25 Things You DIDN'T Know About Final Fantasy IX

25 Things You Didn’t Know About Final Fantasy IX

Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re exploring Alexandria and beyond as we uncover the making of secrets, easter eggs and more within one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time - which is fact number 26 and I will not be accepting any questions at this time.

Meaningful Names

The creators of Final Fantasy IX were very deliberate when choosing the names for their main cast of characters. For example, Quina’s full name Quina Quen in Japanese translates quite literally to “Eat” and “Cannot Eat”. Amarant’s name was originally going to be “Salamander” but due to the seven-character limitation in the menu screen it was changed. His hair also coincidentally resembles the red plant, Amaranth. Eiko was also named after game producer Hironobu Sakaguchi’s wife. Finally, thanks to Final Fantasy Dissidia, Zidane’s name is actually pronounced as “Zidaan” but we’re going to keep calling him Zidane, now and forever.

Confused Kidnapping

During the planning stages of the attempted kidnapping of Princess Garnet at the start of the game, players need to listen to Baku’s plan. When he asks the player who they’re supposed to kidnap, rather than choosing the Princess Garnet option and instead asking if they kidnap Queen Brahne a ridiculous 64 times, a hidden cutscene will occur. Ruby will rush into the room and scold Zidane for being so stubborn and not listening properly to the plan. Then, if players STILL choose the Queen Brahne option, even Baku will get confused and insult Queen Brahne before catching himself and tell Zidane to stop joking around.

Location Specific

Final Fantasy IX is one of the biggest and most vibrantly detailed entries on the PS1, and due to the scale of the game’s development, teams were broken up and each location within the game was designed by a single person. For example, every area, side quest and NPC interaction in Alexandria or Lindblum was created and planned by a single developer. Once the final narrative outline was finalized, each location and plans for it was brought to the rest of the team and altered to fit within the grand scheme of the game’s narrative. This process sounds incredibly daunting but was necessary to streamline the creative pipeline and complete the game in a timely manner and had proven an effective strategy on previous titles such as Final Fantasy VI.

Living NPCs

The main creative forces behind Final Fantasy IX wanted the PS1 swansong entry to feel more alive and believable as a real world than any other entry to date. To accomplish this, they took extra care in designing the many NPCs that players interact with. Not only did every town and kingdom feel distinct with their own aesthetic, but they felt connected to one another with characters commenting on their travels from one location to another. To make these kingdoms and towns feel authentic, Final Fantasy 9 is populated with more NPCs than both Final Fantasy 7 and 8 combined. Another seemingly minor detail, nearly every NPC that players can interact with has their own name, making them feel like real people who live everyday lives within this fantastical world.

Tetra Master

Following the breakout success of Triple Triad in Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 9 featured its own equally beloved collectible card game, Tetra Master. Created by one of the game’s character designers, Tetra Master built on the foundation of Triple Triad and gave the card game greater depth and strategy. Players could also not only upgrade their cards but their rank within the game as well based on how many cards they’d collected and how rare and powerful those cards were. By achieving a point total of 1699, players would be granted the rank of “Master”, but if they attempted to raise their rank to 1700 which was supposed to grant them the rank of “Collector”, the game would instead glitch and ask them if they’d like to discard a card. Thankfully this glitch seems to have been fixed in subsequent re-releases.

True Names

Throughout the course of the game, players discover Garnet’s tragic backstory as one of the last summoners of Madan Sari, whose mother tragically died escaping Garland’s attack on their homeland. Garnet would then be adopted by Queen Brahne due to the striking resemblance to her recently deceased daughter and her past a distant and mysterious memory. Garnet would later adopt the name Dagger, but for dedicated players, you can find Dagger’s real name hidden in the mural of Madan Sari. By following a series of specific actions, players can uncover both Dagger’s name, Princess Sarah, and her mother’s Queen Jane. These names also have a deeper significance within Final Fantasy as those are the same names of the Princess and Queen respectively in the original Final Fantasy game.

