Remember Lani, Amarant's partner assassin, who tried to seize Garnet for the Jewel? It is revealed that she ended up staying with the Moogles in Madain Sari, and ended up loving them and re-evaluating her life.

FF6 is an opera, FF9 is a stage play.

The algorithm works! Never enough FFIX love in the world!

I think it's very interesting that Vivi, the character who is arguably the least 'alive' and has the shortest life, ends up full of so much life by the end.

Minor characters in FF9 who are playing roles: The theater troupe Prince Puck Queen Brahne Gilgamesh Ramuh Doctor Tot Cid Basically everyone in Dali village Of the playable team, arguably the only character who isn't playing a role is Quina.

FF9 was the first Final Fantasy I played. Strange one to start with, but I was hooked to the franchise from that day forward.

I think this is wonderfully well argued! I hadn't really thought about how much everyone is 'playing a role'. Even Eiko is pretending to be grown-up and mature. One more point: the final scene. It is clear that the monologue being given throughout the vignettes is Vivi, however we never see him, only his children. It becomes clear that Vivi has ceased to function, and we are hearing his 'truth' at long last. To your point, he has 'faked it until he made it' and death was the end of the whole charade, he was no longer faking it, he was his true autonomous self - so much so he delivers the epilogue of the story. He caps out the importance of life, of living, of choices - much like a Shakespearean play, he closes out the production by reaffirming the themes from the entire piece. Very well done!

Ahhh the unusual battles near the end of the game while "you are not alone" plays and a disheartened Zidanes companions pop up to stand by him... a tear is literally rolling down my cheek. I love this game; great analysis - thanks a bunch!

The song "you're not alone" suddenly took a whole new meaning after this video.

Great work. I gotta say, I really appreciate how you correctly used "subconsciously" at 8:03 instead of saying "unconsciously," which is an extremely common error.

100/10. Liked and subscribed. The conceptual connections you have so meticulously unearthed here have been an inexplicable charm that repeatedly drew me back to FFIX for decades. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A pity you had no comments on the battle gameplay of ff9, which is massively spectacular on it's own, the camera work on every single battle is very clearly meant to give a very cinematic feel to the actions, with abilities having all these dramatic close ups and what not. Also the friendly monsters exist in the game, which are just a simulacra of the regular battle gameplay on their own way.

I don't often find videos that analyze FF9 compared to the others in the series, so they're always welcome for me. Great one.

Wonderful video! There's always so much thought behind video games. I'm making one myself and the sheer amount of thought put into every aspect of a game is astounding. Not to mention the jrpg gold era of the OG Playstation.

Baudrillard must be very proud

coming to watch this after finishing FFXIV

It was because of these details that I fell in love with video games. But the industry got lost along the way and today companies are no longer able to create games with the quality of the Playstation 1 era.

10/10 can't wait to see your analytical process applied to other works.

Good video but you left out any mention of best girl Freya.

after playing dark souls 2, that ending line really hit hard. theres a description that says something like, is death nature holding a mirror up to humanity, and you really gave an answer to the purpose in life in reflection. to live your life and forge an identity

FF9 is like the last Final Fantasy with a happy ending

Vivi made me cry

What a well written video! There is a lot about ix that is so special to me and has always been and the way you went into details about its parallels to theatre really opened my eyes to me understanding it on a different level. This game will always be special to me. And you expressed it perfectly. Really. Thank you. ❤

Thanks for the work dude, you have a very nice way of expressing and speaking. Btw, lovet the image of "they fall into the text". Very nice theatrical analysis

I'm 1 minute into this video and I realize, every Final Fantasy is my favorite Final Fantasy.

My take from this perspective is 13:08 The idea of missing someone's identity or having identity crisis of who they're really are is really on point! I really appreciate this piece and advice from the end of the video! Its so fitting.

I was in actual tears at the end of this. Playing this game with my partner was one of our foundational experiences as a couple and we named our kiddo after Dagger so this game is very close to my heart. Thank you for making this and for describing all the things I love about it but don't have the words for.

