My First Experience with FF9: no one to share with, so, I dump it here
The first time I opened the game was in December 2024. I was a fresh new parent (a dad) with a LO of 6 months old. Due to many daily obligations and so many lifechanging events like moving, marrying, landing on a good job, I was desperately needing a new pulse of inspiration, like what Chrono Trigger and FFX did for me more than 20 years ago. I got unused to playing games...
To talk about my first impression on FF9. Honestly, given my new life as a dad, I got very much bored at the beginning because of all of the theater stuff. It paced it down too much while my LO was crying all the time. Still, till date, I’ve not been able to enjoy the theater plays of this game, though, I don’t despise it either. I was getting a bit skeptical, until Vivi’s Theme, Battle Theme 1 and Vamo Alla Flamenco started to play. I was used to people (like me) saying how good FFX was in its music score, which it truly is, and would often hear from others that FFIX has OST at least as good as FFX. Well, that’s definitely the case. The music in the forest, the ambient sounds of the forest, Steiner’s humility towards Vivi, quickly showed me that there is so much more to this game than the chaotic beginning of the game.
There are so many beautiful moments and music scores in this game. The music is 10/10. The game has so many flaws, but to me, perfection may have flaws.
But, here are things that I would like to share what made it personal to me.
For many Vivi is the big favorite. For me, it is Eiko. Her theme, her appearance, her story, it’s just so touching. Seeing such a small kid growing up lonely and acting like an adult, it feels depressing really, yet, she is there, fully committed to the whole team all the time. In times, she felt like a bigger sister to Garnet, as the more experienced summoner and someone who could teach Garnet about her roots. In Bran Bal, Zidane and Garnet were quite off, I loved it so much that we get to roam with Eiko. She was also the first to come during the Not Alone scene (though, together with Vivi). And God, at the ending, her saying Mom / Dad to Hilda and Cid broke my heart. I really wished that someone would tell Eiko how our grandpa would’ve been so proud of her. Because of Eiko, I could really feel my love towards my LO increasing. Maybe if I played the game in a much younger time of my life, I would pick Vivi over Eiko. This is not to discount on Vivi, he is such an iconic cute humble sweet character.
I’ve dealt with loneliness in my life and woud have always wanted someone to see me first, to be there first to me. Our heroes undergo such a big story arch and during the ending I broke down to see those very small moments of others embracing our heroes. It is Sir Fratley who puts his arm around Freya first. When Steiner confesses his love, the way Beatrix runs in his arms while the screen fades out is just so beautiful. Even with the character not so noticed much, Amarant, it is captivating to see how Lani approaches him first. It’s touching to see how Quina was really cooking out of love, lovely munchies, as Quina promised us so often that she would cook for us.
The Not-Alone scene is telling us so much about our heroes. Vivi and Eiko, were truly like surrogate kids to Zidane. Freya and Amarant, our combatants and lonely wolves, joining our fight against the horse independently and one-by-one, showcasing their alliance more than their friendship. Steiner and Quina rolling towards Zidane, both angry and not noticing Zidane, shows how single-minded these two can be. It is Zidane who joins them in the fight. Garnet, in my opinion, someone who is psychologically very strong and mature, not only helps Zidane with Curaga, but also helps him with his mental state. After having seen the Invincible, she appears to have picked up her senses and stood there aiding Zidane in the most mature way possible. The Not-Alone scene has triggered me to be more thankful of my friends. There are some with whom I can only talk about football, some that go deeper in my professional interests, others about social and emotional stuff.
Somehow, I also like Garland a lot. He is not an antagonist in my opinion. I even feel sad for him. Being a puppet himself to carry the burden of a whole planet and “live” like an automaton for 5000 years or longer, seeing so much blue light and empty vessels around you, so many disasters of failed attempts of assimilations. Yet, he “welcomed” Zidane on Terra. Garland was not really hostile towards our team. Even after he was beaten up, he remained guiding us and giving us very deep philosophical thoughts like collective memories, which given the fact that he was supposed to be the restorer of Terra, is an important aspect of his life. I am not saying he was a good guy, he just wanted to carry out his task for survival, just like how a lion eats an antilope does not make the lion inherently good or evil. But what I truly hope for Garland is that he recognizes that Zidane possibly saved him too by the love bond between Terran Zidane and the Gaian queen Garnet. Perhaps this is a much better way of assimilating Terra into Gaia? If that is the case, ironically, it was all due to Kuja’s will to life, his pride, his narcissism, that made Zidane bond with Gaia.
So many small scenes that I keep repeating myself sometimes. Baku shouting to Steiner if he has its own thoughts or not. Well, sometimes depression tricks me and thinks on my behalf, those dark thoughts are not necessarily my own thoughts. Then there is Beatrix. I’m partially Turkish, with lots of love for military and soldiers, which is part of our culture. I can truly feel her passion and ambition. And like her, we are also accused of genocides. While I know Beatrix did commit genocide for sure, thanks to her character I’ve also started reading upon the accusations towards us. I didn’t know much about it, but am still learning about what happened back then. I believe that Japanese people, as they were one of the main target audiences, would also feel something similar with Beatrix (I hope).