The Energon Pub

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/06/10/final-fantasy-ix-hits-psn-store-this-tuesday/

Final Fantasy IX hits PSN Store this Tuesday

Posted by Ami Blaire // Vice President of Marketing, Square Enix

We’d like to thank everyone who has patiently waited for the revival of one of the most anticipated classics in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy IX.

Returning to the elements of what makes true role-playing games appealing — characters, grand story, engaging battles and an impressive presentation — we’re proud to offer PS3 and PSP owners a chance to relive what RPG fans have long considered a nostalgic masterpiece.

The wait is almost over and we’re proud to announce that Final Fantasy IX is finally here, again!

Look for Final Fantasy IX to hit the US PSN Store next Tuesday, June 15th for $9.99. For more information on Final Fantasy IX, please visit the official site.

Dear Square Enix,

I am sending you my credit card information. Take what you need.

Love, Shadowman.

Be forewarned - you can never 100% complete this game with one save file. The best weapon in the game requires you to miss a lot of stuff out.

My advice - the best weapon isn't worth the stress and difficulty to get. The rewards everything else brings severely outweigh the extra power.

Also note - I am the fountain of wisdom about this game. Back on the PS1 I produced more Gamebreaker cheat codes than I really had any need to - good fun swapping graphics, abilities, characters ect, though. It's also interesting to note that the NTSC American and PAL UK versions use almost identical memory addresses for most things - unlike VII or VIII which had offsets or totally different memory layouts.

The experienced player will nearly always have Garnet and Vivi on their final team. Garnet for Odins Sword ability and Vivi for the Pumice\Shadow Absorb Doomsday "full heal characters\9999 dam to all mosters trick"

It's sacrilege to say that I'm more intent on playing X2 first right?

I do like sacrilege.

Counterpunch wrote:It's sacrilege to say that I'm more intent on playing X2 first right?

I do like sacrilege.

It's more than that. It's deviancy of the higest order! Go straight to hell, sinner!

Amelie wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:It's sacrilege to say that I'm more intent on playing X2 first right?

I do like sacrilege.

It's more than that. It's deviancy of the higest order! Go straight to hell, sinner!

I'm going to play it out like this: I prefer pretty girls in a variety of fun/sexy outfits doing what I tell them to rather than being in charge of a boy with a tail.

Counterpunch wrote:

Amelie wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:It's sacrilege to say that I'm more intent on playing X2 first right?

I do like sacrilege.

It's more than that. It's deviancy of the higest order! Go straight to hell, sinner!

I'm going to play it out like this: I prefer pretty girls in a variety of fun/sexy outfits doing what I tell them to rather than being in charge of a boy with a tail.

While I have no problems with that, or the combat, the rest of the game falls flat on it's sexy ass. It pretty much spits on everything X stood for, kicks it in the crotch while it's down, then tosses it off a cliff.

X had probably one of the better plots in the series. Hell, if the characters had more traditional designs, it wouldn't surprise me if the game was set in Ivalice. You had everything, corruption, romance, a giant nigh-unkillable monster, Auron, a group of characters you actually grow to like, and a fantastic ending.

Then X-2 literally has to undo all of that. And I do mean literally, it even goes so far as to take all the kick out of X's ending. All it has is it's combat, and for the rest it has to rely on "sex sells." Fun fact: If you have to rely on having an attractive main character in as little clothing as possible in order to sell your game, you need to try harder.

Shadowman wrote:Then X-2 literally has to undo all of that. And I do mean literally, it even goes so far as to take all the kick out of X's ending. All it has is it's combat, and for the rest it has to rely on "sex sells." Fun fact: If you have to rely on having an attractive main character in as little clothing as possible in order to sell your game, you need to try harder.

On a serious note, you're shortchanging the innovative combat system that X2 created and was further refined in XIII.

Having attractive main characters, even if they have a bit of sex-sells attached to them is not a disqualifier from an interesting game, story, or experience. Both to play a game and to dismiss a game only on the basis of attractive main characters is poor strategy.

I almost simply want to reference Bayonetta and end my argument.

I full well realize that most bad games attempt to fall back on a sexy heroine to sell the crap title. But it's easily a case of correlation and not causation, which I think is often inferred when dealing with something like X2 or Bayonetta.

Counterpunch wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Then X-2 literally has to undo all of that. And I do mean literally, it even goes so far as to take all the kick out of X's ending. All it has is it's combat, and for the rest it has to rely on "sex sells." Fun fact: If you have to rely on having an attractive main character in as little clothing as possible in order to sell your game, you need to try harder.

On a serious note, you're shortchanging the innovative combat system that X2 created and was further refined in XIII.

You may want to rethink that argument. I haven't played XIII yet, though I may get it next week, but I've been hearing bad things about it's combat system, like it requires no strategy and it's too simple.

Counterpunch wrote:Having attractive main characters, even if they have a bit of sex-sells attached to them is not a disqualifier from an interesting game, story, or experience. Both to play a game and to dismiss a game only on the basis of attractive main characters is poor strategy.

I never said I had a problem with attractive main characters, but I did say that if that's all the game has going for it, then the developers need to try harder.

It doesn't take away from an interesting story or experience, you're right about that. Unfortunately, X-2 doesn't HAVE an interesting story or experience. It takes everything X built up, smashes it, burns the rubble, then does a pop song and dance routine on the ashes.

Shadowman wrote:You may want to rethink that argument. I haven't played XIII yet, though I may get it next week, but I've been hearing bad things about it's combat system, like it requires no strategy and it's too simple.

I don't want to rethink it one bit.

**** the FF13 haters. Pretentious pricks, all of them.

It was an interesting game with a good story and even better characters.

Almost everyone who holds a low opinion of 13 pulled the whole "It's a 20-30 hour tutorial." hem and haw, and never actually went into the game. The way I see it, FF as a franchise is not a sacred cow. It's a changing story telling device. "Linear" is not a curse word when the compensation is a good story with characters who actuall develop over time.

My annoyance isn't so much directed at you as it is the people you talk about who only looked at the surface mechanics of the game, yes, when it is easy, and generalized from there.

Counterpunch wrote:

Shadowman wrote:You may want to rethink that argument. I haven't played XIII yet, though I may get it next week, but I've been hearing bad things about it's combat system, like it requires no strategy and it's too simple.

I don't want to rethink it one bit.

**** [/i]the FF13 haters. Pretentious pricks, all of them.

It was an interesting game with a good story and even better characters.

Almost everyone who holds a low opinion of 13 pulled the whole "It's a 20-30 hour tutorial." hem and haw, and never actually went into the game. The way I see it, FF as a franchise is not a sacred cow. It's a changing story telling device. "Linear" is not a curse word when the compensation is a good story with characters who actuall develop over time.

My annoyance isn't so much directed at you as it is the people you talk about who only looked at the surface mechanics of the game, yes, when it is easy, and generalized from there.

The same 'pretentious pricks' also mentioned that the story isn't very good either. I'm not complaining about the game, mind you, I haven't played it yet, and I definitely will and judge it myself. I'm just saying what I heard.

Also, I just bought IX off the PlayStation store. Yay me.

Shadowman wrote:The same 'pretentious pricks' also mentioned that the story isn't very good either.

Not only do I stand by what I said, but I hold the hand of what I said now as well.