Memories of the Sky: Exploring Mortality in Final Fantasy IX

“I’m so happy I met everyone… I wish we could’ve gone on more adventures. But I guess we all have to say goodbye someday.”

Final Fantasy is a video game franchise that has always meant a great deal to me, but oddly enough, Final Fantasy IX was a game that I had never been able to beat during my youth and I had eventually abandoned it. But ten years later, after buying myself a Nintendo Switch and getting around to trying out its port, what came forth was an experience that I hadn’t quite felt from playing any other Final Fantasy game. Yet therein lies something I’ve always loved about Final Fantasy in general.

After so many years of having been stumped by Final Fantasy IX, I had found that something about this game resonated with me greatly: its looming fear of death, especially from the eyes of the black mage Vivi. I had always brought out Vivi to every battle that I could, from the first encounter all the way to the final boss battles with Kuja and Necron — for the sole reason I always liked having a prominent magic user within these fights. But it was also because of the way Vivi’s character arc was han…