Those little acting interludes are much more fun when you recognize them!
Aaaand I'm not following up on the res of my thoughts there because it basically boils down to 'colonialism sucked!'…
Another thought was thinking about that dance as a potential minigame, but uhh. While that might have happened in FF7 I don't blame them for deciding against it here and now.
The Antlion! I remember that thing from Crystal Chronicles, and I think it maintained its weakness to ice, as well as that sandy arena you fight it in. Hunh…
Another thought was thinking about that dance as a potential minigame, but uhh. While that might have happened in FF7 I don't blame them for deciding against it here and now.
Dagger having some sort of affinity for insects is a surprisingly persistent bit.
She is explicitely not disgusted by oglops (despite Japan being very fond of ew cockroach gags), she is close to Cid who got turned into a bug by his girlboss wife and now she is the only one who expresses worry about the Gargant's well-being.
Like, at this point I would not be surprised if the inevitable FFIX Coffee Shop AUs routinely turn her into an aspiring entomologist, the pieces are all there.
Interesting that the tunnels are mainly filled with worms that look parasitic. It's almost like the Gargan Roo is a kind of "body," or perhaps an intestinal tract, infested with parasitic worms. That thing is called "Ralvurahva"; that word isn't attested anywhere else that I know, so it seems likely that it's supposed to be Larvalarva.
"When the house is both hungry and awake, every room becomes a stomach."
Between this and the evil forest coming to life, the world of FFIX has a distinctly organic vibe to it. I really hope now that this game would bring back the Gaia theory, except the planet is alive in a disturbing fleshy way. You go down a cave, and the walls become meat, you see rivers of boiling-hot blood flowing instead of lava, and you feel the vibrations all around you, passing through you - they are the beat of the world's literal heart.
God. It's pretty clear that Zorn and Thorn are not entirely sane, and they seem genuinely incapable to process that Dagger is trying to come back to Alexandria and see the Queen. This whole capture plan is totally unnecessary and, furthermore, they're spilling the beans when they could have avoided revealing that it was Brahne's own orders to have her daughter captured! This whole thing feels comically surreal, there was no reason for all of this.
Zorn: You will go see the Queen whether you like it or not!
Dagger: I would like that very much, actually.
Thorn: Too bad! It's off to the Queen with you, not like it or do!
Dagger: ...You know what, sure. You got me. Good job.
This is clearly a deeply religious place, with most Cleyran having titles like "Forest Oracle" or "Moon Maiden." An insular, highly religious community worshipping nature… Yeah, they're elves. Rat elves. I would not have called that shot.
It's nice how the game reminds us that (timeline being kinda weird aside) Zidane and Freya share an established relationship and a bond, and they've grown to mutually respect one another on the basis of that bond, rather than as strangers who met at the start of the game.
Look, they just had a shonen adventure. It took two days and 350 chapters to complete. During that time they became best of friends. Then there was a three-year timeskip. Simple.
Hey Omi, question - did you see the Crime & Punishment ATE?
It's pretty simple to find. See, immediately after getting the Supersoft and Tot opens the hatch to the Gargan Roo, what you need to do is...turn around and leave the tower. This triggers the ATE.
As you can see, FF IX is the absolute pinnacle of intuitive design.
This is the gargant of Gargan Roo - a giant insect that has been saddled with a small ship-like trolley. It moves by clinging onto the massive green vine you can see on the roof of the tunnel; this means the vine effectively acts as a rail and its motions are predictable, allowing it to be used as a means of transit.
…
It's the Last Stag from Hollow Knight, huh. And the giant flea-buses from Morrowind, too. Damn. Wasn't expecting "insect being used as public transportation" to be such a popular concept.
I'm sure there's cartoons that use that, like riding ladybugs or whatever. An upside down insect with a hanging carriage is pretty on-brand for an interesting fantasy twist to it then riding on it's back.
Tot: "The princess is bright, but she is still young and naive. I am concerned about her safety. Please make your own decision on the matter at hand to protect her." Steiner: "I am but a humble knight. I cannot exceed my authority…" Tot: "Is that an honest answer? You may endanger the princess if you keep telling yourself that." Steiner: "...I shall take note of your counsel."
While Steiner often engages in pleasantries (Like that Coffee bit in Dali) I don't think he actually does them. Has he ever said any polite-nothing that he doesn't actually mean? A lot of what he says sounds very harsh if you assume a normal person is saying them with them gentling what they really mean, or overly minor if you take it to mean 'I'll ask them to do something nicer but won't actually make them do it', but if you assume he's 100% completely serious about every single one of his lines, it puts a different spin on moments like this. I don't think Steiner is brushing Dr. Tot off, and was struggling with his situation internally even before bumping into Tot.
Steiner: "Wh-What's wrong?" Dagger: "It's hesitating."
[Dagger jumps off the trolley.] Steiner: "Princess!"
