History Videogame / FinalFantasyIX

** Garnet wears a skin-tight orange latex outfit showing off a [[https://i.imgur.com/mZidjeC.jpg great]] [[https://i.imgur.com/fj7Sqh9.jpg butt]], and her Trance outfit swaps in a different outfit to add AbsoluteCleavage to the mix. Bonus points for her nice rear being lampshaded for a CrowningMomentOfFunny when [[ChivalrousPervert Zidane]] accidentally gropes her while climbing up a ladder. "Ooo, soft!"

** Garnet wears a skin-tight orange latex outfit showing off a great butt, and her Trance outfit swaps in a different outfit to add AbsoluteCleavage to the mix. Bonus points for her nice rear being lampshaded for a CrowningMomentOfFunny when [[ChivalrousPervert Zidane]] accidentally gropes her while climbing up a ladder. "Ooo, soft!"

This was the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment final]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game of the Playstation cycle, and of the 20th century. The game saw an UpdatedRerelease on MicrosoftWindows, [[IOSGames iOS]], and [[AndroidGames Android]] in 2016.

* ArtificialBrilliance: The Cactuars can cause Confusion to your party, making them have a random chance of attacking enemies or their own party. Think that is bad enough? The same Cactuars will also cast Haste on confused characters, making them faster to attack and faster in destroying themselves.

* BalefulPolymorph: Regent Cid cheated on his wife Hilda, and she turned him into an oglop as revenge. After a failed attempt of curing him, he was turned into a frog.

* {{Bishonen}}: As for Kuja, he reaches truly DudeLooksLikeALady proportions. This is even {{Lampshaded}} by Queen Brahne, who outright calls him a "girly-man". To be fair, though, he calls her "elephant-lady".

* {{Bookworm}}: Princess Garnet alludes on numerous occasions to being one.

** Variations of Melodies of Life show up in at least eight places: it occurs briefly in "Memories Erased in the Storm", it's the main theme of "Sto, len Eyes", it's part of the overworld music "Crossing Those Hills", Dagger sings it "Song of Memories", it's the main theme of "At the South Gate Border", it's "Garnet's Theme", it shows up in the ending in "Towards That Gate", and you have the full version in the end credits "Melodies of Life" (which eventually changes into the "Final Fantasy" music).

** Also, those [[BraggingRightsReward awards for jumping rope and sprinting]] that are an agonizing hassle to get, especially since the latter [[LostForever can only be acquired at one point in the game]].

** Dali has an annoying example, where you actually need a key to get over it (and that can be easily missed and LostForever).

** The game is kind enough to not keep track of completion percentage, but it STILL manages to drive the player insane by having an obscure "treasure hunter ranking" that tracks how many treasures you collect. This includes many "key items" that can be lost forever, one of which is because the guy who gives it to you needs three very easily missable key items and he DIES in the fourth disk -- and no, you can't just steal it from his house. Many of the missable items are chests that, for some reason, get refilled (so you miss the chance to gain their previous contents), during periods when you have no reason to be anywhere near their locations.

* LostForever:
** The infamous "Excalibur II" sword, which requires the player to run through almost the entire game in less than 12 hours to obtain. It necessitates leaving behind several other items and time-consuming sidequests that become unavailable on the final disc.
*** There is a [[UrbanLegendOfZelda common rumor]] that you can still get the sword if you let the clock go past 99:99:59 (thus resetting it) and then go to the location before it reaches 12 hours for the second time. This ''does'' in fact work, but it takes significantly longer than a mere 100 hours of playtime -- the ''internal'' game clock actually goes through several iterations of 100-hour cycles before actually resetting to zero. This takes 2^32 ticks, or over two years. And, though it may seem absurd, several players have succeeded in getting the Excalibur 2 (the normal way) together with all the other missable items and sidequests.
*** This is now known to be possible on the PAL version as well, but ''significantly'' harder (the game runs at 5/6 the speed on PAL, so in effect you have to get the sword in 10 hours instead of 12).
** The Sword is just the tip of the iceberg. Anyone who wants to do a 100% completion run of this game has their work cut out for them. Some events (lookin' at you, Burman Coffee) require deviating from the story, at a precise (read: small, and totally unmentioned) time to get it, and follow a [[GuideDangIt specific sequence of events]] to get it even if you do think to wander off. Seriously, this game is DESIGNED to make you want to rip your hair out without a Guide.
** One particular big Lost Forever example is the end of Disc 3/start of Disc 4, where a good deal of the towns, such as Conde Petie, on the map become unaccessible because of the plot. Esto Gaza is a great example of this trope. The town can only be visited on disc three, as it's blocked off after going to Terra. What makes it notable is that the shop there has some of the best and most useful weapons/armour in the game (including the Octagon Rod, which is the only way for Vivi to learn Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga; it also sells other items like the Zorlin Shape that are useful for synthesis once endgame hits)... and nearly all of them are lost on disc 4. Furthermore, going through Esto Gaza is the only way to get to Mount Gulug, so everything in there is also locked off by connection.
*** Disc 3-4 transition closes up Esto Gaza, the only place you get Scissor Fangs. The other one is synthetized with a one-shot (but thankfully unmissable) weapon, the Dragon's Claws, and the Tiger Claws, which can only be bought on Daguerreo, during the events of disc three. If you get to disc four without either Scissor Fangs or Tiger Claws, bye-bye Aura flair.
*** Scissor Fangs be damned, Esto Gaza is also the only place in the game that sells the Octagon Rod, which is the only item that teaches Vivi all 3 of his -aga spells, making him a lot less useful if you miss it since without them, he has no way to hit multple enemies late in the game without either wasting a ton of MP to do it, having a chance to miss enemies entirely or damaging the party members that don't have armor that absord Shadow-elemental attacks in the process.
** The Hippaul racing minigame and Nero Shuffle game. The only time you get to do these are only during a small window period at the start of Disc 3, right after Garnet is crowned queen but before Kuja's siege on Alexandria. Think you can leave it a bit and come back to complete it later? Sorry...
** Also, weaker weapons become unavailable by Disc 4. Better make sure you learn all abilities before progressing, and for good measure, do ''not'' sell your old weapons or armor, ever (something someone playing older versions of Final Fantasy will instinctively do when short on cash). This is especially true for Steiner's ''Bright Eyes'' ability, which requires an ''Iron Helm'', an item that becomes no longer sold on Disc 4.

