Top 5 Characters from Final Fantasy IX.

Darkaray takes a look at the top five characters of Final Fantasy IX in his debut article for Retro Gaming Magazine.

[UltimateMaster]

They all sucked
I can't believe people saying that Final Fantasy was never bad prior to FFX because they've clearly skipped one.
It makes Final Fantasy XIII look like an amazing experience in comparison.

[Becuzisaid]

Wow, would love to hear why you hate this game so much. It's generally considered one of the absolute best final fantasies.

My top 5 characters:

Vivi
Kuja (bad design but great character)
Steiner
Freya
And for some reason I've always liked Blank

[Swiftfox]

That's odd, I don't see any real issue with Kuja's design. I would be interested in hearing why you think it's poor.

[Becuzisaid]

It just took androgynous to a whole new level. Visually he wasn't threatening at all. When he went all evil super saiyan it was better, but he never really clicked with me. I had the same problem with Seymour in ff10.

[Pozzle]

I didn't mind that Kuja was androgynous, but I hated his weird thong...dress.....thing. It's hard to take a bd guy seriously when his navel keeps staring at me.

I agree with you on Seymour too. I can look past the pretty face, the crazy hair, and even the voice....but it was hard to take him seriously in his oversized purple kimono that was knotted so low it showed off his happy-trail.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Zidane
Kuja
Vivi
Freya
Garnet
Steiner
Quina
Eiko
Random NPC

Amarant (his theme is cool though).

[Swiftfox]

I used to think very poorly of this title, and saw it as a low point of the Final Fantasy franchise. After a time though I found it to be incredibly charming, and I grew an appreciation for it. The game had a solid story with some very strong messages about life and what we do with the time we have. I enjoyed the characters and their struggles, as well. I find it's still rather under appreciated as a Final Fantasy.

The game I don't understand the popularity of today is Final Fantasy 8. Congested train-wreck of a story, bland and underdeveloped "90's" style characters, and the Junction system was an unbalanced mess. But I think everyone has a least favorite Final Fantasy~

[Becuzisaid]

Lol well I guess now I'll ask you. FF8 is one of my favorites and I loved the story. I can see once we get to disc 3 the Lunatic Pandora stuff is a bit much, but train wreck? Other than maybe the GF memory loss bit, which I'll give you is a bit lame, what makes it so bad?

[Swiftfox]

It's just rather convoluted. The give you very little to work with in terms of story pacing up until the 3rd act when suddenly they just dump everything on you all at once.

******SPOILERS AHEAD*******
I mean they give you bits and bobs but just look at the mess. You discover the former wife of your Garden leader (and former caretaker to all the lead characters #convenient) is possessed by Ultimicia, a Sorceress from the distant future who's main goal is to compress time into one singular existence for her to rule...for seemingly no reason. The lunatic pandora stuff, the moon being the soul source of all monsters for some reason, the final plan to let Rinoa be possessed to start the merger of the times only to have Squall's half sister (I think) purge Rinao to stop the merge enough so they can travel to the plain they can only exist on thanks to the power of believing in yourself and friendship. All to find out the only reason they were able to do all this was because Squall went back and time after the fight, met his care taker as an adult, and planted the idea to create an organization to fight Sorceresses after the remaining power of the defeated Ultimacia was planted within the care taker. This is a mess to me, doesn't flow, and is rather poorly told. I couldn't even get behind the characters who seem to be underdeveloped and given the back seat to this story. I mean most JRPG's follow tropes but FF8 really went out of it's way to make sure each character was a cookie cut out.

In addition: I like they didn't make Kuja look the role of villain because he was more a victim of circumstance. Even Zidiane admits he would have done the same in Kuja's place had things been reversed. It was a nice break to the rather comical "traditional design" evil characters like Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimicia, etc. You know, the villains you see the design and think "Yep. That's the bad guy." It's like their just missing a handle bar mustache to twirl. Seymour I don't enjoy simply because he seemed like he was trying too hard to be the main villain when the main villain was an entire religious organization. He's like the edgy teen who keeps saying "..but I am the MOST evil" or something.

[Becuzisaid]

"the power of believing in yourself and friendship."

This made me lol. Well when you put the story that way it does seem silly, but I still love experiencing it. I still play through the game every few years.

[burza1982]

This is Top 5 characters?
Get out!!! now!!!

[Becuzisaid]

I was ok until I saw Necron at the number 1 spot. One of the most random final bosses in all the series.

[triverse]

Tell us your top 5 then.