I finished my second playthrough of the game today only to come across this shortly after. It is honestly insane to me how underappreciated this video is given its quality. I'm hoping this comment does its part for the video to get picked up by the algorithm a bit.

The most powerful scene in any final fantasy game is when Zidane finds out what he truly is and then thinks he is unworthy of his friends. Never cried when Aerith died in ff7 but ff9 got me for some reason.

Wow, I can only imagine how long this video took to make. FF9 is one of my favorite games, the world is so nicely designed, the characters are memorable (Steiner noticing Garnet is melancholic during the canary performance in the intro), vivi slowly walking back after seeing the faded eyes of black mages, so many small details that add such beauty to the story telling. The darkness of existentialism portrayed by the childlike attitudes of vivi and the black mages is very interesting as it removes the bleakness but adds a layer of sadness, like trying to explain to a child that their parents one day will too die - this wouldn't work the same way in a realistic adult like ff game like 7 or 8. And of course the soundtrack (Nobuo's best). Thanks for making this video, hope your channel grows and grows, the quality and focus is there just a matter of time it seems :)

FF IX was my first RPG, and is still one of my favorite games of all time. I still get chills when the Squaresoft logo pops up and the first few notes of the Main Menu theme kicks in. It takes me back to when I was first playing though it. Opening that epic 4- disc case felt like I was opening up some dusty ancient mystical tome. I think the Equipment/Abiliity system is perfect in FF IX. Reminds me a bit of the more simple approach of Dragon Quest.

I love this game like no one else. I think I've seen every FF IX video if it's either spanish or english, finding a new one (even if a little too late!) it's a gift to me. Thank you for putting the effort in this because it shows! On other note, I loooove this game. I don't joke when I say that it shaped me in the adult I am today. It gave me a reason to live when I didn't want to anymore, literally saved my life and keep me on this earth. You put into words many things I do feel about this story and its characters. It's an excellent retrospective.

Amazing retrospective. What I love is many go into depth about gameplay. Few actually analyse the themes/lore/story in the way this video does.

118 views and ~1k subs...wtf. This is better than practically every other FF9 analysis on YT. Also, excellent choice to cover. FF9 was my favorite game for a good 15 years. These days I prefer FF8 but i enjoyed every moment of this. Will you continue covering FF titles?

Regarding Zorn and Thorn, they're most definitely related to the moons, as even their theme song is called Jesters of the Moons.

I never knew this was the last entry the creator of the series would work on. I always felt it was a special game. It was my introduction to JRPGs and the first FF entry I played. This analysis was was a great watch!

God this game is so special. I was in love with it instantly as a child, and it hasn’t left my mind or my heart since. Such wonderfully written characters (well… most of them lol), beautiful and thrilling music, fantastic art design… there’s nothing else like it. Great video!

So happy there’s a video that actually drives home how important this series was/is. All things considered, this IS the best installment in the series. Graphics and battles systems do improve later in the series but the fantastical aesthetic and story of 9 on top of the music and the gameplay… this titles takes the cake; sales aside!

It is criminal how under-appreciated your channel is!! Great FF IX retrospective…my all time favorite game…and you def did it justice. Would love to see FF X or XII next. Keep up the great content man!

This is probably the most in-depth video about FF9 on KZfaq, you deserve so many more views.

Phenomenal video. Thank you very much for putting it together. Very thoughtful and interesting throughout. I look forward to checking out your other work! :)

I think that it is fine if some FF titles have a more realistic and futuristic setting, as long as the series doesn't completely forget about its roots. FF6 had a little bit of both of those styles, and then there was a temporary shift in FF7 and FF8 to the futuristic setting before finally returning to the roots in FF9 again; that seems like a perfect balance to me - and honestly, even the very first FF game had robots and an advanced space station during the later parts, so the FF series has always been a bit futuristic in some places.

Dude this is awesome, really nice job on this. You covered everything I would have wanted to hear about. Such a great game. I can’t help imagining what the series would be today if Sakaguci was still in charge.

