FF9 is a game that doesn’t disappoint, being a epic high fantasy adventure that takes a sci-fi twist, while also boasting a great soundtrack. This is a port of the remastered PS4 version, and while its configured for that it’s serviceable, though I’d highly recommend playing with a controller. The game does have flaws - a stupidly high encounter rate makes progressing and exploring a pain, and the numerous mini games are agonizing to play if you are chasing achievements, but I’d recommend it if you like RGPS or are a fan of the series. This review doesn’t factor in any of the available mods, which make the game more playable.

Story
FF9 starts off differently from others in the series, with you being hired to kidnap the princess while performing a play for the queen. From there it becomes a desperate race to evade capture, then slowly turns into a quest to stop countries going to war to saving the world for the disparage cast of characters, with very little mention of crystals or other staples of the series. The plot while dark is intermingled with lots of humour, which brings the tone into a much more cheerful space overall. Personal growth for all of the characters is first and foremost, with many going through an existential crisis at some point in the story though for some characters its takes an extraordinarily long time before they start to question their beliefs. I have to say I really liked the main story of FF9, it was easy enough to follow without being boring, and had plenty of twists that take it from a high fantasy setting into a sci-fi adventure without being too predictable.

Gameplay
I found the gameplay good, though the random encounter rate was high for my liking, and you are punished for being under levelled or not being prepared when going into new areas. Each playable character is locked into one of the series long standing roles eg Thief, Dragoon, Black mage ect), which makes party composition important, and for the first ½ of the game the party you have is picked for you, which leaves some characters under-levelled when you gain control of them. Each item you equip lets you assign abilities to the characters (like immunities, extra damage vs enemy type or auto cast spells), and can become a fixed, selectable skill when enough battles have been won with them (like the magic in FFV). Until you learn the skills there can be noticeable trade-off between an item with better stats and the ability you can equip. You can assign your characters to the front or back row, which affects how much physical damage they receive and take. Unused items can be merged together to make new items (which can teach new skills), and each map usually has a few hidden items that can make your life a lot easier which make exploring worth it.

Battles are usually against 1-3 enemies, though are quite frequent. Thankfully if you don’t feel like grinding the battles the port has boosters available that you can use blast through the game. These include fast forwarding, max damage or removing all encounters. If you don’t mind breaking achievements, then you can turn on god mode or max money or levels. Using the boosters (other than fast forwarding time) takes a lot of the challenge out of the game, but is great for those who just want to experience the story or are time poor. Unless aiming for achievements you won’t normally get anywhere near the max level, but there are options to auto battle to grind the AP required for unlocking abilities. A autosave feature is also now included, so transiting between screens results in a recovery point, though can cause confusion as the continue option loads the autosave, not your last saved entry (which can be newer than the autosave).

The game has plenty of side missions that can be done for extra items and achievements, but there’s no way to track them. There’s a chocobo treasure hunting game (which the speed booster makes much easier to play), a skipping game, running races, quiz contest, frog catching, moogle message delivery game as well as a slightly different card game. All of these offer different rewards and achievements, though all are optional.

Graphics
Having not played this when it came out in 2000, I can say I enjoyed the port. The FMV’s look nice, and there’s plenty of them, and can be paused or skipped if you want. Character models look better than what’s available in FF7 & FF8, though there is a decrease in the in-game FMVs which don’t look like they were updated. Max resolution size is 2560*1600, which on a 4K screen looked stretched, so windowed mode looked sharper. The battle animations take forever (there is a option to skip these) though the summons look nice. There are plenty of enemies, all with different animations, and there doesn’t seem to be too many reskins of enemies types (the end game boss gauntlet is a different story).

Music
I couldn’t name a FF game where the music is bad, and FF9 doesn’t disappoint. There are a ton of tracks, with the game incorporating 140 so there is plenty of variety. It has all the hallmarks from the series, with the chocobo song being a slower tempo and relaxing, while a few other songs from older games make appearances, along with the standard change to the battle music and main theme. A neat trick with the speed booster is that the music isn’t boosted (unlike in previous games), so while you can get through battles faster, it still sounds good. From what I’ve read some sound effects have been removed from the original, so if you are playing this for nostalgia it might be different from what you remembered.

Achievements
FF9 is another one of those time consuming, repetitive slog games where some achievements seem to have been added just to pad playtime. Things like 10,000 kills (which has returned from FF8) and mini game challenges like skipping 1000 times make this a time consuming slog, while the ATE viewer and treasure hunter make playing with a guide mandatory if you want to get the 100%. Its almost mandatory to have 2 play throughs for the required 12 speed run, though the boosters helps with that.

