Return to its Roots?

[Locke4God]

(minor minor spoilers)

I'm not going to bash this game, but I did think it was underwhelming. Of the recent games from VI through XII, I rate it the worst of those. I do put it slightly ahead of IV, and all of the other early games.

The main reason I point to, to illustrate its shortcoming is the scene in Regent Cid's Throne room. If you go into there and check out the line of Cid statues along the wall, you would expect that they would relate to the Cid's of earlier games. In fact they're even labled Cid III, Cid VI, and so on, and even go so far as to tell you what each one is holding. So you might think they'd be holding an item relative to the game they appeared it, but no. One of them has a harp. There wasn't one Cid who had a harp. So I wonder what the point was of including these statues, including text to explain them, but in a game that's suppose to reference it's own history, they would fail to actually provide a link to it? It was just puzzeling, and while not a big deal, for me was indicative of the whole game.

Now that being said, there were a lot of pluses. I thought the Eidelon count, the way you acquired them, esspecially Ramuh, and the videos displaying them were great.

I thought the battle system was very good. A lot of specialty characters that were fun to use, and the process of attaching tokens to the weapons to learn abilities was nice.

Even some of the side events were good, like the Moogle Mail which was a blast to follow and keep track of, and Chocobo Treasure Hunt. And the Active Time Events were quite and enjoyable distraction.

Again on the Characters though, I thought some were high and some were low. IX's versions were very useful and fun. Vivi was the best, and both Zidane and Garnet were enjoyable leads. The Knight was fun, but I'm on the fence with him as he was a bit of a blockhead for so long. And I did enjoy the use of temporary characters which had been missing since Final Fantasy VI, where I loved using such a large cast.

Games like IV, VI, VII, & X had far better characters. In IX, the Rat Lady, Quina, the big Red-headed dude, and the little girl summoner at the end, were all toss in characters. None of them really mattered that much to the larger story, and the Red-Headed dude esspecially was introduced with a lot of haste that made little sense. I'm not really even sure why Quina was there, although again she was fun. Compare that to VII, where every character mattered, or VI where all 14 characters mattered.

Also on the down side, the game was too linear for far too long. I was on disk 3, before I really got to do what I wanted, about 60 hours in. And the side games in between were few and far between. Jumping rope 1000 times, and bidding on potions at the auction house, just weren't all that stimulating when compared to breeding & racing chocobos in VII, or drafting Blitzball players in X. Maybe you liked those, and maybe you didn't, but they were involving none-the-less.

I found the reveal of what was really going on to be very intriquing, however it was a rushed explanation in the final few hours of the game, and I could never quite figure out what value there had been in delaying the answer for so long. I think I would have enjoyed the answer much better if I had gotten at least a strong hint to it way earlier in the game. As it was, most of the main enemies were dead and gone, and I'd never found out why I was even fighting them.

But the game did have a fun environment. It was brighter and more cheerful than several of its predecessors, and I did enjoy the return to castles and low technology, if only for awhile.

The game sits above Final Fantasy's I, II, V, and IV, in that order for me, and is what I would consider par for the course for a very esteemed franchise. For me I'd spend my money and time on VI, VII, VIII, X, and XII much quicker.

[Freya]

I think you missed the most important point of the game. (Okay, let's say the most important for ME. )

Spoilers ahead!

FFIX's story is not about fighting Kuja, it's more about fighting your fate. And fate is something you can't exclude from a description about FFIX.
So all the characters you said weren't important were important in that matter:

The Rat Lady, Freya. She had to find Fratley and she thought that she'd find him when she went with the others. So she had a good reason to join. Also, her home was destroyed by the enemy, so she WAS important to the story. She grew really important when she finally found Fratley - then all this stuff about fate began. It seemed to be a hopeless situation, as Fratley had lost his memory and nobody knew what to do. It was fate and she began fighting it. All the more reason to fight on.

