Yes, it's finally that time. It's finally time for the blog that has been building up inside of me for quite a while, but I couldn't quite piece it together the way I wanted. Today, I have decided that enough is enough, and even if the final product leaves much to be desired, at least I did something about it.
(Note: This is mostly an opinion piece, and though I may come off a little strong at some points, it's all for good fun. I hope I do not offend anyone too much...)
Final Fantasy IX is the best Final Fantasy game of the PlayStation era.
As I duck from the many Buster Swords, Gunblades and Triple Triad cards that are currently flying toward my head, I'll try to explain why I just said what I said. You see, over the last couple of months I've read some pretty...disturbing things over the internet. They may have been opinions, but opinions or not they struck me very deep inside as ignorance.
You see, I can understand that Final Fantasy VII is the most popular and well known of the series. It has developed a huge fanbase and it deserves it; it gave new life to the RPG genre in the United States, as well as pushed the bar when it came to presentation. I also understand the love for Final Fantasy VIII, a game not much as loves as VII but has its fair share of followers. It improved on many things that Final Fantasy VII did, but failed in a couple of noticeable areas (Draw System, weak Chocobo minigame, etc). VIII had a great cast of characters and soundtrack though, so in the end most of the flaws were forgivable.
What I do not understand...is when a sequel that beats them both in mostly every way (storyline is debatable, I understand) gets shrugged off and tossed aside in many different discussions, comments and contests held by the general online community. It's heartbreaking to see the game get neglected for the silliest reasons, and all of that neglect made me want to talk about it.
Zidane detects your neglect :(
You're probably thinking to yourself "why the hell should you care what others think? If it's great then it's great!". Well, that's not good enough for Final Fantasy IX. Especially when you get some unreal sounding reasons on why IX was not "as good" as the others. Here's one that really got me going:
" FFVIII wins, IX was terrible IMO, it took a turn into a setting that was all wrong for an FF game."
My logic cried that day. For those of you that don't know, Final Fantasy IX was a return to the roots of the series, with a fantasy setting that included castles, knights, black mages, etc. It immediately told me that this person probably only played VII and VIII and had yet to experience any other. Understandable, if you just played them recently (like, within the last year or two) but there's no excuse to not play the older games yet. Most of them have been ported to different platforms many times, and you would owe it to yourself to enjoy them.
Anyway, the statements like that really got to me. I may be coming off as somewhat of an asshole FF elitist (which I don't consider myself as) but if you're gonna make a statement like that, at least back it up with something that makes sense. I'm not even gonna bother posting what he said afterwards, because it would make Vivi cry.
So, the throwing of those objects seems to have calmed down, so I'll go on to explain why I feel Final Fantasy IX is the best of the "PSone Trilogy". As soon as I dodge this Cait Sith plushie I'll move on. :: dodges :: Ahem, anyway...here I go.
Whoops, hope this isn't much of a spoiler...just was too epic to not include.
I could go on and on, but I'm guessing most of you get the point by now...if you're still reading this. I love Final Fantasy IX, and I want it to be loved as much as its brothers. I mean, there's really no good reason to pass up on this game. It's arguably Final Fantasy at its finest during that generation. Sure, you may end up liking Cloud or Squall better than Zidane, but he deserves to be made into avatars and icons just like them.
Well, as you may have figured by now, I don't really have much else to say. Seems like my mind just failed me at the moment, and I can't really add much else. Hopefully though, I got my point across. I hope everyone who hasn't yet gets a chance to play this wonderful game. Hopefully Sony will release it on the PSN so PS3 and PSP owners can experience it.
Guess that will be the end of it. Hope everyone has a good week. Smile.
Today, during a panel at CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer talked about Bethesda's latest RPG, Starfield.
Currently less people playing Starfield then Skyrim on Steam and that's after another beta patch (which still haven't fixed the inaccessible ships, broken missions and companions) so you would think the numbers would be higher. I guess that's what you get when you pay for review scores, nothing but soulless PR hype and a broken dying game with personal messages from Bethesda telling you why you're wrong for having negative views about it.
