Board 8 > Andy Plays Final Fantasy IX

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kuja is probably my favorite villain for the overall arc he goes through from smarmy confident dude to desperate schemer to crazy nihilist man.

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Yeah, Kuja is a top tier FF villain for me, too.

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I just finished my FF9 playthrough this past weekend, but I actually still need to go back and beat Ozma myself!

As far as sidequests go, there's one that is still missable. It starts in Lindblum's theater district, and there are 18 different checkpoints (counting one before you enter) in the final dungeon where you can go back and advance the sidequest. You need to do at least 9 of them to finish it (technically you can finish it twice, though there's no extra reward from doing so).

Funnily enough, this sidequest was missing from all of the gamefaqs guides for over a decade, so a lot of people presumably had "perfect" files that missed this sidequest...!

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I need to remember to do that next time I play it. I think I actually want to go for the speed run perfect file for a change.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Funnily enough, this sidequest was missing from all of the gamefaqs guides for over a decade, so a lot of people presumably had "perfect" files that missed this sidequest...!

It was basically "discovered" a few years ago, which is impressive for an old game like this. Maybe someone found it before then, but it's not an intuitive sidequest to find at all. Finishing this involves a lot of backtracking, so it sounds kind of annoying. If you do this, then you'll be one of the few to actually complete it, since most don't even know about it.

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Realising now that there's a good chance we have no plot twists left! We've already taken care of the 'secret true grand plan final boss' so it may be just dungeon -> 3 phases of Kuja -> Ending cutscenes. Of course I know better than to declare this a fact, it is not beyond this series to pull the rug out at the last minute. It goes without saying, but please don't correct me on this right now if I'm wrong lol.

I'm putting a checklist together of things I still want to do:

• Do the stuff in Madain Sari that Kirby is talking about
• Go back to Ipsen's and solve that puzzle I didn't solve
• Find the Chocobo home
• Find the spots to use Dead Peppers on on the map
• Check in with Beatrix and Ruby at Alexandria
• Figure out if there's something else to do with Quina and the frogs- I have found 4 Qu Marshes and got rewards for catching frogs in 3 of them, but didn't get a reward for doing the last one. Might try to go back to the first one and see Quale.
• Also find out what Quina did when s/he was getting onto the Invincible? Could be nothing but that seemed like a setup.
• Complete the Moogle sidequest stuff with Stiltzkin, Artemicion, missing mail and Mognet Central. It is possible that this will progress through Moogle letters in the final dungeon.
• Find Erin and the crew of the Hilda Garde 3. Where did they go >_>
• Find Tantalus- I dropped in at Lindblum to check if Cid was there (he wasn't) and the two guys mentioned that everybody was missing and went off to look for them. I didn't properly scour Lindblum so I'll go back there.
• Find Sir Fratley? I was so sure this would come back into the main plot but it seems a bit out of place now, surely they didn't just toss that amnesia setup in and then call it a day. Also Puck, unless he died in the Cleyra attack.
• Get all the Stellazzios if they're not missable- I think I have about 7 or 8, I handed in the Pisces and got a Black Belt
• Do the auctions? People said they weren't major when I last mentioned this but idk if there's something worthwhile there.
• Go to Daguerreo- this place must exist for a reason. All that underworld and Dragon God talk must be leading to something- a potential superboss?
• Finish the monster gem trading quest- I got Garuda and it just said 'urgh urgh' and gave me a Diamond. That doesn't seem like the end of it but idk what an urgh urgh is.
• Finish the quizmaster stuff (if possible). I've encountered him 4 times now, all in the past couple of sessions.
• Hand in all the Kupo Nuts to that one Moogle. I just got an Aloha Shirt from him.
• Beat Ozma (Probs postgame)
• Do whatever Lordofthemorons and Fiop are talking about

That's all I can think of for now. Some of these may be redundant or nothing at all, I just want all my thoughts in one place.

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andylt posted...

Finish the quizmaster stuff (if possible).

I think there is a set amount and a final reward.