Quina. I didn't really like him, but I didn't hate him, so most of the time I ignored him. Yet, he said some quite interesting things. (Quina is male for me ^^") Remember that he always talked about food? Yeah, that was quite annoying. Yet, did you see what he wanted to say? He often put really philosophical things into terms of food. I don't remember one of them, sorry, but I know that sometimes I thought that it was really intelligent what he said. It was of course also about fate and how to fight it.

The big red-headed dude, Amarant. He was important because Zidane ruined his life. At least I had the feeling he had. He was once an important person, a bodyguard if I remember correctly. And then Zidane came and ruined everything. Fate again. xP So he tried to find Zidane to fight him, but when Zidane didn't want to kill him after winning, he began thinking about Zidane and why he acted like he did. I found that quite important, as the player of the game surely also wanted to understand Zidane. Also, Amarant thought his fate was fighting Zidane - and either be killed by him or kill him.

The little girl summoner, Eiko. I agree that at the beginning she was more important, as only by meeting her you find out about Garnet's past. But she was also important in the end. Remember what she said about her grandfather? She promised him to stay in her village forever, but then she decided ON HER OWN to go with Zidane. She made that decision because she thought it would be better for her to see the world. So her reason for joining the group was.. some kind of curiosity. (Yeah, I know that she also wanted to be near Zidane, but such a little brat can't possibly know what "love" is, so this is no reason for me xD") I had the feeling that she also wanted to find out who she really was.

Another thing that made this game special and which includes all the characters: Life and Death. It's the reason why I loved the game: It's not only "rescue the world from Kuja", but also "find out who you are, why you live and why others die". I think Vivi showed that pretty good. All the black mages who died after a certain time showed that. They wanted to live so desperately that they joined Kuja and served him. I can't help myself but I thought about myself at this point - if I'd done the same. Then I fought about mankind generally - and saw that many people would've done the same. They do such things just to live on. The game perfectly shows how afraid we are of dying. I didn't see something that philosophical in ANY other FF.

I think I would have enjoyed the answer much better if I had gotten at least a strong hint to it way earlier in the game.

In that point, I agree with you. There really were no hints, although I think that Zidane's Saiyajin-tail was a hint. I've always wondered why he had one and if that mattered to the story. But after meeting Freya I hadn't thought about that anymore. I thought that he was just like Freya - an animal-like human.

[Dodie16]

Of the recent games from VI through XII, I rate it the worst of those

So I take it that you didn't play Final Fantasy X-2? (Ya, I went there! )

Yes, there were points in the game that do indeed have references to other games in the series. However, I don't think that necessarily means that these games are in any way connected. Just think of them as something that the game makers put in to test the superfans of the series and see if they get the reference. I enjoyed it very much, and I think that FF IX is one of the more underappreciated games in the series, because this one came after the successes of both VII and VIII, which had the more sci-fi element to the games and a more realistic look. Fans that got into the series because of these two games were probably dissapointed with the look and presentation. I wasn't though, and I was more excited about getting my hands on the older versions because of FFIX.

Here's a nifty little link that you might find interesting. It tells of all the little hidden references to the previous games that are in FFIX. It's a pretty interesting read:

Final Fantasy IX/Allusions - The Final Fantasy Wiki has more Final Fantasy information than Cid could research

[GypsyElder]

So I take it that you didn't play Final Fantasy X-2? (Ya, I went there! )

Totally, I mean if you find minor things in IX you disliked Try X-2. That game for me was a desaster. I mean the game itself was fun and playable but at times was, felt pointless and annoying because you had to get 100% complete to even see the good, proper ending.

The game wouldn't have been so bad if the storyline wasn't so effing stupid!!

FF IX was one of my favorites and I think was one of the most fun to play I also really didn't mind that the game was long....because I liked it, unlike X-2 which kind of felt like torture at times.

[Xanatos]

(minor minor spoilers)The main reason I point to, to illustrate its shortcoming is the scene in Regent Cid's Throne room. If you go into there and check out the line of Cid statues along the wall, you would expect that they would relate to the Cid's of earlier games. In fact they're even labled Cid III, Cid VI, and so on, and even go so far as to tell you what each one is holding. So you might think they'd be holding an item relative to the game they appeared it, but no. One of them has a harp. There wasn't one Cid who had a harp. So I wonder what the point was of including these statues, including text to explain them, but in a game that's suppose to reference it's own history, they would fail to actually provide a link to it? It was just puzzeling, and while not a big deal, for me was indicative of the whole game.

