Crimsoncommand I was recently playing FFIX with my brother and thought that it was really odd on how many child characters there were. Honestly, it seems that every child character besides Rydia and Vivi just diminishes the story. To me they are annoying. I'm wondering if anyone else feels this way or what your thoughts are about age and playable characters?   Banedrom Long time listener, first time question asker. I started out on Final Fantasy VI with friends before graduating to the PS games. When Final Fantasy VIII came out, it was a graphical dream. Character design was getting more and more realistic. Then I saw the first new about Final Fantasy IX in video game magazines and was a bit disappointed. . Steiner with his frighteningly feminine eyes. And what was Quina anyways? Some see the character design of Final Fantasy IX as a hiccup in the more realistic design since Final Fantasy VIII. Was this a welcome vacation from reality or a disappointment for you guys?   Shinru What were your favorite dungeons and bosses in the game? Which bosses and dungeons did you find the hardest?   What are your thoughts on the final bosses and final dungeon area?   What about the music for the final bosses, did you like it? Did you notice that the Kuja's last boss battle had Nobuo Uematsu get inspired by Black Sabbath's Iron Man song? Did you fight any of the secret bosses like the Tantarian, Hades or Ozma? Hehe Hades was a lot of fun to discover by accident in the final dungeon. Ozma is insane though.   I enjoyed the trek through the final dungeon area, having to fight a certain amount of classic FF bosses up to the next checkpoint and I really liked the environments.   Necron was insane the first time I fought him, that Grand Cross attack is scary with all those status ailments. I would grip my controller in fear every time he did that attack. A lot of people say Necron was random but he was hinted at a few times in the game if you read the writing on the dungeon walls talking about the god of death. The game does deal with the themes of life and rebirth and death so I never felt that it was weird to have Necron as a final boss. Plus FF9 was paying tribute to past FF games and we all know how FF3, FF4 and FF5 had random final bosses appear out of nowhere so it was trying to recreate that again.   How did you guys do against him and what was your final party? Where you doing 9999 Damage with Steiner?   Banedrom I know that this is a commonly debated concept from FFIX, but Kuja is a character that really pushes the gender roles. When I first played this game, I thought to myself that was a weird looking female character. Eventually, I was more and more confused as they dialogue indicated that Kuja was in fact a male character. What are your thoughts on Kuja as a "David Bowie as Goblin King - esque" androgynous villain?   Void Final Fantasy IX is, in many ways, a throwback to the older Final Fantasy games.  What did you think about the old school style and throwbacks in the game?   Void The Active Time Events are a really cool way to get to know the characters in Final Fantasy IX.   What did you guys think of them?  Did you feel that they're an effective way of fleshing out characters?   Void I love FFIX, it's my favorite Final Fantasy game.  But my major complaint about the game is how slow the battle system is.  Not only is the game slow to load into every battle, but a lot of time is spent waiting for ATB gauges to fill up or watching needlessly long attack animations.   It is, by far, the thing I dislike most about Final Fantasy IX.   So, two questions:   Did the slowness of the battle system in FFIX drive you crazy by the end of the game? Much of our older content references sites that no longer exist. If you would like to contact Ultima Final Fantasy, check out the links below:   Watch us play and record our podcast live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ultimafinalfantasy