It goes without saying that most people consider Final Fantasy IX to be an absolute masterpiece and one of the greatest games released in the series. The simple yet well-told story, a battle system that harkens back to the classic style of previous Final Fantasy games, and some of the most lovable characters in gaming history.
Speaking of the characters, one simply can't talk about Final Fantasy IX without mentioning the goofy yet dedicated knight that ends up being one of the hardest-hitting party members in the game — Adelbert Steiner. While initially coming off as a rather annoying and standoffish villain of sorts, he slowly grows into his own as a character that the player can truly root for.
Keeping this in mind, here are ten things about Steiner that most fans had absolutely no idea about.
10 His First Name Is An Allegory For His Character's Disposition
As is the case with most main party members across Final Fantasy games, Steiner's name is something that was well-thought-out before getting integrated into the game.
His first name — Adelbert — is derived from Adalbert, a variation of the popular name Albert, which stands for "noble-bright". It's clear that Steiner's predisposition as a noble knight was something that had been decided a long time back indeed.
9 His Last Name Has Its Roots Steeped In The German Language
While his first name has a ton of meaning in itself, that's not to say that the world Steiner itself doesn't have some hidden meaning of its own.
This last name is a derivation of the German word "stein", which means "stone". This is a way to show the fact that Steiner will become hard as a rock when it comes to his duty of protecting Princess Garnet.
8 Steiner Was Initially Supposed To Be The Captain Of The Paladin Corps
Beatrix was a character that hadn't even seen the light of day when Steiner had been created for the game. Initially, he himself was meant to be the leader of the Paladin Corps, which would've been a rather interesting development indeed.
However, with the inception of Beatrix. Steiner ended up being in charge of a way more incompetent male guard division that became the brunt of most of the jokes in the game.
7 His Initial Moments During The Introduction Were Meant To Be Quite Different
As a leader of the Paladin Corps, the player was initially supposed to control Steiner in the castle and open doors that Zidane was initially unable to, allowing him to grab some nice goodies near the start of the game.
This would ultimately lead to a situation where he would use the Paladin Corps to attack Tantalus and try to save Garnet. In doing so, he would reveal an ability that should've ideally not been in his arsenal for gameplay reasons.
6 He Could've Used Magical Sword Abilities On His Own
In this initial draft of Steiner's role during the introductory moments of Final Fantasy IX, he would attack Tantalus by using Sword Magic on his own without Vivi's help.
This was ultimately changed over time as the game was developed, and Steiner could only use Sword Magic in the final game when he was paired up with Vivi instead.
5 The Creator's Weren't Exactly Planning On Him Becoming A Comic Relief Character
While Steiner was definitely meant to be somewhat goofy when his character was initially created, he was still supposed to maintain an aura of seriousness and not become a target for unfortunate yet hilarious occurrences throughout the game.
That wasn't the case later on, as Steiner's character ended up taking more of a comic relief role — something that anyone who's played the game is already quite familiar with.
4 Steiner And Morrid Had A Conversation That Wasn't Present In The Main Game
Dummied conversations are very much prevalent across most games due to the sheer number of conversations that one has to write, so it's no surprise that one of Steiner's conversations with Morrid was also dummied out of the main game.
While conversing at the Observatory Mountain, Steiner and Morrid would talk about the wars waged between Alexandria and Burmecia and how both parties were responsible for these wasteful battles — something that would aggravate Steiner to no end due to his loyalty to Alexandria and the rather short-sighted belief that they could do no wrong.
3 He's The Only Main Party Member Of The Human Race
While each party member in Final Fantasy IX might resemble a human in some way or the other, Steiner is the only character who actually belongs to the human race.
Zidane is a Genome, Garnet and Aiko are Summoners (a different race in and of itself in Final Fantasy IX), Vivi is a Black Mage, Quina is a Qu, Freya is Burmecian, and Amarant is a person so weird that the game didn't even bother to elaborate on his race.
2 He's The Only Main Party Member Who Doesn't Have Different Abilities In Trance
It's possible that, due to Steiner being the only human character in the party, his Trance mode doesn't really offer him any different abilities, as opposed to other party members.
Instead, his Strength is just tripled, which — considering the fact that he has the highest Strength stat out of all the characters in the game — makes him even more of a powerhouse than he already was.
1 He Tends To Use Way More Latin Phrases (And Abilities) In The Italian Translation
The translation of Final Fantasy IX is easily one of the greatest English localizations in the series — something that was very much required, given the infamously horrible translation of Final Fantasy VII. It seems that Squaresoft pulled no punches when it came to the other languages as well, with the Italian translation being especially notable in that regard.
The Italian translation really goes all out when it comes to Steiner's character in particular, who ends up spouting Latin left and right throughout the game. In fact, his abilities are also written in Latin to reflect this change, with "Swd Art" turning to "Gladius" and "Swd Mag" turning to "Magicum".