Kuja's entire character arc is based around this collapse of playwright and actor. From the beginning he knew he was just a puppet acting to Garland's script, but he aspired to surpass Garland and write his own script. He failed when Garland destroyed Alexander, but he wasn't dissuaded. He thought of a new plan, and a new script, and this time it works and he defeats Garland. But then Garland reveals the truth to him. His part is already over, because Kuja was designed to only live long enough for Garland's true angel of death, Zidane, to be ready. Kuja is about to die. Therefore, for Kuja to escape Garland's script only one choice remains. He must destroy everything. He must destory Terra and Gaia, so that the souls of Terra can't take over Gaia and Garland's plan is ruined. Also, if you think about it, Necron is Kuja's Deus Ex Machina. Kuja is losing, with the last of his energy he uses a suicide attack. But it fails to kill the party. Then Necron descends to fulfill Kuja's play, to resolve the problem Kuja could not solve: finishing off the party. Defeating Necron puts an end to Kuja's script and condemns Kuja, who thought he was a script writer, to being just another actor. Kuja's final act, as he lies dying among the roots of the Iifa Tree, is to send Zidane and the party to safety. But Zidane refuses to leave him alone, and enters the Iifa tree. There Kuja tells Zidane that after he lost everything, he finally realized what it meant to live. While he never expounds on this, it's possible that once his script is ruined, he was finally able to see the world as it is and not as some play where he's writing the script. That he wasn't just directing actors on a stage. They were people, and many of them died.

This was a good video considering FF14 just had an entire FF9 themed expansion

This is a great video! Good deconstruction of the theatre framework--we see the series play with this early on in Final Fantasy 6 and then the theatre scene in 7, but 9 really takes it all the way home. It's such a special game. So visually and narratively simple which made it digestible to even my 11 year old self at the time it released. Yet it's so unimaginably deep that I'm still thinking about it 24 years later. Your video gave me a perspective I hadn't considered though which is just how much they play with the camera angles and animations to relay a theatrical drama.

My personal favorite game of all time, beautifully understood by you. You've got a sub.

As a small alternate to the last point, perhaps Garnet and Zidane embracing at the end is, instead, encouraging the spectator to fully, openly, and honestly embrace the performance, to show the love we have for the art. In this case, it's a very emotional way of saying "Thank you for playing," I think, and shows that the creators of this wonderful art want to love and embrace those that support their creations.

This was fantastic. First video I have watched from you and instantly subbed. The analysis of themes and presentation you've dissected here, in my favourite FF, and related to life's mysteries and deeper questions, is greatly appreciated. 👏👏

You being so well read brings out so much of the narrative of this game. Hope to see future videos like this one.

This is a brilliant perspective. I knew ff9 was a reference to theater but how often it does it, your video surprised me. Thanks for acknowledging the reoccurring details.

Great insight! That was an excellent watch

Literally made my entire day! Thank you

This game shaped my perception of what a game could and should be for my entire life. I finished the game for the first time at 10 years old. I cried for the first and last time at a video game. Nothing since has recaptured that emotional fire.

It feels like a lot of players have finally gotten around to trying 9. I'm seeing more and more people say it's their favorite now. I love it, there's a reason why it's the creator of the franchise's favorite game.

This was a wonderful video that encourages deeper thought not only about the game itself but our own existence and actions. Very well done.

By far the most interesting take I've seen for ff9. Whenever I play the game now I won't be able to stop noticing these spectacle-to-spectator setups and the real/fake themes. Thank you for the different perspective.

Oh my God what an absolutely wonderful video, you've made something truly special and to think that a little game from my childhood that i barely understood at the time could have so much meaning is unbelievable

Still cry about this game years later, dagger is a beautiful character

ff9 always felt like sakaguchi-san's message to us players. a prayer for us to all fight for life and beauty. so he showed us a world that had such deep warmth and comfort, yet under assault at its very foundation. i love steiner because he starts off as a cold man, a real stuffed shirt. but his love of his nation, his duty to the princess, and his love for beatrix turn him into a man on fire, finally certain of what he must do to make the world a better place. we should all be so lucky.

I must admit to have been too absorbed by the play the game is, to notice the intricacies you pointed out here. Much appriciated for these wonderful insights! Subbed!

And just like that I'm playing FFIX again. Brilliant video!

Wonderful. Thanks.

Amazing video, I'm so glad I clicked it on a whim. FF9 will always be my favorite FF; I always struggle to put into words exactly why that is. I knew the theatrical component was part of it (as I am a big fan of theater), but I never knew it ran so deep in FF9's DNA. 10/10 video for sure, liked and subscribed

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts

beautifully done!

Well done analysis.u got my respect.

FF9 also has a circular pattern as it both starts and ends with a theatrical play.

I thought it was Dion-Nai-sys?

That was honestly better than a MatPat video during its golden age. That was a great analysis of the story, world and characters!

