- Location
- Not your place of residence
but Omicron does our main character know how to headbutt
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy IX]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
My first encounter with Vivi was Kingdom Hearts 2 where child me was confused why everyone was so chill about the weird magic Heartless just wandering around town (and also got a bit genuinely freaked out from that one sequence where Vivi glitches out, multiplies and tries to kill you).
He seems a good bit cuter here.
He seems a good bit cuter here.
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
My favorite Final Fantasy game, here at last!
I'd actually like to talk about the plethora of hidden item spots in this game, which Omicron mentioned back in the first third of the update. There are a lot of them, aren't there? Now, sure, this could simply be because the protagonist is a thief and it makes sense to have him go around pilfering. Very thematic, right?
Except this was also the game that debuted Square's "PlayOnline" service, a cutting-edge Year 2000 website that featured exclusive tips and tricks for Final Fantasy IX. (It was originally supposed to link up with FFX, like the PocketStation for FFVIII, but that never materialized.)
As intended, you'd buy an actual physical strategy guide from BradyGames, a big glossy expensive magazine with lots of art and production value that cost thirteen whole dollars (almost $25 in today's money), and your guide would include special keywords you could access on the PlayOnline website, conveniently located on the World Wide Web. Product synergy!
People hated this. Internet access was by no means universal in 2000 and lots of kids didn't even have a home computer. The iPhone was still seven years out! GameFAQs had been around since 1995 but was by no means a mainstream website.
This was especially bad because FFIX is notoriously guide-reliant. This game has so much obscure and missable content that there was a hidden sidequest that wasn't public knowledge until 2013. There's like a whole other half a game of non-mandatory stuff. Having the relevant info gated behind a physical guide and a website drove completionists insane.
Fortunately, Square learned their lesson for FFX. No, not to stop putting content behind insane obscure requirements, don't be ridiculous. They just didn't put part of the strategy guide online.
All this to say that while you definitely can play FFIX without a strategy guide, this game was consciously designed around the expectation that you'd have one, so there's really no shame in it.
Anyway, that's my historical context for FFIX. Looking forward to more of the LP!
I'd actually like to talk about the plethora of hidden item spots in this game, which Omicron mentioned back in the first third of the update. There are a lot of them, aren't there? Now, sure, this could simply be because the protagonist is a thief and it makes sense to have him go around pilfering. Very thematic, right?
Except this was also the game that debuted Square's "PlayOnline" service, a cutting-edge Year 2000 website that featured exclusive tips and tricks for Final Fantasy IX. (It was originally supposed to link up with FFX, like the PocketStation for FFVIII, but that never materialized.)
As intended, you'd buy an actual physical strategy guide from BradyGames, a big glossy expensive magazine with lots of art and production value that cost thirteen whole dollars (almost $25 in today's money), and your guide would include special keywords you could access on the PlayOnline website, conveniently located on the World Wide Web. Product synergy!
People hated this. Internet access was by no means universal in 2000 and lots of kids didn't even have a home computer. The iPhone was still seven years out! GameFAQs had been around since 1995 but was by no means a mainstream website.
This was especially bad because FFIX is notoriously guide-reliant. This game has so much obscure and missable content that there was a hidden sidequest that wasn't public knowledge until 2013. There's like a whole other half a game of non-mandatory stuff. Having the relevant info gated behind a physical guide and a website drove completionists insane.
Fortunately, Square learned their lesson for FFX. No, not to stop putting content behind insane obscure requirements, don't be ridiculous. They just didn't put part of the strategy guide online.
All this to say that while you definitely can play FFIX without a strategy guide, this game was consciously designed around the expectation that you'd have one, so there's really no shame in it.
Anyway, that's my historical context for FFIX. Looking forward to more of the LP!
Just telling you this right now before you get to far in the game, If you manage to impress all 100 nobles in the dueling minigame you get 10000 gil, if you also manage impress the queen as well by doing very well, when you get control of Steiner later if you go and talk to the queen she'll give you a very useful accessory that you will otherwise not access to until much later. Also if you find the 7 knights of pluto in the castle and then talk to the 8th in the tower, he will give you an elixir.
- Location
- Netherlands
I make a habit of reading these a couple days later so it's not a mess of dysfunctional images. Something about the image host, I think.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
suffering from success
I'm going to need to change my image hosting method going forward but it's work I've been putting off because it's daunting.
