Final Fantasy IX- What did you think of Necron?

[GurrenSwagann]

This is assuming you've played the game or just know who it is anyway. Necron definitely has to be one of the most polarizing final bosses I've ever seen in a game, based on reactions whenever it gets brought up.

Aside from its fantastic design and music, Necron's appearance at the conclusion of Final Fantasy 9's story either goes one of two ways. It's either a nonsensical opponent that shows up out of nowhere and acts as a pointless final challenge when Kuja already served that purpose, or it's a symbolic hurdle, a symbolic entity that has been subtly hinted at throughout the game.

Which camp do you fall into? Personally, I like Necron, though I wish the boss itself had been referenced or hinted at beforehand at some point. Since death is a major theme of the game, having the final boss essentially being the personification of death itself felt appropriate and just plain awesome. Zidane and his friends are sucking up their fear and giving a big middle finger to death and choosing to live, which is bittersweet considering what happens afterwards anyway. I can see why people don't like Necron, but I personally like it a lot.

 

[Lihwem]

I liked the battle itself, and yeah the music kicks ass (basically a love letter to Deep Purple from Uematsu), but yeah for me it was a bit nonsensical story-wise. Not that I was outraged or anything but more like a "oh...? Oh? Okay I guess, then...*shrugs*"

 

[Deleted member 1102]

I think he's cool but a complete ass-pull. He fits the theme of the game but like, he comes completely out of nowhere and just replaces Kuja as the main threat in like a three minute cutscene. At least Ultimecia is mentioned and vaguley shows up before you fight her.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Considering all the themes this game talks about, specially it its 2nd half, it was great, honestly.

I always felt closer to the end we were approaching something way bigger than Kuja...we just didn't know what.
And bigger than all of "us" characters.

I don't know why people don't like the game's 3rd act. It's what makes this game standout from most Final Fantasy games. And i actually think many of the games themes are more "grown up" than most Final Fantasy games, contrasting with the more "kiddy" character designs as opposed to FFVII and VIII.

Best Final Fantasy game ever.

 

[Mona]

FFIX is one of my favorite games of all time and when i read the title i thought "who the fuck is necron?"

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I think he's cool but a complete ass-pull. He fits the theme of the game but like, he comes completely out of nowhere and just replaces Kuja as the main threat in like a three minute cutscene. At least Ultimecia is mentioned and vaguley shows up before you fight her.

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Ultimecia's influence is all over VIII's story. Even Zemus in IV seemed more important to the overall narrative of his respective game than Necron.

I really, really dislike the entire final act of IX. Really brought the whole game down for me.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

At the time I just thought WTF. He's never, not once, mentioned in the game, and here he is, this giant damn ass-pull out of nowhere.

I still think WTF.

 

[RecRoulette]

Seriously though, it's fine. Didn't really surprise me that there was something beyond Kuja to fight.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Wasn't Necron called Cloud of Darkness or something like that in the Japanese version? I remember it being another intentional reference to old school FF, but the changed name in the US made it just seem like a silly out-of-nowhere final boss.

 

[shoptroll]

It's fine? They did the same thing with Zemus/Zeromus in IV. Chaos to a lesser degree in the first game too I think. Since IX was intentionally designed with the older designs in mind and making plenty of callbacks Necron being a late-game ass pull is perfectly fitting.

 

[The Unsent]

I don't have a problem with the boss, maybe they were too subtle and should just have made him Death, skeleton in a hood.

 

[Quinton]

At age 12: "AWESOME."
At age 22: "Wait, this doesn't make much sense."
At age 32: "Fuck it. AWESOME."

 

[Lobster Roll]

Kuja, upon defeat, destroyed the Crystal and released Necron. For the umpteenth time in the game, the party had to clean up the mess that Kuja left behind for them. I enjoyed the fight and I enjoyed the boss, but I won't disagree with people who thought it was dumb. I will, however, disagree with people who thought that it "ruined" anything.

 

[Karlinel]

I think it was thematically adecquate with the theme of death, oblivion and loss of self, loved the design.
Still would have prefered a rematch.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

I finished FF9 back in the day, but I don't remember this boss at all. I guess that tells you how impactful it was for me. I definately remember Kuja (I thought he was a woman in the first FMV, haha).

 

[KingWillance]

Even if you don't like that the name 'Necron' hadn't been mentioned before, you're essentially fighting the nihilism Kuja succumbed to and the fear that the party members had to reject. It works for me, but I'm terrible at keeping entire plots in mind and generally respond to thematic stuff first.

Really making me wanna replay FFIX again...!

 

[The Unsent]

I finished FF9 back in the day, but I don't remember this boss at all. I guess that tells you how impactful it was for me.

