Board 8 > Kicked off Final Fantasy IX yesterday

(+) Yeah! (+)

The ability to ban people from Discord?

Yeah I think steiner is a 3x boost so, pretty good

Radix posted...

theres a fuckton of missables if you care about that. dont think any are 'important' though

iirc they aren't, but for a first play through I wouldn't worry about it. It's definitely worth exploring around though.

Does Steam FF9 have a 3x speed? I haven't noticed it. FF8 Remastered had it as an easy toggle but it would randomly cause crashes so I unfortunately had to use it sparingly.

Tag, still remember Seabass FF7 and FF8 playthrough topics, great times, feels like yesterday but guess they were in 2020? Just some more pandemic time compression.

I know ATB speed is the primary complaint but once you go in config menu and jack up the ATB speed to max things aren't too bad? I forget if there was a speed-up booster but I assume there is like the other PSX FF ports. Of course that moment when you get Auto Haste and Auto Regen on all your team members is just too good.

Funny thing is I was just taking a look at the order of games played on my PS4 yesterday and it looked like FF9 is the one I hadn't played in the longest (being on the rightmost side of the games list) but I realized FFXII wasn't in that row so that's probably the one. But now the urge to give FF9 another run is growing, hmm...

Enjoying the ATE appreciation in this topic. More games should do that.

MartinFF7 posted...

I know ATB speed is the primary complaint but once you go in config menu and jack up the ATB speed to max things aren't too bad?

It certainly helps but is still slow as heck unfortunately. Stays that way until you get autohaste as well.

SeabassDebeste posted...

oh, right. trance. it was just... increased strength, right? nothing else? i didn't notice any cool abilities i gained during it.

it also appears that we "equip" our skills to our other equipment here?

Everyone gets a strength boost which is minor with Steiner straight up getting a massive boost and nothing else. Everyone else gets their "special" changed with different effects for them, all of which are useful bar one character who's trance absolutely sucks.

There's lot of missables in this game, though the one people complain about the most is the rod that teaches Vivi Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga. Just make sure to buy that the first time you can.

It's also generally a good idea to buy any equipment that teaches a character an ability they can't otherwise get at that point. Though a lot of it probably doesn't matter that much.

FFIX's battles are slow because you have an unnecessarily long lead-in to every battle and every single enemy attack has a special battle animation, for some reason. Speeding it up in the options menu doesn't fix those things. Having the 3x speed option does.

Fiop posted...

There's lot of missables in this game, though the one people complain about the most is the rod that teaches Vivi Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga. Just make sure to buy that the first time you can.

No way those abilities aren't found on other things too.

pjbasis posted...

No way those abilities aren't found on other things too.

The Octagon Rod is Vivi's seventh staff in Final Fantasy IX, obtained after the events in Desert Palace. It is a missable weapon, and if the player does not buy it before entering the Shimmering Island portal, Vivi will never learn his third tier elemental spells.
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Octagon_Rod_(Final_Fantasy_IX)

I made that mistake my first playthrough.

lol rough

Played until exiting the Evil Forest, whose name is quietly hilarious. An ATE tells us our crew is doing just fine without us (orchestra in thr forest!), and the enemies get progressively bigger as we go from puny Goblins to bigger Fang wolves to something that looks like a giant rafflesia. After a brief resting point (love these!) the actual boss battle is an even gianter rafflesia thing-y that blinds us and does a bit more damage but that doesn't have a lot of HP. Do your thing, Vivi and... Blank? Is that his name?

Blank doesn't last long. Beating the boys results in a chase sequence with battle music override, a classic FF trope I love. Blank dying immediately is a little more stale of a trope but also kind of enjoyable because of how recognizable it is, too. Does this mean all of Tantalus is dead? I hope not, and I suspect that they may be either coming back, or rescued much later in the game - after all, they have the FF staple airship.

And then we're out in the overworld?? For some inexplicable reason I didn't actually see this coming. It took longer to reach (by a lot) then FF8 but shorter (by a lot) than FFVII. I guess I was just somewhat conditioned to expect an FFVII-like (dare I say FFX-like?) amount of being in narrow spaces. But nah, here we are! And we can save at any time on the overworld, so let's just take advantage of that.

