General Gaming Beat it - Small rant about Final Fantasy IX.

[Fizzzzle]

They survived because they're the main characters in a story you're playing.

 

Sure, a blast like that would absolutely have killed them, but that would have made for a pretty shitty story. "And they all died, the end."

 

Do storytellers take things too far sometimes with giving all of the protagonists plot armor? Absolutely. Is this the most egregious example of it I've seen? Absolutely not.

[eventide11]

On 5/5/2023 at 5:38 PM, Bacon said:

Also didn't expect the guy who looks like a humanoid chicken to be a regular ol human

for real, how is that not a chicken

You do realize thats his chin/goatee sticking out.. But even seeing that he still looks kinda like a chicken 

[Bacon]

5 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Wait, are you really pretending you’re surprised they survived a bombing?

 

is this your first FF?

 

Hell, in VI your whole party survives falling thousands of feet from the sky to survive the breaking of the earth. People survive bombings all the time, unscathed. Why is it so crazy that they escaped together?

 

 I said no spoilers about other FFs.

 

Edit: spoilers about 1,2,3,7,10,12,13,14,15 are fine to talk about lol.

[Bacon]

3 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

Is this the most egregious example of it I've seen? Absolutely not.

I have never played a game where you are directly in the middle of a nuclear blast and lived. Sure, plenty of times you survive the edge of an explosion but not when your ass is the nuke's landing zone.

[Bacon]

Also, plot armor doesn't bother me when there is an excuse. There was no excuse for that. It was just bad storytelling. Like unforgivably bad storytelling. All they would have had to do was show a ship escaping the blast or anything that even hinted that they were going to make it out. The party surviving isn't unthinkable. The problem is the game didn't show it. Might as well have a scene where Zidane was flayed alive and then decapitated only to have Blank say Zidane fell asleep for 3 days and woke up fine.

 

And I can't tell if Alexandira not being a pile of rubble makes this worse or better. On one hand, if the game says pretty much no one died then it makes more sense for the party to survive, but then again, THE ENTIRE CITY WAS VAPORIZED! The cutscene doesn't line up with reality. And, I mean, they did this right with Cleyra. Cleyra had the party live to fight another day and showed them taking a mage portal out of the city before Odin Zantetsuken'd the tree.

[BloodyHell]

17 hours ago, Bacon said:

 

 I said no spoilers about other FFs.

 

Edit: spoilers about 1,2,3,7,10,12,13,14,15 are fine to talk about lol.

Wait, you haven’t played 4, 5, and 6? What sre you doing? You’re missing some of the best JRPG’s ever made. 

[Fizzzzle]

Do I think FFIX is the "best" FF game? No. It's certainly one of the better ones, but I can nitpick shit about it.

 

Is it my favorite FF game? FUCK YES, IT IS. And before you say I'm just saying that with nostalgia goggles, I have replayed it in the last few years. For me, it's the characters. No other FF game has had a roster of characters that all felt like fleshed out human beings who all had their own arcs. As a comparison,  during FFVII, it's like "here's the Barret chapter, here's the Cid chapter, here's the Yufi chapter, here's the Red chapter," etc. The characters really don't get any spotlight or development outside of their own dedicated chapters. In FFIX, all of the characters grow together (except Amaranth and Quina). you can find something to relate to in every single one of them (except Amaranth and Quina), and every character really feels like they're in a different place at the end vs. where they started. 

 

Like, seriously, Steiner is probably the best side character Square has ever made in a FF game. His growth as an individual is phenomenal.

 

However, I don't begrudge Quina's lack of development. They like frog. It's fine. Not every character needs to be Shakespearean.

[Bacon]

5 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Wait, you haven’t played 4, 5, and 6? What sre you doing? You’re missing some of the best JRPG’s ever made. 

I played a lot of 4 on the DS but never actually beat it. 

[Bacon]

5 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

but I can nitpick shit about it.

I am not nitpicking if you think I am. Maybe you don't think the things I have talked about are a big deal, but they are to me.

5 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

And before you say I'm just saying that with nostalgia goggles, I have replayed it in the last few years.

Just because you have replayed it recently-ish, doesn't mean nostalgia goggles aren't active.

5 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

No other FF game has had a roster of characters that all felt like fleshed out human beings who all had their own arcs

I don't think FF9 is one of them either lol. Zidane still hasn't been fleshed out at all. He is literally the same guy who is pining after Garnet and is nice to Vivi. Freya had one second of relevancy which was gone the moment after Rat Tree. Garnet is STILL the naive princess even after her mother died. Guessing this whole "lost me voice" arc is where that stops. Vivi has had some growth I suppose but not a lot. It is hard for me to say if Steiner has actually shown growth, but he did leave the princess to Zidane that one time. Eiko is a kid who I still have basically just met. She has had the best character story so far since we learned about her entire existence and personality right off the bat. She is also such a classic kid trope which is good.

