Board 8 > Kicked off Final Fantasy IX yesterday

(+) Yeah! (+)

There's some interesting elements to Tetra Master, but they do not deliver on the concept. The fact you can train your cards to make them stronger should've been a fun way to make the game more interesting, but everything is just way too vague for the average player to grasp what they're doing.

You can win fairly reliably when you get a good enough deck (especially if you save scum some of the strong cards from chocobo hot and cold for good arrow arrangements), but yeah the fact that bad rng can make you lost in a staked game is not ideal (as is the lack of an in game explanation for most of the mechanics).

RNG in Tetra Master makes it far more frustrating to play then it should be. But if you get a good set of cards and play often enough then you should still win most battles. I still enjoy it more than Triple Triad though weirdly enough. Just couldn't get into that at all and I actively avoid playing except to win the Zell and Quistis cards in the beginning.

Okay, so lots of plot (or at least action). Kuja reappears with Bahamut and invades Alexandria. Steiner and Beatrix take to the streets to fight the Mist monsters and resolve to just go down fighting.

Dagger walks up to the tower of the magically sealed Alexandria Castle where she's mysteriously drawn. Eiko feels a similar compulsion from the airship headed over from Treno, and she dives down and unites with Dagger. Their gems touch and they summon Alexander who manifests only as two giant, feathered wings surrounding the castle, with laser-beams that annihilate Bahamut.

Kuja tries to gain control of Alexander using the same big-ass eye in the sky that he used for Bahamut, but some rando dude (named Garland?) appears in a random cutscene from far away instead, and he takes control of the Eye and makes some assertions about Kuja's cause or backstory or whatever and how he's chosen to stay on Gaia.

Zidane gets to play hero to the damsel in distress randomly at the end as Alexandria Castle is finally razed. No battles happen, which is... a disappointment, I'd say. Steiner and Beatrix's battles vs Mist monsters weren't interesting fights, but at least they provided some action.

We all wake up in Lindblum, and man, this writing is... not good here. Other than Steiner and Beatrix going down with the ship, the dialogue here is all kind of terrible. I also am afraid the game is approaching the endgame already, since a showdown with Kuja feels kind of imminent at this point, but it feels like we haven't gotten nearly enough since we returned from the northern continent. The only highlight really has been Eiko's

It looks like the next major thing to happen will be us gaining access to a beloved FF trope, the airship.

You did miss out on an optional boss in the castle library, which could've made up for the lack of fighting for you!

I was okay with the story focus here though because the entire sequence is excellent.

And don't worry. You're still early Disc 3.

SeabassDebeste posted...

Their gems touch and they summon Alexander who manifests only as two giant, feathered wings surrounding the castle, with laser-beams that annihilate Bahamut.

Actually, Alexander shows up with just his wings before showing up proper as a castle with wings in that cutscene. A bit hard to see first time but you'll definitely realise it if you ever get his card.

Garland showing up outta nowhere hearkens back to old FFs.....I will say no more on this.

Also, not sure what you were expecting during the Alexandria destruction sequence? Fights for everyone to do? How would they go about this? We can assume that the Alexandrian soldiers and Knights of Pluto were busy handling things on the ground and the party's first thoughts was to save Garnet only. Well, Zidane's was and Amarant doesn't care, Freya and Vivi aren't particularly connected either and may hold some resentment towards Alexandria and it's citizens so....why would they help out with an evacuation for this? And last time we tried, it went terrible and everyone died. Maybe I'm overthinking this myself but I feel that they would all have reasons for their not to be anything happening but Beateix and Steiner defendinng their kingdom.

And yikes, feeling like the endgame is approaching we just started disk 3!

Leonhart4 posted...

You did miss out on an optional boss in the castle library, which could've made up for the lack of fighting for you!

Oh yeah that too. No chance to fight him again either. Only 2 chances to fight him, both times when you need to rescue Garnet.

kuja ate is a twist

Kuja da best

It def took me a while to differentiate the actual castle part of alexander vs alexandria castle

Leonhart4 posted...

You did miss out on an optional boss in the castle library, which could've made up for the lack of fighting for you!

ah yeah i skipped it because i hadn't found a save point, and i thought i might be able to revisit it

i didn't mention it but i died to it really early on in the game

i did enjoy talking to all the staff in the castle in alerting them to leave. does that result in anything?

