Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX is the ninth installment in the Final Fantasy series, released by Square in 2000. It is directed by Hiroyuki Ito and co-produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Shinji Hashimoto. It is the third and last Final Fantasy in the main series to be produced for the PlayStation. Unlike Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX was not immediately ported to the PC. A Steam version was released on the 14th of April 2016. On April 2nd, 2010, it was announced on Twitter that Final Fantasy IX would be added to the PlayStation Network, and was released for PSN on May 20th, 2010 for Japanese players, May 26th, 2010 for European and Australian players, and on June 15, 2010 for North American players.

After two Final Fantasy installments that featured an increasing sci-fi slant, Final Fantasy IX was intended to return the series, at least temporarily, to its more fantasy-oriented roots. The characters, who had been depicted in an increasingly realistic fashion in previous Final Fantasy games, were deliberately rendered more cartoonish. Among the most notable Final Fantasy traditions is the presence of black mages, represented foremost by the playable party member Vivi.

Final Fantasy IX was announced and developed in tandem with Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XI. This three-pronged marketing effort was intended to provide gamers with the promise of three upcoming games of varied style and gameplay: an intentionally retro RPG in Final Fantasy IX, a smoother evolution in style and design in Final Fantasy X, and an online experience in Final Fantasy XI.

On December 31, 2015 Square Enix announced the game will be ported to iOS, Microsoft Windows via Steam, and Android. This version was later ported to PlayStation 4 on September 19, 2017. These newer ports (most notably on the PS4) introduced multiple new glitches and code errors, including some attacks displaying without the right animations and sounds, and also a music loop glitch that causes the music to restart after each random battle.

Gameplay
In the field, the player typically controls the main character, Zidane. When he passes a point of interest, a ! or ? bubble appears above his head, and the player can press to interact with the object. As the game progresses, different methods of traveling across the world become available, such as chocobo, boat and airship.

Levels and abilities
Party members level up by accumulating experience points from regular enemies; bosses yield no EXP. New abilities are learned by equipping an item that can teach it and gaining ability points to learn it permanently, reminiscent of the esper system in Final Fantasy VI. However, in Final Fantasy IX abilities can be used even before they have been learned.

Abilities can be learned faster by equipping multiple pieces of equipment that teach the same ability; e.g. Zidane will learn Long Reach twice as fast if he equips both Thief Hat and Protect Ring simultaneously. The effect is boosted further by using the Ability Up ability.

There are two types of abilities: "Action" and "Support". Action abilities include techniques like magic, weapon skills and calling eidolons. Support abilities have beneficial passive effects, such as resistance against status effects and increased damage to certain enemy types.

A limited amount of support abilities can be equipped at one time, governed by Magic Stones. Each support ability requires a certain number of Magic Stones, and more stones can be gained by leveling up. Many abilities can be learned by most of the cast, but some are exclusive.

Battles
Following the tradition started by Final Fantasy IV, the game utilizes the Active Time Battle system. When a character's ATB gauge is filled, they can choose a command to execute. Normally, enemies attack whenever their turn is up, but the battle can be set to "Wait" mode, making the enemy unable to perform while players are choosing a spell or an item from the menu.

In Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, the player was restricted to three-person parties. In Final Fantasy IX, this is changed to the classic four-person party. The game allows for two players to control members chosen by the player in the battle.

Zidane is in the player's party most of the time. His Steal skill is very useful, since many pieces of equipment are available first as steals from bosses before being purchasable from vendors.

Trance


Continuing the tradition started in Final Fantasy VII, the game incorporates Limit Breaks, although differently from earlier Limit Break systems. When a character sustains hits in battle, the Trance gauge is filled and when full, the character enters Trance. Trance changes the character's appearance, and gives them a new skill or set of skills only usable while they are in Trance.

For example, if Zidane has learned the ability Flee for his Skills ability set, he gains the ability Free Energy for his Trance ability set, Dyne. Zidane is the only character to use new abilities in his Trance; most characters' abilities are enhanced, for example, Vivi gains Double Black, which allows him to cast two Blk Mag spells in succession, and while in Trance, Steiner's strength is boosted.

