This is a recent Facebook blog post...I thought I'd post it here to see what you all think.
1. It combines the humor of old FF games with the series' modern benefits: incredible graphics (for 2000 at least), much better writing and translation, an epic musical soundtrack, and a more balanced battle system that is more targeted at the average gamer than the hardcore number cruncher.
2. The best-developed characters in any game ever. Vivi, the shy black mage with a prevailing misunderstanding of death. Dagger, who grows over the course of a game from an ignorant but well-meaning princess into a worldy woman with a strong sense of justice. Zidane, the only male protagonist in a Final Fantasy game who is attractive to women for valid reasons and serves as a focal point for all the other characters to grow through.
Not only are the main characters three dimensional, but almost every single character in the game has a distinct personality. Remember the guy near Dali who lives to drink coffee? The excited engineer in the Industrial District who wonders whether airship engines are better in the front or in the back? The dwarves, man? THE !@#$% DWARVES?!
3. A sense that the game does not always have to take itself so seriously. For examples of FFs that are way too serious, see everything Square-Enix has ever made after 2001. Even though the story gets mind-bendingly crazy at certain points (ex. "I...am an empty vessel..."), jokes still run rampant and the game generally has the feeling of an adventure, not some morbid, life-sucking journey, (Hello, Advent Shitren.)
4. Writing that, even without nostalgia glasses on, still holds up. It can be dramatic without being cheesy (no "FOOL! KNOW MY POWER"s or "I'M GOING TO GET YOU BASTARTDS!!!") and even cute and poignant at the right moments.
Dagger: I've been having trouble sleeping lately...
Zidane: Maybe all you need is some company, eh?
5. And the biggest reason: when so many games these days are reaching for reality and trying to imitate life through better graphics, better physics, and advanced AI, Final Fantasy IX is a glorious reminder of what games used to be. It asks you to believe in the impossible, to imagine what it'd be like to see a monster suck up an entire city in its mouth, to shrug off everything Philosophy 101 taught you and revel in the deeds of valiant heroes and gape in awe at the malevolence of grand, powerful villains.
More importantly, rather than the countless shitty wargames on the market or even Square's more recent offerings that are awash in boring, drab environments, FFIX gives us color by never forgetting that any good adventure, virtual or no, always instills in us a childlike sense of wonder. Remember seeing Bahamut and Alexander battle? Burmecia, trapped forever in eternal rain? The airship dock at Lindblum? The Iifa Tree? No other game has ever made me say "Wow..." so many times.
In short, Final Fantasy IX is the best game ever, and the best game there ever will be. Period.
