My FFIX Challenges journal

[Ergroilnin]

So far there was only one forced exp and that was the battle with plant spiders in evil forest, I had to reset till I got only two of them so everyone got 11 exp and now they are 5 exp short of lvl 2. Bosses as you know, only give AP and since it's lvl 1, you simply have to abuse equipment and abilities heavily.

Also from now on if i want to, I can actually start killing everything as long as I petrify them with quina or later on stop with vivi, since these two statuses cause that monsters give AP but no exp. Later on tho, I will need to get infected by either zombie or virus, depending on the stage of the game.

[Ergroilnin]

Half update. I am really strugling with the gizamalu's grotto even with the excalibur II challenge... I can't seem to do this without random encounter. I am considering doing more saves. I am not really sure if I can do this. I suppose I will be stuck on this part for quite some while.

[Sephiroth]

Use a Tent on Gizarmaluke until he is biten by the snake.

[Ergroilnin]

The boss is gonna be fine, I can't get to him in decent time without encounters though.

[Jinx]

Use a Tent on Gizarmaluke until he is biten by the snake.

Wait, is this a real thing?

[Ergroilnin]

Yes FFIX allows you to use tent on enemies, healing it fully and possibly placing many statuses like darkness poison and silence upon then. Many bosses in this game are susceptible to them meaning using the tent at the start of the battle can seriously ease up the battle.


EDIT: Well I suscepted and made one inbetween save. My last save was just before gizamaluke with quina dead and me not picking the first bell. Since the chance to be resurrected with hp 1 is only 1/10, that alone means alots of retries. Combined with the encounter rate and the chance of the forced battle going bad, it already took alot of my time and I just told myself it isn't really worth it for one minute lost by extra save.

[Ergroilnin]

PHEW! Okay a big update!

Level 1 Challenge:

Okay this one was pretty easy and not mind numbing at all really.

I got Quina, ran to Chocobo forest, dug up all 9 available chocographs and for about half minute I was thinking about grinding enough points for Robe of Lords or Protect Ring but that would take whole day and totally isn't needed so I skipped on that idea.

Since I am in no time hurry, the gizamaluke's grotto was actually pretty laid back and easy area, tbh it's quite fun watching poor mages being unable to do anything and wait for their petrification. But imagining what it has to be like under time pressure made me dizzy. I prepared quina's HP to 1 for gizamaluke and killed him on first attempt.

After the little part with garnet I ran near Cleyra and on my very first battle I encountered Nymphs, so I ate one for Night. It's not needed but sure is handy. Got my reef chocobo and backtracked to get all four possible chocographs at this time.

After that it was time for Burmecia which is actually also easy without time limitations. I planned on getting Magic hammer but I forgot about it and since it's purely optional, I skipped this as well. After all, best defense is offense anyway.

Well Beatrix was waiting and I went straight to her.

ff4.png

Poor girl owned hard. Wait not, she owned me afterwards. Damn plot. This was actually the very first time I ever used Limit Glove, I must say it is really pretty spell. PSone graphics were certainly impressive at times.

ff4x.png

I am bit broke but that's okay. Disc 2 awaits.


Excalibur II Challenge:

Now for the WAY harder of the two challenges. At least for me that is.

I had to retry few times to get Quina without encounters and just saved right out of the Marsh because I kind of hate this place.

After some more retrying to get encounterless (wait is this even a word?) all the way to Chocobo Forest, I finally managed to and got Choco. Now this part was kind of tedious. I had to dig up three specific chocographs, Streamside which is always gotten first, Small Beach for Oak Staff and Healing Shore for blue chocobo so I can actually pick up the small beach chocograph.

Getting Streamside took only two retries as the chances for it are really high but as for the other two, they were quite stubborn. Once you get Streamside there are 8 chocographs left so each time you actually dig up one (which is neither common or rare, I would say you get one every third or forth try), you have only 1/4 chance of it being the one you need. I was stuck on digging up the right chocographs for about hour and half, saving between each.

Once I actually got them, I had to teach Quina the oh so broken Limit Glove by eating a mandragora in the nearest forest. This wasn't really hard to do and took only about fifteen tries to battle mandragoras on first encounter and actually eat one, kill quina and run successfully.

