While everything else excels, the gameplay mechanics are weak... inferior even to most previous FFs. I do appreciate the concept of learning abilities through items. But that's where it ends. Don't get me started on the hidden level scaling mechanics. Or the fact that it's literally the slowest battle encounters in the entire series. The animation and input latency is unbearable. Love 75% or ff9. Hate the gameplay
@phillystevesteak6982 I disagree I actually loved the gameplay of 9 and thought it was actually really well done and executed. I will give you how slow the battles can be it's like you must have auto haste on cause even cranking battle speed all the way up it's still extremely slow the ATB bar takes a fucking ice age to fill up and if you happen to get infected with slow you may as well just reload your save state lol
I was 15 years old when I got this game. When Vivi asks "Will I stop moving, too", it was the first time I really thought about death in a meaningful way. Three days ago, I had to put my dog down. She had cancer and we didn't know until she very suddenly dropped weight and eventually stopped eating. Terribly sad. But, it got me thinking about ol' 66 (Vivi). The ones we love become a part of us. When they die, those memories get carried forward with us until we die. In turn, because what we are relies on them to some degree, both they and we get carried forward in the lives of those we influence; this goes on and on ad infinitum. In essence, no one truly "stops moving". What they were is carried on from generation to generation, through family and friends. Even if humanity dies, "the memory" of our species lives on in the planet. If the planet dies, it leaves an imprint on the universe. It's always sad to lose someone, but they are never truly lost. We got our pup from a friend when her first human died themselves and experience 3 amazing years with an amazing little dog. If I was told I could go back and do it all again and it would happen the exact same way, I'd do it. Those memories we made together are worth experiencing the grief that came (and still comes) after. I beg you, friends, take a little time to be grateful for the folks in our lives. There were times when I was sleeping that our little pup would walk on me, lay on my feet and wake me up. Mildly annoyed, I'd tell her "No" and put her back in the middle of the bed. What I wouldn't give to be mildly annoyed by her now.
aww! what a beautiful story... people, once they are gone, leave us with... what they represented. awful individuals can leave the survivors with a palpable sense of impotent rage - an anger that can never be resolved, that tears at the survivors til' the end. however, truly exceptional individuals can leave us with... a reason to go on - a gratitude for what once was. a reason to make other people happy, and make their struggle a little less... lonely! cool song for... 'being grateful'! ua-cam.com/video/pC3IrqUpm9U/v-deo.html
@@we-must-live That song is awesome! I'd never heard it before but it hits me in that place where I listen to Bright Eyes while laughing or crying. If you don't know Bright Eyes, I recommend "Bowl of Oranges" to express my gratitude for sharing "Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist". Your vibe is tight, my friend.
Your post was a great read, thank you. I wish I could believe the "If the planet dies, it leaves an imprint on the universe" part was REALLY true though, but for all I know, it isn't. All life on Earth could disappear this instant and it wouldn't change anything in the history of the universe from here on forward; terrestrial life is irrelevant in the grand scheme of it. It would be like claiming one grain of sand disappearing from one beach on Earth would have any influence in the history of the planet.
@@bennemann Thanks for the good shout! Your perspective is just as valid and I agree; everything is ultimately pointless. The glory of it all is that we can establish some personal meaning while we're here. For some, that inevitability leads to nihilism. For others, the idea that their mistakes will be as erased as their triumphs makes them bolder. The glory being that, no matter what you decide, you decide if you're right or not. Maybe other people disagree, but what's right for you is right for you. Thanks again for the outreach!
I Can't give out a better reply because of how hard I see this comment. Probably I went into a wrong video but it's related to Existentialism. The most heard thing on fixing the meaning of life is to create your own meaning. This answer even though it answered to some people's problems, it leaves me into sadness, loneliness and a anxiety of losing yourself. I see myself, all the material things, and everything that evolves to dirt is just something that questions that answer. In this comment idk why am i writing this you can see it's confusing or messy. I just want to see something special in my life because everyone in this planet lives in the same circle every second of time, born, success, and family then death. I just can't see it always like this.
The ending to this video made me tear up. Final Fantasy IX is my favorite game of all time specifically because of the themes of discovering one’s identity through collective experiences found in friendship and love. Honestly FF IX was a major part of how I became the person I am now. It really has one of the deepest and most beautiful stories in all of media, with some of the most memorable characters and settings in any video game, and one of the most beautiful soundtracks in video game history. And I’m glad so many other people feel as strongly about Final Fantasy IX as I do. Despite being 25 years old, it is still one of the most talked about video games, and people are still discovering for the first time the beautiful and unique world that the developers created in the form of a 32-bit video game.
FF9 actually had a profound impact on me as a child. It is one of the greatest pieces of art ever created. Anyone that says video games can't be art hasn't experienced this masterpiece.
@@billythekidproductions5327 I know what art is. I've studied it and I earn a living from it-until the WGA strike, that is. You might have an argument that individual parts like visual design and music are art but I think it'd fall short of being aesthetics in the same vein as plastic or temporal crafts. They are art-like as in creativity. But games are experienced as games. You play them. Art is a necessarily passive and receptive experience. A lot of depth and meaning is given up when a player is asked to control the experience. Because you control the experience, games cannot communicate deep ideas to you. My opinion, of course.
@@matt-30- this is the most contrarian take I’ve ever seen. The writing contained in many games constitute a story that’s been thought out with a message to be imparted upon the player. The graphics help to visualize the message and are designed with the writing in mind to invoke an emotional response. The music changes with the scenes like a play or movie does. The player controls a character which acts as an analog for all these aspects to form an experience. Games are most definitely art and I have no clue how you could watch this video and not draw the same conclusion.
"Even if we say goodbye, you'll always be in our hearts. So, that I know we're not alone anymore." That's my favorite line in the game. It has such beautiful meaning to it, I still hold onto that in my heart.
This is such an interesting take. I always thought that Zidane has protagonist energy because he felt so much free will, and that his boss challenging him to a duel to prove it was to show how determined he was to live his life, and go after Dagger. He's able to give advice on breaking free of determinism and the commitments of war, because he never struggled with identity since it never came up, so when all of his friends came to support him it solidified my love for the entire cast as I saw all of their worth, from ViVi to Quina. That in exastensialism, you don't always get a life changing revelation and instead just need to carry on. My favorite lines were: "You don't always need an awnser, you just need to try." "Can we ever make up for lost time? We can't, but can protect them from those who try to take it away!"
Final Fantasy IX is a great game. I'll say it's the second greatest RPG I've ever played, right after Chrono Trigger. It speaks to me on a lot of levels. I love the story about finding your identity. As an adoptee, I understand Zidane's plight. Garnett, Zidane, Vivi, and Steiner all struggle with forming an identity in that game, and have to ask themselves whether they can form an identity for themselves. Zidane and Vivi discover they were made for specific purposes. Did they have to fulfill those purposes? No. Vivi had little in common with the psychopathic black mages that were like him, who only knew one word. He could consciously choose to be something else. Zidane was made purposely to kill Kuja. At the end of the game, Zidane could have easily chosen to fulfill his destiny and kill him. He did not. At the beginning of the game, Steiner's identity was so locked up in serving the queen that he almost didn't have an identity of his own. When the queen's megalomaniacal behavior went so far that not even Steiner could tolerate it, he had to form his own identity and ask himself who he was for the first time in his life. I'm an adoptee, and I found my biological family thanks to an Ancestry DNA kit. I asked myself those same questions about my identity when I found my biological family. Interesting story pertaining to what you said about genetic memory: When I found my biological family, I discovered that my biological grandparents were living in the same neighborhood, in fact, just around the corner from where I was living. I was drawn to that area because of genetic memory. I've talked with other adoptees who found their biological families, and many of them said that they had biological family living close by, or that their ancestors had lived in the same area they'd moved to. Like a swallow to Capistrano, I was drawn to the neighborhood I now live years ago. I've dubbed this phenomenon the Jenovah Effect because it was like there were cells in my body that were leading me to a certain place for some kind of reunion or something.
My favorite game of all time, the last gift my father gave me when he passed away, what helped to keep me alive during that dark time of my life among my grieving family and FFX, and something I carry deeply and warmly in my heart to this day inspiring much of my work.
You got a very, very different message than I got out of the game. One of the biggest things I got was the villains believed in determinism, blamed the crystal for all fault, all everything. But then you have characters running around, every moment, defying their predestination. Ordained weapons defying their classification. The royalty finding humility. Fiends finding humanity. While those who fall into Determinism, ordain the universe a mad dream full of choicelessness, the good ones say "I am, there for I am." and don't care to let such a vague, nebulous thing decide fate for them. Rather or not it is free will, their lives are each and every one ordained to be one thing, and they, through pain and choice, became something else. You view the stuff Kuja says as absolute, you view the Crystal as 'absolute'. But even the Authors of Final Fantasy have said that absolute disposition is untrue. Did the crystal create life? Or did the crystal shepherd it? Is the crystal a God? Or is it merely a representation of a greater whole. Those who gave into determinism, those, who said, 'fate is written' became blights upon the universe. In various games the crystal is depicted as bidding people to feel, think, choose, act. That choice is part of the design. And that if the entire universe, you or I are a dream, that so to is our choices a part of the dream. And that our choices are real, rather they come from experience or random chance they are no less important. And to assume fate is absolute is to give yourself to banality the moment you get bad news. Despite the fact that many other 'pre-determined beings' have chosen other things. Choice Matters. Rather it is created from stimulation and experience, or randomly. Destiny is not written. Because of all life is a book being written choice by choice. The de-investment of the choices we have lead to banality. The submission to fate leads to obsoletion. Zidane was destined to be a destroyer. He became a savior. Kuja was destined to be a destroyer who was surpassed by a greater destroyer. He gave in. But because of Zidane and his own submission to his fate. His own destiny changed and he was surpassed and redeemed by a brother. Submission to fate, to write 'ah well, all is written'. To marginalize choice, no matter how vague or obsolete said choice may seem is to strip yourself of your potential and sense of wonder. If free will is an illusion, you are an illusion. If you are part of the same illusion, then in the context of your reality, all is real and the grand posturings of fate are ultimately little more than motivation and de-motivation in the life you are given and choices you make.
To call determinism "vague" and "nebulous" makes no sense. Determinism is the most exact thing there is, every decision you take is the consequence of things that came before, therefore free will is an illusion. There's no real argument against that. One can be either be ignorant, positive or negative about determinism. He's showing the difference between those who take it negatively and positively. In the same coin, you can get depressed thinking "those who took it negatively by definition had no choice". That's true. But the true logical conclusion is neutral. It exists, it doesn't change anything on how I should live my life, as I cannot predict the future even though it's deterministic. Determinism is about acceptance.
