FINAL FANTASY IX

FF IX is upscaled and playable on the PC without having to change discs. -but there are micro stutters and no way to fix it through the game itself. You can enable cheats by pausing the game, but that means you have to pause whenever you use 3xspeed. If you have access to the original discs, then I recommend using duckstation for the benefits of saves states and single button turbo speed. The microstutters were too annoying when i don't have to play the game this way. but if it's the only way you can play FFIX, then maybe it's worth it on sale.

While not my favourite of the Final Fantasy titles I have played, Final Fantasy 9 offers an interesting story, classic battle system, solid characters, and stellar soundtrack. Zidane is our main character, a beastman who is part of a travelling company of actors who are tasked with kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria - Garnet Till Alexandros XVII. The princess herself seeks to run away from the kingdom, becoming a willing participant in this act of kidnapping, the Captain of the Knights of Pluto, Adelbert Steiner, coming after the princess to protect her, and ultimately join the party of adventurers. Your party will eventually be comprised of: [list] [*] Zidane the beastman Thief [*] Princess Garnet a.k.a. Dagger the White Mage and summoner [*] Adelbert Steiner - Warrior and spellsword [*] Vivi the Black Mage [*] Amarant Coral the bounty hunter - a combination of Monk and Ninja class [*] Freya the anthropomorphic [strike]Skaven[/strike] rat, being of the Dragon Knight class [*] Quina, a Qu of indeterminate gender, who uses blue magic, gaining abilities from consuming enemies [*] Eiko, one of the last of a race of summoners, who is also a White Mage [/list] Party members will often split up from one another, coming together again in different combinations, along with secondary characters, as you work your way through the story. Active Time Events are also something that will frequently pop up, letting you see a scene that is occurring at the same time as the characters you are currently controlling; this is a neat feature, but comes up so often that it can wear out its welcome a bit by the end of the game. Because your party is splitting up, it can be tricky to make sure that party members outside of your four mains are actually getting levelled up; my main party having almost double the amount of level compared to characters I didn't often use. Equipment is a critical component of making sure your characters are gaining abilities to overcome different status effects and elemental damage. AP is gained at the end of every combat, being put towards different skills that are attached to a particular set of gear, allowing your character to equip that ability using gemstones without the need to have that piece of equipment equipped. Certain weapons or pieces of armour will offer elemental damage reductions or attack increases, which do become important in late game combats - so don't sell off everything you have. Different weapons and armour can also be synthesized together to create even more powerful gear at a specific shop in certain towns, making especially powerful weapons for Zidane. Much like how Final Fantasy 8 has a card game called Triple Triad, Final Fantasy 9 has its own card game called Tetra Master, which, unfortunately, is no where near as fun or refined as Triple Triad is. Pick five cards to play on varying play mats, each card having directional arrows to show the direction its attacks will apply; attacking a card where it has no arrows will automatically flip a card, where-as connecting arrows will trigger a battle. Cards have their own stats, shown by the numbers and letters on the cards, it is just a shame the game doesn't explain what these stats are in any meaningful way. I've had stronger seeming cards lose to far lesser looking cards, making combat feel somewhat random. Since you will lose a card out of your deck if you lose a match, I avoided the game of Tetra Master until I was forced to play it in a tournament mid-game. Thankfully, you can save scum when the tournament comes along, so you don't have to lose all your cards to RNG. Final Fantasy IX is a tale of war, greed, disposable golem-like creations, summons as a form of weapon of mass destruction, two Earth-like planets, and the lifeforms upon them. Much of the story is about the soul, what makes something truly alive, and how to best enjoy life with the time we have left to us. Visually, I don't mind the 3D models at all outside of cutscenes, but the cutscenes themselves leave a lot to be desired. Certain cutscenes have a very cartoonish feel to their execution; also, Zidane and Dagger often end up looking like Chucky / Good Guy dolls in how they are animated. On top of this, I'm not a big fan of the chibi-like style that everything has been done up in. Musically, Final Fantasy 9 shines, music having always been a solid strength of the Final Fantasy series, especially the ending vocal track. I enjoyed FFIX, it being a pretty solid experience that feels a little bit rushed towards that final disc. In terms of ranking compared to other Final Fantasy titles, it is FF6 --> FF7 / FF8 --> FF10 --> FF9 etc... for me personally. This is a pretty beloved Final Fantasy entry for a lot of folks, so I'd recommend checking it out for yourself if you enjoy the franchise or JRPGs in general. [quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45701624-CthulhusMonocle-That-Next-Fest-Guy/]CthulhusMonocle - That Next Fest Guy[/url] for more game and Steam Next Fest demo reviews.[/quote]