International Development

Final Fantasy IX was the first major Final Fantasy game to be developed outside of Japan, instead being developed almost entirely in Hawaii at Square’s newly formed studio Square USA with the development team relocating to Hawaii to work on the game. Their reasoning behind this decision was they wanted Final Fantasy IX to have a more cinematic and international feel than previous entries and the close proximity to the Square Pictures studio allowed them to make use of that studio’s resources more easily. Final Fantasy IX also pays direct homage to their Hawaii development studio with the Tantalus Theater Troupe who are named after a volcano overlooking Honolulu.

Jobless

After the more realistic entries Final Fantasy 7 and 8, the developers of Final Fantasy IX wanted to return to the classic fantasy archetype of the series’ past and instead of continuing with the more realistic character designs, leaned hard into the super deformed and over-exaggerated character designs. This decision led many to wonder if this title could even be considered a mainline Final Fantasy game given the drastic departure in design. The characters weren’t the only dramatic change either. Early on in development, the team initially planned to bring back traditional job classes. Early concept art showcased job classes such as Viking and Witch and variations of the Dragoon class. However, as production continued, the main characters themselves became built around these classes rather than the other way around. Although Garnet’s cloak at the start of the game is a direct reference to the original White Mage outfit from the earlier games.

The Millenium Event

In the year 2000, Square hosted a special showcase called “The Millenium Event” in which they unveiled the future of Final Fantasy, showcasing Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy XI. Given Final Fantasy IX would release later the same year, its reveal was surprising considering the game’s imminent release window. However, the development of Final Fantasy IX had already been announced years earlier in 1997, less than three months after shipping Final Fantasy 7, but was overshadowed by Square’s subsequent announcement of Square Pictures and the upcoming “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" film. This meant that Final Fantasy IX was announced long before Final Fantasy 8 had even formally begun development.

Reflections

One of the most prominent themes throughout Final Fantasy IX is that of reflections. This can be seen in the numerous allusions to the series' past and what made the series so iconic. Final Fantasy was designed to be a return to the classic style of the original Final Fantasy games from the franchise’s core themes of confronting one’s mortality as well as the memories that shape the characters and their identities and finding their purpose. Even the game’s main theme Melodies of Life was designed to represent these reflective elements of the characters. The game’s narrative was specifically designed so the player would reflect on their own decisions in life alongside the characters.

Callbacks

With Final Fantasy IX designed to be a celebration and tribute to the entire franchise up to the ninth entry, naturally the team included callbacks and references to previous entries in the series. Within the opening of the game, both Cloud and Squall are referenced during the play in the character’s dialogue. Cloud also gets a separate nod when Zidane notices the Buster Sword in the Lindblum weapons shop and remarks he knew a “Spikey Haired Guy” who used a sword like that. Alexandria castle’s design is also a near recreation of Castle Cornelia from the original Final Fantasy. One of the most bizarre references is found in Lindblum Castle when Zidane remarks how he doesn’t have a medal to put into the fountain which is a direct callback to the first Resident Evil game.

A Return to Classic Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy series has always blended the line between fantasy and steampunk futurism, but after both Final Fantasy 7 and 8 leaned more heavily into the modern futuristic aspects of the series, the developers wanted Final Fantasy IX to return to the series’ classic fantasy-themed roots. To do this they took many inspirations from not only past Final Fantasy games, but also from other works such as film and theater. Specifically, the team took heavy inspiration from Jim Henson’s classic “The Dark Crystal” and their design of the world and its fairytale aesthetics. Another unsurprising influence was Shakespeare, which can not only be seen in the opening theater section, but also numerous character names, themes, and even some concepts such as star-crossed lovers Zidane and Princess Garnet lifted directly from Shakespeare’s many works.

