The ethereal arrangement of “The Place I’ll Return to Someday.” The faces are still freaky though…

I admit those faces almost gave me a heart attack, this segment and its music are a combination of terrifying, uncanny, otherwordy and intriguing, it's like this, one moment you're fighting monsters in a deserted ancient monument, the next a bunch of broken faces are talking to u, not even normally, but in your head

The faces of the Ancients in Hades' cape in FFXIV always reminded me of the faces here. A reference to another fallen civilization, perhaps?

It's actually called "The Engraved Past" in japanese language.

Hey i just got to this area in the game right now

this music gives a bit of the metroid chozo vibes at the start tbh, also plot decided to yeet afterwards but i adore it nonetheless

As a teenager I played Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX around the same time. Between the two moons in both and having stone faces give background information about the past (Oleivert and Terra Tower) I thought there was a deeper connection between the games as a kid. I know now there isn’t, but it doesn’t take away from either and both are two of my favorite games of all time.

Seeing u taking Dagger makes me feel less bad about me dragging Quina and Vivi

This is the exact moment the story takes a huge dive. The whole Terra thing just wasn't satisfying (at least in the way it was done), and didn't have nearly enough (or any!) clues to it until over halfway through the game. Aside from Zidane's story in Black Mage Village (which could literally have lead to anything, it was not knowing where he came from and knowing a blue light) and things in the Iifa Tree reacting to him (not a very big clue your first time through), there was nothing. The entire story after the destruction of Alexandria was just about Zidane, and it was a huge change from the incredibly diverse and charming cast who suddenly ALL take a back seat to everything else going on. As soon as you can finally select your party (one of the few problems with FFIX is how long it takes before you can), everyone else has nearly no dialogue while Zidane goes from location to location. Not to mention Terra acts like victims, but you later learn that they've done this whole thing before. That isn't a successful civilization, that's a HUGE failure. They're parasites. I'm not interested in learning about their rise or downfall.

蘇らなかったのは人類なんだっけか（ジェノムはあくまで依代） まじで末路といいシュワの墓所だよなあテラ…

Awesome [Video Soundtrack] Chamber of a Thousand Faces [FINAL FANTASY IX] Video.

0:00 [They walk on top of a blue platform; the aforementioned stone. It rises into the air] "Visitors, listen well..." "This is the record of our civilization..." [Another face lights up] "The seeds' decline was not our fault..." "All vegetation and...vessels...died out..." "The decay of our Terra... triggered it all..." "In order to stop the decay, many methods were considered..." [Another face lights up] "Ultimately, the best minds of Terra's civilization gathered..." "Then, a final resuscitation was attempted on the mother continent..." "Unfortunately, it ended in failure..." "It was later discovered to have been the catalyst... Subjects were selected..." [Another face lights up] "After four tremendous sacrifices, eternal prosperity seemed within reach..." "Flora and fauna were revived, but...is still in stasis." "Final results...are still pending..." [Another face lights up] "In order that our glorious history not die with us, we were constructed..." [The platforms descends] This scene is yet another example of the scriptwriter's inadequacy and being unable to properly weave exposition and backstory into the narrative and make good world building. In order to open the way to the desired artifact, you must first stand on the platform and listen to a bunch of faces who are talking incomprehensible garbage about Terra. Many letters, little meaning: we will not know the history of the world in a volume greater than "before everything was screwed up, and then everything was screwed up."

Don't feel bad for these bots degrading, their culture was only gonna thrive taking over a new world through extreme assimilation... :V