Character classes
While not explicitly stated, each party member exhibits facets of one or more of the jobs established in previous Final Fantasy games:
 * Zidane wields daggers as his primary weapons, and possesses Thief abilities such as Steal, Flee, Bandit, and Master Thief. He can also Sacrifice himself, and his Dyne Trance abilities further resemble Ninjutsu spell incantations associated with Ninjas.
 * Vivi is a Black Mage, wielding staves with access to a host of damaging and enfeebling Black Magic, and the Trance ability Double Black, which lets him dualcast Black Magic.
 * Dagger excels as a White Mage in the early game, but later gains access to a greater amount of eidolons than her Summoner counterpart, Eiko. Dagger's Trance strengthens her eidolons.
 * Steiner is a Knight, and uses two-handed knight swords. He has the Dark Knight ability Darkside and incorporates elemental Black Magic into his Sword Magic attacks, like a Mystic Knight. He uses powerful offensive sword arts, and his Trance adds a heavy damage multiplier to his physical attacks.
 * Freya wields spears and uses abilities such as Jump and Lancet, trademarks of the Dragoon job. Her Trance and exclusive ability High Jump further enhance Jump.
 * Quina is a Blue Mage, learning Blue Magic by devouring monsters. Quina is the only character with access to the Thief ability Millionaire.
 * Eiko has access to fewer eidolons than Dagger, but a larger repertoire of White Magic. In Trance she uses Double White, allowing her to dualcast White Magic spells.
 * Amarant has a high HP stat, uses hand-to-hand claw weapons that teach him the Counter ability, and possesses Chakra and Aura techniques—trademarks of the Monk job. He can throw weapons like a Ninja, and use the Spare Change ability of Samurai. Unique abilities Power Up and Power Throw enhance Chakra and Throw skills, respectively.
 * Beatrix uses most of the same offensive sword arts as Steiner except Darkside. Instead, she has access to many of the strongest White Magic spells, aligning her with the Paladin job.

This is yet another return to tradition from the recent predecessors of Final Fantasy IX, in which characters were largely blank slates to be heavily customized by the player. In Final Fantasy IX characters have established strengths and weaknesses to balance one another.

Active Time Events
Another new aspect of Final Fantasy IX are Active Time Events (ATE). When an ATE window appears the player can press to see what the other characters are doing. Although watching an ATE might not always affect the main storyline, sometimes, when the notification text appears gray, the player will have to watch an ATE automatically. The player might gain items or gil by watching the ATEs. Sometimes, multiple choices for ATEs are given, and if one is picked, the other might not be able to be activated, meaning the player has to wait for a second playthrough to see it.

Mognet
Within the game, Mognet is a postal system operated by moogles. As the player progresses they will find moogles inhabiting most of the known world. When the player talks to a moogle, they allow the player to save their game, restore life energy via Tents, or purchase items with Mogshop.

The moogle may also request that the player character act as a courier by delivering a letter to another moogle. It is also possible (albeit less frequently) that the player receives a letter from someone else.

Later on it is revealed the moogles are requesting the player to deliver letters because Mognet Central, where the letters are usually sorted, is having mechanical problems, and as a result, deliveries have become sporadic. The player may help the moogles restore Mognet Central's functionality in a sidequest.

Minigames and sidequests
Final Fantasy IX has two main side quests that span a lot of the game: the Tetra Master card game that can be played with almost any NPC, and Chocobo Hot and Cold. The player can obtain their first Tetra Master deck and tutorial on how to play at the start of the game, and then keep challenging NPCs for games. New cards are also obtained as drops from enemies. The player must go out of their way to obtain the rarest cards in the game if they want to complete their deck.

Chocobo Hot and Cold can be played once the player meets up with Choco in Chocobo's Forest. There are different venues where the player can play the minigame to have Choco dig up random treasures and chocographs that can be used to dig up treasures on the world map. By discovering more chocographs the player can level up their chocobo to reach new areas with ever better treasures. Many of the game's ultimate equipment can only be obtained from these treasures.

Other minigames include frog catching where Quina must catch frogs on Qu's Marshes for rewards, the jump rope game Vivi and Eiko can play in Alexandria and the footrace game against Hippaul. The game has numerous sidequests from collecting rare key items, to encountering the friendly enemies and Ragtime Mouse on the field in random battles. Notoriously, the game had a sidequest that remained largely unknown and unnoted in guides for years until being discovered from the game's Ultimania guide, the Nero family sidequest in Lindblum.

Setting
The world of Gaia is divided into four continents, the most populated one being the Mist Continent. Most of the sentient races have settled above the Mist that covers the bottom of the continent. Mist, its origins unknown, is a noxious gas that mutates flora and fauna alike into monsters, and hardens the hearts of men inciting strife among them. As sunlight penetrates the Mist poorly, the surface of the continent is left in perpetual shadow where monsters lurk. Thus, most people elect to live on the plateaus above the Mist and cross the lands in Mist-powered airships rather than on foot.

