the one thing i hate about IX

This game is fantastic and my absolute favorite, i'm on my fifth file right now, almost done with it. But there is one thing that has always infuriated me about this game: i cant save a trance when i get one!

I was just now fighting maliris and not once the entire battle did she attack Zidane, but once i killed her and she pulled off that finishing move, it knocked Zidane into a trance. Complete waste of his trance (not to mention it killed Vivi so he didnt get any AP), so i just reset the game. Had it been someone like Eiko or Steiner i wouldnt have minded, but Zidane and Vivi's trances i hate to waste.

I know it adds a certain amount of planning in the game, so you can time the trances right when you get into a boss battle....but something like Zidane not getting hit until the end is rather unavoidable. So uh...does this piss off anyone else?

It can be irritating, but I like they Idea you can't control trance. Trance is a power that comes from a surge of emotions, so it's not something really controlable.

Limit Break > Trance

I never get worked up about things like this. My main source of damage comes from Frog Drop and Dragon Crest

i can be annoying but the game would be way to easy if you decide when to use trance like the limit breaks

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Originally Posted by corncracker

It can be irritating, but I like they Idea you can't control trance. Trance is a power that comes from a surge of emotions, so it's not something really controlable.

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Exactly. If you're going to lose your temper you can't exactly save it for the next day. :p

I personally didn't like the bit on the world map where you go from day to night. That orange haze was yucky.

I don't like that fact that you can't control the Trance either. There were times I was fighting weak enemies and one of my characters would trance. It was very annoying

it was annoying but i think it added to the game cause as duality said, you can't exactly control your anger, and emotions are where the trance comes from. just chilax, it's a game

It seems like in X it's triggered by emotions too for example

1. If you have your character on Stoic, if he gets hit enough times he or she will get mad and perform and overdrive on you Tidus getting hit by a Bashura "Rarh that's the last time you hit me Slice and Dice Time!"
2. Comrade fills up when your allies get hit too much "Hey you hit Kimahri's friends for the last time Fire Breath!"

3.Ally Charges when it's the character's turn Rikku "Yippee it's my turn again boom boom, Mix time!"

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Originally Posted by Duality

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Originally Posted by corncracker

It can be irritating, but I like they Idea you can't control trance. Trance is a power that comes from a surge of emotions, so it's not something really controlable.

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Exactly. If you're going to lose your temper you can't exactly save it for the next day. :p

I personally didn't like the bit on the world map where you go from day to night. That orange haze was yucky.

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You mean Treno? Or that forgotten continent or whatever?

And maybe they have issues with their tempers...if i was zidane, and was fighting maliris and wasnt hit once until she died and used her death move, i'd be like "ha! didnt work, you loser!" not like "graaaaaaah! i'ma keel you a second time biatch!"

Oh well, whatever *shrug* Like i said before, it does add another element of planning that you have to do. You wanna get your trance up high enough to where it'll be triggered fast in a boss fight, but not where it'll be triggered by a random encounter. Maybe thats what they were going for.

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Originally Posted by VengefulRonin

You mean Treno? Or that forgotten continent or whatever?

And maybe they have issues with their tempers...if i was zidane, and was fighting maliris and wasnt hit once until she died and used her death move, i'd be like "ha! didnt work, you loser!" not like "graaaaaaah! i'ma keel you a second time biatch!"

Oh well, whatever *shrug* Like i said before, it does add another element of planning that you have to do. You wanna get your trance up high enough to where it'll be triggered fast in a boss fight, but not where it'll be triggered by a random encounter. Maybe thats what they were going for.

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Somewhere around there yeah, been a while since I played it but I remember that it freaked me out when I first saw the screen turn orange and I've never liked it since.:shifty:

I agree that trance does add to strategies and whatnot, but I always think its best to plan assuming you aren't going to get a trance, but maybe thats just because I've grew bitter at bosses never hitting nearly tranced people or random encounters pushing characters into trances just before the boss... :p

I didn't mind the way Trance worked. The Trance system was more challenging and harder to abuse than the ones in FFVII and FFVIII (Aura or low HP = spamming limit breaks), but it was still clearly useful and not like in FFVI where you can beat the entire game without even knowing that limit breaks exist. In addition, you can use the ability High Tide to make Trance occur more frequently.

