Finally Playing FFIX

[Loony BoB]

And actually enjoying it for a change! The two games I always worried about playing most when it comes to Final Fantasy were VI and IX, because of the hype both games got before I got around to playing them. FFVI for me didn't really reach the hype, but I've found myself really appreciating FFIX.

Did anyone else find this game a slow starter? It was a very slow starting game for me - I would pick it up for maybe an hour or so and then forget about it for weeks, it never captured my attention and hooked me in. I did that up to the point that you're wandering around Lindblum, just after you meet Freya for the first time. When I picked it up again at that point and pushed forward to the point you leave Lindblum, suddenly the game just got a lot more interesting. Perhaps it was getting Quina that made it more interesting, I'm not sure... either way, it's been great and I find myself playing a couple of hours a day (juggling it with reading the full history of Uncanny X-Men comics which are awesome, so can't spend all day playing it).

No spoilers, please. I've just got Eiko, if you're wondering where I'm up to at the moment... so don't talk about the future parts of the game if possible as I don't like it when people tell me to "look forward to _____!" or "Oh, you're going to really like the next bit!" ...it ruins the surprise.

[NeoCracker]

I don't think from a narrative perspective is Slow, what I think makes it feel like that are the battles. Having a slow battle system in general, when you are doing those 1v1 fights, there is so much dead time between actions it feels like it drags. It's not until you consistently have the full 4 person group that the game gets over that.

And yeah, its after Quina the game starts to pick up. Not so much for Quina, but the introduction of both Beatrix and Kuja at Burmucia. The ruins of that city, the raining, the wonderful music, that was one of my favorite moments in the game.

[Loony BoB]

I don't think from a narrative perspective is Slow, what I think makes it feel like that are the battles. Having a slow battle system in general, when you are doing those 1v1 fights, there is so much dead time between actions it feels like it drags. It's not until you consistently have the full 4 person group that the game gets over that.
You're probably spot on with that. When I think of other FF games, more often than not this isn't an issue, but with FFIX you're doing a lot of battles with 1-2 people out of four, and you really feel it. Other FF's tend to start you with either a full party or one short of a full party from the get-go.

[NeoCracker]

Also, what were your thoughts on The Black Waltz's? I though the coming of #3 was one of the games better moments.

[Loony BoB]

*shrug* I just find them to be like your average boss fights, nothing special. If you mean the scenes in which they arrive and all that... just part of the game for me. Nothing mind-blowing. I can't even remember which one is which. Which one was #3?

[NeoCracker]

Final Fantasy IX - Cutscene 15 - Black Waltz 3's Attack - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJOZCrArZK8)

[Loony BoB]

Oh, right, that guy. Yeah, his scenes were pretty cool.

The most interesting scenes for me so far are when Brahne used Odin and Atomos, I think... particularly the latter if only because I've never seen Atomos on such a scale before, and he really suits it. The storming of the castle by the many black mages was well done, too, the eyes really 'make' it.

Other than scenes, I've adored the Dwarven city (I forget the name). Living in Scotland, I can really appreciate the dialogue.

[NeoCracker]

I loved the Dwarf City, though I don't like Eiko. Probably my least favorite character in this game. But eh, at least she serves her purpose for the plot well. :p

[Jinx]

That scene is the only scene where Atomos is useful. And the Odin scene is AMAZING.

I completely agree, though. Up until you leave Lindblum, the game is very slow, and even dull. I don't think it's because Quina joins your party, because Quina's useless and annoying.

For me, it's because you start visiting some really interesting places with beautiful music, and it's the first time the world really opens up for you. Yes, you're still on a path, but it's the first time you can truly explore. I also love how they story splits in two.

[Quindiana Jones]

It's because you are introduced to Choco.

Also, BoB: you're really going to like the next part.

[NeoCracker]

I think it's best not to presume what BoB will and will not enjoy, his tastes can be a bit spotty at times.

[Loony BoB]

Your face can be a bit spotty at times.

[NeoCracker]

You know, I had response to that, but I disturbed myself with it a little, so I'm just going to keep it to myself.

