FF9 is my favorite game, full stop. Also on the equipment; what most players NEVER realize is that a characters stats go up differently at level up depending on what they have equipped when they level up. It's a core part of the Excalibur II Perfect Game challenge for the game (necessitated because you needing to get to Steiner's ultimate weapon in under 12 hours, but also get every miss-able everything along the way and max stats). And also, storytime; I met Hironobu Sakaguchi (father of Final Fantasy) at a PAX con once, and was wearing my Garnet cosplay (including white mage cloak and Tiger Racket weapon). He is on record saying that FF9 was his favorite game, and he did this adorable little gasp and pulled a surprised Pikachu when he saw me. He signed my Garnet pendant, and even though I have made a more accurate pendant for the costume now, that older pendant has a place of honor on my shelf. ALSO ALSO, two great easter eggs; there is a Parasite Eve reference in Lindblum in the synthesis shop; the shopkeeps are called Wayne and Torres, and their convo mirrors almost exactly one those two had in Parasite Eve. The second is the statue fountain inside Lindblum castle before the elevator; if you mash X in front of it, Zidane says something like "There is nowhere to insert the medal". It's a reference to Resident Evil and it's penchant for sticking medals in statues for puzzles. Also also ALSO; the best part about the story is how much it makes you care first. It lulls you in with the atmosphere and unusual-for-Final-Fantasy set up, and once you are invested and given a false sense of security with the cute style and music... BAM, Vivi black mage drama. BAM, Garnet watches her home get destroyed. BAM, PTSD-induced muteness. BAM, Freya-Frateley. BAM, the entirety of You're Not Alone and the break-the-cutie of Zidane leading up to it. It's just, wow. No FF game and in my opinion no game ever has managed to replicate that level of personal investment in the game and characters.
I absolutely love Final Fantasy IX, it's like a beautiful children's pop-up book come to life. The battles are a kinda slow and the trance gauge is flawed too, but the soundtrack is whimsical and pleasing and the characters, especially the main character Zidane are likable and relateable, and I totally love the antagonist Kuja too. The fact that the game goes back to it's founding roots makes the world and it's characters that much more inviting.😊👏💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Yo Thor, this video is 5 years old and everything but I've found your channel and been binging during quarantine Amazing stuff, love your style of video and your approach to older games with charm has me rethinking a lot of my first impressions on those titles. Anyway just wanted to say thanks for the content, and I think you'd really like Skies of Arcadia as far as JRPG's go, seems right up your alley
"Final Fantasy XIII will continue to suck, until Final Fantasy XV will suck in a completely different way, and then all of a sudden everyone will love XIII" and oh how right you were haha
@@TheGreatDanish Same for me, FF15 was more about the problems in development even after the game's release, the story itself would be actually good if u play FF15 Royal...the issue is that...well it came out 2 years after the release of the game, and the combat system still sucks for the potion spam thing. FF13 is...a huge mess, actually the trilogy, the first game wasn't completely bad, but damn the rest was awful.
@@basket073 I actually am kind of more fond of the later parts of the trillogy, even if they missteped, they tried to right the wrongs i felt were chronic in 13. And I'll give brownie points for effort in that regard. But I wont deny that the whole trillogy was a slog in one form or another.
@@TheGreatDanish I explained myself badly. From a gameplay stand-point i think 13-2 improved 13, especially for the less-linearity aspect. But from a story stand-point i think it went completely down the hill, the story of 13 even if it didn't involve me as much as 7, 10 or 9 (far from them) was centered and meant to be concluded at the end of the game itself. What came after was a huge mess, both for the plot and for the characters evolution, the dialogues became pure craziness, and i lost completely ''contact'' with the game from that point of view, that's why i didn't like 13 and i have not a great memory of it. It was ''the less FF'' of them all in my mind.
Man, this game gave me feels when i was a kid. So much feels. I'm 21 now, and i still cry when i even THINK about "You're not Alone". Damn, that fucking moment, that fucking song. I'm crying again. My favourite Final Fantasy of all time. p.s. Freya is the best waifu.
Wrists and Steepled Hats combine to make cotton robes which you can sell for the most profit, 630 gil. Always try to grab a maximum amount of one or the other when you find yourself in a shop that sells them. When you're stuck in the Black Mage village you can combine Steepled Hat and Feather Hats give you Yellow Scarves which sell for 40 gil profit. It takes a while to build up your funds, but because you don't have to go anywhere to do it it's straightforward enough.
Best of the 4 PS1 Final Fantasy games, but not the best of the series (4-6 fight over that title, 6 is considered the best of the entire series), but still a fantastic game, especially after the let down 7 and 8 were to me.
@@Bloodreign1 6 is an incredible game in it's own right and I can't fault anyone that would argue it's position as the best Final Fantasy game, but blanketly saying "6 is considered the best of the entire series" is a bit disingenuous in my opinion. 9 has a higher average critic and user Metacritic score, for example.
