Alright finally got this chapter written up, apologies for the delay but well you know, busy, busy. I wish I could be present more for the skype chats and playthroughs so I apologise for that too
Alexandria before the summoning.
Bought my new equipment including synthesising an Angel Blade for Zidane and a few other items. The first couple of times playing FFIX I used to update my equipment right away and it was all about being really powerful, but now it’s all about gathering my equipment and having it ready for when the abilities are finally learnt. The process can be quite long and on-going but there’s so much equipment in the game that have different abilities that sometimes not equipping the most defensive or strengthening is ideal. It’s nice to see Vivi taking the lead again for a little while, I wish it was his theme playing again, not that there’s anything wrong with the Tantalus theme but I associate Alexandria most of the time with Vivi’s theme and the first time we meet him. It just would have been nice to have it come back to his theme again. The other theme that plays during this is Unrequited Love but I have to admit it’s one of the tracks I’m not a fan of although it does seem to suit quite well when Zidane appears rather drunk and talking about soaring.
Zidane’s depression over Garnet is really sweet, you can tell he thinks he’ll never see her again and that it’s more than just some crushy flirting, he really is in love with her and when he doesn’t say anything to her because he knows he’d just be lying to her when they go to the castle awwwwwww.
You can tell Garnet doesn’t want to be Queen just yet and similar to Zidane you can see her feelings for him changing. I can understand why Steiner and Beatrix don’t want her to see Zidane but I wish they’d let her at least to put her mind at ease. I imagine, they wouldn’t have seen one another from since they got back and with the funeral preparations and the coronation preparations I’m going to guess that it would have been at least a few days they were separated.
Steiner and Beatrix make an awesome couple plus all the stuff leading up to them realising how they feel about one another, the love letter etc is very funny.
The fights against the Mistodon’s coupled with Something to Protect and Steiner going into Trance just makes me feel all good inside . Steiner, Vivi and Zidane are also I realised the only party characters that canonically go into trance in the game, I assumed that Freya and Garnet would have good reasoning at some point to do it too but they don’t which is a pity, there’s a couple of scenes later on that I thought would be ideal for Garnet to go into trance but hey what can you do. Something to Protect is a great music piece and I like how it is something more upbeat and hopeful sounding rather than being more about the danger.
Treno
I always go to Quan’s Dwelling to find Vivi, I like that scene and the backstory you get with Vivi, it’s funny how Quan’s original reason for keeping Vivi was to eat him but I guess he did really take care of Vivi and Vivi obviously cared for him too. At anyrate I know you miss out on the namingway card but there’s another opportunity to get one later so it’s ok.
Grabbed my Coffee Beans and Mayor’s Card and then couldn’t figure out why Morrid wouldn’t give me the Prima Vista then I realised I hadn’t grabbed any beans from Eiko’s house, so it’ll be back there at a later stage to grab them. As for the Card Tournament, I had to reset twice on the final round as I made some dopey mistakes and I really wanted that Rebirth Ring, who doesn’t after all and that Oglop Card to add to my collection.
Alexandria again
Definitely one of my favourite parts in the entire game, Alexander is awesome in this and the backstory of how the crystal used to summon him was separated because he’s so powerful is a nice touch, plus it’s nice to see another summon apart from Bahamut being shown as immensely powerful and let’s face it, he kicks Bahamut’s ass.
I didn’t face Tantarion, I just didn’t feel like it this time around, it’s not that he’s really hard or anything, I just didn’t feel like going into battle with him this playthrough but the running shoes and Demon’s mail are both easily gotten later so it’s no biggie to miss them at this point.
Zidane saving Garnet is my utmost favourite FMV at this point oh and it also blows FFVIII’s Squall saving Rinoa FMVs out of the water and LOLs at Eiko’s jealous little face at the end of it. Seriously it’s amazing how the FF story that’s not focused on romance is the one that makes the romance work so much better because it’s not so involved, it’s done really well as a sub-plot but it never takes away from the the main focus of the story, I just love this couple so much they’re one of my favourite FF Couples.
So we meet a mysterious old man on a strange ship just before he blows Alexander and Alexandria to smithereens , he’s an interesting character and you’re not quite sure what his intentions are in the beginning, is he a good guy? bad guy? why did he destroy Alexandria and how does he know Zidane and Kuja. Kuja seems fairly unnerved by him at any rate, kind of good to see that even kuja’s feathers can be ruffled from time to time.