Best soundtrack I've ever heard. Better than any other game's. Or movie or series. This OST is just too good. All it takes is hearing 2 seconds from most tracks of this game to get hit right in the feels.
This game is the embodiment of what Final Fantasy was at that time. As though every iteration before it was a dress rehearsal for this one, near perfect expression
Your comment definitely rings true. 6 is even the SMW of the series, being a stage play. It’s part of why that, until recently when I played 14, I thought 9 had the best story, despite 6 being my favorite overall and Bravely being where most my love for the series now lives on.
The game is the true Final Fantasy, what Sakaguchi has envisioned for it and especially the old era. Nowadays it's kinda wild and not necessarily for the better.
@@Lyu-Phy I wouldn’t say not necessary. Rather, I’d say it has evolved. At first by the hands of those at Square looking to revitalize the classics back in 2012 with Bravely, and then once again a year later when Eorzea was Reborn. And through the lessons, both good and bad, that they have brought us, things such as FF16, Endwalker, and whatever’s next for Bravely and 2D-HD both only have the highest of hopes.
FF9 is my favorite game of all time. I've come to this conclusion several times. I think the ending was tied together really well; and also the narration at the ending always gets me ballin' my eyes out.
it's also one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a game. Maybe it's just my childhood memories, but when I listen to 9's music it just hits different
@@sirownzalotgaming3025 Wouldn't say in all respects. If there's one area IX floundered in, it was the execution of a lot of its side-content, walling many things behind tedious Chocobo Hot and Cold mini-games and not having as many optional detours/challenges. While VII had its own tiresome chocobo breeding/racing shenanigans, it made up for all of that with more optional dungeons, the battle arena, the Wutai scenario, superbosses, and even offered the Gold Chocobo as a reward for taking down one of them, bypassing the breeding/racing stuff if you wanted to use it to reach the other secrets on the map. Story-wise, it's a tougher call to make, because the areas both stories revolve around different themes and ideas, and the areas they stumble in are different. When I was young, I tended to prefer IX's story, but nowadays, I tend to be more conflicted, since IX's execution of its latter half of its story is really rough and pales in comparison to the first half revolving around Brahne, containing a number of contrivances and revelations not to my liking. Even one of the most iconic events in the game feels unearned nowadays. Meanwhile, FFVII has a lot of rough spots, such as instances where the rational behind some decisions is questionable or has a few things that goes unexplained, but the execution of its own major developments is more refined, and its unreliable narrator and identity crisis of the main character is exceptionally well-crafted and had a great pay off. As such, it's a bit difficult to say which one is better when it comes to story when they excel in different areas. IX at least has a better localization, though.
@@sirownzalotgaming3025 Honestly, I'd say 9's biggest annoyance with me is that the combat is so damn slow. There's a lot of needless waiting in between actions that wasn't there in the games before it. With that being said, it's my favorite game of all time.
It feels like everybody is getting into FF IX recently. I've seen so many videos about it lately. But, this video is probably the one that truly encompasses what made the game so fantastic (at least for me). The main themes of purpose, life and death were explored so well in this game, it honestly surprised me when I first played it. Even after multiple replays I can still find interesting concepts and ideas, from the way a character's development arc unfolds to the very existence of those characters. It's all so well crafted. Just like this video. I hope more people give this masterpiece a chance due to this resurgence.
You know what’s funny about the Final Battle of the game! After the Crystal is destroyed, the Characters decide to try and Fight Necron! And Kuja in turn decides to sacrifice the last of his power to save Them! So, in a sense, even without the Crystal, we are still capable of Choice! If they can choose, then so can We! We can decide, even though the idea of free choice may be an illusion to some, it is still an action determined by one’s sense of self, regardless of what anyone says!
Thank you Max, for making this video about this wonderful and unique game I have been cherishing ever since I first played it, 20 years ago. This game shaped the adult I came to be, and has been a vessel for my feelings and philosophy for years. The fact that it managed to bring an answer to these existential questions and crisis II had is what help me going forward. And you perfectly captured that aspect of the game. With more emotion that I thought I'd have watching your video, I give you my honest thanks for giving this masterpiece of a game, the light it deserves.
Easily my all time favorite game. Its soundtrack, its story, its characters, its side quests and its pin point accuracy to hit your soul. An absolute masterpiece 👌
As a kid FF9 was an awesome game with awesome characters. As an adult the themes and topics in this game really hit home for me. One of the few games where nostalgia still holds up.
my childhood game, it kinda create the person i am today, seeking for beauty and answers to life meanings. In that continuous search, i find your channel and now you're talking about one of my favorite game. that's an example of determinism.
Before I say anything else, I just wanna say I genuinely like your videos, and I usually agree with your interpretation of the media you analyze. Having said that, with all due respect, I'm pretty sure FF9 isn't about free will vs determinism. It always seemed more like it was about accepting one's own mortality and whether or not life was worth living. Zidane, Kuja, and Vivi are the only characters for whom the concept of free will is touched upon, and only lightly. Their fears concerning their pre-determined lifespan are a far larger part of their respective motivations and character arcs. Kuja doesn't try to kill the crystal because he's mad that none of his choices matter, but because he's afraid of dying and jealous of everyone else who'll get to go on living. Vivi doesn't choose to stay with the party because he wants his choices to matter, but because he wants to protect the lives of the other Black Mages in the village even if their lives will be short. Their lives matter to him regardless. Zidane doesn't decide to rebel against Garland to prove that he makes his own choices, but because he just doesn't want people to die. I think it's kind of dishonest of you to focus so heavily on the three characters who are explicitly artificial constructs in order to bolster your own interpretation, when every other character in the game and even a few direct lines of dialogue contradict your interpretation. Every character in the party, and even a few side characters, has their own character arc, and free will vs determinism isn't a large part of most of them. But life is. Life is a significant factor in most if not all the character's arcs, and it's even the central conflict of the game. The life of Terra vs the life of Gaia. Freya and Eiko are probably the best characters examples that aren't the main 3 (Zidane, Vivi, and Kuja being the main 3), in the sense that Freya is "dead" to the person she has been looking for since he doesn't remember her, and Eiko wasn't really "living" until she joined up with the party. It's about life, not free will. That's just what I think. Maybe you'll reexamine it, and maybe you won't, but I had to say something regardless.
I mean... There can be more than one theme in a piece of work. Just saying. Who's to say that what he says also plays a part in the story? Whilst also coinciding with the theme you've brought up?
@@mcihay246 Well, there's the fact that most of what he says isn't rooted in the game at all. The fact that all things are connected all the way back to the origin of all life doesn't mean that everything is predetermined. There is nothing in the game that suggests it is a world with no free will. If anything, the game shows the opposite. The only characters who suggest anything like determinism are the villains (talking about fate and inevitability, mostly), and they only mention it a few times, and they're all proven wrong in the end. If anything, the game is saying your choices _do_ matter. There can be more than one theme in a story, yes, but that's not what he's saying. He's saying the game is _about_ free will vs determinism. He's saying that's the _main_ theme, but there's nothing in the game that suggests that to be the case. It's certainly an aspect of some characters' personal stories, and I won't deny that, but it's nowhere near the main theme of the entire story. What's more, the bits he uses to explain his conclusion don't make any sense. The interconnectivity of all living things and their memories, for example. How does something like that mean that there's no free will? Why does he think The Crystal is conscious and directs the universe according to its will? There's nothing in the game to suggest that. Neither of these data points logically lead to a lack of free will. He's right about the shared experiences and the choice to live, and all the joy and sorrow that entails, but how does any of that lead to a world that is predetermined? Honesty, the more I try to understand how he came to his conclusions, the more baffling it is to me.
@@josh-oo Hmm... Regarding how the Crystal directs the universe... I don't think this is meant as that it's wholly controlling the events of what is happening thereafter. But it's moreso that whatever happens after is simply a byproduct of what has come before. However, even if this is the case... and it seems as if we (or those in FFIX) have somewhat of a predetermined fate, influenced by the past... But that just because things are as they are, Final Fantasy IX explores that all these things play a part in conjuction to free will. The plot/current events, setting/environment, the world/Earth, FFIX/Real Life, etc. That even though there are things that we just cannot change, it doesn't mean one has to accept the way things are. One can choose to however accept, and move on whilst adapting and focusing on being with the one's they love. Even if life is often unfair, such as your love forgetting their past with you. Or one can deny their "predetermined fate", and to live life in which gives themselves meaning. Through loyalty, comraderie, self-improvement, etc. Both aspects aren't wrong, as life is what an individual wants it to be.
@@mcihay246 He straight-up says "there is no free will, there is only The Crystal" in the video. If that's not supposed to be taken as him saying that The Crystal controls everything, I don't know how to interpret it. Having said that, I don't have any complaints with *your* interpretation of what the game is saying. I can see how what you've said is something that can coexist with the information presented in the story. I can't say the same about the interpretation in the video.
Final Fantasy IX and Metal Gear Solid were my best English Teachers, now I teach this to kids and adults. I finished it again a week ago after 20 years, it is as beautiful as I remember. Specially the music.
@@isaacisaaca8163 I honestly cannot remember the music for FF8. I remember the game for the most part, and it was definitely a wild one, but I don't remember the music being that memorable
My take on the existential horror people face when it comes to their existence, things like how life is finite, the earth and universe will die eventually, nothing lasts forever, and the thoughts of how meaningless it all is when acknowledging those facts, is this. You can either be someone who tries to not think about them and distract yourself with things like faith/belief in a higher power like god, maybe distracting from those thoughts with escapism like into games or books or movies or shows, or even getting tripped out on drugs. Or, you can be someone who just accepts yeah, these are matter of facts, things everyone has to come to terms with, but so fucking what? Everyone dies eventually, but everyone gets a chance to live too, to do things, to experience things, to create, to make a legacy, to teach. We all die, but we get to choose our fate before we do. And that's way more meaningful than just accepting entropy as your only purpose.
You have no clue how much I needed this video. I've been working a very stressful and difficult job, understaffed, for about a decade now. My best friend and co-worker who suffered through it all with me, had to move away. I loved her in an indescribable way, and her leaving left a chasm in my life. But I'll never regret the time I spent with her.
I think you would really love Xenogears. Totally fits the themes your channel has been going through, and since you’ve been playing older rpgs i think it would be amazing to hear your thoughts on it. So much to discuss in that.