Wonderful video that inspired me to think of the idea that one could program something to question their existence AND land on the belief you want them to afterwards to accept their actions as their own even if they're pre-determined. Truly existentialy troubling stuff that I'm gonna now try not to think about too hard and just enjoy the play of FF9

My favourite game of all time and this is something I never picked up on. Well done for connecting those dots, this was really interesting to watch

Beautiful explanation of performance and performer. While you have explained and explored, I have observed. Well played kind sir

Your exposure was moving and this wonderful game never ceases to surprise

Great video! So many layers on the theatrical roots of the game. I really like when games involve the player in the story indirectly through presentation, and use those links to develop the main themes even further. Remedy does this a lot, in Alan Wake 2 for exemple. In FF 9 its the performers and the audience and in Alan Wake, the writer and the readers. Alan has the ability to change the story by rewriting it, but it has to be plausible, it can’t be just a happy ending, in other words, it has to be interesting to us, the readers. Alan servers as a vessel for the writers of the game that want to deliver a good story for us, and we fill the role of players in the vessel of the readers. Great media literacy! Learned a lot from this video

Idk how I ended up here. This was my first FF game as a kiddo. Replayed it many times in my life. Thanks for making this video. Really touched me

1:40 After this scene, that very thin line between the game being a stage play for us, the players, becomes even thinner, as the band playing music is interrupted, and the music we hear as players is disrupted. It sets it up as if that very band in-universe, is the one playing all the music for us throughout the game. It's incredibly subtle and is over in a matter of seconds, but it's such a great detail that I want to add it here.

These details were well observed. I think also of Freya questing for Fratley, who then can't remember her and as such both is and isn't her lover. That his memory, his old self, never returns contrasts with the dramatic self-revelations the main characters despair through. So who's fate was worse? And was Freya's forgottenness worse than death, as implied by how she's quoted in the game guide? Being forgotten is surely a kind a of death, as is remembering who you really are. But the game seems to contradict the "worse than" comparison by ultimately recoupling Freya and Fratley. It potentiates a new history for them in both the ruins of a Burmecia that calls them to rebuild it (a symbol of their relationship) and in the bliss of now: "How long will it take to rebuild Burmecia?" "I don't care, as long as I am with you [...] I just want to cherish our time right now." Thanks for your thoughts.

I call Dagger "Knives" every time. Quilianna also means "weighty". I don't know why I'm sharing this. I keep everyone else's names as default, but absolutely love changing these two.

Liked and subscribed. Great analysis 👏

Fantastic video! Can't wait for more!

Just want to say I love the choice of music in this.

Great video. Amazing to view something through a new lens after all this time. You reckon this theory could expanded to Necron as like the ultimate spectator (or director) who wants to bring an end to the play?

Excellent video reflecting on the themes and narrative of FFIX. "The world's a stage, and we're all actors", so it makes a lot of sense that a game that muses on life and death so much would focus on the roles we choose to play while we're on that stage. FFXIV dawntrail spoilers (people buffer these out with a few period lines, right?) . . . . . . . . VERY interesting to reflect on the elements of "Simulation" in ffix, given that ffxiv's equivalent to Memoria, Living Memory, is essentially a massive series of computer systems using people's saved memories to simulate and play out continued lives for those that were lost, complete with staging previously connected people together as if creating crowd-pleasing scenes of a play where loved ones reunite. The simulated people both are and aren't "real", they're a machine creating reactive people who play out the role of the lost people, but they're very Real to the people determined to keep living memory running, at all costs. A stage play that goes on forever, with orchestrators that travel between worlds to rob them of everything they have, of their lives themselves, in order to run it forever. In a way, Living Memory and FFXIV's Alexandria in general are almost like the darkest reflection imaginable of Tantalus, twisted together with the Terrans and the Genomes. Instead of the stage play being a facade for Tantalus' theft, FFXIV's Alexandria's theft is the means by which their ever-growing stage play goes on forever... There's also a lot in dawntrail about learning how to fulfill roles, how to grow and change and learn by engaging with the narratives and roles and stories of the people around you... About how sometimes ceremonies are facades played out to facilitate neccesity, or about how sometimes "necessity" is a hollow facade to carry a ceremony whose purpose is lost or forgotten...

Absolutely loved this analysis - I never considered how much “role-playing” there was in one of my favorite RPGs! Great video!!

Ff9 I have replayed this game and I would say it is even better than Ff10. . .

