Why Final Fantasy IX Is One Of My Favorite Games Ever

Hi, friends!

While I was watching the most recent Nintendo Direct last week, I was hoping for two things: news about Animal Crossing and a Switch release date for Final Fantasy IX. We still don't have new information about Animal Crossing, but FFIX is available now!! The news about FFVII releasing for the Switch in March came first, which made me assume that IX wouldn't be out until after that. Once Melodies of Life started playing and Shiva appeared on the screen a few seconds later, I started squeaking with joy.

FFIX came out almost 19 years ago. It was one of several games that I loved watching my older siblings play and one of the first video games I ever played on my own that didn't have Nancy Drew as the protagonist. (Those Nancy Drew games are also exceedingly awesome, though. I'm sure I'll write about them at some point.) When I first played it for myself, I was so young and new to games that I didn't realize I could seek out random encounters in order to level up before fighting a boss so that the fight wouldn't be quite as difficult. Nostalgia is probably part of why I'm so enchanted by it, although 92% of its 3,598 reviews currently on Steam are positive, so that should tell you something. Honestly, whether you value soundtrack, story, gameplay, characters, humor, or sidequests, you'd probably love FFIX.

The composer of FFIX's soundtrack, Nobuo Uematsu, has said in interviews that this game's soundtrack is the part of his career that he's most proud of. I completely understand why! The songs are beautiful and fit well with the story and characters. Getting the piano book for the soundtrack is one of the few things that ever made me excited to play the piano as a teenager. (I highly recommend opening this playlist of the songs in another tab while you're reading.) There aren't a whole lot of wordless songs that I can easily remember the title of, but I can name or at least give context for pretty much all of these songs.

The game's plot is lighthearted while still provoking thought. During your travels around the beautiful world, you uncover schemes and secrets relating to the characters and the overall conflict that's going on. There are amusing "active time event" scenes showing you what's happening outside of your current party and other scenes that might make you cry. The story is comprehensive, satisfying, and evokes a whole lot of feelings.

Since it's an RPG, gameplay is fairly straightforward. You can walk around in the environments, talk to the NPCs for non-essential bits of dialogue, go on sidequests, and choose what your party members do during the turn-based battles. Each character has equipment that will affect their stats and help them learn active and/or support abilities. You choose which support abilities you want to enable, so there is some customization even though the characters have pre-assigned classes.

All eight party members have distinct personalities, motivations, and troubles. It's easy to get attached to them while you play because you get to know them and watch them progress as you move the plot forward. Zidane, the main protagonist, is a loveable thief who wants to do what's right. Princess Garnet has determination and a strong desire to be a good ruler for her kingdom. Vivi, despite having powerful magic skills, is timid and concerned about his purpose in life. Steiner is a loyal knight who takes his job of protecting the princess very seriously, to the point that he's willing to tolerate mischievous Zidane for Garnet's sake. They (and the other four playable characters) each grow as people/beings as well as in their fighting capabilities.

Something that shines in this game is its humor. There are fun things that NPCs will say if you talk to them, silly interactions between the main characters, and small details that really didn't need to be part of the game but add a smile with their existence. The jokes aren't distracting from the story or annoyingly frequent; the balance of humor and seriousness is somewhat similar to Marvel movies, in my opinion. My favorite ridiculous detail is that if you summon Moguo the moogle too many times without saving or using a tent (which is what his purpose is), he'll get increasingly angry and eventually threaten you.

Nearly every Final Fantasy game features chocobos, and IX incorporates them into an addicting part-minigame part-sidequest. You can play Chocobo Hot and Cold to get money, items, and treasure maps that lead to more money, items, and chocobo upgrades. Your chocobo can learn to climb mountains, move through water, and even fly! I'm pretty sure you can complete the story without ever getting a chocobo, but I have no idea why you'd ever do that unless you were trying to speedrun the game.

