“Maybe we don’t exist…” This oversimplified translation was the perfect inane profundity for my 11-year-old brain when I played the original title in 2000. “How do you prove that you exist…?” Vivi says in an oft-quoted line from the opening cinematic. It’s a heavy-handed but charming design choice that calls back to the pixel art of the very first Final Fantasy from 1987, while also perfectly reflecting the game’s heady themes. Vivi’s entire body is just a black void with two bright yellow orbs for eyes.

Themes of existentialism are everywhere in this game: with the hero Zidane, a humble but sleazy do-gooder with a monkey tail who eventually learns he was artificially created with Garnet, the heir to the Alexandrian throne who belongs to an ancient race of Summoners and best of all there’s Vivi, a sentient husk who just wants to exist. What if you died without ever having truly lived? For Vivi, it’s about realizing that you might not even be a “real” person. In several glaring cases, it’s more than a coming of age or a mid-life crisis we’re dealing with.įF9 urges its characters - and its players - to unburden themselves of society’s expectations about one’s identity. None of these misfits understands who or what they are - most of them aren’t even human. Even when there are magic and monsters, FF9 remains so deeply relatable and beloved on its 20-year anniversary because of how every single character in the game grapples with some kind of identity crisis.

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