Just the main menu alone with the track playing still gives me goose skin, they don't make them like this anymore. It's safe to say you will like the whole game, the pacing is excellent and it doesn't lose steam. It's one of those rare games that has tons of quality along with the quantity, not lacking content by any means and still not much filler, it's unbelievable really. 4 discs of amazingly inspiring locations and soundtrack with a complete package that belongs in a museum and I just know you will appreciate every single one in some form.
Did you manage to impress the queen and how many times did you replay that minigame?
I know what you mean, the main menu track is one of a kind. It sounds to me like Nintendo EAD might have taken a page from the OST there when they opened up with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which came out about three years after FFIX. Square Enix must have had a legendary team to create four discs worth of content, that's unheard of. But right from the very beginning, Hiroyuki Itou's vision says it all. Judging only by the opening, you can tell the developers were on a mission; completely at the top of their game
That's a fun minigame, I think I re-tried like 8-10 times and ended up putting on a show for only 79/100 of the audience to enjoy, and the Queen wasn't impressed. Later I found out that if the Queen likes the performance then you can earn 10,000 Gil but my best only earned me 586 Gil. Tried to ransack everything in the royal castle in retaliation. I was also gonna raid the head Chef's fridge and cook up a buttermilk molotov, throwing it in the Queen's face before escaping with the princess but the Chef didn't have ingredients to spare. I was so pissed when I found out I had missed out on 10,000 Gil lol. I've put in 8 hrs and right now I have 9.3k Gil
You gonna cheat,
Cutty Flam
?
Lol I saw those options at the bottom. Something about mastering all abilities / 999,999 Gil / all battles are fought on auto pilot. This was my reaction when I saw that
You totally got to name the characters after One Piece some time

. Switch Remaster along with the original PSX release is the only ones that let's you name the characters.
Reminder that I have some questions about the Switch release later!
Was actually about to today because I thought Dagger was going to be terrible but then I thought for a moment and said naw I gotta trust the greatness. There's probably more to this name. I bet you'll never guess which One Piece character I was about to name Garnet after, for her alias. Just for fun, it is a female character and she is an enemy of the Straw Hats and to any pirate really. She doesn't really remind me of Garnet but I like said character in One Piece, she has kind of a funny, more so amusing repetitive mannerism as so many characters in OP will have
Did you ever meet the elusive Alleyway Jack? Easy to miss. Legends say some FFIX haters view him as the best thing about the game.
I think I did, was it Blank? He taught me about the card game and went by Alleyway Jack. But I'm not sure if I messed that sequence up, I'm sure there was more to Alleyway Jack but for some reason I didn't talk to Blank more than once after the cards tutorial. I should have, feels like something was missed...
Cutty Flam
the card game is absurd. Good luck trying to completely figure it out, but even if you do there is a lot of random stuff going on. I got to the point where I basically just used the arrows and didn’t worry about the numbers and letters, and I got by just fine. Almost collected all the cards too.
But yes your am assumption is correct that you need to collect a bunch of cards first, before you start playing. You’ll also have to be willing to lose a few shitty ones to gain a new one. Good thing is those first 2 or 3 rows of cards are easy to acquire throughout the game, so you can lose them left and right and it’s no big deal because they are everywhere.
I also replayed FFIX earlier this year and it was amaaaaazing. Enjoy and don’t sleep on the side quests! They offer a lot of fun and useful items. Also, make sure you use the speed up character option for the chocobo mini game, it’s excruciatingly long if you don’t.
I won a match today, versus the shopkeeper that Garnet was trying to practice conversation with in the little village with a Windmill that Vivi took interest in. But I have gotten into a bad habit already of mashing attack button so after winning, I accidentally quickly tapped A and took some dirt Goblin card. Basically the equivalent of a Diglett card. It was a mistake. Thanks for the advice, I'm still trying to get a feel for this game, mainly the battle is the area that is proving to be the most challenging. It actually takes some discipline and thought. You have to go quickly to maximize beating your foes but at the same time you don't want to go to quickly and miss out on stealing at least one item, healing those in trouble before the match ends. I think I have gotten a little better this time and understand more, but it's hard to tell if I am maximizing the outcome of each battler. More practice will be the key. There's also an option to make it turn based but the Moogle said that was more for beginners. I like that time in battle is critical and cannot be taken for granted unless you wish to see the enemy take advantage of that time wasted
Best FF in my book. As a kid playing this game, the characters felt like they were my real friends and I was part of the gang.
It so happen that the game's theme is friendship and meaning of life. Vivi's last words when the game ended was so heartbreaking.
When the game ended, it felt like I had to say goodbye to my friends. Our adventure, our treasure-hunting, and our journey together ended sooner than I would like. As a kid I couldn't take it. I cried a lot. And I still remember that feeling to this day.
I'm replaying this game right now. I'm so happy to see my childhood friends again.
That's how the best of the best RPG games seem to go. After finishing Paper Mario (released same year as FFIX) I had to take a deep breath at the ending because it was a game you didn't want to end. Feels like you truly were a part of the quest. You become immersed and when it ends it hits you kinda hard. I can't wait to meet the entire crew in FFIX, I like Vivi the most, second favorite would have to be Garnet. I think right now, this is my preference among the characters I know. All of them are great. This is how I would rank them (I recently got past the Evil Forrest, past the Ice Cavern, and am now in the the Village of Dali)
1. Vivi 2. Garnet / now known as 'Dagger' 3. Zidane 4. Steiner