After getting the skill I went to Gizamaluke's grotto thinking how easy time I'm gonna have since I can simply kill the mages. I've never been so wrong. Since I needed Quina at 1HP, I needed to resurrect her each time having only about 10% chance of actually getting the 1 HP. And when I finally did, I always managed to get one encounter on either part of grotto or I got screwed over by mages.

After about 100 resets (seriously, about 100 resets leading to only about ten actual runs), I decided I am not crazy enough and made a second save with Quina already resurrected with 1 HP and me getting the first bell. This cost me about a minute, but still better than a random battle.

After this it changed from nightmare to easy mode taking only about 5 tries to get to the moogle inside. Since I was already prepared I went straight for Gizamaluke and defeated him on first try.

Now I had to do the same as in lvl 1 challenge, minus getting the Night and digging up only 2 outta 3 chocographs.

All that was left was Burmecia. I went through the Grotto for third time, got to Burmecia,won the forced battle, picked up the stelazzio coin and saved before Burmecia. The hard part was still before me though. In ideal condition, it's possible to actually get through the whole Burmecia without any encounters at all but considering the not so low encounter rate and the fact that you have to run through about 25 screens, three of them being quite large, I was set on taking two random encounters, one for setting up quina to 1 HP again for the Beatrix battle and second for my mental health.

After about fifteen tries that all had third encounter still quite soon, I got ultra lucky and got into single random battle, ideal for killing Quina, so I can set her hp later (It can actually be done back in the forced battle, but I want her to get exp and APs), the whole route without missing anything. You wouldn't believe me how hard my heart beat on the last two screens and the incredible happiness after this run.

Now once more, the Beatrix was waiting for our first showdown. And it went the same way it did in level 1 challenge.

Disc 1 done!

Gamefaqs perfect FF9 file with skipping FMVs by Atomos199 time: 02:51:05
Youtube FF9 perfect game without skipping FMVs by rlouisw: 03:01:11 (estimated PAL time 03:21:14).
My time:
ff4-2.png

Nice symmetry, me gusto. I think I got decent time enough. I am only off by two minutes from rlouisw time and since on the last part of his challenge he has more than hour and half time left, I am happy enough with this result. Still I can't get my head to just HOW could he get everything needed for perfect game in a little less time than I did mine non perfect save. That man is a god.

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Welp this was a LONG entry. I hope it doesn't bore you to the death.

Now off to the second disc!

[Ergroilnin]

Next update on my progress is here.

After all the work I did yesterday and the big update, I got kind of lazy today and I didn't really do all that much. Still there was some progress.


Level 1 Challenge

Now this one actually took me a lot of time today. When you get to the Treno on the start of second disc, you have to get Reflect Ring from the auction and there are quite alot useful items to buy as well. As I said last update of this challenge, I was very broke (9g wow!).

My first thought how to make money was to grind out with Marcus. Marcus is one of the three "placeholder" characters. Marcus is Eiko's placeholder. These characters are made the way that all levels and stat bonuses from the placeholders move on the actual characters. But Marcus and Eiko are bugged duo. Marcuses stat bonuses to move to Eiko, but his level does not, meaning Eiko joins at party average level. It is indeed a bug but it can and is abused by some.

After grinding for about two hours, I realized I missed the power belt and also I felt like cheating even tho Eiko isn't really used that much anyway.

I restarted from the start of disc, losing the two hours and instead I redid the Cotton robe trick, in the end I managed to get all the money I needed for Reflect Ring, many useful items, some usables and I also exchanged my four coins for rewards. Blood Sword sure is nice item and the extra gil can't hurt.

I saved at the start of the dungeon and moved to Excalibur challenge.


Excalibur II Challenge:

Now this was challenging. As was the case in the other one, I needed to make enough money for the neccesarry shopping, meaning I had to get to the dali, then back and then all the way to treno without single encounter. And I assure you it is quite a long way.

The whole way took about fifteen tries, with three saves in between. First one after the boss battle and halfway to Dali, second one halfway back from Dali and third on halfway from gate to Treno. It is possible to get there without save, but it was frustrating me and I had to make save anyway for perfecting the Treno run.