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Frogs: something happens if you get 99 (save first)

Youve triggered the first step of the sidequest I mentioned; it was the two guys at Tantalus

Auctions: there are four useless key items that reference FF3 that can be sold (potentially for a profit if you got them on the cheaper end) to people around Treno which you need to do for another sidequest that starts in Daguerro (selling them all and starting the sidequest causes another item to show up at auction). Before you sell them, however, you should check out the music box at the inn in Black Mage Village for a cool Easter egg!

There are 16 ragtime mouse questions

No real point in handing over more than one kupo nut per disc to the moogle; you just get random generic prizes like ethers past the first one (and lose the Kupo Nut key item you might want for a hypothetical perfect inventory!)

No idea why Garuda says urgh, but you did that step correctly!

I think you can still get the stellazios? Not positive.

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Thank you very much! I may not be finishing the game this weekend after all, seems like there's a lot to do lol. I'll need to build some money back up too, I splurged for the new weapons/armour.

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Yeah, this is gonna take a while... At Madain Sari, I try all sorts of party combinations before Lani stops running away. I put Eiko in the party because it's her home, then take her out in case Lani feels guilty about kidnapping her. I put Garnet in in case she wants to apologise, then take her out. I put Amarant in as he knew her beforehand, then take him out. At some point some combination works and she reveals that she has given up her thieving ways.

She points us towards a puzzle, which I solve by running around the summoner's wall on 3x speed and getting lucky I guess. My first thought was the '9' was referring to 9 o clock so I tried running from that point around, turns out it was probably just 9 times forward and back from the entrance. Whatever it was, we get a bunch of messages from Dagger's father about the history of Eidolons (I wish there was more stuff like this here!) and her family, and there's some very sweet messages to Eiko. Eiko does not react, and I bring Dagger here and she doesn't react either. Kinda sucks, but cool info nonetheless.

Next up we solve the Ipsen's Castle puzzle (again I don't know what I did to succeed but I'll take it) and get the Odin's Sword ability, and I finally get that treasure from Vivi's old home. Turns out we had to use the pepper from inside the dwelling, not run around on the sea as Choco and use it there. I kinda feel like I deserved to get that one by doing it the long way round!

I get some more frogs for Quina (up to 57 now, I didn't know they respawned!), and scour Lindblum and Alexandria looking for people with no luck. Well Ruby is there but she has no new dialogue. I don't know if Beatrix is MIA like everybody else or if she can't be bothered to come say hello or maybe ask about why the Mist is suddenly back. I do want to go back to the castle with Steiner in case there's new dialogue for his knights, but I'm doubtful.

Cid won't see us, and thinking about it that line from Dagger about not burdening him and the others by asking for their help just seems out of character at this point and especially silly after that whole friendship sequence with Zidane. I assume the writers were just pushing the game out of the door at this point and had no time to write stuff for Cid or something. Ah well. The Tantalus crew aren't anywhere in Lindblum- is this quest not going to progress until I enter the final dungeon?

There is one quest I make headway on. Stiltzkin and Kupo are in Alexandria and we get a brand new letter! Unfortunately I don't know where Atla is, so I run around the entire Mist Continent and finally find them in Burmecia. Now I'm looking for Mogryo, and I'm realising I should've written the names and locations of all the moogles down. I know there'll be lists online, but where's the fun in that!

During this moogle hunt I drop in at Dali and find that the old coffee dude was killed by the Iifa Tree earthquake. His daughter is really depressed. That sucks, especially as I assume he'd have lived if only I had the foresight to randomly traipse back to Dali from that Treno card tournament >_> Also the Mayor is sleeping, but for some reason Master Thief Zidane doesn't think to steal his keys so we can go into that one locked room. Ah well.

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andylt posted...

I get some more frogs for Quina (up to 57 now, I didn't know they respawned!)

You can get them to respawn faster by leaving at least one male and one female frog un-caught. You can tell by the colour of their feet.

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andylt posted...

She points us towards a puzzle, which I solve by running around the summoner's wall on 3x speed and getting lucky I guess. My first thought was the '9' was referring to 9 o clock so I tried running from that point around, turns out it was probably just 9 times forward and back from the entrance. Whatever it was, we get a bunch of messages from Dagger's father about the history of Eidolons (I wish there was more stuff like this here!) and her family, and there's some very sweet messages to Eiko. Eiko does not react, and I bring Dagger here and she doesn't react either. Kinda sucks, but cool info nonetheless.