Thank you for giving me many reasons to play Final Fantasy 9, I've owned the game for years and really knew nothing about it, now I know it's about breaking away from your destined fate and having free will, thanks Max for a great video ✌️
It's so much more than that btw. Hopefully you truly get to playing it, I assure you the main themes, the characters and the soundtrack are all incredible and worth experiencing. If you do play it, comment your thoughts once you beat it.
Great compelling vid. FFIX really is so well-written. I remember (SPOILERS) not realizing during my first playthrough that Vivi is actually on his deathbed at the end. I still loved his monologue not knowing this, the point is that it is a soliloquy to life.
Thank you for making this video, FF9 had a profound impact on me as a kid. I’ve been on an existential journey for a long time now, but I don’t have any sadness or resentment for the child in me that’s transformed, the world wasn’t what I knew, but that illusion wasn’t pointless. The strength I gained was built on that foundation of wonder and imagination for the world.
Its the best final fantasy game ever with the best artwork- best most fleshed out characters ( zidane, vivi, dagger, freya, kuja, Steiner so many great characters) best dialogue of any final fantasy game by far and It’s not even close. The game is my favorite game of all time and it’s so optimistic and incredible zidane is my fav main character in any final fantasy game
This is my favourite final fantasy DESPITE the art style. Characters all got giant heads, clothes don't look good to me or make sense (Zidane is wearing cuffs on his wrists with no long sleeve shirt, Steiner's eyeliner and chainmail tee-shirt that doesn't cover his arms and armor shorts that don't cover his legs, Freya looks like a hobo and dagger looks like she's wearing a dress shirt over those 80's spandex fitness leotards). DESPITE how childish and fairy tale like the designs look, the characters are more mature than most final fantasies. FF7 and FF8 had a third of their stories dealing with the protagonist having his memory messed with. They might just shut down if they found out they had Vivi or Zidiane's background.
FFIX was one of the first games i ever played and i fell in love immediately. Over the course of four years as a kid i managed to put in over 900 hours because for hours i would just "live" in the game world with everyone. From traveling to doing all the sides quests to just running around fighting things when I was bored. Not to mention the card game. I soent so long trying to figure it out and collecting all the best cards i could. It set me on a JRPG path in life that has become a main part of my overall personality. Edit: Im going to be thirty at the end of the month. The time line of this comment starts when it came out. My dad randomly bought it for me for christmas. He thought i would like it
🥲 This video hit harder than I expected. Thank you for making a true effort to keep the light and the dark balanced on your channel, a little cosmos inside the entropic UA-cam universe. 😌
Oh Max, you summed up everything in the video towards the end of your video perfectly about our existence and the video games that we play that help shape us. Games like Final Fantasy IX, VI and even X are like an experience. They teach us that there is more to life than our supposed meaningless existence, we can give it meaning by making the best of it, by experiencing fun times with other good people that just want the same. We live, we inspire, we laugh, we love, we get sick, but it’s ok, we die, but that’s still ok because we live on forever after that through our actions and interactions with many others and how they choose to remember us. We are never truly gone, despite how long we are physically here.
I am replaying it right now in 2023. I am still hallucinated by the creativity, philosophy and inspiration of thos game. For me, it is the greatest game of all time.
I just watched a video essay on FFIX the other day about Necron yesterday. I'm very happy to see you talking about one of my favorite games too. And, yeah, that closing segment actually did help me I think.
Memoria is one of the best artistic experience I have ever seen all media combined : The hauting music, the psychedelic and mystical sceneries(backgrounds) and Garland as a Philosophical Guide through this dungeon. It's pure poetry. Thank You for showing what makes FFIX so great 👍
FF9 is my all time favorite Final Fantasy for these exact reasons, its an unbelievable experience and a formative one at that. Also within the scope of existentialistic subtext(amongst other controversial themes) in video game(but not limited to) story telling, Xenogears is near if not at the top of that list, many would argue. Im anxiously awaiting you to play it.
15:37 yes, this video has come to me in the time of need. thank you from the other side of Canada, even if I have to leave it soon, all my good memories remain
Damn that ending hit me in the feels, it’s like the only realistic solace against existential dread. “Lucky ones are we all till it is over, everyone near and far.”
Thank you for making a video on this amazing game.. while in recent years the ff community has a much more positive opinion on ff9, it wasn’t like that when I was growing up.. it took at lot of convincing to get friends to try the game with it’s beautiful world and deep, character-driven story because of the negative reception it had early on.. but I really wanted people to experience the game that changed my life, to maybe see in it what I did.. it helped me through some very dark years in adolescence, struggling with my identity, life and my place in it.. an almost crippling feeling of loneliness I felt back then too.. the game was something of well of strength in hard moments when I didn’t have people to talk to and was isolated.. plus it helped me to get better at reading as I had trouble with complex language and large bodies of text (I have Meares-Irlen syndrome) back then.. so to have you make this video.. I can only thank you
Just finished it a couple day ago, what a coincidence. I once played it when I'm about 12/13yo and never bothered to finish it, recently I just finished it with 72 hour long gameplay, yeah, I take my time with this game, bcs playing it now I just realized ff9 have deeper depth than I would've imagine. If I have to choose I will be torn, ff7 left a great memory in my mind, but I feel the soul of ff echoing louder in ff9.
This makes me so happy. My three favorite games of all time are NieR: Replicant and Automata, and FFIX. It was the first game that i played all the way through and then replayed. I was even vivi for Halloween in 5th grade. After reading all the Sartre and Camus in university, i was super into existentialism. I played NieR automata first and became obsessed with the lore and the whole idea of the eternal recurrence and the death of the gods. Then i finally played replicant and got even deeper into the philosophy of the series and the way the replicants became self aware. But now I’m watching your video, i haven’t played FFIX in a couple years and it was before i took Existentialism in college. This is inspiring me to play it again. Fantastic video!
I love your analysis of this game. It comes at a poignant time as well. Final fantasy 9 is one of my favorites in the series and I have fond memories of playing it when I was about 10-11
I remember very well how your take on "Humanity and machines" struck me. As someone that wants to make a book, your thoughts about how robots, androids and humans got my attention. You make well-narrated analysis, dude. Kudos for an more happy existence.
What you describe here is the reason why I've never felt existential dread, though it took many years before I could say why. It was summed up in the last verse of the song Answers from Final Fantasy XIV. Give it a listen some time.
@@omensoffate That's what makes old rpgs fun, they were relaxed and slow paced, meditative at times. Sit back and enjoy the experience, journey, and story. Do your self a favor and play it on the original speed and take it all in the way it was meant to be not with boosted battle speed.
I'm literally replaying it atm, I'm here looking at videos while I'm at work and not playing it lol. I first played this in 2000/1 and I still love playing it now in 2023
Here's a theory on why Zidane sees Garnets memory. It wasn't Garnets memory, it was her mother's memory. Terra stole the souls of Gaia and placed them into thir own vessels. Zidane was the vessel that took Garnets mothers soul. It was his memory, his soul was there.
I played FF 9 when I was 8 yrs old and I've been depressed ever since Vivi saw all those black mages falling from the ship in the fight against Black Waltz N 3
As unlikely this is to be read, I do not think that free will is entirely absent from the Lore of FF9 as postulated... Rather, I think that Free will in the world of FF9 is ultimately the choice, and it is the first truly free choice a person within the world FF9 can make. All of the main characters face this choice... and it is the rebellion against that which brings them to refuse their dictated fate. Amarant broke free of the fate of those who were not Strong, just as Zidane broke from his fate to destroy, as Steiner and Garnet did from their duties, and how Vivi chose how not to be a weapon.
I remember learning about these heavy subjects like determinism and free will, existentialism (etc) in philosophy class at school. I initially just took the class on because I thought it would be full of people just waxing poetic and trying to flaunt their intellect on each other and that I could just use it as a “slack off” period but I actually ended up taking a real interest in the topics/questions that got discussed. I remember talking about all these great thinkers like John Locke, Rene Descartes, Friedrich Nietsche (etc). And after finishing school and now in my early twenties I really enjoy discussing these ideas and watching your video essays on them. I hope that in the future, video games like MGS2, NieR:Automata and so on get studied by future generations in schools like how we had to study works of literature like “To kill a Mocking Bird” or “Macbeth” because the impression I get at the moment from education institutions in the world at the moment is that they frown upon video games and consider them to be just sources of mindless entertainment that are incapable of carrying serious and weighty messages/ideas. With people like yourself and your channel, I hope that in the future These works of art are taken seriously by the intellectual “snobs” that currently rule over the world of academia because if they did I think that it would be easier for younger generations to engage in discussions of philosophical subjects like the ones you always address. The effort and care you put into your videos is not unnoticed and I can’t wait for your next one. Also an idea for you next video (because I haven’t really seen any good ones on it) could be about Yaldabaoth and the Prison of Regression ant the end of Persona 5. I think because you talk extensively about Carl Jung you would really find it interesting to analyse. Keep up the brilliant work!
Absolutely fantastic work! I always appreciate more attention for my favourite Final Fantasy game, but this video is especially great. The overall message is profound and beautiful. Thank you :)
So glad you picked this one up. 9 and 10 are my favorites for the exact same reasons you mentioned their respective videos (and starting from FF8, they all make sweet love stories lol). Might I suggest you give Xenogears (and the other Xeno games, Xenosaga and Xenoblade) a try as well?
Final Fantasy is my absolute favorite media franchise, hands-down. It’s like my best childhood friend. It got me through SO many hard times. Hell, Final Fantasy VI (at the time, III) basically taught me how to read. I’ve always flip-flopped about which title is my favorite (between VI, IX and Tactics), but I think I’m starting to settle into IX. It’s truly a dream game. As I’ve aged, the messages of the game, or at least my recognition of them, have aged with me. Having very recently replayed it, the identity aspect of this game really hit me so hard. As someone going through so many identity crises of my own, it honestly gave me courage to face those things head-on and not let them control my life. To live in the moment, with joy and hope rather than self-loathing and despair. I can’t emphasize enough how much this game means to me, and for good reason. It is a masterpiece. There is just no other way to describe it.
Honestly when I saw your video on ffx, I thought in disappointment “He will likely never play IX, the masterpiece, since he only just played X and IX is almost too niche.” This is like when you tell a friend to watch something you know theyd like and they finally do it
Thank you, it did help with existential ennui! I am glad to watch your videos on video games and philosophy that can help people think more than one may guess.