[Bolivar]

Thanks for letting us know anyway.

[Quindiana Jones]

Who are your favourite characters so far, Spotty NoB? In terms of both story and battle, I mean. :)

[Loony BoB]

Spotty NoB? Ew, that is a disgusting nickname.

Battle: I always favour high power attack with healing capabilities, so my ideal group would be Zidane, Quina, Steiner and Garnet.

Story: Hmm. Nobody stands out to any huge degree for me. I find Quina to be really fun. I've not got so far as to be able to say what I think of every character's story as I'm still on the second disk and only onto the second continent, and I'm assuming there's a chunk more to go in the game considering the number of places I've not yet visited. I think one of the strengths of this game - at least so far - is that not a single character really annoys me on any level.

If I had to pick favourite overall characters thus far, they would probably be Quina, Steiner and Beatrix.

[maybee]

Somebody else who likes Quina !

I thought that he was always really hilarious and that his or hers Blue Magic was really handy in battles.

And eat Hot Dog Pizza Neo. Eiko is awesome. :kakapo:

[Pumpkin]

I love this game so much, I'm glad you're enjoying it :jess:!

I don't find it started out slowly. In fact, there was never a slow point for me. I always wanted to see what happened next. I actually had two save files, one was my game with all of my leveling and grinding done, and the other was me speeding through it to see what happened next because I couldn't wait to finish my leveling. And I would do that until I was at a stand still (from lack of leveling) and redo that.

I <3 Vivi and Quina

[Jowy]

I love the little things.

[Loony BoB]

Just got Amarant last night. :) Forgot about him being one of the playable characters so it was almost a surprise. Garnet's story got a bit more interesting.

I find Zidane's Steal is really horrible at times. I fought the boss of the Lifa Tree (or whatever it is) for probably 20 minutes, mostly with the two white mages constantly healing everyone while I watched Zidane fail at steals time and time again. He has Bandit enabled, too. Urgh. I hate it when there are items I can't steal from bosses no matter how hard I try - I know I missed out on one of them, the Fairy Flute, and it really annoyed me. I spent ages and then just gave up on that occasion because I didn't want to waste any more ethers.

EDIT: And I just read that the Fairy Flute is really good. -_- Dammit, Zidane, why are you so bloody terrible at being a Thief?

[NeoCracker]

That is one of the games downsides. Steal is an amazingly useful ability for once, and it never works. :p

[Quindiana Jones]

Iifa Tree.

[Jinx]

Iifa Tree.

[NeoCracker]

Heh heh heh, Spotty NoB..

[Loony BoB]

Iifa Tree.
falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it,

[Rostum]

Spotty NoB. XD

[Jowy]

http://home.eyesonff.com/final-fantasy-ix/76665-damage-formulas-frog-drop-thievery-dragons-crest-etc.html

stealing's a necessary evil, my man! if thievery worked off of failed attempts, the game wouldn't be a challenge. you're encouraged to steal as often as you can from everything you encounter. zidane is a thief, after all!

[NeoCracker]

Yeah, don't bother. Thievery really isn't that nescessary. :p

Nor is Dragon's Crest or Frog's Drop.

Max damage in this game is beyond insane compared to other entries in the series.

[Jowy]

mount gulug is aggravating as all hell.

[NeoCracker]

Only fight I recall being hard for me was Ark, the one where you split the party. :p

Dudes an asshole.

[Elpizo]

Max damage in this game is beyond insane compared to other entries in the series.

And thank heavens for that, or else the game would be even easier than it already is. And it keeps people from spamming the same uber-damage-limit-breaking attack over and over, I suppose.

[Ouch!]

You've inspired me, BoB. I've been trying to decide what game I'd play next, and I think it's going to be another run of FFIX. It's been too long.

