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Hey people, I hope this isn't against the rules, but I just wanted to drop a vanity post to say that my book, Melodies of Life: A Final Fantasy IX Retrospect and Analysis, is out now in paperback. The kindle edition is open to pre-orders, and will be released 31/01/2020. (links at the bottom of post) I thought I'd drop the contents breakdown here, so if you're interested in checking it out - you have an idea of what you might be in for: Contents: A Voice From the Past, Joining Yours and Mine... Foreword Introduction The Party Plot Summary What it Means to be Alive Authenticity & The Artificial Either You Do, Or You Don't The Iifa Tree & The Angels of Death Identity & Autonomy Raison D'être Vivi: Golem Among Golems The Genomes With Soul: Zidane, Kuja and Mikoto Garnet x2 (or x3 or x4!) A Knight's Duty Lost & Forgotten Music & Narrative Echoes, Reflections and Foreshadowing Not Alone Melodies of Life Something to Protect The Storybook Motif & Nostalgia Legend, Lore and Callbacks Life's a Play, The World a Stage Who's the Bad Guy? Hierarchy & Rebellion Decadent Jesters The Will to Live vs. The Will to Power Et Tu, Kuja? Life Cycles & Internal and External Conflict Gaia & Terra Eternal Life/Strife Existentialism: The Reality of Mortality Love, Fealty & Self-Determination Relationships Why These Characters Work (And Work Together) Romance Personal Influence Respect Camaraderie And So it Goes, On and On... Afterword A Few Things You May Know... Acknowledgments Thanks for indulging me, and I hope this of some interest! A lot of work went into it, and any feedback/criticism is welcome. I am going to take a nap now.... US link: https://www.amazon.com/Melodies-Lif...keywords=jamie+L+cruise&qid=1611656028&sr=8-2 UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08TS5DY7B/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1611577360&sr=8-2 DE link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08TW5GTM2/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=jamie+L.+Cruise&qid=1611656250&sr=8-2