I feel like you did not do this one to completion

Also the old man dies no matter what
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The coffee guy dies either way, but at least if you complete the sidequest you can rest easy knowing he achieved his dream of tasting the legendary coffee before he passed.

Also, you didn't specifically bring it up so I'm wondering if you found it or not, but at Madain Sari did you read the secret message that reveals Dagger's real name? The reason I keep bringing it up is because I have a slightly funny story about it when I first played the game but I don't want to talk about it until you've seen it yourself.

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For the Tantalus sidequest you can only do the initial step (which youve already done) before entering the final dungeon. The next checkpoint is immediately when you enter; you can leave right away, go back, and advance the quest. Generally there is a checkpoint every time you see a scene or fight a boss in the final dungeon (you need to go back after each one if you want it to count; e.g. seeing three checkpoints in a row and then going back will only advance the sidequest once).

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Honestly the reward is not worth it, but it is funny how drawn out the sidequest is
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There's a reason why it was undiscovered for like a decade

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I got that her birth name was Sarah, just didn't seem like a massive deal I guess >_>

BlackDra90n posted...

You can get them to respawn faster by leaving at least one male and one female frog un-caught. You can tell by the colour of their feet.

Oh dear, I may have accidentally committed frog genocide.

LordoftheMorons posted...

For the Tantalus sidequest you can only do the initial step (which youve already done) before entering the final dungeon. The next checkpoint is immediately when you enter; you can leave right away, go back, and advance the quest. Generally there is a checkpoint every time you see a scene or fight a boss in the final dungeon (you need to go back after each one if you want it to count; e.g. seeing three checkpoints in a row and then going back will only advance the sidequest once).

Gotcha, I will probably try to do the whole thing!

Grand Kirby posted...

There's a reason why it was undiscovered for like a decade

This is absolutely wild to me. A massive Final Fantasy game with a quest that doesn't sound too obscure (surely some people will have kept leaving the final dungeon if they were underleveled or something), and it wasn't discovered for a decade?!

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andylt posted...

I got that her birth name was Sarah, just didn't seem like a massive deal I guess >_>

Omgurd its like ff!onE1

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andylt posted...

I got that her birth name was Sarah, just didn't seem like a massive deal I guess >_>

Oh lol. It's a reference to the princess from Final Fantasy 1. Which is why I said this way back near the beginning:

Grand Kirby posted... When I first played the game I inadvertently named Dagger the name of a major spoiler. It was hilarious.

When I first played FF9 as a kid I renamed all the characters on a whim. When I got to the point where you enter Garnet's nickname, I decided to name her Sarah specifically because that was the name of the princess from FF1. Low and behold much and much later when I got the shocking revelation that Sarah's real name was... Sarah.

Also, looking back on my older messages I remembered I offered to teach you the rules of Tetra Master. Now that you're nearing the end of the game do you want to find out the true rules, like how the numbers and letters work, or did you work it out?

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andylt posted...

(surely some people will have kept leaving the final dungeon if they were underleveled or something)

maybe but why would they go to that same spot over and over again

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And you have to do it nine times... Even if you're doing it intentionally halting your progress in the final dungeon just for it is just kind of silly. I can't imagine just randomly stumbling into it.

Also, I said it took "like a decade" to find, but it was specifically 13 years. Yeesh. If there was anything that should have been included in the PlayOnline guide...

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LeonhartFour posted...

maybe but why would they go to that same spot over and over again

Still with the amount of times people have played through these games and switched things up, I would've thought someone would find it sooner. Especially as it's not hard to trigger the start of the sidequest (as I did naturally!), did people think they just set up the Tantalus crew being missing then never resolved it?

Well now I wonder which other games have unfound sidequests like that...

Grand Kirby posted...

When I first played FF9 as a kid I renamed all the characters on a whim. When I got to the point where you enter Garnet's nickname, I decided to name her Sarah specifically because that was the name of the princess from FF1. Low and behold much and much later when I got the shocking revelation that Sarah's real name was... Sarah.

