Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #619 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2001-12-07
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Manufacturer's Description
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 Reviews

What's the big deal?
I may not get much support on my views here, but I'm going to put them forward honestly...

Ok First I'd like to say that I've only just been getting into FFIX HUUUGE fan of the series, I always made an effort to avoid playing IX however because from the looks of it I could tell it wouldn't live upto my expectations for a final fantasy title.

And it didn't, I don't know what it is about this game but it just doesn't seem to grip me like VII VIII and X did. If anybody has every played "Legend of Legaia" it feels too much like that to me...

Ofcourse there's FF trademark things in the game, familiar summoned creatures, familiar magics/status effects and items, chocobos etc...

But (atleast for me) it just doesn't have that spark, perhaps because the first title I played was VII then VIII so ofcourse my standards were going to be very high in the first place.

A few things I didn't like:
1. The skill learning system via items etc..(I know many of you guys love it)
2. The characters
3. The way it feels "silly" ...Perhaps just me, but it really did feel somewhat childish too... I know FF characters are traditionally young, but having a 6 and a 9 year old in your party? Come on.
4. The world map

I have a few other problems with the game too, but those are mostly it.

All in all, it's worth playing sure.
Worth replaying? You decide...

the last ff on ps1
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

The Best Game Ever.
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!