Nubuo Uematsu

        What is a video game without a captivating soundtrack? Many people may not realize it but the music composed for video games is just as useful as the music composed in movies and television. The soundtrack for video games can help to show the player the gravity or importance of a situation. In addition, the music can help fuel emotion from the player allowing him or her to  be pulled further into the storyline of the game.

Nubuo Uematsu

          Nubuo Uematsu is a Japanese video game composer who is best known for his works in the Final Fantasy series as well as several anime titles. He is a self taught pianist who is by far one of the most famous composers in the video game community. He has also performed in concerts and formed a band known as the Black Mages.  Uematsu also created the music for Final Fantasy 9 which had a hand in bringing out the true potential of the game. With his musical scores he was sure to have any player of Final Fantasy 9 humming for hours.

Final Fantasy 9 Video Review

               The above video is for the following individuals:

1) RPG Fanatics that have an appreciation for old school gameplay

2)Those who are on the fence of picking up this title at a local game store

3) Final Fantasy fans that may have missed playing this game for any reason whatsoever.

FF9 Doujinshi

 

        Final Fantasy 9 may have been overlooked by a large number of gamers, but the gamers that  decided to stop and purchase this game were greatly influenced by the success of the game. Many of these fans went out to produce fan made comics otherwise known as doujinshi. These comics are sometimes made by amateurs as well as professional artists.  These comics tend to show the creativity and imagination of each artists. The comics may be considered "what if" stories from characters in game and can range from kids to adult in terms of visual content. Some artists usually produce sequels to their work if it was popular with the targeted audience. 

Concept Art

      The lead designer and popular concept artist Yoshitaka Amano did more than a great job in designing the character, enemy, and , environment illustrations for Final Fantasy 9. Amano has worked on several  projects in the past and he has even won awards for his work. He is also considered to be adept at making character designs, illustrations, and paintings. The above video shows some of the work that he has done for the characters and environments for Final Fantasy 9 please enjoy.

The Classic Monsters

   Another fun fact about this game is the fact that  most of the monsters in Final Fantasy 9 were monsters that appeared in the previous Final Fantasy Games from the early 1990's. Some players may recognize some of the the classic creatures such as the Tonberry,  Behemoth, Iron Giant,  and Bomb. When looking at the  monster designs one can notice that their appearances tend to start off incredibly cute and friendly looking then upon further progression they  start to look increasingly more demonic and ferocious.

     The Tonberry is one of the more tricky monsters to come across in any Final Fantasy  game. Despite the soft appearance of the Tonberry it has a massive amount of physical attack and has the ability to react with powerful counter attacks that can instantly kill a party member. If that wasn't enough they also have an insanely amount of health.

     The behemoth is another classic monster and it is also one of my favorite monster designs. The behemoth is the kind of monster that can symbolize a tank. Similar to the Tonberry it has a ton of hit points and can deal massive damage to a single or multiple party members at once. The main difference is the behemoth has more agility meaning it can constantly apply pressure to the player causing them to play more cautious and  strategically. 

       The iron giant is another classic enemy that makes an appearance in Final Fantasy 9.  Despite the fierce look this enemy is nothing but a pushover but it seeing him brought back to a recent game with updated graphics does bring a rush of nostalgia to the player. His most common moves are helm divide and cleave.  Helm divide leaves one of your party members with 1 hp after  the hit connects and cleave hits every member of your party for moderate damage.  The iron  giant is also  equipped  with defensive spells such as protect which increases his defense.

FF9 Collectables

 

        The above items are a few examples of the many collectibles Final Fantasy 9 fans can purchase and choose to either keep for themselves or sell in the near future. In order from top to bottom there is the book that contains the most stunning visual graphic sequences from the game. Following that is one example of a plush doll from one of the main characters. Lastly there are 3 Play Arts action figures lined in a row which can vary in prices but usually range from twenty to forty dollars.  The list of collectibles for Final Fantasy 9 is nearly limitless. A player can  also find posters, key chains, clothing, accessories, cards, and drinks with their favorite characters or symbols on them .

Fan-made arrangements

          In addition to Final Fantasy 9 having solid gameplay, it also had a marvelous soundtrack which heightened the emotions of players throughout the game. In fact if the soundtrack was not as good as it was I am sure the game would have been even less of a success.  The music inspired  hardcore fans including myself to create their own interpretations of the music on various instruments including pianos, violins, and  flutes. The above videos are my personal favorite fan-made arrangements. The piano arrangement was done by me on my YouTube account CrimsonAzure7 and the violin arrangement was done by Gbritaney who is a popular video game BGM violinist.

Final Fantasy 9 piano collections

 The soundtrack for Final Fantasy 9 was filled with nostalgic tunes that were remade using new musical equipment which created great compositions. This eventually lead to the creation of the Final Fantasy 9 piano collections which was an album that consisted of the most memorable tracks arranged on a piano. The composer for these songs went by the name of Shiro Hamaguchi and his pieces was performed by pianist Louis Leerink.  The album consisted of 14 tracks each done in a very unique style which  immediately sparked the interest of the fans.Since the music was so popular several fans have tried to create their own arrangements for some of the songs.