Years ago I saw a FF9 video about how FF9 is first and foremost a story about acceptance in front of the inevitable (namely the death by fusion of both worlds which litteraly can't be stopped, same as aging really..) and that is was the reason for the final boss to be darkness, coming "out of nowhere" (never seen before in the game, nor mentionned). Though it's probably a misstranslation (boss' name is probably despair or depression) it doesn't come from nowhere : the heroes are all KO's and when you choose who will fight it, it's the hope placed by the non fighting members that give energy to their mates. Your video make a good complement to this argument, acceptance through getting rid of your persona only to be yourself, with all the good and the bad that entails, and the possibility to keep doing your best is only known to those who don't fake who they are.

Beautiful and thought provoking analysis.

Beautiful

I love you for how you described it. FF9 was such a formative experience for me.

FF9 is probably my favorite out of any. Each has a special place in memory and heart. FF9 however hold such a deeply resounding attachment. Great synopsis

FFIX is still what I would consider Square's magnum opus for the PSX generation. The entire world, it's myriad high fantasy settings, and it's characters, both major and minor, were all so full of life and personality. The game and its world felt very much alive, and existed with real reason and purpose. It's still without question my favorite in the series, and in my arguably biased opinion, one of the best Square has ever made

I never thought about this in the history of the game, it's really brilliant how this game never stops surprising me!

Wonderful video

Kudos, that was amazingly thought provoking

Excellent work, sir

This is a fascinating point of view. I love FFIX so much, as it was the first chapter in the series I've played solo, and I never thought about it in such a way. This subtext you just pointed out makes this beloved chapter of mine even more lovable, honestly.

What an interesting analysis :)

You were explaining something entirely different about the love letter scene at 4:07, but with the theater and Shakespeare connection in my mind all I could think while watching it was how that could be a scene right out of Much Ado About Nothing. It's the exact kind of misunderstanding and confession that occurs all over that play.

FFIX is a wonderful game to play. It was the first in the franchise that I ever beat. My favorite moments were went Dagger cut her own hair in that scene and the end where she and Zidane finally come together as lovers. It's awesome all the way around.

What an outstanding video , this is my favorite game of all time and i finished it more than 10 times. I always thought that this game is a theatre opera so i'm proud somebody made a video about the "literature aspect" of ff9. I share everything you said . One thing i was thinking about was about Necron , even dough it is personification of death /end of all, following your thoughts about the play , the characters defeat necron (personification of both death and "acting") and became creators of their own destiny , they stop acting and live without any "role". The fact that zidane and garnet stop pretending at the end is the whole representation of this game , because as almost every ff game this is a love story. Hope this is right. Thanks for this video

The execution of this video is fantastic! *chef's kiss* I hadn't thought about this perspective until now. I'm not a gamer, but I adore a good story. (Theater, literature, band nerd for life!) My husband got me into watching him play when FFX came onto the scene. Since then, I have developed a deep appreciation for the series. Great job!

Hello, new Sub here, thank the algos. FF9 is such a masterpiece, has always been in my heart for as long as I can remember. Played it when I was a kid, still fascinated by how profound it is, like the way you told me now in this video. Nicely done 👏 I'll be watching your other videos btw, cheers 🥂

i love your ff9 videos so much. is there anything i could do to support the channel? beta reading the script, artwork. id love to. either way, absolutely fantastic work. i love ff9, its lovely to see someone really delving into it. x looking forward to more of your videos, i hope your channel takes off man!

excellent video

Nice, one of the better lore videos. Thank you for mentioning Dionysus actors. FF9 would be nice to replay after the Elden Ring DLC. The Doll vessel is definitely a shared concept between games.

Super interesting analysis of my favorite game ever. Definitely worth hitting that subscribe button.

dawntrail being the FF9 expac, really amplifies these themes to the point of mockery, its fantastic and this was such a good thing to come back to after completing that story, well done!

FF9 and philosophy in video essay. My new favorite channel.

I don't know how many times I've played this game over the years, and you made me appreciate its story even more. Thank you.

beautiful and thoughtful analysis!!!

I hope that you're playing FF14 right now as Dawntrail is the FF9 expansion in the same way that Shadowbringers is the FF3 expansion, Endwalker = FF4, etc., and after completing it recently, it adds so much more exposition to the ideas and themes that are the heart and soul of 9. After finishing Dawntrail, it just made me fall in love with FF9 all over again. I think that a video about it would be a great companion piece!

well done! love love love this

Fantastic video. X

Hello, thank you for the video. One critique: when i’m wearing headphones it sounds as if there’s something wrong with them. It’s as if your voice has the bass artificially removed

Wow, you put to words (something I'm bad at) what for over 20 years I've always felt about this epic game. It was so theatrical, so dramatic, so deep and so human.