Emeraldegg posted...

It def took me a while to differentiate the actual castle part of alexander vs alexandria castle

yeah this totally wasn't obvious to me

most_games_r_ok posted...

Also, not sure what you were expecting during the Alexandria destruction sequence? Fights for everyone to do? How would they go about this? We can assume that the Alexandrian soldiers and Knights of Pluto were busy handling things on the ground and the party's first thoughts was to save Garnet only. Well, Zidane's was and Amarant doesn't care, Freya and Vivi aren't particularly connected either and may hold some resentment towards Alexandria and it's citizens so....why would they help out with an evacuation for this? And last time we tried, it went terrible and everyone died. Maybe I'm overthinking this myself but I feel that they would all have reasons for their not to be anything happening but Beateix and Steiner defendinng their kingdom.

this is one way to look at it - the other is that this is an RPG, and a FF at that. these games come up with random stuff for characters to do all the time. like we haven't had a real boss or even dungeon-like sequence since the mist-tree monster dude. this series dropped an octopus out of the sky and made it a recurring boss; it had an inexplicable ghost train. it's not like there was nothing to fight.

Leonhart4 posted...

I was okay with the story focus here though because the entire sequence is excellent.

there were just a few things that felt under-written/overwrought - the whole gem stuff feels really silly and has been super macguffin-ish (not inherently bad per se) and uninspired throughout.

then zidane telling everyone "hey i'm gonna do this alone" was just another moment not really landing for me, since nothing is really explained, and there's no gameplay significance to his rescuing garnet alone. garnet herself has also just been mega-dull lately.

i think overall with kuja getting usurped as top dog by garland, there's also some sense of reminder that we never got to beat brahne or her top general beatrix in battle, which feels a little weird. at least we're finally getting to fight kuja soon, presumably.

anyway - have progressed a bit further. i liked revisiting the black mage village. and now i have full control over my party, which is cool, but man i feel sad that freya is underleveled. i also just find steiner boring even though he's incredibly effective, and i also feel the urge to level everyone up. but this new area i'm reaching on the ship - the quicksand surrounding kuja's stronghold - has some tough random encounters. freya dying at <lv 20 is pretty painful when zidane has broken 30!

i've been dragging dagger around with me as my white mage because based beatrix is missing, alas. maybe it's boring to have an OP character but i love her (and in general love controlling major rival characters like in chrono trigger). i guess she's probably not really a permanent party member since we never got to name her, and she's prime death material, but getting to play her a bit was great. wonder if she'll wind up against us again at some point and we'll have to put her down, or if kuja will kill her to prove himself or something.

in the meantime maybe i should swap eiko in for dagger. she's around the same level but maybe could learn some more abilities.

i'm accumulating accessories faster than i can teach characters their abilities! ahh!

random note: zidane's little fetchquest that turns cid into a frog is silly and feels really dumb with little "gameplay" element, but in hindsight i appreciate the world-building - just wish that there weren't the "ask about potion/ask about other stuff" dichotomy, as it slowed me down in order to hear the flavor text. fav part of this was easily the burmecian couple - they're fantastic.

Steiner is the epitome of "boring but effective"

Dude is a simple killing machine, especially when his Trance hits

i mean i guess admittedly it's not like i've done too much interesting stuff gameplay-wise. i never use zidane's techs other than stealing; i sometimes cast slow on bosses with vivi; and the like

but yeah i'd prob take a lot less issue with using steiner if he weren't so ugly.

Wow, rude

He's the most attractive man whose face is 90% chin I've ever seen

4 cactuars at once is just stupid, just died to them a second time

only two guys have clearheaded is a problem. the other is that quina/underleveled freya/amarant kinda suck as a party

Well, that's a pretty good party if you build them up properly!

Freya and Zidane just need their best techniques powered up to be useful

Also down the line Eiko becomes the better white mage but Dagger the more versatile summoner.

SeabassDebeste posted...

