I'll be frank.. I LOVE this game. I love it just as much as Final Fantasy VIII despite the fact that there are clear differences between the two. This may in fact be the best game I've ever played, and it will always be a close favorite. Unlike VII and VIII, IX is a more upbeat, comical tale that doesn't exhaust its theme. Yes, there are dark parts and several enemies along the way. However, I felt myself grinning from ear to ear with the characters and feeling their pain when something terrible happened. I laughed my arse off with the dialogue and fell in love with each and every single character all over again every time I played through the game.
I like to think the main male/female protagonists in IX have reversed roles from VII and VIII's main male/female protagonists. The game's male protagonist Zidane is completely different from Cloud and Squall. He's comical, laid back and a bit of a womanizer, but is also deep and righteous at heart. Meanwhile Garnet/Dagger, the game's female protagonist, is naive and sometimes serious to a fault, suffering from massive amounts of internal conflict on numerous occasions.
The other playable characters have their own unique personalities that contribute humorously and emotionally to the story as well, but of course that's Final Fantasy for you.
The only complaint I've heard about this game is that it's "easier" than its predecessors. And while that may be true to a certain extent, it's totally worth playing through. The battle system is also very nicely set up with four characters on the battlefield instead of three. As for mastering new abilities, your characters rely on weapons and accessories that they must equip for a certain period of time before the ability can be permanently added to their list of abilities. For example, if you wield a staff that comes with the Cure spell, you're allowed to use the Cure spell as long as you wield that staff until you've earned enough points in battle to learn the move permanently. This sometimes means that you may have to equip weaker items in order to learn a new ability, but that adds to the challenge of the game. (I personally like this much better than the Materia and Draw/Junction systems.)
This is a game you don't want to miss out on. It's an under-appreciated classic that will leave you with a smile on your face, but not to a corny extent. I highly recommend it to any RPG/FF fan.
I like to think the main male/female protagonists in IX have reversed roles from VII and VIII's main male/female protagonists. The game's male protagonist Zidane is completely different from Cloud and Squall. He's comical, laid back and a bit of a womanizer, but is also deep and righteous at heart. Meanwhile Garnet/Dagger, the game's female protagonist, is naive and sometimes serious to a fault, suffering from massive amounts of internal conflict on numerous occasions.
The other playable characters have their own unique personalities that contribute humorously and emotionally to the story as well, but of course that's Final Fantasy for you.
The only complaint I've heard about this game is that it's "easier" than its predecessors. And while that may be true to a certain extent, it's totally worth playing through. The battle system is also very nicely set up with four characters on the battlefield instead of three. As for mastering new abilities, your characters rely on weapons and accessories that they must equip for a certain period of time before the ability can be permanently added to their list of abilities. For example, if you wield a staff that comes with the Cure spell, you're allowed to use the Cure spell as long as you wield that staff until you've earned enough points in battle to learn the move permanently. This sometimes means that you may have to equip weaker items in order to learn a new ability, but that adds to the challenge of the game. (I personally like this much better than the Materia and Draw/Junction systems.)
This is a game you don't want to miss out on. It's an under-appreciated classic that will leave you with a smile on your face, but not to a corny extent. I highly recommend it to any RPG/FF fan.