Excalibur II

[Zidane77]

Did anyone finish the game 100% ?
I've mastered it a few times except with Excalibur II, i personally think it's 99% impossible to master this game 100% with doing this quest (Getting all key-items,swords etc.) and finish Lich under 12 hours.
I think it's the only bad thing about this game, should've been left out for sure.
Hopefully a awesome remake would cover that

I've never even attempted that quest because i like taking time during the playthrough and enjoy it,don't rush it like crazy and be perfect in every second.
I don't like perfectionist games like X-2 and IV DS, still i try to master them and have gone pretty far but IX is way too much with that stupid sword in the way..

[Serah]

I agree - I'm playing through it again at the moment, I'm near the end of disc2 (just before Amarant joins the party) and I don't think I would stand a chance of getting there in 12hours

I spend too long levelling my characters up to do it...
I spent ages levelling Steiner and Garnet to level 20 in the forest near Treno at the start of disc2 (or end of disc1, I can't remember lol)

[Joe]

I saw one honest to goodness speed run, where this person got to Excalibur 2 in about 9 hours. I also saw a perfect game speed run, where the person played all the way to Lich in memoria at lvl 1, in order to get perfect stats, since weapons affect your stats, and you'd need all of them to have the most potential available.

It's quite possible, it just takes a lot of patience. I'd work on my perfect game, but I can't get past the Blank/Zidane sword fight mini-game. You have to please all 100 Nobles, which I simply can't do

[Xithor]

How in the world would you get to Memoria at lvl 1? You get exp from all the battles you encounter and even the boss fights that you can't run from so how would it work?

I've never tried to finish the game in the 12 hours that you have to to get the weapon, I too level my characters too much to complete it that fast. I feel like you'd be unprepared for some fights even though it can obviously be done.

[Joe]

Boss fights don't give exp, only AP. You can run from every battle aside from bosses,, and virus prevents EXP gain as well. the only forced experience in the game is in the castle pandemonium on terra when zidane has to fight that string of monsters.

If you learn Quina's limit glove, and keep he/she at 1hp, it'll always do massive damage as well, making bosses cake.

[Xithor]

Boss fights don't give exp, only AP. You can run from every battle aside from bosses,, and virus prevents EXP gain as well. the only forced experience in the game is in the castle pandemonium on terra when zidane has to fight that string of monsters.

If you learn Quina's limit glove, and keep he/she at 1hp, it'll always do massive damage as well, making bosses cake.

I never realized that bosses didn't give EXP, haven't really played through it in the longest time and I guess I assumed they didn't. That is actually not a bad strategy, I know Limit Glove does more when you're at low health. Pretty genius tactic. Might try it sometime

[Zidane77]

I agree - I'm playing through it again at the moment, I'm near the end of disc2 (just before Amarant joins the party) and I don't think I would stand a chance of getting there in 12hours

I spend too long levelling my characters up to do it...
I spent ages levelling Steiner and Garnet to level 20 in the forest near Treno at the start of disc2 (or end of disc1, I can't remember lol)

That's the start of disc 2, i do that too
I always get at least 5 levels for Steiner there.
The mandragoras have good exp,useful as long as you know how to fight them.

[loaf]

Actually a true 100% would also mean getting all the (!) that pop up, along with key items, EXII, etc, etc. Someone has done it also.

[Zidane77]

Yeah? I like to see that someone, but yes i mentioned getting things as well, getting the pop-ops may be part of the mastering as well, at least i never miss one.
Even when i played it for the 11th time

[loaf]

Look on youtube for a FFIX Perfect Game.

[Zidane77]

I've checked it and it was a lot of 1-2 min videos and these videos were pretty unclear to me.
I highly doubt they finished everything else as well, can't really see everything they do..

[loaf]

You can't do a 8+ hour game in 1 video.

If you don't know, doing the EXII challenge does suggest you save, a lot, and reload, a lot. I'm sure you can get EXII in one run, no saving, but you have to be lucky sometimes.

[Xanatos]

Just recently I had intention to master the game, unfortunately I gave over it pretty quick as I was never able to beat the "jump rope" minigame, actually I never had the patience nor nerves to do 1000 jumps, 100 was the best I could do.

As for Excalibur II, I wasn't sure if it was even possible to obtain it until I saw a video on youtube.

[Xithor]

That jump rope game is so frustrating to me lol I get to 20 jumps and when she warns me that it's gonna get faster it messes with my head and I miss that 21 jump haha. Btw heres a quick Q -> can you ever know which friendly monsters you have encountered or you just gotta do them all over bc I can't remember which ones I have done when I loaded up my old file to try and make Ozma weak to shadow and I'm searching for them now

[loaf]

That jump rope game is so frustrating to me lol I get to 20 jumps and when she warns me that it's gonna get faster it messes with my head and I miss that 21 jump haha. Btw heres a quick Q -> can you ever know which friendly monsters you have encountered or you just gotta do them all over bc I can't remember which ones I have done when I loaded up my old file to try and make Ozma weak to shadow and I'm searching for them now

With a strategy I used for Ozma, you don't need all the friendly monsters. Since everyone thinks Zidane must also be used as your dmg dealer people think they need to get all the friendly monsters.