Dagger does hit a lot of 'protagonist' vibes, and it's doing shit like this. She doesn't do it all the time, but she's unafraid to put herself in situations and be proactive. With her running/away and kidnapping, or other things she's a very proactive character, and not the typical 'spunky princess' who has to constantly draw attention to their agency. I never quite noticed it before, but she's actually has quite good subtle writing so far, easily overlooked with all the other big personalities of the player characters.
Dagger: "Doctor Tot told me about this place. My ancestors built this place to keep enemies from invading. Doctor Tot also said…" Steiner: "Princess! We can hear your stories later! The stale air cannot be good for us!" Marcus: "And we gotta save Blank!" Dagger: "Right. We need to hurry."
This always bugged me, invading from where? Alexandria is at the top of the mist, is there some secret tunnel going from below up to the top? Like Lindblum, Alexandra Castle is separated by a valley from the other mountain. Burmecians would have to climb up to above the mist to reach the capital, and likewise Lindblum.
Maybe historically most military force was in the form of 3-8 quirky castoff oddballs, and 'actual professional armies' is like, a brand new killer App while the old military would just spend all their time training their player characters. In this view, the Black Mages would be an evolution of an already-dominating shift that happened somewhat recently, where professional large militaries with logistics and cargo trains is the brand new cutting edge, and when Beatrix killed 100 men she literally killed an entire standing armys worth of soliders who failed to apply proper formation-based tactics against a really good single fighter built in the old mold.
I immediately back track to go back into the city, where I rummage around until I've found the Cancer stone behind an upturned cart.
*cough* We're not playing FFT anymore, it's not a stone. And we're not to FF14 either. (It also can be gotten your first time through, it doesn't spawn after you leave, which would be such a real 'fuck you' that I'm surprised that's not how it's set up in this game actually.
By reaching out into this hole, we can trigger a button that unleashes a stream of sand, filling the room below. This covers up the chests, but on the plus side, we can now just walk over to one of the doors that was previously too high up:
They put a water puzzle dungeon in a game with one of the most dry substances you can have. It may be a bit samey, but this is a fucking wonderfully thought up and designed dungeon. FF7/8 never has anything this imaginative that isn't mechanical in nature.
He also gives us another Kupo Nut, though we're not backtracking all the way to Moguta now.
. . .. Would it change your calculation if I said one of the possible rewards is a level 1 unique shirt? I know you've played FF14.
The Whirlpool Room has three sandy whirlpools. If Zidane enters one, he starts swirling down the drain, and we have to mash X to make him jump out. In theory he jumps out in the direction he's facing when he gets out, but since that's based on the totally random speed at which we can manage to mash the button it's impossible to control and we end up falling in multiple times.
I believe the mechanic is you should be pressing the move direction you want to jump out while mashing X, so it's pretty predictable.... if you know how the unexplained mechanic works, which most people won't.
"Hey Omi why are there only two members in your party?" BECAUSE THAT BIRD ATE THEM, THAT'S WHY. It's the Zuu and it can just! Eat!! Your party members!!! Only Quina is allowed to do that!!!
Not the only reason you might have two party members fighting a Zuu, but it normally wouldn't be these two specifically funnily enough.
The Zuu is genuinely a threat, the only thing in this place that could actually lead to a party wipe. So of course, it knows a powerful Blue Magic that I need to get from it by lowering its HP below 25% and keeping it there without killing it until Quina can eat it, which makes my life significantly harder.
I don't think that's the most annoying Blue Magic to get here, you probably really want to eat one of those bugs made out of Papier-mâché that die to one hit from basicially any attack.
Normally I wouldn't be completionist nagger, but some blue magic is very very annoying to get even with a guide due to timing, and that's one of them you might want to get now instead of later.
One of the oracles leads Freya ahead, and the other offers to give us a guided tour of the city. And why not?
Hey, do you think it's weird that in this city specifically instead of just letting you loose to chase ATEs and items tucked into corners, they walked you through the entire path in a specific way before dropping you back off at the start? There aren't any aetheryte nodes they're trying to get you to attune with (wow, FF14 references are coming out strong in this post)
This is such a funny characterization bit. Quina just jumps into the sand after moping. And this is the only way to get those items, if you left Quina in the swamp, there's no way to get them (because Zidane doesn't randomly jump into sandpits for no reason.)
Once we're back, we head to the cathedrals, were the guards turn us away after giving us a message from Freya to wait for her at the inn.
Ahh, two guards. One only tells lies and the-wait, no.
One identical guard will let you progress the plot, the other one will say a generic unchanging line.
I hate these two guards so fucking much, and they show up in different places in FF9. If you load in a save you haven't picked up in awhile in one of the hub cities, you might not remember exactly where you left the plot, and running to a room talking to the front door gaurd and going 'well guess I must be on another part of the MSQ' when it turns out the other guard proceedes the plot is fucking aggrivating.