WARNING: Mature Strong Language involved. Introduction Theme Song: https://youtu.be/cAhyt2D9B3A. Tagline I: "...A Fantasy...Set...in Space..." Tagline II: "...Destination: The Milky Way, Location: Planet Earth, Mission: Relocation." Synopsis: "...It is the year 3020...over 1000 years ago, Humanity was forced to leave both Planet Earth and the Space Colonies orbiting around it, due to the sudden appearance of a very both strange and mysterious virus plague that the Humans dubbed, as the "Scream", for whoever was infected by the Scream would slowly turn mad and eventually, scream out in unbearable pain until finally, at last, they would simply...die out, one, by one... In order to save the future that are the next generations of Humanity, the Humans fled from their home-planet and their Space Colonies, boarding giant spacecrafts that they had made and they had called the "Titans", named in honour of old gods of their Planet's very ancient mythologies and you see, by using those said giant spaceships, Humanity had left behind their home system of The Milky Way and had traveled across all the way to various other systems, such, as The Horsehead Nebula and/or The Andromeda Galaxy for examples and had set up both new settlements and new Space Colonies there, knowing that Humanity was now free to begin Space exploration across other Planets and seek out new life, new civilizations, new cultures, basically new everything that they could add to their own history, however...Humanity still longs dreams of returning back to its own system, its own, home... Before Humanity had settled cozily into their new homes, there were those that did not take well to their sudden arrival and thus began the ancient "Settlement War", between the Humans themselves and all other "Alien" races, such, as the Human like beings, the "Space Elves", the Humanoid Lion like beings, the "Li" and finally, the Aquatic like beings, the "Aquarians", nicknamed the "Aquari" for short...the battles between the four intergalactic races was long and everlasting, until eventually, one battle where the Space Elves, the Li and the Aquari all banded together, as one despite past differences with one another, trying to drive Humanity back out of their home systems resulted in lots of tons upon tons of casualties, that battle was proclaimed, as the "Endgame", as it had served to finally end the war between the four races living in space and finally create among them a united colony of people that could potentially join hands with each other and help make their shared entire universe a better place... However...there were those among the Li who still did not agree with Humanity's presence among their kind and so they broke off into a rebellious warmongering faction, naming themselves the "True Believers", as they unlike everyone else do not "fall for the lies of Humanity", thus beginning a civil war between the peoples of the Li and an intended conquest over Humanity, this had led to one final war that is still currently ongoing to this day, it is known, as the "Bloodbath", the war has last for oh so very many years until eventually, it seemed like everything was about to come to a close at the Planet of "To", where here, a young Human upstart rising through the ranks rookie soldier by the name of "Ewan" without realizing has just started taking his very 1st step, into a larger world, a larger galaxy, some might even say...a larger "Fantasy"... Here start the Chronicles, of Humanity's Voyage home, back to their beloved Milky Way system and most especially, their Planet Earth...it has begun, the prophesied time of awakening, what we, of the secretive Moogle race believe to be...the "Final Fantasy", Kupo!" Main Theme Song: https://youtu.be/xSXr99WhxDo. Prologue: Planet To-Where War Ends and War Starts Again: "...Soldier...Soldier...SOLDIER EWAN! DO YOU COPY ME!?" "...Huh? wha? !? S-SORRY SIR! YES SIR! READ YOU, LOUD AND CLEAR!" "...Good! that is very good! your quick on the uptake, Soldier! now listen up you maggots! i ain't going to be responsible for what happens to you out there, right now we're facing our last stand against those Lion bastards, the Li and i will tell you now men, they will show no quarter, they will show no mercy, guys like you fledglings, they'll gobble you up and eat you for breakfast! now listen up, cause i won't be repeating myself again after this! ahem: The High Council of the Four Interplanetary Races-"Dumont" have assigned us dogs of the Human militaristic force-the mercenary task force squad "Zantetsuken" to clean up the messes of those Lion wimps, the Li by wiping out their renegade rebel faction, the "True Believers", as they call themselves...APPARENTLY, those ass wipes can't find it within their goddamn minds to accept us "Puny" and "Feeble" Humans without fangs, claws or manes just like they have so now, we're going to show those "Believers" just how "Puny" and "Feeble" we Humans really are! WE'RE going to show EVERYONE that we ain't just dogs to be used in battle both whenever and wherever the higher ups feel like sending us out towards at, no, we ain't just dogs...WE'RE WOLVES! AND WE BITE! YOU GOT THAT YOU LITTLE SHITS!?" "SIR YES SIR!" "I-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU!" "SIR, COMMANDER CID, SIR!" "Right, now get your asses out there before i have to kick them, remember, we ain't doing all this for honour, guts or glory, none of that shit...what we're doing here, why we're doing this, is so we can get PAID! paid in cold-hard-cash, you feel me? DO YOU HEAR ME!?" "YES! COMMANDER CID SIR!" "Alright! that's what i want to hear now go out there and make papa bear Cid proud! don't come slouching back if you're dead or you haven't earned your pay, MOVE OUT! HOORAH!" "HOORAH!" "Zantetsuken...FORWARD MARCH! MOVE OUT!" "CHARGE!" "..." "Finally, a real mission i can get to prove myself on, don't you agree Ewan? ...uh, Ewan? hello? Earth to Ewan!" "...Earth...huh? W-WHA!?" "Come on Ewan! the fun's already started, everyone has already marched out ahead in front of us! come on! we can still catch up to them! let's show those Lion bastards what we're made of, huh, CHARGE!" "AH HEY! WAIT! ...tch! dammit...dammit all to hell! CHARGE!" "...It was the Planet To, it was rumoured that here would be located the True Believers' primary headquarters, in an effort to finally take them out both once and for all, the High Council of Dumont have sent in a group of mercenaries to sneak into their main base whilst the regular army that acts under the direct orders of the High Council will distract the Believers, giving the mercenary squad Zantetsuken enough time to plant bombs within the base, thereby blowing it sky high, it is intended...as a Kamikaze suicide mission where should any of the mercenaries survive, they will be bestowed with the highest of honours by the leaders of the High Council in person and will especially be rewarded handsomely, however, for Ewan, it was not about making money for himself, rather, making...a difference, he believes that by acting, as a Soldier can he help innocent lives avoid more bloodshed then they have already suffered and he can help himself make one step further to fulfilling his dream, what that dream is...i really don't know, Kupo!" (To be continued.).

I've been meaning to play both games however since I'm unable to get both due to insufficient funds; I'm stuck in quiet a dilhemma. I'm going to pick up Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (which I preordered months ago) this Friday however I've decided to get a secondary game with it on the side. I've never played a Metroid game before and I've always wanted to try one, but I also really like Final Fantasy games and have never played the 9th instalment before, if just came out recently. It's somewhat a tough call to make since as I said; they are both games I haven't played before and are willing to jump into. But I can only get one...