****ing unbelievable, Cid statues, really!!!! What's the point of the statues? This is surprisingly simple, there is no point. Let me explain you a little bit, Cid IX is a current king of Lindbum and he lives in the castle so normally as any other castle there should be statues or pictures of former kings. Don't really know how could anyone (who have actually played former FF games and know the big difference between all of them) believe that those are Cid's from former games. They labeled them for one simple reason, maybe because there were eight kings before current Cid and I don't think it's smart to call every King just Cid. This is just something they wanted to add that will represent Lindbum, I don't understand what's the big deal with the statues.

Games like IV, VI, VII, & X had far better characters. In IX, the Rat Lady, Quina, the big Red-headed dude, and the little girl summoner at the end, were all toss in characters. None of them really mattered that much to the larger story, and the Red-Headed dude esspecially was introduced with a lot of haste that made little sense. I'm not really even sure why Quina was there, although again she was fun. Compare that to VII, where every character mattered, or VI where all 14 characters mattered.

Before you start to compare the characters you should at least known their names. I must say that I agree with you about Quina and Amarant but I really don't understand why did you mention Freya and especially Eiko. If you played the game you should at least known that Eiko plays major role in the story. Oh and I agree with you about FF VII, Vincent and Yuffie were so important that they were actually an optional characters. Oh and I also must agree with you about the FF VI that Bigfoot Umaro had to do everything with the main story, Mog also and especially that Mimic Gogo...

Also on the down side, the game was too linear for far too long. I was on disk 3, before I really got to do what I wanted, about 60 hours in. And the side games in between were few and far between. Jumping rope 1000 times, and bidding on potions at the auction house, just weren't all that stimulating when compared to breeding & racing chocobos in VII, or drafting Blitzball players in X. Maybe you liked those, and maybe you didn't, but they were involving none-the-less.

I found the reveal of what was really going on to be very intriquing, however it was a rushed explanation in the final few hours of the game, and I could never quite figure out what value there had been in delaying the answer for so long. I think I would have enjoyed the answer much better if I had gotten at least a strong hint to it way earlier in the game. As it was, most of the main enemies were dead and gone, and I'd never found out why I was even fighting them.

You needed a hint, you're joking right? First of all, every and I really mean every FF game has a complicated story which you follow and everything becomes clear slowly through the game. Every game including FF IX has a hints which become clear only when you finish the game. Your main goal was to find and beat Kuya because he was the main villain at that moment. And by searching for him you come across to more relevant part of the story. Unlike FF VII where from the start you know what to do and who's the last boss (which is boring if you ask me) in FF IX you need to travel to find some facts because you don't get everything served at the beginning, the same concept has FF VIII.

I will agree with you that most of minigames in FF IX are pretty dumb but what's so fun in breading chocobo's. I was only doing that because I wanted to collect those four materias and needles to say it's was too annoying.

The game sits above Final Fantasy's I, II, V, and IV, in that order for me, and is what I would consider par for the course for a very esteemed franchise. For me I'd spend my money and time on VI, VII, VIII, X, and XII much quicker.

And I would spend my money on FF IX, VIII, VI, IV, II rather than on FF VII, so what's your point. FF IX like every other game has positive and negative things and I'm sure that you understand that.

[NeoArashi]

Again on the Characters though, I thought some were high and some were low. IX's versions were very useful and fun. Vivi was the best, and both Zidane and Garnet were enjoyable leads. The Knight was fun, but I'm on the fence with him as he was a bit of a blockhead for so long. And I did enjoy the use of temporary characters which had been missing since Final Fantasy VI, where I loved using such a large cast.

Games like IV, VI, VII, & X had far better characters. In IX, the Rat Lady, Quina, the big Red-headed dude, and the little girl summoner at the end, were all toss in characters. None of them really mattered that much to the larger story, and the Red-Headed dude esspecially was introduced with a lot of haste that made little sense. I'm not really even sure why Quina was there, although again she was fun. Compare that to VII, where every character mattered, or VI where all 14 characters mattered.

