Final Fantasy IX
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| Final Fantasy IX | |
| Missing image Ff9logo.png Official game logo | |
| Developer(s) | Square Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB:  TeenUSK: 6+ OFLC: M15+ |
| Platform(s) | Sony PlayStation |
Final Fantasy IX is a computer role-playing game developed by Square Co., Ltd. in 2000. It was published in Japan by Square, in North America by Square Electronic Arts, in continental Europe by Infogrames, and in the United Kingdom and Australia by Square Europe. It was the last original game in the Final Fantasy series to be produced for the PlayStation. This incarnation of the series was influenced heavily by the original Final Fantasy, and Vivi as well as several of the bosses have nostalgic qualities for long time fans of the series.
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Characters
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Princess Garnet Til Alexandros is dissatisfied with her cloistered life.
Playable Characters
- Zidane Tribal: Member of Tantalus, a group of thieves, and an inveterate womanizer. Originally, he plotted to abduct the Princess of Alexandria, but his plan was foiled when she revealed to him that she wanted to be kidnapped. He now serves as her protector. His only clue to his true origins is his inexplicable tail.
- Vivi Ornitier (VIVI): Young Black Mage, but very pure of heart. Met Zidane through an accident in a play. His past is something of a mystery, even to himself.
- Garnet Til Alexandros (a.k.a. Dagger): The Princess of Alexandria. Concerned about her mother's erratic behavior, she escapes from the castle and meets up with Zidane. Whilst travelling, she assumes the name "Dagger" to disguise her identity.
- Adelbert Steiner: The Captain of the Knights of Pluto. His sworn duty is to protect the Princess, and he is intensely loyal and concerned about her safety, but he rarely realizes how capable Garnet is on her own. Although he does not get along with Zidane, he assists him in protecting Garnet.
- Freya Crescent: Dragon Knight from Burmecia. She left home in search of Sir Fratley, her long-lost love. An old friend of Zidane, she meets him again in Lindblum and participates with him in the Festival of the Hunt.
- Quina Quen: Genderless Qu whose master wants him/her to travel the world so that s/he will learn that there's more to life than food.
- Eiko Carol: Six-year-old girl living in Madain Sari, the lost village of the summoners. Has a crush on Zidane. Lives with the Moogles. Parents and grandparents died when she was very little. Boisterous and precocious, she sees Dagger as her biggest rival for Zidane's affection (though no one else seems to notice).
- Amarant Coral (Salamander Coral): One of the most wanted bandits in Treno. He's actually innocent, but he doesn't tell anyone because he hates revealing his personal life. The person who actually committed the crime was Zidane, and Amarant was merely the guard who tried to stop him and was instead framed for it. Works as a bounty hunter with Lani until Zidane beats him, and he follows the thief around to understand his philosophies on fighting and friendship.
Major non-player characters
- Baku, Blank, Cinna, Marcus, Ruby, and the Nero Brothers: Zidane's friends and fellow members of Tantalus. Pose as actors to steal various items. Although Ruby is a member, she prefers to overlook the group's less-than-honorable dealings as long she gets a chance to pursue her dream of being an actress. Blank, Cinna and Marcus join the party intermittently throughout Disc 1, making them technically player characters, but they do not have the extensive character development, skillsets and membership duration of the previous eight.
- Puck: Prince of Burmecia, but prefers to keep a low profile diguised as a street urchin. Was Vivi's first friend.
- Stiltzkin: World-travelling Moogle who frequently asks Zidane and company to provide him with monetary backing to continue his journey. Sends letters to other moogles to fill them in on recent events in the world.
- Zorn and Thorn: Queen Brahne's court jesters perform all her dirtiest work and have the odd habit of speaking in constant antimetabole: repeating what the other says, but in reverse syntactical order. Also have the bizarre ability to extract eidolons from summoners. Even by the end of the game, their origin is never truly explained.
- Queen Brahne: Queen of Alexandria, and mother of Garnet/Dagger. She is willing to stop at nothing to expand the Empire of Alexandria, even if it means the death of her daughter.
