[Alastor]

Wyveian, I understand where you're coming from if you started with FFVII, but most agree that FFIX is really how a Final Fantasy game should be, it's a classic. I think you have to ignore the whole deformed-character-style they have because it's all good fun. More equipment allows for more diversity in FFIX, different character combinations, no dull aspects of gameplay (Draw? Who came up with this? He or she should die!) and the story and music is really great (the story has similarities to FFVI, which is pretty cool).

I think FF started going downhill basically when Sakaguchi stepped down as a Producer. While this allowed them to reinvent themselves, they've really lost track of what the vision of Final Fantasy is.

I mean, in all honesty, wtf was FFXII's story about? It was politics here and there again and your characters were shallow as HELL.