[Loony BoB]

I just want to say that I share supernova's pain (http://home.eyesonff.com/final-fantasy-ix/132796-game-designers-amazing.html). It didn't occur to me that upon returning to a room I'd already been in that it would be a very different room with a save point. The annoying thing about this is that when I fought the boss of the area where Zidane is at the time, I'd gotten all steals done really quick, and been able to finish the fight extremely quickly. Of course, I then did everything up ot the point of the bookcases and thought to do a little backtracking to see if I missed anything, ran into the wrong enemy and had everything go wrong. Two characters got Stop'ed immediately, I had Garnet with me, and she constantly gets constipated or something and doesn't carry out her commands, so she didn't fix them, the other character had already been given a command and by the time he carried it out and started charging his bar for his next move, he'd been Stop'ed too. That left just Garnet, constantly getting flustered about how tricky it would be to use an item and failing each command, and then she got killed, and that was that.

And then I look up this Desert Palace thing, find supernova's thread and discover that all I had to do was go into the previously Moogle-less room in order to discover a Moogle has, at some point over the past 20 or so seconds, walked into the room and set up shop. Of course! Why didn't I think of that!?

Dammit, Squaresoft. >=( You do so many things right, but you can really be good at finding ways to do it wrong.

So basically I had to redo the boss fight in the previous area and it took smurfing forever to get that bloody Holy Lance this time, and then I get buggering up with Cid and his walking up to get a key from near a monster and got it done in the end with about 3 seconds to spare. Then I saved, then I went to bed. At least I know what I'm doing for the next 20 minutes of the game, and which enemies I'm not going to waste my time on.

Still enjoying the game, though.

[Jinx]

Yeah, even now, when I play that game I have to remind myself about that moogle.

[XxSephirothxX]

I've written too much too many times about why I love FFIX. There's no game I have a closer emotional attachment to, and there are few games that I'd say have better characterization than IX.

For example, I can recognize while the beginning feels like a slow start, but I love the scale--it starts as a very personal story, or rather several intertwining personal stories, and it takes awhile for the plot to unfold into a grander thing. But I like the first third of the game or so the most. And there's just so much character and atmosphere in the early hours that I could gush about forever.

I think the ATEs are an underappreciated/undercopied mechanic for simultaneous storytelling.

I hope Square remakes the game at some point and fixes the battle system's terrible slowness. I don't care about remakes much, really--I'm happy to play it with its funky old PS1 graphics--but it was really doing too much for the hardware, and that would be so easy to fix in a modern remake and make the game much more playable.

[Jowy]

So basically I had to redo the boss fight in the previous area and it took smurfing forever to get that bloody Holy Lance this time, and then I get buggering up with Cid and his walking up to get a key from near a monster and got it done in the end with about 3 seconds to spare. Then I saved, then I went to bed. At least I know what I'm doing for the next 20 minutes of the game, and which enemies I'm not going to waste my time on.

Still enjoying the game, though.

I didn't get the Holy Lance because I killed that fucking thing in three turns...can't pass that chance up. you're gonna want everyone to have body temp pretty shortly. the next part is torture.

[Jinx]

Yeah, this game can either be a cake walk or torture on how you set your abilities.

[Loony BoB]

Oh, that's okay, I'm an ability whore. I get really annoyed when my characters aren't growing something on every slot. How dare they have everything already!? I want them to be growing abilities forever and ever and ever. I purposefully spend time farming in order to save up so I can buy things even when I already have them equipped on other characters. I must always have one of everything in stock (weapons excepted) so I can ensure everyone has everything... and for wonderful synthing, of course.

[Jinx]

Oh, that's okay, I'm an ability whore. I get really annoyed when my characters aren't growing something on every slot. How dare they have everything already!? I want them to be growing abilities forever and ever and ever. I purposefully spend time farming in order to save up so I can buy things even when I already have them equipped on other characters. I must always have one of everything in stock (weapons excepted) so I can ensure everyone has everything... and for wonderful synthing, of course.

That's not what I meant. It's definitely a waste of time to have your character in battle when they can't learn any abilities.

No, I meant EQUIPPING abilities. Like, you go into your abilities screen, and set which abilities you want your character to use for the moment. You can equip/unequip at any time.

[Loony BoB]

Oh, yeah, I do that all the time. I enjoyed farming exp on those 3x Cactuar fights by putting Clear Minded on everyone while the Cactuars repeatedly tried to confuse me, and then I left it on through to the boss fight and that paid off when he had some kind of Propellor attack or something that spun everyone and then 'Guard' popped up on every character. xD Unintentionally being tactical, yes sir.