More then one guard can remember that you're expected to go in! This isn't hard. Redundancy is something you obviously know about, you have two guards.
…okay. So, Puck – in case you don't recall, the rat kid that Vivi encountered in Alexandria who recruited him as a "slave" and got him to the theatre, inadvertently causing him to be roped up into our adventure – was a Prince of Burmecia this entire time. Just playing at being a street urchin in Alexandria. That is wild.
Not only that, he was doing that literally at the same time that Alexandria was either in the progress, or about to start, invading his country. The war party had already vacated north gate by the time Zidane and company got out of the evil forrest.
But in hindsight, yeah, of course the royal kid is trying to re-institute slavery for his pesonal power.
That gets everyone back up exactly 224 HP, which is specific enough it makes me wonder what the formula on it is.
I looked it up, and it's not interesting or cheesable (as far as I know on reasonable time scales). It'll scale as you play and always give predictable results.
Some of the FF9 damage formulas are.. well, Vivi is literally a black mage, so I guess Witchcraft would be the vibes of how they work?
Vivi's damage has been popping off in the most insane way throughout this entire sequence. 1653 damage is far more than any of my other characters can deal. I wonder if placing several opportunities to acquire the Ice Staff (off Gizamaluke, then as a purchase in Treno, then finally as a chest in Cleyra's Trunk) before a long desert sequence was a deliberate game design effort to signal to the player to think in elemental terms and to give Vivi specifically a showcase.
FF9 is not a very hard game typically. Being reasonably-completionist minded will get you to a solid level of power by itself. The game itself suggests if you don't want to fight a lot of battles, you can just swap equipment on and off to use the abilities you currently want to use, without bothering to keep them on to fully learn them after you get bettert stuff.
The Antlion has a couple other tricks, like Trouble Mucus, which inflicts Trouble. As a reminder (since I completely forgot myself due to it being a new status effect that comes up rarely), Trouble means a character "shares" the damage he takes with everyone else, which I only now realize having typed it out is an extremely funny if slightly mean gag.
I just did the dungeon where the first boss has this Mechanic by this name, if slightly different implementation.
One of the maidens begins playing the harp, and the dance begins. I can't really show it through screenshots, so I'll link a video: it's a pretty nice scene, with a very nice music. Freya is partnered with one specific Maiden, though she's not given a name or line, but it gives it a comforting sense of intimacy.
The sexual tension between the lead rat-ladies is... not insubstatual in this. If I recall, around this time Riverdance was a thing that people had been making pop culture jokes for years, and how you described this sequence to people casually. I don't remember anything else about Riverdance itself except it had a lot of straight back leg motions?
And Andy Richter's sitcom about office life made a bit about it being terrible, not because he's racist against (black) Irish people but because it's just terrible by it's own merits. And he should stop being racist to the (black) irish guy who just got hired in his office.
You don't really wonder why that show had only one season.
Steiner: "How dare they imprison us like this! Those wretched court jesters! Zorn and Thorn will never get away with this!" Marcus: "I can't believe I got dragged into this." Steiner: "No one asked you to meddle in our affairs!" Marcus: "It's pretty sad, gettin' backstabbed by your own queen." Steiner: "This is all some kind of a mistake! I know the queen. She would never betray me!" Marcus: "Wishful thinking. Who knows what she's gonna do to the princess…" Steiner: "....." Steiner: "I must save the princess at all costs!"
Once again this reads differently if you think Steiner is an idiot who's polite reflex is just an ingrained habit, or something he earnestly does and believe with his full heart every time. In the first one he's dodging the question by shoving the problem elsewhere while he focuses on smaller goals, and in the other he's thinking 'If she betrayed me, what would she do to the princess?' and deciding instantly who's side he's on without hesitation.
Everything is falling into place. Several "eidolons," summons, were sealed within Dagger at her birth, sixteen years ago. This is likely related to her hidden heritage. Those summons lay dormant, and she lacked the ability to call upon them – represented by her having the Summon command but lacking the MP to actually use it.
It's interesting because nothing in the actual plot up to this point talks about Dagger and Summoners in the same place, but as you talk about, her command list is very deliberate. It's also a move that doesn't do much for first time players of Final Fantasy, but someone who's played any of the previous six games knows what this spells mean.
It's one of those times where FF is starting to lean into not only it's own mythology, but the emotional connection players have with previous games in order to echo something in the current player. It's quite diffrent then when you go 'Oh cool, the super weapon is Ultima, just the way the last game had Ultima as a cool spell', it's something that's conveying plot information through a mastery of the medium, both the callback to previous games, and using the menus/battle commands to explain the plot without actually putting it in the script.
It's very very cool. While it's not mine, I'll never ever question someone who's favorite FF is 9, even if it's their first one.