I didn't dig the Trance system too much. It didn't hurt the game in my eyes, but it's still just an overall annoyance. That and sorta-long loading times each time you go into battle are my only two complaints with this whole game, but neither were a huge deal to me in the face of its ultimate awesomeness.

the trance system is sort of more realistic than others seems as nearly all limits and specials are emotion powered and you cant just save your emotions for later.

in FF6 and 8 the limits could have just been because of pain but emotions sound better so thats probably what triggers it. and in FF9 its clearly stated and in FF7:AC clouds omnislash he uses on sephiroth is quite clearly emotion fueled.

Yeah, it makes sense for it to be emotion. I like in X how it could be different things, like you being hit too much, someone else being hit too much, etc. Didnt make much sense to be able to save the overdrives, but it was sure nice xD

I liked the trance system.. the one thing I didn't like about ff9 was the fact that stealing was a pain in the butt..

Example: You know that Giant guy you fight when your about or have eiko.. And he has the... fairy flute or something.. I was sitting there for a straight 1 to an 1 1/2 trying to steal that thing.. It is insane.

I understand that the items that you steal are decent and most of the time you get them later anyways.. but still.. Usually during boss fights zidaine is stuck on steal duty the entire fight..

it just urks me...

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Originally Posted by Bart's Friend Milhouse

Limit Break > Trance

I never get worked up about things like this. My main source of damage comes from Frog Drop and Dragon Crest

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Totally agreed. Once you get stronger and deal more damage, Trance becomes useless (except for the cases where it hits twice like for Eiko and Vivi). I usually just forget about Trance altogether because it's so terribly unreliable, and it isn't long before you no longer even need it.

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Originally Posted by Rabidewok

I liked the trance system.. the one thing I didn't like about ff9 was the fact that stealing was a pain in the butt..

Example: You know that Giant guy you fight when your about or have eiko.. And he has the... fairy flute or something.. I was sitting there for a straight 1 to an 1 1/2 trying to steal that thing.. It is insane.

I understand that the items that you steal are decent and most of the time you get them later anyways.. but still.. Usually during boss fights zidaine is stuck on steal duty the entire fight..

it just urks me...

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lol, the only times i steal are from bosses, and only then when i'm properly equipped so they dont hurt me much and i have the time to steal from them. I did that with Nova Dragon, equipped everyone so only his little psycic move hurt people, and i just stole every turn....i finally gave up on one item because after stealing for 15 or 20 minutes straight i couldnt get it, so i wasted the dragon.

It was kind of irritating, but it made sense why you couldn't control it. So I got used to it and moved on.

I get angry about it, I mean, I work my socks off to get one and then I get a random encounter just before I touch the boss, they set it off and I go crazy. Not fair, not fun, plain irritating. That, or I use Amarant to throw something that I needed for synthensis, that gets on my nerves big time.

Think about what would happen if you had saved your trance, what you would have used it for, it would probably not have been terribly useful anyway.

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Originally Posted by forgotten_fantasy

Think about what would happen if you had saved your trance, what you would have used it for, it would probably not have been terribly useful anyway.

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No....i try to only get trance in boss battles which IS terribly useful. Especially Zidane's...Vivi's helps alot too once he knows doomsday or if the boss has an elemental weakness.

Nearly every time I read about Trance, there's four magic words included in it: "Don't rely on it."

Words to live by.

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And he has the... fairy flute or something..

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Siren's Flute. That's one of her much later weapons, and I wonder if it's actually a mistake that you're able to see that he's carrying it? I've never stolen it, even after I tried for about two hours.