DISCLAIMER:This thread reflects only the opinion of it's own writer,It's not an objective critique on what you should like or dislike so if you saw me criticising a game you like like Final Fantasy XIII or any other I hope you don't feel offended and I hope you keep on enjoying what you like regardless of what I say. Thanks to my friend Ross at the Super Gaming Bros fan group,he encouraged me to go back to Final Fantasy IX and finish the game as I stopped at the end of disc-2 a year and a half ago due to fatigue from the franchise caused by me playing Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII in February of 2014.Lightning Returns was honestly the worst RPG I’ve ever played in my life which caused me to stay away from Final Fantasy for like 2 years.....well not exactly as I managed to finish Final Fantasy X in around the tail end of 2014 and I loved that game a lot but I’ll save for it later but after that,I haven’t touched Final Fantasy again until few days ago when as I said above,Ross convinced me to go back and finish Final Fantasy IX Welp I finished it just now so I might as well write my thoughts on it while it’s still fresh on my mind but if you’re not into reading long reviews then I’ll sum it up like this: Final Fantasy IX is a fantastic game in almost everyway,it’s my second favorite Final Fantasy game right behind Final Fantasy VI and it’s and it’s one of my favorite games of all time. The story of Final Fantasy IX takes place in the world of Gaia where Zidane,our main protagonist and member of the Tantalus crew,was heading to the city of Alexandria on a mission to kidnap Princess Garnet,daughter of the greedy fat Queen Brahne,during a theatrical show that Tantalus was arranging at the time.The mission is successful but it turns out that the Princess wanted herself to be kidnapped as she was sensing something wrong with her mother ever since she met a man named Kuja thus she decided to join Zidane and the others to discover the truth behind the sudden change in her mother’s behavior and what she and Kuja are plotting. Throughout the game Zidane meets a colorful and charming cast of characters such as Vivi the Black Mage,Steiner the Captain of Alexandria’s Pluto guards and Garnet’s bodyguard,Freya the Burmecian dragoon,Quina the weird food-obsessed cook and the red-haired monk Amarant. Each with their own unique personalities and backstories and throughout the game each of them(except Quina of course ) grow and develop as characters in a really interesting way especially Vivi,Zidane,Garnet and Steiner.I won’t spoil much but to keep it short the plot of Final Fantasy IX,despite some issues endgame, is beautifully written with a memorable cast of characters and set pieces that makes it very unique among other FF games especially the other two PS1 titles FFVII and FFVIII. It also has a TON of homages and references to older FF games that came before it especially the Final Fantasy I,and I’m sure fans of the series will notice a lot of them throughout the journey Gameplay-wise,Final Fantasy IX admittedly isn’t a big jump from what we’ve seen in terms of the ATB battle system that started in FFIV and carried over to later entries such as FFVII and FFVIII but what it does is that it made it more accessible.For example,the materia system from 7 and the junctions from 8 are gone and instead abilities can be learned through equipment.Each equipment you get can teach your character a specific spell,skill,status immunities and stat increases by gaining the amount of AP listed on it through battles and once your character is done learning it you can pass that piece of equipment to another character so they can learn it too,provided that the character can learn it or can equip it of course as some are unique to a specific class such as Zidane’s thievary,Steiner’s sword arts and the different eidolons that Garnet and Eiko can summon.That encourages you to keep your early game equipment since they’ll be of some use later down the road either through passing them to other characters or synthesizing them into new ones so don’t sell them immediately because gaining gills in FFIX is not an issue since battles provide you with a sufficient amount of gill that by the time you reach the next town or dungeon you’ll have enough money without ditching your old equipment. The Trance mechanic is kinda works like limit breaks from FFIX except they’re moreso transformations that buff up your stats and have their own spells rather than a one powerful attack.Trances are activated automatically as soon as the orange bar under your ATB bar fills up.Honestly I don’t like how Trances activate here because that means that they can activate on any time in battles you don’t need them in,completely wasting your trances that you’ve been saving for an upcoming boss fight and that can be irritating at times. Navigating through Towns,dungeons and the world map is largely the same as before with sidequests and hidden superbosses but in specific places an ATE(Active Time Event) will pop up which are special type of cutscenes that for the most part are optional and you can choose to either watch or skip most of them. Like I said Final Fantasy IX doesn’t add much but what it does is taking what’s already there and refine it,make it more fun and accessible for both veterans and newbies to the JRPG genre and it does that remarkably well especially when compared to it’s other Ps1 big brothers.And sure some dungeons can get irritating with some questionable level designs(I really hate Kuja’s Desert Palace,I really do) but they’re not that big enough of an issue that can bog the game down Presentation-wise, Final Fantasy IX is the best looking of the Final Fantasy games available on the Ps1 and one of the best looking games on the system period.the CGI cutscenes look beautiful and characters are more expressive and well animated here compared to the ones in VII and VIII but unfortunately that comes at a cost specifically in battles. Sure the movement,spells and summons are well animated but they go on for way longer than they should and it really bogs the pacing of battles,couple that with the slow transitions from map to battle and the load times and Final Fantasy IX has the slowest battles in all of the first 10 Final Fantasy games which can make grinding for levels really tedious and tiring. One thing that I find absolutely perfect about Final Fantasy IX has to be without a doubt the amazingly magnificent soundtrack by the legendary composer Nobou Uematsu. By far this is Uematsu’s best work on a soundtrack for the series alongside his composition for Final Fantasy IX,he absolutely knocked out of the park with almost every track in the game from character themes to dungeon themes and battle themes especially the game’s new prelude called “A Place to Call Home” which has around 6 remixes in the game and I love each one of them Seriously give this soundtrack a listen either by buying it or looking it up on youtube,it’s a thing of beauty that you gotta listen to even for once. Despite the few issues I had with it,I love Final Fantasy IX to death.Had FF6 didn’t exist this wouldn’t been my absolute favorite Final Fantasy game but it is still just as good if not better but it’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to which one I prefer but it doesn’t change the fact that what I played was one of the best games I’ve played in my entire life. In a time where the Final Fantasy franchise has lost it’s way and stumbled into mediocrity for almost a decade I’m still glad that Final Fantasy IX exists to remind fans of the genre of what a titan Final Fantasy used to be in the past and what made this franchise so close into the hearts of it’s fans before the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy came in and robbed that since of awe and joy from the series and painted a pathetic and grim picture for the franchise I’m glad that Final Fantasy IX is here to remind me that,maybe things aren’t so bad after all and there is still some hope to be found for the series with games like Bravely Default and Bravely Second(yes they’re not named FF but they have the core that make one) calling back to the glory days of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy IX is available on Ps1 and it has been released on PSN(it can be played on Ps3,PSP and PS Vita) and had an HD remaster on Steam and and smartphones so there are lots of ways you can pick up the game and play with but I highly recommend the STEAM version in case you can run it on your PClaptop as there is a fan mod that fixes the slow load times and animations and also make temporarily playable characters like Beatrix fully playable Again,I have to thank my friend Ross for encouraging me to come back to Final Fantasy IX as it reignited my interest in Final Fantasy games again. Hopefully the future of Final Fantasy won’t look as grim as it was six years ago,Final Fantasy XV looks really good from what I’ve seen so I hope the final product would deliver on the game’s potential.And World of Final Fantasy on Ps4Ps Vita looks so adorable and charming and I’m excited for that too Please don’t fail me again Square Enix,I don’t want to abandon Final Fantasy again due do a half-assed product so please make Final Fantasy XV as good as it can be

