4.5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Final Fantasy IX.

I finally experienced the unforgettable story, characters and world of Final Fantasy IX! The game is spectacular and I understand now why it’s a favorite game to many, the themes of the game, the characters and their developments as the story evolve, and the story itself is written well everything from start to finish was fantastic! I’ll be honest as I reached the second part of the game or as it’s called in the old days Disc 2 I didn’t think this story will be memorable let alone be a favorite story of mine but my mind immediately changed the moment I reached the end of Disc 2! If you know how much I enjoyed games that deal with the themes of life, death, and one’s purpose it’s no surprise that I loved this one! The game made me very emotional and the themes of the game really resonated with me! It discusses these themes with so much care and love and the characters dealing with these hardships and how they chose to deal with the struggles really made me cry. Vivi for example he’s such a strong little guy he knew he’s dying and he still chose to live his life to the fullest and create more memories with his friends sure he’s gone now but (and as cheesy as this sounds) he’ll always be alive in the memories he left behind ☹️. Vivi aside Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Freya, Quina, Eiko, and Amarant they all became better people after their journey together they truly helped each other to be better and honestly that’s what friendship is all about! I loved all of the characters but Zidane, Dagger, and Vivi were the highlight for me because I loved Zidane willingness to always help and living in the moment, Dagger eagerness to move forward and become better after learning from her experiences, Vivi excitement to make memories with others and learn more about the world! These characters’s stories will always stay with me and I’ll never forget it. Characters aside as I said the story is really well written and the plot points were great each plot point had a great build up that payed off in the end! I can’t talk about all that and not mention Kuja now can I? I’m gonna be honest at first I didn’t like him he kinda reminded me of a protagonist I despise (Seymour 😒) but thankfully he’s nothing like him his story is really interesting and emotional and I think he’s a very well written antagonist, I found myself feeling bad for him at the end (when he first becomes Trance Kuja) because I noticed how sad he looked ☹️ I think it’s unfair that he was created for a role he never asked for and when he tried to defy that role he was considered a failure. I really am glad despite his bad actions he realized what it means to live at the end and even helped the team escape and I’m glad he gave the other Genomes hope to be who they are not who they were created to be I think that’s a nice message. After that praise you may be wondering why I didn’t give this game five stars? Well it’s because the combat system was super slow to me even with the fast feature it was still slow I don’t know if it’s just me but it’s so slow it made me hate grinding levels and AP (even though I enjoyed doing that because the gameplay itself was fun but it was slow if that makes sense) that aside I think the world made the gameplay tolerable because I enjoyed exploring! I played each mini game once or twice just to try everything and they were fine I guess it should be noted I’m not a big fan of mini games in Final Fantasy games though! Gameplay aside the soundtrack is actually really good, relaxing, and beautiful! Kuja’s final battle theme? 10/10, Melodies of Life? On repeat! Black Mage Village theme? That’s my jam! Terra theme? It’s relaxing time! The world of Final Fantasy IX is so beautiful like I was staring at my screen in amazement because of how pretty each area is! Well that’s all I wanted to talk about, what a fantastic, emotional and memorable game! 💛