I love FF9 because it's so great it tells us "even if how you were born wasn't what you think it was, even if you were born differently, your experiences are real and that should be great and freeing to you" see people see determinism as a terrible thing because then we're well tools but can tools make out purpose? Can they see the purpose in others? Can tools feel and think? Can it question it's creator "why did you make me plow when I wanted to cut?" As a hard determinist I find it liberating our experiences especially when they are predetermined because it tells me we're not JUST going through the motions but we HAVE to enjoy every moment of life
@@Walamonga1313 I would absolutely love to, but I’m a small business owner and the amount of time I spend working is absurdly high. I don’t have time for much leisure so these videos are really cool cuz I get to experience the themes of these games without actually playing them. It will make playing them at some point even more enjoyable
@@tylerroe5175 Yeah that's why I said some day. Maybe in a couple of years or a decade or two. These games are pretty much timeless after all (I first played this last year, so 20 years after release)
I loved and cherished this game. Played it when I was 11-12, finished it on my 23. Dropped tears of joy. More so when I realized that the whole game can be interpreted as Vivi's tale, from his POV, instead of Zidane although Zidane's the main protagonist. The ending monologue is his parting message.
There is something to be said about knowing that existance is meaningless. It is freeing in a sense, and the most "well" I have been was when I was freed after hearing a lecture given by none other than Alan Watts here on youtube, and safe to say, I think that the genius mind of his translated and turned some of the oriental ways and teachings into some sort of existencialist/spiritual hybrid philosophy. When there is no meaning to life, life itself becomes its own meaning, and we have to live in it. We can't have a meaning, because we are the meaning. To go even further, and to quote another genius, Sagan, "We are a way of the cosmos to know itself." I can't imagine life having a meaning, or not being what it is, more so...I can't imagine life, I must be too busy living in it, by it, to imagine it. That...is a positive way to see this existencial dread. It is only through those dreadful things, that we can come to see the light. "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek. " Joseph Campbell.
It’s a tough thing to wrap your head around, even once you realize it. Surely, accepting that life is meaningless nihilism? But it’s not. The difference is in what we do with that information and how we move forward, or as you said, how we make our own meaning. I suppose that’s why quotes like Campbell’s exist, because I think that first look into the abyss rattles EVERYONE.
Life is not meaningless for anyone, it's full of meaning everywhere you look. Purpose is not the same thing as meaning. If you stub your toe, it has obvious meaning for you - it hurts - but it may not have had a purpose, it may not have had a justification. The idea that everything is meaningless and so you can create what ever meaning you want, is a recipe for avoiding virtue and not reaching our full potential.
@@sigigle exactly, life is full of meaning everywhere you look, because you are looking into it. And that creates meaning, our brain makes meaning all out of everything that happens, we -make- meaning, we make reason, we make desires, we make it.
@@tauanwerneck3197 No, negative and positive states of experience are inherently meaningful, regardless of what we think about them. Whether your neighbor is experiencing pain or joy, what meaning this has to you - that is; what states it triggers in you - does indeed depend on your thoughts about it, but the experience they're having has inherent meaning, regardless of what anyone thinks about it, because it has inherent meaning for them.
The "nobody will have your exact experiences" part reminds me of the "tears in the rain" speech from Bladerunner. But where the character giving that speech laments the loss of those memories, he sort of misses the point of the beauty that he had those memories at all in the first place. idk I haven't seen Bladerunner lol
@@bbcraz1226 I've tried. Not saying it's bad or anything, but that dry ass narration is excruciating lol and I've heard others say the same who love the movie.
I discoverd your channel a few days ago and I have say that I already love it. Dark Souls, Nier Automata, Silent Hill are some of the greatest games of all time. Final Fantasy IX is my most favorite and beloved game I have ever played. I strongly recommend you to play Planescape Tormment. I had no idea before I play it how deep its story is. Its far better than Baldurs Gate 2, and BG2 is a masterpiece.
The video made my cry, the joy, sadness, despair and delight amalgamated in fealings of bliss. I love FF9, and now i can say that my vision of this game has expanded and deepened. Thank you.
I got hooked on your channel because of your Jordan Peterson related content and I often think about why his work resonated with me. He has lectures on Disney Movies and archetypes that we find throughout human history in literature and stories, but it clicked in my head years ago that FF9 was my first exposure to Peterson's work. Haven't even watched the video yet, but based on your other content, I'm so happy that your making one on my favorite game. Cheers. Love your channel
I came expecting Peterson, but ended up getting Sam Harris 😆. Great video, boss. *FF9 final boss spoilers* I was hoping to get your opinion on Necron and his role in the game. The way he's kinda just dropped on your lap was giga random imo. Some quasi-Lovecraftian Old God who has determined that all life inevitably seeks death, so he chooses to exterminate all of existence. But after watching this video, I can sort of see that the character arcs of the party were always meant to be seen as the antithesis to Necron. In a way, FF9 isn't very traditional in the sense that Necron is the eternal rival to the main party, like a puppetmaster pulling the strings behind their adventure, but his goals are in direct opposition to the party's. So the final boss battle is like an apotheosis of ideals, a climax that comes *after* most of the character arcs have been resolved. I thought it was very interesting and he offers his own amount (albeit very small) of existential dread to the story. Thanks again! ✌
Just got to Kuja and I have to admit, his was the most based reaction. If the universe and reality tell you your existence is just a confluence of circumstances, then any being with a shred of self identity and respect should have had a flash of a thought about changing the world to such an extent where that statement becomes irrelevant. Our man Kuja not only had that thought, but also acted on it. He sounds like the one true student of existentialism to me.
I mean, I was gonna come up with something leaning on profound, but to keep it simple It really is a masterpiece. I recently replayed it earlier this year, and with age and experience, if anything it just hit home more. Great video brother. Really well done.
Just like you FF10 was my first final fantasy. I took a long way around playing 12, 13, 4, 2, 7 and 8 first and especially after the grim and realistic cyberpunk of FF8 and FF7 I thought to myself that FF9 would be a more classic not to grim but enjoyable game. After finding out about the black mages I realized I was going to be in for a ride. I found more and more parallels between the characters, since it didn't make sense to me why Square wanted to show us these characters. Each and everyone of them has had their worldview shaken, their existence and it's reason put in question, and extrapolating this concept onto the world itself was a ride I was most certainly not prepared for.
I definitely experienced the reccomendation, and a need to listen to something inspiring, even if it did feel dark and dreadfully deep in some parts. FFIX is one of the warmest stories, or games, in the entire series. It holds a special place in my heart.
There are four thoughts which helped me get through my existential dread: 1. "Que sera, sera." Whatever will be, will be. There is SO MUCH which is out of our control; we are completely powerless against MOST of it. Whether we are powerless or powerful in any circumstance...whatever will be, will be. 2. "Don't worry...be happy!" For what IS in our control, we do not need to worry...we simply do what we can do to fix the circumstance. For what is NOT in our control, we do not need to worry...there is nothing we can do anyways...just enjoy the ride and see where it takes us. Maybe, it will take us to someplace with circumstances which ARE in our control. And, if we end up in a place in which we STILL have no control...then, simply enjoy that ride as well. Going through it all with smiles on our faces won't hurt anyone. But, a frown on our faces WILL hurt us. 3. "This, too, shall pass." For circumstance which seems too difficult to handle...that circumstance will not last forever. Eventually, the bad times will pass. Eventually, even the powerless become powerful. It just takes time...don't worry about the difficult situations...we need to be happy that we got through them alive, and stronger because of them. 4. "Just hang in there, baby!" Having a bad time? Having a bad life? Don't quit; fore this, too, shall pass. The only way to lose, is to quit. If we quit, we will stay exactly where we are, and it shall NOT pass. We only quit, because we worry. Don't worry...whatever will be, will be...just hang in there, baby! And, it will pass. Just hang in there...and, be happy. EDIT: A word. I spelled "dread" as "dredd." LOL!
FF9 is simply one of the best games ever created
While everything else excels, the gameplay mechanics are weak... inferior even to most previous FFs. I do appreciate the concept of learning abilities through items. But that's where it ends. Don't get me started on the hidden level scaling mechanics. Or the fact that it's literally the slowest battle encounters in the entire series. The animation and input latency is unbearable.
Love 75% or ff9. Hate the gameplay
For sure. It’s one of my personal favorites in the main numbered games. Especially the fantasy atmosphere of it and engaging ost.
No question!!!
I like quino
@phillystevesteak6982 I disagree I actually loved the gameplay of 9 and thought it was actually really well done and executed. I will give you how slow the battles can be it's like you must have auto haste on cause even cranking battle speed all the way up it's still extremely slow the ATB bar takes a fucking ice age to fill up and if you happen to get infected with slow you may as well just reload your save state lol
This game is pure magic. And when Melodies of Life plays in the end it kind of sums all the experience in a single moment. Great video Max!!
That song makes my ass cry every single time
@@lomein9751 same here dude
Not my favorite, but that ending is powerful
I was 15 years old when I got this game. When Vivi asks "Will I stop moving, too", it was the first time I really thought about death in a meaningful way.
Three days ago, I had to put my dog down. She had cancer and we didn't know until she very suddenly dropped weight and eventually stopped eating. Terribly sad. But, it got me thinking about ol' 66 (Vivi).
The ones we love become a part of us. When they die, those memories get carried forward with us until we die. In turn, because what we are relies on them to some degree, both they and we get carried forward in the lives of those we influence; this goes on and on ad infinitum.
In essence, no one truly "stops moving". What they were is carried on from generation to generation, through family and friends. Even if humanity dies, "the memory" of our species lives on in the planet. If the planet dies, it leaves an imprint on the universe.
It's always sad to lose someone, but they are never truly lost. We got our pup from a friend when her first human died themselves and experience 3 amazing years with an amazing little dog. If I was told I could go back and do it all again and it would happen the exact same way, I'd do it. Those memories we made together are worth experiencing the grief that came (and still comes) after. I beg you, friends, take a little time to be grateful for the folks in our lives. There were times when I was sleeping that our little pup would walk on me, lay on my feet and wake me up. Mildly annoyed, I'd tell her "No" and put her back in the middle of the bed.
What I wouldn't give to be mildly annoyed by her now.
aww! what a beautiful story...
people, once they are gone, leave us with... what they represented.
awful individuals can leave the survivors with a palpable sense of impotent
rage - an anger that can never be resolved, that tears at the survivors til' the end.
however, truly exceptional individuals can leave us with... a reason to go on - a gratitude for what once was.
a reason to make other people happy, and make their struggle a little less... lonely!
cool song for... 'being grateful'!
ua-cam.com/video/pC3IrqUpm9U/v-deo.html
@@we-must-live That song is awesome! I'd never heard it before but it hits me in that place where I listen to Bright Eyes while laughing or crying.
