Final fantasy 9 served as an homage to the series roots in a medieval fantasy setting and
a love letter to its predacessors with their many references throughout the game. Though the game
has always been in the shadow of 7 and 8, in terms of units sold, many people consider ff9 to be the
last of the truly great single player games in the series. This is the final fantasy 9 iceberg.
Coffee Sidequest This is a lengthy side quest throughout the game that begins early on disc
1 at the tower near Dali. Inspecting the flying replica of theTantalus theater ship will initiate
the quest from Morrid where you find 3 coffees throughout the game. One coffee is found in disc
3 and is easily missed, making it unable to be obtained in that game file. Upon completion,
the Mini Prima vista ship is sent to the tantalus hideout in lindblum.
Doga and Une Easter Egg Doga's Artifact and Une's Mirror are two items that can be purchsed
through the Treno Auction House. The easter egg occurs when you possess both items and
exmine the grmophone at the black mage village inn. The background music will change
to this enchanting melody doga and une melody, originally from the Final Fantasy 3 soundtrack.
Excalibur II This is Steiner's ultimate weapon that requires the player to complete a majority
of the game in under 12 hours. This is one of the hardest weapons to obtain in the game.
Kuja was almost a Treno nobleman In early concept art, Kuja was shown wearing noblemen attire
and his first appearances in the game have him portrayed as one in the crowd. It's also worth
noting that in Dissidia Final Fantasy, he also had an alternate costume called treno nobleman.
Extra Ending Scene This is an alternate ending where
during the play, instead of blank kidnapping the princess, he's shown being executed by the
king. You must acquire and keep the hammer from the Stellazzio coin sidequest in your
inventory to activate these extra hidden scenes. Freya's retconned age in the West This refers to
Freya's age being biffed slightly in her reported age of 21. It is sometimes said
that she's been looking for Fratley for 3 years, other times its said to be 5 years. It is believed
that Freya began looking for Fratley at age 18. Their discrepency between searching for 3 and 5
years would be the difference between 21 and 23. Nero Family sidequest This was a tedious optional
quest where zidane visits the Tantalus hideout 9 different times throughout the game, reporting
to various Neru members, reporting that each of them are missing. The reward for completion of
this quest is the very underwhelming protect ring. Garnet's birth name Through a specific set of
movements and actions in Midain Sari, you can unlock a hidden
text that reveals Garnet's real name: Sarah. Blackjack minigame After you complete the game,
you can access an eager egg minigame where you play a version of blackjack otherwise known as 21.
FFIX is Sakaguchi's favourite FF game The creator of the final fantasy series himself
has stated that ff9 is his favorite among all his creation. His reasoning is that it's the
closest to what he envisioned for the final fantasy game to originaly be. The game was
literally developed with the intention of capturing the spirit of the first five games
with the most cutting edge technology available. FFIX Uematsu's favourite OST During production,
this prolific composer requested to be sent to Europe to engulf himself
in European castles and architecture to take inspiration for the game's medivieval feel.
Upon his arrival, he became consumed by the project and worked tirelessly to create the
longest final fantasy soundtrack at that time. This was the final game that Uematsu composed
himself and it was said that he poured so much of himself into this game's soundtrack that he
couldn't keep up. This was the famous composer's favorite final fantasy soundtrack to create.
PS2 Port PS2 actually came out before FF9 came out for the original playstation.
Despite much discussion of a development cycle for PS2, the creators opted for one last hurrah on the
platform that took them from good to great. Early Concept Art You can definitely see the
early final fantasy style in the game's early concept art. It also had a bit of
a darker feel than the game ended up with. Unused ATEs There are a number of unused assets,
dialogues, scenes, and minigames. Some include the moogle debug menu entry, the cut balloon
mini game that can be accessed via hacks, and a handful of ATE scenes that have only been
accessed with a hack that was released later specifically to access these hidden dialogues.
Unused music tracks There exists several tracks that were replaced throughout the game's journey
including new themes for the black waltz as well as a different version of the main theme.
FFIX Beta Discs Certain magazines would offer trial discs with the purchase of their magazine.
This entry refers to a magazine accidentally being
shipped out with early beta versions of the game instead of trial discs.
Unused Shrine Guardian Battles Near the end of the game, you split into four teams to defeat
4 Shrine guardians. However, you end up only fighting 1 guardian with Zidane and Quinna.
The battles with the 3 other guardians were originally included in early versions of the game.
But for unknown reasons, the other guardians never made it to the final game.
Scrapped Endings The developers of the game had apparently changed the ending of the
game 7 different times as they could not agree on how the game should properly end. On an earlier
version of the game, Hades was reported to be the game's end boss instead of necron.
FFIX was almost a spin-off game Final fantasy 9 took such a departure from the 7 and 8 games that
they originally considered not even including the game as a main entry to the series.
However, they wanted to have the final single digit game in the series to end
full circle with a game that mirrored the original installments of the series.
Unused Bad Ending There are several unused lines inside the game's code,
that state this about the world fusion: The Iifa tree could not be stopped...
Gaia and Terra's fusion caused global chaos, destroying many cities and taking many times.
People have theorized this would occur after dying to a particular boss,
much like the bad ending that occurs after you die to Lavos in Chrono Trigger.
Unsettling beta renders Early beta renders for the character cast conveyed a darker expression
on both Zidane and Dagger's faces. Both of them seem more grimace. Dagger seems distraught and
Zidane seems like he's upset. And in both cases, I never understood their design choice for eiko.
It's said that she's supposed to be wearing tight-fitting one piece pants
but how did that design seem like a good idea to make the colors so close?