There are four major kingdoms on the continent: Alexandria, reigned by Queen Brahne Raza Alexandros XVI; the industrious Lindblum, governed by Regent Cid Fabool IX; the nation of the Dragon Knights Burmecia, reigned by the King of Burmecia; and the mysterious Cleyra hidden inside a perpetual sandstorm. Lindblum is the most technologically advanced nation of the four, and the inventor of Mist-powered airships that halted the wars that had plagued the continent for centuries.

Though shrouded in Mist and thus full of ferocious monsters, Mist Continent is the most lush continent on Gaia, the others being barren. The other continents are rarely traveled to, as they are free of Mist and thus out of the reach of airships. Outer Continent is an arid wasteland to the north, connected to the Mist Continent by the Fossil Roo, but only the dwarves are known to live there. Lost Continent, to the northwest, is almost entirely covered in ice, but houses the volcanic Mount Gulug and the religious center of Esto Gaza that reveres the legends of a Shimmering Island off the coast of the continent. The Forgotten Continent is a a large land in the west where the sun sets, with mysterious ruins scattering its landscape.

Characters



 * Zidane Tribal: The main protagonist. A Thief, member of the Tantalus group, and an inveterate womanizer.
 * Vivi Ornitier: A young black mage, but is pure of heart.
 * Garnet Til Alexandros XVII: The female protagonist, and princess of Alexandria. A summoner with more emphasis on summons than White Magic.
 * Adelbert Steiner: A noble knight of Alexandria, and the Captain of the Knights of Pluto.
 * Freya Crescent: A Burmecian Dragon Knight who searches for her lost love, Sir Fratley.
 * Quina Quen: A Qu Blue Mage who joins the adventure to experience cuisine from around the world.
 * Eiko Carol: A young Summoner with more proficiency in White Magic than summoning, one of the last of her tribe.
 * Amarant Coral: A Monk and wanted bandit, accompanying Zidane to discover what makes him powerful.

Story
Queen Brahne of Alexandria begins her conquest of the Mist Continent while her daughter Princess Garnet escapes the kingdom with a thief from a theater troupe, Zidane Tribal. They discover Brahne is building an army of black mages with the aid of a mysterious man called Kuja and try to stop her, but after Garnet falls into Brahne's hands the latter extracts the mythical entities of unimaginable power from her: eidolons. The discarded Garnet escapes with Zidane and his friends' help.

Learning Kuja is the one who supplies Brahne with the technology to manufacture black mages the party tracks him down at the Outer Continent. They meet a young summoner girl, the last of the tribe of summoners, and learn Garnet hails from the village of Madain Sari that lies in ruins with Eiko and Garnet the last summoners in the world. They investigate the colossal Iifa Tree that towers over the landscape and discover it exists to stop the souls of Gaian beings from returning to the crystal at the planet's core, a process that is depriving the planet of Gaia of its life energy.

When Kuja enslaves the eidolon Bahamut Brahne summons against him the queen perishes while apologizing to Garnet. As Garnet succeeds the throne of Alexandria the Alexandrian armies withdraw from the kingdoms they had conquered. Kuja demolishes Alexandria with Bahamut, but Garnet and Eiko join to summon the most powerful eidolon in living memory—Alexander—who obliterates Bahamut. When Kuja calls forth the airship Invincible to enslave Alexander, his plans are foiled by his master Garland who destroys Alexander and Kuja is left without an eidolon.

Kuja schemes to overthrow Garland to rule both Gaia and the mysterious world of Terra from where they hail from. When Zidane and his friends pursue him Kuja learns of the power of Trance, a powerful surge of emotions that momentarily enhances ones inner capabilities. Now knowing of the world of Terra, Zidane and his friends open a portal there, and discover Terra is a dead planet that exists on the inside of Gaia from where Garland, Kuja and Zidane himself originate. Upon learning of his true origin as Garland's "angel of death" created to incite destruction on Gaia so that the world of Terra can one day assimilate it, Zidane suffers a mental breakdown. His friends help him come round and they confront Garland who is killed by Kuja who has entered Trance by absorbing the souls held within the Invincible. Upon learning Garland placed a limit on his life and that he will soon die, Kuja goes berserk and decides to destroy the world.