If you don't know Bright Eyes, I recommend "Bowl of Oranges" to express my gratitude for sharing "Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist".
Your vibe is tight, my friend.
Your post was a great read, thank you. I wish I could believe the "If the planet dies, it leaves an imprint on the universe" part was REALLY true though, but for all I know, it isn't. All life on Earth could disappear this instant and it wouldn't change anything in the history of the universe from here on forward; terrestrial life is irrelevant in the grand scheme of it. It would be like claiming one grain of sand disappearing from one beach on Earth would have any influence in the history of the planet.
@@bennemann Thanks for the good shout! Your perspective is just as valid and I agree; everything is ultimately pointless. The glory of it all is that we can establish some personal meaning while we're here. For some, that inevitability leads to nihilism. For others, the idea that their mistakes will be as erased as their triumphs makes them bolder. The glory being that, no matter what you decide, you decide if you're right or not. Maybe other people disagree, but what's right for you is right for you.
Thanks again for the outreach!
I Can't give out a better reply because of how hard I see this comment. Probably I went into a wrong video but it's related to Existentialism. The most heard thing on fixing the meaning of life is to create your own meaning. This answer even though it answered to some people's problems, it leaves me into sadness, loneliness and a anxiety of losing yourself.
I see myself, all the material things, and everything that evolves to dirt is just something that questions that answer.
In this comment idk why am i writing this you can see it's confusing or messy. I just want to see something special in my life because everyone in this planet lives in the same circle every second of time, born, success, and family then death.
I just can't see it always like this.
The ending to this video made me tear up. Final Fantasy IX is my favorite game of all time specifically because of the themes of discovering one’s identity through collective experiences found in friendship and love. Honestly FF IX was a major part of how I became the person I am now. It really has one of the deepest and most beautiful stories in all of media, with some of the most memorable characters and settings in any video game, and one of the most beautiful soundtracks in video game history. And I’m glad so many other people feel as strongly about Final Fantasy IX as I do. Despite being 25 years old, it is still one of the most talked about video games, and people are still discovering for the first time the beautiful and unique world that the developers created in the form of a 32-bit video game.
FF9 actually had a profound impact on me as a child. It is one of the greatest pieces of art ever created. Anyone that says video games can't be art hasn't experienced this masterpiece.
Games are games, not art. And I've played FF9.
@@matt-30-how isn’t it art? The graphics, the music, etc… that’s not art? I think you need to go look up the definition of what art is.
@@billythekidproductions5327 I know what art is. I've studied it and I earn a living from it-until the WGA strike, that is. You might have an argument that individual parts like visual design and music are art but I think it'd fall short of being aesthetics in the same vein as plastic or temporal crafts. They are art-like as in creativity. But games are experienced as games. You play them. Art is a necessarily passive and receptive experience. A lot of depth and meaning is given up when a player is asked to control the experience. Because you control the experience, games cannot communicate deep ideas to you. My opinion, of course.
@@matt-30- Very interesting.
@@matt-30- this is the most contrarian take I’ve ever seen. The writing contained in many games constitute a story that’s been thought out with a message to be imparted upon the player. The graphics help to visualize the message and are designed with the writing in mind to invoke an emotional response. The music changes with the scenes like a play or movie does. The player controls a character which acts as an analog for all these aspects to form an experience. Games are most definitely art and I have no clue how you could watch this video and not draw the same conclusion.
"Even if we say goodbye, you'll always be in our hearts. So, that I know we're not alone anymore."
That's my favorite line in the game. It has such beautiful meaning to it, I still hold onto that in my heart.
This is such an interesting take. I always thought that Zidane has protagonist energy because he felt so much free will, and that his boss challenging him to a duel to prove it was to show how determined he was to live his life, and go after Dagger. He's able to give advice on breaking free of determinism and the commitments of war, because he never struggled with identity since it never came up, so when all of his friends came to support him it solidified my love for the entire cast as I saw all of their worth, from ViVi to Quina. That in exastensialism, you don't always get a life changing revelation and instead just need to carry on. My favorite lines were:
"You don't always need an awnser, you just need to try."
"Can we ever make up for lost time? We can't, but can protect them from those who try to take it away!"
Final Fantasy IX is a great game. I'll say it's the second greatest RPG I've ever played, right after Chrono Trigger. It speaks to me on a lot of levels. I love the story about finding your identity. As an adoptee, I understand Zidane's plight. Garnett, Zidane, Vivi, and Steiner all struggle with forming an identity in that game, and have to ask themselves whether they can form an identity for themselves. Zidane and Vivi discover they were made for specific purposes. Did they have to fulfill those purposes? No. Vivi had little in common with the psychopathic black mages that were like him, who only knew one word. He could consciously choose to be something else. Zidane was made purposely to kill Kuja. At the end of the game, Zidane could have easily chosen to fulfill his destiny and kill him. He did not. At the beginning of the game, Steiner's identity was so locked up in serving the queen that he almost didn't have an identity of his own. When the queen's megalomaniacal behavior went so far that not even Steiner could tolerate it, he had to form his own identity and ask himself who he was for the first time in his life.
I'm an adoptee, and I found my biological family thanks to an Ancestry DNA kit. I asked myself those same questions about my identity when I found my biological family. Interesting story pertaining to what you said about genetic memory: When I found my biological family, I discovered that my biological grandparents were living in the same neighborhood, in fact, just around the corner from where I was living. I was drawn to that area because of genetic memory. I've talked with other adoptees who found their biological families, and many of them said that they had biological family living close by, or that their ancestors had lived in the same area they'd moved to. Like a swallow to Capistrano, I was drawn to the neighborhood I now live years ago. I've dubbed this phenomenon the Jenovah Effect because it was like there were cells in my body that were leading me to a certain place for some kind of reunion or something.
My favorite game of all time, the last gift my father gave me when he passed away, what helped to keep me alive during that dark time of my life among my grieving family and FFX, and something I carry deeply and warmly in my heart to this day inspiring much of my work.
💙😁 wish you well
You got a very, very different message than I got out of the game.
One of the biggest things I got was the villains believed in determinism, blamed the crystal for all fault, all everything.
But then you have characters running around, every moment, defying their predestination. Ordained weapons defying their classification. The royalty finding humility. Fiends finding humanity. While those who fall into Determinism, ordain the universe a mad dream full of choicelessness, the good ones say "I am, there for I am." and don't care to let such a vague, nebulous thing decide fate for them.
Rather or not it is free will, their lives are each and every one ordained to be one thing, and they, through pain and choice, became something else. You view the stuff Kuja says as absolute, you view the Crystal as 'absolute'. But even the Authors of Final Fantasy have said that absolute disposition is untrue. Did the crystal create life? Or did the crystal shepherd it? Is the crystal a God? Or is it merely a representation of a greater whole.
Those who gave into determinism, those, who said, 'fate is written' became blights upon the universe.
In various games the crystal is depicted as bidding people to feel, think, choose, act. That choice is part of the design. And that if the entire universe, you or I are a dream, that so to is our choices a part of the dream. And that our choices are real, rather they come from experience or random chance they are no less important. And to assume fate is absolute is to give yourself to banality the moment you get bad news. Despite the fact that many other 'pre-determined beings' have chosen other things.
Choice Matters. Rather it is created from stimulation and experience, or randomly.
Destiny is not written. Because of all life is a book being written choice by choice.
The de-investment of the choices we have lead to banality. The submission to fate leads to obsoletion.
Zidane was destined to be a destroyer. He became a savior.
Kuja was destined to be a destroyer who was surpassed by a greater destroyer. He gave in. But because of Zidane and his own submission to his fate. His own destiny changed and he was surpassed and redeemed by a brother.
Submission to fate, to write 'ah well, all is written'. To marginalize choice, no matter how vague or obsolete said choice may seem is to strip yourself of your potential and sense of wonder. If free will is an illusion, you are an illusion. If you are part of the same illusion, then in the context of your reality, all is real and the grand posturings of fate are ultimately little more than motivation and de-motivation in the life you are given and choices you make.
Yeah, this is an odd video.
To call determinism "vague" and "nebulous" makes no sense. Determinism is the most exact thing there is, every decision you take is the consequence of things that came before, therefore free will is an illusion. There's no real argument against that. One can be either be ignorant, positive or negative about determinism.
He's showing the difference between those who take it negatively and positively. In the same coin, you can get depressed thinking "those who took it negatively by definition had no choice". That's true. But the true logical conclusion is neutral. It exists, it doesn't change anything on how I should live my life, as I cannot predict the future even though it's deterministic. Determinism is about acceptance.
When I first heard Dark Messenger playing during the final Kuja boss battle, my jaw dropped.
This game's OST is a masterpiece in itself.
I can't agree more
Best soundtrack I've ever heard. Better than any other game's. Or movie or series. This OST is just too good. All it takes is hearing 2 seconds from most tracks of this game to get hit right in the feels.
This game is the embodiment of what Final Fantasy was at that time. As though every iteration before it was a dress rehearsal for this one, near perfect expression
Was, is, will be
Your comment definitely rings true. 6 is even the SMW of the series, being a stage play. It’s part of why that, until recently when I played 14, I thought 9 had the best story, despite 6 being my favorite overall and Bravely being where most my love for the series now lives on.
I'm torn between 7 and 9.
The game is the true Final Fantasy, what Sakaguchi has envisioned for it and especially the old era. Nowadays it's kinda wild and not necessarily for the better.
@@Lyu-Phy I wouldn’t say not necessary. Rather, I’d say it has evolved. At first by the hands of those at Square looking to revitalize the classics back in 2012 with Bravely, and then once again a year later when Eorzea was Reborn. And through the lessons, both good and bad, that they have brought us, things such as FF16, Endwalker, and whatever’s next for Bravely and 2D-HD both only have the highest of hopes.
FF9 is my favorite game of all time. I've come to this conclusion several times.
I think the ending was tied together really well; and also the narration at the ending always gets me ballin' my eyes out.
it's also one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a game. Maybe it's just my childhood memories, but when I listen to 9's music it just hits different
@@raioh4747 this game was magic and unfortunately when it released it was still living in 7's shadow. But nine was a superior game in all respects.