Vivi's kids This is the obvious reference to the ending credits scene where Vivi's kids
all march along the lane by puck. It isn't explained how this occured
vivi's was supposed to be in Dissidia NT Kuja and Zidane are the only playable
ff9 characters in Dissidia NT but Vivi was originally considered as an option.
Devs want a sequel According to an interview of FF9's character artist during the game's
20th anniversary last year, devs have expressed an interest in creating a sequel saying quote,
"Final fantasy 9 is loved by the fans, but its also very loved by us, the development team.
I would be delighted if, respecting the wishes of the original development team, there could one day
be the opportunity to continue the story of Final Fantasy 9, which meant so much to all of us."
Freya and Fratley were exiled by their king After the invasion of Burmecia,
Freya and Fratley were both exiled from their kingdom and community. That is why throughout
the remainder of the game, they both serve as free agents with allegience only to friends.
Vivi died in the ending While it isn't conclusively stated,
it is heavily implied via the some of the final texts that appear at the end of the game.
There was a farewell speech in both versions of the game, but in the japanese version the
text uses a speech pattern exclusive to vivi to show the speech's exclusivity to vivi.
Scrapped realistic art style Rumors exist that early in the game's concept stages,
the team originally intended on making the game look realistic in style.
Square lost the source code After launches of games, it wasn't uncommon for game companies to
not keep track of their source codes. There wasn't much thought to reuse them at the time. Square
struggled to port over the game due to losing its source code. This can also be said for FF8.
FFIX is connected to FF1 With this being such an homage to its predecessors, it's no surprise FF9
paid tribute with several different nods to the game. There is a story emphasis on orbs, There are
two main characters named Sarah, there is a major villain named Garland in both games. And to top it
off, the first character composition is similar to the classic FF1 party. Dagger to white mage,
vivi to black mage, steiner to fighter, and zidane to thief.
Steiner and Beatrix were once the same character In early stages of thsi game,
steiner and beatrix were originally designed to be one character posessing all the traits,
roles, and responsibilities of both characters. However, the devs decided to split them up and
give many of the more positive, endearing aspects of knighthood to Beatrix,
and the negative, almost oafish aspects to Steiner. But both character experience
character progression and it's interesting to see how they're different sides of the same coin.
Beatrix was corrupted by the Mist This was true of any creature the mist came in contact with.
This is why Beatrix was allowing of Queene brahn's horrendous acts. It wasn't until
she was faced with the queen harming her own daughter that she had her eyes opened to this.
Steiner was a war orphan Both of steiners parents were killed right at the end of the war
in 1771. He was only 5 years old at the time but this gave him the motivation and drive to
become a knight of alexadria at the age of 16 Burmecian's don't have fur While Burmecians may
have hair on their heads, their skin is apparently smooth and furless like a pig or an elephant.
Freya is the only female in Burmecia's military From what we've seen throughout the game,
every female burmecian except Freya is seen wearing the light, traditional female garments.
Freya and Fratley's age difference Fratley is 25 and Freya is said to be 21,
making it a 4 year age gap. When I originally played this game years back,
I thought they were both much older than this. Though we don't know the Burmecian standards,
Freya and Fratley apparently fell in love when she was 16 and he was 20.
Immortal Burmecian Soldier This is in reference to Burmecian soldier dan who
is the only other burmecian that's given a name throughout the game and has several appearances.
Unused Desert Palace death scenes In the current game, when you die after using Regent Cid,
you face a standardized game over. However modders discovered that each indivdidual
character had their own specific death scenes where they had their own dialogue
before Kuja threw them into a fire pit. The scenes were removed for the final game.
Ruby may be a drag queen Early concepts of the game indicated that Ruby was simply a member
of the all male crew of Tantalus that chose to be a drag queen and the rest of the team ran
with it. It wasn't all too uncommon for men to run drag in many older performance arts
as they didn't see women as good at performing. But we don't have much proof indicating whether
or not this entry is accurate in the final game. Sir Fratley's amnesia is an act This was a popular
theory on reddit from u/Megawolf1 that suggests that Fratley is simply faking his amnesia for
various means. Evidence points to Fratley showing no interest in learning about his past
after Puck reveals his amnesia. It also is shown that after the trategy of burmecia,
Fratley seemed to suddenly be interested in pursuing a life with Freya again,
telling her he loves her. The theory goes on to suggest that Puck may even be in on the deception.
Another interesting note is that despite nobody outside of Burmecia and Cleyra knew about the
citys' invasions. Even regent cid didn't know until the wounded soldier arrived to inform him.
This info suggests that Puck and Fratley may even have second hand sources supplying them
information. The suggested reasoning behind faking the amnesia is that he had failed to
protect the city in the past and the only way to live with his shame is to fake his amnesia.
Vivi's soul controls Gaia's life flow In Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia,
Vivi mentions that if he stays away from his own world, Gaia's life flow will stop. This
indicates that Vivi's soul has become important in the life flow of gaia.
Why Quan Raised Vivi This is a theory that Vivi's grandfather, Quan had a more sinister intent for
raising Vivi. In this cutscene, it reveals that Quan was fishing from the mist for food
when he caught vivi from the sky. He mentions that he's not big enough to eat yet and Vivi
even mentions that Quan said he wasn't growing properly. All of these things indicate that Quan
actually raised Vivi to thicken up and eat. Blank is Artificial When examining Blank's
character model, you can see stitches over various part sof his body, even his face. This
theory states that he is actually an artificially created humanoid similar to sally from nightmare
before christmas or perhaps Geno from Super Mario RPG. Was he like Frankenstein's monster,
created by stitching together various body parts of different corpses? Or did he suffer
a brutal accident and need serious repair? If he was a artificially created being, it would
also help to explain the name blank, as in a blank slate, able to have its purpose inscribed into it.
Perhaps this was why he was so willing to sacrifice himself for the other in the forest.