Ahem..

First, of all the 14 characters, only 6 really mattered (Strago, Sabin, Relm, Shadow, Gogo, Gau, Umaro and Mog, although cool, did not have anything really to do with the main plot. True, most of them helps you at some point, but that's it.) Terra, Locke, Edgar, Setzer, Celes and Cyan are the only characters with main plot related stories.

Also, You said that there had not been Temporary characters in FFVII and VIII? Aeris, Seifer, Laguna, Ward Kiros and Edea are all sad now

[Locke4God]

I wasn't suggesting the statues in the throne room actually were of the Cid's from previous games, I was just saying they would metaphorically reference them.

[Che]

It's a return to Final Fantasy roots because it goes along with the original idea of a lighthearted adventure, set in medieval-times. The newer FF's were going in the sci-fi direction. Think of VII, with guns and Shinra and the cities, then in VIII with the gunblades and futuristic airships, and floating Gardens. Imagine if IX were to keep going from both of those and go even more futuristic. They didn't want to, and instead returned to their roots. Reintroducing crystals, four character parties, etc: medieval fantasy-style.

It's one of my favorite games in the series and it pains me when I see people that don't understand it.

[Maciariello]

This game oozes originality while paying homage to more familiar RPGs of yester-year. While you can make comparisons between IX and many other RPGs, it still (at least for me) remains original in very distinct ways. Most notably in the art style and level of detail the game shows in its environments and characters.

One example of its originality: Zidane Tribal is one of my favorite leading Final Fantasy protagonists because he's so different from everyothe other main chracters in other Final Fantasy games. Cloud and Squall are generally serious, Tidus is regularly optimistic, and Cecil is honor-driven. Zidane isn't serious, he isn't always optimistic, and he's not bound to honor. He's a regular thief with a big heart, has a charming attitude, and has somewhat of a reckless nature about him. I'm not saying the others can ONLY be described by the above traits, but I'm just listing the dominant ones that seem to be the largest part of their character.

Another trivial but noteworthy observation is Zidane ditches the standard sword in favor of two daggers or one dual-sided blade. It's the little differences that sometimes make characters stand out a bit from the others. And I'm not saying Cloud, Squall, Cecil or any other main FF character is anything less than great, I'm merely stating that Zidane is great as well in his own way.

And on a side note, the fact that they made the Cid in this game a unanimously unliked insect (albiet King as well) from the get-go is ballsy I thought. I appreciate their humorous approach in this respect

[loaf]

Oh you might want a real complete translation of FFIX in order to get all the references. The english version bad translation and a lot of the references were missed.

and for reals with the Cid statues being references to the Cid, and they were just showing off how they have Cid in every game since FFII. But I highly doubt they tried to give hints of that Cid with an item from the game.

[Locke4God]

@ Che - Don't be pained! :-) You know I do understand where they were going with the game, I just don't think they got there. It was lighthearted and I appreciated the spirit.

However, it was quite linear for some time, and the worst part of that for me, is that there was rarely an option of something else do along the way.

But more importantly, when I think of the old school games, I think of the legendary quest of Cecil to become a Paladin, the destiny of the heroes in the original, and the direness of the events in VI. There just wasn't really anything that powerful in IX. It was just sort of ho-hum the whole way through, until finally at the very end you learned what was really going on. But for me it was just too late. I had already spent 80 hours going through the motions.

And this is purely opinion but I prefer the more serious lead characters. If you liked Zidane's carefreeness, that's great, and I get his qualities, but I just like the thoughness of Cecil and Cloud. Although a lead like Vaan to me is the most ideal. Tough, but relatable.

I don't begrudge anybody's enjoyment of IX. I liked it. It just doesn't stand out as esspecially inspired to me.

[Xanatos]

However, it was quite linear for some time, and the worst part of that for me, is that there was rarely an option of something else do along the way.

