The Most Underrated?

I remember before Final Fantasy VII came out, there was a hush in the magazines as they detailed how great the game was, how revolutionary it was, how it would blow away every other game ever with the beautiful graphics and stylish gameplay. And it did.

I remember before Final Fantasy VIII came out. Magazines saying that, for the first time ever, it would be a direct sequel, and then being proved wrong. Being told about the new characters, the realistic graphics. A TV advert campaign to hype it and out it came… To not as big an acclaim as Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy IX, however, just suddenly appeared on the shelf. I was wandering around the shops in my first year at Uni and I saw the game there. I blinked. "IX? THEY WERE MAKING A IX???" That weekend I packed my Playstation in my bag, carried it to Uni and played that damn game.

I was shocked that I had had no pre-warning of the release. Granted, I’d stopped reading games magazines, but I would’ve expected at least an advert at some point to let me know.

It led me to wonder if Final Fantasy IX was underrated, not only by those who played it, but by those who made it. To just release the game without seemingly much acclaim seemed strange.

I think IX is up there with VI and IV fighting for 2nd place in the list of best Final Fantasises. I need to finish playing it through a 2nd time to see how I feel about it, but it was well crafted and a very interesting game and storyline.

Your views?

We discussed FFIX in here before it came out, and seriously, the graphics confused me a little and when I ordered FFIX along with Chrono Cross one day, I actually did not expect much. But then the game turned out to be awesome and I had to play through it before I could touch Chrono Cross, which I had been looking forward to MADLY!

I underestimated FFIX, I don�t know about you others, though. Some people say it was childish, which is not quite true, the life and death theme of this game was quite mature, I guess…

The most underrated FF would be FF5, maybe, though. =P

i think the people saw FFIX as a rebirth of the traditional FF games and thought, "Oh, its not going to have great graphics and set new standards just because its based on games that were created in 2-d environments."
i say bullshit…
this game has better graphics than FFVII and FFVIII. I thought that the game set new standards for computer imagery just like the others.
it could also be the fact that Square wanted to make the characters look fake just because and so the magazines thought that if the characters dont look good, the gameplay and the graphics look bad just so that the characters can fit into the game.
and to that, i say bullfuck…
stupid magazines… i go to the internet to find my sources, why? because i can see the images for myself and decide then. not in some stupid magazine where they give you two or three images and overload you with their opinion… yea… :rolleyes:

Zero! God yes! 😀 I do think FF9 is VERY underrated.

Actually, I still remember when FF9 was being produced at Square USA, the team was relatively small. Most of the energy at that time seemed to be going towards the movie, or at least, that’s where my attention was turned to. And even then, there wasn’t much marketing or attention given to the Honolulu studio.

How many people knew that FF9 is the only FF game to be produced in Hawaii? I always joke that when I first found out FF9 was being made, my first reaction was, "Aren’t they going to STOP already?" Hehe, of course, I said that jokingly. I’d never played Final Fanasy before that.

My boyfriend used to send me clips and news tidbits about FF9 every so often, just to let me know what the company was up to. One day he sent me a clip of Kuja fighting Bahamut, and I remember (after being slightly annoyed at the rather large filesize and cursing my 56K dial-up connection at the time) thinking, "This is a GAME? That’s GORGEOUS!"

Almost years later, I got FF9, thinking, "I’ve always wanted to play an FF game. Might as well start with the one my friends had a hand in…" And it was love at first gameplay. Yeah, I seriously underestimated how much I would love the game. Right now it’s my favorite… well, there’s not much else I’m a huge fan of right now other than FF9.

Aside from the crazy language in some of these posts, I’m going to agree with you.

I think it was underrated, I didn’t even know anything about the game till I just got it a couple weeks ago from a used store. But I like it, though I don’t think its the best by far.

I think at the time that FFIX was released square was developing the FF movie, FFX, and FFXI. So its pretty easy to understand how their attention could get divided and neglect this title.

Hmm… FFIX I believe is rather underated… But what can you expect, it is childish, with childish characters (I mean, come on, HIPPOS and giant "Elephant Lady"), and childish cartoon-like graphics, but the story was very good, I do believe it is under-rated, but only becuase people don’t give it a chance because if it’s appearance and feel…

But what bugs me is how much FFVI is under rated O_o, I think it’s one of the best RPG’s out there O_o

Man, I really want to play VI, but I can’t find a copy of Anthologies (isn’t that what its in?) anywhere!

