It’s always a pleasant surprise to see how well a complex RPG can hold up almost 20 years later and a joy to have one of my favorite games easily accessible on a modern console. Final Fantasy IX is certainly worth the time of a first-timer or a nostalgic fan like myself. The look may be a bit dated, but the gameplay still holds up, and the story still resonates. This game feels like a home run after almost two decades. It is undeniable that Final Fantasy is always considered one of the names that come up when it comes to a great RPG. I much prefer playing the game as the developers originally intended, but I’ll admit I did use that fast-forward function to cut out a bit of that level grind. I’m not much of an advocate for cheating.
Any of the cheats toggled from the pause menu won’t affect trophy progression, but other cheats buried deeper in the menus both can’t be turned off once activated and disable trophies.
In addition to the cleaned-up look, a few easy-to-toggle cheats are built into the game, most of which are also on the Steam release. From the pause menu, you can toggle things like battle assistance and a fast-forward mode that is becoming very common in these RPG re-releases. The PlayStation 4 release of Final Fantasy IX hides (not really) a few secrets beneath its surface.