For the most part I keep Level Up, Ability Up on all characters, various different "_____ Killer", Counter and HP+ abilities on attackers and various status wards on my casters.

[Depression Moon]

Stealing never annoyed me as much in this game than in IV and VI. I mainly use steal from regular enemies. It doesn't make sense that Locke and Edge struggle to steal from some random encounter monster. IX's thief doesn't struggle really at all with regular enemies and the only boss I found a pain to steal from was Hidegigas.

Also Bob didn't those cactuars have a tendency to run a lot from you, or are those the cactuars from X that act like that

[Rostum]

Now I feel like playing FFIX...

[Loony BoB]

Stealing never annoyed me as much in this game than in IV and VI. I mainly use steal from regular enemies. It doesn't make sense that Locke and Edge struggle to steal from some random encounter monster. IX's thief doesn't struggle really at all with regular enemies and the only boss I found a pain to steal from was Hidegigas.

Also Bob didn't those cactuars have a tendency to run a lot from you, or are those the cactuars from X that act like that
FFVIII, if I remember rightly. FFIX's ones just keep attacking.

[Karifean]

Stealing never annoyed me as much in this game than in IV and VI. I mainly use steal from regular enemies. It doesn't make sense that Locke and Edge struggle to steal from some random encounter monster. IX's thief doesn't struggle really at all with regular enemies and the only boss I found a pain to steal from was Hidegigas.

Also Bob didn't those cactuars have a tendency to run a lot from you, or are those the cactuars from X that act like that
FFVIII, if I remember rightly. FFIX's ones just keep attacking.

Ah, the good old days. FFVIII, Encounter against five cactuars... back attacked! *all cactuars run away*

In his last playthrough, my brother pretty much always used Steal with Zidane every turn throughout the entire game. By the end, Thievery did 9999 damage. It's not really like you end up missing the extra damage.

[Jowy]

Towns, have you gotten to Daguerreo yet?

[Jinx]

Towns, have you gotten to Daguerreo yet?

Never understood why everyone loves Daguerreo so much.

LET'S KEEP BOOKS IN A ROOM FULL OF WATER THAT'S A REALLY GOOD IDEA

[Pumpkin]

Because it's awesome :colbert:

[Loony BoB]

Towns, have you gotten to Daguerreo yet?
Nope. I've not played much in the past few days as I've been distracted from gaming by various things, but hopefully I'll be back into it tonight or tomorrow. As for where I am in-game, I got out of the Desert Palace, attempted to get into Cleyra (just to see if I could - I couldn't) and then went to Lindblum and Alexandria. Essentially I was wanting to Synth anything I didn't already have, so that was fun enough. I then got bored and decided against going to the Black Mage Village and Dwarf City (Codre Petrie? I forget.) in favour of pushing on with the story. I went into the area I've to go to next, talked with that priest fella, moved into the next area on that mountain thing, went through a couple of seemingly destroyed houses or something, found a Moogle and saved. I'll get back to it soon, but this area spawns monsters too regularly for my liking and I find it really annoying. Maybe I'll level up a bit before moving on so I can destroy things faster and not get too annoyed at how often the fights are kicking in. I'm currently using Zidane, Vivi, Steiner and Quina (as a healer for the most part), and those four are around L38-42.

[NeoCracker]

And now I'm going to have to start up another run of FF IX. Been over a year since I played through the whole thing. :p

[maybee]

Never understood why everyone loves Daguerreo so much.

Because it's pretty and calm and relaxing. It's just a nice place. Plus Grand Dragons are just outside the door and if you managed to get the Name- Change card you can change your characters to silly names and then go back.