I can find anthologies at Electronic Boutiques and Funcolands……

It’s funny, I remember seeing previews in magazines. It wasn’t as overhyped as FF7 and FF8, but it was enough for me. I saw the previews, bought it when it came out, played it, beat it, thought it was a excellent game. That’s my FF9 story and i’m sticking to it.

becuase people don’t give it a chance because if it’s appearance and feel

Hmmm…. no, the feel was great. Even my not-so-RPG-fanatic brother could not stop playing it when we first got it. Somehow it was very captivating.

However, I find it very sad that there are still people saying the game was childish and therefore sucked. Everybody who took the time to play it would have discovered that the game had some scenes that could easily the oh-so-serious FFVIII regarding its sadness. The game’s theme is Life, Death and Memories. That’s a very serious theme that requires a bit of thinking. Vivi, a nice-year-old had to face the fact that he could basically drop dead any second, and all there was as a solution for him was the advice to live each day at the fullest because it could be the last one.
Maybe… behind the mask of happy cheerfull and ‘childish’ characters and graphics the game was dark, and thinking of it fills me with a mixture of happiness and sadness.

Hm, I’m going to stop now before the post gets too long and nobody will read it. But one last thing: Is it just me or are the graphics in FFVII kind of childish, too? I mean, they all look like coloured marshmellows. 😀

Yeah I do think it was pretty underrated… I remember when I went to target the night I bought the game, I was actually looking for Final Fantasy 8. I had NO idea that they even MADE a 9 yet. I remember when I first played it, I thought the FMVs were amazing, but I thought that the characters looked a little cartoonish. I personally liked 8 better.

I have read about the game’s release date in a magazine, but I never read a preview or what so ever…

Well, It IS underrated, I guess because "Hey, the main charecter ias a shorty with a tail?!", "Garnet is wearing a Pejama like clothes:eye:" crap and shit like that…

In my openion, the game is the best FF after FF7, the charecters look just fine, the graphics are even better than 8 and 7’s… The soundtrakcs are the best in the FF series, The gameplay is way too great, and man, the story line is AWESOME…. What did I forget?…………… Yeah the charecters are well developed and and … etc. etc….

If not to FF7 and Xenogears, I would’ve said it’s the best game ever made… Enough said…..I guess….

T.W.K.

Originally posted by Misao

Hmmm…. no, the feel was great. Even my not-so-RPG-fanatic brother could not stop playing it when we first got it. Somehow it was very captivating.
Well, that is one instance, but most of my friends and people I have talked played it once and never played it again, saying it was to "childish"

First I’ll say that I only read the first post in this thread because I am lazy. I personally saw more advertisement for FFIX than any other final fantasy thus far. But that could be because I was really looking forward to it. I saw all the previews, commercials, PSM had a whole magazine dedicated to it, it was in OPM and EGM also. I think the most underrated final fantasy game is FFVIII though. This has to be the most hated FF game and I personally cannot understand why.

FFVIII was hated because it was so damn corny *SPOILERS* "Oh, we all grew up in the same orphanage, and then we all forgot about our childhood, then we all for some reason end back up together again all by coincidence, but we didn’t reconize each other becuase of the GF’s! Oh wait! I remember now! Didn’t we all live in the same orphanage, I suddenly remember everything about everyone!!!" *everyone else chimes in* "Oh yeah! I remember you to now! And you as well!!!" */SPOILERS*

Anyway, I loved FFVIII persoanlly (I looked past all that corny crap) the plot was good but very flawed at points and the whole plot twists and is changed towards the end of the game, which was a MAJOR, MAJOR mistake, but the game was very fun to play, and the graphics were awesome, not to mention I loved the battle-system, although it was VERY flawed itself as well (go read in the FFVIII forum for explanations why ^_^)

Anyway, FFIX did have a lot of advertising, but so did FFVIII and FFVII… FFIX had that little slogan of "The Crystal is Back", and went back to FF’s roots, and the world was much like that of the NES FF’s and FFIV ^_^, that’s why it was so hyped…

