Final Fantasy IX was a victim of bad circumstances. It released after the Playstation 2 in both Japan and North America, and it failed to sell as well as its two predecessors on the Playstation platform. It did not get the time or the attention it deserved, and that's a shame, because it's the best Final Fantasy on the original Playstation by a wide margin.History is finally curving toward justice, though, because Final Fantasy IX is now available for the Playstation 4. Square Enix has been fairly diligent about making sure that the older Final Fantasy games are available on current platforms, and this release follows the Playstation 3, Vita, and PC releases of Final Fantasy IX from the past few years. It is refreshing to see a company that so clearly wants to expose players to their robust back catalog.Without spoiling too much, I will say that Final Fantasy IX is a game about mass destruction and the moral responsibility that we each have to stand in its way. Unlike Final Fantasy VII, which often strays from its core plot line into zany action, and Final Fantasy VIII, which seems confused about what its core plot is much of the time, Final Fantasy IX is a focused meditation on how one fits into a brutal world of political manipulation. It is, at its core, about the violence that governments do to each other, and the impact that those decisions have on common people.Alongside this larger plot, the game also gives an immense amount of space to introspective and personal moments from characters like Vivi, a black mage who has to find his place in the world, or Garnet, a princess who no longer wishes to be one. It's a sprawling, detailed game that truly commits to showing you a meaningful universe of locations, relationships, and personal feelings, and I don't think that any game, Final Fantasy or otherwise, has hit that mark since.Like Final Fantasy VII, I hope that a new generation of players can visit these complex Playstation role-playing games and evaluate them for themselves. While each generation seems to have a broad mandate to reinterpret classic books and films, video game culture seems to lack that reflective desire, and hopefully this re-release will instill a strong desire in players to revisit other classic games.