- Location
- Te Ika-a-Māui
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Rate limiting is the bane of many a popular project.
somewhatLazy
Serial Procrastinator
- Location
- lurking
Look. Look. When you have more money than god and so much time to kill, what's more exciting for you and all your inbred pals? Hiring a normal theatre troupe to perform Romeo and Juliet for the forty-ninth time? Or hiring a phantom thief theatre troupe who will perform impossible robberies while performing Romeo and Juliet for the forty-ninth time?
I love this part of FF9's worldbuilding so much. The graphics are just high-resolution enough to be clear about how fantastical it is, but not too high-resolution to make it too expensive to build. It really adds an unique element of childish wonder to the world that makes it a delight to explore.
The names might be fake, or if they're real, they might have been intentionally named after the characters. Maybe they're adopted by the troupe or something?
God, just, Steiner's himboness. Even the one (1) moment in his entire week where he's actually being smart, he's still being stupid.
Welcome to the Vivi Protection Club! Members: anyone who's ever played Final Fantasy 9.
- Location
- USA
Because there is no "v" sound in Japanese. It's all "b" (which means, that, yes, a Japanese speaker would pronounce a word like "veteran" as "beteran"...or "betelan" because of the "l" and "r" thing too).
I don't remember if Vivi ever got an official romanized spelling from Squaresoft Japan; if there never was one, it'd be left up to the localization teams to figure out if the original Japanese writers intended it as "v" or "b".
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
God. Here we are. FF9. My favorite one. I don't even know where to start.
Final Fantasy IX establishes its tone extremely quickly and effectively as a hard pivot from the previous two games into territory that's significantly more comedic and much more in a sense of high fantasy adventure rather than the cyberpunk-adjacent settings which preceded it. In doing so, the game does something that I don't think we've done since...4? Maybe even 3.
This is a D&D opening.
The first Final Fantasy was unashamedly a D&D campaign, from the quartet of heroes to the vague "save the world with crystals by conquering dungeons and fighting evil monsters" story, right down to the Vancian magic system. Immediately afterward, the series pivoted away into striking out into its own territory, to varying degrees of success, but one thing that was rather lost along the way was the idea of an ensemble cast. Instead, most of the games would start with a protagonist before adding a wingman or two and slowly assembling a full party. 6 would end the game with an ensemble as one of the story's primary strengths, but even there the opening hours are a drip-feed of Terra, Locke, and Edgar.
But here? Here you can practically feel an unseen Dungeon Master facing four people from behind a DM screen, starting the story with the thief in his club of gentleman thieves (well, """gentlemen"""" but yk), doing just enough to get the hook in before moving on to our mage, our fighter, and our healer. Garnet's joy at swinging on the line is infectious in part because it speaks to that unbridled joy of a player finding a creative way out of a pickle for her first big adventure.
And so by the end of the intro, we are on a damaged airship sailing into the great unknown with a full quartet of fantasy archetypes. Not everyone trusts each other, but we're all in danger together. It's such a beautiful way to modernize the old, old "the four of you meet outside town, each of you holds a mysterious crystal."
Pursuant to the D&D feel, there's something I'm going to keep in mind as we play the game, which is the D&D alignment chart-
Alignment in D&D was (and is) a way to define your characters and predict what they might do in a given situation. As with all attempts to measure the behavior of mankind, it is subject to many a fight around the table when people disagree on what constituents aligned behavior, but in a very broad sense the D&D "good" equates to altruism and kindness to others, while "evil" maps to selfishness, while law and chaos are "preserves order" and "does whatever they want." For example-
Wait a minute.
He's part of a theater troupe.
You spoony bard.
...
What an intro. From walking around Alexandria to the rapid-fire intros to our team and Zidane's buddies, the unashamed showmanship of a giant fantasy castle and massive skygoing clipper ship, Final Fantasy IX does not waste time in harkening back to the sprite eras of the series.
If I tried to point out every detail my post would end up longer than Omicron's so I'll stick to just one-
Final Fantasy IX establishes its tone extremely quickly and effectively as a hard pivot from the previous two games into territory that's significantly more comedic and much more in a sense of high fantasy adventure rather than the cyberpunk-adjacent settings which preceded it. In doing so, the game does something that I don't think we've done since...4? Maybe even 3.