Ff9 is my favorite as well. Awesome job man.

as a non-native-speaking English Scandinavian, this game and FF8 were one of the major factors that improved my English, something English classes couldn't teach me in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Zy-dane? It’s not Zih-dane? C’mon, next somebody will try to convince me Tide-us is Teedus.

Wonderful video!

I beat this game for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. I just played it again and enjoyed it even more because I actually took the time to do side content, learn all the abilities/supports and get the best gear. It’s an exceptional game.

Fantastic video. Well structured and your narration is great. I was contemplating playing FF9 again and this is making me want to do that even more!

I hope that through some miracle, we get another Sakaguchi Final Fantasy. Until then, I'll keep my eye on Mistwalker; Fantasian is pretty great!

This was masterful. I loved it. Can’t wait to look at more of your work. Bravo.

Ff9 has always been my favorite and I foresee always will be. When I was a child it was my first final fantasy and provided me an escape from some of the bad parts of my childhood. Replaying this as an adult some 20 years later I was able to appreciate the story and it's message so much more. I share a deep connection with zidane and who he is as a character as there was a point in my life I had lost myself and it was the friends I had who helped me remember the person who I was. As his character card says in the title screen " you don't need a reason to help people" I carry those words close to my heart

After years of playing it on and off I finally beat it and I think it's my favorite game now. Thank you this was nice

I’ve played this game hundreds of times. Ready for the remake!

One thing I loved about this game was the artwork and atmosphere, it felt extremely cozy while I was laying in bed with my blankets on in the middle of the night.

AWESOME RETROSPECTIVE!! Please make more of these videos!!

Loved the video, the philosophic (help, spelling) view on it and just the overall video. I hope you will continue to make videos and you're the first who I ever out the bell notification on, at 😝

Hoping we get more videos soon ! Just binged your Channel at work

Ff7 was my entry into the series but ff9 holds a special place in my heart. The two best series in the franchise. Ff9 has the best soundtrack hands down. Appreciate this in-depth video. Its shape who i am today in so many ways. What a nostalgic trip.

This was great! I only watched the end "deeper meaning" section but I'll catch the rest soon. Great work!

There is so much passion and love in this video towards this game. Thank you.

FF9 and 12 are the only final fantasy games I have played through multiple times each. Actually they are the only ones I ever bothered finishing.

This video was awesome!

10 year old me playing seeing Vivi for the first time "I would die for him"

I nearly skipped your video, thinking it's just another FFIX Retrospective I've already watched. But good thing KZfaq (for once) made a good autoplay-decision and I had my hands full at that moment, unable to click on any other video. Yet, the moment I had my hands free, I realized, no, that's actually a new video I haven't seen yet. Sounds interesting, I'll keep listening while doing chores. Be assured, I haven't regretted it, you helped me wonderfully through an evening filled with tideous house work. It was quite relaxing to listen to you and what you had to say. Thank you a lot for that! And once again I got reminded that I should finally play this game (I only played X and later parts so far). Hearing you talk about it so fondly but also critically, mentioning a lot of stuff I hadn't heard before (although I've watched a lot of videos about FFIX by now) was really great. You definitely earned a sub from me (as well as slamming the bell) and I'm looking forward to watch more of your videos. I hope, your videos will reach a far bigger audience, especially because I can feel how much work and passion you put into this. Please keep up the good work!

Such a good game. Many RPGs have come and gone from my top 5 but FF9 has remained my number one since playing it in the ps1 era.

Seven will always be my favorite Final Fantasy. But Nine? Nine is the best.

Great videos brother, thank you for your contributions and creations

Ya know, I've been due for a FF9 replay. I think I played 7 and 8 way more but when I think of FF "nostalgia", you're right. It's always 9 that comes to mind.

FFVII, X, and IX are my top three titles. The cartoony art style hides how deep the story and themes are. I think it's the deepest Final Fantasy.

This video is stunning, great job!

Who is 'zai-dene'??

FF9 my faves too. They really need to make another original aesthetic FF game. Please. Just one more. Oh and thank you for the history lesson in the beginning. Learned something new today.

Back in the early Internet days, i made a Freya fansite like literally from scratch learning web development with Microsoft frontpage 2000. the rest is history. I love ff9 and will continue to talk about it 20 years from now.

