Dark times have spread over the world of Gaia, Queen Brahne of Alexandria has begun using highly advanced magical weapons to terrorize neighboring kingdoms. Her daughter, Princess Garnet runs away from the castle and befriends a group of good-hearted bandits lead by a skilled thief, Zidane, who intends to end the evil queen's desire to dominate the world. Soon after embarking their quest they discover that the queen's threats merely cover a far more sinister plot. Fot the sake of mankind, Zidane and his friends must put an end to the Queen's reign before she and teh evil forces that accompany her can carry out the deadly plan..

Final Fantasy IX was the last Final Fantasy game made for the PSOne before the PlayStation 2 came into the picture. Square really delievered on this last one too. This edition of Final Fantasy brought the series back to it's classic roots when dragons and castles still existed. Squaresoft also brought back some other Final Fantasy elements too.

For example, each of the characters are assigned jobs that do specific abilities. Zidane can steal items, Vivi can cast black magic, and so forth. I was very pleased when Square decided to do this because I was still recovering from the difficult Junction system from Final Fantasy VIII.

Square also decided to bring back the good old four party member battle system from older Final Fantasies. This allowed more strategy for the game and made battles a lot of interesting. They also came back with the ATB system and with Limit Breaks, now called Trances. Trances differ from Limit Breaks in various ways. For example, when in Trance, if you defeat a monster while in it but the bar is still full, your bar will go back to being empty.

There are also many mini-games and sidequests to do in this game. It'll keep you entertained for about 40 or more hours. You can do a Chocobo sidequest, to the Mognet sidequest, and many more. These are nice ways to take a break from the main story, especially if you play Tetra Card Master. Collecting and playing the game is very addicting.

Graphics wise, the game did amaze me. While it took me a little while to get used to the chibi looking character sprites, I was amazed at the amazing cinematics. The towns and dungeons also looks very amazing with some fantastic detail. I would have to say that this is one of the best looking PSOne Final Fantasy game out of the bunch. There was a small complaint I had and that was that the character sprites kind of did look scratchy, but that's just a minor complaint.

You'll also be pleased to know that the game's soundtrack is amazing. Once you hear the title screen music, you'll probably love everything else. The battle theme music does start of a little slow, but then it picks up when your about to fight. If you're like me though, you'll love the music when dramatic and fight scenes happen. The music will draw you in, like you're actually experiencing it for yourself.

Overall, this is a solid Final Fantasy title that should be in any owner's collection. The visuals are amazing, the gameplay is breath-taking, and the soundtrack is a joy to listen to. This is a Final Fantasy title that no fan of the genre or series should miss out on.