Closing Thoughts On IX

I donât know whether RPGs have gone downhill, or Iâve simply become jaded, but I havenât played a great game since Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. Chrono Cross was a horrible dissapointment, nothing like it should have been; Final Fantasy VII was interesting, despite all the flamewars about it; Final Fantasy VIII was good, yet the hanging storythreads (IE: why is there no big hoop-lah after both the Balamb Garden Insurrection and the Balamb Garden Battle?) made the taste awful in my mouth; and Final Fantasy IX.

Again, I ask--who the hell was Necron?

Final Fantasy IX is no ãdiamond in the rough,ä but I did find it amusing. From the moment the story started, I was caught up on it, watching as dear Vivi was lost in the grandeur and splendor of Alexandria. Caught, yes, as all good RPGs should do. I was caught up with Vivi, caught up with Zidane, caught up with Steiner, caught up with Garnet--caught up with them all. Even with Kuja. Man, heâs a man! Weird.

FFIX had a darling cast of characters with their own situations (Eiko, poor Eiko--all alone!) and problems, and delicious character interaction/development, such as the whole ãtriangleä between Eiko, Zidane, and Garnet, the constant bickering between Zidane and Steiner, the realization of the world with Vivi and the Black Mages--and Quina! God, I canât forget Quina. During one particular scene, close to the end, when youâre at.. Quanâs?.. Cave, I laughed as I watched Quina imagine all the food.

Wonderful, wonderful!

.. so why did Square have to go and f- it up?

Square seems to have some obsession with this idea that the hero -must- be noble, his battle standard some idea that he must--at the end of the game--defeat the nemesis for truth/justice/salvation/etc. ãI will destroy you to save the world!ä They have pounded this idea into every game they have created--at least, all that I can think of. When Kuja casts Ultima, when he brought the party down to its knees, I didnât want to have to listen to Zidane talk about defeating Kuja for the better of the world, to save the world, the same old hackneyed crap shoveled into every other Square game. I wanted to see Zidane talk about beating Kuja bloody for all that he had done to them, for what he had just done to them, and for what he might do to them. Just to do it. Revenge. Whatever. Itâs.. truer.. like that, so much more believeable so much more -real-.

Okay, so, aftter dealing with Kuja, I then have to fight.. Necron!? Who the hell is Necron!? ::sigh:: After struggling all this way to defeat Kuja, to defeat my nemesis, Iâm told that Necron holds the key to the destruction of the universe. I have no idea who Necron is, other than he is the disembodied soul of a misanthropic highschool poet, as evident by the garble he spouts on life and death. I did not enjoy my battle with Necron- -not because he was doing a pret-ty good job of keeping me on my toes, or because I almost died twice, but because he was NOBODY to me, he was NOTHING to me. So why should I care?

So on, so forth, and more...

I thought the scene between Zidane and Garnet was beautful--not the one during the ending cinema, that sappy, my-god-I-didnât- see-that-coming-boy-they-just-cheapened-his-death scene where Zidane reveals himself to Garnet--but where Garnet asks Zidane to promise that he will return. You know, after fighting Necron, when you end up at the base of the Iifa Tree. While the scene would have been better in FMV, one can imagine it themselves, that both Garnet and Zidane know that Zidane wonât return. One can imagine her weakly-spoken words that beg for a promise, the pain of truth in her eyes--and the downcast eyes of Zidane as he promises that he will.

On second thought, Iâm not sure that actually happened. Maybe something like that happened. But, in my opinion, thatâs how it shouldâve been. Anyways.

So, Zidane goes bounding off into the Iifa Tree, rides the killrt vines, has a few words with Kuja--and dies.

He shouldâve stayed dead.

And now I see why Aeris stayed dead too.

Fin. The ÎCrystal Themeâ rolls on in the background.

Notes:
A great, funny editorial marred by spelling mistakes - we have the 'killrt' vines, 'pret-ty', 'believeable' should be missing that middle e, and 'aftter' finishes the crop for no spelling marks whatsoever. A half-mark is dropped from Grammar for the line 'Caught, yes, as all good RPGs should do.' - which gets the point across but is grammatically incorrect.

The editorial itself, however, is very good - the points are clear and concise, presented well and with a charmingly colloquial style that suits the editorial down to the ground. It's a sentiment shared by many players, and not quite original by now, but there's little fault to be had with the editorial part.

Unfortunately, the spelling mistakes drag it down rather too much, ending with this editorial just skimming the C line.