There is alot to be done in Treno and time is pressing each second. I needed to pick up both stellazio coins, get the power belt, move on with story, exchange the coins and make the shopping and winning Magician Robe and Reflect Ring in the auction. Since I didn't have much money to waste at all, it took me four rounds between synth shop and weapon shop, each taking my precious time away a minute at a time.

The bad cheap D-Pad on my turbocontroller wasn't helping with the fast and precise shopping at all. After few tries I settled for a save after last synth batch and then I had to restart about thirty times waiting for magician robe to appear on the auction. Unfortunately the auction didn't exactly go perfectly but I suppose it was decent enough.

Then all that was left was rush to the underground moogle.

Gamefaqs perfect FF9 file with skipping FMVs by Atomos199 time: 03:17:19
Youtube FF9 perfect game without skipping FMVs by rlouisw: 03:21:34 (estimated PAL time 03:45:42).
My time:
ff5-2.png

As you can see, I am now way behind rlouisw's time. While on the start of the disc i was off only by two minutes, now I am off by nine. I am very sad with this but there isn't much to do. If I tried really hard, I could maybe chop off a minute. Not worth my real life time I say. After all, his ending time has still one and half hour left and there will be some things needed for his perfect file that I won't be doing since I am only trying to get the Excalibur II. I will hopefully match his time then.

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Well that's all for today folks. Not very entertaining or exciting I know. But tomorrow, I will be facing two of the hardest and most annoying places, Cleyra and Alexandria escape.

Be sure to check it out!

[Karifean]

I'm quite liking this thread. I've always wondered just how difficult it would be to do one of these challenges though I could never muster up the patience to try myself.

[Ergroilnin]

Well so far there wasn't a place that really seriously drove me mad, but I sure do get angry there and there and sometimes it's just annoying. But each time I make an acceptable progress, the feeling that I managed to do it is pretty awesome.

I say if you get somehow time and feel like it, you should try it as well. Even ending of the first disc was quite fun on both challenges in the end and it didn't take all that much real life time.

[Heath]

3:30 is good going!

Well done for trying both challenges. I've never tried either, so best of luck with both.

[Ergroilnin]

Hey guys, next part is ready!

Today's playing was kind of surprising. Read on to see what I mean by that.

Level 1 Challenge:

Okay last time I saved at the start of Gargan Roo without doing anything here. I thought that this area would only need two or three times to get through without an encounter, since I don't have Zidane with flee and running with R1+L1 is becoming totally impossible.

That assumption was totally wrong. Even though there are only about 4 medium sized screens, the encounter rate here is kind of retarded. It took me many tries (about 25 I guess) in which at least 15 didn't even make it through second screen.

Next ahead was ascending Cleyra which wasn't really hard to do, since I have Zidane back and could easily run from random encounters. After saving midway I engaged two carrior worms and devoured one for Quina to acquire Auto-Life and moved on.

I did the necessary stuff in Cleyra and saved after boss battle. I was kind of worried about the eight or so forced battles here but they proved to be very easy with proper set up and non restricted time on my disposal. I simply made every alexandrian soldier to run by striking them with about 500 damage and stopped each black mage.

I saved after all the battles and went to second encounter with Beatrix.

poorbeatrix2.png

Damn. Still not enough and she beat me with her plot proof win. After that I watched the destruction of Cleyra which is imo one of the prettiest and saddest FMVs in the game.

After I listened to the queen on the ship, I saved. Now the first part of alexandria escape was waiting. It is entirely possible to make it through without a battle with any alexandrian soldier but it requires quite tricky footwork after the stupid minigame with cage. This took me about five retries only to get catched because I somehow missed the gigantic ladder. smurf me. Took about another ten tries to finally get through.

I ran through the castle and destroyed Zorn and Thorn easily, they can't even attack you if you attack them after they start jumping. Made save afterwards and mentally prepared for the second, harder, part of the escape. To my surprise tho, I made it out after only two or three tries and the failed ones were because I underestimated Beatrix at the start. The whole area is actually pretty easy IF you are not under time pressure. I can totally see how this area is maddening with so many encounters where you have to be lucky and stop all enemies fast enough for good time for perfect game.

