Final Fantasy IX Helpline (MANY, MANY SPOILERS!!!)

[Cry For Garnet]

Despite being only 17 years old, I have played through and completed Final Fantasy IX a (as far as i'm aware) record 22 times. As a result, my knowledge of the game is virtually complete and flawless, so I figure I will use this knowledge in a helpful way and set up a FFIX 'helpline', essentially what I will be doing as often as convenience allows is writing posts containing general advice, tips and tactics.

For those of you that already own a copy of the official walkthrough will think that this is totally pointless, but what I will try to provide here is a more personal touch, giving insight where perhaps the walkthrough does not, and also putting in a little trivia from time to time.

If anyone has any specific questions, then don't be afraid to ask, I will answer them as best I can. But please, don't expect me to know every tiny detail.

So without further hesitation, lets get this started.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

In many ways, this is where the gameplay of FFIX really starts, in that you can walk around and interact with your playable environment freely for the first time once you assume the control of Vivi.

For the large part, there aren't many things you can do here which will really affect the game in a big way, but I figure i'll include some stuff.

1) Card Finding

For the record, there are no cards in this area which cannot be obtained later in the game, but for people who want to start playing Tetra Master as soon as possible, it always helps to get some decent cards when you can.

Cards that can be obtained by walking around are as follows:

The City Entrance

a) Sahagain - Top left of the area on someone's front porch.
b) Zombie - The extreme foreground on the far left hand side.
c) Lizard Man - Along the rear line of houses slightly to the right of the statue.

The Old Weaver's House (To the right on the street leading up to the Tavern)

a) Fang - Up the ladder in the drawer

Outside the Tavern

a) Goblin - On the left hand side in some bushes

Inside the Tavern

a) Between two tables on the bottom left hand side of the screen


Cards that are obtained through certain event sequences.

The following events are listed in the order that I recommend they be completed in.

a) Hippaul's cards - If you talk to the fat hybrid hippo child who hangs around by the drawbridge at the top of the screen in Alexandria's square, he tells you about his three prized cards that he has hidden. If you now go to the far left of the screen through the alleyway and along to the church. You can clumb the steeple and ring the bell, which will give you an Ironite card, a Goblin card and a Fang card once you have talked to Hippaul.

b) Cat owner's cards - To the left of the steeple you will find a boy named Tom, who has lost his cat, talk to him, and he will tell you this. Once you have talked to him, go back to The City Entrance and the cat will be walking around in the foreground, interact with the cat and Tom will hurry along to reclaim it, and give you a Bomb card in the process.

c) Box office attendant's cards - After talking to the box office attendant who rejects your fake ticket to see 'I want to be your canary' he pities you and gives you a Goblin card, a Fang card and a Skeleton man card.

Gilgamesh's Tetra Master tutorial

After you meet The Rat Kid (Prince Puck) in the alleyway and he runs off with Dante The Signmaker's ladder, Alleyway Jack (Gilgamesh) shows up and tries to pickpocket you, interact with him at the right time and you can converse with him, at which point he takes you back to the Tavern and gives you a (moderately helpful) tutorial in playing Tetra Master, you can also play him , although he is quite difficult to beat in comparison with other opponents at this point in the game.

2) The skipping game

This is the first chance you get to play the hugely infuriating and rather pointless Skipping game. The three girls with a skipping rope on the left hand side of Alexandria's square will invite you to join their game when prompted. Once over the rope, interact with it to start the game and again to jump over the rope which necessary. Honestly, for the amount of time, effort, practice and frustration it takes to get good at this game, it really isn't worth bothering with unless you are a completionist, there is not set tactic to 'complete' this minigame, (although I can probably do a shorter post on the ways to make it easier another time) and as a result isn't really worth the time.

Once you climb the steeple with 'The Rat Kid' and cross the ladder onto the rooftops, there is no way back to the street below, so make sure you are super happy with what you have collected and whatever else before proceeding on to Alexandria castle.

I may well do another post sometime in the future about other obtainable items and various Alexandria trivia if time permits, but for the time being, this is as far as i'll go.

I hope this thread actually gets some decent attention, otherwise I'm just doing this for fun

Regards

Cry For Garnet