crasenex

FINAL FANTASY IX is an absolute masterpiece for me and still belongs to my personal Top 3 of the entire FINAL FANTASY series. The story captivates with surprising twists, emotional moments and an amazingly dark undertone, especially considering that the game is already released from age 6. Everything takes place in a beautiful world that could come directly from a fairy tale book. Behind this fairytale facade, the game deals with serious topics such as death, transience, identity and the question of the meaning of life. Several times while reading the text boxes, I noticed how my voice broke from sadness because the story took me so much. I would like to highlight the fantastic writing. The characters have their own personalities, which are even reflected in their language. While one speaks with Bavarian dialect, another constantly attaches an “and so” to his sentences. Others have their own vocabulary. Despite the lack of voice output, the figures seem incredibly lively and approachable. Throughout history, you build a real connection with them. I played FINAL FANTASY IX back in the early 2000s and I came back this year to finally get the platinum trophy. And what should I say? It grabbed me just as it did then. The graphics can also be seen surprisingly well for the age of the game. Although the pre-rendered backgrounds appear very pixelated and washed out compared to the sharper character models, you quickly get used to the charming graphic style. The whole thing is accompanied by the incredibly beautiful soundtrack of Nobuo Uematsu. The music contributes incredibly much to the atmosphere and manages to evoke just the right emotions in both happy and sad moments. Some melodies just stay in your memory forever. The combat system is typically classic FINAL FANTASY: slow, tactical and not fully turn-based thanks to the Active Time Battle system. I find the ability system particularly successful, in which characters can permanently learn new skills via their equipment. However, you can notice the struggles of their age. Long animations and the sometimes slow pace can be annoying. The integrated game aids such as Speedboost, maximum damage, deactivated random fights and invincibility provide a remedy. This allows virtually anyone to experience history, regardless of how much experience you have with classic JRPGs. Apart from the main story, there is also a lot to discover with the Chocobo treasure hunt, Tetra Master, optional bosses and numerous secrets. However, some of this content is so well hidden that you would hardly come across it without a guide. My conclusion: FINAL FANTASY IX is a timeless masterpiece for me. Despite some playful and technical weaknesses, it convinces with a fantastic world, lovable characters and a story that even more than 20 years later could still move me to tears. For the Platinum Trophy: Uff ... I would never do it again... But let me explain: This game has an incredible amount of missable stuff. For example, within the story there are always short insertions of extra scenes which are called “Active Time Event (ATE)”. For a trophy you have to see all of them in one passage. These things are much too easy to overlook without a guide. Here's an example: In City XY, do you first go the right path instead of the left? -> ATE is no longer coming -> Trophy missed. You don’t spend all your money for no reason at some point? -> You can pay your debt in an ATE and therefore do not get the follow-ATE -> trophy missed... In addition, there are 1000 rope jumps (for which you have to press the X button in a single pass 7.5 minutes at a time in a changing bar to jump). It may not sound difficult, but it was an ordeal for me (At the time of writing this review I am currently still on). Or kill 10,000 opponents which forces you to run in circles for over 20 hours and onehitte opponents. Despite achieving Gil (money) cap and EXP cap with all the characters, I had to invest a few more hours in this trophy. That was a real pain. Apart from the platinum, I can only recommend the game to everyone. I got to know this game completely new through the platinum and will play the other parts again. Sorry for this long review!

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