various enemy encounters in Final Fantasy IX play out in traditional turn- based fashion, with four character parties, active time bars and battle menus that pop-up with as many as four options, including Attack, Magic, a unique Skill and Item, and, like other titles in the series, encounters are fought on a random basis. Unfortunately, random encounters continue to be my main gripe with the series and Final Fantasy IX's unusually high random encounter rate in certain areas doesn't help it win any of my favor. Of course, this shouldn't be enough to discourage any long-time fans of the series from picking this one up, as the game still takes roughly fifty well-spent hours to finish, and that's just a minimum. Not only that, but Final Fantasy IX continues to innovate by breaking traditional character development trends, in the form of "Active Time Events", or ATEs.

  Whenever your party enters a town for the first time, they split up and go their separate ways, and as you walk around the town, an option to view various events, involving your other party members, as they transpire from afar appears in the lower left corner of the screen. The various events throughout the game help the player really get to know and relate to each character on a personal level and understand their motives. Mini-games and timed scenarios also make triumphant returns as well, after being mysteriously scarce in the two previous games in the series. Final Fantasy IX's difficulty level is also fairly high, though long-time fans shouldn't have any trouble. One of the most interesting things that Final Fantasy IX brings to the table is the Field Icon, which appears above your character's head in the form of either an exclaimation point or a question mark and informs you of times when specialized actions can be performed in the exploration screens and alerts you to the location of any hidden treasure chests.

  Of course, Final Fantasy IX, like any other game, is not without its share of problems. The first such problem was that as I played through the game, I noticed that the moogles (almost every moogle you meet acts as a Save Point) are spread out very well, though I will admit there were a couple times when I missed one and began to wonder if I'd ever hear the words "Let's save, kupo!" again. The second problem is that, though the translation is definitely top notch, the localization team inadvertently mistranslated many of the obvious references to characters and situations from past titles in the series. I won't say what they mistranslated, as it might ruin a few surprises for long-time fans, but let's just say that they're all quite easy to spot if you're familiar with the series; it seems the translators weren't very familiar with any Final Fantasy titles released prior to Final Fantasy VII. However, even with this minor technical shortcoming, Final Fantasy IX's translation is still one of most flowing, comprehensive translations in the series to date. And while it's true, in the end, that Final Fantasy IX really doesn't take any groundbreaking steps toward innovation, it does accomplish one very important thing: it returns the series to its former glory, if only for a moment, to the style that made the Final Fantasy series so enjoyable to begin with, which makes Final Fantasy IX just what diehard Final Fantasy fans have been waiting for for years, a beautifully-crafted title from beginning to end.
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