In this blog, I go over my recent replay of Final Fantasy IX and give it an objective analysis where I can take on a title I cherished from my childhood. While the game still holds its own, it definitely has some issues that did not stand the test of time.
The Good
The storyline is solid, and I don't really have any gripes with it. Everyone has a well-explained backstory and contributes heavily into the lore... except maybe Quina. Vivi is an incredible, tragic, but also a wonderful addition to the cast. Honestly, the worst character is probably our main protagonist Zidane.
The game improves upon its predecessors with "real time" turn based combat by allowing you opportunities to make a decision while you're hunting through the seemingly endless magic/item menus. As long as the window is open, combat is frozen, enabling you to make a decision without having to fumble through and give your opponents more free hits.
The ability system is probably one of my favorites in Final Fantasy, where you can share gear among your characters to learn a new primary or passive ability via AP earned during combat. There's a limit to what you are capable of having equipped at any given time, which adds more to the strategy (albeit most of the game can be boiled down to having two specific abilities).
The side content gives you a great sense of progression and is quite rewarding. We'll just pretend the jump rope challenge and races with Hippaul don't exist. Otherwise, there's some good stuff hiding in the world, such as surprise trivia, buried treasure, highly reflective spheres, and much more.
The Bad
Random encounters really haven't aged well simply because of the animation time. At the very least, the HD versions of the game do ship with a fast playback speed and an auto-combat mode to enable fairly brainless grinding.
Not everyone is a completionist like me, but I do also try to enjoy optional content. This game comes with its share of some very, very annoying achievements that absolutely will drive you to madness doing them legitimately. "Hail to the King" is horrible to do unless you are an expert of rhythm. Thankfully, AutoHotKey scripts exist to get you past this (both PC and PS4 versions). "Bloodlust" is also an immensely long grind to do legitimately, even taking into account an entire play-through. Lastly, "Movie Critic" should not even be as difficult as it is to unlock, as there's (at points) crucial or comedic lore that would be nice to see without having to get into incredibly specific conditions.
The card battles are horrible. Even if you manage to work out an amazing deck, you can still lose to somebody using trash cards because they somehow managed to get a 1/50 chance of destroying your 9 health 9 defense card with zeroes across the board.
Conclusion
The game overall holds up fairly well in today's gaming library despite the issues above. It is a memorable experience that I can still see myself coming back to on occasion. The added utilities that come with the HD versions make some of the dated mechanics feel more tolerable. I definitely recommend giving it a shot.