"Gameplay light" would be a more accurate description for the content of the latest official Final Fantasy IX trailer from Square. Entitled "Vivi in Alexandria," the trailer contains 3 minutes of, surprisingly enough, Vivi exploring Alexandria. Unfortunately, the gameplay shown stops at minigames and town exploration, as no battle sequences made their way into the clip. However, what's available is impressive on its own -- the attention given to detail in Alexandria is overwhelming. Vivi's motions are fluid and lifelike, in a SD sort of way. As he runs or walks, his mage's hat bends and bounces to match his movement. Children run through the streets, and white doves fly away if you get too close. Buy something at a vendor's, and Vivi actually puts his hands inside his robes and takes out money in the form of bills and hands them to the cashier, rather than the typical "Jedi mind trick" from previous games, where your character waved an empty hand in front of the shop keeper and made them think they had paid. And of course, FMV stills backed by the Final Fantasy IX theme "Melodies of Life" make the intro and ending to the clip.

MPEG, 320x240, 30.5megs