As of Jun 09, 2025, it has been 25 years since the original Japanese launch ofFinal Fantasy 9, and celebrations are already underway. Artbooks, posters, music, and more are pouring online courtesy of Square Enix, and there could be more to come if rumors of aFinal Fantasy 9remake hold true. Some insiders have cited development hell as to why something that big missed the festivities, but the originalFinal Fantasy 9remains available on all platforms, so the community can still come together and celebrate this classicFinal Fantasy.
WhileFinal Fantasy 9isn’t as famous asFinal Fantasy 7, it still gained a loyal following by bringing a unique charm to the franchise’s PS1 era. Employing a softer art style in a more traditional high fantasy setting than the last fewFFgames,FF9pays homage to the series’ NES origins, all while pushing its battle system and narrative complexity forward.FF9’s touching story is one of its most acclaimed features and a great reason to revisit it today. However,Final Fantasy 9wasn’t perfect, and one of its strangest flaws has haunted players since it was released.
Final Fantasy 9’s Official Strategy Guide Was Awful
Mistimed Online Integration Made The FF9 BradyGames Guide Useless
Coinciding with the North American launch ofFinal Fantasy 9in November 2000, theFF9BradyGames strategy guide has become known as one ofthe worst official game guide books ever. That’s not to say it had bad advice, as it actually derived a lot of its information from Squaresoft itself. Instead, it’s likely the most incomplete strategy guide to hit store shelves, owing to Squaresoft’s attempt to synergize with its PlayOnline website. Details were frequently replaced with instructions to input codes on the PlayOnline site for more information, making the book essentially useless on its own.
Needless to say, this came as a nasty shock to young readers at the time, especially since previous BradyGamesFinal Fantasyguides had been generally helpful. What’s worse, internet access was not as ubiquitous around the turn of the millennium as it was even a few years later, and anyone with it probably used a slow and buggy dial-up connection. At some point in the following decade, theFF9portion of PlayOnline was also taken down, and onlyFinal Fantasy 11’s PC skew keeps the site alivetoday, so this book even wound up with a limited shelf life.
Discussing Its Strategy Guide Has Become A Final Fantasy 9 Tradition
The fullFinal Fantasy 9BradyGames experience may be gone, but it is not forgotten. Players began recounting their bad experiences with this guide once they had more reliable internet access, and some never stopped. Early threads, like those on Neoseeker in 2006 and Final Fantasy Forums in 2010, sometimes took a helpful stance and pointed out betterguides for findingFF9’s secrets, but the tone of GameFAQ threads, Reddit posts, and other social media sites about anyFF9guides prompted users to share their bad experiences with BradyGames’ own. The internet was so obsessed over thisFF9guide that Jason Schreier asked about it in a 2019 interview for Kotaku with a coworker of the guide’s authors.
While theFF9BradyGames guide has seen its reputation dwindle over the years, infamy does bring some benefits. There were several efforts to archive theFF9Play online site, and one with modern browser compatibility was released in August 2022. It’s still a useful guide, even if it’s missing things like Chocobo dig sites, strategies for the final boss, and any help withFF9’s brutal superboss Ozma. The guide is also intertwined withFF9’s history, as the Resonant Arc podcast discussed it while analyzingFF9in June 2025. This BradyGames guide may hauntFinal Fantasy 9forever, but at least it makes for a good story.
Final Fantasy 9
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Zidane and the Tantalus Theater Troupe have kidnapped Princess Garnet, the heir of Alexandria. To their surprise, however, the princess herself yearned to escape the castle. Through a series of unusual circumstances, she and her personal guard, Steiner, fall in with Zidane and set out on an incredible journey.Meeting unforgettable characters like Vivi and Quina along the way, they learn about themselves, the secrets of the Crystal, and a malevolent force that threatens to destroy their world.Learn new abilities by equipping items. When fully mastered, these abilities can be used even without equipping items, allowing for nearly endless customization options.Fill your Trance gauge as you sustain hits in battle. When fully charged, your characters will enter Trance mode, granting them powerful new skills!Never let items go to waste. Combine two items or pieces of equipment together and make better, stronger items!