As someone who's struggled with reading comprehension and depression most of my life, nothing in this world means more to me than Final Fantasy IX, the game that inspired and challenged me. This game's unique ability to keep my head above water is unmatched by anything else. If all other books, games, and shows disappeared, if I could only choose one piece of art and entertainment, I'd choose FFIX and it wouldn't even be close. I can't disagree with you more about FF7 and 8 having better stories, but that's just me. FFIX hit me so hard that nothing else can. Maybe that's what something being your favorite is all about.

Bravo man. Thank you so much for this - this game holds such an important place in my heart.

1:15:49 I never realized what that "cycle" was in that it implies Gaian souls cease to be. For however long the Iifa Tree existed that's tens of thousands, maybe millions of Gaian souls just gone. That's metal.

Thank you for making this video! This game has impacted me so much!

Great video and effort

You can tell you work REALLY hard on your videos, and they really are of high quality. Subscribed.

Ive been obssesed with Final Fantasy games recently lol.

It's been more than 20 years since I first played this game and it's still my no.1. Period. On top of that, I don't know japanese and I played it entirely in Japanese. I had no idea what they were saying and I had to memorize patterns esp for battle. Even if I didn't understand, i completely understand what was going on and felt every emotion. FF9 was perfectly presented exactly the way it was intended. I did shed some tears. That's how good the game is.. unbelievable.

Oooooh the ruuts of it’s narrative 🤩

Amazing video, man. I've watched quite a few videos about my childhood game and yours is definitely the coziest. The only thing though, the sound is really low, I can't hear anything on my phone so i watch it on pc:D. 31-32 lufs is too low.

Best final fantasy by a landscape.

I always named Garnet, Sarah since it's her true name. I was excited when I found that out, and did you know if you have the nameaway card, you can rename your characters as many times as you want so I took advantage and renamed her

Amazing video… wow

Did you use the Moguri mod? The graphics look awesome.

Great video.

For me what made this game so special to me was the hidden things.

I loved this game but can I honestly say its story is up there with 7 and 10. Hard to say, its hard to pick specific moments for it as its just very good the entire game. It’s hard to pick things out

**ADDENDUM TO DEVELOPMENT HISTORY** For the record just because I received a comment about it. My intent was not to put Sakaguchi on a pedestal, I'm well aware there were many people who had a hand in helping develop the games and trust me when we get to those games we will talk about them. My intent was to demonstrate Sakaguchi's leadership qualities and how modern square lacks those leadership skills, which leads to rushed content, cut content for DLC, and a lack of genuine passion or desire from the higher-ups. He listened to his employees and it isn't hard to see both the respect, frustration, and rivalry he had from those who worked with him. Do you really think today we would have got Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, or Chrono Cross. It was how he believed in his teams and his leadership qualities that brought magic to a team. His faith in his teams to branch out and do something of their own. He cared about them being happy. It's also been shown through multiple interviews he had a direction he wanted the games to go on and often butted heads with his team when it came to his stories. He stated in an interview people used to say to him "is Final Fantasy the only thing this company would let me make." Replying " he used to think about that alot." It was his genuine care for his employees to make their own games he greenlit so many projects in his tenure. Takahashi, Kitase, Nomura, and Matsuno all got to work on games they wanted because he had faith in them that is more than we can say for the current leadership at square. I'll be honest Squares current business model is terrible and typing the quote "Is Final Fantasy the only thing that this company will let me make" hits hard because I think there is genuine talent at Square talent that given the chance could make something amazing that wasn't Final Fantasy. Hope this clears some things up and makes better sense of what I was trying to get across. In short he had passion about the games he worked on while people like Wada and Matsuda do not since they are just business men who didn't rise from the trenches. Ive recived a great deal of comments regarding the pronunciation of Zidane. I dont really care how to say it but I've been calling him that (alongside of my friends at the time) since middle school. These games came out at a time when voice acting wasnt a thing and many of us had to guess how to say these names. Please stop bringing it up. We dont have linguist proffesors available on call to validate ever pronunciation. I wont block the comments obviously as i dont believe in that, but im obviously not going to respond either or at least to the ones that come off as really negative or condescending. Thank you:)

Dagger is more of a summoner and Eiko is more of a white mage. You won't be casting Holy with Dagger and you won't be summoning Bahamut with Eiko.