- Beatrix: The greatest Alexandrian knight who ever lived. Blinded by her devotion to the Queen, she performs various destructive duties in the name of the queen's greed. Later, she repents for her actions by helping Zidane's group in their quest. Like Blank, Cinna and Marcus, Beatrix joins the party for a short time; unlike the Tantalus members, she can be added to the party permanently using a GameShark cheat device, though bringing her into certain plot-related battles may cause the game to hang.
- Regent Cid Fabool: Present ruler of Lindblum. Turned into an oglop by his wife, Hilda, because of his womanizing. Technology expert who is fond of creating new airships. Was best friends with Dagger's father. Ordered Tantalus to kidnap Dagger because he was concerned for her safety, based on the erratic and abnormal tendencies of her mother as of late.
- Sir Fratley: Freya's long-lost love. Went out on a journey and never returned. Appears later in Cleyra with no memory of his past... Or the woman he left behind in it.
- Kuja: Little is known about this mysterious man. He is obsessed with power and will do anything to get what he wants. First introduced as the provider of Queen Brahne's magical weapons, the Black Mages. Somehow, he knows Zidane's true identity.
- Doctor Tot: Scholar from Alexandria who moved to Treno once Queen Brahne began acting strangely. Was Garnet's tutor when she was a little girl. The group often consults him on important matters because of his extensive knowledge of just about everything.
- Hilda Garde: Cid's wife who turned him into an oglop for his womanizing. After transforming him, she escaped Lindblum on Cid's latest airship, which he had, ironically, named "Hilda Garde." She is captured by Kuja, who uses her airship for his own purposes and who voluntarily reveals his plans to her.
- Lani: Bounty hunter Queen Brahne hires to retrieve the Pendant stolen by Princess Garnet and to kill the black mage travelling with her. Works with Amarant, whom she calls "Red." Eventually reforms and can be found living in Madain Sari with Eiko's moogles by the end of the game.
- Mikoto: A female genome whom the heroes rescued from Terra and brought back to Gaia, and is the interest of the Black Mage Village by the end of the game.
Locations
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Vivi wanders through Alexandria's town square.
The world of FFIX is divided into four continents: Mist Continent, which takes up most of the map, Forgotten Continent, a large land in the west where the sun sets, Lost Continent, to the northwest, almost entirely covered in ice, and Outer Continent, an arid desert wasteland to the North.
Mist Continent
- Alexandria — A pristine city-state ruled by Queen Brahne, whose armies proceed to conquer every other nation on the Mist Continent to establish the Alexandrian Empire.
- Burmecia — "The Land of Eternal Rain," it was once a great country known for its strength and righteousness, but the player only knows it as rain-drenched ruins. Home to the Burmecians, a rat-like people known for their great nobility and sense of honor. Playable character Freya is from here.
- Cleyra — A country located on a large tree surrounded by a protective sandstorm in the middle of a desert west of Burmecia. Founded by pacifistic Burmecians 1000 years ago.
- Dali — A small rural town in the heart of the Alexandrian Empire. The citizens of Dali profit by manufacturing black mages, which are sold to Alexandria as weapons.
- Evil Forest — A forest south of Alexandria that seems to be alive and infested with plant monsters.
- Fossil Roo — An tunnel that runs beneath the Qu's Marsh and leads to the Outer Continent. Inhabited by Gargants, which can serve as methods of transportation within the underground area.
- Gargan Roo — The Gargan Roo is another underground passage. It leads from Treno to Alexandria.
- Gizamaluke's Grotto — A cavern connecting Burmecia and Lindblum, it is attacked by Brahne and her black mages, and collapses easily. It is home to the sea creature Master Gizamaluke, who is driven mad by black mage control.
- Lindblum — The single most powerful and advanced city-state on the planet, it is ruled by Regent Cid Fabool IX, airship inventor extradonaire, and is home to the largest airship armada in the world.
- North Gate — The gate connecting Alexandria and Burmecia. Traversible by foot or by the airship passage.
- Qu's Marsh — A marsh in Lindblum country where the party first meets Quina. It is also the entrance to Fossil Roo.
