Now I kind of want a FFIX remake. Imagining some of the big plot fights done in a full 3d action rpg style? Especially some of Vivi's personal fights? It would take a lot of work to keep the right aesthetic, but it would be damned pretty.
Supposedly some French animation company (Cyber Group Studios) was making an animated series adaptation of it, but, uh, the Final Fantasy Wiki's most recent update on actual production details (their barebones page on the series) was its announcement in 2021, with the most recent overall detail being
By 2023, the studio continued touting their work with Square Enix on the series as part of their partnerships,[5] and the Final Fantasy IX IP as a project they felt was attractive to buyers.[6]
On November 7, 2024, Cyber Group Studios announced it has entered the judicial recovery process from insolvency.[11] On December 18, 2024, four acquisition offers from Cyber Group Studios have been registered: a joint-venture between United Smile, Toonz Media Group and Atlas Global; Solent Productions; Newen Studios; and Hildegarde.[12]
Supposedly some French animation company (Cyber Group Studios) was making an animated series adaptation of it, but, uh, the Final Fantasy Wiki's most recent update on actual production details (their barebones page on the series) was its announcement in 2021, with the most recent overall detail being
can you imagine if we had Arcane but with Final Fantasy IX though
everyone googling "how do i play final fantasy ix in 2024," three million downloads on steam, utterly inexplicable
I went and looked at Cyber Group Studios' previous catalogue though and that was not happening. These are very much kids' cartoons so I'm no expert but none of them look particularly impressive at a glance.
...wait, they did a 2020 adaptation of Tom Sawyer!?
I went and looked at Cyber Group Studios' previous catalogue though and that was not happening. These are very much kids' cartoons so I'm no expert but none of them look particularly impressive at a glance.
If it wasn't a house organ of a gamedev with their own competing MMO/RPG, I'd say the first choice should have been the studio that did the Wakfu animation. Otherwise are there any high profile French animators that might have been able to handle it? Personally, If I had creative control and a blue-sky budget, I'd propose a Laika or Swaybox Studios style hybrid stop-motion/puppet feature. I mean, everyone in the cast already has big exaggerated features and proportions perfect for that style of animation, and half the background NPC's are literally wacky animal people and muppets.
Oddly enough, Square Enix has declined to put the fate of a multimillion dollar media project under the creative control of a semi-anonymous internet crank, but someday my letter writing campaign will surely pay off.
If it wasn't a house organ of a gamedev with their own competing MMO/RPG, I'd say the first choice should have been the studio that did the Wakfu animation. Otherwise are there any high profile French animators that might have been able to handle it?
France has a pretty massive animation sector that's produced a lot stuff with international renown. The most famous today would, of course, be Fortiche, who made Arcane, but of course just like the Wakfu guys they have their own multibillion dollar MMO property to promote, but there are a bunch that are more indy. I guess you could take the guys who've been doing the recent Asterix animation, though? I don't know if they are any good, but the animation looks pretty good and is in a kind of cartoon-y style that could work well with FF9's aesthetic.
France has a pretty massive animation sector that's produced a lot stuff with international renown. The most famous today would, of course, be Fortiche, who made Arcane, but of course just like the Wakfu guys they have their own multibillion dollar MMO property to promote, but there are a bunch that are more indy. I guess you could take the guys who've been doing the recent Asterix animation, though? I don't know if they are any good, but the animation looks pretty good and is in a kind of cartoon-y style that could work well with FF9's aesthetic.
I've yet to see Arcane, and had no clue it was made by a French Studio, so that just goes to show how behind the curve I am on the state of modern French animation past 2020. The A&O animation does look pretty decent..but It does sort of bring up the question of why they chose a French studio, if they were going to cheap out? (money the answer is money and SE marketing's obsession with trying to present itself as a high-end multimedia lifestyle brand by riding the coattails of stuff they consider "prestige" but not actually doing the work to create something of value unless it's expensive PlayArts figures)
Why not use their close relationship to Sony to try and get Sony Pictures to work on something, esp. since they put out stuff as visually impressive as Hotel Transylvania and Into The Spiderverse which, uh, speaks for itself? And, funny enough, I did some googling and found out that SE is actually the North American publisher for Wakfu back in 2012. So there did, theoretically, exist an avenue for them to make use of their animation studio.
EDIT: Why Tom Sawyer? is Mark Twain particularly beloved in France?
I don't know that I'd have any positive expectations of any non-videogame adaptation of any Final Fantasy title; so far, the forays of Final Fantasy into movie, anime and TV series have never been something worth watching. Especially a game like FFIX, which has a plot so tightly written that adaptation would basically be "let's turn the gameplay sections into FMVs" (unless you wanted to ruin the story, of course), it seems like any attempts in this direction would not result in something good.
