Final Fantasy IX

.

Final Fantasy IX

Title

Final Fantasy IX

Developer

Square

Publisher

Square

Director

Hiroyuki Ito

Producer

Hironobu Sakaguchi
Shinji Hashimoto

Artists

Hideo Minaba
Shūkō Murase
Toshiyuki Itahana

Writers

Hironobu Sakaguchi

Composer

Nobuo Uematsu

Series

Final Fantasy

Platforms

PlayStation

Release

July 7, 2000

Genres

turn based role-playing

Mode

single-player

Final Fantasy IX is a turn based role-playing game by Square. It is the ninth installment of the Final Fantasy series and was directed by Hiroyuki Ito.

Synopsis

Queen Brahne of Alexandria has begun using highly-advanced magical weapons to terrorise neighbouring kingdoms. Her daughter, Princess Garnet, runs away from the castle and befriends a group of good-hearted bandits lead by a skilled thief, Zidane, who intends to end the evil queens desire to dominate the world. Soon after embarking on their quest, they discover that the queen's threats merely cover a far more sinister plot. For the sake of mankind, Zidane and his friends must put an end to the Queen's reign before she and the evil forces that accompany her can carry out the deadly plan.

— Description of 'Final Fantasy IX' on the back of the PS1 release (EU)

Setting

The nations of Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia and Cleyra lie on the Mist continent of the world Gaia. They are seperated by large mountain ranges. Alexandria is a warmongering monarchy that controls the east of the continent. Lindblum lies to the southwest on a plateau and is a technology advanced hub for airship travel. Burmecia lies to the northwest and is showered by endless rain. Cleyra is situated in a giant tree in a desert, protected by a sandstorm.

The Outer, Lost and Forgotten Continents are home to several other but smaller civilizations, like dwarves, black mage drones and humanoid summoners. There is also the Iifa Tree, which roots creates the mist that is distributed throughout the world and stimulates the fighting instinct in humainoids.

Story

Cid tasks the group Tantalus to kidnap Princess Garnet of Alexandria who willingly comes with them, for she already planned to flee beforehand. She wants to warn Cid about her mother. On their way to Lindblum, they find out that Queen Brahne is mass-producing soulless black mage soldiers. When arriving in Lindblum, Cid confirms that he ordered to kidnap Garnet to protect her from her mother. The party learns that Alexandria has invaded Burmecia with an army of Black Mages, the party splits: Zidane and Vivi join Freya to investigate, while Garnet and Steiner secretly returns to Alexandria to reason with Queen Brahne.

Zidane's team find the Alexandrian forces are lead by Beatrix and had help from Kuja. The refugees have fled to Cleyra. Brahne takes Garnet prisoner, extracts her eidolons, and attacks Cleyra with Odin. Zidane's group defend the city, escapes on airship to Alexandria and free Garnet. Meanwhile, Queen Brahne attacks Lindblum with the eidolon Atomos. Cid explains that Kuja helps Brahne with knowledge to use eidolons and supports her with black mages. The party tracks Kuja to the Outer Continent. Queen Brahne hires bounty hunters to capture Garnet, but the party can defeat them. They meet Eiko who leads them to the Iifa Tree, where they learn that Kuja uses the Mist to create Black Mages and Vivi was a prototype. The party defeats the monster that produces the Mist. After another attempt of kidnapping Garnet she learns about her heritage as a summoner and that Queen Brahne adopted her. At the Iifa Tree, Queen Brahne tries to kill Kuja with an eidolon so she can rule unopposed, but he takes control of the eidolon and destroys her and her army.

Garnet is crowned Queen of Alexandria, and during the coronation Kuja attacks the kingdom. Together with Eiko Garnet summons an extremely powerful eidolon in defense. Kuja tries to steal the eidolon to kill his master Garland, but he arrived and destroys it. The party chases Kuja through a portal, that lead them to Terra. There they learn that there world is dying, and that they wanted to merge with Gaia. Garland has been producing soulless vessels, and for thousands of years he has been replacing deceased Gaian souls with hibernating Terrans with the Mist of the Iifa Tree. Once the merge would've happened, those souls could return to the soulless vessels and bring chaos and war to Gaia. Kuja had betrayed Garland to avoid becoming occupied by a Terran soul. Kuja defeats Garland, and he reveals that he designed Zidane to be his replacement. Enraged, Kuja destroys Terra and escapes to the Iifa Tree. There, the party enters Memoria and reaches the origin of the universe, the so called Crystal World. They defeat Kuja and prevent him to destroy the crystal of life. After defeating Necron the Tree collapses and the party flees, though Zidane stays behind to rescue Kuja.

A year later, the party has moved on, and during a performance of Tantalus Zidane is reunited with Queen Garnet.

References in Final Fantasy XIV

Legacy

• The server Lindblum referred to the kingdom with the same name.
• In one guildleve, the objective was to retrive cargo from an airship called Red Rose, which was the name of Queen Brahne's airship in Final Fantasy IX.
• An NPC in a Miner questline mistakingly calls an Miqo'te "Quina", the same name from the playable character from Final Fantasy IX.

A Realm Reborn

• The Mothercrystal's location within the world is similar the to Crystal of Final Fantasy IX which regulates the flow of souls.

