As part of Final Fantasy IX's 25th anniversary, the original event designer sat down and gave the world a charming little picture book, all about the early days of the adorable and fan-loved Black Mage Vivi. You can almost imagine this book being written by Vivi himself. While it skews far younger than the average fan of Final Fantasy IX, it's nevertheless an adorable little book and a great little story to share with your children.

The story begins with Vivi getting fished out of the water by Quan—who, in a shocking twist, is trying to fatten up Vivi to eat him. Eventually, Quan learns that Vivi can actually talk, and even cast spells. What follows is Quan grappling with his own dreams of mastering what he calls "nourishment with no eating," while also encouraging Vivi to set out on his own path and make his own friends. In doing so, the book sets the stage for Vivi's memorable appearance at the beginning of Final Fantasy IX.

The writing is simple, as expected for a children's picture book. But the cadence is fun, and many opportunities are taken to give the text a visual flourish. The font goes wild and crackly when Vivi finally casts Thunder for the first time, and both Vivi and Quan have their own fonts for their narrations. The big, bolded letters for important words like magic or Quan declaring to our little hero that "Your name is Vivi" not only ground the revelations but also potentially help younger readers.

The illustrations are also suitably gorgeous, packed with detail and imagination. Quan's piles of delicious food look mouth-watering and include adorable touches, such as little Qu faces carved into the large pumpkins. Sharp-eyed Final Fantasy fans can even pick out little details like Chocobo-themed centerpieces—or the Qu's favorite food, frogs. Vivi's adventures with magic are also cute, like a page where he helps pacify a sleeping baby by casting Mute on all of the animals around it--leading to them all having the iconic "mute" speech bubble from the games. The artwork is courtesy of Toshiyuki Itahana, who was also responsible for the character designs in Final Fantasy IX. His work is as winsome as ever, with the entire world looking lived-in and picturesque. If there was ever a Final Fantasy game begging to be turned into a cute picture book, Final Fantasy IX was definitely a strong contender.

Of course, older fans might want to know of some of the nitty-gritty lore, of which there is some. Vivi's name is teased early on when we see Quan measuring Vivi's height; it seemed Quan was using Roman numerals to measure Vivi, and was planning on carving up Vivi once he reached a height of six-foot-six, hat included. The text doesn't make it obvious, but I chuckle in my sleeve at the thought of younger readers catching onto that detail once they're older. There's a cute gag where Quan teaches Vivi "important words," like "inn," "weapon shop," "armor shop," and "item shop." The word "nobles" is left out because that word wouldn't "make Vivi stronger." Presumably, Queen Brahne was not amused. The book also teases the heart-warming ending to Final Fantasy IX, emphasizing Vivi's name as "proof that [he] lived." Folks who've played Final Fantasy IX and know the many mixed fortunes of the Black Mages are likely already welling up at the reference. This, too, will probably catch many younger readers by surprise if and when they're introduced to the main game. And even if they don't, the story still touches on mortality—albeit extremely vaguely and in a way that children can comprehend. As an older man, my eyes get a little wet at seeing Quan declaring that he'll "go into the sky and shine down on Vivi," like the other stars in the night. Similarly, one can only fall in love with Vivi as he's inspired by his grandfather's passion for cooking and go off on his adventure.

One issue that sticks out to me in this book is how Quan's dialogue is translated. The original Final Fantasy IX establishes that the Qu all speak in a kind of simplified language. In Japanese, the Qu speak in Kyowa-go, a dialect mostly spoken by Chinese residents in Japan. The English translation for Final Fantasy IX localized this as Hawai'ian Creole. Translator Stephen Meyerink's decision for this book was to translate Quan's dialogue as pidgin English; whether it is Hawai'ian Creole as in Final Fantasy IX or not eludes me, but given Quan's faux-Chinese appearance, it might come off to some readers as a crude caricature of Chinese immigrants. This is, however, accurate to the intent and original depiction of the Qu in the original Japanese and English scripts, and true to Quan's character. I can only commend Meyerink for his efforts in navigating a difficult quandary.

The important thing here is that, regardless of its connections to a video game, Vivi and Grandpa's Memories for the Sky is an effective storybook and a wonderful read. It's a quaint little fantasy story of a little boy and his funny grandpa, of a family that brings out the best in each other and finds themselves encouraged by each other to make their own mark on the world. Older fans of the original game will certainly love seeing Vivi's earlier days, and their children will marvel at the lovely artwork.