Final fantastic 9 is kinda like 3rd wave ska. Ska is very pretty, overall vibrant. 9 is also vibrant, colorful, very "cutesy". 3rd wave ska, however, grew in the post hard core punk world "emo" music. It sounds very happy but its very dour. FF9 is a lot like this. It lures you in, medieval fantasy, fanciful music, kings queens, yada yada. But very quickly, you see the fleshed our world. Its conflicts, its people, its cultures. And it's heartbreaking. 3rd wave RPG lol.
Tbh all of them are good (except spinoffs like 13-2, 10-2 or Crisis Core). Maybe you are to young to be able to apreciate 8/16-bit ones but ai think you should at least try FF6. FF10 is almost modern, FF12 is good too. FF7 is obvious pick, it is the best and favorite game for milions for a reason.
The original releases of FF9 had legit solid graphics. Waves lap on the shores on the over world, characters blink, you can even see definition on hair. The old school games games textures were so good that you just upscale them on a PSP or PS3 and read the background text in HD. *Spoiler alert for FF8* You can see Adel, threatening THE ENTIRE WORLD mentally through the digital TVs. Her threats scroll along the bottom of a massive TV in one of the early starter towns. The fidelity of the old school TVs you couldn't even make it out. They had amazing graphics. Y'all are just used to everything looking photorealistic and if I'm honest, boring.
