Annoying Minigames

[Skyblade]

Seriously, what is with FFIX's minigames? I just started a new playthrough (had to, PS1 Memory Card won't work on my PS3, besides, I wanted to start the plot all over), and I'm already getting turned off the game by the sheer number of annoying minigames. First we have Vivi and the psychotic jump-rope team (every bit as annoying as FFX's Thunder Plains, if not more so). Then we have randomness-incarnate Tetra Master (why do they even bother showing the "strength" numbers when a 38 can be beaten by a 3?), where winning and losing depends on how nice the RNG decides to be to you today. And after that we get tossed into the Blank/Zidane swordfight, which, while awesome to watch, is very annoying to play (not only have to do them all perfectly, but have to do them at a particular speed, that both music and graphics will throw you off of). This game has great plot and characters, I know, but sheesh, it's minigames need to be seriously retooled.

[Rantz]

The minigames are one of my favourite things about IX.

The jump rope game is a bit annoying if it goes badly, but I usually only play it up to 100-200 and don't mind with the rest, so it's mostly a cute on-the-side thing to me.

Tetra Master is a great game as far as I'm concerned. I don't know why people get so angry at the randomness, it's not like it doesn't matter. A card with an 8 for attack will have roughly a 4 times larger chance to win when attacking a card with 2 for defense. It's all fair and square to me, and the chance/risk that a weak card still might win made the game so much more dynamic and prevented it from becoming predictable and boring. If you want the game to be a routine you can use to win stuff, sure, randomness will be irritating. If, on the other hand, you want the game to be a game, exciting and rewarding, then I really don't see how randomness is stupid in any way.

The Blank/Zidane swordfight, sure, if you absolutely have to get 100% accuracy, it will be annoying, but in what game isn't completionism a chore? The rewards for this, while great, are not by any means unique or impossible to win at a later point in the game. The game is fun and exciting the first few times, and that's what I usually settle for.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I don't like jumping rope, but it's completely optional. I just skip it, and it's just as well.

Furthermore, FFIX has Chocobo Hot and Cold, which is the best side-questy mini-game in the entire series. That alone absolves it of any shame impressed by lesser endeavors.

[Wolf Kanno]

I still feel that FFX wins the award for epic fail in its mini-games. Tedious, frustrating, usually boring, and the only benefit is acquiring the ultimate weapons (which you don't need) or items to build ultimate equipment (which you don't need).

I like the majority of IX's minigames: the play fight is fun and entertaining, jump rope is cute if a little frustrating, frog catching is more amusing than it should be, the monster arena was fun and challenging, Chocobo Hot and Cold is probably one of my top favorite Chocobo minigames, Froggy Red Light Green Light was hilarious.

The only one I despise is Tetra Master cause its a terrible card game that isn't fun, you can't build proper strategies, the grainy graphics combined with its tiny print makes reading the stats on the cards difficult and the randomness of it all makes me feel like the game was created as a communist version of Triple Triad where good players of the TT are punished for being good and children who can't do math can now finally win without real effort. The game is as fun as drawing straws. Not to mention it doesn't offer any gameplay benefits outside of the Treno tournament...

Besides that one blemish, I feel the mini-games in IX are something all the games should aspire to. :p

[Skyblade]

Tetra Master is too random to be good. Randomness determines everything in that game. Blocked tiles are random. Card strength is random. Card arrows are random. Opponent's card strength/arrows are random. Victory in the card battles is random. There is no reasonable way to play that game. Strategy will fail to luck constantly. It doesn't matter how well you pick your cards for number of arrows, strength, etcetera, the block placement and battle randomness can wipe you out all the time.

If it was just randomness in the battles, that'd be acceptable. But it's the randomness of practically everything in the game that kills it. If it had a constant or predictable board layout, there would be some strategy in choosing the arrows of your cards. As it is, half your cards can be useless because of the blocked tiles. If the opponent's cards were visible, there would be some strategy in placing your cards to hinder his play. Instead, you just have to play randomly and hope he won't have a card with an arrow that can flip your cards. If you could actually determine the victor of a battle, you could play cards confidently against what was on the board, and worry more about what was going to be played by your opponent next.

Any of those changes would have left chance a factor in the game, but not a crippling factor. But, the way the game is, the random factor determines the outcome of every Tetra Master game, and that kills any enjoyment of it for me. Plus it sucks that the max card limit is so small.


The jump rope's final prize is unique, actually, and the Moonstone is fairly close to it, with only 3 others in the game.

The minigames thus far just strike me as being incredibly poorly designed. Jump rope and the swordfight are both just long reflex tests, and tetra master is governed by randomness.

[charliepanayi]

I don't like jumping rope, but it's completely optional. I just skip it, and it's just as well.

Furthermore, FFIX has Chocobo Hot and Cold, which is the best side-questy mini-game in the entire series. That alone absolves it of any shame impressed by lesser endeavors.

I second this. I like the minigames in FFIX on the whole, and Chocobo Hot and Cold is insanely addictive.

[ReloadPsi]

Tetra Master can suck me off.

Now I particularly enjoyed Hot & Cold, mainly because I was fairly good at it and usually ended up playing it for some of my friends, which made me feel kinda mighty :D

[Old Manus]

I found Tetra Master a lot more fun than Triple Triad (which did indeed have its fair amount of randomness) with its bucketloads of inane 'rules' and all that bollocks.

[Skyblade]

Well, hopefully I'll find the later minigames (even on my original playthrough, I don't remember ever finding Chocobo Hot & Cold) better, but right now it just seems like the entire game is set up to make it as frustrating as possible for me. I like the story, characters, and world, but I am finding it so difficult to get into the game when I am being constantly beset by annoyingly frustrating minigames.

I would have ignored the Jump Rope (at least until the end of the game), except that doing so would have made me lose out on a Mognet message (and, yes, I had trouble reaching 40 jumps. Sue me. There's a reason I hate quick time events and reflex tests). Getting thrust into a "practice" card game with Alleyway Jack was the only reason I started playing Tetra Master (and both those things happen before you even reach a save point, so I had to reset every time Alleyway Jack cheated). But the swordfight is forced, and until I can get through it, I'm stuck with just those annoying minigames taunting me.

[roen]

Recently I've been able to get just over 50 on the jump rope, it's all about timing. The frog catching always amuses me.

[Heath]

I don't like the skipping rope game but it's entirely optional. On the other hand, I enjoyed the odd game of Tetra Master if I was doing well (though I really preferred Triple Triad) and Chocobo Hot & Cold is - as Kishi said - the best mini-game in the entire series. The sword fight was good fun too. All of it apart from the latter is entirely optional anyway and so I never mind and actually rather liked IX's mini-games.

[Zeromus_X]

Thinking back, I liked FFIX's minigames a lot more than other annoying minigames in RPGs.

And I actually liked Tetra Master more than the FFVIII card game for some reason.

[eestlinc]

the whole point of Tetra Master is to find powerful cards that also have useful arrows and level those cards up. Maybe you get a good one but with bad arrows, so you look for another version of that same card. Plus you can develop interesting strategy for using cards with weird arrows, and you run less of a risk of getting crushed at the end if you use cards with fewer arrows. I thought the game was very subtle and engaging.

[Rye]

Between Tetra Cards and Hot & Cold, this game has the best mini games in any of the Final Fantasy games I've played, by far. xD