And I have been watching too much British television.
I even think with a British accent now. It's sort of strange. Yeah.
Anyway, to the point of this post. Final Fantasy IX. I really love that game. After much soul searching over the years, I can solidly say that it is my favorite Final Fantasy game, and it makes me sad that some people have never even heard of it. Final Fantasy VII does, however, come in a close second. And as overrated as people think that game is, I do love it regardless of how many people think positively or negatively about it. But that is a tale for another time. This post is about my favorite, Final Fantasy IX.
It is a funny game. It does still have plenty of seriousness to the plot, but I so feel like it has the most comedic talent out of any of the Final Fantasy games I have played, which is most of them. And every single character is so well-made. Zidane will forever be my favorite leading male, though I am pretty excited for Nocits in Versus XIII, but that is beside the point. His character is so well-made and developed throughout the plot, and my sister and I both fell in love with him. Her probably less than me, since I am the one with the "falling in love with fictional characters" issue. I can say the same for Dagger, Vivi, Steiner, Eiko, and every single one of the characters in that game.
Next part of why I love it is Kuja. I understand that the majority of Final Fantasy fans will say that Sephiroth is the best villain ever. I can see that point of view. I am addicted to Sephiroth's story, and I fell in love with him as much as I fell in love with Zidane. More hard-core Final Fantasy fans who have been playing all of the games obsessively will try to tell me that Kefka is the best villain. I am currently in the process of playing Final Fantasy VI with my sister, so I can't jusdge the situation quite yet, but he does seem like a good villain. Naive fans who only started playing with the PlayStation 2 might try to tell me Seymour is the best villain. Those people... I don't even want to explain how wrong I find that. But I disagree. I believe that Kuja is the best villain.
I do have reasons. Kuja is not the most powerful. No, he would probably lose in a fight against Sephiroth. Again, not sure about Kefka. I should play Dissidia and find out. He is not the most mentally screwed up. He is not, by any account, the most evil. So if that is how you measure the best villain, then I do suppose he is not the winner. However, his character is astounding. He was created for a single purpose, and he was defective. So his creator made a newer version, a better version, that effectively was his brother. He was cast aside, and his creator knew he would be useless and planned to replace him with the newer model. I can understand why he got upset and tried to get rid of Zidane. Then he finds out that he is going to die. In a childlike fit of jealousy, he wants to destroy the world so that everything else will go down with him.
Kuja is not evil. He was mistreated, and that led him to make some stupid decisions. He never got to grow up, and he retained a childlike sense about him that led him to want to destroy everything. He wasn't proud of what he was, hence the hiding of his tail, and he was most certainly jealous of Zidane. But after all of the character development he went through, in the end he does something right. He saved Zidane's party and assisted them in escaping in the end of the game. Zidane saw that change in him, and he stayed behind to protect him. I like to believe that Kuja didn't die, but that is left up in the air. And that is why I feel like he is the best villain. His character is astoundingly well-done, and his motivations are original and well-founded by the writers.
My next point is the theme. As many people know, IX and X were developed at the same time. As such, IX did not receive much advertisement, but that isn't my point. The theme of Final Fantasy X is about dreams and hope. I love its message. It is one of the best games I have ever played. I haven't been involved with Final Fantasy VII for as long, but I know its theme could very well have something to do with the idea that we are destroying the planet. Also very important, and very close to my heart. Each game has something like that, but the one that hits me the most is Final Fantasy IX's. It is about life.
Every single one of the characters in IX is faced with their mortality. There are numerous monologues about life and how you need to live it, no matter what you are or what you've done. From Zidane, to Kuja, to especially Vivi, that theme is illustrated in every single character's story. Though it isn't explicitly mentioned, most people assume the farewell monologue in the end is Vivi before he died. I also see that as being true, though it took me a while to figure that out. I feel like IX has the strongest message that can really be applied to any person, in any stage of life. We have to live with the time that we have, and not simply exist. That game genuinely changed my life.
The characters and plot, while having all of their ties to the bits of Final Fantasy that are in each game, are so unique. My sister and I always play Final Fantasy games together, and in the old ones we say the lines since they aren't dubbed. Honestly, it is probably where my acting skills came from. And Final Fantasy IX is the first game we did that for. It has become a habit. Another part of my attraction to IX is the music. For some reason, people seem to really like the music of VIII. I don't particularly like that music, and I don't particularly like that game. There are things about it that deter me from being interested, like the double plot. IX has my favorite music, and every time I hear it all I want to do is play it again. It never gets old to me, and I really just wish that more people would give it a chance and be able to learn form it, as well as laugh and enjoy it, in the same way my sister and I did.
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