I have played FF series since I was a kid and I'm agree with you. I've always thought that FFVII is so freacking overrated and FF IX is so sadly underrated. And when I express my opinion to someone else, they got nuts and says that I don't know anything about JRPG or FF neither :/
Final Fantasy IX was my first Final Fantasy and it started my passion for JRPGs. You do a good job defending its ability system. I wouldlike to add one more thing that i consider symptomatic for how Final fanasy progressed after IX. Compared to the ability systems of every Final Fantasy after it, it's actually more complex because it gives you more choices. Yes, you get your abilities automatially based on your equipment. But if you don't like to grind a lot, you often are confrontd with the choice if you want to upgrade your equipment or keep it until you learned that ability.It even can be feasable to wear an equipment to a boss fight just because it gives you temporarily access to a certain ability. Add to that that you may synthesize an item linked to a powerful ability without knowing where to get a new one and you have some tough choices to begin with. Then, you can equi abilitis. Compare this to the Sphere Grid - there are not that many choices when you level up and once you unlocked a node, you always have access to it. There is no need to prepare for a challenging boss, the strategizing happens in the battle itself almost exclusively. Later games have a very fancy presentation, but tend to lack substance behind the pretty surface. And to the detractors of class systems: almost every Final Fantasy has them implied in the story. On the topic of the technology level of the setting: I like Final Fantasy 7 and 8 for what they are, but the popularity of their styles always kinda irked me. It was almost everything had to be a grimdark wasteland to be popular in the 90s. Also, it did feel like something was lost to those who started with VII. One part of Final Fantasies identity is that it explores how the existence of magic changed the settings. This was way more obvious in FF IX than in FF VII because the setting looks more distinct to the real world. Another thing I like about the setting of IX is how it handles fantasy races. There are hippo-folk who live alongside humans. Everyone is used to it and it also explains why nobody wonders why a ratfolkwoman and a guy with a monkey tail wander the streets. Together with the QTEs and the random NPC dialogue, this drives the feeling home that the world of the setting has its own identity and isn't just our world. As for the combat: I'm glad that the remaster has the option to speed up time. It's easily the biggest weakness of the game and it's worsened that there is a strong incentive to steal all items from all bosses which may take forever. Another thing I'd like to combat is that there are few fights that require special strategies. For most of the game, there is little reason to learn to play it well. That's fine for the first few hours, but for young me, this mean that I struggled with the final boss because I never bothered to learn the appropriate abilities. It's far from bad, but very weak for a Final Fantasy.
I love FFIX. I'd consider it to be my favourite of the series, next to VIII and XII. I like the story, characters, music, and the simpleness of it. Sometimes I don't want to have to think about what skills I want my characters to learn, I'm too lazy for that, so this game is great for that reason haha! Also the moogle and chocobo side-quests were fun too :-)
i got a flying chocobo in ffix but couldn't get the stupid thing to fly, had to look up to do it. how the hell are you supposed to know it'll only take off from a forest?
Sakaguchi (SAKAGUCHI) himself this is the best in the series. And I have to agree with the legend, this is the best, and the fact it wasnt nearly as popular as the rest, actually gives it a special aura.
I assure you - that's a good thing. The artstyle in more anime-y than some traditional JRPGs (is that even possible?) but the gameplay is both familiar/novel and the personality of characters/story shine thru. The folks who made this game have no problem mocking the tropes that have become cornerstone in this genre. Check it out! I suggest Disgaea 3/4/5 - they've either aged well/not at all, and they have solid portable ports if you can't be tied down!
5 is coming out (if not already) on the ps4. I played 4 and it makes grinding fun aside from the fact that only party members who destroyed a monster only gets EXP but you will get over it. There's a literal description of a weapon that says "These laws are false" and the penguins explode when you threw them. Its like playing an amine. There are anime esque previews of the next chapter. For example, theres a serious voice explaining whats about to guy then characters start saying things that has nothing to do with the plot.
I Love how your comment about how people "black sheep" perception about the franchise since VIII happens and how XIII would start to be loved around XV's launch date is accurate. So true.
i liked xiii from the start. sure 7-9 are my favorites but xiii had an interesting story and characters that kept me playing. i tried to get into xv but gave up after 20-25 hours, just couldn't get into it.
"These videos just keep getting longer... help" Oh man I know that feeling Great video as always, can't believe I missed this Final Fantasy. I'll have to check it out sometime :P Maybe it will be the first Final Fantasy I actually finish ._.;
So I was looking through my liked videos and came across this… I have no memory of writing this comment, but here I am 6 years later, and what do you know It was the first Final Fantasy game I finished :)
I didn't find FF9 grindy at all, but then I never flee from combat in RPGs because my assumption is that the encounter rate is designed to balance the game's EXP yield and such. Granted it's not always the case, but still.
I recognize the music. It's from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on GBA. I couldn't find a credit for it on the video, and not in the description, so I figured I should leave this comment.
I just beat the game. Finished with Zidane at level 86 everyone else level 65-80 and my game play time was 80+ hours. I work that the further into the game you got the more exp and ap you got but I don’t really mind level grinding lol
i have this game even today i bought it with my father for my 16 bitrthday it was brand new then verry good memories but i mostly remember it because i got to go with my dad together
Sounds like you’re making this video in response to haters of this game. I was around when this game came out and I do not remember any haters. Then again I didn’t use Internet or read the review boards back then. I played every final fantasy game and was alive for all of them. This one is easily top 3
Game has been completely rebalanced with a patch, it's on steam, Alternate Fantasy, now it's an extremely good and fun, balanced RPG. Also for the love of god play with the mogurimod on, it's like an actual HD remaster.
