WK Plays FFIX

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Zidane and his team has have made it back to Alexandria after we watched Cleyra get nuked by Odin.

Pros:

• Cleyra is short and sweet, but I appreciate there was a lot to discover in this place.
• Poor Vivi is having it rough with the Black Mage slander going on.
• Yeah, I think IX has the most awesome FMVs. the Odin sequence is just so bad ass and we still haven't gotten to my favorite one yet.
• Holy hell is Steiner a wrecking ball once you get him a good sword. Guy was doing more damage than Beatrix once she joined.
• Playable Beatrix is always a treat.
• We got a real good character moment for Steiner in this section. It was refreshing to really watch him stop deluding himself about Queen Brahne and finally make a choice for himself.
• Great to see Puck again, and we even got out FFIV reference with the Antlion. Still surprises me how that sequence is the most popular from IV that it gets referenced the most. Well that and Demon Wall.
• Lots of good Blue Magics for Quina, shame they leave after this sequence, but they'll be back shortly. Got Auto-Life, White Wind, and Matra Magic, which is going to make Blue spell hunting much easier.
• We also got our gut-wrenching moment with Freya reuniting with Fratley and discovering his amnesia. I'll leave my thoughts on this plotline until later, but it certainly hurts in this scene. Freya has such a great melancholic theme.
• My last two bouts with Beatrix and managed to get all my items from her.
• Blank is alive and well folks! I wonder if the Supersoft was a reference to the fan rumor item from FFIV that was supposed to revive the the twins?
• Speaking of, while annoying, I do love the fact that Zorn and Thorn's boss gimmick is a shout out to the twins and their twin magic.
• It's neat how you can chat with the Pluto Knights in the castle if you bother to explore a bit.

Cons:

• Still dislike Tetra Master. But I am trying to collect all the cards...
• The cage minigame was a little annoying.
• While I enjoyed the Cleyra Dance, part of me feels this would have been cooler had it been an FMV. I also can't help but laugh when I do see this scene. I know it's based on Celtic dancing, but I also can't help but remember River Dance was sweeping the world as well around this time...
• I wish the game did a bit more to explain why the Cleyra Sandstorm faded beyond just "oh no, an ill omen" because I feel the Cleyran's should have been panicking a bit more. I imagine Kuja is behind it, but some confirmation would be nice.
• Oof, I goofed on Garnet's interrogation with Brahne, I should have not given up so easily.
• Now we enter Zidane's version of Cecil's Mysidia adventure as I am stuck with squishy mages for the rest of the disc. At least I finally get summons though.