More Than A Title

Like previous Final Fantasy games, the developers hid references to the numbered entry within the game, but for Final Fantasy IX, the inclusion of the number 9 is almost everywhere. For example, Zidane’s birthday is September 9th, or 9/9. Only 9 of the airships in the game are given names. There are 9 Knights of Pluto which also at the time of the game’s release, Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system. Including Alexander, Dagger has access to nine Eidelon Summons. While Eiko only has access to four, she does have nine types of Eidelon attacks. There are nine friendly monsters players can encounter which require nine ores to earn a reward. And within a chest in Alexandria early in the game, players can rob Grandma of life savings, 9 Gil. Mind you this is only a fraction of the references, but we have other entries to get to.

Cut Content

Like any Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy IX had its fair share of cut content during development. However, much of this content remained in the game, just locked off from a normal playthrough and has since been discovered and reimplemented by dedicated fans and modders. One such instance involved an additional minigame for Vivi to take part in in Alexandria at the start of the game. Alongside the included jump rope mini-game, players could also track down three balloons and return them to a little girl within a time limit. Another piece of cut material took place immediately after the airship crashes at the start of the game and Zidane asks Baku to go look for Garnet. In the cut segment, players could choose to listen to Baku and not pursue Garnet into the forest and would instead be haunted by visions of Garnet in distress before finally setting out to find her.

Excalibur II

Just like previous Final Fantasy games, the main characters can acquire ultimate versions of their weapons through various and oftentimes difficult parameters, but acquiring Steiner’s ultimate weapon Excalibur II is almost impossible. Unlike the other weapons that have specific quests, items to collect or challenges to complete, obtaining Excalibur II is all about time management. Players need to reach the final dungeon, Gate to Space, and defeat the area’s boss, the Lich, in under twelve hours or else the chest containing the weapon won’t appear. This was nearly impossible in the base version of the game without the ability to skip cutscenes and the potential hazard of prolonged boss fights and random battles. Re-release enhancements have made it easier, but this is not a weapon you’ll acquire on your first playthrough.

Map Moogle

While exploring the overworld, players are given the option to call a Moogle named Moguo to save their game or use a tent to heal their party. However, if you call Moguo and then send him away without using any of his services, the little fluffball will become increasingly annoyed with you. The more often you torment the poor Moogle, the more irate he becomes, even resulting in him threatening your party the more often you call him. In later editions, there’s even an achievement tied to annoying poor Moguo.

Multiplayer

This one is something I discovered completely by accident during my first playthrough with my friend. Although it’s never stated anywhere in the game or even in the included manual or strategy guide, Final Fantasy IX features multiplayer. While not a very expansive option, Final Fantasy IX allows two players to take control of two of the party members in battle by adjusting the game settings in the menu and assigning specific members to different controllers. This feature was also available in some earlier titles such as FF IV, V, and VI, but outside of specific multiplayer offerings, it hasn’t properly returned to the series again. It’s also unknown why this feature was never advertised in any official capacity.

Multiple Endings

Character designs weren’t the only thing that went through some massive changes during the development of Final Fantasy IX. Reportedly the ending of the game was changed seven times over before the game’s final release. However, one aspect of at least one of these cut endings remains the game. Originally the plan was for Hades to be the game’s final boss instead of Necron. This is evidenced by the similarities to Hades’ throne and the many eyes littered around the architecture of Terra as well as the arena of the game’s climactic battle. It’s unknown why Necron was swapped in for Hades, but at least Hades remains in the game as a hidden superboss so players can imagine what could have been.

The Ark Eidelon

Final Fantasy wasn’t the first series that Final Fantasy maestro Hironobu Sakaguchi worked on. Years before the world-wide success of the Final Fantasy series, Sakaguchi worked on smaller titles, but one passion project Cruise Chaser Blassty stuck with him even in the later years of Final Fantasy. A science fiction RPG released in 1986, which focused on battles between different mechs. One such mech was the SPEX-07 Blassty, which in game was a prototype mech that could transform. Paying homage to this early work, developers included the Ark Eidelon, which along with not only being the strongest and hardest Eidelon in the game to acquire, and the only one of Terran origin, is also the only Eidelon capable of transformation just like in Cruise Chaser Blassty. Placed side by side the similarities are unmistakable.