For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/

FF9 is a game that doesn’t disappoint, being a epic high fantasy adventure that takes a sci-fi twist, while also boasting a great soundtrack. This is a port of the remastered PS4 version, and while its configured for that it’s serviceable, though I’d highly recommend playing with a controller. The game does have flaws - a stupidly high encounter rate makes progressing and exploring a pain, and the numerous mini games are agonizing to play if you are chasing achievements, but I’d recommend it if you like RGPS or are a fan of the series. This review doesn’t factor in any of the available mods, which make the game more playable. [b]Story[/b] FF9 starts off differently from others in the series, with you being hired to kidnap the princess while performing a play for the queen. From there it becomes a desperate race to evade capture, then slowly turns into a quest to stop countries going to war to saving the world for the disparage cast of characters, with very little mention of crystals or other staples of the series. The plot while dark is intermingled with lots of humour, which brings the tone into a much more cheerful space overall. Personal growth for all of the characters is first and foremost, with many going through an existential crisis at some point in the story though for some characters its takes an extraordinarily long time before they start to question their beliefs. I have to say I really liked the main story of FF9, it was easy enough to follow without being boring, and had plenty of twists that take it from a high fantasy setting into a sci-fi adventure without being too predictable. [b]Gameplay[/b] I found the gameplay good, though the random encounter rate was high for my liking, and you are punished for being under levelled or not being prepared when going into new areas. Each playable character is locked into one of the series long standing roles eg Thief, Dragoon, Black mage ect), which makes party composition important, and for the first ½ of the game the party you have is picked for you, which leaves some characters under-levelled when you gain control of them. Each item you equip lets you assign abilities to the characters (like immunities, extra damage vs enemy type or auto cast spells), and can become a fixed, selectable skill when enough battles have been won with them (like the magic in FFV). Until you learn the skills there can be noticeable trade-off between an item with better stats and the ability you can equip. You can assign your characters to the front or back row, which affects how much physical damage they receive and take. Unused items can be merged together to make new items (which can teach new skills), and each map usually has a few hidden items that can make your life a lot easier which make exploring worth it. Battles are usually against 1-3 enemies, though are quite frequent. Thankfully if you don’t feel like grinding the battles the port has boosters available that you can use blast through the game. These include fast forwarding, max damage or removing all encounters. If you don’t mind breaking achievements, then you can turn on god mode or max money or levels. Using the boosters (other than fast forwarding time) takes a lot of the challenge out of the game, but is great for those who just want to experience the story or are time poor. Unless aiming for achievements you won’t normally get anywhere near the max level, but there are options to auto battle to grind the AP required for unlocking abilities. A autosave feature is also now included, so transiting between screens results in a recovery point, though can cause confusion as the continue option loads the autosave, not your last saved entry (which can be newer than the autosave). The game has plenty of side missions that can be done for extra items and achievements, but there’s no way to track them. There’s a chocobo treasure hunting game (which the speed booster makes much easier to play), a skipping game, running races, quiz contest, frog catching, moogle message delivery game as well as a slightly different card game. All of these offer different rewards and achievements, though all are optional. [b]Graphics[/b] Having not played this when it came out in 2000, I can say I enjoyed the port. The FMV’s look nice, and there’s plenty of them, and can be paused or skipped if you want. Character models look better than what’s available in FF7 & FF8, though there is a decrease in the in-game FMVs which don’t look like they were updated. Max resolution size is 2560*1600, which on a 4K screen looked stretched, so windowed mode looked sharper. The battle animations take forever (there is a option to skip these) though the summons look nice. There are plenty of enemies, all with different animations, and there doesn’t seem to be too many reskins of enemies types (the end game boss gauntlet is a different story). [b]Music[/b] I couldn’t name a FF game where the music is bad, and FF9 doesn’t disappoint. There are a ton of tracks, with the game incorporating 140 so there is plenty of variety. It has all the hallmarks from the series, with the chocobo song being a slower tempo and relaxing, while a few other songs from older games make appearances, along with the standard change to the battle music and main theme. A neat trick with the speed booster is that the music isn’t boosted (unlike in previous games), so while you can get through battles faster, it still sounds good. From what I’ve read some sound effects have been removed from the original, so if you are playing this for nostalgia it might be different from what you remembered. [b]Achievements[/b] FF9 is another one of those time consuming, repetitive slog games where some achievements seem to have been added just to pad playtime. Things like 10,000 kills (which has returned from FF8) and mini game challenges like skipping 1000 times make this a time consuming slog, while the ATE viewer and treasure hunter make playing with a guide mandatory if you want to get the 100%. Its almost mandatory to have 2 play throughs for the required 12 speed run, though the boosters helps with that. For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/