The party follows Kuja to the depths of Memoria made manifest by the the memories held by the lives lived on Gaia, whose souls manifest as Mist as they are expelled by the Iifa Tree via its roots. They travel back in time to find the crystal that is the origin of the universe. They stop Kuja and face Necron, the embodiment of death itself whom they convince that despite Kuja's actions life doesn't yearn for death. Returning to Gaia with Kuja's teleportation spell, the others depart but Zidane stays behind to look for Kuja. Kuja perishes and Zidane is not heard from again until some time later when everyone gathers in Alexandria to watch the play I Want to Be Your Canary. An actor in the play casts off his cloak revealing a returning Zidane, and he is reunited with Queen Garnet while all their friends watch on from the audience.

Themes
The main theme of Final Fantasy IX is the meaning of life and death, mainly represented through the characters of Vivi and Kuja, although the other characters follow this arc as well. Vivi struggles to understand his purpose in life after learning he is an artificial being made in a factory for the purpose of war, and has to confront the reality of possessing a fixed lifespan. Kuja knows of his purpose since birth, but comes to rebel against his life as a tool for Garland. Despite being similar to the black mages he helps Queen Brahne produce, he does not feel empathy toward them, instead viewing them as inferior dolls; Kuja denies his origins and thus hides his identity as a Genome.

While Vivi comes to learn the purpose of life is to simply live it, as the experiences he accumulates throughout his journeys become memories that will return to the planet's crystal at his death thus contributing to the circle of life, Kuja is driven mad upon learning of his mortality and impending death. Rejecting the point of life entirely if one is doomed to die, Kuja tries to destroy the origin of all life, the crystal. His will to end all life summons Necron, a being who wants to take the world to the Zero World where nothing can exist, to release Kuja and all other beings of the world from the suffering of existence. The word "Necron" means "death", and thus gives the final battle a symbolic meaning. In the end, life triumphs over death when Zidane and his friends prove to Necron they want to live despite the knowledge they will die one day.

Life and death and the circle of life play a key role in many aspects of Final Fantasy IX, with the Iifa Tree being the symbolic tree of life—a prominent symbol across many cultures—and Terra being a dying world populated by dormant souls and soulless vessels, Genomes, whose lives remain incomplete if they are not assigned a soul like Kuja and Zidane did. Terra's struggle to continue existing despite its time being up by exploiting other planets goes against the circle of life, and in this way Kuja's fear of death and non-existence is the same as the Terrans'.

In the end Kuja accepts his mortality, but as the continuation of memory is a strong theme in Final Fantasy IX, his memory lives on, and in a final soliloquy Mikoto comments how Kuja's example gives hope to all remaining Genomes of how they can decide to be something more than tools and carve their own path in life. Vivi is implied of having died in a final message that plays during the ending, and ends his farewell by saying his memories are now part of the sky, an allusion to the circle of life.

Another major theme in Final Fantasy IX is to pay homage to the earlier installments of the Final Fantasy series, especially from the Nintendo era; Final Fantasy IX was meant to capture the "essence" of Final Fantasy, and the theme of crystals that had been present since the beginning of the series is brought back, the crystal now representing the life force of the universe. The game world was designed with traditional Final Fantasy world in mind, and the game makes numerous allusions to previous games.

Music
Final Fantasy IX is the last Final Fantasy game with music composed exclusively by Nobuo Uematsu. It was his most prolific score, as the original soundtrack has 110 tracks, and an additional soundtrack was released with 42 more. Years after its release, Uematsu has stated that both the score and the game itself are his favorite of all his projects.

Much of the music revolves around the themes of the J-pop ballad, "Melodies of Life", composed by Uematsu and performed by Emiko Shiratori. The song is sung in Japanese for the game's Japanese release, and in English for the game's North American and European releases.

Microsoft Windows (via Steam) and mobile
On December 31, 2015 Square Enix announced on the Final Fantasy Portal App that Final Fantasy IX is coming to PC, iOS, and Android. A new microsite for the game was published stating that the game will require iOS 7.0 or Android 4.1 or later.

A teaser trailer was released on Square Enix's YouTube channel, showing the game with improved graphics, anti-aliasing filtering, new menu, new battle user interfaces, new message dialogue windows, new sprites for Tetra Master cards, high-definition movies, and improved character models. Achievements, auto-save, and speed-boost option are implemented. The player can now skip cutscenes, disable pre-battle fly-bys, and play in high speed mode (doubles all movement speeds, both in and out of battle). The "boosters" available are always full ATB/Trance/HP/MP, 9999 damage, no random encounters, Master abilities (equipping an item automatically unlocks its abilities permanently), and characters' levels and Magic Stones and the party's gil can be maxed out. The game has the original music.

