Trance in FF9 useless?

[Pyroteq]

I'm patiently waiting for help in Treno (made a topic above =]), so I thought while I'm waiting I'd just share my opinion about Trance in FFIX (Compared to FF7, FF8)...

Well in short, it's 100% useless =/

The thing is, you never get to use it.

In FF7 you could save Limit Breaks for bosses and harder bad guys just by not attacking. Some people might have thought this might have been over powering sometimes, since you could enter a fight already having 3 characters with their limit break ready, but then again, you only got to use it once then it had to charge again. Sometimes your Limit Break would fully charge twice in a single battle. Very handy indeed.

In FF8 you got to use your Limit Break when you really needed it, when you were low on HP. This was also cool, as long as you stayed on low HP, you had a high chance of getting your limit break (otherwise just switch characters until it gives it to you). It was sometimes risky to enter a battle on low HP in order to use your limit break, because obviously if the bad guy did a good attack on you, you were screwed.

Now onto FF9. It takes FOREVER to get into Trance. 90% of the times I've gotten it, I've been battling random bad guys inorder to get my AP up for my new items, then half an hour later I'm battling a boss and my Trance guage isn't even 1/4 through =/ Hell, I'd say at LEAST 80% of the times I went into Trance, the battle was over in the next move, which had already been scheduled for attack. So I do an extra powerful normal attack on an enemy that only needed to lose 2HP to die. Sometimes I'm not even that lucky. The character will go into Trance and won't even make a single move before the battle is over!

Now am I missing something? I've on the 3rd disc, this is my 1st time through Final Fantasy 9 (I've pretty much 100% 7 and 8) and my characters are on quite high levels, Zidane is level 35 and I've been keeping about 5+ levels above what the guide recommends (I'm not leveling up for exp, it's the AP I'm after, especially with so many different characters which all need it levelled individually :s). I had High Tide equipped on some characters, it's usually unequipped though because I see no point in taking up an AP slot just so I can get Trance during a random battle with a bug with a max HP of 400.

Will Trance help me later in the game? Is there another ability which makes it go even faster? Just kinda curious, as it played quite a significant role in FF7 and 8 (7 you had to earn your Limit Breaks and 8 you had to get the new weapons). 9 it seems they just threw it in there.

I've had one battle where Trance actually helped me (when I didn't start with it thanks to plot line), and that was when I versed Amarant. I'm not joking, that was the 1st battle I had actually USED Zidanes Trance since that battle in Alexandria Castle on Disc 1! To my surprise I had 7 attacks to choose from! I had only ever used the 1st one, so I just used the lower one, and watch it to a crap load of damage =/

And before I post this, that reminds me - Is there a list anywhere that explains Zidanes Trance abilities? Like, I pretty much just saw random names and I have no idea if there's a difference between each one. All I know is that it did a great deal of damage. I looked at a few of the walkthroughs and ability guides on GameFAQ's but I couldn't find anything on Zidanes Trance abilities (maybe no ones ever used them before )

[TheSpoonyBard]

Trance is more plot-related than battle-related, and you'll discover more of this towards the end of disc 3. I think it's good they've made it this way. In FFVII you could save your limit breaks for bosses. In FFVIII the system was completely broken and could be abused for the entire game.

With Trance you need to play it tactically. If you know a boss battle is coming up, and you should as you're using a guide, you can build up your Trance bar in random battles, leaving just enough to make sure it activates when the boss attacks. You can Flee from random battles if you don't need any more damage.

As you've discovered, High Tide doubles the amount by which the Trance bar is increased. Having a high Spirit stat increases the amount by which the bar is filled, as well as determining how long the character will remain in Trance.

Saying that, Trance isn't really needed, considering the highest HP you'll encounter is 65,535. The character's normal attacks and abilities deal more than enough damage to make do with.

As for Zidane's Dyne skills, here's what they do.

Free Energy: Attack Power * 1.5 single enemy
Tidal Flame: Attack Power * 1.5 all enemies
Scoop Art: Attack Power * 2 single enemy
Shift Break: Attack Power * 2 all enemies
Stella Circle 5: Attack Power * 2.5 single enemy
Meo Twister: Attack Power * 2.5 all enemies
Solution 9: Attack Power * 3 single enemy
Grand Lethal: Attack Power * 4 all enemies

All attacks are physical and non-elemental.

[Pyroteq]

Mmm, good reply. I agree with a few things. FF8's system could be abused, IE, enter a fight with the Ultima Weapon or something on 1HP and keep hope for Lion Heart, or use Quistis "The End" on any bad guy in the game. I don't think I should be forced to run away from battles just to save up my Trance for later battles though. I agree it might make it abit strategic, but I need those battles for my AP points!

