Later, he tries to speak to black mages that the group finds, but they’re little more than mute cannon fodder. These questions first strike him rather early in the game at the town where he discovers an assembly line for creating other black mages. If he was built for destruction, what does his consciousness mean? If he’s just a freak accident, then is there any meaning to his life at all? It’s made all the more dire when our heroes learn that most black mages only live for about a year. And in rare but prevalent cases, they become fully self-aware.įor a long stretch of the game, the only other beings like himself Vivi encounters are brainless golems or vicious, high-end weapons. Most of the black mages are little more than obedient husks without any emotions, but they do respond intelligently to stimuli. A man called Kuja, unknown to most, manipulated the queen into harnessing the magical Mist that covers much of the continent to create black mages, these man-sized magician dolls. The war at the backdrop of Final Fantasy IX is between Queen Brahne of Alexandria and the neighboring countries of Lindblum and Burmecia. In 'Final Fantasy IX,' Vivi represents the theme of sorrow with this quote. All these years later, analyzing a different translation proves fruitful: “If you can't show proof that you're living/alive, it might as well be the same thing as being dead.” “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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