I just downloaded Final Fantasy IX off of PSN a week ago. I had a copy of it back on the PSX; it was probably the first really big game I ever played, certainly the first RPG, and I remember really liking it back then, but replaying it now gives me a whole new appreciation for it, especially having played FFX and several other RPGs since then.
In Final Fantasy IX, the physical journeys the characters take mirror the journeys the characters take emotionally. All of the cast are constantly challenged. Vivi struggles with quesitons about his humanity and the meaning of his existance. Dagger is confronted with her lack of real world experience as she desires to help the people (her people) she feels like she has a duty to protect. Steiner is confronted with the possibility that the side he has sworn allegiance to and spent his life serving might not be the right one. And Zidane who has spent his life chasing girls and being irrelevant at the fringes of society, starts to develop a relationship with Dagger knowing the gulf that lies between the two, and is suddenly thrust into the role of a hero. All the rest of the characters also have their stories, and that's the important thing: you can generally tell what motivates the characters and what they are thinking. Alright, Vivi's dilemma is perhaps touched on a bit too repetitively, and sure, the characters could be a bit more nuanced, but the important thing is that the characters have at least something that defines each of them.
The whimsical feel, too, is something that no other Final Fantasy (that I've played) has, and it's really refreshing. Zidane is actually a protagonist hero that is actually eager to help, and who doesn't mope around all the time. The story has a lot of downer moments, but it also mixes in humour and a sense of adventure as well. The art in the game for everything other than any of the humanoid main characters (That's Dagger, Zidane, and Eiko, all of who look unappealing to me) is gorgeous. There's a sense of scale and history to every city and locale, and even though the streets aren't teeming with people, there's a lived in feel that makes the cities feel alive and dynamic. What also helps is the camera, which swoops in and out, which can start out really far away and then slowly zoom in, which is sometimes perched above and sometimes shoots from the side. This is the game that demonstrates the power that a camera on rails and at a distance and pre-rendered backgrounds can have over the standard over-the-shoulder third person viewpoint that every western RPG takes. The music is good, the mini-games are time sinks; thank god, also, that this game came before voice acting made its way into Final Fantasy games. I can't imagine any way that Vivi wouldn't become completely torturous if he were given a voice to what he says.
The battle system is incredibly slow, and stealing from bosses is a real pain, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Final Fantasy Versus XIII is not going to have many of the things I mentioned that make FF9 so enjoyable, but hopefully it approaches its greatness anyways.