This is a D&D opening.
The first Final Fantasy was unashamedly a D&D campaign, from the quartet of heroes to the vague "save the world with crystals by conquering dungeons and fighting evil monsters" story, right down to the Vancian magic system. Immediately afterward, the series pivoted away into striking out into its own territory, to varying degrees of success, but one thing that was rather lost along the way was the idea of an ensemble cast. Instead, most of the games would start with a protagonist before adding a wingman or two and slowly assembling a full party. 6 would end the game with an ensemble as one of the story's primary strengths, but even there the opening hours are a drip-feed of Terra, Locke, and Edgar.
But here? Here you can practically feel an unseen Dungeon Master facing four people from behind a DM screen, starting the story with the thief in his club of gentleman thieves (well, """gentlemen"""" but yk), doing just enough to get the hook in before moving on to our mage, our fighter, and our healer. Garnet's joy at swinging on the line is infectious in part because it speaks to that unbridled joy of a player finding a creative way out of a pickle for her first big adventure.
And so by the end of the intro, we are on a damaged airship sailing into the great unknown with a full quartet of fantasy archetypes. Not everyone trusts each other, but we're all in danger together. It's such a beautiful way to modernize the old, old "the four of you meet outside town, each of you holds a mysterious crystal."
Pursuant to the D&D feel, there's something I'm going to keep in mind as we play the game, which is the D&D alignment chart-
Alignment in D&D was (and is) a way to define your characters and predict what they might do in a given situation. As with all attempts to measure the behavior of mankind, it is subject to many a fight around the table when people disagree on what constituents aligned behavior, but in a very broad sense the D&D "good" equates to altruism and kindness to others, while "evil" maps to selfishness, while law and chaos are "preserves order" and "does whatever they want." For example-
Zidane in this intro certainly comes off as the Chaotic type. Not only is he here to kidnap a princess as part of a conspiracy, he has no qualms with adjusting his plan on the fly and, of course, flirting up the young lady with every chance. His "protect girls" ability does speak to a heroish streak...more implied than seen, but let's give him time. Zidane's flirting does wear a bit, but considering the company he keeps it showcases the difference in class between him and Garnet-
Wait a minute.
He's part of a theater troupe.
You spoony bard.
Vivi is a Good Boy. His good boy-itude will be discussed more in time, but this intro is enough to get a look at his character. He's young, impressionable, down for whatever and a bit of a people-pleaser - a very straightforward Neutral kind of character. He can be easily led by the nose by someone with more drive, but he's not without boundaries when in danger.
Oh, Steiner. Steiner, my heart. Adelbert Steiner is my favorite Final Fantasy character. No conditions on that statement. I love this man so much. He is such a goddamn idiot. Steiner here is especially funny as a particularly D&D kind of archetype - the extremely hard-headed fighter/paladin who dumped his INT stat to get good physical scores. He's a blunt instrument, a solid object (as demonstrated when he plows through the airship roof). Steiner is what gets pejoratively referred to as Lawful Stupid - when a character is so lawful that they become hard-headed and intransigent and create party strife when others aren't so morally ironclad in their behavior.
And then there's Garnet. We don't have as firm a read on her yet, but that's as telling as anything. Garnet is a type of D&D character you don't see as much anymore - she's The Girl. As in, one of your players brought his girlfriend to the table and this is her first time playing, and she made a stereotypical Girl Character. She's a healer. She's a princess who wants out of her royal life. She has a secret destiny (as communicated by the intro with the storm and her unusable summons). She's Neutral Good - believe me, if you saw this character in the 90ss or early 00s, she came prepackaged with the NG alignment. Fortunately D&D has grown up a lot in the past two decades that The Girl isn't as common as she once was - there's nothing wrong with her as such, but most groups are smart enough to know now that The Girl doesn't need to be pigeonholed that way.
...
What an intro. From walking around Alexandria to the rapid-fire intros to our team and Zidane's buddies, the unashamed showmanship of a giant fantasy castle and massive skygoing clipper ship, Final Fantasy IX does not waste time in harkening back to the sprite eras of the series.
If I tried to point out every detail my post would end up longer than Omicron's so I'll stick to just one-
Fun fact, if you don't turn around to talk to Alleyway Jack fast enough, he'll pickpocket you and leave.
