Final Fantasy 9 released for the Playstation in 2000 and sold extremely well. Many fans considered it to be a return to the franchise’s roots in more ways than one, but particularly as the game went back to a more medieval setting, whereas the more recent titles such as Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 had opted for a futuristic sci-fi setting.
The game featured eight different characters that players could have in their party, not including temporary party members. One of these main characters is Freya Crescent, a Burmecian Dragon Knight. Freya has often been heralded as a fan-favorite when it comes to Final Fantasy females, but there may be a thing or two that players don’t know about her.
10 Freya Crescent
Freya was named after the Norse Goddess Freyja who was associated with war, beauty, fertility, love, and death, which is kind of fitting given Freya’s themes within the game of being a knight of her people trained in warfare, and that she is looking for her long lost love, Sir Fratley.
Interestingly, she shares her surname of “Crescent” with Final Fantasy 7‘s Lucrecia Crescent, though at the time of Final Fantasy 9‘s release, this was not known. Lucrecia’s surname was not revealed until the release of the spin-off title Dirge of Cerberus, which released in 2006.
9 Trance
When Freya goes into Trance, her clothing changes into proper plate mail armor that takes on a purple shade, very different from her more casual red outfit. Her Trance costume is a nod to what most fans consider to be the more classic style of Dragoon outfit, which is purple armor with the signature wyvern wings on the helm.
This traditional Dragoon garb began with the appearance of Kain Highwind from Final Fantasy 4, and ever since then, many Dragoons throughout the franchise have taken on this costume.
8 Lefty
Freya is left-handed, which is common with Dragoons throughout the Final Fantasy franchise and could also be seen as another reference to Kain Highwind, who was the first specific Dragoon character to be shown as such.
This also makes Freya the only left-handed playable character in the game, not that this affects gameplay or battle mechanics whatsoever. Regardless, it’s a nice nod to Kain and it’s always nice for left-handed people to see they are being represented in their favorite games.
7 Design Inspiration
There are many fans who don’t realize that the team behind Final Fantasy 9 took a lot of inspiration from the film The Dark Crystal, including the character designs. This is especially evident in Freya’s character design as she is a Burmecian, which is a race of anthropomorphic rats.
Freya’s character was designed to strike a balance between realism and a more comic-like style, in keeping with the idea that the world and characters could be something that a child could have imagined.
6 Other Appearances
Unsurprisingly, Freya has gone on to feature in other Final Fantasy titles, all spin-off games of course. Among the ones she appears in are: Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, Final Fantasy Record Keeper, and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
However, fans were left disappointed that Freya never appeared as a character in the proper Dissidia titles that released for consoles, rather than just the mobile title. The only Final Fantasy 9 characters to have featured in the console versions of Dissidia are Kuja and Zidane Tribal.
5 Female Dragoon
Freya marks a first for the Final Fantasy franchise in that she was the first-ever playable female Dragoon character. This is not including characters from the earlier titles that could have their jobs changed at will by the player, but only set characters with standardized roles. Additionally, Freya is the only female in Burmecia’s army.
Later in the series, other female Dragoons would follow, such as Oerba Yun Fang in Final Fantasy 13 and Barbara from the mobile spin-off title Final Fantasy Dimensions, as well as other temporary party members, like Aranea Highwind from Final Fantasy 15.
4 The Name Game
There’s an interesting incident that happens just before Freya joins the player’s party. As a joke, Zidane pretends not to remember her and guesses at what her name could be, saying it might be Helga, Christine, or Ratchel.
When the player is then able to name Freya, if they choose not to keep her default name, they can call her Helga or Ratchel, but can never call her Christine as the character names had a seven-character limit.
3 Text
Final Fantasy 9 did not feature voice actors like later Final Fantasy titles, and instead, the characters talk through in-game text. Interestingly, in the Japanese version, Freya speaks archaically in the style that was used in Edo-era Tokyo. In the English version, she has no discernable dialect from the other characters.
Additionally, the game’s text changes between explaining that she left Burmecia three years prior to the events in the game, or five years prior to the game. The correct amount of time is three years.
2 Early Concepts
Freya was originally created by Yoshitaka Amano, though the end result of her character was finalized by Toshiyuki Itahana, with the help of Shunkou Murase and Shin Nagasawa who adapted the concept art into the in-game character model.
In Amano’s early concept art, Freya is shown to have much longer hair, and in one image, she noticeably has a little imp or pixie-looking creature next to her, in a hat very similar to her own. Whatever creature or character this was, it did not make it to the final game.
1 FMVs
The full-motion video (FMV) cutscenes in the Final Fantasy titles are often firm favorites when it comes to fans, especially in the earlier titles when the gameplay graphics weren’t that wonderful, as the FMVs looked a lot better.
Interestingly, despite being one of the eight main characters in the game, Freya only appears in two FMVs; one at the end of the first disk, and during the game’s final cutscene. The only characters to feature less than this are Amarant Coral and Quina Quen, who only appear in the FMV during the end scene.
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