- South Gate — The gate connecting Alexandria and Lindblum. There are two ways of passing through South Gate: one is by the massive airship passage, and the second is by trolley cars.
- Treno — A cosmopolitan city of the Alexandrian Empire, Treno's social hierarchy is highly stratified: the wealthier nobles live in the upscale western district, while the poorer classes are confined to the eastern slums.
Outer Continent
- Black Mage Village — Hidden deep in a large forest near Conde Petie, the village is home to several self-aware black mages, living their lives in hiding.
- Conde Petie — A village of dwarves, it is the team's first port of call on the Outer Continent. In order to pass through here to what is called the Sanctuary, couples must undergo a ceremony not unlike marriage.
- Iifa Tree — An enormous tree on the Outer Continent, much too frequently and incorrectly thought of by players as the "Lifa Tree". Planted by Garland many years ago, the Iifa Tree is a filtering system for the souls of Gaia. The souls are directed towards the tree, whereupon they are intercepted by the Soul Cage. Mist is a by-product of the filtering process and is pumped through the roots of the tree to the Mist Continent.
- Madain Sari — Eiko and Dagger's hometown. It was destroyed ten years ago by the airship called the Invincible. This was about four years before Eiko was born. Dagger and her real mother fled to Alexandria, but Dagger's mother was dead by the time they floated into Alexandria's harbor.
Gameplay
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Steiner prepares to strike with one of his special attacks.
Gameplay in Final Fantasy IX is fairly standard console RPG fare. Playable characters fight to earn experience points and levels, which increase their strength, speed, defensive capabilities, and other characteristics, all of which of described numerically for each individual character. Every character in Final Fantasy IX has unique abilities known only to that character: Zidane can steal items from enemies, Freya can perform a jump attack with her spear, Quina has the ability to learn special attacks from monsters, and so on. New skills, both active and passive, are learned by equipping weapons and armor, each of which contain various skills. Each skill lists a certain number of Ability Points; when the character has earned enough of them (through battle), they will learn the skill permanently; it is also available while the item itself is equipped.
The battle system in FFIX is different in several ways from those of its PlayStation predecessors, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Some changes in the battle system include:
- Four character battle party. Battle parties in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII consisted of only three characters at any one time. Final Fantasy IX, however, returns to the precedent set by the pre-PlayStation installments, and allows for four characters to participate in battle at the same time.
- The trance system. This system is similar to the Limit Break system from Final Fantasy VII. Every time a character receives damage in battle, their 'trance bar' fills up slightly. When the bar is completely full, the characters 'go into trance', which means that they become more powerful and in some cases can use special attacks or moves. There are differences between the Trance and the Limit Break. They are:
- On average, it takes longer to fill the Trance bar than the Limit bar,
- The "attack" command is not replaced by Trance Abilities
- Each character involuntarily enters trance as soon as the bar fills, whereas limit breaks are chosen
- Every time you attack with a character in Trance, the Trance bar goes down according to the power of that attack, unlike Limit breaks where you only perform your one Limit move and the bar becomes empty.
- Once you fill up the Trance bar, it only lasts for that one battle, whereas in Final Fantasy VII the Limit bar would stay full until you chose to use the Limit Break move in battle. This has been known to cause severe frustration when an enemy's dying attack causes a character's Trance bar to fill, as the potential attacks will be permanently lost when the battle ends a moment later.
- Multi-target magic. Magic spells can be targetted at multiple enemies simply by pressing the R1 or R2 button on the PlayStation game controller. No special items, materia, etc. are needed to target all.
- Summoned monsters. Eidolons (FFIX's name for summoned creatures) are treated like traditional white and black magic, and can only be used by the white mage characters (Dagger and Eiko). The first time they are used you see their full animation, but every time after that, unless you have the Boost ability, the animation is much shorter and the summon is weaker. In general, summoning spells are weaker than in the previous two games.
