FF Novice Plays FF IX

[Deleted member 13557]

I've always hated the FFVII chocobo breeding mechanic in comparison.

I cheeeeesed that shit to get a golden chocobo. Got one in like 10 mins. Sure, I didn't get the feeling of achievement, but getting KotR sure made me feel something.

Those treasure maps made me feel suchs a rush of adventure when I was younger I just can't even.

Found two as of now. There's one that I'm looking for now which I just can't find. "Uncultivated land".

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm totally fine with the chocographs part of it, they're pretty cool. It's the Hot & Cold part I can't stand. I'd rather do breeding in FF7 any day of the week. Searching in a tiny circle for whatever that magic pixel is only getting "Kweh?!"s until you finally find it but its at a depth of 45 and you only have 2 seconds left

I honestly MUCH prefer the cast of FFIX. To me, FFVII had a great main trio in Cloud, Tifa, and Barret, and Aerith was great. But I didn't much care for the rest.
Red XIII was cool but his story ends too quickly and I don't much care about his development, nor what he's going through (except for during cosmo Canyon), Cid and Vincent were mostly meh, and I just could never stand Yuffie and Cait Sith.
I think FFIX is helped a lot by how it switches characters around, you have to use everyone, in FFVII I ALWAYS have the same standard team.
The only miss imo in the characters for IX is Amarant, who is simply not important enough, and IMO should have been replaced by a certain other character that graces our team for a while.

Spoiler: Spoiler, not for Mikey

I feel pretty much the reverse, haha. That IX has a very strong core but abandons the rest.
Freya has exactly the same problem Red does. Great story, but completely vanishes from the plot after it finishes.
Amarant is so worthless it kind of makes me angry. lol. No one in VII's cast is as irrelevant as Amarant is.
And Quina doesn't do much for the game either. I don't particularly care for Eiko, but she's good for context, so I give IX half a good main cast
I don't often use Vincent or Yuffie, but they add a lot of context to VII's story.
Cait Sith is the Quina "mascot character" done well, since he is really Reeve, who's a good character. And Cid, if nothing else, is memorable. Amarant is only memorably for his completely unmemorability, lol. VII I think is the only FF where I like the entire cast (or at least like what they mean for the plot), which is probably no small part of why it's my favorite

 

[Ite]

@Mr. Ite : ok i'll ask as I feel the spoiler mention was directed at me. I'm not trying to spoil it, just trying to help with some bits and pieces withiut giving away the story.

It was mostly me projecting onto your post and being overly cautious — it wasn’t really about anything specific you said, just something that triggers me because I try to be very clear with my friends about spoilers and they respond blithely with “absolutely, for sure, anyway once Sephiroth summons Meteor...” Sorry if it came off as snippy, my hackles were all up.

 

[Sprites]

@ThatGuyMikey

That's good i'm glad its not spoilery but I will be careful when describing things.

Garnet really did do good with the weed didn't she who knew she had it in her to be that sneaky! She's learning already!

Good luck with Burmecia. Just two tips, when going through the buildings in Burmecia, one of them has a landing that will collapse if you run over it and you'll lose access to a treasure chest so walk over it don't run and buy Stiltzkin's items, do this anytime you meet him in the game.

Oh and, you've probably already come across this at this stage but some items are hidden and not in chests, the mark will appear above your head to highlight if something is very close by so have a good explore around the areas you're visiting.

Some final stuff on Hot and Cold for now for you

Uncultivated land is one of those Chocographs that's available to dig up in the forest but inaccessible at the moment to actually find on the map. I think its close to the Ice Cavern entrance which you will be able to go back to but not for a while and I think you also need Choco to access other chocographs first both forest and location wise on the map before you can reach that one.

If I remember correctly there's 24 or 25 in total to find but only a few are available immediately to find in the forest. Some of the ones you can find at this point like uncultivated land will not be accessible on the map yet and again will require other certain Chocographs dug up to be found on the map first.

Essentially Hot and Cold is a long term sidequest, its available from early in the game to start at any time from leaving Lindblum but can take up to nearer to the end of the game to complete and access all Chocographs as the more valuable treasures aren't available until certain points in the game have passed and you've been able to reach certain locations on the map for other chocographs.

You'll always know when you hit a Chocograph when playing hot and cold as the depth will be much greater for digging than regular items.

Finally pay attention to an area on the Map that has chocoprints as that can be a sign of a Chocograph location nearby and look at the Chocographs to see if the area looks a little familiar, you may need to change your camera angle on the map to see if it matches the area in the picture.

Ok that was A LOT of info on Hot and Cold but that should cover the majority of it.

 

[Stiggie]

@ThatGuyMikey

That's good i'm glad its not spoilery but I will be careful when describing things.

Garnet really did do good with the weed didn't she who knew she had it in her to be that sneaky! She's learning already!