Zidane's timeline: The group wakes up. They leave Lindblum, go through Gizamaluke's Grotto, reach Burmecia at the tail end of the Alexandrian assault. Beatrix takes them all out. They get back up, leave Burmecia, head straight for Cleyra, climb up the trunk, the storm vanishes.
Garnet's timeline: She and Steiner leave Lindblum. They head to South Gate, at which point news of Burmecia's destructions have already reached it. From there, they reach Treno, meet with Tot, take the Gargan Roo, head for Alexandria and are taken captive. Garnet meets with Queen Brahne, and Kuja puts her to sleep.
Brahne and Kuja's timeline: They leave Alexandria with an army of black mages, which goes through Gizamaluke's Grotto. They reach Burmecia and destroy the city. Zorn and Thorn are there. Zidane and his party encounter them and are defeated. Brahne, Kuja, Zorn and Thorn all go back to Alexandria. Kuja makes a stop by Treno, where he runs into Garnet, then heads back to Alexandria in time for Zorn and Thorn wait for Garnet and take her prisoner. She is taken to Brahne, Kuja puts her to sleep, and Zorn and Thorn draw the eidolons. Meanwhile, Cleyra's sandstorm shield goes down for unexplained reasons.
There's… Something that doesn't work there. Zidane goes from "there for the destruction of Burmecia, heads immediately to Cleyra, sandstorm breaks," while Dagger's entire side story happens after news of Burmecia's destruction has already spread and takes its time winding through multiple locations and then ending up a prisoner. And while all this is happening, Queen Brahne's team just move between Burmecia, Treno, Alexandria and presumably then Cleyra as the plot needs while manifesting supernatural awareness of Dagger's movement so she falls into the perfect trap.
And the damning part of it is, if all you do is remove Kuja's conversation about 'how was Bermecia', the entire timeline is fluid enough you can just say 'these scenes aren't happening in the order we're seeing them, we're just layering them together for drama', the way in Empire Strikes Back the time training luke seems to be like, a day or two if you think about it, but is treated as weeks while Han and Leia are being constantly chased by the empire and space worms.
Well, it does work on a few bosses, but yes, the majority are immune. Still always worth trying in the off chance it works.
Also, worth mentioning, you can use Scan on your own characters; according to the wiki, certain items have weakness to elements, but don't tell you about it in the menu - having not tried this myself, I don't know if that applies to both when pressing Square and when pressing Select (which give you different information about an item), but in any case, using Scan on your own characters in battle is the known surefire way to check for elemental weaknesses that might have slipped under the radar.
So... that's one rare corner-case use to add on top of "helping Quina eat things".
The Zuu is genuinely a threat, the only thing in this place that could actually lead to a party wipe. So of course, it knows a powerful Blue Magic that I need to get from it
Speaking of! When you're next able to actually move around inside of Alexandria Castle, you might want to take the time to visit the library, as there is something entirely optional there that is very easy to permanently miss.
Dagger's Trance turns her blonde. Which isn't necessarily out there, considering Zidane goes Super Saiyan, which has a similar effect. But also, her skin turns pink, her overalls with an undershirt become a leotard with added sleeves and prominently displayed cleavage… And she has lightning patterns across her thighs.
Out of curiosity, was this sand pool accessible earlier in the dungeon to reach that ledge? Or is this some Quina-exclusive thing where having them in the party got you some bonus treasure?
Yes, if you don't bring Quina along for this visit to Cleyra, those two chests are completely missable. And if you don't watch all of the Quina ATE in Cleyra, then the scene doesn't happen and you miss them as well.
*Groans aloud*
I am very much not a fan of this mechanic, and I'm not even playing. It is bad enough that the game is splitting the party across two different adventures without constant asides when the party splits locally too.
Also, worth mentioning, you can use Scan on your own characters; according to the wiki, certain items have weakness to elements, but don't tell you about it in the menu - having not tried this myself, I don't know if that applies to both when pressing Square and when pressing Select (which give you different information about an item), but in any case, using Scan on your own characters in battle is the known surefire way to check for elemental weaknesses that might have slipped under the radar.
The game doesn't tell you if an equipment applies any elemental weaknesses, not even with the Select tooltip. The one exception is the Silk Shirt, where the tooltip tells you it catches fire easily (read: applies a weakness to Fire).
Scan can tell you if a character has elemental weknesses, but annoyingly not from where they come from.
One of the maidens begins playing the harp, and the dance begins. I can't really show it through screenshots, so I'll link a video: it's a pretty nice scene, with a very nice music. Freya is partnered with one specific Maiden, though she's not given a name or line, but it gives it a comforting sense of intimacy.
This always bugged me, invading from where? Alexandria is at the top of the mist, is there some secret tunnel going from below up to the top? Like Lindblum, Alexandra Castle is separated by a valley from the other mountain. Burmecians would have to climb up to above the mist to reach the capital, and likewise Lindblum.