Final Fantasy IX è uno dei miei RPG preferiti e rigiocabili insieme al mitico F.F. VII. Provate questo piccolo capolavoro di arte e poesia. Ne vale la pena, se amate i RPG.
Binging your content has brought me inner peace... and a frustratingly long ff13 replay (which... im enjoying? I miss towns tho.. so im playing ff13-2 alongside it lol)
Great game! People enjoy standard JRPG's with turn based combat, i can respect Square for trying to mix things up and try new things but the combat in FF13 is absolute garbage and it doesn't even feel like you're controlling the game half of the time. FF15 looks like a really lame DMC or Dark Souls.
Yeah I think I mentioned of few times how I was a bit tired of JRPG mechanics and stuff. Truth be told, the only reason why that was, was because I played all FF13 games, and both Golden Sun games back to back. Probably not a good idea. I'm fine with it now though. I still would've preferred it if the encounter rate was a bit lower, but I'd pick something more traditional over FF13's combat any day.
nice upload man :) I frickin loved pretty much every ff title up intil 12. I liked 12 now dont get me wrong but it never hooked me the way the previous ones did. It was the first that felt like a bit of a slog to get through for me after the halfway point. Still good though and I loved the vagrant story vibes I got from it here and there. 13 was poor imo and 15 I didn't even purchase until the newest all dlc included edition on steam went on sale lol.
Well 15 came out......... It doesn’t suck but it sucks as a Final Fantasy buuuut 13 is still far worse. 15 is fun to play and has tons to explore and the characters aren’t completely unlikable or annoying. 13 is just bad.
I feel like that as time goes on this game has been quite re-evaluated. It is quite clearly the best in the series but the general consensus has only catched up to this idea in recent years, which is a proof in itself that the game is so damn good that it stood the test of time, unlike FFVII which has aged not horribly but.. it has aged.
The FF XIII trilogy never found a fanbase 5 years after this. It´s black sheep. XIII-2 is alright though. FF II ain´t good though. The same goes for FF XIV 1.0.
This will always be my absolute favorite in the series. I ritualistically play this game once every year and I've been doing that for like 15 years now. I adore the characters (except for Freya, I still hate her), the soundtrack is the best in the series, and the world is gorgeous. There's little chance of it ever happening, but I hope one day Square Enix makes a proper HD remake of this game. And if they do, hopefully they'll speed up the battle system. And fix that stupid chocograph bullshit where you have to be pixel-perfect when you hit the ground. Having to incrementally move around while your chocobo keeps yelling KWEEEEEEEH?! because you didn't peck in just the right spot is absolutely infuriating.
So glad this game gets more and more recognition nowadays. That way, I can go full hipster-mode and say that I liked it before it was cool. It had likeable characters, yet most of them had a depp and complex development that made it possible to empathize with them. The villain was the best in the entire series, since his descend intzo madness was psychologically believable and not a simple "Well, he iz mad so he can do crazy things in order for you to have a final boss"-bullshit. Heck, even Quina, despite me hating his/her design, is a great character and resembles the human pursuit for happyness and curiosity. And also, it didn't have Amanos ugly-as-fuck or Nomuras Emo-artwork as a basis. Fuck those 2. Especially Nomura. I'm never going to understand how anyone is willing to make him a director. That dude is a fucking fanfic-writer, judging by the made-up-as-they-go story of Kingdom Hearts.
MasterJay Even though I like most of 'em. I totally know where you're coming from. Shits getting a little bit outta hand, with some numbered FF games even spinning off in to their own series. I'm in to deep too back out now, but by all means stay the fuck away from this cesspool of vomit while you still can!
***** Although I like FF VII I do agree that it was, and is, super overrated, but not only that isn't there loads more games that only came out in Japan? not that I care anyway fuck the establishment or something.
+MasterJay IX Isn't complete bullshit like some of the newest ones. I recommend playing atleast up to 9, as you missed out on a game that combines many classic FF games, then adds an immense amount of polish.
the skill system might be "too strict" (I sas always hyped when I got new equipment, so I liked it), but it was way less chaotic than FF X's. if ypu play long enough you get all characters with the same skills and only different stats. I don't particularly appreciate that side effect.
If everyone is calling IX underrated it's not underrated. If everyone is calling VII overrated it's not overrated. VII barely even tops any lists anymore,hell it's rare to see it in top five anymore. As much as I love IX the people who find it the best have annoying persecution complexes. Go whine to a fan of V or XI that IX is the underrated one. Then IX gets re released constantly unlike VIII so you also have that.
3:45 Uh no, Garnet definitely fits the emo vibe, people can rant all they want about Cloud and Squall but the person that truly takes the cake for wangst.