This is a screenshot I took after a round of Chocobo Hot and Cold. The remastered version of FFIX has a few built-in cheats, including one that speeds up the game. I discovered that the cheat doesn't affect the timer for this minigame, which is why I was able to find eight items and still have forty seconds left on the clock. Hehe.

The other "main" sidequest is helping the moogles with their mail system. There are moogles all over the place since they're the ones that help you save the game, and they'll sometimes ask you to deliver a letter for them.

Moogles are very weird, but very cute. They're small creatures with wings and giant poofs sticking out of their heads.

There are other sidequests that involve finding hidden items, catching frogs in a marsh, playing a fully fledged card game, having Quina eat enemies to learn blue magic, helping a chubby child lose weight, encountering friendly monsters that ask you trivia questions or request ores, challenging a monster one-on-one for prizes, and even optional bosses. There's also a special weapon you can only get by getting to a certain point in the game in a short amount of time.

I realize that a video game from the year 2000 is a pretty obscure topic to be writing about, but it's something that sparks so, so much joy for me! Now that it's on the Switch (and Steam and mobile), maybe people who didn't play it on the PlayStation all those years ago will pick it up and go adventuring with Zidane and friends. I highly recommend that you do. :)

Love,

Lizzie

Treat Every Day Like Valentine's Day

Hi, friends!

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day! Whether you spent it with a significant other, family, pets, or your awesome self, I'm guessing something chocolate was involved. :)

Jared and I had dinner at home (with fake candles on the table for extra fanciness) followed by several rounds of Boggle and some chocolate cake. For the record, I beat Jared at Boggle and I'm pretty excited about it.

You may think that sounds a bit lame; I prefer to think of it as low-key. There's nothing wrong with heart-shaped treats or enormous teddy bears, but we shouldn't rely on those kinds of things in order to feel loved. One dedicated day of roses and expressing your feelings is wonderful, don't get me wrong. It's fun to get special treatment and find ways to spoil your partner! However, there's also nothing stopping us from doing that kind of thing (on a smaller scale) all the time.

Jared has never come home from work to a trail of rose petals leading to a beautiful dinner set up in the dining room. He has come home to find me curled in a ball on the couch with a bottle of ibuprofen nearby, and his immediate concern and desire to somehow help meant more to me than any pretty plant ever could.

Another time, I was making some Top Ramen and something came up while it was still on the stove. Jared thinks instant ramen is nasty – which is fair – so he didn't realize that you're supposed to add the flavor packet before straining. He knows I usually strain most or all of the liquid, so he strained it for me while I was away and then added the packet. It was really salty, but metaphorically very sweet.

We can and should celebrate the birth and resurrection of Christ when it isn't Christmas or Easter. Similarly, the spirit of a holiday about love can stay with us throughout the year! Love isn't built on grand gestures; everyday interactions can be just as meaningful, if not more so. You don't need an excuse to do something nice for someone you love. And flowers are probably cheaper when it isn't a holiday, so there's that, too.

If you love someone, remind them of that frequently. Refill their water bottle, hug them for no specific reason, set up a video call with them, show up at their door with cookies, or send them a link to something that made you think of them. Don't wait until next February 14th (or Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.) to express your love to the people that mean a lot to you.

Love,
Lizzie

Ideas For Celebrating Valentine's Day

Hi, friends!

I'm sure you've noticed by now, but in case you somehow haven't, let me tell you that Jared and I aren't super traditional when it comes to holidays and such things. We've never gone to a fancy restaurant for an anniversary (or... ever, really) and the total number of flowers we've had in our home over the years is however many fake ones there are in my wedding bouquet. That's just not our style; we're homebodies who are perfectly content to eat a nice homemade dinner or get a pizza on celebratory nights. I've never been a flower kind of girl, either. I don't think I've had a single piece of floral fabric in my closet since I got old enough to choose my own clothes.

We still haven't entirely figured out how we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day this year, so I've been thinking of all sorts of potential things that one could do. If anyone else is in the same boat, maybe one of my ideas will sound appealing to you!