Corti got here before me but, yes: To a French audience who grew up in the 80s, Tom Sawyer might be best known perhaps not as the literary classic North America is familiar with, but as Tomu Sōyā no Bōken, the beloved(maybe?) 1980 Japanese anime adapting his adventures and released in France in 1982 which is of course known the world over (not).
This is... Not actually the only 19th century novel adapted into a 80s-90s Japanese anime that was then released in France for an audience of children. Others include Remi Sans Famille, Princesse Sarah... Probably more.
You have to understand that France is a country of massive fucking weebs and if they have the opportunity to grow familiar with a classic of American culture through the medium of a Japanese anime instead of the actual original work, they will take it with zero hesitation.
This is... Not actually the only 19th century novel adapted into a 80s-90s Japanese anime that was then released in France for an audience of children. Others include Remi Sans Famille, Princesse Sarah... Probably more.
Yeah, Italy had the same thing going on in that time period. The "Heidi" anime is by far the most well known version of that particular story in my country - it was in a constant rerun rotation through the entirety of the nineties - and many other classic western stories are better known in their anime form for the pre-internet generations.
This is... Not actually the only 19th century novel adapted into a 80s-90s Japanese anime that was then released in France for an audience of children. Others include Remi Sans Famille, Princesse Sarah... Probably more.
It really was a boom time for public domain adaptations of western literature. Off the top of my head I can recall the freakish popularity of the Anne of Green Gables anime in Japan, The Wizard of Oz Anime and the Peter Pan anime that got localized here in the US, and like 4 or 5 different series based on various fairy-tale anthologies. Personally, I'm partial to the Frankenstein anime film which has scenes of the titular monster frolicking with children and giving them piggyback rides interspersed with gratuitous dismemberment and brutal shotgun suicides.
if they have the opportunity to grow familiar with a classic of American culture through the medium of a Japanese anime instead of the actual original work, they will take it with zero hesitation.
[Lights up, Airship interior. Enter Cinna and Baku, weeping.] Baku
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Cinna
According to Brueghel, when Icarus fell, it was spring.
[Lights out; sounds of thunder.]
I. Crash Landing On You(r Evil Forest)
Last time on Final Fantasy IX, we abducted Princess Garnet (with her consent) from the city of Alexandria. But alas! The ship has been struck by harpoon cannons and a Bomb, and is now lilting and going down…
The ship can't stay afloat; it's going down, sinking into the dark, thick mists that shroud the lands around Alexandria. On the bridge, Cinna and Baku are panicking, Cinna shouts "We're gonna crash!" and we get this incredible shot of the ship descending below the cloud cover and crashing into a forest below.
Cinema.
So, that's a pretty bad spot for our protagonists to be in!
Fortunately, the crash looks worse than it is. Our characters have the kind of resistance to concussive force and being tossed around that boast the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and so Zidane, who has been thrown clear off the ship in the crash, wakes up in a clearing with only a mild headache.
He's actually not that far off the ship; walking some distance across a rocky outcropping reveal the sight below. That ship is definitely a wreck, but it's like… Surprisingly one of a piece still? It mostly appears to have lost all the 'towers' that seemed to house auxiliary engines. I don't think it'll fly again without significance rework, but hey, with that blast I was expecting it to find in a bunch of splinters across a hundred mile radius.
In the bridge, Baku stands up merely kinda sore.
Baku: "Oww… My back's killin' me. Are you alright?" Cinna: "Yeah, but the Prima Vista's wasted." Baku: "Just our luck to crash in this forest… It's gonna get interesting…" Cinna: "What do you mean, 'interesting,' Boss? I hear no one's ever made it outta here alive."
[At this moment, Blank enters the room.] Blank: "Boss! There's fire everywhere! It's outta control!" Baku: "Quit yer whinin' and get it under control! And get the wounded outta here!" Blank: [He salutes.] "Alright!" Baku: [To Cinna] "Get our goods outta here too: weapons, items, anything we can use! There's no way we can survive if all our stuff is toast." Cinna: [He salutes.] "I'm on it!"
Heh. I didn't notice it during the first update, but the Tantalus airship is named the Prima Vista.
A prima vista is Italian for "at first glance," and as far as I can tell, it can mean two things: Either literally at first glance, that is to say, an initial but deceptive appearance, such as, say, a famous theatre troupe who are only here to entertain you might look like, when in secret they are a band of thieves. But it can also means sight-reading, that is to say, performing a musical piece (or a theatre play!) while reading it for the first time, without rehearsal - just like the kind of 'we only get one shot at this' plan which they deployed to abduct Garnet, or the group's improvisation when their play was disrupted.