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It's from his (generic) armor, right? It doesn't seem to be saying much about him unless he's the only one who starts with that particular armor or some such.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The game developers decided he would start with that armor so he could equip that stat immediately, which is the same result by another route.
Yes, that's why I mentioned "unless he's the only one who starts with that particular armor".
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
Idk if this is a spoiler or not since it'll be apparent fairly soon and it's a pretty fundamental part of the game mechanics, but specifically only Zidane can learn that ability, and in general different characters get different abilities from different equippables.
Gotcha, thank you.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Oh god, they completed the monster ammunition project. That means the Chocobo Cannon will be upon us!
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
I knew as soon as I met the Alexandrian guards that you'd comment on them, heh. It got exactly the same reaction from me in my own playthrough regarding their attire.
- Location
- ORCA HQ
OK BUT TO BE FAIR THAT CUTSCENE WAS REALLY COOL THOUGH
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
FFIX is definitely heavy on the references, yeah - it was sorta doing FFXIV a decade earlier as a single player game in that respect. The two moons, one bluish-white one red is probably at least partially a reference to FFIV, for instance, and the battle theme takes a lot more cues from the themes of I-VI than VII and VIII did (particularly in the intro section).
Stlitzkin, being a moogle who's name is not some variant of "mog" or "kupo" and with a unique design, naturally went on to be a recurring character in spinoffs, specifically being the de facto mascot of the Crystal Chronicles spinoffs. I'm actually kinda surprised he hasn't shown up in XIV yet.
On a separate note, its actually fitting that this is the first Final Fantasy game where you actually do wander into people's houses and steal everything that's not nailed down, given that Zidane is a professional thief (well, also professional actor, but the thief is the part that is relevant to the gameplay).
Also also, interesting implications of the fact that Tantalus are from Lindblum, given we were just told there have been a minimum of nine wars between Lindblum and Alexandria - it tells us that while the two often fight, they are currently at a state of peace, since there's evidently trade and transit going on between them.
Edit: also worth noting, this was the age of instruction booklets. The one for IX gave each character a quote that summed up their personality that the writers would have presumably expected the player to have seen before starting the game. Which also spoiled who the playable characters would be in the process, but I'll just give the quotes for the ones we've seen.
Zidane Tribal: "You don't need a reason to help people."
Vivi Ornitier: "How do you prove that you exist? Maybe we don't exist..."
Adelbert Steiner: "Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?"
Garnet Til Alexandros 17th: "Someday I will be queen, but I will always be myself."
Stlitzkin, being a moogle who's name is not some variant of "mog" or "kupo" and with a unique design, naturally went on to be a recurring character in spinoffs, specifically being the de facto mascot of the Crystal Chronicles spinoffs. I'm actually kinda surprised he hasn't shown up in XIV yet.
On a separate note, its actually fitting that this is the first Final Fantasy game where you actually do wander into people's houses and steal everything that's not nailed down, given that Zidane is a professional thief (well, also professional actor, but the thief is the part that is relevant to the gameplay).
Also also, interesting implications of the fact that Tantalus are from Lindblum, given we were just told there have been a minimum of nine wars between Lindblum and Alexandria - it tells us that while the two often fight, they are currently at a state of peace, since there's evidently trade and transit going on between them.
Edit: also worth noting, this was the age of instruction booklets. The one for IX gave each character a quote that summed up their personality that the writers would have presumably expected the player to have seen before starting the game. Which also spoiled who the playable characters would be in the process, but I'll just give the quotes for the ones we've seen.
Zidane Tribal: "You don't need a reason to help people."
Vivi Ornitier: "How do you prove that you exist? Maybe we don't exist..."
Adelbert Steiner: "Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?"
Garnet Til Alexandros 17th: "Someday I will be queen, but I will always be myself."