Interesting. Doctor Tot is, I think, the first character in the game to treat Steiner with something approaching respect, calling him "Master Steiner" and actually encouraging him to trust in his own judgment and initiative. Which is notable because from @Adloquium's breakdown of the JP script we know that Tot isn't particularly impressed with him.
And finally, Steiner actually seems willing to listen. Or at least pay lip service to the idea, but to me "...I'll take it under consideration" is read with some amount of teeth-gritted reluctant admission. It's probably because he respects Dr. Tot much more than he respects Baku, but also the weight of being told to wake the fuck up by multiple people is probably starting to tell.
Also, speaking of Baku, there's a hidden ATE in Treno, which is unlocked when Tot opens the path to the Gargan Roo. If Dagger - for no reason at all - runs back down the tower, you get the ATE 'Crime and Punishment.' I forgot to mention this because I actually forgot it exists until I bumped into it completely by mistake. The scene takes place at the cable car station, with Cinna waking up from a nap on the bench realizing he missed his cable car because he was sleeping off a food coma after eating too much Bundt Cake. He promises himself to take the next one only for the wrath of god to fall upon him in the form of Baku returning from Treno and catching him slacking off. Baku instructs his underling "Take my Super Tornado Tantalus Punch!" and chases Cinna offscreen into the cafe whereupon the screen shakes to several yells of protest.
RIP Cinna
Cleyra is an incredibly beautiful stop on the FF9 bus, but definitely gives the vibe of "small artisanal garden" in comparison to what we've seen of the other kingdoms, speaking to the Cleyrans' isolation in the name of tranquility. The string snapping on the harp is such an effective gutpunch, coming as it does right on the end of an upbeat scene of Freya and the Cleyrans riverdancing, something I never expected to see in a Final Fantasy title.
Yeah, the Cleyrans definitely give off the impression that they've been so safe, they've settled into a slow rhythm of life where there is never any true urgency. Which is great except when a giant bug is mauling a kid, but that itself is a disruption in their life rhythm they did not anticipate.
In some defense of the Cleyrans, the antlion has always been passive, probably because it never had a chance to grab a prince before.
Yeah, this fight is a reference to FF4, where the antlion that protected the treasure of the Damcyan royal family suddenly attacked Prince Edward. Antlions and princes. Natural enemies.
Sigh. Game don't be weird about a 16-year-old challenge (impossible).
FF9 shares some vibes with the Disney renaissance films, in that when you interact with such media as a teenager you react to characters like Ariel or Dagger being 16 way different than you do coming back to it 10 or 20 years later. FF9 isn't nearly as bad about it as some anime or RPGs I've consumed, but the recurring description of Dagger being 'beautiful' is really one of the sore points in the game. In Kuja's case, owing to some things I'll talk about later, I'm willing to think he actually means it in a purely aesthetic sense rather than sexually - which is something of an irony, as no one in the setting of FF9 is literally objectifying Dagger in the way Brahne and Kuja are.
Nah, remember Freya is participating because she's a Dragon Knight, I have to guess there's some symbolic reasoning that she needs to display that a Dragon Knight is involved rather then being another Dancer.
Nah, remember Freya is participating because she's a Dragon Knight, I have to guess there's some symbolic reasoning that she needs to display that a Dragon Knight is involved rather then being another Dancer.
This always bugged me, invading from where? Alexandria is at the top of the mist, is there some secret tunnel going from below up to the top? Like Lindblum, Alexandra Castle is separated by a valley from the other mountain. Burmecians would have to climb up to above the mist to reach the capital, and likewise Lindblum.
I assumed from the Gargant Roo, if say Treno decided it wanted its independence. I mean, you don't have to ask if there's a secret tunnel when the party just took said tunnel.
It's pretty simple to find. See, immediately after getting the Supersoft and Tot opens the hatch to the Gargan Roo, what you need to do is...turn around and leave the tower. This triggers the ATE.
It's interesting to see how the English translation tries to localize the Japanese comedy bits, to various degrees of success.
When off-screen Baku calls out to Cinna at first, he's doing so in a sing-song way, rather than the loud exclamations in the English translation. The idea is Baku has gone past simple anger into the playfulness beyond rage, when he's looking forward to delivering punishment. "So this is where you've been wasting time~~"
Cinna goes "ME!?" a lot in English, because that's what the translator decided to translate the "zura" exclamations as for this scene. As mentioned, Cinna uses the "-zura" sentence ending, and in the style of Final Fantasy verbal tics he says it all the time like a Pokemon. Thus, Cinna's exclamation of surprise is "Zura!?", which obviously nobody in RL will ever do, but this is comedy. Presumably the English translator needed something to put into the speech bubbles, couldn't think of a way to directly translate "zura", and just gave up, using the otherwise-grammatical word from the first time Cinna exclaims it in this scene. I don't think it works at all.