** However, you can give Beatrix one of the summoning items and cause it to be LostForever.

** The children Eiko and Vivi, her confidence and authoritative personality makes Vivi uncomfortable at first, whose known for being uncertain and shy. Vivi is a prototype for the other black mages, one of the first of his kind whilst Eiko is one of the last survivors of hers.

* {{Foil}}: **Steiner and Zidane, Steiner's self-seriousness and over-protectiveness of Princess Garnet is a contrast to Zidane's outgoing personality and when he's trying to encourage Garnet to interact with the normal world.

* {{Foil}}: Steiner and Zidane are this. Steiner's self-seriousness and over-protectiveness of Princess Garnet is a contrast to Zidane's outgoing personality and when he's trying to encourage Garnet to interact with the normal world. Much of the humour comes from their opposite personalities.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The game has this with Garland's creation of [[ArtificialHuman Kuja and Zidane]]. Both of them were created to exterminate all life on Gaia, Kuja being the SuperPrototype Garland created before he made what he considered the superior design. He was more GenreSavvy about this trope and realized Kuja might turn against him so he make sure he had a very short lifespan. Garland's fears proved completely justified as Kuja ultimately surpassed him, but knowing his {{Pride}}, Garland taunted him with how short his life was to push him over the DespairEventHorizon. It worked, but Kuja's reaction was far worse than he anticipated and he attempted to wipe out all life in the universe.

* MusicalThemeNaming: The Black Waltz #1, #2, and #3 bosses. Zidane was [[GenreSavvy right on the money in guessing how many of that threat they'd have to face.]]

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** There is actually an entire area of stone-based enemies that are susceptible to this tactic. The boss at the end is a reanimated petrified tree, [[{{TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything}} and can be instantly killed with Soft OR Phoenix Down.]]

*** Steiner goes beyond having Zenigata's personality and role to [[{{Expy}}having the same face]] down to his eyelashes.

*** Amarant has Jigen's face and attitude.

** Zidane's name is [[LampshadeHanging identical]] in [[JapaneseRomanization Japanese]] to Lupin's choice of cigarettes, Gitanes, with signs pointing to this being the [[SpellMyNameWithAnS intended original spelling]]. He also refers to Steiner by a nickname similar to Lupin's for Zenigata, at least in the untranslated original.

** Steiner goes beyond having Zenigata's personality and role to [[{{Expy}}having the same face]] down to his eyelashes.
** Freya's hair, flaring coat, and perpetually held weapon give her the same silhouette as Goemon.
** Amarant has Jigen's face and attitude.

** ''[[Anime/TheCastleofCagliostro Castle of Cagliostro]]'' featured a [[AnimalMotif monkey-like thief]] who attempts to rob a corrupt kingdom, only to run into and help the princess as she tries to flee her own country. The princess carries an heirloom that triggers a giant mechanism within the castle. It also had a [[ButtMonkey comically ineffective]] authority figure constantly failing to thwart the thief, [[FireForgedFriends but in time takes his side]] to fight the greater villains. [[{{Expy}} Steiner even has the same face]] as that character down to his eyelashes. Freya's hair, coat, and constantly held weapon give her the same silhouette as Goemon. While Blank fits Jigen's role better, Amarant has his face.

** ''[[Anime/TheCastleofCagliostro Castle of Cagliostro]]'' featured a [[AnimalMotif monkey-like thief]] who attempts to rob a corrupt kingdom, only to run into and help the princess as she tries to flee her own country. The princess carries an heirloom that triggers a giant mechanism within the castle. It also had a [[ButtMonkey comically ineffective]] authority figure constantly failing to thwart the thief, [[FireForgedFriends but in time takes his side]] to fight the greater villains. [[{{Expy}} Steiner even has the same face]] as that character down to his eyelashes.

** Zidane is an alien who was sent to the planet in order to wreak havoc, but lost his memory of his origin and ended up turning out to be a pretty nice guy. He then meets his more-or-less brother, who is also an alien and who is decidedly more willing to slaughter everyone on the planet. Oh, and Zidane has a monkey-like tail. [[Manga/DragonBall Now where have I heard this story before?]][[note]]It is however a well known fact that Sakaguchi and Uematsu are close friends of Toriyama, having worked together on Chrono Trigger. The trio would rejoin for their first game published outside of Square, VideoGame/BlueDragon, and then again on VideoGame/LostOdyssey[[/note]].