It’s been a wild ride for fans of Final Fantasy IX and especially fans of Vivi, the game’s adorable Black Mage. Not only did he get an amazing card in the Magic: The Gathering crossover set, but the recently announced animated sequel follows the lives of his children, and now, a few short weeks before it releases, A prequel picture book focusing on his life before the game. Or to be perfectly accurate, an English translation, as the book was released last year, but only in Japanese.
The book, entitled Vivi and Grandpa’s Memories for the Sky, details Vivi’s early life, before the events of the game. As players of the game will already know, Vivi was found and raised by his adoptive Grandpa Quan, a Gourmand who raised Vivi, at least after he realized the young Black Mage was not food. The picture book, narrated by Vivi himself, covers this period of Vivi’s life, from being fished out of the ocean by Quan, the early days of raising Vivi including before Quan realized he wasn’t livestock, how Vivi got his name, when he learned he could do magic, and their days of feast and friend, leading right up to the day of Vivi’s departure in search of answers about his past, right before the events of the game.
The book was written by Final Fantasy IX‘s event designer, Kazuhiko Aoki, and illustrated by the game’s character designer, Toshiyuki Itahana, so the look and feel are definitely in line with that of the original game. The book is 44 pages long, can be pre-ordered on Square Enix’s website, Amazon, and elsewhere for $17.99, and just as importantly, is going to be released in two weeks on May 19th.
Are you planning on grabbing the book? What other Final Fantasy characters would you want to see get this kind of treatment? Let us know in the comments below, and keep checking GameObserver.
