X-Box 2 backwards compatibility...

[Private Hudson]

It wasn't designed to "take advantage" of anything. It was designed ONLY as a PS1 game, with nothing in mind for the PS2.

However, the PS2 has features that can be applied TO PS1 games. Fast loading for example loads the game faster than it would have loaded on a PS1. Texture smoothing, as you would imagine, smoothes textures. Games don't have to be designed for these features at all. You just need to turn them on in the PS2 menu before putting the PS1 game in the system (each and every time too, the system won't save these settings).

Blah blah blah, I'm well aware of the texture smoothing and faster loading that the PS2 hardware can give PSX games, however FFIX was designed to take advantage of this, more so than most games.

At least, it was according to the magazine I read it in a long time ago. I'm not sure how true it is, though, as the difference is still negligable.