Did I mention Beatrix in my party is awesome? Seriously I love her. She's brokenly strong. Also she is required to be the one to kill the enemies she battles with, meaning in all battles with Freya and Steiner, they have to be knocked out first so they don't gain level.

I saved at the bottom of the castle and moved to the other challenge.


Excalibur II Challenge:

The start here was the same as in first challenge, meaning I had to run through the area without encounters, I was little luckier this time around taking "only" about twenty tries. I also had to reequip my characters for the boss battle. Did you know that even such trivial thing as perfectly and swiftly equipping your characters is kind of exciting when you gotta do it as fast as you can?

After the boss battle the story returned to the "main" party and I saved halfway from Burmecia to Cleyra.

Now I honestly thought that ascending Cleyra sucessfully without single encounter was going to be insane hard, but either I was lucky or I was simply wrong. I made it to the moogle in the middle of the three after about only about ten tries I think, considering the amount of screen and many of them not being so little I was pretty happy.

Still there was the other half left and one area where I wanted to pick up two quite far placed treasures. I didn't plan on getting auto-life here but I mentally prepared to accept one battle shall it acquire me the skill, which while not needed, would definitely be useful. After all the tries I actually got through without any encounter at all, stepping into two quicksands, since I simply couldn't find the trick to avoid the first one in timely manner.

I picked up some stuff in Cleyra, made my shopping, prepared for antlion's appearance (you have to talk to the sanctuary priest at the top, the first time I actually got through without an encounter I forgot about it and because I didn't want to lose more time, I had to retry the ascending again) and saved at the inn.

The battle with Antlion went perfectly on the second try. He opened the battle with sandstorm putting quina to 1 Hp and I killed him instantly with Limit Glove. Afterwards I had to deal with the forced encounters again. But since I am not watching levels on this challenge, they were even easier. I simply killed them all for exp, money and AP. In last battle I killed quina to prepare for Beatrix and saved at the top.

Once again, Beatrix took me down after limit glove and there was Alexandria escape one more time around. The first area took me again about fifteen tries to avoid the soldiers (I always wonder when I see them... Just how sexist the Alexandria is? All female soldier have ass in the open all the time damn!) and I really started to hate this swinging minigame (well I never really loved to begin with, when I first played the game, I was only about 10 years old and I basically didn't understood a word in English, so I totally didn't get what they want me to do. I was stuck swinging for like thirty minutes ._.).

I did the boss battle the same way as on level one challenge without them getting a turn and saved. I must say I quite like the running sprite of Zidane carrying unconscious Garnet. Dunno really why, too bad it doesn't last longer ;D.

Even after the quite easy descend of level 1 challenge I was worried about doing this with time slipping through my fingers each second. But these were also unnecessary worries. Since I could kill them, the battles went really fast and I didn't get a random encounter afterwards while running to the moogle on the first try.

Gamefaqs perfect FF9 file with skipping FMVs by Atomos199 time: 04:24:34
Youtube FF9 perfect game without skipping FMVs by rlouisw: 04:26:19 (estimated PAL time 05:11:02)
My time:
ff6-2.png

As you can see I am still 9 minutes off the rlouisw time even with not picking all the missable stuff in the Cleyra, but I guess I am happy I kept the gap the same, not extending it so as for today's progress I am happy enough.

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I will confess that I prepared a bottle of wine to battle the frustration of the Cleyra and Alexandria escape. It wasn't needed but it wasn't wasted no worries . After all it seems that as long as one doesn't go for both challenges at once aiming for perfect save game, these areas aren't nearly as frustrating as they are when you do.

That's all for today. Please continue to follow my adventure!

[Ergroilnin]

Well guys, I am not sure if noone is reading this or if you simply have no reason to reply, but there is another double post about the progress! Read on.

Level 1 Challenge:

Getting to Lindblum is no problem at all since if you want to, you can easily abuse the boss AI so he never attacks. Simply attack him physically each time he isn't defending himself.