I was stuck on soul cage for months.... Didn't know you could just cast life on him

I named Garnet/Dagger "Sarah". First of all, that is her actual name and secondly, it's more common.

I never had a problem with Necron I just felt like he should have been foreshadowed as the mystery beyond the void of existence perhaps Garland knew and wanted to avoid for Terra.

Soul Cage: I have seen the end of my thousand-year life, and it is not now. You cannot defeat me, it is futile to even try. Eiko: *Life* Soul Cage: *pwned*

I'm laid up with a broken rib at the moment. I don't know what its is about this video, but it took 4 attempts to actually finish it. I kept falling asleep after 20 or 30 minutes and, more importantly, managed to stay asleep longer than 45 minutes. (That's a compliment, not a critique, btw.) Despite taking heavy medications, I haven't gotten much sleep for the past 3 days. To make matters worse, sleep deprivation triggers a movement disorder. After finally seeing the end, I rewound and "watched" it again. At any rate, I've been contemplating buying the FF9 and FF10 remasters for the Switch. I like things that explore concepts like "destiny" or "God's will" as well as spirituality and what it means to be human or alive in general. TL;DR Great video and exploration of meaning/themes in the subtext woven throughout the narrative.

love it how you actively tried to avoid mention one of the best they did in that era. the ff8

black waltz damaged his own ship with his lightning magic. vivi just repelled him for a second

FF9 is something else! You can see how much love was invested in the game just by the details. It`s like you are sucked into the world. "Feeling" the wind, the temperature, the atmosphere.... Not many games have managed to do that. And yes... PLEASE GIVE A LIKE!!! for this mans great content - to help this channel grow.

Final fantasy 6 and 9 where my favourite. Also as said at the beginning of the video, FF6 help me to enjoy reading.

My favorite by far! 8 and 10 bored me so I couldnt even finish them. 7 is a good second place.

i never managed to get to the ending. now i finaly know how the story ends.

1:51:31 Made it to the end of the video. It was time well spent!

This was so good Ty!

FFIX was my introduction into the series. It is very misunderstood by fans, and poorly underrated. I continue to play this game to the day without getting bored with it. 9 is basically the Dark Crystal of the franchise with the deepest story, and memorable soundtrack.

Interesting video! This game deserves a remake.

Audio seems really low.

Vivi is my favorite mage character in video games.

The more of any Gem stone correlating to a Summon you get the more powerful the Summon. Hence why you should never sell any Gems, by the end of the game in Daggurero you can synthesise Gems. I always do Garnets to power up Bahamut, however, auto-Regen and boost can allow you to fully heal. It can render boost useless if you don't want to watch a full cutsecene. This makes Garnet/Dagger a better Black Mage than Vivi that can also use White Magick. In my opinion, I know people have issues that she doesn't get powerful and becomes Mute until after Esto Gazza. I personally think Dagger is the stronger of the two Summoners because of this. Eiko actually has 5 summons since you can change Titan to Fennrir. Along with Carbuncle changing it's attacks depending on the same principle of changing the Gem she has equipped when summoning it. Although, it comes at the price of an accessory slot.

I would never argue with anyone that feels this is the best ff. Its personally third for me after 7 and 5. It overreaches a bit with the graphics engine. By far the best looking psx game but it cannot render more than one or two enemy types at once where ff7 rendered multiple types in different formations. Ff9 also suffers from loading times as the camera seems to pan around forever to load each battle.

I’d love to see FF delve into a more stylized art direction like this again. 🙂 gritty more realistic art sensibility is industry standard in USA and I’d like to see a departure, at least for one game

hey, constructive criticism, but the rough cuts makes it so I feel like i-ve missed something or that an error happened on the reproduction of the content. Its too jarring. :) great video

Huh I thought my brothers and I were the only people who left Garnet's name. I never liked Dagger, but I love the name Garnet.