@@sirownzalotgaming3025 Wouldn't say in all respects. If there's one area IX floundered in, it was the execution of a lot of its side-content, walling many things behind tedious Chocobo Hot and Cold mini-games and not having as many optional detours/challenges. While VII had its own tiresome chocobo breeding/racing shenanigans, it made up for all of that with more optional dungeons, the battle arena, the Wutai scenario, superbosses, and even offered the Gold Chocobo as a reward for taking down one of them, bypassing the breeding/racing stuff if you wanted to use it to reach the other secrets on the map.
Story-wise, it's a tougher call to make, because the areas both stories revolve around different themes and ideas, and the areas they stumble in are different. When I was young, I tended to prefer IX's story, but nowadays, I tend to be more conflicted, since IX's execution of its latter half of its story is really rough and pales in comparison to the first half revolving around Brahne, containing a number of contrivances and revelations not to my liking. Even one of the most iconic events in the game feels unearned nowadays.
Meanwhile, FFVII has a lot of rough spots, such as instances where the rational behind some decisions is questionable or has a few things that goes unexplained, but the execution of its own major developments is more refined, and its unreliable narrator and identity crisis of the main character is exceptionally well-crafted and had a great pay off.
As such, it's a bit difficult to say which one is better when it comes to story when they excel in different areas. IX at least has a better localization, though.
@@sirownzalotgaming3025 I think FFIX and FFVI might be my favorite games in this series.
@@sirownzalotgaming3025
Honestly, I'd say 9's biggest annoyance with me is that the combat is so damn slow. There's a lot of needless waiting in between actions that wasn't there in the games before it.
With that being said, it's my favorite game of all time.
Always a good day when FF9 gets some love. One of the best FF games.
It feels like everybody is getting into FF IX recently. I've seen so many videos about it lately. But, this video is probably the one that truly encompasses what made the game so fantastic (at least for me). The main themes of purpose, life and death were explored so well in this game, it honestly surprised me when I first played it. Even after multiple replays I can still find interesting concepts and ideas, from the way a character's development arc unfolds to the very existence of those characters. It's all so well crafted. Just like this video. I hope more people give this masterpiece a chance due to this resurgence.
You know what’s funny about the Final Battle of the game! After the Crystal is destroyed, the Characters decide to try and Fight Necron!
And Kuja in turn decides to sacrifice the last of his power to save Them!
So, in a sense, even without the Crystal, we are still capable of Choice! If they can choose, then so can We! We can decide, even though the idea of free choice may be an illusion to some, it is still an action determined by one’s sense of self, regardless of what anyone says!
Thank you Max, for making this video about this wonderful and unique game I have been cherishing ever since I first played it, 20 years ago. This game shaped the adult I came to be, and has been a vessel for my feelings and philosophy for years. The fact that it managed to bring an answer to these existential questions and crisis II had is what help me going forward. And you perfectly captured that aspect of the game.
With more emotion that I thought I'd have watching your video, I give you my honest thanks for giving this masterpiece of a game, the light it deserves.
Easily my all time favorite game. Its soundtrack, its story, its characters, its side quests and its pin point accuracy to hit your soul. An absolute masterpiece 👌
There are definitely very good life lessons that these Final Fantasy games can teach young people, and just people in general.
As a kid FF9 was an awesome game with awesome characters. As an adult the themes and topics in this game really hit home for me. One of the few games where nostalgia still holds up.
Indeed
It just makes me feel happy. The music still does
my childhood game, it kinda create the person i am today, seeking for beauty and answers to life meanings. In that continuous search, i find your channel and now you're talking about one of my favorite game. that's an example of determinism.
10 seconds in and Max already has one of the best FF tracks playing. Seriously Max you are the PH.d of video games.
The Ph.D of video games... I like that. :P
@@maxderrat phd of making me cry with video game music
Before I say anything else, I just wanna say I genuinely like your videos, and I usually agree with your interpretation of the media you analyze.
Having said that, with all due respect, I'm pretty sure FF9 isn't about free will vs determinism. It always seemed more like it was about accepting one's own mortality and whether or not life was worth living. Zidane, Kuja, and Vivi are the only characters for whom the concept of free will is touched upon, and only lightly. Their fears concerning their pre-determined lifespan are a far larger part of their respective motivations and character arcs. Kuja doesn't try to kill the crystal because he's mad that none of his choices matter, but because he's afraid of dying and jealous of everyone else who'll get to go on living. Vivi doesn't choose to stay with the party because he wants his choices to matter, but because he wants to protect the lives of the other Black Mages in the village even if their lives will be short. Their lives matter to him regardless. Zidane doesn't decide to rebel against Garland to prove that he makes his own choices, but because he just doesn't want people to die.
I think it's kind of dishonest of you to focus so heavily on the three characters who are explicitly artificial constructs in order to bolster your own interpretation, when every other character in the game and even a few direct lines of dialogue contradict your interpretation. Every character in the party, and even a few side characters, has their own character arc, and free will vs determinism isn't a large part of most of them. But life is. Life is a significant factor in most if not all the character's arcs, and it's even the central conflict of the game. The life of Terra vs the life of Gaia.
Freya and Eiko are probably the best characters examples that aren't the main 3 (Zidane, Vivi, and Kuja being the main 3), in the sense that Freya is "dead" to the person she has been looking for since he doesn't remember her, and Eiko wasn't really "living" until she joined up with the party. It's about life, not free will.
That's just what I think. Maybe you'll reexamine it, and maybe you won't, but I had to say something regardless.
I mean... There can be more than one theme in a piece of work.
Just saying.
Who's to say that what he says also plays a part in the story?
Whilst also coinciding with the theme you've brought up?
@@mcihay246 Well, there's the fact that most of what he says isn't rooted in the game at all. The fact that all things are connected all the way back to the origin of all life doesn't mean that everything is predetermined. There is nothing in the game that suggests it is a world with no free will. If anything, the game shows the opposite. The only characters who suggest anything like determinism are the villains (talking about fate and inevitability, mostly), and they only mention it a few times, and they're all proven wrong in the end. If anything, the game is saying your choices _do_ matter.
There can be more than one theme in a story, yes, but that's not what he's saying. He's saying the game is _about_ free will vs determinism. He's saying that's the _main_ theme, but there's nothing in the game that suggests that to be the case. It's certainly an aspect of some characters' personal stories, and I won't deny that, but it's nowhere near the main theme of the entire story.
What's more, the bits he uses to explain his conclusion don't make any sense. The interconnectivity of all living things and their memories, for example. How does something like that mean that there's no free will? Why does he think The Crystal is conscious and directs the universe according to its will? There's nothing in the game to suggest that. Neither of these data points logically lead to a lack of free will. He's right about the shared experiences and the choice to live, and all the joy and sorrow that entails, but how does any of that lead to a world that is predetermined? Honesty, the more I try to understand how he came to his conclusions, the more baffling it is to me.
@@josh-oo Hmm... Regarding how the Crystal directs the universe... I don't think this is meant as that it's wholly controlling the events of what is happening thereafter.
But it's moreso that whatever happens after is simply a byproduct of what has come before.
However, even if this is the case... and it seems as if we (or those in FFIX) have somewhat of a predetermined fate, influenced by the past...
But that just because things are as they are, Final Fantasy IX explores that all these things play a part in conjuction to free will. The plot/current events, setting/environment, the world/Earth, FFIX/Real Life, etc.
That even though there are things that we just cannot change, it doesn't mean one has to accept the way things are.
One can choose to however accept, and move on whilst adapting and focusing on being with the one's they love. Even if life is often unfair, such as your love forgetting their past with you.
Or one can deny their "predetermined fate", and to live life in which gives themselves meaning. Through loyalty, comraderie, self-improvement, etc.
Both aspects aren't wrong, as life is what an individual wants it to be.
@@mcihay246 He straight-up says "there is no free will, there is only The Crystal" in the video. If that's not supposed to be taken as him saying that The Crystal controls everything, I don't know how to interpret it.
Having said that, I don't have any complaints with *your* interpretation of what the game is saying. I can see how what you've said is something that can coexist with the information presented in the story. I can't say the same about the interpretation in the video.
@@josh-oo Ah. Yeah.
Then that's fair.
I would therefore agree that he may be a little mistaken on that part.
Glad to have a satisfiable agreement.
Final Fantasy IX and Metal Gear Solid were my best English Teachers, now I teach this to kids and adults. I finished it again a week ago after 20 years, it is as beautiful as I remember. Specially the music.
This was the first Final Fantasy game that I finished. It got me hooked on the series and is in my top 10 games that I've played
FF9 has always been my favorite Final fantasy from the playstation era.
The music alone in this game always brings on the emotion. FF9 is my favorite of the series.
This. The game itself is great, but coupled with the soundtrack it's an experience anyone should have a chance to go through (or at least try out)
It’s a beautiful spiritual journey in a sense
It has good music but ff8 has the better song
@@isaacisaaca8163 I honestly cannot remember the music for FF8. I remember the game for the most part, and it was definitely a wild one, but I don't remember the music being that memorable
My take on the existential horror people face when it comes to their existence, things like how life is finite, the earth and universe will die eventually, nothing lasts forever, and the thoughts of how meaningless it all is when acknowledging those facts, is this.
You can either be someone who tries to not think about them and distract yourself with things like faith/belief in a higher power like god, maybe distracting from those thoughts with escapism like into games or books or movies or shows, or even getting tripped out on drugs.
Or, you can be someone who just accepts yeah, these are matter of facts, things everyone has to come to terms with, but so fucking what? Everyone dies eventually, but everyone gets a chance to live too, to do things, to experience things, to create, to make a legacy, to teach.
We all die, but we get to choose our fate before we do. And that's way more meaningful than just accepting entropy as your only purpose.
You have no clue how much I needed this video.
I've been working a very stressful and difficult job, understaffed, for about a decade now. My best friend and co-worker who suffered through it all with me, had to move away. I loved her in an indescribable way, and her leaving left a chasm in my life. But I'll never regret the time I spent with her.
I think you would really love Xenogears. Totally fits the themes your channel has been going through, and since you’ve been playing older rpgs i think it would be amazing to hear your thoughts on it. So much to discuss in that.
is it connected to xenoblade?
@@dimepia123 It’s the very first incarnation of the entire Xeno series. Back when monolith soft’s founder worked at Squaresoft!
Thank you for giving me many reasons to play Final Fantasy 9, I've owned the game for years and really knew nothing about it, now I know it's about breaking away from your destined fate and having free will, thanks Max for a great video ✌️
It's so much more than that btw. Hopefully you truly get to playing it, I assure you the main themes, the characters and the soundtrack are all incredible and worth experiencing. If you do play it, comment your thoughts once you beat it.