Baku's punishment is "Super Tornado Tantalus Deko-pin", in katakana to show it's a special move name. The English translation seems to turn it into "Punch", possibly because a "Deko-pin" is more obscure outside of Japan: it's a forehead flick, with "deko" being "forehead". The comedy is how a forehead flick is a tiny playful gesture, but Baku is presenting it with a bombastic name like a special move, and implying it's going to be way more painful than the usual forehead flicks. "Punch" kind of loses that implication; maybe "noogie" would work, even though it's still a different gesture.
Interesting. "Mr Bishop" was the piece I was missing last update to realize that the theme of the Treno family names isn't nobility, it's chess - the King, Queen, Knight and Bishop families are the nobility who hold power in town.
The Japanese text is a bit clearer in saying "the head of the Bishop family", which does technically mean "Mr. Bishop" is a valid term of address, but I think the added context would have been more informative.
Doctor Tot gives Dagger some explanations, but he's doing that "expert in field overestimates average person's knowledge of field" thing, so he sounds like he's spouting gibberish and she has no idea what he's saying ("When you pull on that lever, gargant circles the station continuously.") Thankfully, things are about to be self-explanatory once we pull that lever.
I'm slightly amused that the parts Dagger is confused by are some of the words in katakana, ie the non-Japanese words.
The Japanese text is relatively easy to follow, although it does require the ability to file away unfamiliar words for the moment and use the surrounding context to figure them out. According to Doctor Tot, this area is Treno Station of Gargan Roo, and the entire station is a big "rotary"; this is ロータリー, one of the katakana transliterations, but the idea is a roundabout, in the road traffic context. It's possible Dagger doesn't understand because this is a fantasy world and traffic roundabouts might not exist, and "rotary"/"roundabout" is an obscure architecture term in this setting.
And while it's not usually used in Japanese, the English translation might have been clearer with a definite (or indefinite, possibly) article for "gargant": "the gargant" would make it clearer it's an object or being. "When you pull on that lever, the gargant will arrive and circle the station continuously."
So it's one of those cases where the player should easily understand the dialogue, even if the characters might not due to missing some context about modern RL.
Interesting. Doctor Tot is, I think, the first character in the game to treat Steiner with something approaching respect, calling him "Master Steiner" and actually encouraging him to trust in his own judgment and initiative. Which is notable because from @Adloquium's breakdown of the JP script we know that Tot isn't particularly impressed with him.
Part of it is the inconsistent translation of name suffix honorifics. "Master Steiner" here is スタイナー殿 "Steiner-dono", which is the same honorific Steiner uses for "Master Vivi".
However, it is also the same honorific Steiner uses for "Miss Dagger": ダガー殿. And there have been several other instances where characters use "-dono" and the English translation doesn't bother including it: notably, Tot has always called Steiner "Steiner-dono", even when he's being dismissive (in his polite, scholarly way).
The change is in the rest of Tot's word choices, compared to when he talks to Dagger. Tot is usually very polite, phrasing his sentences as suggestions and advice, humbling himself, and generally being unassuming and unobtrusive.
Here, he's noticeably more direct, and speaks directly and plainly. Tot is speaking to Steiner like he's instructing a subordinate; the English translation adds "Please", but for the full effect it should have left those pleasantries out. Any "Please" or "Master Steiner" are just due to default politeness, rather than the sort of real respect Tot displays to Dagger.
Think of it as someone sending you subpar results at work: you'd fire back an email going "Please redo this part", but despite the "Please", it is not a request.
I don't think Tot truly dislikes Steiner. It seems more like Tot sees Steiner as a particularly dim acquaintance, to whom he must necessarily place his trust for his princess's protection, but has grave doubts about Steiner's competence in doing so.
Steiner's "I shall take note of your counsel" is said with a salute and exclamation mark, so it sounds like a formality of "I hear your orders", with no real indication that Steiner actually thought about it.
However, Steiner's response is about one level above a mere "Acknowledged" or "Orders received". 肝に銘じる "kimo ni meijiru" is often translated as "I'll engrave it into my heart", meaning the listener will take the advice and set it as one of their guiding pillars. As usual for the sort of knightly characters Steiner is emulating (cf Agrias from Final Fantasy Tactics), this could be applied to advice ranging from "You must learn to think for yourself" (as in this scene) to "Don't underestimate your opponent" to "You have a weak spot on your left flank, try to guard it better".
Thus, Steiner is taking this advice a bit more seriously than he did with Baku or Morrid, but it's not a given he truly understands it yet. He's definitely storing it in his mind to examine later, but "later" might be a long time coming, since there's no indication of how high a priority this is for him.
Translation trivia: 肝に銘じる is more directly translated into "inscribe it into (my) liver", so while the intent is clearly "engrave it into my heart" or "I'll take it to heart", the specific organ is a little different.