Linear, I might agree with you on this one but the developers wanted to concentrate more on the events, characters and they did an excellent job. And if you appreciate any of these elements than that part that is linear shouldn't bother you at all.

But more importantly, when I think of the old school games, I think of the legendary quest of Cecil to become a Paladin, the destiny of the heroes in the original, and the direness of the events in VI. There just wasn't really anything that powerful in IX. It was just sort of ho-hum the whole way through, until finally at the very end you learned what was really going on. But for me it was just too late. I had already spent 80 hours going through the motions.

You realize the part where Cecil want's to become a Paladin only lasted for couple of hours and somebody should tell you that there is at least 50 hours of the game afterward. Powerful? Don't make me laugh, just because you didn't personally liked the story doesn't necessarily mean that FF IV and VI have more powerful moments. After all few low pixel sprites can show more powerful moments than full motion videos, I guess. And don't give me that shit like you know something about the old school games, if you did you wouldn't be talking about FF IX in so negative manner.

And this is purely opinion but I prefer the more serious lead characters. If you liked Zidane's carefreeness, that's great, and I get his qualities, but I just like the thoughness of Cecil and Cloud. Although a lead like Vaan to me is the most ideal. Tough, but relatable.

Finally, I now understand why do you hate Zidane as leading character. Anyway, you mentioned that Cloud is tougher character than Zidane, I agree with this one after all Cloud was mentally unstable, he never became a soldier, he was saved so many times by Tifa and rest of the crew, no sense of humor, probably gay, owned by Sephiroth multiple times...yea, one though character and one more thing, don't let the appearance fool you.

I don't begrudge anybody's enjoyment of IX. I liked it. It just doesn't stand out as esspecially inspired to me.

I seriously doubt that you like this game in any way, whenever I see your post be it related to FF IX or not you have something negative to say about it be it for dumb reasons or not, and you tend to compare the negative side of this game with other ones very often so I encourage you to be more honest with yourself, be a man and admit that you hate this game and only then will I understand why in 70% of your posts is FF IX included mostly in negative context.


I'll take a guess and say that your first FF game was VII, if so than I understand your major problem with this game and like Che said it pains me to see so many people (especially you Locke) that don't understand a damn thing about this game.

[Locke4God]

yep, it's not my favorite. Wow, I feel more manly already.

[Zargabaath]

You realize the part where Cecil want's to become a Paladin only lasted for couple of hours and somebody should tell you that there is at least 50 hours of the game afterward.

50 HOURS AFTERWARDS!!! What did you doooooo for that whole time?!?!?! It only takes me around 30-35 hours to beat FF IV. Was that exxageration?

Also, I think it probably only takes a hour or a little over a hour from the start of Cecil's journey to become a Paladin at Mysidia to when he becomes a Paladin. I got through with this part on the DS version, recently, that I have been not been playing till a few days ago.

[loaf]

30-35 hours? What did you dooooooo. My current save file right before Zer is a little after 9 hours.

[Zargabaath]

30-35 hours? What did you dooooooo. My current save file right before Zer is a little after 9 hours.

Is "Zer" supposed to be Zeromus? If so, you are doing a speed run which does not take the average time to beat the game. If "Zer" is not Zeromus then I have no clue to what you are talking about.

[loaf]

Zer is Zeromus, just didn't feel like spelling it and I wasn't doing a speed run, I was playing the game how any normal human being would. FFIV isn't that very long of a game you know.

Back on topic...FFIX RETURNED TO TEH ROOTS

[Xanatos]

50 HOURS AFTERWARDS!!! What did you doooooo for that whole time?!?!?! It only takes me around 30-35 hours to beat FF IV. Was that exxageration?

It's been a while since I've played FF IV, my last save indicates that I put a little bit over 50 hours in this game, I'm sure it takes less time to beat it although I must admit I really don't remember how exactly did I manage to reach that number, probably a lot of grinding and doing some sidequests. Speaking of sidequests I did play the GBA version, the one with the extra large dungeon that becomes available after beating the game, one of the reason for my 50 hours of play.

[Firefly]

I think you missed the most important point of the game. (Okay, let's say the most important for ME. )

Spoilers ahead!

