History FinalFantasyIX / TropesQToZ

* ShonenHair: Zidane.

* SuperWeight:
** Type -1: Moogles, friendly monsters.
** Type 0: Ordinary citizens, Regent Cid, Queen Brahne, soldiers of each kingdom, [[spoiler:post-HeroicBSOD Garnet]].
** Type 1: Members of Tantalus .
** Type 2: Steiner, most Qus, Zidane, Choco (without upgrades), weak monsters, Garnet (without Eidolons).
** Type 3: Qu Blue Mages, Amarant, Freya, Beatrix, Garnet, Eiko, Black Mages (especially Black Waltzes), Vivi, [[BossInMookClothing Yans]], weaker [[SummonMagic Eidolons]], Choco (fully upgraded), Garland, Kuja, most of the main characters while in [[SuperMode Trance]], [[spoiler:Zidane and Mikoto's full potential]].
** Type 4: Stronger [[SummonMagic Eidolons]], [[CoolAirship The Invincible]], [[OddJobGods Fat Chocobo]].
** Type 5: Soulcage, Ozma, [[OneWingedAngel Trance Kuja]].
** Type 6: [[TheGrimReaper Necron]].

** Averted in one [[GuideDangIt hair-pulling instance]]. In order to get the InfinityPlusOneSword you have to make it to a certain area near the end of the game before someone else does. If they reach it first, all you find is a note about the sword. The time limit for reaching it? 12 hours. Seems normal, right? Except that it's 12 hours of play time, the area is near the END of the game, and the timer starts from the moment you hit New Game, including every single conversation, battle, and yes, cutscene you've ever seen. You have to pull a SpeedRun to get the sword. This can be mitigated by the fact that [=FMVs=] are skipped if you open the console's disc cover, but this is impossible if playing a digital version of the game, such as the one available for download on the UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation3}}S3. The only saving grace is that you can pause at pretty much any time except when an FMV is running and, unlike some ''Final Fantasy'' titles, pausing the game ''will'' stop the clock.

* RiddleForTheAges: [[spoiler: How ''did'' Zidane end up escaping the Iifa Tree alive after staying by Kuja's death bed at the end of the game]]?

** The game has several friendly monsters that [[FairyBattle ask you for an item]], which they will reward you for with tons of AP. Their battle theme is also different to show that they're friendly. However, there's a monster called the Gimme Cat that tries to trick you by demanding a Diamond and if you give it one, it runs off with it and you leave with nothing. However, since the Gimme Cat uses the normal battle theme, that should tell you "do not listen to this monster". Be careful should you choose to fight it, however, because it attacks with the powerful Comet spell.

** ''Final Fantasy IX'' has another challenge unique to that game. Obtaining one secret weapon requires reaching the final dungeon in 12 hours from the start of the game. Therefore, a "perfect" game requires completing a speedrun ''and'' picking up along the way all the game's missable items and sidequests, of which there are a lot.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: This game has it in spades. Pick a name, any name. Non-primary characters, equipment, monsters, locations, anything; odds are pretty good that it's been badly maimed.
** The worst offender is probably the Iifa Tree. That's an I, not an L.
** There's a recurring enemy called the Ragtime Mouse in the English release. It's almost certainly a mistransliteration of Ragtime Mouth (since the character in question is not a mouse, but does have a giant mouth: [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ee/RagtimeMouse-ffix.png/revision/latest?cb=20130626201437 behold]]!)
** The main character Zidane has been a strong victim of this trope. Zidane's name (originally romanized as Jitan) is supposed to be "Gitan", which is French for "gypsy". Since "ji" is used in Japanese to approximate the "zi" sound, the translators got it wrong. However, Zidane is also the name of a famous French footballer who helped his team win the World Cup in 1998, so one has to wonder if the change wasn't intentional (the game was in the works in 1998 and released in the west in 2000 for the USA, and 2001 in Europe). In the French version, his name was changed to Djidane ''because'' Zidane is the name of France's most popular football player. For the same reasons, he's called "Yitán" in the Spanish translation.
** A lot of [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to other ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games were messed up due to incorrect romanisation; for instance, Mount Gulug, which was supposed to refer to Mount Gurgu (written "Gurugu" in Japanese) from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' (which itself has been alternately translated; as of the [=PS1=] remake it is now called "Mt. Gulg"), and the summon Madeen (written "Madin" in Japanese), supposed to be a reference to Maduin, an Esper from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (both are romanized as "Madin" in Japanese). Madeen's attack, Terra Homing (Terahōmingu), was supposed to be Terraforming. The Fire Guardian Marilith is rendered as Maliris. The boss "Hilgigars" is clearly supposed to be "Hill Gigas", which is a recurring enemy in the series.
** While it's often said that the boss Valia Pira was supposed to be Barrier Pillar, the katakana for the boss's name actually deliberately uses the "va" katakana - they write it as ヴァリアピラ (Varia Pira), whereas "Barrier Pillar" would be バリアピラー (Baria Pirā - also note the long "a" sound). Quina's Limit Glove move is another case of this - it's often thought to be "Limit Globe", but again, it's deliberately spelled with the "vu" katakana - リミットグローヴ (Rimitto Gurōvu), instead of リミットグローブ (Rimitto Gurōbu).
** Averted in the Spanish translation, almost every name is well translated (Zidane: Yitán (the same pronunciation as Jitan). Even Necron's name had a better translation ("Tiniebla Eterna", which means "Eternal Darkness", and the original name of Necron was ''Eien no Yami'', meaning Darkness of Eternity). Although, the Spanish translation comes with its own, different problem: while the translations of things from the game itself are well-done, what's totally lost are the allusions to earlier games, since it was only the second game translated in-house and third game translated overall, so they had no series mythology to reference to. The worst offender in this case is "Doga's artifact", which is translated as the equivalent of "Vase of Gauss". Furthermore, the only game they could really reference was VIII, so the rendering of the "Ultima" magic as "Artema" was kept, and from there to the entire franchise (''and'' Kingdom Hearts). The thing is that that translation ultimately comes from the decision to render Ultimecia's name as Artemisa, so yes, a (good) decision about the romanization of the BigBad of ''one'' game in the franchise has as a result the mangling of one major franchise-wide element... especially bizarre since, being a Romance language, "Ultima" in Spanish makes a lot of sense.
** Amusingly enough, one specific mispelling was actually inverted in sense that the translation got its inteded meaning right, but the earlier-used incorrect name was used in all its following appearances: the name in question is Oeilvert (French for "green eye"), which contains Terran technology and is the location of the Gulug Stone. However, the same name was used earlier for a book artefact in VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics but it was rendered as Veil of Wiyu there, which is the name that's been used for the item in all subsequent games, possibly because the misspelled version has actual unintentional mythology roots and because it's not easy to make the connection between the two seeing as one of them is a location and the other is a book.