Not... really? Having replayed it recently with the release of the remastered version on PS4, she never behaves overly despondent or melodramatic. There's a single instance where she questions if certain bad things that happened are all her fault, but she snaps herself out of it quickly. The main issue with Dagger isn't so much that she's emo or wangsting about a lot, but that she can be kind of weak at times. Especially with that forced mute plot development in Disc 3.
True but those things take time. I also didn't mean that people will end up loving 13 en masse, but every entry will end up polarizing the fan base further, just through being different in some way. And when that happens, some tend to reflect back on what came before it, like "well at least it wasn't THAT bad". It happend with Metal Gear Solid 4 after Peace Walker and MGSV came out, and public opinion on FF12 also changed in a similar way. Plus, some people will have grown up with 13 as well. It sold quite well and those people will start sharing their views sooner or later too. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere during the next decade, the FFXIII Apologists Force will gain the upper hand.
This game is awesome, my second favorite in the franchise. About XIII, i think is the only ff that deserves the hate it receives. The most underrated are IMO, XII, VIII and tactics advance. Anyway, this is about prefference.
I'm playing right now and....it sucks like all other ff games before... I also suck for having the need to play this series just because is famous...while. Give me no joy at all
The Plot's (and the games) biggest issue is there seems to be little to no connective tissue between its beats and the whole edilons* plot is completely pointless ruins the whole game for me , tho characters are good and mostly have arch's
My main gripe with 9 is half the chars suck. Quina, Eiko, Amarant...they're boring and weird and ugly and weird. The battles are seriously so slow. The music is mostly good and char dialogue is actually really good, maybe the best in the series. To date, ive only finished the game once and that was right after it released in NA.
Beat the game twice, can't remember anything interesting about the game, other than the sad rpg element. Maybe this was the first mobile game on console.
Mentioning KHII in one sentence with "best JRPGs of all time" is more than laughable, even if we consider this a statement of personal opinion. It does barely have anything in common with traditional JRPGs. Its "story" is ridiculously bad and nothing more than pseudo profound gibberish about "light" "dark" "heartless" etc. Its battle system is minimalistic even for an action RPG. It is highly linear, in fact its linearity surpasses the first entry in the series by far. Even if I like KHII (not as much as 1 though) from a very nostalgic point of view I have to admit that it is not that good and definitely not anywhere near the best JRPGs of all time.
felix8709 That's not what I said though. It isn't the "best JRPGs of all time", nor have I said that anywhere in the video. I said that FF9 is PROBABLY the best the genre has to offer, and that, in terms of it ranking among my favorites, it's a four way tie with a hand full of other games. KHII is one of those games, as I like it a lot for personal reasons. I don't disagree with what you said though, the KH series is the biggest "love hate" I have when it comes to games, and it's certainly starting to lean more towards hate the more I think about it.
KH2's battle system isn't really that minimalistic. The problem was that the enemy A.I. was so buttfucking stupid that the various tools at your disposal were generally not worth utilizing. But to its credit, the tools ARE there to play with and complement your basic combat strings. KH2FM+ manage to throw in the Critical mode difficulty to try and encourage more use out of them, but even then, it's not that much harder so people still probably wouldn't bother utilizing offensive and defensive magic, summons, and so forth.
![So I've Been Playing: FINAL FANTASY XII [ Review PS2 ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1p8mMtx9lQU/mqdefault.jpg)
![So I've Been Playing: FINAL FANTASY XII [ Review PS2 ]](/img/tr.png)
![So I've Been Playing: NO MORE HEROES HEROES' PARADISE [ Review PS3 ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_PJSBmgb9MU/mqdefault.jpg)
FF9 is my favorite game, full stop. Also on the equipment; what most players NEVER realize is that a characters stats go up differently at level up depending on what they have equipped when they level up. It's a core part of the Excalibur II Perfect Game challenge for the game (necessitated because you needing to get to Steiner's ultimate weapon in under 12 hours, but also get every miss-able everything along the way and max stats). And also, storytime; I met Hironobu Sakaguchi (father of Final Fantasy) at a PAX con once, and was wearing my Garnet cosplay (including white mage cloak and Tiger Racket weapon). He is on record saying that FF9 was his favorite game, and he did this adorable little gasp and pulled a surprised Pikachu when he saw me. He signed my Garnet pendant, and even though I have made a more accurate pendant for the costume now, that older pendant has a place of honor on my shelf. ALSO ALSO, two great easter eggs; there is a Parasite Eve reference in Lindblum in the synthesis shop; the shopkeeps are called Wayne and Torres, and their convo mirrors almost exactly one those two had in Parasite Eve. The second is the statue fountain inside Lindblum castle before the elevator; if you mash X in front of it, Zidane says something like "There is nowhere to insert the medal". It's a reference to Resident Evil and it's penchant for sticking medals in statues for puzzles. Also also ALSO; the best part about the story is how much it makes you care first. It lulls you in with the atmosphere and unusual-for-Final-Fantasy set up, and once you are invested and given a false sense of security with the cute style and music... BAM, Vivi black mage drama. BAM, Garnet watches her home get destroyed. BAM, PTSD-induced muteness. BAM, Freya-Frateley. BAM, the entirety of You're Not Alone and the break-the-cutie of Zidane leading up to it. It's just, wow. No FF game and in my opinion no game ever has managed to replicate that level of personal investment in the game and characters.
lol click on a random video and recognize the first person in the comments
@@failmore2580 OH SHEET XD
Ff7 > ff9
you know periods function as full stops these days
MY cosplay lol
I absolutely love Final Fantasy IX, it's like a beautiful children's pop-up book come to life. The battles are a kinda slow and the trance gauge is flawed too, but the soundtrack is whimsical and pleasing and the characters, especially the main character Zidane are likable and relateable, and I totally love the antagonist Kuja too. The fact that the game goes back to it's founding roots makes the world and it's characters that much more inviting.😊👏💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
I can't hear that "clank clank clank" without thinking about Steiner, I think you're right about the sound design.