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daniel_gudman
KING (in land of blind)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Queen
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Shakespeare comparisons are very intentional btw - according to the ticketmaster who told Vivi his ticket was fake, "I Want to Be Your Canary" is a play by "Lord Avon", implying that
1. It is very deliberately supposed to be read as Shakespeare, and
2. In the world of FFIX, the "Shakespeare was too uneducated and lower class to write his plays, obviously a nobleman must have done it" conspiracy theories are true except he never bothered to inexplicably get a patsy to pretend to be the author
1. It is very deliberately supposed to be read as Shakespeare, and
2. In the world of FFIX, the "Shakespeare was too uneducated and lower class to write his plays, obviously a nobleman must have done it" conspiracy theories are true except he never bothered to inexplicably get a patsy to pretend to be the author
- Pronouns
- Him/He
By the way, if you leave it on the title screen for a time, it'll run sorta character introductions, a shot of them and a few words. Like FF8 and FFT it's got stuff to show off if left in a display playstation at a game store.
This is one of those 'but thou must!' choices like trusting Cait Sith at the temple of ancients (or reading further, being Puck's slave.) No matter how often you say you're trying to kidnap Queen Brahne, the game won't move forward until you say you're going to kidnap the princess. It does change the response line depending on how far you take it.
One thing I adore these 90s games for doing is taking ideas from a previous game and going a different direction. In FF6 this kidnapping plot was villainous even if you don't think it was outright evil from headcanon, and something to be stopped or manipulated, while here it's the goal of the protagonist, and it removes the moral ickyness by making the princess want to get kidnapped.
Much like the scientist Cid was remixed into Hojo of FF7, and then Cloud 'Amoral mercenary but not really after the first hour' gets remixed into Squall 'Actually a mercenary, and acts like it longer then he's actually working-jobs', they remix Setzer here to show off different character or plot ideas.
It's a pretty interesting contrast. He (apparently) is nailing the Cloud/Squall 'cool aloof guy who's good at his job', while Zidane is cut from a similar cloth, but different. (Of course at this point hasn't gotten as much characterization as Vivi has in his knees)
One of the frustrations of FF14 for me has been the inability to create this classic look properly. The BLM class robes are fine, but the hats are too fancy or pointy or jokes, a proper wizard/witch hat that isn't a sunday-best hat is very hard to track down.
And good luck finding a face-obscuring make hat that isn't also fetish gear.
In fairness, while they didn't have as much, there was a lot of unmarked interaction points in FF7 and FF8, so running around the edges mashing confirm button was something a lot of FF players were used to doing in new areas. Remember Icicle inn?
Funny thing about the FF9 official guide: It fucking sucked. It had a lot of useful stuff in the pre-smartphone era, charts and lists and locations and advice, but a lot of the really insightful or finicky detail steps stuff was on their online site, where you'd put in the keyword to find out 'what weapon is good for this area!' or 'How to solve this puzzle!' Sometimes the keyword itself would spoil you a bit, like 'FrzSwrd' if you knew how to parse.
It's so bad that english-speaking players found a sidequest thing 13 years after the game came out, because it's something that takes a lot of time to do and involves a lot of backtracking, and no one had a clue about it because the trigging was non-obivious.
I think it might be a way to incentivize players to explore and talk to people. There's a lot of people to talk to in FF8 that revealed a lot about the plot, but had almost no mechanical benefit. While people aren't handing out items, if you're hitting every room you might as well look at the wonderful backdrops they spent so much money on, and talk to the NPCs. (Did you see that custom animation if you talk to the lady who's spinning? She's moving like an actual spinner might)
If you properly examined your inventory and talked to everyone, you might have figured out that a ticket to 'I Want to be Your Crow' would run afowl of the ticketmaster.
By the way, you really want to use Select anytime there's any sort of menu, if this wasn't already clear.Saying no does let you undertake the umarked sidequest to find a little girls lost cat that involves backtracking to the gates! I think it lets you get to an otherwise blocked off room that has like, a potion or card or something?
Monty is inside Alexandria castle by the way, in that barracks room Zidane and Blank put the armor on in. Vivi can't get to him, it has to be Zidane (or maybe Sir Rust) that actually delivers Kupo's letter to monty, which raises several questions.
As the later line about 'rooftop veiwers' and at least one notice written down somewhere, it seems known and accepted that most people are watching from rooftops (that overlook the battlements? The geography is woobly), so all this run-around seems entirely to get better seats for the show, not to see the show at all.
Granted, that is typical child-like behavior.
The thing she's geekng out about is an impressive pyrotechnic display, and a play that is beloved by the commoners as well. Being joyful at what is essentially a party is what you'd think is a normal reaction by most standards, it's not like the nobles are much more restrained in the FMV.