4 cactuars at once is just stupid, just died to them a second time

only two guys have clearheaded is a problem. the other is that quina/underleveled freya/amarant kinda suck as a party

Well now is a good time to grind, do some sidequest, grab some AP.

well i'm stuck on this continent atm so sidequests are not an option! but open to hearing ideas once i finish kuja's fetchquest

I don't feel like IX has a lot of great sidequests, at least not ones that are going to get you EXP and AP. They usually end in material rewards.

I hope you split your party well for the upcoming dungeon

maelstorm is fucking annoying

freya alone survived that boss battle! but i didn't buy any weapons for my friends at home. here's hoping we've got enough between eiko (as leader...?), steiner, vivi, and dagger

probably gotta protect hard against confusion

wait maybe i lied, i do seem to have done new gear to give these guys

that cid minigame was hilarious too. think i died like 4 times.

On my last playthrough I failed enough on that that I was seriously worried about getting a game over!

Maelstrom stronger than most endboss moves yup

I don't even remember when FFIX's Maelstrom pops up because I can only ever imagine FFVIII when I think of Maelstrom.

Neither can I tbh....was it from Ark?

most_games_r_ok posted...

Neither can I tbh....was it from Ark?

i died to a random encounter featuring two birds who both did this, in the dungeon preceding ark

the one random encounter boat that keeps using cannon to halve my hp also sucked

managed to make it back to my parties reuniting though. hilariously eiko leads that party, though the game quickly corrects the female agency but having her get kidnapped immediately after this segment

lighting the flames was pretty satisfying to walk through but it is really not obvious what is interactive this game

Man I got so lost in that palace on my first playthrough as a teen

SeabassDebeste posted...

but it is really not obvious what is interactive this game

Doesn't it give you a ! when you're near something interactable.

it does yeah, but sometimes you have to approach it from a specific angle or something - and it's often not obvious what the ! is for.

also i've had an issue with hitting A too quickly and choosing the top option of a lot of dialogue options this game.

also what a weird mythology dump about the futuristic society that we went to for that guleg stone or whatever it was called. kinda suspect that thread won't go anywhere!

I spent way too long figuring out how you get kicked off a single player game lol

I know there's an established order that determines who leads the party at Desert Palace, but Eiko is #1 and I'd never take her to Oeilvert, so I've never seen any of the others.

Yeah Oeilvert is anti magic so you would have to struggle a bit if you want to see anyone else besides Eiko lead
I believe Vivi is next in line.

My first playthrough I missed the part about the anti-magic barrier, and wanted each party to have a healer, so I sent Eiko there. She didn't do much. I remember Vivi being the leader of the other group.

But yeah, given the anti-magic barrier, you really want all the mages in the 2nd party (Eiko, Dagger, Vivi, and Quina, though I guess Quina has a good enough attack to be passable in the other team)

Yeah, I almost always roll with Zidane/Steiner/Freya/Amarant at Oeilvert. I may have switched out one of the last two for Quina once or twice.

ah, yeah. since i had zidane/freya/amarant/quina, i didn't even notice the anti-magic stuff. can you heal outside of battle using magic?

Nope, no magic at all. You can only heal with items.

man, i really lucked out then! i feel like i did succeed in casting the regen dragon spell with freya - i guess it's specifically black/white magic that can't be used?

Yeah, that doesn't count as magic by the rules of Oeilvert. You can use Amarant's healing, too.

I don't remember can summons be used?

I don't know never tried tbh. Always used brute forced myself and used the entrance to level up a fair bit since the enemies give decent XP. Sure healing wasn't that obnoxious though since you can use Amarant and there was moogle that sold restoratives and tents.

IIRC summons can't be used in Oeilvert.

yeah i've actually basically spent down all my money every time i've had a shop with weapons this game. tons and tons of potions/high potions, plus the equipment is expensive!

There are some tricks to getting a lot of money (in particular there are some synthesized items that sell for more than the cost of their materials), but yeah otherwise gil can be tight

Since you mentioned equipment, I'll mention that you're at the point in the game where some items in shops that are available now that won't be available later on. This was true for some stuff in disc 1/2 as well, which is unavailable now, due to some shops either changing their items or becoming inaccessible. However, I think the disc 3 items are the ones people miss the most. If you haven't already, get the Octogon Rod for Vivi from Esto Garza (I forget if you have access to this yet but if you don't, you will real soon). Also consider anything else that teaches an ability that looks interesting.