This game so far has charm. Glad to have Garnet with us now. But the battles (which admittedly have yet to really get interesting) are kinda reminding me why Pokemon is so popular. There are a million things to do in the battle menu, but due to ATB I don't really want to experiment much, and I also don't want to spend long staying at menus to customize my dudes. Some minor optimization and learning some abilities might eventually happen, though, if I get a hang of how skills work.

SeabassDebeste posted...

There are a million things to do in the battle menu, but due to ATB I don't really want to experiment much

but ATB wait means you have all the time you need to strategize

I don't think the game really gives you much to experiment or customize early on.

SeabassDebeste posted...

There are a million things to do in the battle menu, but due to ATB I don't really want to experiment much, and I also don't want to spend long staying at menus to customize my dudes. Some minor optimization and learning some abilities might eventually happen, though, if I get a hang of how skills work.

This is absolutely wild to me, since FFIX is probably the simplest FF battle system since FFIV. It's actually my second biggest complaint about the game (1. being battles are too slow, 2 being battles are too boring).

If you want to have a little fun, try using the Moogle Flute and then not saving over and over and over.

pjbasis posted...

lol rough

on top of that, it's in a dinky little shop in a short plot-relevant area that you'll never visit again, so if you don't get it in passing, if you're just in a mood like "eh I don't need to buy anything right now" congrats

Emeraldegg posted...

on top of that, it's in a dinky little shop in a short plot-relevant area that you'll never visit again, so if you don't get it in passing, if you're just in a mood like "eh I don't need to buy anything right now" congrats

Happened to me on my first ever play through waaaaay back when. I was so mad

Missables are also some of those things I can't defend either
But it's the same in every game in the series I think

as long as i keep playing in 30m bursts i will trust you guys to warm me before i miss this

Its much later in the game you've got a while

Just make sure you take time to shop every time you visit (and revisit in the case of some towns that have multiple story points) a town and you should be fine.

yeah shop missables are no big, especially in a game like ff9 where the skill system makes every piece of gear important, so the answer to not missing anything is just always go to the shop

You might feel the need to buy two of everything though. Certain items can be combined into other items, and the game has a nasty habit of making a piece of equipment you got in the early game that you'll have no desire to use after hour three become necessary to make a super cool item dozens of hours later and, whoops, turns out the stores at the beginning of the game that used to carry them had their warehouse burn down or something because they refuse to sell it anymore.

I don't know that you need to buy two of everything. Just don't sell anything.

I'd suggest buying three of everything.

So that overworld sojourn was very, VERY sorry. Vivi and Garnet are both excited about the mythical Ice Cavern. Not totally clear to me why we're playing through here plot wise - everyone was talking about this Mist - but so we are.

These enemies are my fucking bane. The Blizzard does a ton of damage to Garnet. But worse, they have this garbage HP switch move which annoys the bajesus out of me and causes me to waste tons of Potions/Garnet MP to heal. Vivi's Fire is also by far the most effective countermeasure, so I also burn an Ether at some point.

Zidane has the genius idea to let Vivi burn down some ice walls which enables me to snag some equipment. However, there are 2-3 some on ledges I can't reach even if I search for melt-spots. Is that expected?

At the end of the dungeon, the crew faints, but Zidane manages to get up first. We march forward and fight a single-player boss battle, a classic "kill the master of the beast first" situation. Costs us several Potions again. The boss informs us he's just one of three Garnet hunters dispatched, and Zidane... keeps this to himself? What?? What's going on here? Why was Zidane resisitant to the sleeping spell?? And why is he lying???

Deciding Garnet needs a disguise, Zidane encourages her to taje on an alias. And more than a full dungeon after she joined our party, we get the Naming scene for Garnet. Welcome to the game, Dagger. Hope you can hang with the slang. Back to the overwhelms we go.

One parting thought - hiding Garnet's summons in plain sight behind MP restrictions is really interesting.

I think you should be able to get everything in the ice cavern

LordoftheMorons posted...

I think you should be able to get everything in the ice cavern

urk. well i did save in the cavern after the boss...

I always liked the intro title graphics for each new location.

When I played Kingdom Hearts I thought "they're doing the FFIX thing!"

SeabassDebeste posted...