There seems to be a fair bit of similarities in FFIX to the story of Legend of Legaia. Coincidence?

I would still consider this to be the best FF game

I loved VII but IX and X are far superior in my eyes. Like yeah VII was revolutionary for it's time but by IX they made FF look as good as it could for the console with rich characters and a fantastic story. It's the best FF on the original PlayStation

I was never a fan of the chibi kidlike artwork. That's why X and VIII are my favorite.

What's not the meaning of life than death? If so Kuja are seeking in existence something outside of existence which doesn't exist. What is the meaning of existence is existence itself, not something outside of it. If you see existence teleologically (purpose or destiny) you fail to see existence as it is.

I loved the story and characters and how you gained abilities however i hated the trance system. Id trance on a random mob and it was irritating

Lowest volume on KZfaq, but overall nice.

I’m almost finished with this video. Thank you, great video…but seriously please turn up the volume on your next video.

For my taste, this was the best post Famicom FF. 7 doesn't even come close and don't @ me.

Great video but I majorly disagree with your thoughts on Quina. Quina doesn't have an arc of their own, yes, but it is the perspective they provide on the themes of the game that earns them their spot in the party. Every character is defined in some way by what they are "supposed" to do. Garnet is supposed to be princess and then queen. Vivi was supposed to be another robotic soldier with a short shelf life. Zidane had his own predetermined role in the grand cosmic events we find out by the end. But then there's Quina. Quina's portrait literally has them saying "I do what I want." And they do. Every time we find a new village, Quina goes off on their own. When Quina is left behind, they usually leave because that's what they're called to do. While the characters around them struggle with their predetermined roles and what comes next when they shirk them, Quina has incredibly simple answers. On several occasions, characters like Freya or Garnet will comment on Quina's activities as displaying a level of freedom they wish they could have. That's why there's that scene where we see Quale yelling at Quina, only for her own mentor and Vivi's "grandfather" Quan to praise Quina for their creativity and imagination. That is the game directly telling us that Quina doing what they want is the ultimate answer to the themes of the game. Why get caught up in performing a role you were assigned? Why spend your short time stressing over either taking on that role or letting someone down by avoiding it? Do as Quina does and form your own path.

This game released at a time when I was going through what would have been a particularly rough experience for anyone, much less a 10 year old kid. I had been diagnosed with a kidney disease at the age of 2 that affected most of my childhood. It would go into remission for a year or so and then out of nowhere I’d be in and out of the hospital every weekend taking chemo, unable to see my friends or attend school for weeks at a time because of my weakened immune system, and taking experimental medicines that made me feel awful anytime I wasn’t in the hospital. I was already a devoted fan of Final Fantasy and other Squaresoft RPGs and was counting down the days to FFIX’s release. The kidney disease randomly started acting up again in the weeks leading up to it’s release and I was back in the hospital for a week and taking chemo again upon release. It was a far worse relapse than I was accustomed to and the chemo was more aggressive than it had been previously. It was miserable. I could barely stand up without getting dizzy and nauseous, but my parents still took me to EB games and bought FFIX and the (awful) strategy guide for me on release day. I wasn’t able to go to school for the next couple weeks so I had plenty of free time and totally immersed myself in it. I don’t know if I connected with the game’s messages about life or if it was just something to take my mind off of how bad I felt at the time, but the game had a major effect on me that’s lasted all my life. I still replay it once every year or two, especially when I’m feeling down or going through some kind of big change in life. I could probably recite half the game’s script by heart and know the solution to every side quest, chocograph, etc. I even have the original FFIX Ultimania book I imported from Japan (which was not nearly as simple as it is now) as well as the OST on vinyl. There was just something about this game that clicked with me in a way no other game since then has. There are definitely games that I appreciate the mechanics, visuals, or overall story of more but nothing has or ever will mean more to me than Final Fantasy IX does. No matter what I was going through it’s always been there for me. Anytime I hear Rose of May or Melodies of Life I can’t help but tear up a little thinking about all of the good and bad times this game has seen me through.

that font mod is literally more of an improvement than the old pixel remasters font to the console versions… i HATE how this remaster looks