Good luck with Burmecia. Just two tips, when going through the buildings in Burmecia, one of them has a landing that will collapse if you run over it and you'll lose access to a treasure chest so walk over it don't run and buy Stiltzkin's items, do this anytime you meet him in the game.

Oh and, you've probably already come across this at this stage but some items are hidden and not in chests, the mark will appear above your head to highlight if something is very close by so have a good explore around the areas you're visiting.

Some final stuff on Hot and Cold for now for you

Uncultivated land is one of those Chocographs that's available to dig up in the forest but inaccessible at the moment to actually find on the map. I think its close to the Ice Cavern entrance which you will be able to go back to but not for a while and I think you also need Choco to access other chocographs first both forest and location wise on the map before you can reach that one.

If I remember correctly there's 24 or 25 in total to find but only a few are available immediately to find in the forest. Some of the ones you can find at this point like uncultivated land will not be accessible on the map yet and again will require other certain Chocographs dug up to be found on the map first.

Essentially Hot and Cold is a long term sidequest, its available from early in the game to start at any time from leaving Lindblum but can take up to nearer to the end of the game to complete and access all Chocographs as the more valuable treasures aren't available until certain points in the game have passed and you've been able to reach certain locations on the map for other chocographs.

You'll always know when you hit a Chocograph when playing hot and cold as the depth will be much greater for digging than regular items.

Finally pay attention to an area on the Map that has chocoprints as that can be a sign of a Chocograph location nearby and look at the Chocographs to see if the area looks a little familiar, you may need to change your camera angle on the map to see if it matches the area in the picture.

Ok that was A LOT of info on Hot and Cold but that should cover the majority of it.

To add to that, Mene will tell you once you've found all the chocographs you can find up until that point, so there is no use to continue afterwards, and actually finding them isn't that hard IMO, especially once you get the hang of it, I tend to find 8 items about every time.
The hints in the chocograph menu really do help, if it says "I don't think it'll be easy to find", then it means it's probably not yet accessible. (that particular one is on the Alexandria part of the continent for instance, which you don't have access to at this moment.)

I do recommend getting all the chocographs relatively quickly, they're the key to a bunch of secrets as well as some of the best items in the game.

 

[Stiggie]

I'm totally fine with the chocographs part of it, they're pretty cool. It's the Hot & Cold part I can't stand. I'd rather do breeding in FF7 any day of the week. Searching in a tiny circle for whatever that magic pixel is only getting "Kweh?!"s until you finally find it but its at a depth of 45 and you only have 2 seconds left

Spoiler: Spoiler, not for Mikey

I feel pretty much the reverse, haha. That IX has a very strong core but abandons the rest.
Freya has exactly the same problem Red does. Great story, but completely vanishes from the plot after it finishes.
Amarant is so worthless it kind of makes me angry. lol. No one in VII's cast is as irrelevant as Amarant is.
And Quina doesn't do much for the game either. I don't particularly care for Eiko, but she's good for context, so I give IX half a good main cast
I don't often use Vincent or Yuffie, but they add a lot of context to VII's story.
Cait Sith is the Quina "mascot character" done well, since he is really Reeve, who's a good character. And Cid, if nothing else, is memorable. Amarant is only memorably for his completely unmemorability, lol. VII I think is the only FF where I like the entire cast (or at least like what they mean for the plot), which is probably no small part of why it's my favorite

Spoiler

That is the reverse of me haha, I, for instance, have often said that Quina is "Caith Sith", but done well XD.
I won't defend

Spoiler: name

Amarant

, like I said, I don't think he was done well. But I will defend Freya, and the others, because their point is often not the specific plot points that they're relevant for, but what their worldview symbolizes, they're all trying to find who they are in some way, and what matters is how they respond to the situations that happen.
This is one of the reasons I like Quina, because his relative lack of internal struggle, is the entire point of this character, it's a contrast to characters like Vivi who are having so much difficulties figuring out how to live, in a way Quina exists to point out the folly in the others overly complicated worries. Quina is "don't worry, be happy" personified, he's just living life.
It probably helps that I am actually forced to use and spend time with Freya, quina, and

Spoiler: name

Eiko

, when I've never had vincent, cait sith, Yuffie (or honestly even Red XII) in my party AT ALL. This is increased by the relative feeling of importance of Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. Because of that it feels like FFVII is mainly about them, and the rest are tagging along. While with FFIX it feels more like a journey of unlikely companions, especially since Zidane himself is even coming along for mainly because it's the right thing to do, and not for some massive personal vendetta.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

Mene will tell you once you've found all the chocographs you can find up until that point, so there is no use to continue afterwards

Yep, Mene told me that just now.

Without spoiling anything, is there a point of no return in the game? I don't want to leave any of these items behind.