Kouichiro Sakamoto directed the mobile version to commemorate the game's 15th anniversary. He wanted to include features to shorten the playtime, and thus random encounters can be turned off. When Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII were rereleased for the PC they had high-speed mode and boost features that were received well, so there were no objections to adding these features to Final Fantasy IX as well.

The movies have been up-converted and the character models have been refined with textures in higher resolution. The backgrounds for most of the maps have been replaced by hi-res versions of the 2D data used in the original PlayStation version, but because the screen resolution on recent smartphones is so high, it can be hard to tell the backgrounds have been replaced. The developers didn't want the player to change their memories of the original game; the PlayStation images seem blocky now, but at the time players were impressed by them, and the developers didn't want the players' memories of the original game to look better than the port.

The team at Silicon Studio in Thailand developed the Final Fantasy IX port for Square Enix, and put forth ideas for the touch screen interface used for the mobile version. The team vacillated whether to make it one tap to confirm or two taps to move and confirm, but ultimately ended up with the two-tap method, which results in fewer mistakes. If it was a new game, the developers could limit which data to show, but the game being a port, they couldn't just delete data that was shown in the original. It was also a challenge to make enough space for buttons that would be playable on a small screen, and to ensure the player's fingers wouldn't obscure relevant parts of the screen when playing.

The port has two patterns of moving a character, but with the virtual controller the corners of the map would be obstructed by the player's fingers. Implementing a feature that lets the player tap where they want to go and automatically move simplifies controls and lessens the time the player's fingers cover up the screen. Because the battle screen covers the user interface when entering battle, there is a function that turns off all user interface displays while touching anything other than the commands.

Steam Trading Cards
Eight Steam trading cards will be released along with the game.

Fan patches
Steam user Albeoris released his fan patch called "Memoria" for the PC version. It is a game engine modification patch features new functions such as increasing battle pace even further, an option to remove ATB system and play the game in turned-base mode, adding Beatrix and all the other guest characters to the party as a full-time playable characters, and save/load anywhere.

Reception
According to Metacritic, Final Fantasy IX is the most critically acclaimed Final Fantasy game to date. It is also the favorite Final Fantasy game of series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. At the PlayStation Awards 2001 held on 11 June 2001, Final Fantasy IX was awarded the "Double Platinum Prize". It also swept the PlayStation User Awards at the same event, beating Dragon Quest VII to walk away with the awards "Best Graphics", "Best Scenario", "Best Characters", and "Best Sound". The results of these User Awards were obtained by polling PlayStation users nationwide.

Allusions
Final Fantasy IX was intended, in many ways, to be a salute to the series' history, and as such, is filled with allusions to previous games. One of the most apparent is the similarity of the character Vivi to the black mage from the original Final Fantasy.

Despite the overall high quality of the translation, care was not taken to ensure all of the various names and references matched to those used in the previous English-language releases. Thus, many of the references with which the game abounds are missed by the non-Japanese audience. Examples are listed in the main article.

Trivia

 * A Final Fantasy IX remake for PlayStation 2 had been considered by Square in early 2001, only one year after the original release. For some reason, the project was either scrapped or never started development at all. Similar projects for Final Fantasy VII and Vagrant Story were also considered at one point, but met the same fate.
 * In May 2009, the video game website IGN interviewed Yoshinori Kitase and Takeshi Arakawa. During their discussion, Arakawa mentioned he desired to make a sequel to Final Fantasy IX more than any other game.
 * Final Fantasy IX has the most diverse cast of characters in the series, as it has only four playable human beings (Steiner, Amarant, Blank and Beatrix), with all the others being of various non-human races.
 * Final Fantasy IX can have up to two players controlling the party during combat, even though the feature is not mentioned in the instruction manual.
 * Final Fantasy IX has the most number of allusions in Dissidia Final Fantasy. The biggest one is Mognet. It is also said in Dissidia that the peak of life of the moogles happened in Gaia.
 * The developers have stated they changed the ending seven times.
 * To promote the release of Final Fantasy IX, Square joined forces with Coca-Cola to produce a Final Fantasy IX themed Coca-Cola television commercial.