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I thought it was a famous WTF boss.

 

[KeRaSh]

At age 12: "AWESOME."
At age 22: "Wait, this doesn't make much sense."
At age 32: "Fuck it. AWESOME."

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Are you me?
I doubt I understood what was actually going on in that fight when I played FFIX as a kid...

 

[gardfish]

I finished the game for the first time a few months ago, but had read a lot about FF9 beforehand, so I knew he was coming. Don't know how I would've felt about him if I'd gone in blind, but I didn't mind him in this case.

Isn't there a fan theory that Necron is supposed to be a part of the Iifa Tree or something?

 

[Grudy]

Everything is awesome about it except why it had to be there.
The real ass pull is the spaceship though which I love so much lol.

Edit: Apparently Ark was a regular airship with a cool design. Dunno why I remembered it as a spaceship.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

Ultimecia's influence is all over VIII's story. Even Zemus in IV seemed more important to the overall narrative of his respective game than Necron.

I really, really dislike the entire final act of IX. Really brought the whole game down for me.

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Oh yeah for sure, I really dislike the notion that Ultimecia is a 'random' villain. I pretty much put Zemus in with Necron but at least Zemus kind of makes sense with Fusoya and the whole Lunarian stuff. Necron really does just come completely out of nowhere.

 

[Tornak]

I never thought too much of him when I was a kid.

If you ask me now, I honestly really like it. More of a thematic presence than something to make sense of in-universe and very fitting for the final game's act.

Wasn't Necron called Cloud of Darkness or something like that in the Japanese version? I remember it being another intentional reference to old school FF, but the changed name in the US made it just seem like a silly out-of-nowhere final boss.

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He's called Eternal Darkness in Japanese and also other languages (I know this boss by the name of Tiniebla Eterna, as I played the Spanish version).

I don't know how etimologically similar Cloud of Darkness is in Japanese to it, but yeah, I could see that. After all, FF IX is easter egg/nod galore.

 

[Quinton]

Are you me?

Click to shrink...

Maybe I am!

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I don't know her.

Seriously it's always been a big whatever to me, I had always assumed something else was going on other than Kuja.

 

[Megabreath]

Easy last boss IIRC. Bit lame compared to the final bosses of VI,VII, VIII and X

 

[Ewaan]

You literally don't even have to mark this post as spoilers as Necron has nothing to do with the plot.

 

[Randroid]

I don't mind him but I do hate his Grand Cross attack which can randomly screw you over so badly, even with the status immunity. It killed me basically on the first turn, last time I fought him. Was so glad that the new version has a checkpoint between Kuja and him, because that was just a cheap shot.

 

[Quinton]

Easy last boss IIRC. Bit lame compared to the final bosses of VI,VII, VIII and X

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I've always found Necron a good deal more challenging than VI's, VII's, and X's. Maybe VIII's as well. I'm kind of an RPG "power gamer" so it doesn't matter much for me, but a lot of folks I know struggle with Necron's status affliction overloads.

 

[Tornak]

Edit: Apparently Ark was a regular airship with a cool design. Dunno why I remembered it as a spaceship.

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You're probably thinking of its summon sequence, which has it come from space and become a Transformer lol:

 

[Rush_Khan]

I couldn't beat it. I recall Kuja being really easy but then couldn't defeat Necron. Was it really as hard as I remember it?

 

[Dogui]

The biggest problem with Necron is probably the name itself. It feels more like a generic D&D villain name and less like death incarnated.

He's not directly mentioned as a being in the game because he's...not exactly one? Imo every time someone dies in FFIX, it should count as Necron being there. In the end, Necron is not a villain nor is defeated, and i think this is cool, and rather unusual for the genre.

Wasn't Necron called Cloud of Darkness or something like that in the Japanese version? I remember it being another intentional reference to old school FF, but the changed name in the US made it just seem like a silly out-of-nowhere final boss.

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It's Eternal Darkness, i guess. Which sounds a lot more badass imo.

I couldn't beat it. I recall Kuja being really easy but then couldn't defeat Necron. Was it really as hard as I remember it?

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It's pretty hard if you don't activate (or learn) the abilities that protect the party members against bad status.

It's probably the only final boss that can still kills a lv 99 party ignoring these abilities or with the player just being really unlucky.

 

[Easy_D]

The original final boss was going to be Hades, hence the eye motif that's visible throughout the game, so it wasn't meant to be as out of nowhere as it ended up being afaik

 

[Belthazar90]

It's fantastically designed, the battle music slaps and actually offers a pretty good but balance challenge, but yes... The game could've done a better job introducing or foreshadow the concept of the entity before. If feels like a cheap way to heighten the stakes imo.

