FFIX Session One

I actually did not think of doing this blog until I realized a daily play session of FFIX was really going to help my growing anxiety about the less-than-great job market. This also can get me into a habit of playing a game and updating my website, two hobbies I have been wanting to make consistent for a long time but just feel demotivated by the time my head hits the pillow. Long story short, this "Let's Play via Blog" is my version of a mental health move, let's see if it works.

Ah, Final Fantasy IX. I don't think I have ever actually finished this game but I have kind of always enjoyed this game's aesthetic and characters. For all intents and purposes this is a practically fresh playthough, I have since forgotten about what I have experienced in the past and thus I will aim to play this with as few guides or retrospective media as humanly possible. and while I would like to eventually master this on RetroAchievements I feel it would be best to sit and play this on original hardware in order to better connect with the art of the game itself rather than trying to get brownie points.

I have a lot of nostalgia for that PlayStation Boot logo I am not going to lie. When I emulate other PS1 games I find myself purposely sitting through the full BIOS boot to hear this intro whenever I can. I love it. Alright, gushing about old Sony UX aside, lets get into the game.

I had previously cleaned my personal PS1 controller and it looks a lot better than it was, despite being yellowed, thusly I was able to navigate menus and play the game without thinking about the gunk in the controller. The game opens with a classic Square Enix FMV Cutscene, showing the princess at sea before she wakes up, trapped in the tower. We get a really beautiful shot of the city in which the game opens which I must say, I love the 18th century fantasy vibe of the whole thing and even in gameplay the design just transcends the limitations of the hardware.

I decided to be a basic bitch about naming Zidane because Vivi is my comfort character and I am saving "Manen" for him. I love the fact that this game opens with multiple combat tutorials that instead of being actual battles with stakes, are rather stagefights to ease up the pressure. I feel this makes the game a lot easier to "get into" as the whole opening has a cozy and comfortable vibe to it, complete with a stagefighting minigame I will get into in a minute.
Cutting to Vivi, who has a fake ticket and just some pretty bad luck, we follow some annoying rat kid to the play. Not much else to say here other than the mognet pickup before climbing the tower. I think I will have a LOT more to say about Vivi in future sessions so I will leave it at that.

We start the play and redid the sword fight thing several times, profiting 800 gil and impressing 97 audience members, not half bad for a guy who hasn't played a rhythm game in several years. After this we cut to playing as Steiner, who I named STEINER because having him in all caps would be funny. As Steiner we search for the princess who vanished during the play. This is when things really start moving. After a chase through the ship and the reveal that the princess DESPERATELY wants to be kidnapped, we all end up on the stage where the final moments of the play find out.

Through a comedy of errors Vivi ends up setting Garnet's coat on fire revealing she is on stage. A fight ensues that then turns into a fight with a cool looking magic bomb in the background. I think it is really cool when RPGs pit you against playable characters, and doing this in the opening is cool and seems to set up the character interactions I am sure I'll enjoy all over again for the first time.
After the lengthy cutscene of the ship crashing outside the city we end up in the forest and see that Garnet and Vivi are being chased by... something.

Here I am going to save and do more tomorrow. My dog towards this point started standing on my chest and begging to go outside so I had to do that, until next time!