FFIX's story is not about fighting Kuja, it's more about fighting your fate. And fate is something you can't exclude from a description about FFIX.
So all the characters you said weren't important were important in that matter:

The Rat Lady, Freya. She had to find Fratley and she thought that she'd find him when she went with the others. So she had a good reason to join. Also, her home was destroyed by the enemy, so she WAS important to the story. She grew really important when she finally found Fratley - then all this stuff about fate began. It seemed to be a hopeless situation, as Fratley had lost his memory and nobody knew what to do. It was fate and she began fighting it. All the more reason to fight on.

Quina. I didn't really like him, but I didn't hate him, so most of the time I ignored him. Yet, he said some quite interesting things. (Quina is male for me ^^") Remember that he always talked about food? Yeah, that was quite annoying. Yet, did you see what he wanted to say? He often put really philosophical things into terms of food. I don't remember one of them, sorry, but I know that sometimes I thought that it was really intelligent what he said. It was of course also about fate and how to fight it.

The big red-headed dude, Amarant. He was important because Zidane ruined his life. At least I had the feeling he had. He was once an important person, a bodyguard if I remember correctly. And then Zidane came and ruined everything. Fate again. xP So he tried to find Zidane to fight him, but when Zidane didn't want to kill him after winning, he began thinking about Zidane and why he acted like he did. I found that quite important, as the player of the game surely also wanted to understand Zidane. Also, Amarant thought his fate was fighting Zidane - and either be killed by him or kill him.

The little girl summoner, Eiko. I agree that at the beginning she was more important, as only by meeting her you find out about Garnet's past. But she was also important in the end. Remember what she said about her grandfather? She promised him to stay in her village forever, but then she decided ON HER OWN to go with Zidane. She made that decision because she thought it would be better for her to see the world. So her reason for joining the group was.. some kind of curiosity. (Yeah, I know that she also wanted to be near Zidane, but such a little brat can't possibly know what "love" is, so this is no reason for me xD") I had the feeling that she also wanted to find out who she really was.

Another thing that made this game special and which includes all the characters: Life and Death. It's the reason why I loved the game: It's not only "rescue the world from Kuja", but also "find out who you are, why you live and why others die". I think Vivi showed that pretty good. All the black mages who died after a certain time showed that. They wanted to live so desperately that they joined Kuja and served him. I can't help myself but I thought about myself at this point - if I'd done the same. Then I fought about mankind generally - and saw that many people would've done the same. They do such things just to live on. The game perfectly shows how afraid we are of dying. I didn't see something that philosophical in ANY other FF.



In that point, I agree with you. There really were no hints, although I think that Zidane's Saiyajin-tail was a hint. I've always wondered why he had one and if that mattered to the story. But after meeting Freya I hadn't thought about that anymore. I thought that he was just like Freya - an animal-like human.

Amen sister,couldn't have said it better myself

[Locke4God]

Yeah,,, not seeing it

[Rydia Lover]

Also on the down side, the game was too linear for far too long. I was on disk 3, before I really got to do what I wanted, about 60 hours in. And the side games in between were few and far between. Jumping rope 1000 times, and bidding on potions at the auction house, just weren't all that stimulating when compared to breeding & racing chocobos in VII, or drafting Blitzball players in X. Maybe you liked those, and maybe you didn't, but they were involving none-the-less.

wait a minute, arent all of the final fantasies linear up to the point when you can get an airship? X and XII didnt even have an overworld map and your saying they werent linear?

[Locke4God]

Oh X was quite linear. You're very right there, although it's foray into Blitzball, even though I'm not a huge fan, made it somewhat more palatable for me. But yeah X was super duper linear.

XII was not. You could journey out into the desert very early on, head out to the fortress past the Estersand, run all the way up to the village on the river in the north, go on a number of hunts, engage in a few sidequests within the city, and that's all before the story even gets started. After that the hunts continue, the sidequests grow, and it's very much not linear as much as a FF title will ever be.