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Originally Posted by Bart's Friend Milhouse

Limit Break > Trance

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QFT. Trances were my only annoyance about the game as well, but I'd never restart it or anything, I'd just let it go. :jess:

Trance is not even useful like Limits or Overdrives. That's what annoys me. I'd be perfectly fine if only the Trances were better. Way better.

PS: I don't care much about Attack boost that every character gets. Seriously.

Zidane:
Dyne is kind of stupid. It's only physical damage and nothing else. Okay, it's GOOD physical damage, but even so... plus, Dyne kicks Skill, and later on Thievery can deal more damage than EVERY Dyne by LESS MP than all of them.

Vivi:
Double Black helps most of the game. But it's not OMFG LIFESAVER!!!111oneone, unless you Double Drain/Osmose on something. Well, Double Stop is also neat on a Lv1... @_@

Steiner:
Attack is even more boosted than the other characters when on Trance. However, unlike Dyne, it doesn't kick out your great end-game skills. But it still gets obsolete... quickly.

Dagger:
Free additional Summons, more chance of full animation if no Boost. I like it, but it is no life-saver either.

Freya:
USELESS. Her Jump causes random-ish damage, and she won't come down until Trance ends. And she could be using Potions and Hi-Potions with that neat Chemist skill.... x.x

Quina:
Cook is NOT necessary. Eat is good enough. At least, I can't think of a moment where I just can't reduce the monster's HP to 1/8 without killing them.

Eiko:
IMO the only really useful, life-saver, really nice Trance. Double White is awesome. Curaga + Haste. Double Might on someone. Double Holy. Two (Full-)Lifes. Awesome.

Amarant:
Multitarget Chakra and Aura would be awesome... if Amarant weren't so SLOW to get on Trance. I only see he Trancing 3~4 times per game. x.x

and btw, Stealing on FFIX is only useful on Bosses. That also annoys me a little. But at least Steal WORKS... unlike older FFs like IV or VI. *shudders*

...oh, I thought this was a "list the one thing you didn't like about FFIX!!1!111" thread.

The one thing I didn't like about this game were THE TAILS. I HATE characters that are "mostly human" and then have cat-like tails. It's a personal pet peeve of mine. Animal-esque ears are...okay. But NO TAILS. I almost couldn't play this game because of it, but a friend loaned it to me and the chocobo treasure hunting soon made me require it :x

Zidane's chance to steal was entirely too low.

Quina was an amazing character (supposedly) but I can't figure out how to make her/him great.

After Marcus and Steiner escape from the hanging cage, you can stand by the ladder and level up for hours by just holding the X button down, if you have the blood sword. If you have a rapid fire controller, you can actually set the X-button, and walk away. In an hour I gained 20+ levels. (Not so much that I hate this, even though it's a cheap way to level/beat everything, it's pisses me off a bit that I didn't realize I could do this the first time through.)

Trance as an emotional boost that can't be controlled may be "more realistic", but that doesn't make it "better". I don't play fantasy games for realism. Making it controlled by random chance just killed it as a useful gameplay mechanic.

I think "Yahtzee" Croshaw said it best in his Zero Punctuation on No More Heroes:

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Originally Posted by Yahtzee

After killing an enemy, Travis has a random chance of yelling the name of one of his favorite puddings and gaining superpowers for a bit. And when you put random chance into combat mechanics, all strategy has been thrown out of the window, then scraped off the ground and used to pick up the broken glass. And then Sod's Law ensures that the enemy who finally gives you a superpower will inevitibly be the last one in the room, leaving Travis running around with glowing Dragon Ball Z hair for ten seconds seriously menacing the walls.

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The fact is, if you can't control it, can't plan for it, can't rely on it, and most of the time can't even use it (as in, it shows up at the end of battle and then is over before you even take a turn), THEN THERE IS NO REASON TO HAVE IT AT ALL.

FFIX had some great points, but Trance was not one of them, and I am very glad they junked it when they went to X.

This thread is more than two years old, and most people who posted in it don't even come here anymore. Feel free to start a new thread like it, it's usually the better choice in order to promote further discussion on the topic.