Steiner - Shock
Freya - Dragon Crest (with 99 Grand Dragons dead)
Eiko - Heal/Full-Life
Zidane - Potion, Remedy's, potions and more remedy's

He dies in 6 moves by Steiner and Freya combined and since both their attacks are ranged, no need for all friendly monsters.

Now to answer the question, no there is no way, you can go back to that area and try and get the friendly but it just wont spawn on you in a battle. Just need to remember which ones you've encountered.

[Zidane77]

Just recently I had intention to master the game, unfortunately I gave over it pretty quick as I was never able to beat the "jump rope" minigame, actually I never had the patience nor nerves to do 1000 jumps, 100 was the best I could do.

As for Excalibur II, I wasn't sure if it was even possible to obtain it until I saw a video on youtube.

I think it's no problem to obtain it, but getting everything is something else.
Yeah the jump rope is crazy, i got 340 and then i gave up. 1000 is just too much..
But you can do it all throughout the game so you won't miss it, just have to try at least once the first time.
On disc 4 it's always available.

[Xithor]

With a strategy I used for Ozma, you don't need all the friendly monsters. Since everyone thinks Zidane must also be used as your dmg dealer people think they need to get all the friendly monsters.

Steiner - Shock
Freya - Dragon Crest (with 99 Grand Dragons dead)
Eiko - Heal/Full-Life
Zidane - Potion, Remedy's, potions and more remedy's

He dies in 6 moves by Steiner and Freya combined and since both their attacks are ranged, no need for all friendly monsters.

Now to answer the question, no there is no way, you can go back to that area and try and get the friendly but it just wont spawn on you in a battle. Just need to remember which ones you've encountered.

I'm actually set up for this, and with Vivi I can Reflect Flare off of him and inflict 9999 damage as well. Haha thanks Loaf

[Ragtime]

I could never rush through an FF game that quickly, even though I really wanted Excalibur II. But I heard that there are tricks to get them, like letting the games timer reach 99:59:59 and the timer will reset to 00:00:00 but I've never played that long so I wouldnt know.

[Zidane77]

I could never rush through an FF game that quickly, even though I really wanted Excalibur II. But I heard that there are tricks to get them, like letting the games timer reach 99:59:59 and the timer will reset to 00:00:00 but I've never played that long so I wouldnt know.

I tried that several times and it didn't work, usually when i play through this game i reach over 100 hours and i have never seen that.

[Xithor]

Logging 100 hours on FFIX? Wow you're a trooper, I did that one X but that was because there was a lot to do with me trying to max out my characters. IX is my favorite but idk what I'd do for 100 hours, I'm at 62 and Zidane is at lvl 99 and the rest of the characters are in the low 80's or high 70's and on their way to 99.

[Zidane77]

Well usually im done with almost anything at 85 hours, then i spend 20 hours leveling up and gathering ore to power up the eidolons and fighting dragons to power up Freya's skill.

The best places to level up is when there are separate characters like when Zidane's alone in Ipsen's castle and i have sometimes done that, but i've usually gotten tired of fighting in Memoria, due to the high HP everyone has there. Where do you usually level up?
I think the highest i've gotten was Lv.95 with Zidane

[Xithor]

I just take a trip to Vile Island and attack with the people I don't want to level up like Zidane now until one of the Yans hits him with virus and then repeat so 3 of my 4 characters get hit with virus. That way only one person is getting EXP and since the Yans are 42,000+ EXP each and it all goes to one person it's very nice. If you run into three of those bad boys you get 128,000+ EXP and with Level Up it's more like 175,000 EXP which is how I jump multiple levels fairly quickly. Plus the strategy I use I take out the Yans in 4 turns, one hit from each of my characters.

[Zidane77]

Yeah that's really good, i didn't have much patience with those Yans due to their counters but im gonna try that again

[Zidane77]

Ok so i just found out it's officially impossible to finish the Excalibur II side-quest on the PAL version.
It's explained quite well here:

Excalibur II - The Final Fantasy Wiki has more Final Fantasy information than Cid could research

There are those two guys on youtube that have finished a perfect game (one with 50min left and other 30min) and at least one of them had the NTSC version which is quicker, not sure about the other one but he's probably using the same one due the same speed.

I tried as quick as i could to go through the beginning and the deadline is 7-8 min and the best i could was 11 min on the PAL version.
At the next checkpoint the deadline is 18min and i finished 24min (could have possibly gotten 1-2min faster) but that proves it to me that NTSC is quicker and it's impossible to do it on PAL.

Not sure if slimline NTSC is better than Phat..

[loaf]

The fastest completed game is 8 hours and 30 minutes...you can do it on the PAL, it'll just take you about 6 months to do it.

[Zidane77]

Have you done or have any prove that it has been done? (On PAL)

[loaf]

If you read the little Wikia that you linked they clearly say if you can get the NTSC done in under 10 hours you could do it on the PAL.

[Zidane77]

I have only seen the record 11:10, where is this record you speak of ?

[loaf]

go look up speed runs.

Also that is for a Perfect Game. Meaning Every (!) picked up, everything...you don't need everything to get the EXII. Just a lot of patience.

[Zidane77]

So you're saying you've seen a speed run of 8 hours and 30 minutes with a perfect game included?
That is something worth looking at..