LogFAQs > #954855833

I am not aware of any commercial! And gearing this game for beginners was weird given how referential it is to the series.

BlackDra90n posted...

It's not just treasures, it includes other things like quest rewards and stuff. So like you get points for jump rope, racing Hippaul, Hot and Cold, etc. I managed to lock myself out of it when I played it last year.

Overall good playthrough topic though! I enjoyed reading it. Which one do you think you'll play next?

Ah, well I have no intention of going back to Jump Rope >_>

Thanks! I don't know yet, in the past year I've gone through the 5 remaining beloved classics I had yet to play so I don't know what I'll do next. Might make a topic asking the board when I'm ready for another one. IX was the last truly major blind spot I had, so I'm glad to have finally played it but sad I'm through that era of games :( There really was something unique about the PSX era that I will miss, the lovingly drawn backgrounds hit a spot for me that 3D rendered ones just can't.

Anyway, to the characters. I was originally planning to rank the party members/major NPCs, but in the last third of the game I realised just how difficult that was gonna be. As a whole this crew is greater than the sum of their parts, and it's too weird to separate them all from each other.

So, for NPCs:

Cid is fine. He fills his role, and is pretty interesting but not a scene-stealer. Him keeping the frog/oglop mannerisms post transformation is good. Looking back now, the party having such an important powerful ally through basically the whole game could kind of lessen this idea of them being stranded, beaten and outmatched, but... idk it just doesn't. Maybe because Cid is hindered most of the time. It is weird that they set up that the Alexandrian soldiers become aware of Cid secretly working against them when Lindblum is under occupation, but then do nothing with it.

The Tantalus crew surprised me, not sure why because they fit a fairly standard trope but I expected them to die pretty early. It's nice that they are a friendly presence throughout, and their shenanigans are usually fun. Zidane actually returning to them at the end is a surprise too, but they do feel like part of the family.

Doctor Tot is fine but I still cannot get past his name. He really just exists to give the party a way out of a few binds, and foreshadow some lore.

The Moogles are great in this game, easily the best they've ever been. I've never been a big fan of this species, they were my least fav of the recurring FF mascots but I love how they were used here. Mognet provides some nice info, fun lighthearted lines and even a hint of how the outside world is reacting to ongoing events. Mognet Central is a bit of a letdown after all the hype, but still cool that it exists.

Beatrix is an interesting one. I thought she was a dedicated villain, then she turned face, then she promptly disappears until pretty much the ending. Definitely feels like wasted potential, she's still a cool presence but she's just another victim of the back half of the game only caring about a handful of characters. Also she never really redeems herself for being an active and willful participant in the atrocity of Burmecia, it's kinda weird that she's just reduced to Steiner's love interest in the end. Always bothers me when villain-turned-heroes never have to actually account for their actions.

The Black Mages are really, really good. What a great use of a plot device. They're introduced so early, we know there's something horrifying about what's happening but by the time we visit Black Mage Village it's just so... sad. Them turning to Kuja in desperation, never actually believing him but not seeing another option as they face their own impending mortality, it's really depressing >_> If I have to single one out it would have to be #288, the scenes with him in the graveyard are some of the most affecting and memorable ones in the game. Vivi's arc wouldn't work at all if these guys weren't convincing, but it's all done so well. Even the Black Waltz stuff was tragic. Also Bobby Corwen!! And that one mage who says he will never forget #36. Man.

Queen Brahne is pretty odd. Whenever she's on screen the game is usually emphasising her comic evil tendencies but whenever she's off screen her fall to evil is framed as such a tragedy. The game tries to walk a tightrope between these and it doesn't really work, any emotion to her is purely based on what the player sees in Dagger. I mean I guess it's intentional, Brahne is so clearly consumed by greed and Dagger is trying in vain to see the mother she once knew, but it doesn't help Brahne as a character. And the tropes of her being fat, oddly coloured and pockmarked as traits of her disgusting nature are pretty yawnworthy. Pretty boring that she was just possessed by Kuja too, it'd be better if she'd had her own agency or slowly got influenced by his interference over the course of the game or something. As is, she's the Act 1 villain so they didn't need to make her complicated, I guess.

Mikoto shows up in the last act and leaves a lasting impression, very similar to the black mages but even more innocent and deluded about the nature of life. She exists to display Zidane's growth (and Kuja's!), but the game doesn't overuse her and as a result she works well.

I've spoken about Garland before, but I'm a big fan of how the game uses him. In essence he's just the exposition machine for the last big plot reveals, but the game wisely gives him a character beyond that. He's sinister, devoted to his cause, but also lost and still learning about life himself. By the end he's even a guide for Zidane. He has some great lines, is the trigger for maybe the best sequence in the game, and fills his role well. Great use of an antagonist.

Which brings us to Kuja, the most prominent NPC in the game. Now I have said before in these playthroughs that I'm not usually drawn to villains in this series. Kuja starts off the same as several others, some sinister feminine-looking mastermind who is always five steps ahead of everyone and never makes a mistake. In other words, pretty boring to me. Some good lines, though. Thankfully the game takes several twists with him. With the introduction of Garland he suddenly gets knocked off his perch, frantically stumbling around trying to keep some form of plan intact while still projecting this image of him being calm and collected. And then of course he is made aware of his own mortality, and goes full destruction mode. This is a bit less interesting honestly, but the game brings it back around by the end in making him somewhat sympathetic without excusing anything he's done. I'm very interested how I'd view him in a replay, seeing that his early image is largely a facade and he's hiding from himself for much of the game. As a dark mirror of Zidane he works well, he's easily an upper tier villain for the series but that isn't really saying much for me.


---

Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado.
Currently playing: Final Fantasy IX!