3.5/5 ★ – sheldoman's review of Final Fantasy IX.

While I definitely don't think this is a bad game, I have never understood the fandom for FF9. I loved FF6, 7, and 8 when they came out but when I played 9, I just never got into it in the same way. I recently replayed it and still have kind of mixed feelings. First off, I have to say that this game has an incredible art style. It's a lot more cartoony than a lot of the other FF games but in a way that's really fun. I like all of the non-human races and how just weird and silly some of the characters look. Some things feel like a blend of traditional Final Fantasy and like Spirited Away or something. It's really great. I should also mention the music in this game is really fun and together with the graphics create this kind of whimsical feel. I like the story and the characters at the beginning of the game. Zidane starts as a really fun protagonist. He's like a thief with a heart of gold who is only helping out because he's got the hots for Dagger and that's really fun for me. Vivi is adorable. Steiner is funny. Freya is pretty cool. I think the first disc is very solid and starts the story off in a fun way with all of these fun weird characters. I like the idea of learning techniques by training with weapons/armour. It does add a bit of grinding to the game but it also gives a lot of incentive to look for treasure and inspect all the shops. And the chocobo mini game is kinda fun. The battles in this game were frustrating. I feel like in most fights the enemy would get to attack 3 or 4 times before even one of my characters would get to move. It made the fights feel so slow and there were so many times when I was basically just sitting and waiting while my characters got pounded on. I also think it's ridiculous how many ways an enemy could wipe your entire party. Other than just beating your characters senseless, they could get hit with death, petrify, stop, venom, freeze, heat… like all of those can game-over the group. My biggest problem though comes in the ending. This game starts out so cute and charming and unique and the ending of this game is so generic and anime feeling. I didn't like Kuja very much and his whole big plan at the end feels dumb. I also think the twists with Zidane were a little too much and kind of ruin his character. The stuff with Dagger is pretty solid though. Vivi too. Overall, I do like this game but not as much as it seems like other people like it. I found certain moments to be really frustrating and the ending tainted it a bit for me but there are enough positives to compensate for that.