Lol you had the same idea to reference FF1 that the writers did. Did you think the game was just pulling a silly 'her birth name is actually what you, the player, named her after all!'?

Also, looking back on my older messages I remembered I offered to teach you the rules of Tetra Master. Now that you're nearing the end of the game do you want to find out the true rules, like how the numbers and letters work, or did you work it out?

Oh I haven't played Tetra in a while. I got handy tips from the lady in Dali and others about the numbers/letters written on them, the only thing I think I still don't get is the HP for each card and their attack damage specifically.


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Tetra master: first digit is power, the letter says whether it's physical (P) or magical (M), then the next number is physical defense and the last one is magical defense (technically all of the numbers are the leading digit of a two digit hex number with the second digit hidden, so they range from 0 to F and 0 could represent anything from 0 to 15, 1 is anything 16 to 31, etc). When you have a card attack another card, the game basically picks a random number from 0 to your attack and a random number from 0 to their corresponding defense, and the larger number wins (so your F attack card could lose to a 0, but it's unlikely).

You can also rarely get X or A instead of P or M (X attacks the lower of their two defenses, and A attacks the lowest number on the opposing card). Your cards also can get stronger as you win with them (though a given type of card has maximum stats, and the arrows are initially random but can never be changed).

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Even if you trigger that scene, it doesn't necessarily feel like a sidequest, and it's not intuitive to go back and check after every single event in the final dungeon.

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Thanks for the Tetra Master tips! I really don't know why they were so cagey with the rules, they drop bits of info here and there but it's never all together and just makes things awkward. Also boo at the 'combat' in it having that random element.

Question: I cannot find Mois anywhere, can anyone point me in the right direction? I thought I'd tried every place that I can enter >_> They're not in the Iifa Tree, are they?

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andylt posted...

Question: I cannot find Mois anywhere, can anyone point me in the right direction? I thought I'd tried every place that I can enter >_> They're not in the Iifa Tree, are they?

Mois is in and later just outside an early game cave area. I'll spoiler it in case you just want the hint.

Ice Cavern

andylt posted...

I really don't know why they were so cagey with the rules, they drop bits of info here and there but it's never all together and just makes things awkward.

In case it hasn't been made clear, this is definitely a "buy the strategy guide!" type of game.

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most modern JRPGs are "buy the strategy guide" games

that's basically why this site exists

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The Final Fantasy had often had very obscure and hard to find stuff in previous games, but somehow I think FF9 took the cake at this point. Even the most ridiculous stuff in the previous games didn't drop to the level of "abandon what you are doing and visit this one specific place and this one specific time or else you'll lose out on this thing forever", and FF9 does this like 20 times.

Speaking of super obscure bs, good luck finding Zidane's best weapon. I feel like I should at least give a clue because it's hidden in the ocean and be found with a Dead Pepper, but there won't be any bubbles or sign where it is. The clue: think of a place where you couldn't use Dead Peppers before Disc 4.

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Oh I forgot about ultimate weapons, seems like I have a couple of them already from the descriptions. I won't read those spoiler bars yet but probably will need to at some point >_> I do have all of Zidane's abilities unlocked now, at least.

And idk I remember VIII having a couple really silly obscure sidequests.

Murphiroth posted...

Mois is in and later just outside an early game cave area. I'll spoiler it in case you just want the hint.

Ice Cavern

I... can't get into the Ice Cavern from either side!

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andylt posted...

I... can't get into the Ice Cavern from either side!

My bad, I forgot he moved. He's at the entrance to Fossil Roo now through Qu's Marsh near Lindblum and you need Quina in the party to get there.

I think some mognet letters are just plain missable
LeonhartFour posted...

most modern JRPGs are "buy the strategy guide" games

that's basically why this site exists

This game is why I even became a member of this site
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Murphiroth posted...

My bad, I forgot he moved. He's at the entrance to Fossil Roo now through Qu's Marsh near Lindblum and you need Quina in the party to get there.