Garnet losing her voice, unsurprising due to all she’s suffered, I know it can be frustrating that she can’t use all her commands on a random basis but I find the fact she’s unable to concentrate in battle to be great in relation to the story, the same way that Trance automatically takes effect in certain battles and that the characters don’t always perform their victory poses, it’s one of the things I like about IX that when the battles happen they don’t just forget about what’s happening to the characters on an emotional basis.
Poor ‘Froggy Woggy’ Cid, poor guy just doesn’t catch a break. It’s a mini side quest I don’t like because I think it’s a bit time consuming and pointless but it adds comic relief which I guess is the main point of it during all the bad stuff.
Technically the end of the chapter but I’m going to include all my sidequest stuff and catchup stuff in this chapter.
Getting the Blue Narciss is always one of my favourite bits in the game as you can finally take a break. FFIX up until disc 3 is quite linear in that you can’t do much except go forward in the story with an occasion side quest or mini game to complete along the way, but getting the Blue Narciss, you can finally explore the world and take some time out from the story, so here’s the stuff I did.
Immediately went to play Chocobo Hot and Cold and got as many chocographs as possible for this point in the game, it took several hours to do but it’s got to the point where I’ve now got an Ocean Chocobo and am fast enough at digging to get Limit points on nearly every dig at the Lagoon. It’s a little trickier to do in the forest as climbing up the two mini cliffs to check for a dig spot does shave off a couple of valuable seconds however it’s well worth it when you do get it as the limit points can be massive, I love this mini-game so I can easily spend hours and hours on it without frustration.
I finally also managed to build up enough points to get a Robe of Lords and a couple of Protect Rings, it’s actually easy enough once you get into the rhythm of digging. In terms of normal items, I was luck to dig up an Elixir at one stage and 5000gil, yep that’s possible but rare I’m guessing, I’ve never managed it since but it was nice to know what you can get. I also went to accessible mountain cracks and bubbles to get all dead pepper items so that’s done too.
The only thing I’m missing is a final chocograph piece to create the Mist Ocean chocograph in order to get to the Air Garden but I’m having a hell of a lot of difficulties in getting it right now. Mene hasn’t actually said that Choco can’t find anymore chocographs right now in either areas so it must mean it’s still accessible but I’ve hunted for hours in both forest and lagoon and can’t get it, I’m just wondering if it’s specifically stopping me from getting it until later as that probably undermimes an event later and areas that aren’t accessible until later become accessible so maybe that’s why or because I don’t have the gold chocobo yet and I’ve dug up a couple of the chocographs I can’t access until I get a gold chocobo that’s why Mene hasn’t said about Choco not finding anymore.
Went around accessible areas looking for friendly monsters that I could still encounter. I found the Garuda, Nymph and then the Feather Circle, I love the AP drops on these creatures! I only need to encounter, the Jaberwocky on the next chapter and then the Yan later. I’ve already encountered the Mu, Ghost, Yeti and Ladybird, I thought there were 10 but I was wrong on that there’s only 9 so just 2 more to go before I can face a certain superboss later on.
Next on the list, it was back to the Iifa Tree to learn Level 5 Death and then off to fight some Grand Dragons and it took a few hours to do as Quina and Zidane have to stay in the party meaning you can only switch two others at a time but my characters are very well levelled now and have learnt a ton of abilities. There’s no strategy for fighting the Grand dragons at this point but I highly recommend the Level up and AP up abilities equipped, I also recommend Antibody to protect from the Venom status and to equip Lightning absorbing items as the Grand Dragons at this point can still wipe a party out with a single Thundaga-All spell and keep your characters in the back row to reduce the damage from the Physical attacks. After that it’s all about speed and getting Quina in there as quick as possible to get his Level 5 Death Spell on it, that’s the best strategy until you start reaching higher levels from my perspective anyways.
Caught some Frogs with Quina to boost his Frog Drop ability and also went looking for Monsters for Quina to learn some new abilities and finally went back to Treno and traded in the four key Items Griffin’s Heart, Rat Tail, Unne’s Mirror and Doga’s artefact and then rebought them at auction.
It doesn’t actually look like on paper that there’s a lot to do but Hot and Cold can take hours alone especially if you start it from scratch and fighting grand dragons and getting all your character up to good levels can take time too.
Anyways that’s everything from me, next chapter write up coming soon