At the end of the dungeon, the crew faints, but Zidane manages to get up first. We march forward and fight a single-player boss battle, a classic "kill the master of the beast first" situation. Costs us several Potions again. The boss informs us he's just one of three Garnet hunters dispatched, and Zidane... keeps this to himself? What?? What's going on here? Why was Zidane resisitant to the sleeping spell?? And why is he lying???

oh. right. I guess now is a good time to point out that in this game your main character is a thief and they definitely tried to incentivize actually thieving with him. it's pretty much always worth stealing from bosses

SeabassDebeste posted...

Not totally clear to me why we're playing through here plot wise - everyone was talking about this Mist - but so we are.

They're trying to get above the mist iirc. The ice cavern was the only way out of where they happened to be. Mist is dangerous.

SeabassDebeste posted...

At the end of the dungeon, the crew faints, but Zidane manages to get up first. We march forward and fight a single-player boss battle, a classic "kill the master of the beast first" situation. Costs us several Potions again. The boss informs us he's just one of three Garnet hunters dispatched, and Zidane... keeps this to himself? What?? What's going on here? Why was Zidane resisitant to the sleeping spell?? And why is he lying???

I imagine he probably is just trying to keep garnet from worrying, noble but misguided. Also zidane is the one in the best physical condition of the 3 (He is an active thief after all) and the BW rang his bell, so that is my explanation as to why he woke up.

pjbasis posted...

I always liked the intro title graphics for each new location.

When I played Kingdom Hearts I thought "they're doing the FFIX thing!"

i really like these too! Steiner posted...

oh. right. I guess now is a good time to point out that in this game your main character is a thief and they definitely tried to incentivize actually thieving with him. it's pretty much always worth stealing from bosses

oh yeah, i robbed both of the bosses. don't remember the equipment i actually got from them though!

Emeraldegg posted...

They're trying to get above the mist iirc. The ice cavern was the only way out of where they happened to be. Mist is dangerous.

I imagine he probably is just trying to keep garnet from worrying, noble but misguided. Also zidane is the one in the best physical condition of the 3 (He is an active thief after all) and the BW rang his bell, so that is my explanation as to why he woke up.

thanks for the color. so the answer to my questions are "nothing particularly interesting," which is a little disappointing, but good to know that those aren't "real mysteries" i should concern myself about

Steiner posted...

oh. right. I guess now is a good time to point out that in this game your main character is a thief and they definitely tried to incentivize actually thieving with him. it's pretty much always worth stealing from bosses

Oh god

that mage masher is pretty nice iirc

Getting the fairy flute was an accomplishment.

Bosses can have up to 3 things to steal, but Zidane's steal rate is poor, so trying to get everything can be frustrating.

Mythril sword is still one of the worst to steal, and I don't care if it's available shortly afterwards I still try to get the damn thing every time.

Think Sea Lion has what....Myrthril Dagger? Teaches Bandit, which helps with the stealing a little I think.

I remember missing something in the Ice Cavern and getting it much later. So if you can't go back there now, you should be able to later.

Also, enemies can have up to 4 things to steal. I don't recall if there are any missable items exclusive to steals, though there are some rare items in limited quantities, at least (I think these are much later).

Leonhart4 posted...

Bosses can have up to 3 things to steal, but Zidane's steal rate is poor, so trying to get everything can be frustrating.

oh damn, didn't realize that. do both the sorceror and the monster have 3? might have to go back......

i think i got a mage masher just out of a treasure box

You can always tell when you are done stealing because if he fails, it says "couldn't steal" but if you got everything already, itll say "nothing to steal"

In that case, they both had two items, but importantly the little guy had a Silk Shirt and the big guy had a Mythril Dagger

Even as someone who tried to steal every item I gave up on the Fairy Flute. Screw that nonsense.

I think a significant part of my dislike for this game comes from following a GFAQs guide that stressed the importance of stealing particular rare boss items which would often turn up in the shops a town or two later.

I never stole anything when I first (or second or third) played the game, it's not a big deal.

paperwarior posted...

I think a significant part of my dislike for this game comes from following a GFAQs guide that stressed the importance of stealing particular rare boss items which would often turn up in the shops a town or two later.

Blame the official strategy guide going "check PlayOnline for details!"

We did not have a lot to go on in the days of yesteryear.

I always stole everything from every boss

Isquen posted...

Blame the official strategy guide going "check PlayOnline for details!"

this guide ruined my love of guides

the FFIX strategy guide made me appreciate good guides even more