[Snakz92]

Towns, have you gotten to Daguerreo yet?
Nope. I've not played much in the past few days as I've been distracted from gaming by various things, but hopefully I'll be back into it tonight or tomorrow. As for where I am in-game, I got out of the Desert Palace, attempted to get into Cleyra (just to see if I could - I couldn't) and then went to Lindblum and Alexandria. Essentially I was wanting to Synth anything I didn't already have, so that was fun enough. I then got bored and decided against going to the Black Mage Village and Dwarf City (Codre Petrie? I forget.) in favour of pushing on with the story. I went into the area I've to go to next, talked with that priest fella, moved into the next area on that mountain thing, went through a couple of seemingly destroyed houses or something, found a Moogle and saved. I'll get back to it soon, but this area spawns monsters too regularly for my liking and I find it really annoying. Maybe I'll level up a bit before moving on so I can destroy things faster and not get too annoyed at how often the fights are kicking in. I'm currently using Zidane, Vivi, Steiner and Quina (as a healer for the most part), and those four are around L38-42.

Wow those are actually very good levels to be at during that point in game!
i remember being only like level 20-30 by the 3rd disk. ^^;

[Freya]

YAY BOB!

What's your opinion on chocobo hot and cold?

I actually love the first disc. It's my fav. That beginning I can play a lot. I didn't find it boring in the least!

[Loony BoB]

Concession: I've spent about one minute on the chocobo. I think I bypassed the chocobo forest until waaaaay later than I should have come across it. I found it on disk three, I think. xD I haven't done anything to do with chocobo hot and cold.

I'm finding it hard to get the enthusiasm to crack on with the game at the moment (mostly because I'm kind of stressed out by life right now) but I'm sure I'll finish this thing before too long. I've found it a very enjoyable FF for the most part. I'm currently at the point that I need to split up my party into four sets of two or something, so... will be interesting I guess?

[Snakz92]

OH I KNOW THAT PART!
The 4 shrines.
i love this game ;__;

[NeoCracker]

The four shrines I find is a bit of a disappointment. There was so much of a chance to have four really fun dungeons with a split party, and all you get is a single boss fight, and you just kind of accept everyone else won their fight.

[Jinx]

The four shrines I find is a bit of a disappointment. There was so much of a chance to have four really fun dungeons with a split party, and all you get is a single boss fight, and you just kind of accept everyone else won their fight.

Agreed. The first time I played, I was like leveling and buying new equipment and shit so I could get through them.

[Loony BoB]

The four shrines I find is a bit of a disappointment. There was so much of a chance to have four really fun dungeons with a split party, and all you get is a single boss fight, and you just kind of accept everyone else won their fight.
For once, I'm really glad someone spoiled this for me. No leveling up for you punks! /me shuffles them to the side.

[NeoCracker]

I'd figured you'd have done it by then. :p

But yeah, it's probably the most disappointing aspect of the game.

Unrelated note, I'm just after that on my playthrough. :p

Who do you plan to use? I'm running Quina, Freya, and Amarant. Never ran with this group before.

[Loony BoB]

For the shrine? Zidane & Quina, since Quina can both heal and deal damage at a low MP cost. As for who I use in general - Steiner/Quina/Garnet for the most part. I'm a little inclined to bring in Amarant for Quina or Garnet on occasion, though... the rest of them don't interest me too much but Vivi is quite a high level since he's often forced into your team. I'm not a huge fan of black mages in the FF series as I hate the MP restriction, but this game isn't terrible for it, I guess. I save those Ethers for dire situations, though, and I love to steal so I have a decent enough supply.

[NeoCracker]

As for the shrine you don't really have a choice who to bring, so yeah. I meant in general. :p

[Snakz92]

Make sure you've learned float by now~

[NeoCracker]

I never use Float in this game. :p

Also, don't unspoiler this BoB, as you will want to experience this yourself. Basically don't unspoiler this before you fight the first boss on Disk 4, but this has got to be the greatest line in the game.

Alright, you drop off the Genomes in Black Mage Village, and Makoto says Kuja will kill you all. And in response Steiner gives the worst fucking analogy ever, 'Even a fly lives for a day!' XD

[Depression Moon]

The four shrines I find is a bit of a disappointment. There was so much of a chance to have four really fun dungeons with a split party, and all you get is a single boss fight, and you just kind of accept everyone else won their fight.