Heavensward

• The Tantalus Attire is based on Zidane's outfit from Final Fantasy IX.
• Further Hildibrand Adventures centers around a mammet called "Gigi", who is based on Vivi from Final Fantasy IX.
  • It is created by a Sharlayan scholar named Quan, referencing the character from Final Fantasy IX.
• Ozma from The Weeping City of Mhach is based on the super boss from Final Fantasy IX.
• The Upside Down desgin of The Antitower is based on the feature in Ipsen's Castle from Final Fantasy IX.
• Cruise Chaser in Alexander - The Heart of the Creator is based on the Ark summon from Final Fantasy IX.
• Alexander Prime from Alexander - The Soul of the Creator Phase 2 has a similar design as Alexander's appearance from Final Fantasy IX.

Stormblood

• The Summoner quests introduces Sari from the ancient city of Madain, which is a reference to the summoner village in Final Fantasy IX.
• Mikoto is named after the same character from Final Fantasy IX.
• The Prima Vista is based on the Tantalus Theater Troupe airship from Final Fantasy IX.

Shadowbringers

• The Red Jongleur and Blue Jongleur are twin jesters serving an overweight villain, mirroring Zorn and Thorn from Final Fantasy IX.
• The Rejoining resembles the plan of Garland from Final Fantasy IX.
• During The Bozja Incident the world of memories is explored, which is similar to Memoria from Final Fantasy IX.
• Fandaniel shows some characteristics from Kuja, who soughts the death of the world after his masters perished.

Music References

Original Theme	Theme
Vamo alla Flamenco	Vamo' alla Flamenco

Endwalker

• The Endsinger and the hive mind of Meteion resembles Necron from Final Fantasy IX as an embodiment of despair.
• The Aitiascope is similar to the Crystal World from Final Fantasy IX.

Music References

Original Theme	Theme
Festival of the Hunt	Festival of the Hunt (Endwalker)
Run!	Run! (Endwalker)

Dawntrail

• Wind-up Zidane was available as a bonus reward for pre-ordering Dawntrail.
• Wind-up Garnet and Ark are included in Dawntrail's Collector's Edition.
• Apollyon the final boss of Ihuykatumu is based on the boss Abadon from Final Fantasy IX.
• Feather Ray, the first boss of The Skydeep Cenote is based on Feather Circle from Final Fantasy IX.
• Heritage Found is a reference to the Ipsen's Castle dungeon from Final Fantasy IX. Both locations fused from another world with an existing location.
  • Alexandria's plan to forcefully fuse with the source so their people can survive is a similar plan of Terra's for Gaia in Final Fantasy IX.
• Alexandria is named after the kingdom from Final Fantasy IX.
  • Remnants of former Alexandria can by found in Heritage Found. They have the same design as Alexandria from Final Fantasy XI.
  • Alexandria shows an intact Alexandria which strongly resembles the Alexandria from Final Fantasy IX.
  • In The Underkeep a reconstruction of the Alexandrian Castle can be visited. It's design is the same as in Final Fantasy IX.
    • The bosses Gargant and Valia Pira are references to the bosses of Final Fantasy IX.
• Solution 9 shares the same name as Zidane's attack.
• Sphene is a reference to Garnet from Final Fantasy IX.
  • Their naming schemes resemble. Alexandrians in Final Fantasy IX are named after gemstones.
  • Post-Dawntrail Sphene mentions she knows some healing magic. This alludes to Garnet being a White Mage.
  • Further in the story, Sphene becomes an Arcanist, with a tome reading "Melodies of Life" in Eorzean Alphabet written on it, and having the sheet music for the song. The blue and orange circles referencing the worlds of Final Fantasy IX, Terra and Gaia.
• Otis is a reference to Adalbert Steiner from Final Fantasy IX.
  • His attacks during his solo instance share the same names.
• Gulool Ja living in the ruins of Alexandria is a reference to Eiko Carol living in the ruins of Madain Sari in Final Fantasy IX.
• Living Memory is based on Memoria from Final Fantasy XI.
  • Several locations in Living Memory have references to places from Final Fantasy IX.
  • The play in A Knight of Alexandria is a reference to the starting sequence of "I Want to Be Your Canary" from Final Fantasy IX.
  • Mica the Magical Mu from the FATE Mascot Murder is a reference to the friendly monsters called Mu in Final Fantasy IX.
• Lindblum is mentioned as an opposing kingdom that caused the calamity on the Ninth, sharing the same name as the technological advanced kingdom in Final Fantasy IX.
• Lindblum Zaghnal from the Yuweyawata Field Station is based on the Zaghnal boss from Final Fantasy IX.
• Zelenia from Recollection is based on Beatrix from Final Fantasy XI.
• Mistwake is based on Quan's Dwelling. The bosses Treno Catoblepas, Amdusias and Thundergust Griffin are based on the same bosses from the Dungeon in Final Fantasy IX.
• Treno is based on the city from Final Fantasy IX.
• In AAC Cruiserweight M2 (Savage) several friendly monsters from Final Fantasy IX make an appearence: Yan, Mu, Gimme Cat and the Jabberwock.
• Necron from The Ageless Necropolis is based on Necron from Final Fantasy IX.

Music References

Original Theme	Theme
Battle 1	FINAL FANTASY IX: Battle 1 (Dawntrail)
Your Warmth
Prima Vista Band
Limited Time
Tantalus' Theme
Indelible Sorrow
Broken Spell and Healed Hearts
Something to Protect
Tonight
Living by the Sword
Fairy Battle	Faerie Battle
Court Jesters	Court Jesters (Dawntrail)
Find the Princess	Find the Princess (Dawntrail)
Roses of May	Roses of May (Dawntrail)
Final Battle	FINAL FANTASY IX: The Final Battle (Dawntrail)
Battle 2	FINAL FANTASY IX: Battle 2 (Dawntrail)
Fanfare	Fanfare from FINAL FANTASY IX