Thank you! I didn't even consider Fossil Roo but I should've remembered the first Marsh.

htaeD posted...

I think some mognet letters are just plain missable

Yeah there's one I've had since before I got to the Outer Continent and Monty is nowhere to be found now, but these ones seemed quest related.

We manage to complete our Moogle letter swapping adventure by eventually getting some Superslick from Ruby. Then... nothing happens. I guess I'm supposed to find Mognet Central now, I had hoped this quest would lead me there! The jump rope girls are here again, and I am just as awful as I was at the start of the game.

I do get the Auction stuff done (thank you to Quina for your Millionaire ability) which results in a nice strange melody in Black Mage Village. I guess this is also a III reference? We then get a Gogo mention (!) and Excalibur. No word on the dragon god at Daguerreo.

I'm up to 9 Stellazzio, but the other quests have all stalled. I guess finding Mognet Central should be my next priority, or the Chocobo home. Hoo boy.

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andylt posted...

I do get the Auction stuff done (thank you to Quina for your Millionaire ability) which results in a nice strange melody in Black Mage Village. I guess this is also a III reference?

Oh, yeah. That's Doga and Unei's theme from Final Fantasy III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hyQnmlb4HE

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andylt posted...

And idk I remember VIII having a couple really silly obscure sidequests.

Eh, nothing on the level of FFIX. I feel like the only sidequest in VIII where I'd be like "how would you even figure this out without a guide" is Obel Lake.

And getting Doomtrain, I guess, but I dunno if that's technically a sidequest.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Eh, nothing on the level of FFIX. I feel like the only sidequest in VIII where I'd be like "how would you even figure this out without a guide" is Obel Lake.

And getting Doomtrain, I guess, but I dunno if that's technically a sidequest.

Obel Lake is what I was thinking of, but Doomtrain absolutely counts as there's a GF at the end of it!

Grand Kirby posted...

Oh, yeah. That's Doga and Unei's theme from Final Fantasy III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hyQnmlb4HE

I've been surprised at how much this game references the NES entries, I knew it would be full of throwbacks but thought it'd hit the SNES games more.

So after abandoning the Moogle hunt I get on Choco and go travelling hoping to find something. And wouldn't you know it, the first thing I find (after several minutes) is a crack in a mountain leading to Mognet Central! What are the odds! I give Artemicion the Superslick and this time it's used for the correct purpose. Our reward? A Protect Ring. ...Could've been something a bit more substantial imo, but I'm happy to have the Moogle stuff done. I also find another treasure trove inside a mountain on Lost Continent. No idea how many more there are to find, and I still have no clue about Choco's home except that it requires Dead Peppers (but do I use them in the air, on the ground, in the water? Bah!). Also I'd forgotten to mention this but my Treasure Hunter rank is C, I don't know if it's worth trying to get it to A/S/wtv.

I also wind up landing on Vile Island where I previously got a Chocograph treasure. I wonder if this is like VIII's Heaven/Hell islands because the only encounter I get into results in two of my party being snorted away and the others Cometed to death. Guess I'm not ready for that yet.

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Vile Island has the last friendly monster. Otherwise yeah, it's a training spot with super powerful monsters.

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That is if those monsters dont Virus you first
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andylt posted...

Did you think the game was just pulling a silly 'her birth name is actually what you, the player, named her after all!'?

So her real canonical name would have been Dagger

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Yans will wreck your ****
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OK I have scoured every continent looking for mountain cracks, and found a grand total of one more. Smh. May well have missed stuff around Iifa/Treno/Forgotten Continent with it being harder to see, but beyond that idk what I'm missing. The Chocobo home is nowhere to be found, I give up. Can someone tell me if it's at least in the sky, sea or land so I know what to look for? I know it's Dead Pepper related but that's all. Thanks!

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It's on an unmarked island on the world map.

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Its actually kinda cruel but.. their home is on an island that the minimap doesnt show.. in the northwest corner of the world.
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... Look, I like this game a lot, but some of these sidequests are too much. Why not just have Mene say 'oh I heard the Chocobo home is on some mysterious island somewhere' or something?! Christ. Thanks to both of you though!

