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Episode 340: Final Fantasy IX (Patreon)

Published:
2020-11-20 08:01:00
Imported:
2026-06
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Back in 2000, Final Fantasy IX represented the end of an era for Square. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was seemingly on the road to becoming a hotshot Hollywood director, and the company as a whole was poised to be an entertainment monolith. But in the midst of all this excitement—and with the long-awaited PlayStation 2 having launched just weeks before—this love letter to all things Final Fantasy got lost in the shuffle. 

So how did this underdog become a beloved classic over the passing decades, and does it deserve this status? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Nadia Oxford, and Kat Bailey as the crew examines the final game of the Final Fantasy PlayStation trilogy to see how its nostalgia-infused whimsy holds up 20 years later.

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Phoequinox

I love how Kat and Nadia start having one of their trademark Blood God tangential debates while Bob tries to referee. Good times. I had hangups with FFIX's side quests and minigames that I didn't have even with gold chocobos, Earth-splitting mega bosses and 200 lightning bolts, and it loomed over me as an obsessive RPG completionist. It had VII's extremely granular extra content, but unlike VII's time wasters, these actually had clearly defined goals, but were so tedious and unpleasant that I just couldn't stomach them. I should revisit the game one of these days. Maybe I can finally outrun that little hippo bastard.

Kellen Taman

Stupid PlayOnline! So you paid $20 for our guide... go to the website and enter this code for the other half of the guide...

Guillermo Jiménez

I am pretty sure your pronunciation of Zidane is wrong, specially if they took the name from the footballer. The second syllable is supposed to be closer to the second syllable in "divan", not to rhyme with "Bane". I'm a bit surprised Kat, of all people, got it wrong. Sorry, it was driving me nuts. https://youtu.be/I-Lsib0W7nw

Guillermo Jiménez

Jeremy just said "Octopus Traveller" and honestly, I'd play that. Sounds like a great title for an Ultros solo game.

CitizenMeh

Great episode! Although there are other JRPGs that are objectively better, even within the FF series, the first disc of FFIX remains the pinnacle of the genre for me - not only because the charm is off the scale (and unmatched to date), but because it gets all the fundamentals spot on. The environments, the way it introduces character and plot, the rewards for exploration...you certainly didn't get any of that in XIII. Some other quick observations: - Some of the more striking environmental concept art was by a Swiss artist, which may account for the game's unusual atmosphere - More than anything, Garland was a nod to VI's Emperor Gestahl, particularly in respect of his fate . Also, think you guys were a little harsh on Kuja- he's the first FF villain whose nihilism actually has a logical root. - Quina might be broken, but not as much as Soul Blade. Insta-kill every non-boss enemy in the final dungeon? Sweet! - I respectfully disagree with Kat describing Ozma has a pushover. It may have low HP, but unlike every other superboss who has a set pattern you can exploit, Ozma is a whirling maelstrom of randomised death.

Dave Dalrymple

Quina is optional on Disc 1, but mandatory on Disc 2. It's funny how Blue Magic always ends up being super-powerful in the odd-numbered games (FF 5, 7, 9) but somewhat underwhelming in even-numbered games (FF 6, 8, 10).

James Krusling

Loved this one, I replayed it earlier this year on the PS4 and you guys were dead right about the load times making a huge difference, fast forwarding battles made my life so much better. Also enjoyed the talk about Steiner’s arc because I usually think of Vivi first when I play this one but Steiner really has a great story and he’s one of my faves. Also shout out to Bob for completing Chocobo hot and cold twice because I didn’t even know that was a thing until this playthrough, and I just gave up after a couple chocographs, too much of a headache haha.

PurpleComet

I played FFIX a few years after it's initial release and found it to be a bit of slog because of the load times mentioned here. God help you if you needed to walk to the Black Mage village just to buy one thing. And I found the freakish character designs off-putting. One thing you guys didn't touch on is that a lot of rare equipment can be obtained by stealing from bosses. The only problem is the success rate is extremely low. You can spend an hour just stealing with Zidane for one helm or sword. Earlier this year I replayed it on the Switch. The bonus features (fast-forward, turn off random battles, etc) are more than welcome, but it's not without its own issues. For one thing the fast-forward feature only has one setting, 4X. It would've been nice to have the option to play the game at 1.5 or 2 times speed. No matter what speed you're at you can't avoid sitting through the swirling image and black screen at the beginning of every battle. The PS1 backgrounds look fine in handheld mode, but pretty blurry on my HDTV. In the end, I came away liking the game more than I did originally, but it still ranks pretty low in FF games for me.

Michael Castleberry

I FINALLY beat this game recently, but I admit I overlooked it at the time it released. I had just moved to Milwaukee from San Diego and was pretty broke, didn't have my own Playstation at the time and recall walking through the Mayfair Mall and seeing a cardboard display thing outside EB Games with Zidane and being like "Another one? Final Fantasy VIII was like, a minute ago" At the time I was also being a hipster grouch so I was pulling the whole, "the REAL awesome Final Fantasy games were on the SNES, the Playstation games are stupid and sci fi!" so I assumed IX would be continuing that trend.

Nigel G

I watched the promo video for Moguri, and it does look really sweet. https://sites.google.com/view/moguri-mod/home It's been years since I played it, but I remember losing steam after leaving the Mist Continent. But I did come back a few years later and finished it off, making it the newest Final Fantasy game I've beaten.

Michael Flores

I remember reading from Jeremy's own site/magazine how FF9's theme of death comes up through the different characters, whether literally or figuratively. Death of identity. Death of purpose. Facing mortality and what to make of the time you have now. I think that's a big reason why this game resonates with me more than most other games in the FF series.

ramon velazquez

making me join Patreon for $5 to listen to this Podcast is the 2020 version of the playonline.com Website.