Bringing it All Together (Part 2, Major FF spoilers)

by Joshua Maciel 

     In order to continue what I started in my first editorial about the characters of FF9, I'd like to speak now about the plot devices use, and how they bear a similarity to several other devices used in previous FF games. I would never claim that anything I write is conclusive and/or flawless, I am simply trying to bring out into the light what I believe -- that FF9 uses many different plot points and character traits that people liked from previous games in order to create a sort of nostalgia while they play it.

     Anyone who's played more than 10 minutes of the game realizes that it opens with a play about love and a king and whatnot, big tragedy, yada yada. Half the known universe is probably going to jump on me for even SUGGESTING that this is some sort of version of the Opera from FF6. The fact that the Opera is an immensely memorable and popular scene -- to the point that it is FMVified in the Anthology -- is an obvious reason to draw on this for FF9.

     Queen Brahne's megalomania as a general seems reminiscent of Emperor Gestahl in wanting to use this magical power in order to take over the world. She's fighting against Regent Cid and his army of airships -- much like the Red Wings of FF4. The reliance on the Mist to create the black mage army is kind of like the use of Mako energy to power Midgaar in FF7.

     The lifestream in FF7 is the souls of all the people and things on the earth that have died, and the life's energy or some such. The Mist are the souls of the dead on Gaia, and that's why Terra wants them used up, to halt the stream so that they could take over, or something of the sort. The main difference is that the lifestream is green.

     Of course the four shrines was a selling point as well -- the entire advertising campaign was the whole crystals returning part. Having the earth, water, air, and fire shrines with the same original fiends (save Kary I believe, who got changed into some weird-named snake-like thing) was in order to remind old-schoolers of the roots I think.

     The loss of Blank, and his subsequent resurrection brings together several elements from FF4. You have the loss of a character, something you only see every now and then in more recent FF games, and you have the resurrection of a character, something that really is reminiscent of Yang, Cid, Rydia, etc. from FF4.

     Now the final thing that I'd like to bring up is that of the ultimate enemy who isn't quite the ultimate enemy, but rather a good guy who was just kind of out of it for the majority of the game. This plays on Sephiroth in some ways from FF7, but moreso on Golbez/Zeromus from FF4. Kuja saves your party at the end, in the same way that Golbez ends up fighting against Zemus/Zeromus at the end of FF4. Let alone the similarity of Kuja being Zidane's brother of sorts as Cecil is Golbez's brother in FF4

     What my main point is with all this talk is that FF9 uses elements from the previous FF games to create it's popularity. While it isn't a game completely consisting of elements from the other games, it draws VERY heavily on the things which made the previous games popular and memorable. The plot devices, the characters, the major plot twists -- most have striking similarities to previous games, moreso than any previous FF has drawn on the games before it. The FF series has been about innovations and changes, each game had it's own striking novelty to it. FF9 destroyed that tradition by taking a majority of it's substance from the previous games.