Criticism
Rather like its successor, Final Fantasy IX has been highly criticised not only for its graphics but also its gameplay in places. Some fans have noted that there are far too many FMV's in the game whilst other fans have argued that they are the best thing in the game and keep them playing as they are nicely animated. Another criticism of the game is that the graphics hark back to the pixelated graphic days of the series (unlike FF8 and FF10 which both contain realistic character designs). Fans have complained that the Super-deformed graphics in FF9 are a lot rougher and blockier than FF7 which was made about 3 years beforehand. Another criticism of the game is the lead character, Zidane. Whilst some fans believe he is an improvement on the moody, taciturn Squall Leonhart from the previous game other fans detest Zidane's playful attitude and hyperactiveness (particularly at the beginning of the game). The gameplay has also been criticised in places (the Tetra Master card game is singled out as being very poorly designed and executed as opposed to the Triple Triad card game in Final Fantasy 8).
Production credits
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Packaging for the North American version of the game.
General
- Main Program — Hiroshi Kawai
- Director — Hiroyuki Itou
- Producer — Shinji Hashimoto
- Executive Producers — Tomoyuki Takechi and Hisashi Suzuki
- Conceived and Producer — Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Art Director — Hideo Minaba
- Image Illustration — Yoshitaka Amano
- Original Score and Music — Nobuo Uematsu
- Event Design — Kazuhiko Aoki
- Real-Time Graphics — Akira Fujii
- Battle Design — Yasushi Kurosawa
- Battle Program — Takayuki Niwa
- World Map Program — Tatsuya Yoshinari
- World Map Graphics — Masahide Tanaka
- Field Design — Nozomu Yamagishi and Takeshi Endo
- Field Data — Hidetoshi Kezuka
- Field Graphics — Shinichiro Okaniwa, Jun Sakurai and Kazuyuki Ikumori
- Character Design — Shukou Murase, Toshiyuki Itahana and Shin Nagasawa
- Additional Character Design — Fumiyasu Sasaki, Yasuhisa Izumisawa, Yuichiro Kojima, Takuji Sasaki, Kazuko Shibuya, Kaname Shindo, Yuichi Shiota, Kuniharu Takeuchi and Sanae Tsuji
- Character Modeling — Hiroshi Arai and Tomohiro Kayano
- Character Animation — Jun Uriu and Tatsuya Kando
- Storyboard — Toshiyuki Momose
- CG Movie — Hiroshi Kuwabara
- Sound Effects — Teruaki Sugawara and Eiji Nakamura
- Sound Program — Minoru Akao
- Menu Planner — Manabu Washio
- Menu Programmer — Soichiro Yasui
- Card Designer — Toshiyuki Itahana
- Card Game Programmer — Nobuhiro Fujii
- Character Modeling — Tatsuo Heianzan, Brandon Idol, Satoshi Ito, Naho Kodama, Mari Miyamoto, Yoshitsugu Sato, Ryotaro Takahashi and Makoto Yagishita
- Monster Modeling — Koichi Ebe, Miwa Hashimoto, Yoshifusa Hayama, Koji Ida, Hideo Kubota, Hiromichi Morita, Kazumi Seki, Hiroyuki Suzuki and Takanari Tajima
- Texture Artists — Takeshi Arakawa, Tomohiro Hasegawa, Ryotaro Hashimoto, Haruya Ishii, Masaaki Kazeno, Daiju Komatsu, Tatsuru Nakaza, Kazuhiko Okawa, Takuji Sasaki, Makoto Sawano and Tetsu Tsukamoto