It's an interesting characteristic, because while the side conversations let you know there's poors and nobles, it doesn't seem like people are suffering under a frivolous nobilty, throwing impressive parties while thier citizens are starving. Everyone seems petty happy about the play and the most social discontent is a pickleseller's goodbye letter calling out everyone for being hicks and saying they're leaving.
I know you don't want to repeat every line, but I feel the plays writing is actually really good, in the 'fantasy people putting on a historical play using archaic language' way. Many of these lines are fucking bangers well suited to yelling before stabbing someone.
[Cinna, Blank, and Zidane enter.]
BLANK: Bereft of father! Bereft of mother! Marcus! Thou hast lost even thy love!
CINNA: Fortune hath escape'd thee! For what end shalt thou live?
ZIDANE: For the sake of our friend... Let us bury our steel in the heart of the wretched King Leo!
CINNA AND BLANK: Aye!
[Cinna, Blank, and Zidane rush out to greet their comrade, Marcus in his battle with King Leo.]
BLANK: We shall back thee, Kinsman!
MARCUS: Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!
CINNA: Nay, Kinsman! For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!
KING LEO: What ho? Out, vermin! Away! Thou darest bare thy sword before the King!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!
ZIDANE: Treacherous Leo, my Kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain! For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!
BLANK: Bereft of father! Bereft of mother! Marcus! Thou hast lost even thy love!
CINNA: Fortune hath escape'd thee! For what end shalt thou live?
ZIDANE: For the sake of our friend... Let us bury our steel in the heart of the wretched King Leo!
CINNA AND BLANK: Aye!
[Cinna, Blank, and Zidane rush out to greet their comrade, Marcus in his battle with King Leo.]
BLANK: We shall back thee, Kinsman!
MARCUS: Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!
CINNA: Nay, Kinsman! For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!
KING LEO: What ho? Out, vermin! Away! Thou darest bare thy sword before the King!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!
ZIDANE: Treacherous Leo, my Kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain! For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!
KING LEO: Arrg ... Grrr ... Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!
[King Leo exits.]
ZIDANE: Come back!
[Zidane chases after King Leo. Blank stands in Zidane's way.]
ZIDANE: Out of my way, Blank!
BLANK: Consider this, Zidane! If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms!
ZIDANE: T'is foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!
[Both race up the stairs and begin slashing at each other.]
[Blank jumps off the stage, and lands in the aisle. Zidane follows and engages in battle.]
BLANK: En garde!
ZIDANE: Expect no quarter from me!
[Battle between the two, ending in a draw]
BLANK: We shall finish this later! [Runs up aisle, returns to backstage]
ZIDANE: Come back here! [Follows]
[King Leo exits.]
ZIDANE: Come back!
[Zidane chases after King Leo. Blank stands in Zidane's way.]
ZIDANE: Out of my way, Blank!
BLANK: Consider this, Zidane! If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms!
ZIDANE: T'is foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!
[Both race up the stairs and begin slashing at each other.]
[Blank jumps off the stage, and lands in the aisle. Zidane follows and engages in battle.]
BLANK: En garde!
ZIDANE: Expect no quarter from me!
[Battle between the two, ending in a draw]
BLANK: We shall finish this later! [Runs up aisle, returns to backstage]
ZIDANE: Come back here! [Follows]
I think the improv-scene is, well, not the script so I find it less interesting in the 'hyperfocus on this one tiny part of the setting' even though it's excellent characterization for our actual characters, and not the characters they play.
90 is pretty good, you can endlessly repeat it until you get it as good as you want. There's 50 commands (left and right count, and typically the follow up to them is where players miss on speed since they execute faster), so you get one for the right command, and one for doing it fast.
Also you can miss the second part of the reward, if you (as Sir-Rust) go back to talk to the queen, she'll give an item based on how good she's feeling from the preformance. The 'good but not best' reward a 90 would get you is pretty solid. The best reward is for 100/100, but the reward isn't unique or powerful and isn't going to do much for you.
Interestingly, the pre-duel on the stage isn't scripted. It can play any of the actions, including Blank doing Zidane's unnecessary-but-showy backflip you don't see otherwise. (I bet because Blank is on the left in that shot)
FF9 does not take long to get to 'dressing as soldiers as a disguise' part. FF6 got to it pretty fast after the returner meeting, but FF9 still beats it for speed.
