As with the other games in the series, Final Fantasy IX has the ability to grab your attention from the time you fire it up until the last boss is put down. Previous entries into the game's lineage took a more dramatic cinematic route to do what a role-playing game does best--tell a story. That style led to some complaints from headstrong fans and role-playing gamers alike. In response to this, while not sacrificing what new technology they've built into the series, SquareSoft has backtracked a bit. To put it simply, they've gone back to their roots.

But even players with no experience in this series can pick this up as a new game. Final Fantasy IX's story follows a group trying to stop Brahne, the evil Queen of Alexandria, in her quest to rule the world. Zidane, a skilled thief, teams with a young mage, a royal knight and a princess, who all soon discover that the queen's threats are fronting an even more sinister plot involving a powerful sorcerer named Kuja. It's your job to control the eight playable characters--each of whom begin the game with one weapon, one piece of armour and one special power--and to uncover Kuja's motives before he carries out his deadly plan.

The game's opening sequence sets the stage for what's to follow and, as we've come to expect from the CG wizards at SquareSoft, what is an utterly amazing visual scene. Long-time fans will revel in SquareSoft's decision to return to the disproportional-character look of the past.

Like VII and VIII, Final Fantasy IX uses the ATB (Active Time Battle) system. With each character learning the abilities and commands appropriate to his or her job class.

An Active Time Event (ATE) lets you see events that are happening elsewhere. For example, while you are controlling the main character in a town, you can view what the other characters are doing in another part of the same town. This function provides additional information and behind-the-scenes details about the story and the characters.

The game's visual splendour touches even the most ordinary scenes, such as shadows in the street alleys and the mazes of cobblestones. Final Fantasy IX's colour palette does a remarkable job in creating interest on every single object, location and person.

This will be SquareSoft's last venture on the PlayStation for the Final Fantasy Series, with its awesome graphics, a good story, and random battles that reveal curious bits about each character, Final Fantasy IX is an epic adventure that'll have long-time fans of the acclaimed series beaming with pride and joy. As for everyone else who has yet to experience the Fantasy, now is the time! --Stuart Miles
Brahne, the evil Queen of Alexandria, is using highly advanced magical weapons to terrorise neighbouring kingdoms. Players follow a group of bandits, knights and magicians as they try to foil her plans. The heroes quickly learn that her wicked doings are part of a much larger plot, and as they progress, they learn about the sinister motives of a powerful sorcerer named Kuja.

More than 30 million copies of the Final Fantasy franchise have been sold, making it one of the bestselling video-game series ever. This edition offers new characters and 3-D environments, plus a rich story line--one of the hallmarks of the series--as well as a new point-based spell-casting system and an item-based ability-learning system.
Queen Brahne of Alexandria has begun using highly-advanced magical weapons to terrorise neighbouring kingdoms. Her daughter, Princess Garnet, runs away from the castle and befriends a group of good-hearted bandits lead by a skilled thief, Zidane, who intends to end the evil queen's desire to dominate the world.

Customer Rating:
Summary: the last ff on ps1
Comment: gosh that final fantasy 9 is great, okay i m an inconditionnal of the serie i start with 8 then 7 then 9 and at the time i wasn t a fan but i enjoy it even if instead of the original music i put pinchers
ne way i play so much that i got the caracters playing in mi head
of course it s too short compare to the ff 7 or the one b 4
all i want to say is that some rare game and some movie as well you really wish you could forget so you could find this pleasure of discovering again and ff9 is indeed among those one for me

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Game Ever.
Comment: Final Fantasy IX is an amazing experience. It not only pushes the humble PS1 to its limit graphically but it pushes gaming to its limit in almost every other aspect as well. The story is phenomenal; it's deep, humourous and exciting. The characters have interesting personalities and many important concepts about life are explored as well. The music is excellent as well, with a range of styles being employed effectively to heighten the atmosphere. The gameplay is fun and enjoyable despite its lack of innovation and the minigames provide welcome breaks. This game will also last you for up to 80 hours on your first playthrough and its so fun you'll no doubt want to replay the experience. This is an AAA game that is a definite must buy!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not the best.....
Comment: Ok Ok we get the picture everyone says one thing or another I'm not gonna argue.

In the Long Series that is Final Fantasy this isnt the one you want to buy first. Honestly every FF fan knows FFIX isnt what it should of been.
If The Gameplay is easy and simple based on the controls that have been around for ages (FF7's controls hmm i wonder why...) the story line is slow to unfold and even slower to get the the point.
Most of the FF games from VII-XII have amazingly great story lines that dont take forever to unfold. And yet FFIX does, disappointing really the game had everything going for it. Great battle system, Amazing movie scenes, More Freedom to Roam and yet.... The story line and battle system let it down. If you are going to buy this game buy 7 aswell.
Play FFVII for about an hour (or more if you are anything like most players) then play FFIX and see if you notice the way 9 was poorly put together, Controls..... Battle System (though trance is a set time rather then one move)they're all from FFVII. You'll notice bits missing in the story that should be they're not the important bits but the little bits that would make this game so much more. Not my favourite FF and nor is FFVII, my favourite is FFXI and its expansions.

Personally I recommend this game (yeah i know i just basically said it was rubbish) but its worth putting up with all the faults for the movies and for the development of the characters. The Ending of this FF is what you would expect with every FF amazing, though there is alot of dialogue. I can happily say this is part of my collection of Final Fantasy games and I own from FFI to FFXII (yes even FFX-2 and FFXI). Hours of my life wasted playing each of them and for what you might ask.... Well its simple really, some of the most Amazing and breath-taking storylines ever to come to console are Final Fantasy.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The First FF I Ever Completed
Comment: Now that title is saying something because I found that this FF was by far the easiest (Soul cage can be killed just by casting life). But that aside this game is still brilliant.

The characters interact with eachother well and when Vivi's friends are attacked that's just as heart wrenching as Aeris ***Spoiler***. Kuja is second evilest villain ever (below Sepiroth) and all the characters have their own individual skills so you don't have to worry about teams being unbalnced. One thing I would say is a disadvantage is the trance system, for some people it's very good (Zidane has some cool dyne moves) but for others it is completely pointless (there isn't much difference between Summon and Eidolon) besides that though the combat system is great.

Buy this if you have FF7. If not buy that first as it is the best game to get you into the FF world, universe, dimension etc...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant - Best in series
Comment: People who say FF VII is the best are wrong!

I've played quite alot of FF VII and it's great but not the best

I much prefer FF VIII or FF IX for PS1

FInal Fantasy IX follows the story of Zidane a young theif and his adventures with his friends. It is a story of truths, lies, loyalty, friendship and much more.

I personally think FF IX has the best storyline of any of the Final Fantasies (though it's hard to say they're all so good) I give it 10/10

The many mini-games through-out make it even more enjoyable than it is already, especially the Chocobo quest and Moogling.

There are also secrets in FF IX and some really hard points like the optional boss Ozma which I still cannot beat despite having 4 level. 99 characters!

Final Fantasy IX along with Final Fantasy X and XII is definalty my favourite in the series, not many have played IX but they should it could change your view.

Now I only wish Square-Enix would bring out a non-online version of FF XI

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