 

[ForceStealer]

While there are missable items aplenty throughout the game, the chocographs remain available to the end. (aside from the final boss point-of-no-return, naturally. But like VII you can back out of the final dungeon until the very end, pretty much)

 

[Stiggie]

Yep, Mene told me that just now.

Without spoiling anything, is there a point of no return in the game? I don't want to leave any of these items behind.

No, that having been said, there is some other stuff that becomes unavailable later on, mostly locations. And most notably the Morrid Coffee sidequest is VERY easy to miss. At some point you will go to a city specifically to play in a card tournament, when there, make sure you take the time to return to Dali.

In my opinion, it's best to do most sidequests on disc three, before leaving to a certain "Isle". Once you get there you probably know what I am talking about. After that, you won't have more chances to really do this sort of stuff until disc 4.

Also, if you want, I have a document showing the complete synthesis chains as well, since there are certain items you can no longer acquire after a certain point.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

No, that having been said, there is some other stuff that becomes unavailable later on, most notably the Morrid Coffee sidequest is VERY easy to miss.

In my opinion, it's best to do most sidequests on disc three, before leaving to a certain "Isle". Once you get there you probably know what I am talking about. After that, you won't have more chances to really do this sort of stuff until disc 4.

4 disks? Good lord.

 

[ForceStealer]

Haha, it's still fairly similar in playtime to VII, there are just more prerendered movies

 

[Stiggie]

Haha, it's still fairly similar in playtime to VII, there are just more prerendered movies

Speaking of which, I think FFIX has THE BEST prerendered cut-scenes of any final fantasy. The moments they choose to make pre-rendered are just.....cheffs kiss.

Mikey will learn after Cleyra XD

 

[Sprites]

@ThatGuyMikey

Same as everyone else said there's no specific point of no return which is excellent but some locations aren't accessible. When you reach where @Stiggie has mentioned isle wise the game will prompt are you sure you want you want to progress, if you wanna check in here I have the list of locations that can't be accessed from my old game guide incase you need to do anything else at them.

Chocobo hot and cold isnt affected by this so don't feel you need to rush that.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

"That sinister man..."

Wait, Kuja is a dude?

 

[Deleted member 13557]

Beatrix was with Brahne at the beginning of the game, if I remember correctly.

Also, cool sword

 

[ForceStealer]

"That sinister man..."

Wait, Kuja is a dude?

 

[Shademp]

I'm totally fine with the chocographs part of it, they're pretty cool. It's the Hot & Cold part I can't stand. I'd rather do breeding in FF7 any day of the week. Searching in a tiny circle for whatever that magic pixel is only getting "Kweh?!"s until you finally find it but its at a depth of 45 and you only have 2 seconds left

I'm the exact opposite. I loved Hot & Cold and found it super addicting even when it dragged on. But following the chocograph hints on the overworld absolutely pissed me off because how difficult some overworld treasures were to find. Many chocographs felt more obscure and needlessly precise than finding treasure in the Hot & Cold minigame.

 

[Stiggie]

Wait, Kuja is a dude?

Ahhhhh, that takes me back, to myself 20 years ago, and my mate 20 days ago XD
Yeah, he's a dude, I used to think they should have just made him female since I'd really like her as a female character, still think it would work pretty well.
But these days I get the character more, the overly flamboyant monologuing villain is part of the way the game presents itself as a stage play, that's something that completely flew over my head the first time I played it.

Beatrix was with Brahne at the beginning of the game, if I remember correctly.

True, but I always feel like this is her proper introduction.

 

[ForceStealer]

Many chocographs felt more obscure and needlessly precise than finding treasure in the Hot & Cold minigame.

But, crucially, there's no completely arbitrary time limit to annoy the hell out of me. Why is there a time limit? Because the moogle pulled out a stop watch? Screw him, I'd like to see him try and stop us.

 

[kathy202]

I've always found chocobo hot and cold unbearable. It's fun the first few times and then it gets too much. Never finished it until my most recent playthrough and the only thing that made it bearable was spamming at 3x speed. Treasure hunting with the chocographs was fine though. Just used a walkthrough for the ones that got too frustrating, but most were pretty fun.

 

[Sprites]

"That sinister man..."

Wait, Kuja is a dude?

Every single person's reaction when Kuja came on the scene for the first time I think

 

[Deleted member 13557]

Loved the moment with Garnet and Steiner on the boat with Marcus. Their little inner monologues.

 

[Sprites]

The game really does have some great little moments.

What are you thinking of the story so far? Also the ATEs, anything you're not enjoying?

 

[Rankles]

Loved the soundtrack for this game. Some nice throwbacks in there, and the villains have great themes.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

The game really does have some great little moments.

What are you thinking of the story so far? Also the ATEs, anything you're not enjoying?

Besides Chocobo Hot and Cold, I'm loving pretty much everything. I do miss the materia system, though.