Final Fantasy IX

Too bad there aren't any turkey-related games to do another holiday-themed post.  Oh, well.  This time, let's talk about what I'm playing right now.

Even if you've never played a single game in your life, there's no way you haven't at least heard of the Final Fantasy series.  It's one of the oldest and most enduring game franchises around, second only to icons Mario and Sonic.  It's been around almost as long as console gaming itself, appearing first on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.  Now, twenty-three years later, there are over thirty games in the franchise: fourteen in the main series, and endless spin-offs, compilations, and re-releases that have had a say on pretty much every console imaginable: there's even two movies and a TV series based on the games.

This particular entry, Final Fantasy IX, is my personal favorite (of the ones I've played), and I would even go so far to say it's my favorite video game of all time.  What makes it so great?  First and foremost, the music.  The music in this game is beautiful.  With the exception of a couple shoddy tracks near the end of the game, the soundtrack is flawless.  The music sets the mood perfectly no matter what setting you're in; if you're in a haunted forest, it's tinkly and eerie; if you're in the middle of a chase sequence, it's fast and intense.  One of my favorite tracks is this one, which plays during one of the game's many minigames.

The plot and characters are also awesome.  One of my philosophies of entertainment is, Cliches and stereotypes are okay if you can make them interesting.  This game is Exhibit A.  The story is full of archetypal characters and cliched plotlines.  For example, the main character is a cocky thief who, along with his fellow rogues, kidnaps the princess of Alexandria, one of the world's main kingdoms.  Over the course of the game, he starts to break her out of her royal shell and help her become a better person, and she in turn humbles him and helps mold him into the hero he becomes later in the story.  And, naturally, they fall in love.  Or how about the cold, uncaring loner who lears about the power of teamwork and friendship?  Or the tormented warrior who pines for her unrequited love?  Or the cackling villain who literally "mwa-ha-ha"s when his evil plan is beginning to work?  If it sounds corny, it is, but it clicks so naturally, and the story is paced impeccably, with each character getting their own arc and development (quite a feat with eight protagonists).

The graphics are also fantastic (at least, by PlayStation One standards).  This was made in the days when this was considered good graphics:

Final Fantasy upped the bar and made the graphics look like this:

Granted, it's still very aged-looking at this point, but this was back in 1999, before even the PlayStation 2 had arrived.  The scenery of the game is lush, and a lot of the backgrounds look like paintings.

Even though the game has lost a bit of luster as I've aged (I blame this mostlyon the fact that I've played it at least eight times), there still hasn't been a game to come along to top it.  Even though it's an incredibly long game (40 hours of play time at its shortest), I still come back to play it every now and again.  It's just that good.