I picked up all items in Pinnacle Rocks and also Ramuh and watched the FMVs. To be honest I love hove Eidolons are integrated in the story of FF9 (I dont like them battle-wise tho). Poor soldiers being suck by Atomos.

Lindblum is basically only picking up few chests and buying whatever you need, which I've done. After that I saved next to Qu's marsh.

Now the battle with Lani was ahead and I didn't really think it would be any problem. It was indeed. She killed me few times before I tweaked equipment and then it still took me three times more. Gargan Roo, one of my most hated places, was next.

Gargan roo wasn't any problem at all tho, I easily fleed every battle, leaved the dungeon, picked up my chocobo and after swift swing in Conde Petie I went to the black mage village. After doing my thing there, I went back to Conde Petie and went through marriages.

lelquinavivi.png

Best pairing in whole FF series I say! All in all, I must say that after all the years I hated Quina, I start to appreciate her and the fun she brings to the story.

After her desertion I prepared for the boss battle by putting Zidane's HP to end in 7 and saved. Now the Hillgigars, while easy battle, still took about five or seven tries. All you have to do here is to hit him either once with Zidane and then again with Zidane's Lucky seven for 7777 or you can also shoot of fira with vivi then killing him with Lucky Seven.

7777.png

Bam! I never used this ability properly either. Then I just ran toward to Madain's sari and saved.


Excalibur II Challenge:

Ok so while the boss doesn't have to take any action at all, it is slower than killing him fast. With my levels (around 11) it took Vivi's one focus and two blizzaras to took him down.

I ignored Ramuh here since he isn't needed at all and every second I save is good. In Lindblum I just synthetized what I needed without picking not important chests, saving about two minutes of time. I saved next to Qu's marsh again.

Lani's battle actually took longer than in level 1 challenge, since I couldn't easily prepare Quina's nor Zidane's HP to necessary hp for their respective skills. And afterwards I had to learn the Night skill by eating the Abominable. That took only one try after the Lani so that wasn't really bad.

Now since I am running race against time, I had to make sure to get no encounters in Gargan Roo, the first part took me about 15 tries give or take, while the second part took only about three tries since I decided to ignore the optional stuff here and I saved almost halfway from the dungeon to the Conde Petie. That wasn't hard to do, the encounter rate on the world map here is pretty small.

Picked up my chocobo, did the stuff in the Conde Petie and went to Black mage village. Now getting to the village without any encounter is possible but _really_ hard to do. I was prepared to take up to two battles, but I actually managed to get only one while also getting the first turn, which is basically the next thing to no encounter in time spend, so I was pretty happy with it.

There isn't really that much to do in the village, only a little shopping so I did it, went back to Conde Petie, married Zidane and Garnet, skipped the Vivi/Quina marriage, picked up Eiko after Quina's desertion and saved.

The boss battle wasn't really hard but as was the case with Lani, it took more time than it actually took with the lvl1, since I couldn't bring Zidane to HP ending in 7 in timely manner, so I simply whacked away.

Saved next to Madain's sari.

Gamefaqs perfect FF9 file with skipping FMVs by Atomos199 time: 05:21:46
Youtube FF9 perfect game without skipping FMVs by rlouisw: 05:23:14 (estimated PAL time 06:19:58)
My time:
ff72.png


I chopped off three or four minutes of the time gap I had the last time by skipping the optional stuff. I hope there are going to be more places like that soon enough, so I can match or beat his time.

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Phew there was alot of stuff I done today. I think I am going to make it to the disc 3 tomorrow!

Next time.

[Jowy]

Remember, to achieve a perfect game you will have to complete the recently discovered sidequest which may not be possible to achieve with the strict Excalibur II guidelines. World first if you manage?

Obscure Final Fantasy IX sidequest uncovered and detailed | Joystiq

[Jinx]

That's really not even a sidequest. It's more just like a little Easter egg. But they can always just do it after they get Excalibur, as it looks like having a new armadillo person triggers after certain events for each one. Meaning, you revisit it several times in the game, but you can probably do all of them up to the point in the game that you are.

EDIT: It seems like you have to revisit at certain times. According to this site at least.