But IX was different. You would make it to a town, and there would be very very very little to do, and there was nowhere else to go exept into the little field in front of it. No other houses, or little villiages to go to for any sort of side quest. No side games to play. Nothing. And the side games were horrid in that title. If you want to go Tetra Master on me, the game was not only inferior to Triple Triad, but it was a knockoff as well, very confusing as they intentially left it without directions, and there was very little to be gained from playing it, so there you go.

If you're arguement is airship, then even in IX you don't get it until disk 3 I think it was, and even then you don't get other modes of transportation before that. In 7 you had the downed plane on disk 1 you could take to other continents that were out of storyline chronology. In VIII you got the mobile Seed building early, and could go to side towns before that. There were just things to do.

But all you could do in IX was keep going with the main story. That was it.

[Dodie16]

No other houses, or little villiages to go to for any sort of side quest. No side games to play. Nothing. And the side games were horrid in that title.

Chocobo Hot and Cold was very addictive for me and a lot more enjoyable than FFVIII's Triple Triad, imo. And as for no side games, I don't know how you played the game, but I thought there was plenty of sidequests. Here's a few:

BlackJack
After finishing the game, let the credits roll until the phrase "The End" appears. While it's on-screen, enter the following sequence of buttons on your controller to access the to access the hidden card game "Blackjack": R2, L1, R2, R2, Up, X, Right, Circle, Down, Triangle, L2, R1, R2, L1, Square, Square, Start. The dealer deals out of two decks and stands on 17, and you begin the game with a bankroll of 1,000.

Mr. Morrid's Coffee
After leaving the Ice Cavern, head to the Observatory Mountain before going into Dali. There's an elderly fellow named Morrid inside the hut, who's just crazy about his gourmet coffee! You can find 3 different bags of this in different locations around the world of FFIX.

Excalibur
You can get a very powerful sword for Steiner by completing a short side quest. Return to Daguerreo on Disc 4. An old man near the Library's Inn asks you to look out for an item called the "magical fingertip". You can get it at the auction house. Take the Magical Fingertip back to the old man in Daguerreo. When you give him the item, he tells you his life's story and then gives you Excalibur.

Friendly Monsters
At various locations on the World Map, a random battle occurs but the music sounds sweet and melodic. The creatures that appear won't attack either; instead, they ask you for ore or sometimes other jewels. If you give them the things they ask for, they will give you AP.

Frog Catching
When you enter the frog pond area of any Qu's Marsh, Quina asks to spend some time catching frogs. You can chase them around the marsh and if you catch enough, Master Quon will approach you and give you some items.

Rope Jumping
It was cute to see Vivi jump rope with the little girls.

Mognet Central
Delivering letters to various moogles in the world so you can revive Mognet! It's tons of fun because you only have a name that the letter goes to, and not the location. It's up to you to track down the moogle that it belongs to.

Feed the Moogle Family
Each time you receive a Kupo Nut for delivering mail between the moogles, return to Gizamaluke's Grotto and feed it to the father of the moogle family. You'll receive a random item in return.

Nero Brother's Gambling
If you go into the Weapon Shop with Zidane in Alexandria at the beginning of Disc 3, you will encounter the Nero Brothers (Benero, Genero, and Zenero). They will ask if you want to play a game with them that involves finding the correct brother. They will then mix themselves up and you have to guess which brother is which.

Ragtime Mouse
When you are walking in the world map, sometimes you may encounter a strange monster with another music. It gives you a quiz. It is a monster called Ragtime Mouse. If you answer correctly, it will give you some Gil, but wrongly, it will disappear.

Ranking in Daguerreo
The true identity of the four-armed bandit is revealed after you've collected enough treasures to gain a Treasure Hunting Rank of "S."

Racing Hippaul
You can only take part in this mini-game with Vivi at the beginning of Disc 3. Hippaul stands with his mother on the main street in Alexandria. When you speak to Hippaul's mother, Vivi and Hippaul will run a race.

Treno Auction
After the group's initial visit to Treno, return to the King's Mansion and the auction. Some Key Items and some extremely useful equipment are auctioned off here, and this auction is the key to receiving a very powerful weapon!