Yeah, that was a little disappointing to me. They could've at least made the Earth Shrine a full dungeon, but the game is stll pretty long without it. Would've been cool though.


I never use Float in this game. http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/eoff_smilies/tongue.gif

You never had the urge to use it against Hidegigas

That's the only time in the whole game that I find it useful, I probably would've used it more if there were more earth casting monsters and if we had access to more than 1 wind spell in the whole game.

[Quindiana Jones]

Amarant makes a pretty decent healer, surprisingly. It's the role he always fills in my party. Along with HITS-LIKE-A-TRUCK-er.

[Depression Moon]

How does Amarant make a decent healer. All he has is Revive and then Aura way later. For most of the game all you'll have access to is his chakra move which heals hardly anything.

[Quindiana Jones]

Never needed anything more, so he fills the role without sacrificing damage.

[Zeiferxx]

I started to play FFIX again and again and again this game is absolute brillant. Story, characters and battle system is great. This game is one of three best FF Games that I played, along with FFVIII and FFX.

[NeoCracker]

I started to play FFIX again and again and again this game is absolute brillant. Story, characters and battle system is great. This game is one of three best FF Games that I played, along with FFVIII and FFX.

...This statement breaks my mind. o_O

[Zeiferxx]

I started to play FFIX again and again and again this game is absolute brillant. Story, characters and battle system is great. This game is one of three best FF Games that I played, along with FFVIII and FFX.

...This statement breaks my mind. o_O


Why's that?

[Pumpkin]

NeoCracker very much likes FFIX.
NeoCracker very much dislikes FFX and FFVIII.
NeoCracker's mind is not capable of processing them on the same level playing field.

[Quindiana Jones]

It's more than he cannot conceive of someone liking something he considers so magnificent whilst simultaneously liking the polar opposite of that thing. It is quite unusual, one must admit. :p

[Pumpkin]

I liked X and VIII. Not as much as IX of course since it is my favorite game of all time ever, but they were still good games.

[Zeiferxx]

FFX and FFVIII are great games. I had the most fun playing them.

[NeoCracker]

NeoCracker very much likes FFIX.
NeoCracker very much dislikes FFX and FFVIII.
NeoCracker's mind is not capable of processing them on the same level playing field.
You were doing so well.


I liked X and VIII. Not as much as IX of course since it is my favorite game of all time ever, but they were still good games.
Then you had to go and say this. :cry:

[maybee]

@ Zieferxx

Ignore NeoCracker. Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X are amazing games. We know the truth :jess:

[Loony BoB]

Personally, VIII I really enjoyed, IX I am enjoying although not to the same "must play more right now" level as I played VIII, and X I enjoyed when Tidus, Seymour and Yuna weren't talking.

[Zeiferxx]

@ Zieferxx

Ignore NeoCracker. Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X are amazing games. We know the truth :jess:

I overlook his post. I find FFVIII and FFX as a great games and on top of the series.

[Loony BoB]

[21:32] <Loony_BoB> Maybe I'll play more of FFIX.
[21:33] <Loony_BoB> I finished the temple bit but I don't know where I'm supposed to go next.
[21:33] <Loony_BoB> Got my crew together, jumped in the airship, they all talk about Terra and I'm all "so... where?"
[21:33] <kotora> The Complicated Puzzle Game of FF9
[21:33] <Loony_BoB> Even the king isn't wanting to see the party so he can say "OH AND IN CASE IT ISN'T OBVIOUS YOU SHOULD DO THIS"
[21:33] <Loony_BoB> I probably missed a notable line somewhere that gave me instructions.
[21:34] <Loony_BoB> There was even a guy at the temple point that would tell me what's up with the game at the moment and he's just asking if I want to heal now. >=(
[21:34] <Loony_BoB> That point in the game where people stop being useful.

[CimminyCricket]

The guy at the temple is being very useful, he wants to know if you need to be healed. You're very ungrateful, you know that?


No healing for you. :colbert:

[Christmas]

So did you complete the game and witness the epic fight between a flying godzilla and a winged castle gundam? :bigsmile:

My fav scene! :kaoclove: