A Step Back: Final Fantasy IX

[Daedalus]

Legend of Dragoon is PS1. It's on the Playstation Network now.

Cool I'll pick it up.  I just got a ps2 to play all the titles I missed out on, I had an Xbox back in the day(wednesday).

[Daedalus]

Finished it last night.  Fun game.  It wasn't unique, but it was very enjoyable.  What's the deal with Sir Fratley?  Did I miss a side quest?

[Aeolus]

Finished it last night.  Fun game.  It wasn't unique, but it was very enjoyable.  What's the deal with Sir Fratley?  Did I miss a side quest?

The closest the Sir Fratley story line comes to a conclusion is with Freya accepting that his old memories are gone and its time to focus on making new ones instead of dwelling on what was lost (unless I'm somehow getting this mixed up with Lufia 1's ending).

[Daedalus]

It seems odd that they didn't do anything with that story branch.  A lost opportunity that could have fleshed out Freya and Fratley a bit.

[PotRoast]

As a thought exercise, I often like to compare Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Every time I come away thinking IX should be considered the best out of the three, but I always run into a problem with this: I just don't like playing FFIX. It is boring. I have always found it boring. As dated as the graphics are on VII and as contrived as the story in VIII, I have played through each multiple times, and I still have urges to play them every now and then (particularly VII within the past year). I just don't get it.

[Agent D.]

As a thought exercise, I often like to compare Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Every time I come away thinking IX should be considered the best out of the three, but I always run into a problem with this: I just don't like playing FFIX. It is boring. I have always found it boring. As dated as the graphics are on VII and as contrived as the story in VIII, I have played through each multiple times, and I still have urges to play them every now and then (particularly VII within the past year). I just don't get it.

Could it be the more futuristic or modernized look of the games, perhaps? I've noticed that I have a greater appreciation for more olden looks myself, but some people just appreciate the look of average day society.

[Dice]

As a thought exercise, I often like to compare Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Every time I come away thinking IX should be considered the best out of the three, but I always run into a problem with this: I just don't like playing FFIX. It is boring. I have always found it boring. As dated as the graphics are on VII and as contrived as the story in VIII, I have played through each multiple times, and I still have urges to play them every now and then (particularly VII within the past year). I just don't get it.

Could it be the more futuristic or modernized look of the games, perhaps? I've noticed that I have a greater appreciation for more olden looks myself, but some people just appreciate the look of average day society.

I think a "modernization" of the game could really help FF9.  It's got a LOT going for it, but the battles can be a real drag... a lot of PSX RPGs were though.  The fact that half of them take their sweet time to pan around the battle field before you fight really adds up.
I also hated the turn order of FF9.  Someone is low in HP, and you hope your heal spell kicks in before the enemy knocks them on their ass.  Then you use a Phoenix Down, but you can't heal them in time again because they only recovered 10 HP with the damned Phoenix feather.

I've sad it before, but I think Digi Devil Saga and FF10 handled this best (FF10 especially for showing the turn order and showing how "haste" actually works in your favor BEFORE you select the spell).  They were turn-based random battles, but they moved really quick.  DDS essentially had a fast forward button.

[Taelus]

Yeah, DDS2 is IMO the pinnacle of the turn-based battle system. I love FFIX and its combat, but it can definitely feel a bit wonky sometimes with the pacing of the turns and when actions actually happen. I think you're right, though, that it was pretty common in PS1-era RPGs to take freaking forever with fights.

Of course, that said, I still love FFIX longtime and ignore all of its flaws :]

[PotRoast]

Could it be the more futuristic or modernized look of the games, perhaps? I've noticed that I have a greater appreciation for more olden looks myself, but some people just appreciate the look of average day society.

I've wondered if it were the setting, since I do prefer settings more typically associated with "sci-fi" than fantasy. But I still lean away from that as the answer because I have enjoyed games with a strict fantasy setting in the past. And because the quality of FFIX fantasy is very strong. Especially when compared to games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

[Daedalus]

Seriously the turn based system was screwed up in IX.  If you used a summon then your whole team would be ready and waiting to attack, then you would just sit there and wait.  Like a previous poster stated, healing your team was a pain in the ass.

[Akanbe-]

As a thought exercise, I often like to compare Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Every time I come away thinking IX should be considered the best out of the three, but I always run into a problem with this: I just don't like playing FFIX. It is boring. I have always found it boring. As dated as the graphics are on VII and as contrived as the story in VIII, I have played through each multiple times, and I still have urges to play them every now and then (particularly VII within the past year). I just don't get it.

Could it be the more futuristic or modernized look of the games, perhaps? I've noticed that I have a greater appreciation for more olden looks myself, but some people just appreciate the look of average day society.

I think a "modernization" of the game could really help FF9.  It's got a LOT going for it, but the battles can be a real drag... a lot of PSX RPGs were though.  The fact that half of them take their sweet time to pan around the battle field before you fight really adds up.

Wasn't the whole panning thing was just a way to hide loading times?

I also hated the turn order of FF9.  Someone is low in HP, and you hope your heal spell kicks in before the enemy knocks them on their ass.  Then you use a Phoenix Down, but you can't heal them in time again because they only recovered 10 HP with the damned Phoenix feather.

I don't recall any issues with it.  Just waiting a few seconds for the enemy to take their turn before rezzing and then healing the revived character works, no?

[Taelus]

I never had HUGE issues with it (though maybe it's because I just learned to compensate), but sometimes the game was a little bit sluggish in executing your actions-- the enemies were sluggish in that regard, too, but it did feel a bit wonky at times.

[Lando]

I felt like the ATB calibration was a bit more off in FF9 than other FF games.  It was noticeable.  

As for the sentiment of FF9 objectively being the best of the PSX FF games but not the most entralling, I offer something a friend of mine said years ago and have stolen from her ever since.  She said that FF9 is like macaroni and cheese.  It tastes good and you like it, but it's not one of the more exciting or exotic flavors like FF7 or FF8 offered up.  

My review of FF9 says it all: http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/finalfantasy9-psn/index.html

[Aeolus]

I felt like the ATB calibration was a bit more off in FF9 than other FF games.  It was noticeable.  

As for the sentiment of FF9 objectively being the best of the PSX FF games but not the most entralling, I offer something a friend of mine said years ago and have stolen from her ever since.  She said that FF9 is like macaroni and cheese.  It tastes good and you like it, but it's not one of the more exciting or exotic flavors like FF7 or FF8 offered up.  

My review of FF9 says it all: http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/finalfantasy9-psn/index.html

I wouldn't call FFVII an exotic flavor either given that despite the trappings surrounding Midgar and Shinra the game's structure was more or less the same as V's and VI's, except blander, since you weren't hopping to different planets or waking up to find the one you're on in tatters but that there was this huge flaming rock hanging in the sky, and who the hell gives any fucks about that? (Plus everything from the end of the first Juan sequence to the North Crater sequence was practically a "It's a Small World After All" montage.)

At least FFVIII had the decency to come out a full decade before everybody and their brother jumped onto the Japanese High School setting bandwagon to run that shit into the fucking ground. :reg08:

[Agent D.]

This topic has made me want to play IX again, so I just finished buying and downloading it off psn. I'm kind of excited, haven't played it in YEARS.