Thanks for the guide BTW. Seems I already have Solution 9 but I'm missing alot of the other ones in between =/ Don't even know where I got it from, lol.

[Mirage]

First: Yes, I find Trance useless.
Second: Quistis can't learn "The End", Selphie does. And it's still highly random, and it's very rare to get it before dying unless you open the disc tray, which would count as cheating.

[TheSpoonyBard]

Seems I already have Solution 9 but I'm missing alot of the other ones in between =/ Don't even know where I got it from, lol.

Zidane will gain a new Dyne skill each time he learns a Skill ability. To get Free Energy you need Flee, to get Tidal Flame you need Detect, and so on. Check which abilities he still needs to learn and find a weapon which teaches it.

[daggertrepe]

Trance is not useless because it saved my ass too many times.

[Sefie1999AD]

No, I don't think Trance is useless. It makes Zidane a really good fighter with all of his Dyne skills doing 9999 damage by the end of the game. Steiner will almost certainly do 9999 damage with all his physical attacks later in the game when he's in Trance. Dagger summoning the Eidolon when in Trance helps you deal some extra damage, not to mention I've noticed Auto-Regen lets you gain a lot of HP back while the Eidolon in the background is using its attack, especially if the Eidolon is Bahamut or Ark.

Vivi's Doomsday x2 is very useful if your characters can absorb it because that will certainly heal all your characters fully and deal almost 20,000 damage to all enemies. Amarant can target all allies with his Flair skills when he's in Trance, which is useful since you can cast Auto-Life and Regen on everyone, revive everyone or heal everyone's HP and MP. In addition, I think Trance rids you of all status ailments. That's why it's a good idea, for example, to have Amarant near Trance before you fight (SPOILER)Ozma, and when he hits your characters with Curse, Amarant will reach Trance and be able to heal everyone with his Flair skills.

Although Trance has its uses in battles, I'll still agree with what was said above that Trance is more important to the storyline than gameplay. I wouldn't say Trance is totally useless at the moment I see (SPOILER)Kuja using Ultima to destroy everything in Terra when he finally reaches Trance.

[DarkLadyNyara]

Two words- Grand Lethal. Trance- especially Zidanes- saved my ass soo many times.

[Xurts]

I totally agree with Pyroteq. The Trance system sucked compared to 8 and 7's systems. By the time you finally manage to have the incredible stroke of luck by having a character Trance during a boss fight, it still isn't incredibly useful. All it does is give your character a slight boost in strength. It doesn't suddenly unlock multi-hitting attacks or anything like that.

Dagger's Eidolon? Quina's Cook? Zidane's Dyne? Amarant's Flair? Pfft, what a freaking joke. All those do is give their normal abilities a boost in power. If your characters are already strong, Trance won't do anything at all, except make your characters really shiny and awkward-looking. The only Trances that can be considered useful are Vivi and Eiko's Double magic. Freya's is ok, but isn't anything special.

BTW, on FF8 casting Aura on someone will make it alot easier to trigger Limits, and you don't have to risk being killed while you are in critical status.

[Hambone]

Trance can be useless for some characters. I really don't see the point of trance with steiner.

[Xurts]

I forgot about Steiner's. I can't even remember what his special trick is. Probably just as horrible and crap as Zidane's. "omfg its grand lethal look at all of that damage, it does so much more damage than my normal attacks wow"

Trance is such a waste of time it's funny.

[boys from the dwarf]

its far from useless. you cant save it like other limits and special attacks but its very useful against tough bosses. trance has different effects on each character. a lot of these effects are stat boosts which is why steiners trance seems to do nothing. i think its suppose to make his attacks a lot more powerful. im not too sure but i bet on a site like gamefaqs.com there's a trance guide.

[Zeromus_X]

At the least, they look awesome. (Especially Zidane's with all those magic symbols. )

[Xurts]

its far from useless. you cant save it like other limits and special attacks but its very useful against tough bosses. trance has different effects on each character. a lot of these effects are stat boosts which is why steiners trance seems to do nothing. i think its suppose to make his attacks a lot more powerful. im not too sure but i bet on a site like gamefaqs.com there's a trance guide.

Once you get far enough in the game your normal attacks will do 9999 by themselves, they won't need the help of Trance. This is when it becomes utterly useless, except in Vivi and Eiko's cases, where they can use two attacks in one turn.

[Darkwing Bahamut]

Zidane's Grand Lethal I find most useful, but otherwise Trance was pretty much useless. I barely got to use them during boss fights, because most of the time they would've already been wasted on some random encounter right before the boss fight. So basically your efforts in filling up the Trance Gauge go in vain. At least in FFVII and FFVIII this is not the case.