FFIX just so happens to be the reason I found this site in the first place. I was looking forward to it as soon as I beat FFVIII and I went online to look up information and wound up here.Not in the forums mind you but at the main site(had no idea what forums were back then). Since then this has been my main source for ews on FF.
To the topic at hand, I love IX and it was unbelievably underrated. It proves that you don’t have to have totally realistic or dark looking characters to have a serious story and it’s ok to blend in a little humor. I guess not everyone is as accepting of that as I am. It is probably my favorite out of the PSX batch but I put all FF’s on the same level.

underrrated? NO!!! i hated that game. i have never replayed it in its entirety. i got to the end of the first disk, i stopped playing. i dont think ill ever go back through it. ok, i didnt hate it, but i didnt like it enough to play it again and again. if i hated it, i wouldnt have finished it. like i did with one of those chrono games. god that was horrible. the only good point of it was the fairy village.

it was underadvertised, yes. it seems like they would have promoted it even more, since it was just an excuse to launch playonline.

i would say the most underrated was viii. i thought that it was deeper than the others. i didnt think it was corny.

i would say 3/6 was the most underrated, but it duznt get a good bashing like viii.

Reasons LEELOO, reasons.

yeah, i did say a lot without actually saying anything at all, huh. well…that sux.

It is very underrated. I know a lot of FF fans who never even beat this game because they got bored with it. I loved the story, every minute of it. It might of been cliche, but to me, that didn’t make it any less touching or beautiful. And I think IX easily made the best use of cinematics in any FF ever.

Originally posted by Ndi
It is very underrated. I know a lot of FF fans who never even beat this game because they got bored with it…

if people got bored with it, that duznt mean that it is underrated, now does it? doesnt that mean it just SUCKS?

When FF IX was coming out, all my friends would talk about was that..

I still have an old ps1 mag that has a review if FF IX, being excited and all, but i think the hype for FF IX was big from where i was..

I guess then that it depends on where you come from, as to whether it’s underrated or not. I mean, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere for me in the UK… And I went through a heck of a lot of effort to play it (transporting a week’s worth of laundry, University work, and a PS1 complete with gaming collection on the train was NOT much fun.)

Plus, when you ask about the series as a whole, no one tends to mention it. You always get a fair spread over the over games (I, IV, VI, VII, VIII, X, X-2, etc.) But no one really mentions IX in any way. It’s the forgotten game. (Well, V’s not in my list because it annoys me too much.) People have plenty to say about the others, be it good or bad, but IX tends to be forgotten.

Hence why I think it’s underrated.

I think that Final Fantasy 9 was probably the most overrated. I mean it was a good game but it didn’t sell like they thought it would.

Well..

Im gonna make sure no one forgets FF IX, cause its the best game EVER!

Well, top 5 my best FF list is:

1. IX
2. VII
3. V
4. I
5. IV

Nine is GREAT!!!!!, I found it hard to find in the shops aswell. I think i knew it was comming out from a brittish final fantasy magazine i dont kno how i got it cos i live in Australia. But i didnt exactly know about the release date. But when it came out i had no money to get it, and i only got it last year sometime. But the Coke a Cola industry i think actuially did advertise ffix, they had zidane on one of theyre advertisments. Nine came close to the top final fantasy in my opinion but can not come close to the greatness of vii

Here here my friend (except for the living in Australia part) I think 9 was the best besides 7 but not my favorite honestly. I, for some reason unknown to me, like 8 a lot.

Personally, Final Fantasy IX was my least favorite of the series…I don’t think it deserved the credit games like 7, 8, and 10 have received. However, I do still think that it didn’t generate enough attention as it should have.

My problems with it were the lack of the numerous commands, spells, and attacks you get in the other Final Fantasy games I just mentioned. On top of that, the sidequests mostly consisted of Chocobo or Mog related quests, and brought the great adventure feel down a bit. I also heard from someone (heard, does not make this factual) that Final Fantasy IX had a substanially lower budget than the other games.

Its still a great game, just the least great among a league of great games.

I liked nine alot because it kept to the original final fantasy set up, vivi was cool and zidane was a character that made alot of sence to me, apart from cloud zidane was the only character that i could kinda relate to. The cartoonish graphics was refreshing and enjoyable because they didnt and still dont look outdated.