This is a new title that should be pulling Baldur's gate numbers not Skyrim numbers!!
Replies(1)Replies(2)One company just made a 69bn dollar acquisition and became the biggest publisher on all consoles, is more profitable than PS and likely generates more revenue now.
The other has a departing CEO, mass live service games, no games next year, delays, lowest D2 player count to date, spent 3.6bn on a dead studio, killed their key studio ND, and is remastering 3 year old games.
But Xbox is the one at risk, sure 😂😂
You don't know what you're talking about. After you subtract the recent $80B in acquisition expenses, the Xbox division is so deep into the red, it won't break-even on that expense alone for at least a decade---probably much longer. Xbox, having subsumed ABK, is certainly going to take in more revenue---but Xbox has operated at and will continue to operate at a loss for so long, who knows if it will ever see a net profit.
Microsoft has already paid off the Activision acquisition.
80bn is easy money for Microsoft.
"The London-based (the UK) indie games publisher and developer Kepler Interactive and Seattle -based (the US) indie games developer Ironwood Studios, are today super excited and happy to announce that their driving-survival adventure “Pacific Drive”, is coming to PC (via Steam) and Playstation (PS5 and PS4) on February 22nd, 2024." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
WildArt Studio art director goes in-depth on gameplay, character details and art design.
Good blog.
FFIX imo is greater or at least as great as all the other PSX FFs. But you always have to contend with the legion of FFVII fans that haven't played any FF before it. Hate of FFIX is proof of that imo. People complaining about the setting as atypical of the series obviously haven't played the six games before it. VII and VIII were the exceptions back then, not the standard.
Obviously, my appreciation of FFIX is personal preference, but to claim the game was empirically bad is something that makes me wonder if the other guy has ever even played it all the way through.
It strikes me to see this blog saying that you feel that your favorite FF game is sometimes shafted in the web community. I have that exact feeling for my favorite FF game. VIII.
My first FF game was FF VIII. I played VII after playing VIII and I didnt understand what the fuss was all about. I think this is due o the mechanics of FF. The items, the secrets, the chararacters, the summons, the spells, etc... are all part of the FF universe. When you play one you will feel instantly at home with the spells names, summons, items, all the lore like enemies names and the importance of a character named Cid when you play another FF game. Thats why VII is so popular IMO. It was the first who introduced the lore to most of the video games fans. It then became the higher standard people wish to be surpassed. Simply because it came first. But its just my opinion! Im sure someone will disagree.
Everyone puts VIII down because of various reasons, but one thing I have to mention and thats the Junction system.A lot of people didnt like simply because they didnt understand. They would always go there and enable AUTO junction. But, if you took the time with it, the Junction system is GREAT!!! The draw is also considered a failure in acquiring magic simply because people didnt understand the Junction system again. Magic should be dificcult to acquire otherwise people would Junction 100 DEATH to attack and always strike INSTANT DEATH blows. Some of you might not understand but fot those who do, you know how great VIII was.
My 2 cents about.
Congratulations on making an interesting and easy read.
See ya.
Q
I really enjoyed FFIX's gameplay. I like how easy it was to level up and how everyone's is unique and have their own skill sets. In FFVII and FFVIII, (with the exception of limit breaks) you can customize your characters to have whatever skills or attributes you want, which I think defeats the purpose of choosing which characters you want to use.
I wish they can bring back the huge cast of characters you can use like in FFVI, each with their unique abilities and a little character development in the storyline.
FF9 was my favorite as well, i also did enjoy 7 and 8 and 10 alot but this just was that much more special.
Great blog.
FF9 is my favorite game ever. I love that game, as simple as that. I often think about it, almost everyday in fact. What I experienced withh FF9 is something I cant explain, it has a little room in my head till the day I die I think LOL.
You guys might think Im crazy but that how carried away I was by FF9.