- World Map Planner — Shoji Shiromoto
- World Map Graphics — Tatsuo Heianzan, Kumi Kanai and Emi Komine
Battle section
- Battle Planners — Ryutaro Kanno, Satoshi Shiozaki and Manabu Washio
- Background Designers — Norifumi Nagaoka, Junnosuke Kanazawa, Junichi Murata and Takehito Suzuki
- Battle Programmers — Tadamichi Obinata, Nobuhiro Fujii and Soichiro Yasui
- Effects Designers — Hiroyuki Ikeda, Hirokatsu Sasaki, Yuichiro Suzuki and Takenobu Tomita
- Effects Programmers — Tsuyoshi Sonoda, Makoto Hasegawa and Tomonori Hiraishi
- Effects Support — Shinichiro Okaniwa, Tatsuo Heianzan, Shin Nagasawa, Jun Sakurai, Kaname Shindo and Ryotaro Takahashi
Field section
- Event Planners — Masahiro Kataoka, Naoya Kawahira, Nobuaki Koumoto, Akihiko Maeda, Motoharu Tanaka and Ryota Toyama
- Map Planners — Minori Hisamatsu, Tomoko Iemura, Hidetoshi Kezuka, Nobuhiro Nakajima, Kiminori Ono, Charles Pinady, Hiroshi Takahashi and Sanae Tsuji
- Field Map Graphics — Gen Arai, Brian Beppu, Wesley Cann, Francisco Cortina, Karl Coyner, Manabu Daishima, Rei Fukuzawa, Veronique Garcia, Masataka Hayakawa, Takehiko Hoashi, Sangwoo Hong, Hiroyuki Hoshino, Shin Ienaka, Hiroki Inohara, Akira Iwata, Yasuhiko Kamata, Insun Kang, Koji Kawamura, Cecil Kim, Atsushi Kimura, Motoko Kitamura, Thomas Lee, Greg Lev, Toshitaka Matsuda, Hideyuki Matsumoto, Takaharu Matsuo, Hiroki Mitsushima, Takako Miyake, Kimihiko Miyamae, Hideaki Morita, Paul Moya, Koki Nara, Mathisha Nihalsingha, Tatsuhiro Okamoto, Sho Okamura, Eric Pavey, Behrooz Roozbeh, Jacob Rowell, Christian Scheurer, Richard Semple, Shinobu Shinagawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Shiho Tamura, Yukihiro Taniguchi, Donald Taylor, Akihiro Tokunaga, Takuji Tomooka, Misako Tsutsui, Kazushi Urata, Christopher Voy, Mitsuhiro Yamada, Kana Yamazaki, Masaki Yasuda, Megumi Yasue, Ikuyo Yoshida, Airi Yoshioka and Masahito Yoshioka
- Particle Designers — Mio Kokami, Shinichiro Okaniwa, Ryotaro Takahashi and Makoto Yagishita
- Particle Management — Hiroshi Takahashi
- Event Programmer — Yasuo Kuwahara
- Field Map Programmer — Shawn Taras
Animation section
- Battle Character Animation — Reina Ikeda, Manabu Inokuchi, Go Kikuchi and Yusuke Tanaka
- Field Character Animation — Hiroyuki Hamada, Timothy Tyle Harrison, Brandon Idol, Satoshi Ito, Manabu Inokuchi, Maho Kodama, Mari Miyamoto, Kenji Nomura, Yoshitsugu Sato, Masateru Suzuki and Kuniharu Takeuchi
- Monster Animation — Hiroyuki Hamada, Samuel Heine, Shinya Ichida, Reina Ikeda, Manabu Inokuchi, Atsuhi Inuzuka, Ryoma Ito, Takuya Iwasaki, Kenji Kadonishi, Go Kikuchi, Mieko Kinoshita, Shinji Koide, Kyoko Muramatsu, Yoko Nagare, Kenji Nomura, Mitsuki Sato, Tomoyuki Sato, Koichiro Soeda, Yoshiyuki Souma, Masateru Suzuki, Kayoe Takagi, Shintaro Tamai, Yoichi Tanaka and Yusuke Tanaka
- 3D Character Programmer — Thomas Shih-Ta Peng
Management
- Coordinators — Hiroshi Tanaka, Mayumi Clark and David Mantzel
- Production Manager — Akira Kashiwagi
- Project Manager — Kenji Takemoto
- Project Assistants — Nobuyuki Ueda and Eri Morimoto
- Technical Support — Ryoji Sugiyama
Movie section
- Supervisor — Satoshi Tsukamoto
