Final Fantasy 9 is a beloved entry to the wider series. Set in the magical, high-fantasy world of Gaia, it stepped away from the more modern, futuristic (or even post-apocalyptic) settings offered by the incredibly popular Final Fantasy 7 and 8. Instead, it builds a magical landscape of knights and mages in colorful towns with cobbled streets.
Released in the year 2000, Final Fantasy 9 is adored by fans, but the distinctive art style and general tone of the game are hard to replicate in later entries to the series. If players long to go back in time and enjoy FF9 for the first time all over again, here are a few games they can pick up instead.
7 EarthBound
Let's talk about the cult classic EarthBound. Known as Mother in Japan, the EarthBound series spans three games (one of which is only officially available in Japanese, although there is a hugely successful fan translation). The games are standalone, meaning players can tackle them in any order. EarthBound, the second game, follows the main character Ness as he collects melodies to save the world.
EarthBound feels tonally different from Final Fantasy 9; it's darker and more abstract, and the gameplay is hard. Plus, the turn-based battle system is slightly different in that the characters' HP rolls down slowly, allowing players to quickly heal before they are knocked out. This means that battling in EarthBound requires some pretty quick reaction times. However, exploring different towns in EarthBound feels similarly magical and exciting as exploring Gaia, and the characters are fun and memorable.
6 Valkyrie Profile
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Players may be familiar with Valkyrie Elysium. Released in 2022, it was a big moment for Square Enix, resurrecting a classic RPG story that spans five games. The first, Valkyrie Profile: Lenenth, feels similar to Final Fantasy 9 in a few ways. The player controls Lenneth as she explores the world of Midgard, collecting souls for Ragnarok.
While the mythology surrounding the two games is quite different, they have other elements in common. The world building in both games is excellent, and the battle system is similar enough to feel familiar but unique enough to present some new challenges for the player. Plus, it's a PS1 game, initially released in 1999, less than a year before FF9. It's a comfortingly PlayStation-era-RPG, and a nice world to settle into.
5 Chrono Trigger
Releasing a few years earlier than Final Fantasy 9, Chrono Trigger is a classic Square RPG following a group of characters traveling through time to save the world. Chrono Trigger is closely linked to the Final Fantasy series, sharing a creator in celebrated game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy share a lot of common ground, including the Active Time Battle system, which gives each character their own personal timer for actions in battle.
The world is tonally similar to FF9; if players love the old-school magic and knights of Gaia, they'll probably enjoy exploring certain sections of Chrono Trigger's world. Thanks to the time-traveling element of the game, players can also enjoy a more futuristic setting, complete with robots and post-apocalyptic doom, just to switch things up a bit.
4 Octopath Traveler
Another (more recent) Square Enix RPG, Octopath Traveler was released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. It features many common features with FF9, including similar combat with a turn-based battle system. The game is steeped in magic as the player follows eight heroes on a quest through the land of Orsterra. Plus, like Final Fantasy 9, it has an excellent soundtrack.
Octopath Traveler differs slightly from FF9 in that the path characters can follow is slightly more flexible; characters can choose two paths when interacting with NPCs, but one of those paths, Rogue, may negatively impact how NPCs view that particular character. This can block players from accessing certain towns. This means that two players can have slightly different experiences depending on the choices they make.
3 Okami
What can one say about Okami? A truly unique game, it follows Amaterasu, a Shinto sun goddess taking the form of a white wolf. Using painterly gameplay techniques and a beautiful cel-shaded style, Okami is an unusual game.
It's very different in terms of gameplay; it's an action-adventure game, and it involves more exploration, platforming, and puzzle-solving. However, if players love the sense of magic and history in the setting of Gaia, they'll love exploring ancient Japan, finding quirky characters, and battling strange, unknown evils.
2 Secret Of Mana
Secret of Mana was originally released on the SNES in 1993. Players can access the original on iOS and Android, or on the Nintendo Switch and the Super NES Classic Edition. They can also enjoy a full 3D remake, released in 2018 for the PS4, PS Vita, and Windows.
There are plenty of options, then, for exploring Secret of Mana. That's a good thing because it's a classic Square action RPG, and players may notice some similarities between the two. Secret of Mana takes place in a high fantasy world, in which players have to collect Mana Seeds to restore the ethereal power of Mana into the world. It's truly magical, with some interesting characters, and the magic-steeped battling system will feel familiar to Final Fantasy enthusiasts.
1 Dragon Quest
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The Dragon Quest series is vast, spanning 12 games ranging from the NES to Xbox One. A landmark RPG series, Dragon Quest is influential, published originally by Enix (now Square Enix). Dragon Quest's world is massive; along with the mainline games, there are spinoffs, manga, novels, and anime to delve into.
Like most classic RPGs, Dragon Quest usually involves saving the world from some kind of grand, threatening evil; and, like the old-school Final Fantasy games, it includes turn-based combat, magic, iconic monsters, and excellent writing. The latest game, Dragon Quest XI, is a great game to dive into for new players and is considered by some to be one of the strongest entries to the series.