Great compelling vid. FFIX really is so well-written. I remember (SPOILERS) not realizing during my first playthrough that Vivi is actually on his deathbed at the end. I still loved his monologue not knowing this, the point is that it is a soliloquy to life.
I thought of Earthbound when I closed my eyes. Just the happy thoughts of when I played it made me happy momentarily
Thank you for making this video, FF9 had a profound impact on me as a kid. I’ve been on an existential journey for a long time now, but I don’t have any sadness or resentment for the child in me that’s transformed, the world wasn’t what I knew, but that illusion wasn’t pointless. The strength I gained was built on that foundation of wonder and imagination for the world.
Its the best final fantasy game ever with the best artwork- best most fleshed out characters ( zidane, vivi, dagger, freya, kuja, Steiner so many great characters) best dialogue of any final fantasy game by far and It’s not even close. The game is my favorite game of all time and it’s so optimistic and incredible zidane is my fav main character in any final fantasy game
This is my favourite final fantasy DESPITE the art style. Characters all got giant heads, clothes don't look good to me or make sense (Zidane is wearing cuffs on his wrists with no long sleeve shirt, Steiner's eyeliner and chainmail tee-shirt that doesn't cover his arms and armor shorts that don't cover his legs, Freya looks like a hobo and dagger looks like she's wearing a dress shirt over those 80's spandex fitness leotards). DESPITE how childish and fairy tale like the designs look, the characters are more mature than most final fantasies. FF7 and FF8 had a third of their stories dealing with the protagonist having his memory messed with. They might just shut down if they found out they had Vivi or Zidiane's background.
Vi
As soon as this popped up, I got incredibly giddy. Love your insight on my favorite FF game. ✌🏼 Vivi is forever in all of our hearts.
FFIX was one of the first games i ever played and i fell in love immediately. Over the course of four years as a kid i managed to put in over 900 hours because for hours i would just "live" in the game world with everyone. From traveling to doing all the sides quests to just running around fighting things when I was bored. Not to mention the card game. I soent so long trying to figure it out and collecting all the best cards i could. It set me on a JRPG path in life that has become a main part of my overall personality.
Edit: Im going to be thirty at the end of the month. The time line of this comment starts when it came out. My dad randomly bought it for me for christmas. He thought i would like it
🥲 This video hit harder than I expected. Thank you for making a true effort to keep the light and the dark balanced on your channel, a little cosmos inside the entropic UA-cam universe. 😌
Oh Max, you summed up everything in the video towards the end of your video perfectly about our existence and the video games that we play that help shape us.
Games like Final Fantasy IX, VI and even X are like an experience.
They teach us that there is more to life than our supposed meaningless existence, we can give it meaning by making the best of it, by experiencing fun times with other good people that just want the same.
We live, we inspire, we laugh, we love, we get sick, but it’s ok, we die, but that’s still ok because we live on forever after that through our actions and interactions with many others and how they choose to remember us.
We are never truly gone, despite how long we are physically here.
I'm not crying, there is something in my eye.
I am replaying it right now in 2023. I am still hallucinated by the creativity, philosophy and inspiration of thos game. For me, it is the greatest game of all time.
I just watched a video essay on FFIX the other day about Necron yesterday. I'm very happy to see you talking about one of my favorite games too.
And, yeah, that closing segment actually did help me I think.
oh I saw it too. I liked necron but never understood his meaning into the story
Memoria is one of the best artistic experience I have ever seen all media combined : The hauting music, the psychedelic and mystical sceneries(backgrounds) and Garland as a Philosophical Guide through this dungeon. It's pure poetry. Thank You for showing what makes FFIX so great 👍
FF9 is my all time favorite Final Fantasy for these exact reasons, its an unbelievable experience and a formative one at that. Also within the scope of existentialistic subtext(amongst other controversial themes) in video game(but not limited to) story telling, Xenogears is near if not at the top of that list, many would argue. Im anxiously awaiting you to play it.
One of my favorite games and soundtrack ever.
FF9 is one of my all time favorites. FF7 and 9 are tied for 1st place in my book.
lol it's the same with me, can't a favourite pick between those 2
9 is superior. 7 is groundbreaking. But 9 was better
@@sirownzalotgaming3025 7 is the most important FF. But 9 is the most significant.
15:37 yes, this video has come to me in the time of need. thank you from the other side of Canada, even if I have to leave it soon, all my good memories remain
Damn that ending hit me in the feels, it’s like the only realistic solace against existential dread. “Lucky ones are we all till it is over, everyone near and far.”
Thank you for making a video on this amazing game.. while in recent years the ff community has a much more positive opinion on ff9, it wasn’t like that when I was growing up.. it took at lot of convincing to get friends to try the game with it’s beautiful world and deep, character-driven story because of the negative reception it had early on.. but I really wanted people to experience the game that changed my life, to maybe see in it what I did..
it helped me through some very dark years in adolescence, struggling with my identity, life and my place in it.. an almost crippling feeling of loneliness I felt back then too.. the game was something of well of strength in hard moments when I didn’t have people to talk to and was isolated.. plus it helped me to get better at reading as I had trouble with complex language and large bodies of text (I have Meares-Irlen syndrome) back then.. so to have you make this video.. I can only thank you
Beautifully put friend
Just finished it a couple day ago, what a coincidence.
I once played it when I'm about 12/13yo and never bothered to finish it, recently I just finished it with 72 hour long gameplay, yeah, I take my time with this game, bcs playing it now I just realized ff9 have deeper depth than I would've imagine.
If I have to choose I will be torn, ff7 left a great memory in my mind, but I feel the soul of ff echoing louder in ff9.
This makes me so happy. My three favorite games of all time are NieR: Replicant and Automata, and FFIX. It was the first game that i played all the way through and then replayed. I was even vivi for Halloween in 5th grade. After reading all the Sartre and Camus in university, i was super into existentialism. I played NieR automata first and became obsessed with the lore and the whole idea of the eternal recurrence and the death of the gods. Then i finally played replicant and got even deeper into the philosophy of the series and the way the replicants became self aware. But now I’m watching your video, i haven’t played FFIX in a couple years and it was before i took Existentialism in college. This is inspiring me to play it again. Fantastic video!
I love your analysis of this game. It comes at a poignant time as well. Final fantasy 9 is one of my favorites in the series and I have fond memories of playing it when I was about 10-11
I remember very well how your take on "Humanity and machines" struck me. As someone that wants to make a book, your thoughts about how robots, androids and humans got my attention. You make well-narrated analysis, dude. Kudos for an more happy existence.
This is beyond beautiful.
Thanks for doing this video and your entire channel
What you describe here is the reason why I've never felt existential dread, though it took many years before I could say why. It was summed up in the last verse of the song Answers from Final Fantasy XIV. Give it a listen some time.
This honestly reduced my current anxiety. Now I'm going to play ff9 cuz I've ignored it long enough
The battle speed will increase your anxiety
@@omensoffate That's what makes old rpgs fun, they were relaxed and slow paced, meditative at times. Sit back and enjoy the experience, journey, and story. Do your self a favor and play it on the original speed and take it all in the way it was meant to be not with boosted battle speed.
@@corybolton7462 I’ve played this game when it first came out and loved it. Game is still slow as shit.
@@omensoffate me too bro got it for Christmas in 1999 or 2000 can't remember exactly, damn we're old lol
Just finished this game and this is such a great summary of why it's so special. Thanks for making it!
I'm literally replaying it atm, I'm here looking at videos while I'm at work and not playing it lol.
I first played this in 2000/1 and I still love playing it now in 2023
This one is my favorite final fantasy! 10 is a very close second
Completely unrelated: I used to think the crystal on the logo was a baby Griever (from FF8)
Here's a theory on why Zidane sees Garnets memory. It wasn't Garnets memory, it was her mother's memory. Terra stole the souls of Gaia and placed them into thir own vessels. Zidane was the vessel that took Garnets mothers soul. It was his memory, his soul was there.
I played FF 9 when I was 8 yrs old and I've been depressed ever since Vivi saw all those black mages falling from the ship in the fight against Black Waltz N 3
this cinematic is cult
As unlikely this is to be read, I do not think that free will is entirely absent from the Lore of FF9 as postulated... Rather, I think that Free will in the world of FF9 is ultimately the choice, and it is the first truly free choice a person within the world FF9 can make. All of the main characters face this choice... and it is the rebellion against that which brings them to refuse their dictated fate. Amarant broke free of the fate of those who were not Strong, just as Zidane broke from his fate to destroy, as Steiner and Garnet did from their duties, and how Vivi chose how not to be a weapon.
I remember learning about these heavy subjects like determinism and free will, existentialism (etc) in philosophy class at school.
I initially just took the class on because I thought it would be full of people just waxing poetic and trying to flaunt their intellect on each other and that I could just use it as a “slack off” period but I actually ended up taking a real interest in the topics/questions that got discussed.
I remember talking about all these great thinkers like John Locke, Rene Descartes, Friedrich Nietsche (etc).
And after finishing school and now in my early twenties I really enjoy discussing these ideas and watching your video essays on them.
I hope that in the future, video games like
MGS2, NieR:Automata and so on get studied by future generations in schools like how we had to study works of literature like “To kill a Mocking Bird” or “Macbeth” because the impression I get at the moment from education institutions in the world at the moment is that they frown upon video games and consider them to be just sources of mindless entertainment that are incapable of carrying serious and weighty messages/ideas.
With people like yourself and your channel, I hope that in the future
These works of art are taken seriously by the intellectual “snobs” that currently rule over the world of academia because if they did I think that it would be easier for younger generations to engage in discussions of philosophical subjects like the ones you always address.
The effort and care you put into your videos is not unnoticed and I can’t wait for your next one.
Also an idea for you next video (because I haven’t really seen any good ones on it) could be about Yaldabaoth and the Prison of Regression ant the end of Persona 5. I think because you talk extensively about Carl Jung you would really find it interesting to analyse.
Keep up the brilliant work!
Absolutely fantastic work! I always appreciate more attention for my favourite Final Fantasy game, but this video is especially great. The overall message is profound and beautiful. Thank you :)
So glad you picked this one up. 9 and 10 are my favorites for the exact same reasons you mentioned their respective videos (and starting from FF8, they all make sweet love stories lol).
Might I suggest you give Xenogears (and the other Xeno games, Xenosaga and Xenoblade) a try as well?