Interesting that the tunnels are mainly filled with worms that look parasitic. It's almost like the Gargan Roo is a kind of "body," or perhaps an intestinal tract, infested with parasitic worms. That thing is called "Ralvurahva"; that word isn't attested anywhere else that I know, so it seems likely that it's supposed to be Larvalarva.
Katakana is ラルヴァラーヴァ "ra ru va raa va", so "Larva-Larva" might be the case, although it would be more like "Larva-Laaaava" for some inexplicable reason.
It's cute that Dagger is concerned about the gargant's health. It does make me wonder what its life is like. The Gargan Roo hasn't been used by anyone other than us in ages, so who's taking care of the bug with a giant trolley strapped to its back? Who's feeding it? Is it smart enough to take off the trolley and put it back on its own when it hears the signal?
It does seem likely. The (chain) lever we pulled "drew in" the gargant, according to Tot, so clearly there was some sort of signal telling the gargant it's time to work. So it should have enough intelligence or pseudo-intelligence to understand "work time" and "free time".
I know certain insects (eg ants) are not individually self-aware, and are essentially automatons operating on pheromones, but they can still achieve complex results through those pheromones. I suspect the gargant is not one of those, and is actually self-aware enough to figure out the link between "ferry passengers" and "get food".
Also I assume, without evidence, that the Bishop family is maintaining all of Gargan Roo on at least the Treno Station side, meaning they might be responsible for the care and upkeep of the gargant. The question of why does arise, especially since I have no idea how Tot convinced them to maintain Gargan Roo in the first place, or what the Bishop family thinks will benefit them.
Quina: "Cleyra…? Sound yummy. I go with you!" Vivi: "O-Oh, and what about the princess?" Zidane: "Dagger? I'd never forget about her! She might not be here in Burmecia, but I know we'll find her soon."
Quina's motivation for joining the rest of the party to Cleyra is "Cleyra sounds like a delicious name", which is probably the best the game can do for the motivations of an optional character. Reminds me of Yuffie and "I shall follow you to outer space/under the ocean/the North Pole, because there might be good materia there to yoink".
Vivi here refers to Dagger as "big sister". He's definitely becoming the Little Brother character of the group, like the youngest kid in the neighbourhood playground gang. Of course, just "big sister" is a bit vague, especially since Vivi also calls Freya "big sister", but Zidane catches the context that Vivi is talking about Dagger.
The one note I might make is 街 "machi" is usually translated as "town", which can mean its own separate administrative region, but could also be used for "neighbourhood" or "street" (in the aforementioned neighbourhood sense, eg "Sesame Street"). Other translations include "(city) quarter" or "district". Sometimes I've even seen it used for entire cities (although I can believe those are due to the author using incorrect vocabulary, like "Fantasy Town, population three million").
So I can accept "settlement" as the generic term, where the translation probably went "whatever, just use a catch-all term".
This is an interesting change in honorifics. Back in Burmecia, everyone seemed to recognize Freya, and they addressed her as "Freya-san". Which is the default polite honorific, usually unremarkable, although given other characters with their wide range of honorifics, it does stand out a bit; recall Marcus using "-san" for most people making him the mature and even-tempered sort. Still, it's as generic as saying "Ms. Freya".
Here, the Cleyrans are calling her "Freya-sama". Which is technically the most respectful honorific, but also the one used by retail establishments to refer to customers. So I'm not sure if they're referring to Freya as such due to some inherent respect for her, or if it's just because they're going by the customer service manual.
This particular NPC's title, 杜の神官 "mori no shinkan", is close enough to "Forest Oracle"; 神官 is the standard "priest", and in Japan almost always referring to Shinto priests. So "Priest of the Forest" might also work; 杜 is a way of writing "forest" (more usually 森), but I think it's often used in the "grove" sense, and closer to "sacred grove" too.
The other NPC is 砂の神官 "suna no shinkan", ie "Priest of the Sand"/"Sand Oracle". Which is pretty cool worldbuilding, for the first two NPCs of Cleyra greeting the party.
Later, when we meet the High Priest, his title is 大祭司 "dai saishi", which is a more general "priest", including for RL Catholic priests. (The 大 just means "big" or "grand", and indicates the top rank in these contexts.) So I can kind of understand the English translation trying to differentiate between the Shinto-esque 神官 and the Christian-esque 祭司.
Unrelated: the HD graphics of Steam Plus Moguri makes it a bit clearer these Cleyran Forest Oracles are wearing spectacles. Rimless armless ones, with rectangle lenses.
Taking this screenshot for the HD graphics: the sign says "Plaza de Mira-something" (Plaza de Mirage?), as well as "Catedral" (sic). The "Plaza" looks to be the observatory we saw on the tour, or at least in that same direction. Later, I also spotted a sign pointing to "Plaza de Agua", which led to the water spring, so that seems to be the general naming scheme of Cleyra.
