The ninth installment of the Final Fantasy series was one that eluded me for reasons I can’t really pinpoint. I remember getting a burned copy of the game on PSX around 2000–01, but having to compete with my older brother for game time left me around the Evil Forest on my first playthrough. Despite playing maybe an hour tops, FF9’s cast of characters still stood out as iconic to me. I found it very common that the few people I knew who played the game loved and treasured it dearly, so I decided now was as good a time as any to give it a shot.
During my playthrough, I was constantly amazed at how great the music was and how it matched the fantasy setting of the world of Gaia so well. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for all things that are medieval-based (think: knights, lords and ladies, kingdoms) so this one hooked me right from the get-go. The graphics and chibi-style characters were a nice change back from the very sci-fi, full-bodied style FF8. Story-wise, this one is currently in my top 3 for the FF games I’ve played. I think much of the cast endured amazing character development throughout the game’s 4 discs. From the lovable black mage Vivi Ornitier to the lively summoner Eiko Carol to even the eccentric qu Quina Quen, I felt the game ran at a wonderful pace to keep us players intrigued and interested.
I only have two real complaints with FF9. The first would be that much of the main villain’s motivation and story seemed back loaded at the end, which didn’t feel as smooth of a narrative to me. I found myself wondering a lot about his motives and that didn’t become clear until the last half of the disc 3 content. The second would be that the game’s combat system felt a little slow and clunky, especially when compared to the other PSX FF games. Pre-fight intros and ability animations seemed lengthy for many fights where enemies would die in 1 shot. Trance status triggers automatically and the inability to strategically use/plan them felt off. Some character abilities were also locked out when a character was in Trance, which led to more than a few awkward encounters.
Despite these gripes, I still found FF9 to be extremely enjoyable. I’m so glad to be able to enjoy the game 20 years after its original release. I ended up needing to do two playthroughs to Platinum the game: once for story and a second for Excalibur II. Here are some of the most memorable trophies during my runs:
To my readers who haven’t played the game yet: SPOILERS follow, so please beware!
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Movie Critic
I did plenty of research before starting my run and this trophy seemed the most unforgiving — miss just *one* ATE and I would be forced to do another playthrough. On top of that, so many of the ATEs are conditional on a sequence of events, that is, they required very specific in-game events happen in the right order to trigger. Luckily, there are plenty of great resources out there that helped me keep track of what was coming up and how to trigger it.
It’s All in the Cards III
In my first ever card match of Tetra Master, I challenged Alleyway Jack at the end of his tutorial and lost the Alexandria card I won from jump roping 1000x. I hadn’t saved the game beforehand and I wanted to throw my PS4 out the second story window. I sucked it up and luckily, I learned how to play some Tetra Master along the way. This game was nothing like FF8’s Triple Triad, which has to be my favorite FF mini-game (I think FF10’s Blitzball is a close second). Tetra Master seemed too RNG focused and too hard to be consistently good at, but I dove in a couple of guides and learned as much as I could. This trophy finally triggered somewhere in the early minutes of disc 4 and I know I gave a huge sigh of relief when it was over.
The Ultimate Mace
A good number of FF9’s treasures are found hidden somewhere on the map — whether in treasure chests or random off-screen spots. I don’t know how many everyday players would find most of them without referencing a treasure guide. Vivi’s ultimate weapon, found in a hidden Memoria corner, stood out the most to me: why did they call this staff a mace if Vivi was primarily a magic user? Was I sleeping during Greek mythology or was Zeus not a grand magician? Regardless, one thing is for certain: Vivi is 100% deserving of the legendary staff.
A-Hunting We Will Go
A fun event early in the game, the Festival of the Hunt was a great way to inject some personality behind the cast: Zidane’s brash demeanor, Freya’s quiet confidence, and even Steiner’s hilarious fondness for Vivi. The battle music for those 15 minutes was incredible and having our favorite Black Mage win the event was fun (even if I immediately reset the game after to have Freya win for the Coral Ring).
The Ultimate Sword
The infamous Excalibur II. The requirements are simple: get to the last dungeon of the game, defeat Lich in the Gate to Space room, and inspect the pillar on the right in 12 hours or less. A classic FF challenge to obtain the best sword in the game at the cost of all the story dialogue and skipping FMVs. I decided early on to do two runs, as I wanted to soak in as much of the story as possible on my first complete playthrough. For the Excalibur II run, I decided to use all of the re-release’s boosters to see how fast I could get to the Memoria spot. Three hours and 33 minutes later, Excalibur II was looted and the Platinum trophy popped.
Fun Facts
Platinum took 3 weeks, 4 days (10 Jun 2020 to 05 Jul 2020)
Game timer: 80:48:52 (first playthrough), 03:33:01 (Excal2 playthrough)
Time to Platinum: About 85 hours
I can’t believe it took me so long to play FF9, but I’m so glad that I finally did. For those of you who missed out on this PSX classic, the re-release on PS4 is only $20.99 and well worth it!