 

[Lobster Roll]

I've always found Necron a good deal more challenging than VI's, VII's, and X's. Maybe VIII's as well. I'm kind of an RPG "power gamer" so it doesn't matter much for me, but a lot of folks I know struggle with Necron's status affliction overloads.

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What makes it interesting, though, is that the attacks it uses makes it so if the player goes in with the correct abilities and equipment, it's an easy low level / speedrun fight. The true asshole is Deathguise.

 

[Freeglader]

Necron serves the story and characters well. His role is so that Kuja can be redeemed without the game losing an epic final boss. It's all about themes and character development man.

 

[ReCross]

Shit boss that came out randomly from someone's ass. If they'd just stopped at Kuja it would've been a lot better.

 

[Quinton]

What makes it interesting, though, is that the attacks it uses makes it so if the player goes in with the correct abilities and equipment, it's an easy low level / speedrun fight. The true asshole is Deathguise.

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Das true! That's kinda what I meant about how I was prepared whereas many of my friends weren't. Equipping the correct magic stones makes Necron quick as heck, aye!

 

[Yuntu]

He has a banger battle theme and I view him as fighting death/darkness which the entire game was about to some extend.

More buildup would have been nice but he works.

 

[JorSneezy]

Necron makes me think of the Japanese trope of 'killing a God' as a final boss (sometimes just 'killing God'). Other examples that come to mind:

Spoiler: Examples of overcoming a God

Naruto's final opponent in Shippuden, final boss of Final Fantasy XIII, and lots of Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem titles.

I just file the Necron fight under that. When I first played it back in the day I thought it was a bad choice. Still think it's a bad choice. Sometimes it's not necessary to up the stakes to that level to the 'ultimate' adversary.

 

[Dogui]

What makes it interesting, though, is that the attacks it uses makes it so if the player goes in with the correct abilities and equipment, it's an easy low level / speedrun fight. The true asshole is Deathguise.

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Dunno if everyone got that. But first time playing FFIX i could swear it was mandatory to battle Kuja/Necron after Deathguise, but eventually i noticed you can defeat Deathguise and get back to save the game before Kuja.

I wonder if this is obvious info that everyone knows at this point or if there's someone that never noticed that haha

 

[Atlas_XIX]

Easily my favorite Final Fantasy but he came completely out of left field

 

[Red]

Final Fantasy is rife with asspulls. Necron stands out only for its placement in the story. It's weird that it shows up as the final boss following the defeat of a character you've been pursuing for nearly the entire game. I think attributing it as some deliberate thematic end cap is too generous, but deriding it as a random addition is too harsh. These games paint in broad strokes, and often the particular details don't matter. Necron's appearance doesn't break any rules not already broken elsewhere. It carries little thematic weight and adds nothing to the story. It's at best a restatement of themes that have by that point been beaten into the ground.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Surprise final bosses aren't even unusual for Final Fantasy, but even in that context he's like.... Wait, who?

 

[RestEerie]

it's just a throwback to the deus-ex-machina final boss of the old Final Fantasy games......it's not supposed to mean anything and there's nothing much to 'think' about it.

 

[Viale]

I was annoyed because I liked Kuja as the final big bad who had been built up for hours and hours. It didn't sour me on the story by any means and I can appreciate the theming , but I've never been a huge fan of 11th hour villains being the actual big bad.

 

[LakeEarth]

I finished the game for the first time a few months ago, but had read a lot about FF9 beforehand, so I knew he was coming. Don't know how I would've felt about him if I'd gone in blind, but I didn't mind him in this case.

Isn't there a fan theory that Necron is supposed to be a part of the Iifa Tree or something?

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I was in the same boat. I knew Necron was coming, but even knowing this, he still stuck out.

 

[RestEerie]

"who the fuck is necron?"

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father of Necro..

 

[SpecDot]

Had no problem with the boss. Mainly because I had played all the Final Fantasy games previous so I wasn't shocked by him. My problem was that the game wasn't very good. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like FF 9 very much. I will replay it sometime soon and maybe my opinion might change.

 

[MrWindUpBird]

Wasn't Necron called Cloud of Darkness or something like that in the Japanese version? I remember it being another intentional reference to old school FF, but the changed name in the US made it just seem like a silly out-of-nowhere final boss.

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English speaking audiences didn't even get an officially localized version of FF3, so by extension Cloud of Darkness, until what? 6 years after IX released? It wouldn't have really been much of a call back for 90% of the people playing the game unless you were really hardcore into the fan translation scene back then.

 

[julia crawford]

I think he looks cool as fuck and to be honest at that point in the game you're like... at the very beginning of creation so there really is no rule to break anymore.