Gaming in Reverse - Final Fantasy IX

See last week's 'Gaming in Reverse' here!

Welcome to Gaming in Reverse, where every week we use The Power of Writing to reverse time on a game series or remake. We’re flipping history to pretend the newest games are the oldest games! Can we prove that older is actually sometimes better?

We thought it was crazy when Square Enix swaggered into the crowded ring of Japanese RPGs with its debut entry Final Fantasy XIII. With one beautiful but flawed game it had thrown the gauntlet down at its own feet, challenging itself to make 12 semi-sequels, through commercial success or failure, to reach an ultimate Final Fantasy that would live up to the name. If its fourth sequel Final Fantasy IX is anything to go by, then it will be an easy triumph. By taking daring risks with the stagnant JRPG formula, the creators have proved themselves to be heroes worthy of their self-imposed quest.

Fans will remember that where Final Fantasy XIII had a glossy sheen of High-Definition polish, Final Fantasy XII instead revelled in its matte textures and an earthy look that suited its world so well. But we hadn’t seen anything yet. Sure, Final Fantasy XII was richly drawn with subtle texture work, gaming’s equivalent of painterly brush strokes, Final Fantasy IX instead celebrates fine art itself with gorgeous, hand-painted backdrops. It simply boycotts the loss that comes when concept art is translated into polygons.

And yet they’ve lost none of the drama. Despite fears that the rigid hand-drawn backdrops would take away from the trademark flamboyance of Final Fantasy’s story scenes, the whole adventure is instead given the air of a performance. Plot now unfolds on fixed sets, and without the luxury of dynamic angles and motion-blur zooms, the burden of entertainment is left to well-written dialogue and charmingly theatrical movements. Final Fantasy X’s blunders, voice-acting as a whole having been completely excised, deemed unfit for the job of carrying this magical adventure is completely scrapped. In its place is witty, and sometimes touching, on-screen dialogue that is a simple delight for being written in pixels and read in the mind – and it’s all the better for it.

Final Fantasy: Because IX is obviously the best one

In fact, pretty much all of it is. For all these theatrical, literary, and visual delights FF IX is still a great game with secret items to be discovered and tense battles to be fought. By stripping away the modern gleam and glitz Squaresoft (as it is now called) has made a world that feels lived-in, a story that feels crafted and characters that feel cared for. It is a wonderful tale, one that, if something cataclysmic should happen, we’d even be content to call our last taste of the series. This would be a worthy Final Fantasy.

_If you have an idea for a Gaming in Reverse or any games article for that matter, then get in touch! We don’t bite! _games.felix@imperial.ac.uk