Soundtrack Record

Final Fantasy games have long had historic and iconic soundtracks, but for the time, Final Fantasy IX was the series’ biggest one ever produced. For an entire year composer Nobuo Uematsu composed the score, which even led him to take a trip to old European castles to become inspired by their architecture. Given the game’s more cinematic focus, specific tracks were only used once during cutscenes, something that had never been done in a Final Fantasy game before and with Uematsu originally composing well over 150 different tracks for Final Fantasy IX, far exceeding the previous record of Final Fantasy VII’s 85 tracks, but this naturally had to be scaled back to fit within the game’s four disc release with 110 tracks making it into the

The First Remake

These days fans are still waiting for the long rumored and often leaked remake of Final Fantasy IX, but if Square had followed through on their initial plans back in 2001, we would have already gotten it. Mere months after the release of Final Fantasy X, Square announced remakes of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX designed to take advantage of the additional power and DVD space of the then new PlayStation 2 hardware. Each game was planned to release separately and feature updated graphics and sound design. While this was incredibly shocking considering none of the games were even a decade old by this point, Square also never mentioned these remakes again as they were likely canceled before development began and Square thought it better to memory-hole the entire announcement rather than publicly retract their statement.

A Second Card Game

Just because the credits roll doesn’t mean that Final Fantasy IX doesn’t still have any more secrets left to discover. In addition to Tetra Master, players can unlock a second card game during the game’s credits. By inputting a series of specific button prompts, players can play a game of Blackjack against an AI. Just like the real world, the game is incredibly hard and cheats like crazy, meaning it’s incredibly easy to lose. However, if you want to keep at it like the addict you are, simply input the button combination again to replay a second time.

The Nero Family

One of the most infamous side quests in any Final Fantasy game, The Nero Family side quest went undiscovered for 13 years by western audiences. By talking to specific members of the Nero family in the Theater District of Lindblum on Disc 4, Benero will tell the player the rest of their family is missing. From here, every time there is a major boss fight or story event, the player needs to travel back to Lindblum where they will encounter a new member of the family exiting the Tantalus hideout. Players need to do this nine separate times to encounter every member of the Nero family, and your reward for all this effort is a simple Protect Ring. This quest was only ever mentioned in Japan’s Final Fantasy IX Ultimania Guide which is why it went overlooked by western audiences for over a decade.

Thunder Slash Fizzles Out

Throughout their playthrough, players can learn various Arts that are some of the most powerful attacks within the game. However, what should be one of Steiner’s most powerful attacks is hindered by a surprising glitch. Within the game, Steiner’s Thunder Slash ability is assigned an accuracy of zero, which meant the attack would rarely if ever be effective. Digging deeper, fans discovered that within the game code, Thunder Slash had been inaccurately assigned as a Gravity Spell, rendering the attack almost completely useless. The only times Thunder Slash is even remotely effective is if Steiner’s level and magic stat was higher than the enemy and even then, the enemy’s magic evasion stat would need to be incredibly low. Somehow despite numerous re-releases over the years, this glitch has never been fixed.

No Strategy

Strategy guides have long been a part of the Final Fantasy series as much as chocobos and world ending disasters, but the Final Fantasy IX guidebook is without a doubt the worst “strategy guide” ever created for the series. While the guide does offer some basic strategies and a walkthrough for the game, Square made the unprecedented decision to tie this strategy guide to their PlayOnline service. On every page of the guide are codes players were meant to enter on the PlayOnline website to reveal the solutions to the game’s many quests and puzzles. Besides this making the guide all but useless, this decision was also highly criticized for prioritizing an online service during a time when most homes didn’t have any access to the internet. Thankfully fans have since made many proper strategy guides, but this was still an enormous blunder for Square’s biggest franchise.

What’s your favorite Final Fantasy game and why? Share your picks in the comments.