Yo Thor, this video is 5 years old and everything but I've found your channel and been binging during quarantine Amazing stuff, love your style of video and your approach to older games with charm has me rethinking a lot of my first impressions on those titles. Anyway just wanted to say thanks for the content, and I think you'd really like Skies of Arcadia as far as JRPG's go, seems right up your alley
"emo, androgenous male characters"
> shows images of Barret, Sazh, and Tonberry.
You are a master of wielding the weapon of What The Fuck
The style and music of 9 is so beautiful.
"Final Fantasy XIII will continue to suck, until Final Fantasy XV will suck in a completely different way, and then all of a sudden everyone will love XIII"
and oh how right you were haha
Well actually no, people still hate FF13 :D
@@basket073 Pretty much. I dislike 15 but in a "eh, not for me" kinda way, but I still think 13 is fundamentally flawed in a plethora of ways.
@@TheGreatDanish Same for me, FF15 was more about the problems in development even after the game's release, the story itself would be actually good if u play FF15 Royal...the issue is that...well it came out 2 years after the release of the game, and the combat system still sucks for the potion spam thing.
FF13 is...a huge mess, actually the trilogy, the first game wasn't completely bad, but damn the rest was awful.
@@basket073 I actually am kind of more fond of the later parts of the trillogy, even if they missteped, they tried to right the wrongs i felt were chronic in 13. And I'll give brownie points for effort in that regard. But I wont deny that the whole trillogy was a slog in one form or another.
@@TheGreatDanish I explained myself badly.
From a gameplay stand-point i think 13-2 improved 13, especially for the less-linearity aspect.
But from a story stand-point i think it went completely down the hill, the story of 13 even if it didn't involve me as much as 7, 10 or 9 (far from them) was centered and meant to be concluded at the end of the game itself.
What came after was a huge mess, both for the plot and for the characters evolution, the dialogues became pure craziness, and i lost completely ''contact'' with the game from that point of view, that's why i didn't like 13 and i have not a great memory of it.
It was ''the less FF'' of them all in my mind.
Man, this game gave me feels when i was a kid. So much feels.
I'm 21 now, and i still cry when i even THINK about "You're not Alone". Damn, that fucking moment, that fucking song.
I'm crying again.
My favourite Final Fantasy of all time.
p.s. Freya is the best waifu.
The ATEs were totally cribbed from Star Ocean. Not complaining. They were a genius stroke that I wish more RPGs from the era embraced.
Wrists and Steepled Hats combine to make cotton robes which you can sell for the most profit, 630 gil. Always try to grab a maximum amount of one or the other when you find yourself in a shop that sells them.
When you're stuck in the Black Mage village you can combine Steepled Hat and Feather Hats give you Yellow Scarves which sell for 40 gil profit. It takes a while to build up your funds, but because you don't have to go anywhere to do it it's straightforward enough.
Best Final Fantasy in the series, And my Favorite game of all time.
Best of the 4 PS1 Final Fantasy games, but not the best of the series (4-6 fight over that title, 6 is considered the best of the entire series), but still a fantastic game, especially after the let down 7 and 8 were to me.
One of mine as well!
@@Bloodreign1 6 is an incredible game in it's own right and I can't fault anyone that would argue it's position as the best Final Fantasy game, but blanketly saying "6 is considered the best of the entire series" is a bit disingenuous in my opinion. 9 has a higher average critic and user Metacritic score, for example.
I have played FF series since I was a kid and I'm agree with you. I've always thought that FFVII is so freacking overrated and FF IX is so sadly underrated. And when I express my opinion to someone else, they got nuts and says that I don't know anything about JRPG or FF neither :/
My theory is that FFVII is so beloved for nostalgia reasons: It reminds people of the Fisher Price and Lego Duplo toys they played with as a child 😂
Final Fantasy IX was my first Final Fantasy and it started my passion for JRPGs.
You do a good job defending its ability system. I wouldlike to add one more thing that i consider symptomatic for how Final fanasy progressed after IX. Compared to the ability systems of every Final Fantasy after it, it's actually more complex because it gives you more choices. Yes, you get your abilities automatially based on your equipment. But if you don't like to grind a lot, you often are confrontd with the choice if you want to upgrade your equipment or keep it until you learned that ability.It even can be feasable to wear an equipment to a boss fight just because it gives you temporarily access to a certain ability. Add to that that you may synthesize an item linked to a powerful ability without knowing where to get a new one and you have some tough choices to begin with. Then, you can equi abilitis. Compare this to the Sphere Grid - there are not that many choices when you level up and once you unlocked a node, you always have access to it. There is no need to prepare for a challenging boss, the strategizing happens in the battle itself almost exclusively.