For couples:

• Build a blanket fort! Bring a laptop in the fort to watch a movie on, read books in your fort, or just take a nap. Filling the fort with non-messy snacks is also a good idea.
• Build two blanket forts and use them as cover during a Nerf gun battle. Put anything breakable in a safe place before the foam darts start flying. (This one was Jared's suggestion after he read all of the ones I came up with. I adore him.)
• Make your home into a vacation destination! Spread beach towels on the living room floor, put together a picnic, find a video of ocean sounds, and lay under the ceiling light with sunglasses on. If you wish you were in Disneyland, look for videos taken on your favorite rides and watch those in full screen while you eat some homemade versions of Disney park treats. (Bonus points if you borrow twenty strollers from your friends to leave in inconvenient places all over your house!)
• Use their love language as much as you can that day. Leave sticky notes all over the place for them to find and write cute notes on them. See how many times you can give them a surprise hug. Find little ways to make them happy all throughout the day!
• Think of some two-player video games or board games you could enjoy together! Just steer clear of Mario Party, Overcooked, Sorry, and other things that can cause frustration.
• Put together a non-flower bouquet! Think of smallish things they love and arrange those like flowers. If they like to cook, get them a bouquet of kitchen utensils! Maybe you could find a way to arrange books in a vaguely bouquet-shaped blob? If all else fails, there's a way to make bacon strips into little flower buds.
• Find a terrible movie to watch and mock it together. If you can't think of what to watch, romantic comedies are always a safe bet. You could also make fun of Twilight, Green Lantern, Sharknado, or any of the Fantastic Four movies.
• Make some ridiculous and/or punny Valentines for each other! You probably know the kind I'm thinking of. If not, I'll include a whole bunch at the bottom of this post. They make me happy.
• Cook dinner or bake dessert together! (Wait, a suggestion that sounds like something reasonable? On my blog?!) You can look for recipes that sound appealing and work together to turn ingredients into deliciousness. If you're feeling especially ambitious, you could try to recreate something from a cooking/baking show you've watched together!
• Try to learn a type of ballroom dancing by watching instructional YouTube videos. Will it work well and result in a new skill? Maybe, or maybe you'll enjoy struggling along together. Either way, it seems fun!
• Blow up a whole bunch of balloons and scatter them around your house or a specific room. I don't really know what to do from there, but I imagine you could have some pretty intense games of Don't Let The Balloon Touch The Floor with several balloons in play at the same time.

For single people:

• Have a date night with your cat/dog! Get them a new toy, play with them, maybe attempt to put a little bow tie on their collar. Pets deserve to be shown how much they're loved!
• Take the time to let your friends and family know how much you love and appreciate them. Write letters, call them, bake cookies for them, or arrange to have one of those embarrassing human telegrams go sing to them.
• Visit a widow/widower or someone else who may be lonely. Bring some games to play or just talk with them.
• Rewrite the words to love songs to make them about other things, like pizza or cats or soft blankets. ("Are you loafing tonight? Tucked your paws in tonight? Are you sorry you knocked off that glass?" - Elvis, probably)
• Date yourself for a night! Dress up just for fun, read your favorite book, write a list of things you like about yourself, put on a moisturizing face mask, eat some of your favorite foods, and get enough sleep.
• Have a party with other single friends! Host a night of games, movies, cookie decorating competitions, trivia, DIY spa treatments, sharing book/show recommendations, scrapbooking, or whatever else you and your friends would love.

I know most of these were pretty silly, but love needs laughter to survive! If you're still making your plans for Valentine's Day, I hope you'll at least consider one of these options. :)

Love,

Lizzie

And now, the promised silliness: 

Small Town Struggles

Hi, friends!

It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of where we currently live. Even if we ignore the fact that it's inhumanly hot for a huge chunk of the year, this is far from my ideal home because of how small and isolated it is. I've had multiple incidents recently that made me wish I'd been more appreciative of where I grew up. Don't get me wrong, I loved growing up near Seattle, but there are a lot of things I never thought to be thankful for until I moved here.

