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Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX, released on July 7th, 2000 in Japan, November 14th, 2000 in the United States, and February 16th, 2001 in Europe, was the last Final Fantasy video game to be released for the Sony PlayStation gaming console.

FFIX was revolutionary to the Final Fantasy series in several ways, including a deep, mystical story, beautiful new graphics, and a redone battle system. The explanation for many of these changes is that FFIX refers back to older Final Fantasy games in the areas of its gameplay, battle system, and even some of the enemies.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Battle System

The battle system in FFIX is different in several ways from those of its Playstation predecessors, FFVII and FFVIII. Its battle system is just one area that borrows from earlier Final Fantasy games.

Some changes in the battle system from previous PS1 Final Fantasies are:

• The trance system:
  • This system is similar to the Limit Break system from Final Fantasies 7 and 8. Every time a character receives damage in battle, their 'trance bar' fills up slightly. When the bar is completely full, the characters 'go into trance', which means that they become more powerful and in some cases can use special attacks or moves. There are differences between the Trance and the Limit Break. They are:
    1. On Average, it takes longer to fill the Trance bar than the Limit bar,
    2. The 'attack' command is not replace by Trance Abilities
    3. Every time you attack with a character in Trance, the Trance bar goes down according to the power of that attack, unlike Limit Breaks where you only perform your one Limit move and the bar becomes empty.
    4. Once you fill up the Trance bar, it only lasts for that one battle, whereas your Limit bar would stay full until you chose to use the Limit Break move in battle.

• Spells can be aimed at multiple targets simply by pressing the R1 or R2 button on the Playstation controller. No special items, materia, etc. are needed to target all.

• Eidolons (FFIX's name for summoned creatures) are treated about the same as regular magic, and can only be used by the white mage characters (Dagger and Eiko). The first time they are used you see their full animation, but every time after that, unless you have the Boost ability, the animation is much shorter and the summon is weaker. Unless you have the Boost ability, the Eidolons aren't very powerful attacks like summons in previous games.

Locations

The world of FFIX is divided into four continents: Mist Continent, which takes up most of the map, Forgotten Continent, a large land in the west where the sun sets, Lost Continent, to the nortwest, which is FFIX's ice continent, and Outer Continent, to the North, which is a dusty desert continent. The many locations in the game are sorted first by continent and then alphabetically below.

Mist Continent

Alexandria A nation ruled by Queen Brahne, who later proceeds to conquer several other nations on the Mist Continent and establish the Alexandrian Empire.

Burmecia A city where there is eternal rain. It was once a great symbol of power and good in the world, but the player only knows it as rain-drenched ruins. Playable character Freya is from here.

Chocobo Forest The place you have a first opportunity to meet a chocobo that you can ride around the world map and dig up treasures with.

Cleyra A large tree surrounded by a protective sandstorm in the middle of a desert. Later in the game, Queen Brahne breaks the sandstorm barrier and destroys Cleyra.

Dali A small rural town on the continent. The citizens of Dali profit by manufacturing black mages, which are sold to Alexandria as weapons. Upon the demise of Queen Brahne, the town goes back to normal farming.

Evil Forest A forest that seems to be alive and infested with plant monsters. After Zidane and his team destroy the Plant Brain, the forest petrifies itself and traps Blank inside of it.

Fossil Roo An tunnel that runs beneath the Qu's Marsh and leads to the Outer Continent. Its inhabited by Gargants, which can serve as methods of transportation within the underground area.

Gargan Roo The Gargan Roo is another underground passage. It leads from Treno to Alexandria.

Gizamaluke's Grotto A cavern guarding Burmecia, it is attacked by Brahne and her black mages, and collapses easily. It is home to the sea creature Master Gizamaluke, who is driven mad by black mage control.

Ice Cavern A cavern that leads to the top of the mist and to the town of Dali.

Lindblum A city large and powerful enough to rival Alexandria, it is ruled by Regent Cid Fabool IX, airship inventor extradonaire. Lindblum has three districts: 1) Theater District 2) Business District 3) Industrial District

Pinnacle Rocks A forest and pond area, it is home to the eidolon Ramuh, who tests Dagger before he allows her to summon him. The team crashes here with the Gargant.

