My FFIX Challenges journal

[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.

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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:
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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.