- Director — Hiroshi Kuwabara
- Technical Coordinator — Yoshinori Moriizumi
- CG Designers — Hiroshi Fujiwara, Syuntaro Furukawa, Takuya Hada, Hiroyuki Honda, Keiko Imamura, Masaharu Inoue, Tadahiro Inoue, Takayuki Katagi, Koji Kobayashi, Ayako Kuroda, Toshiaki Matsumura, Kei Miyamoto, Takaomi Moto, Sanae Nakanishi, Satoshi Naito, Motohito Nasu, Takeshi Nozue, Mitsunobu Ochi, Tomohiko Osugi, Kaori Sato, Shinya Senzaki, Koichiro Shiratori, Kenichi Someya, Eiji Takahashi, Koichi Takahashi, Eisyu Takamura, Hideaki Takeda, Kengo Takeuchi, Masayo Tateishi, Takeshi Tateishi, Takuji Tomooka, Akihiro Tsuchiya, Kimitoshi Tsumura, Kazuhito Yamamoto, Takuji Yasuda and Masanori Yoshida
- Engineers — Takayuki Hirayama, Keisuke Miyazaki, Masashi Nakata, Ryusuke Sasaki, Teruaki Shiraishi and Keita Takagi
- Manager — Norimichi Kurosawa
- Coordinators — Noriko Abe, Hisako Sakurai, Miho Takagi and Makiko Yasuda
- Motion BG/CG Designers — Francisco Cortina, Karl Coyner, Takehito Hoashi, Kazuyuki Ikumori, Hiroki Inohara, Akira Iwata, Yasuhiko Kamata, Koji Kawamura, Atsushi Kimura, Greg Lev, Hideyuki Matsumoto, Takako Miyake, Hideaki Morita, Koki Nara, Tatsuhiro Okamoto, Sho Okamura, Eric Pavey, Behrooz Roozbeh, Jacob Rowell, Kazuya Takahashi, Mitsuhiro Yamada, Kana Yamazaki, Masaki Yasuda and Masahito Yoshioka
- Motion BG Support — Manabu Daishima, Takeshi Endo, Hidetoshi Kezuka and Kiminori Ono
- Character Modeling — Francisco Cortina, Takehiko Hoashi, Toshiaki Matsumura, Eric Pavey, Eisyu Takamura, Hideaki Takeda and Yosio Yamakawa
- Storyboard — Hiroyuki Shimazu, Koji Kawamura, Tatsuya Yabuta and Masahito Yoshioka
- Movie Programmer — Shawn Taras
Music and sound
- Music — Nobuo Uematsu
- Sound Programmer — Minoru Akao
- Game Sound Editors — Teruaki Sugawara and Makoto Ise
- Movie Sound Editors — Eiji Nakamura and Yoshitaka Fujita
- Game Sound Effects Editor — Ryo Inakura, Tomohiro Kamiya, Masayuki Nakajima, Natsuko Sugiyama, Masataka Saitou and Kyoji Umakoshi
- Synthesizer Programmer — Keiji Kawamori
- Production Manager — Kensuke Matsushita
- Production Coordinator — Naoto Echizen
- Production Assistant — Megumi Fukuda
- Orchestration — Shirou Hamaguchi
- Conductor — Koji Haijima
- Recording Engineer — Toshiyuki Yoshida
- Mixing Engineer — Kenji Nakai
- Recording Coordinator — Yuji Saitou
"Melodies of Life"
- Vocals — Emiko Shiratori
- Composer — Nobuo Uematsu
- Lyrics — Ciomi
- English Translations — Kako Someya and Alexander O. Smith
- Arrangement — Shirou Hamaguchi
- Producer — Nobuo Uematsu
"Ancient Music version of FU-RU-SA-TO"
- Composer — Nobuo Uematsu
- Sound Producer — Kenichi Funayama
- Manipulator — Hidenobu "Kalta" Ohtsuki
- Recording Engineer — Hidenobu "Kalta" Ohtsuki
- Arrangement — Kunihiko Kurosawa
- Performers — Kunihiko Kurosawa and Haruo Kondo
External links
- Final Fantasy IX Official Website (http://www.square-enix.com/games/FFIX-gamesite/)
- Final Fantasy IX Official Website (Europe) (http://www.square-enix-europe.com/ff9/)
- Final Fantasy Net - Final Fantasy IX Section (http://www.ffnet.org/ff9/)
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