It's very very funny that the final fantasy games you knew best before this lets-play were FF9 and FF14.
If you pick the other option, Zidane backs to give her room, then the script just jumps to 'Just a sec, haven't we met before?'
Uh, who's that a painting of in the back? Queen Brahne, or one of her predecessors who had a different royal style?
Credit where it's due, she does know his name and remembers that he's there. If we didn't need to be able to rename him I don't think that 'uh' would be there. (You're right that he gets no respect, and he shouldn't, so some things are right with this world at least)
Omi, he said 'bullet' you can't pretend to be surprised when guns show up later.
Another sidequest is talking to all named knights to get a reward when you talk to the one on the stairs. There's only one that's likely to be missed, the one that runs on the upper floor of the big central room that leads to the libraries and kitchen. He's triggered to spawn on the opposite side of you, and when he reaches the midpoint to then run away based on your location. He's also already searching without having to be told, so it's easy to assume he's one of the knights you already talked to.
This game has some incredible faces.
The FMV's are being expertly used for characterization that was sometimes done for FF8, but was most of the time used for tech-porn. Here the faces are used a lot more to express rather then show off something they couldn't budget in polygons or backgrounds.
Steiner also leaps forward so hard his armor throws off sparks against the stone, just incredible reaction.
She's a method actor, and clearly Texas is still a beloved fictional setting in final fantasy. You think of all things inexplicable texans wouldn't be repeated in the last PS1 final fantasy?
[She lifts her head, the hood lifting up slightly to reveal her face.]
I never thought about it before, but I think this is a series first? Raising a hood as a movement, and not just blinking it into a different state and pretending it moved? Most other character-model changes are done like the armor bit before, it's done in the cuts between.
I know this cunningly hard technology is entirely absent from later games like FF14, which could not model someone taking off a mask without a cut-away if the entire world was at stake.
And doing this causes an item to drop from above into the mess of hidden walk-paths around the engine that you can then pick up.
This is a pretty impressive in-battle thing to happen, but enemies changing forms or losing bits of themselves has happened as far back as 7 in 3-D spaces, so not a first.
I always found this bit hilarious because we've had two 'stage' battles so far, one highly complex daring swordfight with Zidane and Blank, and the full-battle with pyrotechnics against King Leo before that. Really impressive stuff, high quality.
And then at this point two guys fake one punch/kick per henchman and they run away. Just complete failure of fight cheography compared to before.
Hey look, there's a moon. I wonder if they'll visit it to try and revive Cordelia or something later in the plot?
What? A character who has magic uses magic in the plot which causes things to happen? I'm pretty sure we don't do that on this platform, this must be a mistake.
I think this is the game that first had a proper 'White Mage and Summoner' as an archtype? In FF4 the summoner started with white magic and ended with black magic and summoning, and 5/6/7/8 all had summons go on anyone. So this is the first (apparent) White Mage/Summoner character.
I think Garnet's battle model shows the least skin of any female party member so far? Some of the concept art for earlier games may prove me wrong, but between the high collar + Jumpsuit + gloves she's reasonably well protected from rain or dirt, especially if she didn't lose her WHM cloak.
Can't say it's the most conservative outfit sadly, but it's interesting to compare the design sense of say, someone like Aerith or Riona in comparison.
I see you equiped 'protect girls' on Zidane, and Vivi's day is continuing to be that sort of day.
It's more reliable then telling your loyal knight to go deliver this package to someone, that's for sure.
I see we're continuing the FFT method of just letting us see villains give orders when there's no protagonist around to see the plot. Although this really feels like ominious foreshadowing, while FFT typically revealed something unamibiously about the world directly to the player (even it was often 'hey, this NPC is dead now, another NPC got to them')
FF7 intentionally had a fast action opener that ran mostly on vibes before letting the player explore after it set everything up. Meanwhile FF8 let you wander around and explore for quite awhile before it kicked into the dramatic action.
Both are pushing pretty hard on type of 'how does your game start?' methods. While FF9 seems to just be just moving at a steady pace with ups and downs, but without such hard swings in exploration/plot/battle the previous two games did.
Meanwhile, FFT didn't have enough gameplay variety to introduce the character to anything but the main gameplay loop right away.
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