No Spoilers: Final Fantasy IX – Honest Review by a Japanese Gamer | Switch Remaster

Hello, My name is Towaka!

Do you have an interest in Final Fantasy Ⅸ?
You might wonder as following: “Is that game fun?” or “Are its contents understandable in English?“.

I am a Japanese gamer who’s currently learning English and played this game in both of Japanese and English.

So, I wrote this review Final Fantasy Ⅸ (Switch Remaster) in English from a Japanese perspective.
I honestly wrote this review and it includes no spoilers, so feel free to check it out.

Now, let’s begin!

My Evaluation: 80/100

Personal Evaluation：90/100
Recommendation：80/100

I felt that there were some difficulties in terms of comfort, such as operability and settings.

However, I think this game is enjoyable even when the above points are taken into account because of the excellent story, background music, and characters.

This game’s stage isn’t relevant to Japanese, so I think that there are few difficult words peculiar to the Japanese language.
Perhaps, it is relatively easy to understand.

Good Points

A Deep Story of Characters

The story develops as the theme of “life,” and the characters’ growth as they face their problems is deeply thought-provoking.

The main character is Zidane, but a boy wizard named Vivi is often referred to as the other main character.
Unaware of his birth, Vivi is strongly troubled by the question of who he is.

The heroine, Garnet, is a princess of a country and suffers from various conflicts due to her surrounding environment.
She becomes so distressed that her stress reveals as poor physical health at times.
However, she gradually gets over it with time.

Two guys, the knight Steiner who defends Garnet and Amarant who is a watchman of the mansion, are initially hard-headed and difficult to interact with.
But, they look at themselves and grow spiritually as they travel with Zidane.

As mentioned above, it is a fascinating story of the spiritual growth of several characters.
And, Garnet is simply adorable.

Excellent Music

Battle BGM in this work are highly appreciated.
Though this game needs a long load when beginning a battle, the cool BGM make us decrease our stress to the load.

I extremely love “Melodies Of Life” because it is a so beautiful and kind song.

You click below URL, then you can listen to this song.
There is no official English version on YouTube, so I’m sorry for Japanese version.
(Though there is unofficial version…)
◆Melodies Of Life (Japanese version)◆

Useful Functions (Specific to Remaster)

There are several new functions added in the remastered version.
Among them, the 3x speed and no encounters functions were quite useful.

If you turn on both functions when moving to another city, you can move very fast.
For those who advance the game efficiently, these functions are so appreciated.

If you are good at RPG, you may get a little bored.
In my case, I used the 3x speed mode to be more comfortable.

Very Low Difficulty

I felt that this title is set at much lower difficulty level than other titles in the FF numbering series.
For example, the bosses have few HP and there are fewer enemies that attack unreasonably.

However, be careful to balance the distribution of experience since there are eight characters.
Nevertheless, even RPG beginners are unlikely to get stuck.

Movies Quality

The movie is supposed to be a improved version of the original, but it is powerful and beautiful enough to be seen now.
There are dozens of varieties in all, and the volume is just right.

In particular, there is a impressive scene in the middle of the work that shows Garnet’s mental transformation.
That is my favorite scene because of beauty.

Bad Points and Subtle Points

Long Load When Beginning a Battle

The first time after moving the map, there will always be a 15 seconds waiting period due to loading.
There may be some stress since most games today have short load times.

Bad Tempo in Battle Scenes

The battle speed can be set to three levels, but it is quite slow even when set to the fastest.
There is a slight pause before the actions such as attacking or using spells and the overall action is sluggish.

And although it is common in Final Fantasy series, some of the summoning magic and spells used by the last boss take several tens of seconds.

Too Loud Sound Effects

Sound effects (SE) are set very loud in this work.
Therefore, the BGM is often almost inaudible due to the sound effects in battle scenes.

When I turn up the volume to listen to background music, my ears hurt.

In addition, the volume balance between SE and BGM cannot be adjusted.
I must say that this specification is so bad in FF series where BGM is one of the pleasures.

Possibility of Missing Spells

In this work, unique abilities and spells are set for armor and weapons.
In addition, there are many pieces of equipment that can only be purchased in stores at a fixed period.

The problem here is that you could miss out on magic and other things.
You cannot check the abilities of equipment in the store.
The only way to check is to buy it or look at the strategy site, which is quite inconvenient.

In my case, I did not buy equipment that could learn three strongest magics.
Therefore, I could not use them even once until the ending.

Low FPS in the Field?

Though the field is clearly low FPS, it doesn’t matter at all in other situations.
Those accustomed to high FPS playing environments on PCs may feel uncomfortable.

I had it set to 3x speed when moving through the field in order to make it better even a little.

the Overshadowed Last Boss

The description about the last boss is poor and gives the impression of suddenly coming out.
I felt that just this work having rich content could have more involved the last boss in the story.

However, this is not a major problem because the story up to that point is solid.

Conclusion

There are a few inconveniences in terms of the system, but overall it is a very interesting work.

I hope this article will help you when consider about whether you buy the game.
Thank you for reading to the end!