Later games have a very fancy presentation, but tend to lack substance behind the pretty surface.
And to the detractors of class systems: almost every Final Fantasy has them implied in the story.
On the topic of the technology level of the setting: I like Final Fantasy 7 and 8 for what they are, but the popularity of their styles always kinda irked me. It was almost everything had to be a grimdark wasteland to be popular in the 90s. Also, it did feel like something was lost to those who started with VII. One part of Final Fantasies identity is that it explores how the existence of magic changed the settings. This was way more obvious in FF IX than in FF VII because the setting looks more distinct to the real world.
Another thing I like about the setting of IX is how it handles fantasy races. There are hippo-folk who live alongside humans. Everyone is used to it and it also explains why nobody wonders why a ratfolkwoman and a guy with a monkey tail wander the streets. Together with the QTEs and the random NPC dialogue, this drives the feeling home that the world of the setting has its own identity and isn't just our world.
As for the combat: I'm glad that the remaster has the option to speed up time. It's easily the biggest weakness of the game and it's worsened that there is a strong incentive to steal all items from all bosses which may take forever.
Another thing I'd like to combat is that there are few fights that require special strategies. For most of the game, there is little reason to learn to play it well. That's fine for the first few hours, but for young me, this mean that I struggled with the final boss because I never bothered to learn the appropriate abilities. It's far from bad, but very weak for a Final Fantasy.
I love FFIX. I'd consider it to be my favourite of the series, next to VIII and XII.
I like the story, characters, music, and the simpleness of it. Sometimes I don't want to have to think about what skills I want my characters to learn, I'm too lazy for that, so this game is great for that reason haha!
Also the moogle and chocobo side-quests were fun too :-)
i got a flying chocobo in ffix but couldn't get the stupid thing to fly, had to look up to do it. how the hell are you supposed to know it'll only take off from a forest?
Sakaguchi (SAKAGUCHI) himself this is the best in the series.
And I have to agree with the legend, this is the best, and the fact it wasnt nearly as popular as the rest, actually gives it a special aura.
Given you sentiments on grinding, I highly recommend avoiding the Disgaea series!
It looks so funky though!
I assure you - that's a good thing. The artstyle in more anime-y than some traditional JRPGs (is that even possible?) but the gameplay is both familiar/novel and the personality of characters/story shine thru. The folks who made this game have no problem mocking the tropes that have become cornerstone in this genre. Check it out!
I suggest Disgaea 3/4/5 - they've either aged well/not at all, and they have solid portable ports if you can't be tied down!
5 is coming out (if not already) on the ps4. I played 4 and it makes grinding fun aside from the fact that only party members who destroyed a monster only gets EXP but you will get over it. There's a literal description of a weapon that says "These laws are false" and the penguins explode when you threw them. Its like playing an amine. There are anime esque previews of the next chapter. For example, theres a serious voice explaining whats about to guy then characters start saying things that has nothing to do with the plot.
I Love how your comment about how people "black sheep" perception about the franchise since VIII happens and how XIII would start to be loved around XV's launch date is accurate.
So true.
i liked xiii from the start. sure 7-9 are my favorites but xiii had an interesting story and characters that kept me playing. i tried to get into xv but gave up after 20-25 hours, just couldn't get into it.
I love ff9! One of my favorite games in the franchise right next to Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 7 and a bit Final Fantasy 6.
I had a lot of fun with this game. Would probably love it more if the cast had better all around development. Freya deserved better than she got.
"These videos just keep getting longer... help" Oh man I know that feeling
Great video as always, can't believe I missed this Final Fantasy. I'll have to check it out sometime :P Maybe it will be the first Final Fantasy I actually finish ._.;
So I was looking through my liked videos and came across this…
I have no memory of writing this comment, but here I am 6 years later, and what do you know
It was the first Final Fantasy game I finished :)
I didn't find FF9 grindy at all, but then I never flee from combat in RPGs because my assumption is that the encounter rate is designed to balance the game's EXP yield and such. Granted it's not always the case, but still.
I recognize the music.
It's from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on GBA.
I couldn't find a credit for it on the video, and not in the description, so I figured I should leave this comment.
LOL. "FF12 is a single player MMO". That describes Reckoning: Kingdoms of Alamour perfectly.
I appreciate the careful pronunciation of “Ff-nine”
I just beat the game. Finished with Zidane at level 86 everyone else level 65-80 and my game play time was 80+ hours. I work that the further into the game you got the more exp and ap you got but I don’t really mind level grinding lol
I got weirded out by zidanes tail about 8 hours in and stopped playing it for some reason. Plan on coming back to it sometime
I think hiding optional bosses in many places to give a reason to grind but not an obligation to would be nice.
