TGS: Final Fantasy IX impressions

[03.31.00] » If you sat through all the sports games...

    Quite possibly one of the most highly anticipated titles at the show, Squaresoft's Final Fantasy IX quickly turned into one of the biggest disappointments. Appearing in video form only, show-goers had to sit through a good five minutes of Driving Emotion Type-S and At the End of the Century 1999 before the screen filled with the familiar image of a crystal. Hailing a return to crystals, the scene slowly faded into the familiar image of VIVI lying in the rain. The video then broke free into a flurry of FMV images, and just when the crowd was getting excited, the screen fades to black, and the segment was over. What seemed to be a beautiful, slowly building video montage turned into a huge tease, with only about 20 seconds of the game actually being shown. To add insult to injury, directly following FFIX was Square's other highly-anticipated game, the PS2 action game The Bouncer, which featured even less footage than the FFIX segment before it.

    Surprisingly enough, however, the crowds were treated to a bit more FFIX FMV via the FFXI/PlayOnline segment of the video. While FFXI is far from being able to be shown at a game show, Square was able to cobble together video clips and models from previous Final Fantasy titles to give an idea of what the game might look like. Observant viewers could spot a decent length movie from FFIX, and a bit featuring the model for the Undersea Research Center from FFVIII. It was nice a bonus to be able to see what FFXI may play like while catching the additional FFIX video. In the end, however, Square's booth was one of the most disappointing at the show, with the only playable titles being sports and driving games, and the video footage of the good stuff bearing an anti-filming sign.