Final Fantasy 9: Complete

Cleared FF9.

Of the FF games, this is probably my favorite of the PS1 era ones that I've played (7, 8 and 9 -- 10 still not played).

The story isn't any more or less spectacular, and in some ways, it suffers the same issues 7/8 have of "party members who are here just to fill out the roster," of which I'm looking squarely at Amarant, Freya and Quina. Even Eiko could probably have been cut and the entire game just been Dagger, Zidane, Vivi and Steiner. In fact, it might have helped strengthen Vivi and Steiner a lot to not have to have joke character Quina come in randomly.

Anyway, the reason I'm placing it that high is that, mechanically, the game forces you to adapt in ways 7 and 8... don't. Almost every encounter in 7 and 8 can be resolved by raw power. In FF7, that raw power is the Hyper/Angry status and Limit Break spam (usually with Lunatic High/Clear Tranquil mid to late game while churning out Cloud's DPS), and the less said about FF8's failed junction system, the better.

Now, of course, that means that the end gauntlet of FF9 boss fights are cheese fests. The bosses? They will cheese you. The game expects you to fail a few times as you learn the boss's attacks pattern and adapt, or just figure out, "Hey, maybe we should all absorb/null water damage before we fight the Kraken, and maybe our melee attackers should be immune to blind, just, you know, spitballing ability loadouts here guys."

While the characters are probably deeper than a lot of the FF6 cast (both mechanically and narratively), I still feel 6 does the character beats better, and since it is an ensemble cast, you can live with weak cast members, and everyone *earns their spot in the roster* narratively (except the sasquatch and the mimic, but... well.) That may be nostalgia talking though.

I think I still like what 8 tried to do more; 8 was a way more ambitious world design and game, but it broke down mechanically so badly that it just isn't as good of a game (and this is coming from one of the few people who actually will *defend* FF8.) And FF7 did a lot to revitalize the series as a whole, but I feel FF9 is a stronger experience than either.

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Let's talk about Zidane.

Mechanically, he's just raw DPS (with a random Sacrifice ability.) He does it well. But, he is ruined by having a Steal command that is vital to getting above grade equipment and saving thousands of gil. Many, many boss fights he won't bother contributing to until you're pretty far in. You may have to throttle your other DPS just so you don't kill things too fast.

Also, Steal is a Magic Attack, meaning it scales of Spirit, not Speed. That's just wonky and intuitive

Narratively, he does something the series needed. We finally have an up beat hero that we can readily identify with and like, compared to Squall and Cloud. Zidane is a weird archetype for the main protagonist, but he has panache and style, and that means a lot in a lead character. Balthier, take note. I officially hate the Steal command. It is probably the worst thing that Final Fantasy brought to the JRPG genre. And it has brought a *lot* of bad ideas.

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Let's talk about Vivi.

Mechanically, Vivi has one job. That's equipping as much +MAG as he can, and casting spells. The beauty of FF9 is that, unlike 7/8, raw magic doesn't fall behind to physical damage, thanks in part to Double Black, Focus and getting powerful elemental staffs early enough in the game that if you can play "guess the boss weakness," or suffer the reload, Vivi should be your highest single party damage dealer (assuming no dragon killing, frog catching, stealing cheese.) Which is what a black mage is supposed to do in your party. Because Vivi's damage is so high, you can actually allocate a fourth character slot to Frey/Amarant solely to feed Vivi MP through their abilities, though if you use Zidane to steal, you may drag fights out too long.

Narratively, Vivi carries a lot of the introspective load that Zidane does in the background. We know Zidane is dealing with the same thing, but by using Vivi as the focal character for those themes, we're not overwhelmed with Zidane's issues, letting us sometimes miss the fact he's as lost as Vivi is when it comes to "what/who am I?"

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Let's talk about Steiner.

Mechanically, Steiner is probably the biggest miss (after Quina) of FF9's cast because his Breaks are inconsistent and suffer from useless/useful syndrome. But, thankfully, you'll very rarely actually want to use his stat breaks, since you can turn him into an elemental nuke with Vivi or just regular attack with MP Attack and the appropriate killer support ability. The entire mechanic with Vivi and Steiner working together to Magic Sword is great, but it just makes it even more painfully obvious how extra the other characters are.

Narratively, Steiner starts out as a really strong character, who unfortunately fades a lot after mid game. His side story with Beatrix is nice, but it doesn't really feel earned, and I solely blame the existence of Amarant/Quina for that.

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Let's talk about Freya/Amarant.

Mechanically, these two are very similar. They have a damage dealing niche (Jump/Throw), which Freya can win out on due to dragon cheese, and both bring some random support abilities. Which is weird that Amarant has so many support abilities considering his personality is Moody Loner.

Narratively, Freya was useful early on, but after the mid-game or so, Burmecia is kind of forgotten about, and Freya just... exists. Amarant's even more of a narrative nothingness. He feels like he's going somewhere, but he just never does.

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Let's talk about Dagger/Eiko, mechanically together.

Mechanically, this is the most disappointed you'll be in Summoners since FFT. Even with all the +MAG gear, Dagger falls behind Vivi's damage, and if you're bringing her, because of the amount of damage pulsing out each round in meaningful fights, she's pretty much Cura/againg every turn. Eiko gets some great support summons, so she doesn't fall off nearly as hard damage wise.

Narratively, this is much more Dagger's story than Vivi/Zidane's, and I'm glad that she actually gets to do as much. She's a key part of the story, even if they decide to inexplicably make her frustrating during a chunk of the story with her inability to concentrate.

Eiko doesn't do much, but what she does do is important. If I had to cut the cast down, of the non-core four, Eiko's probably the only one I'd keep, giving the party a 3-caster, 2-physical split, with Eiko more of a White Mage/Support caster and Dagger being more of a damage summoner with support white magic and mid-level healing.

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Let's talk about Quina, the biggest mistake in the game. Narratively, Quina does nothing. She/he adds nothing to the plot except giving us a fourth person for Vivi to "marry" so we can move through dwarf town.

Mechanically, Quina is everything wrong with Blue Magic. Quina can outclass Eiko/Dagger on raw healing, and once you have Mighty Guard, Quina is the most action efficient character in the game. Auto-Life is also vital to countering end game encounters that have auto-death/doom/countdown/LVL 5 Doom/Flare/Holy one-shots.

And to use these key skills... you have to use this useless blob.

Quina is the worst thing about FF9.