Quan's Dwelling A house near Treno, Vivi lived with his adoptive grandpa, Quan.

Qu's Marsh A marsh where you first meet Quina is near Lindblum. You can catch frogs here with Quina and receive prizes. It is also the entrance to Fossil Roo.

South Gate The gate that has to be passed to enter Lindblum and access other towns on the Mist Continenet. There are several different entrances to South Gate.

Treno An upscale city that never sleeps. Lots of noblemen live here, as well as many bandits and poor people. There's several things to do here, including bidding on items, trading in your Stellazio coins, and fighting monsters for prizes. The entrace to Gargan Roo is also located here.

Outer Continent

Black Mage Village Hidden deep in a large forest near Conde Petie, the village is home to several self-aware black mages, living their lives in hiding.

Conde Petie A village of dwarves, it is the team's first destination on the Outer Continent. In order to pass through here to what is called the Sanctuary, couples must undergo a ceremony not unlike marriage.

Production Staff

General

Main Program by : Tomoyuki Takechi, Hironobu Sakaguchi

Art Director : Yoshitaka Amano

Orginal Score & Music : Nobuo Uematsu

Event Design : Nozomu Yamagishi, Shinichiro Okaniwa, Jun Sakurai, Shukou Murase, Toshiyuki Itahana, Hiroshi Arai, Jun Uriu, Teruaki Sugawara, Ryutaro Kanno, Satoshi Shiozaki, Norifumi Nagaoka, Junnosuke Kanazawa, Junichi Murata, Tadamichi Obinata, Nobuhiro Fujii, Hiroyuki Ikeda, Hirokatsu Sasaki, Yuichiro Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Sonoda, Makoto Hasegawa, Shinichiro Okaniwa, Tatsuo Heianzan, Shin Nagasawa, Jun Sakurai, Kaname Shindo, Fumiyasu Sasaki, Yasuhisa Izumisawa, Yuichiro Kojima, Takuji Sasaki, Kazuko Shibuya, Kaname Shindo, Yuichi Shiota, Kuniharu Takeuchi, Masahiro Kataoka, Naoya Kawahira, Nobuaki Koumoto, Akihiko Maeda, Motoharu Tanaka, Minori Hisamatsu, Tomoko Iemura, Hidetoshi Kezuka, Nobuhiro Nakajima, Kiminori Ono, Charles Pinady, Hiroshi Takahashi, Gen Arai, Brian Beppu, Wesley Cann, Francisco Cortina, Karl Coyner, Manabu Daishima, Rei Fukuzawa, Veronique Garcia, Masataka Hayakawa, Takehiko Hoashi, Sangwoo Hong, Hiroyuki Hoshino, Shin Ienaka, Hiroki Inohara, Akira Iwata, Yasuhiko Kamata, Insun Kang, Koji Kawamura, Cecil Kim, Atsushi Kimura, Motoko Kitamura, Thomas Lee, Greg Lev, Toshitaka Matsuda, Hideyuki Matsumoto, Takaharu Matsuo, Hiroki Mitsushima, Takako Miyake, Kimihiko Miyamae, Hideaki Morita, Paul Moya, Koki Nara, Mathisha Nihalsingha, Tatsuhiro Okamoto, Sho Okamura, Eric Pavey, Behrooz Roozbeh, Jacob Rowell, Christian Scheurer, Richard Semple, Shinobu Shinagawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Shiho Tamura, Yukihiro Taniguchi, Donald Taylor, Akihiro Tokunaga, Takuji Tomooka, Misako Tsutsui, Kazushi Urata, Christopher