* SheatheYourSword: Ozma, a bonus boss that can be defeated this way, by letting your characters counter attack, since inputting actions causes it to have an immediate turn.

* SphereOfPower: BonusBoss Ozma appears as a giant floating ball of swirling colours. It is also extremely powerful, possessing many high-level spells.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Vivi's Doomsday spell, the ultimate black magic that causes shadow damage to all enemies ''and'' all allies at once, making it very likely to cause a TotalPartyKill. There's equipment that can nullify or absorb shadow damage, but they quickly get outclassed by better gear later on and there's no random encounter or boss encounter where shadow damage even happens. On top of this, you can cause just as much damage to enemies with Flare or abusing the ElementalRockPaperScissors and spending less MP to boot. The BonusBoss, Ozma, has Doomsday in its arsenal and it will cast it while disregarding its own safety. Remember the equipment that could protect you from shadow damage? They're quite useful here.

** The Dark Matter item. Unstoppable 9,999 damage for zero MP cost, and there are only three in the game (two of which are stolen and dropped from BonusBoss Ozma respectively). Smart players, on the other hand, will keep it around just long enough so their summoners can learn Odin off it, and then use it on a boss.

** BonusBoss Hades also has two examples of these in his Synthesis shop. The Pumice teaches the ultimate summon Ark to Garnet, except that it requires giving up the only two Pumice Pieces not obtained from Ozma, which are better off used to beat Ozma in the first place since they absorb Shadow damage while the Pumice does nothing else, and Ozma always drops the Pumice anyway. He also sells the Protect Ring, the best defensive accessory in the game, except its synthesis requires the aforementioned Dark Matter and the similarly rare Rebirth Ring (the aforementioned Auto-Life accessory), which there are only two of in the entire game, not counting the ones forged from Diamond[[note]]Or the one stolen from Kuja, which can't be kept permanently anyway.[[/note]]. There are more Protect than Rebirth Rings found through sidequests, and they can be grinded for through Chocobo Hot & Cold.

** And then there is [[BonusBoss Ozma]]. If you're unlucky enough, Ozma may cast Meteor at the beginning of the battle, and it will kill your entire party before your first turn.

* WeaponOfXSlaying: The game allows characters to equip various "killer" abilities (e.g. Demon Killer, Bird Killer) that cause ''whatever'' weapon they have to deal bonus damage. Strangely enough, the aforementioned 'Bird Killer' isn't specifically for birds... it's for ''any'' airborne enemy. The description says "flying enemies", but even the BonusBoss Ozma, a giant sphere with no defining features, is weak to "Bird Killer".

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: The ending theme, "Melodies of Life", is performed in both Japanese (for the Japanese version) and very good English (for every other version) by Emiko Shiratori.

* VendorTrash: The "tropical" equipment of the Aloha T-Shirts, Pearl Armlets, Sandals and Straw Hats. They have no stat bonuses and don't teach any abilities. They do sell for a lot of money, so their only real use is to get a lot of quick cash. This is especially helpful in Disk 4 when the most expensive equipment becomes available.

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Garnet goes through this once or twice. She's certainly unprepared for the responsibility of being a ruler, but her sense of duty is far stronger than her personal desires - for the most part.
* WonderTwinPowers: Zorn and Thorn, twin jesters that give each other meteor and flare powers during one mini-boss sequence. The trick is to hit the jester who just received the power before he can use it. [[spoiler:Though it turns out they're actually one creature with two bodies.]]

* UpdatedRerelease: The game saw a re-release on Steam and Android/[=iOS=] in 2016. While the core game itself remained untouched (including whatever bugs and glitches the original game had), several enhancements were added; all character models gotten higher resolution textures, CG cutscenes can be skipped, achievements were added, and several game boosters (cheats) were added, such as turbo speed, max damage, max level, etc.