We finally reach Chocobo's Paradise and I guess we haven't gotten all the treasures yet. Some of the Chocobos at least offer handy hints, except for one whose hint is 'did you know you can crack mountain walls?' How do you think I got here!

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VII and VIII also had unmarked islands in the corner of the map, so you should've been expecting one!

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Yeah, hidden islands are not uncommon in the series! I guess they expect you to thoroughly explore the map!

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The Island Closest To Hell is still the coolest name I can think of.
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Honestly I was expecting Choco Paradise to be in the sky after all those visions Choco had when leveling up. But sure, that one's on me I guess. In my defence I haven't played VII and VIII in a long time.

The hints prove pretty useful actually, and I get a bunch of treasures I never would have otherwise. One of them is 'between the Outer and Lost' Continents but really it's not directly between them at all, so that takes me ages. And there's one mountain crack on the Forgotten Continent which is ridiculously hard to spot.

I've gotten all the ones the Chocobos hint at I think (including their secondary hints) but Fat Chocobo isn't saying anything new so *shrug*

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Friendly monsters: Done! I can 'reach the round guy' now.
Frogs: 88/99
Stellazzio: still 9/12 :(
Quizmaster: still 4/16
Hilda Garde crew: ???
Sir Fratley: ???
Chocobo treasures: ??? I'm certain I've done all the ones the chocobos point at, but Fat Chocobo isn't saying anything differently still. Maybe there's no more to it.

A bit burned out on sidequests, I decide to move ahead with the main quest. It's only been a few days but it is very nice to get back to the story. And right away, Cid and Baku show up! And Beatrix! Good, this is exactly what I wanted. See how ridiculous the idea was not to tell them, Dagger? The Steiner and Zidane interaction is very good here lol. It's very nice to see everybody again (I guess I misread that Tantalus sidequest and they're not all missing), and the ensuing Nova Dragon boss fight isn't too much trouble. Question: Do I still need to Steal things from bosses? I feel like I have everything now >_>

Note: I bounce back to Lindblum after every boss fight/cutscene here, even if I don't note it. It's becoming clear that this is a tiny unimportant sidequest of no consequence, but it's still funny.

We go through the portal and wind up in a strange place conjured by our own memories, fittingly named Memoria. Garland is still around (!!!), and specifically tells Zidane that we will discover the full truth here. Oh heck yeah, more twists to come! We traverse through the neat looking but pretty linear dungeon (Zidane gets The Tower, his best weapon yet but I'm guessing not his ultimate), and soon enter another boss fight that just appears like a random battle.

Maliris is a little annoying, and is absolutely capable of killing characters. It refers to itself as a 'Chaos Guardian', and mentions we've seen it before? I... do not remember this. Was it one of the Shrine Guardians? If so that is cool that we get to fight it. Is it that snake thing from the Gargant area? Anyway, it goes down and we move on to view an old cutscene of Alexander (Dagger notably has one empty Eidolon slot left, I was hoping it'd be Alexander and now I'd say it's looking pretty likely!).

Along the way there are also card master phantoms to fight here, I manage to beat them a couple times and get some sweet new cards including an 8 arrow Alexander, a Nova Dragon and a Hades. I've not even met a Hades!

The next pit stop is a storm showing young Sarah leaving Madain Sari with her mother. I guess these flashbacks are all specifically related to the Invincible. Notably, Zidane can see this one. I have no idea what this means. Does he have some genome powers, or was he there somehow? Hm it's not in his memories so idk, maybe it's showing his closeness to Dagger or something. Anyway, I leave it here for the day. I was planning to just drop in to the final dungeon but I'm really glad that there's juicy plot threads still to untangle. Woo!

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Yeah the shrine guardians show up here instead with more intense designs. I approve of this, since it lets you actually see the 4th guardian later on. I am glad you saw the card phantoms so quickly. It took me forever.

Stealwise, the bosses here have weapons you could also have bought or synthetize at this point (not sure which weapons you would be missing at this point either) and Genji equipment (which isnt that amazing in this game)
Nova Dragon (a reference to FF5's Shinryuu) didnt have anything amazing either.
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