Some of these issues might be because of the small population of this town, some might be caused by this town daring to exist in the actual middle of nowhere, and some might be made worse by having both of those conditions at once. Whatever the causes, here are some odd problems I've encountered in our two and a half years of living on what is essentially the closest thing to the surface of Mercury we can experience while on the earth.

• Sometimes, it's really hard to find milk. There have been four or five times when we've gone to Walmart to get groceries and found a distinct lack of milk in the refrigerated dairy area. When that happens, we'll try Stater Brothers and usually run into that same problem. (We ended up buying four half-gallons of milk recently since the regular gallons were all gone.) I'd only ever seen this happen before during natural disasters. Here, it's just a thing that happens sometimes.
• On a related note, our local Walmart is really unreliable when it comes to having certain things in stock. I love the Great Value mini pizzas, but they never seem to have them when I want to buy more. Walmart has also let us down when it comes to batteries; after two months of checking to see if certain sizes of disc-shaped batteries are finally available in the store, we've given up and decided to order them online.
• When stores have some kind of sale that's only available in the store itself, we're almost always just out of luck unless we feel like driving 90 miles. Target had a great deal on Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! recently but there was no way for us to get it without driving for at least an hour and a half.
• This one probably isn't an annoyance to most people, but it seems to take quite a while for new makeup releases to show up here. Oh, and the only places to buy makeup in town are Walmart, Rite Aid/Walgreens, Marshalls (if you can find things that aren't messed up), or pyramid scheme salespeople. I've gotten pretty familiar with Ulta's website since moving here. (Also, it's unwise to order lipstick online between April and September because there is a very good chance it will melt during its journey.)
• The library here is small and sad. It also charges money for borrowing its DVDs, which I find bizarre.
• If you need new clothes, you can either take a small road trip to get to the nearest mall or try your luck at Walmart. I guess Marshalls probably has clothes, too, but good luck with that.
• There's one theater in our town. It's pretty small, has a website that looks at least a decade old, and doesn't have enough screens to let each movie have a long run. It also doesn't use Fandango, which is mostly an issue for us because of the $300 Fandango gift card we need to use by next October.
• For those of us who aren't outdoorsy (and/or don't want to die of heatstroke), there are about four things to do in town: see a movie, go bowling, go to Walmart, or go eat somewhere. It's a common joke that the best entertainment around here is found by leaving town and going somewhere else.
• There's no UberEats, Postmates, or anything of that sort. I think there are two or three Uber drivers in town occasionally and there are a couple of taxis around. There are supposedly some buses that drive around town sometimes, but I don't think I've ever seen them.
• We run into people we know pretty frequently while grocery shopping. I'm also able to recognize a decent number of the employees at Walmart and Stater Brothers. (There's an older woman who checks receipts at Walmart that I always love seeing. She's super cute.) This isn't necessarily a problem, per se, but it feels really weird. And if I bump into friends even though the only people I know in this town are people from church and our former landlord, how much more frequently do social people have that happen? People who want to make a quick grocery run with unwashed hair and pajama pants probably need to ninja their way around the store if they want to avoid being seen by acquaintances.

Have you ever had a friend who was noticeably shorter or paler than average and would help other people feel better by standing next to someone who felt small or sticking their pasty arm next to someone who was wishing they were more tan? (Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...) Think of this post as that sickly white arm trying to help you appreciate how great it is to live wherever you may be, even if that place is Utah.
If any of my local friends are reading this, at least the pool might get reopened if those fundraisers are successful, right? And we aren't covered in piles of snow, so that's good.

Someday, I'll probably look back on my time in this town and laugh. ("Remember that time our water heater wasn't turned on and we didn't even notice until November?") Until then, I hope to provide you with reasons to laugh at me and my fish-out-of-water-ness.

Love,
Lizzie