 

Maybe I am blind to growth, but I really don't see much that I would consider character growth. And I think I am the type of guy who prefers a dedicated chapter or at least a defining moment. Cloud has one. Luke from Tales of the Abyss is a fantastic character who grows over the course of the game and has that defining moment as well.

 

Of course, I am only partly thru Disc 3. In a lot of games, I feel like I only notice how a character changes once it is all said and done. Cuz like, I couldn't tell you when Vaan changes, but by the end of 12 he is... alright all things considered. Of course, I love Balthier and Fran and I can't say they changed which is great. Characters don't need growth when they are already great. I still think Vivi and Steiner are great. But the major focus is on Zidane and Garnet and it just doesn't work for me.

 

If it wasn't for the fact that I want to play and beat every FF aside from 13/15, I think I would have dropped FF9. Which sucks because I REALLY wanted to like it. Everything about 9 should make it one of my favorites. The setting is spectacular. And yet I haven't really enjoyed the story or characters. The boss "difficulty" seems to be heavily based on stealing so no matter what I do I feel like I am fucked from enjoying that aspect.

 

Maybe my opinion will change by the end. A good ending can make up for a lot too. I feel like I might just be getting to the meat of the game, which is crazy to say when I have already gone through 2.5 discs.

 

Oh and FF9 has had the worst mini-games I have ever played.

[Bacon]

Just returned to the BLM village and now this is some good stuff. Vivi da best.

[Bacon]

looks like stuff might be happening

[Bacon]

I'm in the desert palace and I can't get random encounters to happen. I googled it and found this.

No random encounters in Desert Palace :: FINAL FANTASY IX General Discussions

STEAMCOMMUNITY.COM

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I remember the Desert Palace being the first hard area in the game when I played it on PS1. Now on PC I can't even get a single random encounter. I tried activating/deactivating the no random encounter cheat, reseting the game but still nothing, the palace is empty. Is this normal?

 

Seems like they just made the game far easier for no reason. Big let down tbh.

[Paperclyp]

On 5/8/2023 at 12:19 PM, Bacon said:

I have never played a game where you are directly in the middle of a nuclear blast and lived. Sure, plenty of times you survive the edge of an explosion but not when your ass is the nuke's landing zone.

If you hide in a refrigerator you could survive. 

[Paperclyp]

10 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I'm in the desert palace and I can't get random encounters to happen. I googled it and found this.

No random encounters in Desert Palace :: FINAL FANTASY IX General Discussions

STEAMCOMMUNITY.COM

---

I remember the Desert Palace being the first hard area in the game when I played it on PS1. Now on PC I can't even get a single random encounter. I tried activating/deactivating the no random encounter cheat, reseting the game but still nothing, the palace...

 

Seems like they just made the game far easier for no reason. Big let down tbh.

This makes me feel less crazy 

[Bacon]

27 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

This makes me feel less crazy 

Well, the bosses aren't any easier. They have the same HP values at least. Just fewer random battles.

 

Which is super dumb, at least for the PC port which is just the Mobile port. Cuz like, on PC, I can turn on no encounters if I don't want to fight anything. As someone who isn't grinding, random encounters are pretty much, well, not needed, but I would like more combat even if I just attack most of the time. What's the point of a dungeon if there aren't any enemies? The "puzzles" sure aren't enough to make a good dungeon.

[Paperclyp]

I never trusted the mobile versions of the game 

[Bacon]

33 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

I never trusted the mobile versions of the game 

AFAIA, every version but the PS1 version is based on the mobile version.

Final Fantasy IX version differences | Final Fantasy Wiki | Fandom

FINALFANTASY.FANDOM.COM

---

The following is a list of version differences between releases of Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy IX was released July 7, 2000 in Japan. This is the original version. By default, the localized versions use to confirm and to cancel, rather than the opposite. An English version of the theme song, "Melodies of Life", plays in the ending, as opposed to the Japanese version in the original. Getting a perfect score in the sword-fighting...

 

Unless you are playing on a PS1/PSone Classic or emu it's all the same.

Moguri mod makes the PC version the best IMO despite the reduced encounter rate.

[Paperclyp]

9 minutes ago, Bacon said:

AFAIA, every version but the PS1 version is based on the mobile version.

Final Fantasy IX version differences | Final Fantasy Wiki | Fandom

FINALFANTASY.FANDOM.COM

---

The following is a list of version differences between releases of Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy IX was released July 7, 2000 in Japan. This is the original version. By default, the localized versions use to confirm and to cancel, rather than the opposite. An...

 

Unless you are playing on a PS1/PSone Classic or emu it's all the same.

Moguri mod makes the PC version the best IMO despite the reduced encounter rate.

