Episode 340: Final Fantasy IX (Patreon)

Back in 2000, Final Fantasy IX represented the end of an era for Square. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was seemingly on the road to becoming a hotshot Hollywood director, and the company as a whole was poised to be an entertainment monolith. But in the midst of all this excitement—and with the long-awaited PlayStation 2 having launched just weeks before—this love letter to all things Final Fantasy got lost in the shuffle. 

So how did this underdog become a beloved classic over the passing decades, and does it deserve this status? On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Jeremy Parish, Nadia Oxford, and Kat Bailey as the crew examines the final game of the Final Fantasy PlayStation trilogy to see how its nostalgia-infused whimsy holds up 20 years later.