True and I've seem to have forgotten that THIS is a Final Fantasy game made by SquareSOFT during the PS1 era. I'll go buy it next chance I get as well as a new copy of FFVIII and Re:Chain of Memories.

BTW Cant wait for FFXIII 

It was a fun game and I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed ix quite a bit more than I did parts vii and viii. If you enjoyed the Final Fantasy games on the SNES than you will love part ix. If you like attacking with every character and never having to use magic like Final Fantasy vii you may not as part ix brings back the black mage, white mage, warrior character system.

i love ff8 , but ff9 rules .vivi is one of the best rpg characters of all time.

IX is really good. It is a bit more light hearted, but it's still serious. It's a final fantasy game so you know already what you will get. It's of a fine calibur.

it's the best, an awesome minigame, awesome characters, locations, music, etc. you won't regret it!

ff9 is an underrated masterpiece. i think it was overshodowed by the realese of the ps2 and the realese of ff10.

Well it is light-hearted, I can tell ya that. But in a very good way.
The story is way more about the characters and their relationships than the overall quest (compared to VII, VIII and X, that is). So if you think that aspect is important (and to me, it is) then you'll enjoy the plot as much as I did.
It has some very fun sidequests (chocograph minigame is made of pure win), and the music is just suberb.
Trance aside, the battle system is very nice, but it's a throw back to older FFs (every character is diferent and adds something unique to the party besides their limit break), and that might be a turn off to you, seeing as you're accustomed to the more costumizable system from the ones you've played.
Overall it's one of my favorites, and I hope you enjoy it.

Final Fantasy IX is great; I loved the theme, and the story was the best out of three. It also has the best battle system.

FF9 has the best gameplay. Only problem is the encounter rate is too high.