I think I remember this but had forgotten. The switch version was sufficient for me but I just played through it to play through it. I can emulate the OG version if I want or I have a physical copy. 

[Bacon]

Alexandria btw

[Bacon]

The reason why I can't hate on Quina is because even the game shits on them in the best of ways.

[Bacon]

Well, I beat it. Not much to say I think.

 

The ending was good, but it still left some questions. Don't care if they are answered tho. Big sad about Vivi, but I figured it was coming. The whole disc 4 wasn't really out there IMO. Class FF stuff, even introduced a crystal at the last minute lol. The story that happens on Disc 4 makes the most sense out of all the plot lines in the game. Glad for my boy Steiner. As I said, the ending was good, I love a happy ending. Probably won't put this in my top 5 FFs by the time I play'em all tho.

 

I did enjoy the last bosses. For me, the hardest boss in the game was actually the final boss which was very cool. Not that the boss was cool, but that the final boss being the hardest for me was good. I also beat Ozma and Hades.  What made me laugh after the final boss is how I beat it and Ozma. It was thanks to Berserk. When I fought Ozma, I went Full DPS, but fucking Amarant died in the first hit. Right after two big hits, Steiner got Berserked. Freya go two hits in and died. It became Zidane and Steiner vs Ozma And Steiner killed it. Then when I fought the final boss, Steiner and Freya died almost right away, and Steiner got Zombied so the heal I had going off with Eiko made it so the final boss could kill him in the next attack, and Zidane got Beserked. It was just Eiko and Zidane vs The last-minute big bad, and I got giga lucky because the boss used the move that reduces a character's HP to 1 and it did that like 2-3 times and it became Zidane auto-attacking (for 9999) because of Berserk and then using Eiko to heal him to full. What was also extra funny is that Zidane died on every boss in the final dungeon except for the last two.

 

Oh, and my highest level character was Zidane at level 48.

 

I'd give this game like a 7/10.

 

Now I can officially be mad at what the FF9 remake changes when that comes out. Tho, I'd probably like most changes as long as the game is remade all at once. Not gonna partake in a multi-part remake.

[Remarkableriots]

Did you finish the jump rope 1,000 times without tripping? 

[Bacon]

6 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

Did you finish the jump rope 1,000 times without tripping? 

Yeah, I cheated. Added a 1000 multiplier to the jumps.

[Bacon]

I actually think a 7/10 is too high for me. I just really wanted to like it and I don't want to review it poorly, but it is probably more a 5/10 for me. 6/10 at best. I mean, I had more fun playing FF1/2 PR and the FF3 3D remake.

 

Except for the final chapter, I don't like any of this game's story. I love the setting, I love a good romance, and I really enjoy the other world shit that exists in FF. But man, do I still not care for Zidane or Garnet, like at all. Steiner, Eiko, and Vivi are great but Freya and Amarant are so irrelevant. Quina is OK I suppose, all things considered. I love the look of the game, and I love the pretty much pure fantasy setting, but the story of the first 3 discs just doesn't do it for me at all.

 

And fuck this game has the work side quests and mini-games I have played so far. I despise everything to do with the Chocobo and the hot and cold shit. If it wasn't for the super boss being behind it all I would have never done it. And, like, I really thought the Mognet shit would have something interesting happen at some point but it never does. You just deliver the superslick and that's it. Quest over. Pretty much all side quests are like that and I did all of them because I refuse to feel like I was missing out on content.

 

I will say, that doing all the side quests is on me, and I probably would have enjoyed the game more if I skipped every piece of optional content. Not even the giga weapons are extra amazing. There are only a bit better.

[Remarkableriots]

34 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Yeah, I cheated. Added a 1000 multiplier to the jumps.

How did you do that?

[Bacon]

Oh, and I don't mean the quality of the side content ruined the game, but that it slowed down the story. I probably would have been more forgiving if I had less downtime between story beats. Kinda why disc 4 shined form. Once the side content was out of the way it was just the main story stuff plus Hades.

 

The thing is, that is how I play pretty much every game tho. Play as much of it as possible because I probably won't replay it. I am not big into replayimg games so I want to get the most out of it on my first go. I really didn't do anything different with FF9 than I do with any other video game.

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

How did you do that?

PC -Moguri mod - open the .ini - enable the cheats - set 1 jump to = 1000

[Remarkableriots]

Just now, Bacon said:

PC -Moguri mod - open the .ini - enable the cheats - set 1 jump to = 1000

That's cool. Unfortunately I'm playing it on PS5 so I can't do that.

[Bacon]

I did like ATE feature, thought it was a good idea to show what your party is doing where you aren't around.