Voy, Mitsuhiro Yamada, Kana Yamazaki, Masaki Yasuda, Megumi Yasue, Ikuyo Yoshida, Airi Yoshioka, Mio Kokami, Shinichiro Okaniwa, Ryotaro Takahashi, Tatsuo Heianzan, Brandon Idol, Satoshi Ito, Naho Kodama, Mari Miyamoto, Yoshitsugu Sato, Ryotaro Takahashi, Koichi Ebe, Miwa Hashimoto, Yoshifusa Hayama, Koji Ida, Hideo Kubota, Hiromichi Morita, Kazumi Seki, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Reina Ikeda, Manabu Inokuchi, Go Kikuchi, Hiroyuki Hamada, Timothy Tyle Harrison, Brandon Idol, Satoshi Ito, Manabu Inokuchi, Maho Kodama, Mari Miyamoto, Kenji Nomura, Yoshitsugu Sato, Masateru Suzuki, Hiroyuki Hamada, Samuel Heine, Shinya Ichida, Reina Ikeda, Manabu Inokuchi, Atsuhi Inuzuka, Ryoma Ito, Takuya Iwasaki, Kenji Kadonishi, Go Kikuchi, Mieko Kinoshita, Shinji Koide, Kyoko Muramatsu, Yoko Nagare, Kenji Nomura, Mitsuki Sato, Tomoyuki Sato, Koichiro Soeda, Yoshiyuki Souma, Masateru Suzuki, Kayoe Takagi, Shintaro Tamai, Yoichi Tanaka, Takeshi Arakawa, Tomohiro Hasegawa, Ryotaro Hashimoto, Haruya Ishii, Masaaki Kazeno, Daiju Komatsu, Tatsuru Nakaza, Kazuhiko Okawa, Takuji Sasaki, Makoto Sawano, Tatsuo Heianzan, Kumi Kanai, Hiroshi Tanaka, Mayumi Clark, Nobuyuki Ueda, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Syuntaro Furukawa, Takuya Hada, Hiroyuki Honda, Keiko Imamura, Masaharu Inoue, Tadahiro Inoue, Takayuki Katagi, Koji Kobayashi, Ayako Kuroda, Toshiaki Matsumura, Kei Miyamoto, Takaomi Moto, Sanae Nakanishi, Satoshi Naito, Motohito Nasu, Takeshi Nozue, Mitsunobu Ochi, Tomohiko Osugi, Kaori Sato, Shinya Senzaki, Koichiro Shiratori, Kenichi Someya, Eiji Takahashi, Koichi Takahashi, Eisyu Takamura, Hideaki Takeda, Kengo Takeuchi, Masayo Tateishi, Takeshi Tateishi, Takuji Tomooka, Akihiro Tsuchiya, Kimitoshi Tsumura, Kazuhito Yamamoto, Takuji Yasuda, Takayuki Hirayama, Keisuke Miyazaki, Masashi Nakata, Ryusuke Sasaki, Teruaki Shiraishi, Noriko Abe, Hisako Sakurai, Miho Takagi, Francisco Cortina, Karl Coyner, Takehito Hoashi, Kazuyuki Ikumori, Hiroki Inohara, Akira Iwata, Yasuhiko Kamata, Koji Kawamura, Atsushi Kimura, Greg Lev, Hideyuki Matsumoto, Takako Miyake, Hideaki Morita, Koki Nara, Tatsuhiro Okamoto, Sho Okamura, Eric Pavey, Behrooz Roozbeh, Jacob Rowell, Kazuya Takahashi, Mitsuhiro Yamada, Kana Yamazaki, Masaki Yasuda, Manabu Daishima, Takeshi Endo, Hidetoshi Kezuka, Francisco Cortina, Takehiko Hoashi, Toshiaki Matsumura, Eric Pavey, Eisyu Takamura, Hideaki Takeda, Hiroyuki Shimazu, Koji Kawamura, Tatsuya Yabuta, Nobuo Uematsu

Sound Programmer : Teruaki Sugawara, Eiji Nakamura, Ryo Inakura, Tomohiro Kamiya, Masayuki Nakajima, Natsuko Sugiyama, Masataka Saitou, Emiko Shiratori

Composer : Nobuo Uematsu

Lyrics : Kako Someya, Nobuo Uematsu

"Ancient Music version of FU-RU-SA-TO"

Composer : Nobuo Uematsu

Sound Producer : Kunihiko Kurosawa, Haruo Kondo