Louis Leerink

Death in Final Fantasy

          Every gamer has come across and had to deal with death in video games. However, not many people pay attention to death in video games and it is possible that death in video games may directly influence society. Some examples of a video game death may include a character  being obliterated into several microscopic pieces or simply slowly fading off of the screen. Video games have a  habit  of making character deaths look as comical as can be, but they are usually more brutal than they appear. For example in Super Mario you can see Mario crushing his enemies into nothingness with his pure body weight. In Final Fantasy the player has infinite lives, but death is seen as more realistic in the sense that your defeated characters lie on the battlefield motionless. Unlike in other games where your character vanishes the dead characters in Final Fantasy lie there until the battle reaches a conclusion.  The video above shows a Game Over screen  in Final Fantasy  9. There are no consequences for getting a Game Over in Final Fantasy 9 instead you are simply returned to load  screen where you can  continue from the last save point.

Cosplay Fantasy 9

     Final Fantasy 9 has not only sparked the imagination of gamers, but also the imagination of hardcore anime and manga fans as well. Japan uses the term otaku to refer to people with obessive  interest, particularly  interest in videogames and manga. It wasn't before long when the fans of Final Fantasy would turn to cosplay or costume play to show their passion toward the game. Cosplay is a performance art where fans buy or create costumes and accessories to represent a specific character. These characters usually come from video games, comic books, manga, anime, and graphic novels. Cosplayers usually all meet up in on specific dates for public events where they can participate in activities and open conversations with other enthusiasts of the genre. In some cases there will even be prizes given to several indivuals who have the best costume. The scene for cosplay for Final Fantasy 9 is rather large and I am sure it is still expanding. However, with good cosplay there is also bad cosplay. Please continue to see the cosplay do's and don'ts.

                                                               DO

  DON'T

 
                                            DO

Don't
























DO

Final Fantasy 9 Coca Cola commercial

    
           The video above is a Coca Cola commercial that was aired only in Japan. Not many people knew about this commercial but when news got out it became increasingly popular.  The video is only 30 seconds long but there have been people that reported buying Coca Cola after viewing this. Another fun fact is this advertisement for Coca Cola was the first and only one up until now that was completely centered on the Final Fantasy 9. The viewers can see that the artwork and the CGI animators are the same as in the game itself which came as a shock to fans of the game. Many say this is the best advertisement for Coca-Cola but you should be the judge of that and see the video for yourself. Enjoy ^_^

The Storyline

      The storyline In Final Fantasy 9 was classic. solid, and nothing short of amazing. It had lots of plot twist and moments where the player would feel the negative and postive impact of the events happening in game. The character development was also nothing to be overlooked. As in most Role Playing Games, the player will find that some enemies become friends and some friends will become enemies. However, Final Fantasy 9 delivered this cliche in the most creative of ways. Players are able to get the classic feeling of trying to save the world from pure destruction which may sound boring but a fan of Final Fantasy would agree the simplicity of the original games is what made them so popular. with as little popularity as Final Fantasy 9 had, it definitely lives up to the hype of the few fans and is worthy of the Final Fantasy  title

The Battle System

        The battle system is very similar to the first Final Fantasy games where the player can have up to four party members in battle at once rather than the three you could use in Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8. The old job system from the 2D Final Fantasy's remakes its appearance as well. Each character in your team have specific abilities  which only they can use.  For example, one of the main characters named Garnet is a White Mage meaning she is the only character that has the ability to heal  the party and summon powerful creatures to cause massive damage on enemies. When you are traveling on the world map you will randomly encounter monsters in which you can defeat for gil which is used as currency or experience points which when saved  can increase the overall stats of your character. The battles are turn based and the player is allowed to select an action when the green ATB bar at the bottom right of the screen fills up. ATB stands for active time battle which  makes the battles more fast pace.  After you give a command to a character to perform an action the ATB bar depletes and starts to refill again. The speed stat influences how fast the bar refills so the faster the speed of a character the more actions will be available during combat.

Gameplay

 

             The gameplay follows the traditional blueprint for the Final Fantasy series. To put it simply, you travel on a vast world map to places you need to be to progress through the main story. There are four different continents that you must travel to in order to complete the game and each continent has its own unique scenery and landscape in addition to many areas to explore. The four continents are titled: The Mist continent, The Outer Continent, The Lost Continent, and The Forgotten Continent. However at first you are only able to walk over the Mist Continent as your character will have no other means of travel. On the way you will see villages, cities, buildings, and caves on the world map. To enter these areas have your character approach them on the world map and press the X button to confirm entry to the area. By progressing through the storyline and increasing social links, you will eventually be able to use a boat and an airship to freely travel between continents. There will even be times where you are given the task of finding a specific location on the world map in order to proceed with the story. This may be challenging but it adds to the realistic feel of the adventure aspect of the game instead of having to follow the unoriginal standard point A to point B feel.

Overlooked Fantasy 9 =(

        Final Fantasy 9 may be one of the most underrated and overlooked Final Fantasy games of all time. Released in North America on November 14th 2000, Final Fantasy 9 succeeded in incorporating the classic elements of Final Fantasy game play with the new generation of role playing games. Most fans were pleased to see the return of nostalgic battle classes such as the red, black and blue Mage along with the Thief, Summoner and Dragoon. In addition, the composer Nubuo Uematsu recycled tunes from previous old school Final Fantasy titles which heightening the feeling of nostalgia. Final Fantasy 9 is a must play for any RPG enthusiast. One can tell that SquareSoft really put all of their efforts into the last Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation Console. With breathtaking visuals, a classic feel of gameplay, and memorable characters, Final Fantasy 9 is by far one of the most entertaining Final Fantasy titles to hit the PlayStation console.