The line is just about the harp with the stone providing the magic power for the sandstorm. Translation looks fine.
This is clearly a deeply religious place, with most Cleyran having titles like "Forest Oracle" or "Moon Maiden." An insular, highly religious community worshipping nature… Yeah, they're elves. Rat elves. I would not have called that shot.
Yeah, from the NPCs I've seen, the men are all 神官, ie "Priests"/"Oracles" as mentioned, while the women are all 巫女 "miko". So they're not only rat elves, they're Shinto rat elves.
As a side note of interest, Sand Oracle Satreya (or however it's transliterated) says it has been "about a hundred years" since they have had guests in Cleyra. Which is both really long and really short? It's about three generations of isolation, but chances are the more long-lasting stuff like architecture or traditions will likely still be there.
Freya meets with the King of Burmecia again, whose sartorial sensibilities wouldn't be out of place in 70s pulp sci-fi. Freya reports to him about seeing Puck, and clarifies that she heard he left Burmecia one month after she did, which makes it also three years, so this kid left home alone at eight and has been surviving as a street urchin and vagrant this entire time? Goddamn where is his solo feature.
It's worse than that; it's been five years, according to Freya here. I don't recall if this matches up with earlier comments about when Freya left Burmecia.
Okay so they're definitely coming up the trunk, thank you for signposting this. I mean, they could be attacking in an airship, maybe ready yourselves for that? No? Ah, well. I'm not seeing the causal link between "enemy is trying to invade" and "harpstrings snap," either - how did Alexandria cause this, if they did? Maybe we'll find out. Or maybe this is just fate dealing Cleyra a bad hand.
It's slightly more natural in Japanese, although it still contains a bit of the "you don't say" obviousness.
Regarding the harp strings breaking, the King of Burmecia says "Someone may be trying to destroy the barrier". In other words, the harp strings snapping is potentially enemy action, rather than some other cause.
The High Priest agrees with that speculation, and the King of Burmecia says "I can only hope enemies will not come up the trunk". He's not certain there are any enemies present yet, so he's voicing a vain hope that this will remain the case. It does seem a bit odd that the King specifies the trunk of Cleyra, but I read it as the King just muttering to himself for reassurance, rather than actual strategic planning for a defensive siege.
Steiner: "How dare they imprison us like this! Those wretched court jesters! Zorn and Thorn will never get away with this!" Marcus: "I can't believe I got dragged into this." Steiner: "No one asked you to meddle in our affairs!" Marcus: "It's pretty sad, gettin' backstabbed by your own queen." Steiner: "This is all some kind of a mistake! I know the queen. She would never betray me!" Marcus: "Wishful thinking. Who knows what she's gonna do to the princess…" Steiner: "....." Steiner: "I must save the princess at all costs!"
Marcus saying "This is a nice mess we're in" amuses me greatly. (It's the line where he says "I can't believe I got dragged into this" in English.)
The "court jesters" line is inserted in the English translation. In Japanese, Steiner just says "I won't forgive you, Zorn and Thorn!"
The English translation has Steiner silently produce ellipses before declaring his intent to save Dagger, but in Japanese, Steiner is actually continuing to make growly frustrated noises. Specifically うぬぬぬぬぬぬ, which is "u-nu-nu-nu" etc, and doesn't mean anything other than "noise of frustration". So this isn't Steiner in deep thought; he's just being pointlessly loud as usual.
"I must save the princess at all costs" is also just Steiner yelling "Princess, I shall immediately come and save you!" Again, no real introspection happening here.
This is where we get confirmation Zorn and Thorn are official court jesters. Here, Dagger is scolding them for rudely summoning her (on behalf of Queen Brahne) even though they are "merely" court jesters, 宮廷道化師 "kyuutei doukeshi".
Of course, Zorn and Thorn just override her, as in the English script.
i'd just like to make a side note that Final Fantasy IX's One True Hater somehow dug up my SpaceBattles account, a website on which i posted once in the last ten years, to DM me and continue explaining to me why IX is Bad Actually, and for his troubles has now gotten himself banned from SB as well
this is what persistence gets you: absolutely nothing
i'd just like to make a side note that Final Fantasy IX's One True Hater somehow dug up my SpaceBattles account, a website on which i posted once in the last ten years, to DM me and continue explaining to me why IX is Bad Actually, and for his troubles has now gotten himself banned from SB as well
this is what persistence gets you: absolutely nothing
I do wonder how many of their points I would have agreed with if they were in front of me in list format and not firehosed out in wall of text format, but otherwise, I don't think they succeeded at his goal to have you dislike FFIX and tear it to shreds.
Unless their goal was just to rant in the first place. I feel a little annoyed because there is a part of the game I want to complain about later, but I don't want to be on the same side of the argument as…that.