Treno Weapon Shop Monsters
Depending on when you visit the Weapons Shop in Treno, you can have one character duel with a monster that the owner has caught and caged under the floor. You can fight one monster during Disc 2, one of two different monsters during Disc 3, and only one monster on Disc 4.

If you think those are boring, well, that's your opinion, but there's PLENTY of things to do in FFIX. Not to mention all the ATEs that happened in the story! Those were always a blast to check out, for me anyway.

[GypsyElder]

Also, don't forget the mini games that occurred during the story like that , sneaking past the Hedgehog at Kuja's palace. That was was fun, and as for Chocobo Hot and Cold...lets just say my Chocobo is a really high level now.

[Locke4God]

As you were kind enough to note most of those take place on Disk 3 or later. And I said the game doesn't open up until then. I never said there was nothing to do in the game, just very little until you've already trudged through more than 2 disks.

And Moget? I mean you just keep moving forward right? Not really much to do there.

Listen, I know it's preference, so I hope you like it. But I played 7 first. Loved it. Played 8 next, loved it. Then I played 10. Liked it. Then I played 9, and ho-hummed my way through. Then I played 6, and loved it. Then I played 4, and loved it. Then I played 1, and loved that!! Then I played 12, and loved it. 6, 7, 8, and 10, I've played a second time, and loved them even more. 9 I couldn't make it through again. I was just bored out of my mind. So it's not the series, it was just that game. It just felt that they made very little effort. There wasn't much effort in the side quest, not much in the mini-games, and not much in the heavily marketed aspect of reflecting on the series as a whole. I don't know. It just didn't really seem all that great.

Thanks for the updates though. I did not know about the black jack thing. I'll have to check that out.

[loaf]

Still can't believe it has taken you 45 hours to get even "far" in the game. I know it is a 40 hour game but that is aimed towards new players. FFIX is easily under 20 hours for someone who knows how to play a Final Fantasy even with doing Hot and Cold and other randoms.

[Dodie16]

As you were kind enough to note most of those take place on Disk 3 or later. And I said the game doesn't open up until then. I never said there was nothing to do in the game, just very little until you've already trudged through more than 2 disks.

I guess it matters to you what disk the sidequests start on, but really it's nothing for me. I was swept up by the story to really get involved with a lot of the sidequests, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Festival of the Hunt. That's on the first disk, and I enjoyed trying to win that game.

And Moget? I mean you just keep moving forward right? Not really much to do there.

While it's true that the first letters that you deliver can be given to the right moogle just by going on with the story, once you discover Mognet Central, you are pretty much on your own tracking down the right moogles and figuring out who has the special item mentioned in the letters.

[Locke4God]

Actually Dodie you bring up a great point with the Festival of the Hunt because it's NOT a side quest. You have to do it, and that was a major moment for me in the game when I realized that there weren't many options or choices in what I wanted to do. For example, the Hunt would have been great if you had the option to do it, and even if you did it, to go back and do it again later. But no. And you're right that there are some other things that eventually you can get to. I said it matters what disk, because heck I've played 45 hours by the time I'm on disk 3, and that's the first time I start getting any side quests? Too little too late in this game IMO. And even in some of these quests there weren't many big payoffs. I just didn't dig them, nor see the relevence. They felt half assed and though they were just sort of thrown in to say they were there. But I don't know.

@ LOAF - Oh come on man, you did not complete IX in 20 hours. :-) I'll need some proof on that one.

[GypsyElder]

@ LOAF - Oh come on man, you did not complete IX in 20 hours. :-) I'll need some proof on that one.

Well, you have to beat it within 12 to get Excalibir 2

Actually, the last dungeon.

[Dodie16]

Yes, you do have to play the Festival of the Hunt, but I see it just like having to win the Chocobo race to get out of Corel prison in VII. Just a fun part of the story. Yeah, you can go back and do some Chocobo races in VII, but it wouldn't make sense to me if you could go back and keep playing the Festival of the Hunt in IX. It's a one-time celebration thing in Lindblum, and it's a part of thier history, which gave it some deeper meaning, imo.