 

While there weren't many "bangers" It didn't have any music I'd call bad. Best tracks in the game for me, going from best to least best:

 

 

One mistake I made was playing this before reaching it naturally. I am playing thru all the FFs, and 9 was going to be next to last. It probably would have come across as a better game after spending a bunch of time on 6-7-8. I had intended to play all but maybe 10 before FF16 came out but that didn't happen. FF9 was the FF game was I looking forward to the most and with FF16 coming up I wanted to play FF9. I really wanted to like FF9. I feel like I'm still trying to make myself enjoy something I didn't. It has pretty much everything I want from a FF and yet I just could not get into the story.

 

 

[Fizzzzle]

The one point I will concede to you for trashing possibly my favorite game ever made is the music. In general, it's too repetitive. When I hear music from FFVII or FFVI (or hell even FF8 and I don't even like that game), I immediately feel nostalgic. When I hear music from FF9, my brain goes "oh yeah, I forgot how much that music grated on me over time."

[crispy4000]

On 5/9/2023 at 5:54 AM, Fizzzzle said:

No other FF game has had a roster of characters that all felt like fleshed out human beings who all had their own arcs.

FF6

[Fizzzzle]

23 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

FF6

I mean.. no? Even FFIX didn't have full development in all of their characters, and the cast is so much smaller. Freya had no development at all beyond her search for Crowley and then it was like "he lost his memory, he doesn't remember you," and she's like "okay, this is my life now" she that's it. FFVI does not have dynamic development at all. Locke, Celes, and Edgar are pretty much the only characters who grow and change in the story, even if you have like 20 characters you can play.

 

I guess Gau grows a lot.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think FFVI is objectively the best FF game. The reason FFIX is my favorite is because each character goes through an arc you can relate to (not including Freya and Amarant). The story of every other character is about the loss of identity and how you find it again. It gets capped by the one character who has been a rock for everyone throughout the story (Zidane) finding out that his whole existence has been a lie, and everyone else rallies to save him the way that he saved them. It's wholesome as fuck. The lesson is it's not who you are that defines you, it's what you do.

[Bacon]

2 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

It gets capped by the one character who has been a rock for everyone throughout the story (Zidane) finding out that his whole existence has been a lie, and everyone else rallies to save him the way that he saved them. It's wholesome as fuck.

See, this is something I should enjoy. On paper, it sounds so good, but when it happened in the game I just found it pathetic. I still like the idea, but it was such a short event that was over in 3 fixed battles. If Zidane had time to dwell on this, if Zidane had a personality shift for like a whole disc where he couldn't have been immediately consoled and the gang spent time fixing up Zidane after learning who he really is, I think I would have enjoyed it. I mean, his story and Vivi's became super similar and Vivi had loads of time to come to terms with who he is. Zidane gets 10 minutes and he's back to ol' Zidane. He falls in line more with the types of characters that Freya and Amarant are in that he is hardly developed. What you see is what you get with Zidane and that's pretty boring for me.

 

With I think of a character who is actually kind of similar to Zidane, not only do I think of Vivi, but Luke from Tales of the Abyss. I feel like they have such on-paper similarities but Luke is just such a better character for me. And I guess I am not a fan of 100% positive characters. I love assholes and troubled characters who do the right thing. When I play Commander Shepard make him often such an asshole but still mostly a paragon. Then there are characters like John and Authur from RDR. They aren't good men, but I enjoy making them do the right things. Or there are characters like Marcus Fenix who is constantly bitter but always steps up and gets the job done. Or shit, maybe if Zidane was more of a wiseass I would have enjoyed him, but he is basically only ever a good guy except for when talking to Steiner early on. And it's why I like Steiner over Zidane. Steiner has a good amount of traits I am looking for. Zidane only does what is right, whereas Steiner is trying to do what he thinks is right. It is a small difference, but it makes Steiner a much better character for me.

[Bacon]

Also, WHAT IN THE FUCKIN FUCK is the DEAL with being unable to swap out Zidane and having to swap out your party at NPCs or save points? What an awful decision to have been made.

[BloodyHell]

7 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I mean.. no? Even FFIX didn't have full development in all of their characters, and the cast is so much smaller. Freya had no development at all beyond her search for Crowley and then it was like "he lost his memory, he doesn't remember you," and she's like "okay, this is my life now" she that's it. FFVI does not have dynamic development at all. Locke, Celes, and Edgar are pretty much the only characters who grow and change in the story, even if you have like 20 characters you can play.

 

I guess Gau grows a lot.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think FFVI is objectively the best FF game. The reason FFIX is my favorite is because each character goes through an arc you can relate to (not including Freya and Amarant). The story of every other character is about the loss of identity and how you find it again. It gets capped by the one character who has been a rock for everyone throughout the story (Zidane) finding out that his whole existence has been a lie, and everyone else rallies to save him the way that he saved them. It's wholesome as fuck. The lesson is it's not who you are that defines you, it's what you do.

You’re just wrong. FF6 and 4 both have more fleshed out main cast.