Is IX the darkest Final Fantasy game?

January 28, 2008, 2:03 AM

IX has often been critisized for being a childish game mainly due to the art work. Ironically, I think this is the only game where the moogles cuss you out on more than one occasion.

While I'm replaying through it, I can't help but feel that this may be the darkest Final Fantasy game.

First of all the game is pretty much about death. Many of the characters have a fear of death especially Vivi, Zidane, and Kuja. Kuja even goes as far as to prevent his own death.

Let's look at the endings/themes of other notable Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy VI: Sure the world goes in to the ruin about halfway through, but the end gives us a strong sense of hope as we see the world rebuilding in the credits.

Final Fantasy VII: The main theme in Final Fantasy VII was life and how death is in fact not the end of everything. (Aerith's death was very important for this theme) We get to the end and we're not sure what happened. Did humanity survive or did it not? Scroll through credits and we see that Red XIII is in fact still alive. So was humanity destroyed? Out comes Advent Children which says no. But despite AC, wouldn't matter if humanity survived or not because they would cycle through the life stream.

Final Fantasy VIII: Well everything ended up pretty happy here. XD

Final Fantasy X: Yeah Tidus disappears at the end but Sin is destroyed and everything is over. Yuna's final speech gives everyone a sense of hope.

Final Fantasy IX: At the end after you defeat Kuja, Necron appears. Necron is death personified and most of the characters' worst fear. You do not technically defeat Necron because, well you can not escape death. The final message of the game is basically, "death will come, you can not escape it, so take advantage of the time you have left."

It kind of gives a very strange bittersweet ending.

January 28, 2008, 2:18 AM

Well, if you base it off Endings, yes this game has to be the darkest.

But, Wasn't X surrounded by death as well? As Auron stated "Spira's cycle of death". Yah.

So, I think they may be on par with one another, in some ways.

January 28, 2008, 2:22 AM

I'd agree, but the ending (i.e. Melodies of Life) completely erased that theme from my mind.

I'd say VII would be the darkest though because it started off dark and did not let up even through Gold Saucer. As you said, the ending was ambiguous so you really couldn't say it had a happy ending even if you didn't have proof of it having a bad ending. IX on the other hand reverted back to being a 'happy' game when Garnet and Zidane were reunited.

January 28, 2008, 2:23 AM

thats a tough question.. when i played through the game, i thought it waz the brighest ff because of all the humor it had and everybody had a happy ending... thinking back on it tho, there waz a dark theme to the story, and it didnt leave off with one of the cheeriest messages ive ever seen, so i guess now it could b considered the darkest

January 28, 2008, 2:39 AM

I say that Final Fantasy Tactics has a more darker story to it. Its also all about death. The whole story is about people fighting over Ivalice and back stabbing eachother. Delita is the biggest backstabber of them all cause he just watches as his master plan folds out. Its also revolves around the zodiac brave story where they find stones that turn the hosts into creatures that are ancient and its death all around. If you've played this game, you would know what im talking about.

January 28, 2008, 3:20 AM

I really don't find VII to be all that dark mainly because it's theme is life. And all the sequels and prequels have pretty much made it an emo fest. XD

Haven't played Tactics so I can't comment on that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightningstorm13

thats a tough question.. when i played through the game, i thought it waz the brighest ff because of all the humor it had and everybody had a happy ending... thinking back on it tho, there waz a dark theme to the story, and it didnt leave off with one of the cheeriest messages ive ever seen, so i guess now it could b considered the darkest

That's what I loved about this game. The characters were lighthearted in the midst of everything that was happening. None of this "Waaah! My life sucks! The world's is going to end! I didn't tell her how I feel! OMG he doesn't love me!" XD

I think having the characters more cheerful only makes the story more darker.

January 28, 2008, 7:05 AM

IX is definitely a dark game. Um, this will all pretty much be a gigantic spoiler, thus I'll be courteous and use tags. Forgive me if I leave anything out, I'll probably think of more things later.

1. The game deals with genocide. Kuja is using Queen Brahne and his black mage army to wage war on the surrounding nations and wiped out a good portion of Freya's people.

2. Kuja brainwashed Queen Brahne into becoming a warmonger; Brahne kidnaps her own daughter and has her eidelons extracted, then later decides to have her executed.

3. Black mages are tools of war made from, as Kuja called them, "the dregs of souls."

4. Terra is dying, and to preserve it Garland intends to assimilate the planet of Gaia and steal its souls via the Iifa tree.

5. The entire summoner tribe was wiped out, save for Garnet and Eiko. As a matter of fact, alot of the game centers around being orphaned. Zidane was raised by Tantalus and never knew what his home planet was like, Vivi was raised by a Qu who deemed him too small to eat, and Eiko lived with only the Moogles in Maidan Sari.

So um, yeah. There are plenty of dark themes hiding under the happy exterior of the game. What makes the game so great is that, like Rydia says, the characters are able to stay strong and/or cheerful through the whole mess. Vivi's a depressed guy because he first doesn't know who he is, and when he finds out it only makes things worse. But not once does he give up, he keeps fighting and searching.

In X, Spira revolved around death. However, the deaths were something accepted and certain people learned how to keep from moving onto the farplane. IX is more tragic because when people are wiped out, it's not something accepted as natural (such as Sin) and it's not something that can be circumvented. In IX if you died, you'd either end up going to the Iifa tree and becoming mist that would spawn monsters in the overworld, or you'd end up as a black mage who would in turn kill more. There were no sendings to give the souls peace.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z

IX on the other hand reverted back to being a 'happy' game when Garnet and Zidane were reunited.

Pay more attention to the ending. Yes, it has happy aspects, such as Zidane reuniting with Garnet, Steiner and Beatrix getting together, and Eiko being adopted by Regent Cid. However, the ending is very bittersweet. Kuja saves your entire party and redeems himself, yet dies anyway. Vivi dies and it is he who narrates the ending. And even though Freya rekindles her relationship with Sir Fratley, he never recovers his memory loss so he doesn't remember their past together. So I wouldn't call the ending entirely happy.

January 29, 2008, 6:27 AM

If you take the entire game into account, I'd have to agree, that this is the darkest game, what with Genocide, Homicide, Suicide... nearly every -cide you can think of in it!
However, I also agree with Hayate, saying that X was fairly Dark, The entire thing of it revolving around Sin, and how everyone in the world has to live in constant fear of Sin and its horror.
The whole cycle of death thing too was quite good.

January 29, 2008, 8:21 AM

I never really thought of it as a dark game. I always thought it was one of the more cheerful FFs. Now that you've made me aware of all these dark themes, I think I'll think of it differently next time I play. Thinking about it, there are a lot of 'tragedies' with towns being destroyed and invaded, and the characters' own problems.