A YouTube user was kind enough to record the credits for the iOS version of Final Fantasy VII and the new, 2016 version of Final Fantasy IX for iOS, Android & PC.

Final Fantasy IX on iOS, Android & PC includes seven boosters, they're as follows. Master Abilities - Master all abilities automatically Level/Stone Max - Jump to Level 99 Gil Max - Gain the maximum amount of Gil (money) possible 9999 Dmg Toggle - For players who want to breeze through combat, the 9999 damage cheat allows you to deal massive damage with every blow Fast Forward - Skip dull moments and conversations with this fast-forward speed-up! No Random Encounters - Skip all random battles Full meters - Maximize in-combat resources Achievements unlock upon usage, achievements are included in all 3 versions. Additionally, the game supports the following languages: English, French, Italian, German & Spanish. No sign of Japanese outside of Japan.

Final Fantasy IX is out now on iOS & Android. iOS Android

Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy IX has sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide. To be honest though this is nothing special compared to other mainline games, it's still the lowest since Final Fantasy VI. Final Fantasy VII - over 11 million Final Fantasy VIII - over 8.5 million (Steam version has sold just under 500,000) Final Fantasy IX - over 5.5 million Final Fantasy X - over 8 million (HD remaster sales not included) Final Fantasy XII - 6 million Final Fantasy XIII - over 6.6 million (PC version has sold well over 500,000) Even Final Fantasy X-2 has sold over 6 million before HD remaster sales. Regardless, great to see this updated total.

More here: http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff9/en/ Features: HD graphics, achievements, auto-save, high speed mode and several game boosters.

The Steam page for Final Fantasy IX is here. The release is currently "Early 2016" after earlier being "January 2016". iOS & Android versions are expected to launch at the same time.