Final Fantasy is my absolute favorite media franchise, hands-down. It’s like my best childhood friend. It got me through SO many hard times. Hell, Final Fantasy VI (at the time, III) basically taught me how to read. I’ve always flip-flopped about which title is my favorite (between VI, IX and Tactics), but I think I’m starting to settle into IX. It’s truly a dream game. As I’ve aged, the messages of the game, or at least my recognition of them, have aged with me. Having very recently replayed it, the identity aspect of this game really hit me so hard. As someone going through so many identity crises of my own, it honestly gave me courage to face those things head-on and not let them control my life. To live in the moment, with joy and hope rather than self-loathing and despair. I can’t emphasize enough how much this game means to me, and for good reason. It is a masterpiece. There is just no other way to describe it.
This is beautiful! Thanks for creating this.
Honestly when I saw your video on ffx, I thought in disappointment “He will likely never play IX, the masterpiece, since he only just played X and IX is almost too niche.” This is like when you tell a friend to watch something you know theyd like and they finally do it
This video gave me slight comfort and reassurance thank you max 👍
Thank you, it did help with existential ennui! I am glad to watch your videos on video games and philosophy that can help people think more than one may guess.
I love FF9 because it's so great it tells us "even if how you were born wasn't what you think it was, even if you were born differently, your experiences are real and that should be great and freeing to you" see people see determinism as a terrible thing because then we're well tools but can tools make out purpose? Can they see the purpose in others? Can tools feel and think? Can it question it's creator "why did you make me plow when I wanted to cut?" As a hard determinist I find it liberating our experiences especially when they are predetermined because it tells me we're not JUST going through the motions but we HAVE to enjoy every moment of life
I’ve never even played more than half the games you do videos on and I still can’t wait for every one of your videos to come out
Maybe you should consider playing them, some day. After all, nothing like first hand experience.
@@Walamonga1313 I would absolutely love to, but I’m a small business owner and the amount of time I spend working is absurdly high. I don’t have time for much leisure so these videos are really cool cuz I get to experience the themes of these games without actually playing them. It will make playing them at some point even more enjoyable
@@tylerroe5175 Yeah that's why I said some day. Maybe in a couple of years or a decade or two. These games are pretty much timeless after all (I first played this last year, so 20 years after release)
This is my favorite Final Fantasy. So many people bring up only seven, but so many of those have not even played this gem.
More final fantasy please these are amazing. I love how you dysect the religious and philosophical elements in those games
I loved and cherished this game. Played it when I was 11-12, finished it on my 23. Dropped tears of joy.
More so when I realized that the whole game can be interpreted as Vivi's tale, from his POV, instead of Zidane although Zidane's the main protagonist. The ending monologue is his parting message.
There is something to be said about knowing that existance is meaningless. It is freeing in a sense, and the most "well" I have been was when I was freed after hearing a lecture given by none other than Alan Watts here on youtube, and safe to say, I think that the genius mind of his translated and turned some of the oriental ways and teachings into some sort of existencialist/spiritual hybrid philosophy. When there is no meaning to life, life itself becomes its own meaning, and we have to live in it. We can't have a meaning, because we are the meaning. To go even further, and to quote another genius, Sagan, "We are a way of the cosmos to know itself." I can't imagine life having a meaning, or not being what it is, more so...I can't imagine life, I must be too busy living in it, by it, to imagine it. That...is a positive way to see this existencial dread. It is only through those dreadful things, that we can come to see the light. "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek. " Joseph Campbell.
It’s a tough thing to wrap your head around, even once you realize it. Surely, accepting that life is meaningless nihilism? But it’s not. The difference is in what we do with that information and how we move forward, or as you said, how we make our own meaning. I suppose that’s why quotes like Campbell’s exist, because I think that first look into the abyss rattles EVERYONE.
It surely does, it scares you and most people are truly afraid of doing the "leap of faith".
Life is not meaningless for anyone, it's full of meaning everywhere you look.
Purpose is not the same thing as meaning.
If you stub your toe, it has obvious meaning for you - it hurts - but it may not have had a purpose, it may not have had a justification.
The idea that everything is meaningless and so you can create what ever meaning you want, is a recipe for avoiding virtue and not reaching our full potential.
@@sigigle exactly, life is full of meaning everywhere you look, because you are looking into it. And that creates meaning, our brain makes meaning all out of everything that happens, we -make- meaning, we make reason, we make desires, we make it.
@@tauanwerneck3197
No, negative and positive states of experience are inherently meaningful, regardless of what we think about them.
Whether your neighbor is experiencing pain or joy, what meaning this has to you - that is; what states it triggers in you - does indeed depend on your thoughts about it, but the experience they're having has inherent meaning, regardless of what anyone thinks about it, because it has inherent meaning for them.
The "nobody will have your exact experiences" part reminds me of the "tears in the rain" speech from Bladerunner. But where the character giving that speech laments the loss of those memories, he sort of misses the point of the beauty that he had those memories at all in the first place.
idk I haven't seen Bladerunner lol
Watch bladerunner
@@bbcraz1226 I've tried. Not saying it's bad or anything, but that dry ass narration is excruciating lol and I've heard others say the same who love the movie.
@@adamc5914 watch the final cut. No narration
You summed up so many things I value about this game/story. Thank you!
One of the most beautiful videos I’ve ever seen. Truly.
Oh, wow... I haven't shed tears in a long time... Well done!
the zidane v. kuja, and solid v. liquid snake parallel is genius, and plainly obvious...in hindsight...can't believe I never saw it till now!!
this is also a brilliant existential analysis of 9: ua-cam.com/video/ilG_IswCfIA/v-deo.html
Was *not* expecting that final line to make me cry, but here we are 😂
I discoverd your channel a few days ago and I have say that I already love it. Dark Souls, Nier Automata, Silent Hill are some of the greatest games of all time. Final Fantasy IX is my most favorite and beloved game I have ever played. I strongly recommend you to play Planescape Tormment. I had no idea before I play it how deep its story is. Its far better than Baldurs Gate 2, and BG2 is a masterpiece.
The video made my cry, the joy, sadness, despair and delight amalgamated in fealings of bliss.
I love FF9, and now i can say that my vision of this game has expanded and deepened.
Thank you.
I got hooked on your channel because of your Jordan Peterson related content and I often think about why his work resonated with me. He has lectures on Disney Movies and archetypes that we find throughout human history in literature and stories, but it clicked in my head years ago that FF9 was my first exposure to Peterson's work. Haven't even watched the video yet, but based on your other content, I'm so happy that your making one on my favorite game.
Cheers. Love your channel
I came expecting Peterson, but ended up getting Sam Harris 😆. Great video, boss.
*FF9 final boss spoilers*
I was hoping to get your opinion on Necron and his role in the game. The way he's kinda just dropped on your lap was giga random imo. Some quasi-Lovecraftian Old God who has determined that all life inevitably seeks death, so he chooses to exterminate all of existence. But after watching this video, I can sort of see that the character arcs of the party were always meant to be seen as the antithesis to Necron. In a way, FF9 isn't very traditional in the sense that Necron is the eternal rival to the main party, like a puppetmaster pulling the strings behind their adventure, but his goals are in direct opposition to the party's. So the final boss battle is like an apotheosis of ideals, a climax that comes *after* most of the character arcs have been resolved. I thought it was very interesting and he offers his own amount (albeit very small) of existential dread to the story.
Thanks again! ✌
Super underrated channel, you definitely deserve more views and subs, Max
The first time a youtube video has made me well up. Fantastic job!!!
I read a quote off a tombstone yesterday that sorta lines up with this.
"Time can't take away the treasures in our heart"
Just got to Kuja and I have to admit, his was the most based reaction. If the universe and reality tell you your existence is just a confluence of circumstances, then any being with a shred of self identity and respect should have had a flash of a thought about changing the world to such an extent where that statement becomes irrelevant. Our man Kuja not only had that thought, but also acted on it. He sounds like the one true student of existentialism to me.
Oh fuck yeah, I'm ready for this one.
I love FFIX and I loved this video! Wise words at the end, it was moving!
Awesome video, Max! I really appreciate all the hard work you put into your content. Your content has truly helped me. Cheers, friend.
I mean, I was gonna come up with something leaning on profound, but to keep it simple
It really is a masterpiece. I recently replayed it earlier this year, and with age and experience, if anything it just hit home more.
Great video brother. Really well done.
My favorite game ♥️ Great freaking video. Always loved the idea of genetic memories that this game talks about.
Just like you FF10 was my first final fantasy. I took a long way around playing 12, 13, 4, 2, 7 and 8 first and especially after the grim and realistic cyberpunk of FF8 and FF7 I thought to myself that FF9 would be a more classic not to grim but enjoyable game. After finding out about the black mages I realized I was going to be in for a ride. I found more and more parallels between the characters, since it didn't make sense to me why Square wanted to show us these characters. Each and everyone of them has had their worldview shaken, their existence and it's reason put in question, and extrapolating this concept onto the world itself was a ride I was most certainly not prepared for.
I love this vid man.
This game shaped me into who I am today. Love this game.
I definitely experienced the reccomendation, and a need to listen to something inspiring, even if it did feel dark and dreadfully deep in some parts. FFIX is one of the warmest stories, or games, in the entire series. It holds a special place in my heart.
There are four thoughts which helped me get through my existential dread:
1. "Que sera, sera." Whatever will be, will be.
There is SO MUCH which is out of our control; we are completely powerless against MOST of it. Whether we are powerless or powerful in any circumstance...whatever will be, will be.
2. "Don't worry...be happy!"
For what IS in our control, we do not need to worry...we simply do what we can do to fix the circumstance. For what is NOT in our control, we do not need to worry...there is nothing we can do anyways...just enjoy the ride and see where it takes us. Maybe, it will take us to someplace with circumstances which ARE in our control. And, if we end up in a place in which we STILL have no control...then, simply enjoy that ride as well. Going through it all with smiles on our faces won't hurt anyone. But, a frown on our faces WILL hurt us.
3. "This, too, shall pass."
For circumstance which seems too difficult to handle...that circumstance will not last forever. Eventually, the bad times will pass. Eventually, even the powerless become powerful. It just takes time...don't worry about the difficult situations...we need to be happy that we got through them alive, and stronger because of them.
4. "Just hang in there, baby!"
Having a bad time? Having a bad life? Don't quit; fore this, too, shall pass. The only way to lose, is to quit. If we quit, we will stay exactly where we are, and it shall NOT pass. We only quit, because we worry. Don't worry...whatever will be, will be...just hang in there, baby! And, it will pass. Just hang in there...and, be happy.
EDIT: A word. I spelled "dread" as "dredd." LOL!