9 its the creator of final fantasy's favourite final fantasy
❤❤❤❤
i have this game even today i bought it with my father for my 16 bitrthday it was brand new then verry good memories but i mostly remember it because i got to go with my dad together
Sounds like you’re making this video in response to haters of this game. I was around when this game came out and I do not remember any haters. Then again I didn’t use Internet or read the review boards back then. I played every final fantasy game and was alive for all of them. This one is easily top 3
Game has been completely rebalanced with a patch, it's on steam, Alternate Fantasy, now it's an extremely good and fun, balanced RPG.
Also for the love of god play with the mogurimod on, it's like an actual HD remaster.
Final Fantasy IX è uno dei miei RPG preferiti e rigiocabili insieme al mitico F.F. VII. Provate questo piccolo capolavoro di arte e poesia. Ne vale la pena, se amate i RPG.
Binging your content has brought me inner peace... and a frustratingly long ff13 replay (which... im enjoying? I miss towns tho.. so im playing ff13-2 alongside it lol)
Great game! People enjoy standard JRPG's with turn based combat, i can respect Square for trying to mix things up and try new things but the combat in FF13 is absolute garbage and it doesn't even feel like you're controlling the game half of the time. FF15 looks like a really lame DMC or Dark Souls.
Yeah I think I mentioned of few times how I was a bit tired of JRPG mechanics and stuff. Truth be told, the only reason why that was, was because I played all FF13 games, and both Golden Sun games back to back. Probably not a good idea. I'm fine with it now though. I still would've preferred it if the encounter rate was a bit lower, but I'd pick something more traditional over FF13's combat any day.
nice upload man :) I frickin loved pretty much every ff title up intil 12. I liked 12 now dont get me wrong but it never hooked me the way the previous ones did. It was the first that felt like a bit of a slog to get through for me after the halfway point. Still good though and I loved the vagrant story vibes I got from it here and there. 13 was poor imo and 15 I didn't even purchase until the newest all dlc included edition on steam went on sale lol.
Well 15 came out......... It doesn’t suck but it sucks as a Final Fantasy buuuut 13 is still far worse. 15 is fun to play and has tons to explore and the characters aren’t completely unlikable or annoying. 13 is just bad.
best in the series ;)
I feel like that as time goes on this game has been quite re-evaluated.
It is quite clearly the best in the series but the general consensus has only catched up to this idea in recent years, which is a proof in itself that the game is so damn good that it stood the test of time, unlike FFVII which has aged not horribly but.. it has aged.
The FF XIII trilogy never found a fanbase 5 years after this. It´s black sheep. XIII-2 is alright though.
FF II ain´t good though. The same goes for FF XIV 1.0.
This will always be my absolute favorite in the series. I ritualistically play this game once every year and I've been doing that for like 15 years now. I adore the characters (except for Freya, I still hate her), the soundtrack is the best in the series, and the world is gorgeous. There's little chance of it ever happening, but I hope one day Square Enix makes a proper HD remake of this game.
And if they do, hopefully they'll speed up the battle system. And fix that stupid chocograph bullshit where you have to be pixel-perfect when you hit the ground. Having to incrementally move around while your chocobo keeps yelling KWEEEEEEEH?! because you didn't peck in just the right spot is absolutely infuriating.
So glad this game gets more and more recognition nowadays. That way, I can go full hipster-mode and say that I liked it before it was cool. It had likeable characters, yet most of them had a depp and complex development that made it possible to empathize with them. The villain was the best in the entire series, since his descend intzo madness was psychologically believable and not a simple "Well, he iz mad so he can do crazy things in order for you to have a final boss"-bullshit.
Heck, even Quina, despite me hating his/her design, is a great character and resembles the human pursuit for happyness and curiosity.
And also, it didn't have Amanos ugly-as-fuck or Nomuras Emo-artwork as a basis. Fuck those 2. Especially Nomura. I'm never going to understand how anyone is willing to make him a director. That dude is a fucking fanfic-writer, judging by the made-up-as-they-go story of Kingdom Hearts.
MoreImbaThanYou hard agree on everything except Amano, I love his artstyle
great review! :D
+lurifax321 Thanks!
You predicted the future
How many have there been now? 15? ugh I stopped at VIII.
MasterJay Even though I like most of 'em. I totally know where you're coming from. Shits getting a little bit outta hand, with some numbered FF games even spinning off in to their own series. I'm in to deep too back out now, but by all means stay the fuck away from this cesspool of vomit while you still can!
***** Although I like FF VII I do agree that it was, and is, super overrated, but not only that isn't there loads more games that only came out in Japan? not that I care anyway fuck the establishment or something.
MasterJay Yeah, in a typically racist fashion, Square often decides us filthy round eyes simply aren't worthy. And fuck the establishment indeed.
+MasterJay IX Isn't complete bullshit like some of the newest ones. I recommend playing atleast up to 9, as you missed out on a game that combines many classic FF games, then adds an immense amount of polish.
I liked FF12 and FF6 better. Don't get me wrong: FF9 was a spectacular game.
the skill system might be "too strict" (I sas always hyped when I got new equipment, so I liked it), but it was way less chaotic than FF X's. if ypu play long enough you get all characters with the same skills and only different stats. I don't particularly appreciate that side effect.
nailed it
I promised its my final shit. But it just keeps pouring out man.
Kirby C And they don't even wipe
3:35 I died! XD
Cotton robe trick
I like this game too, I played ffix and it reminds me of ffv and that was awesome! Pls play ffv
After I've watched this I just can say something: I love you.
But, btw, you didn't let Kuja appear not even for a second there 8(
Thought the same. But then again, Kuja basically steals every scene he is in. Tough competition.
Masterpiece!
For me that have played IV, V and VI. IX is way more final fantasy than VII and VIII
If everyone is calling IX underrated it's not underrated. If everyone is calling VII overrated it's not overrated. VII barely even tops any lists anymore,hell it's rare to see it in top five anymore. As much as I love IX the people who find it the best have annoying persecution complexes. Go whine to a fan of V or XI that IX is the underrated one. Then IX gets re released constantly unlike VIII so you also have that.
Yeah, I dunno getting a full blown remake on a modern home console kind of disagrees with this.
No love for FFX?
All the love for FFX :)
3:45
Uh no, Garnet definitely fits the emo vibe, people can rant all they want about Cloud and Squall but the person that truly takes the cake for wangst.
Not... really? Having replayed it recently with the release of the remastered version on PS4, she never behaves overly despondent or melodramatic. There's a single instance where she questions if certain bad things that happened are all her fault, but she snaps herself out of it quickly. The main issue with Dagger isn't so much that she's emo or wangsting about a lot, but that she can be kind of weak at times. Especially with that forced mute plot development in Disc 3.
2:05 I think people still hate 13 a lot more than 15.
True but those things take time. I also didn't mean that people will end up loving 13 en masse, but every entry will end up polarizing the fan base further, just through being different in some way. And when that happens, some tend to reflect back on what came before it, like "well at least it wasn't THAT bad". It happend with Metal Gear Solid 4 after Peace Walker and MGSV came out, and public opinion on FF12 also changed in a similar way. Plus, some people will have grown up with 13 as well. It sold quite well and those people will start sharing their views sooner or later too. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere during the next decade, the FFXIII Apologists Force will gain the upper hand.
stopped going to /v/ and made your homepage /r9k/.
I'm not nearly suicidal enough for r9k
Dragoon I like you
4 way tie doesn't include chrono trigger.... how high are you, man?
chrono cross better
nope
nope yea
FF IX is the best.
This one is my favorite :3
This game is awesome, my second favorite in the franchise. About XIII, i think is the only ff that deserves the hate it receives. The most underrated are IMO, XII, VIII and tactics advance. Anyway, this is about prefference.
Tactics advance was my first FF game.
I'm playing right now and....it sucks like all other ff games before... I also suck for having the need to play this series just because is famous...while. Give me no joy at all
Play final fantasy 1 plz
Crybaby daddy issues I'm crying
So is vivi a female or no?
The Plot's (and the games) biggest issue is there seems to be little to no connective tissue between its beats and the whole edilons* plot is completely pointless ruins the whole game for me , tho characters are good and mostly have arch's
Nah bra..15..is kinda good...13 still sucks and will continue to suck till loot boxes
My main gripe with 9 is half the chars suck. Quina, Eiko, Amarant...they're boring and weird and ugly and weird. The battles are seriously so slow. The music is mostly good and char dialogue is actually really good, maybe the best in the series. To date, ive only finished the game once and that was right after it released in NA.
Beat the game twice, can't remember anything interesting about the game, other than the sad rpg element. Maybe this was the first mobile game on console.
Naw the series died after 10 IMO
Sakaguchi has poor taste.
Mentioning KHII in one sentence with "best JRPGs of all time" is more than laughable, even if we consider this a statement of personal opinion. It does barely have anything in common with traditional JRPGs. Its "story" is ridiculously bad and nothing more than pseudo profound gibberish about "light" "dark" "heartless" etc. Its battle system is minimalistic even for an action RPG. It is highly linear, in fact its linearity surpasses the first entry in the series by far. Even if I like KHII (not as much as 1 though) from a very nostalgic point of view I have to admit that it is not that good and definitely not anywhere near the best JRPGs of all time.
felix8709 That's not what I said though. It isn't the "best JRPGs of all time", nor have I said that anywhere in the video. I said that FF9 is PROBABLY the best the genre has to offer, and that, in terms of it ranking among my favorites, it's a four way tie with a hand full of other games. KHII is one of those games, as I like it a lot for personal reasons. I don't disagree with what you said though, the KH series is the biggest "love hate" I have when it comes to games, and it's certainly starting to lean more towards hate the more I think about it.
***** Ok I did not pay enough attentieon I guess. I can totally understand what you say.
felix8709 It's alright. I probably could've written it a bit better.
***** Your reviews are great nevertheless and I appreciate your work very much!
KH2's battle system isn't really that minimalistic. The problem was that the enemy A.I. was so buttfucking stupid that the various tools at your disposal were generally not worth utilizing. But to its credit, the tools ARE there to play with and complement your basic combat strings. KH2FM+ manage to throw in the Critical mode difficulty to try and encourage more use out of them, but even then, it's not that much harder so people still probably wouldn't bother utilizing offensive and defensive magic, summons, and so forth.
New Dante sucks for reals