It's a perfect double entendre for these scoundrels.
I also like how, despite being a bunch of dorks who keep joking around and messing with one another, when in the thick of it it's clear these people are all used to working together swiftly and efficiently - they have a particular salute joining their hands that speaks to a kind of military routine. They're rogues, but they're trained and organized to work together. They're competent.
However, Cinna quickly runs into a problem: The Tantalus crew are distracted by looking for Princess Garnet.
Zenero: "Maybe she fell off… Got squashed under the ship." Cinna: "This is great. First we kidnap her, then we kill her. We'll hang for sure."
Honestly, Cinna, what were you expecting as the outcome of capturing the princess of Alexandria in the heart of her kingdom?
I actually do wonder. Was this only about ransom? It seems an insanely risky gambit, plus pretty villainous. Were they sponsored by someone to do this? Did someone want Garnet's mysterious power for their own?
For now, Zidane jumps off the small cliff and joins up with Cinna, who tells him he's nuts for jumping off the ship and Zidane has to clarify that no, he got thrown out from the impact. He asks if everyone's okay, and Cinna confirms that, incredibly, nobody died - but if they don't find Garnet soon, they won't make it regardless.
This is when the game introduces one of its more… Interesting and weird innovations:
Active Time Events.
ATEs are signaled by the words "ACTIVE TIME EVENT" flashing at the bottom of the screen. For this first one, the local Moogle, Mosco, flies down from his perch to explain them to us. Basically, when the ATE is flashing, we can press Select. If we do, a window opens up listing one or more named scene - here, it's called "The Forest Keeper." If we click it, we flash to a separate cutscene unfolding somewhere else.
Garnet and Vivi are running through the woods, and very clearly running from something; Vivi trips, Garlet pauses to check on him, and they turn around to watch the way they came. But instead, the threat comes from above; a shadow falls over Garnet and the scene cuts away back to Zidane before we can see what that was.
It's… Kind of fascinating.
Like, there's no reason to do this. I have never heard of ATEs being used anywhere else in the series save in IX, and that's because… Why would you? If you want to have cutaways to small cutscenes unfolding with characters you don't control, you can just do that. We could have that cutscene with Garnet and Vivi when Zidane leaves this screen, for instance. The only thing that giving these scenes a flashing prompt and menu does is make them possible to ignore, but that's not something you'd ever want to do on a first playthrough.
Essentially the only purpose I see to the ATE system is to allow for players on their second or later playthrough to skip other bits of the story, or… For speedrunners. Like that insane "twelve hour to endgame" requirement for a specific weapon that's been mentioned upthread. You'd want to have ATEs so you can ignore as much of the plot as possible for that.
But mostly? It seems like a solution in search of a problem. ATEs aren't bad, they're just… They don't need to exist. They do not bring anything to the table.
Anyway, we're told to go look for Garnet outside while the others look for her inside the ship. So we head out, and get the incredible location screen for this place:
EVIL FOREST.
Not, like, "The Darkholme Forest" or "Phantom Woods," no, straight up, EVIL FOREST. It's hilariously on the nose.
And now we are getting our first random encounters.
These are generic beasties, and they're scaled for a lv 1 Zidane to fight, so there's not much to say. Each fight only brings in 1 AP, which considering that his abilities currently equipped cost like, 35 AP, means it could take a while to learn "Protect Girls" or whatever.
We only go through one screen with this setup, though; as soon as we emerge onto the next, we find a terrified Vivi looking at the so-called "Forest Keeper."
Vivi: [He walks backwards and stumbles, falling over.] "Sh-She's in trouble…" Zidane: "...What the hell is that?" Steiner: "Release the princess at once!" Zidane: "Yeah, like it's really gonna listen to you. Come on!"
[Battle begins.]
Alright! Interestingly, this is an example of Final Fantasy taking an endgame concept from a previous game, and putting it in the early game next sequel. Namely, we are in a Rinoadel situation, in which we're fighting a monster that holds one of our teammates captive. The monster can use Absorb to drain HP from Garnet, and if she's KO'd, it's a Game Over; additionally, any are of attack we may have risks hurting Garnet, so we need to focus on single attacks on the monster while healing Garnet from the Absorbs.
There is, however, one interesting complication thrown into the mix…
II. Not Beating The Goku Allegations
Trance.
This game's version of Limit Breaks: Trance. This one is clearly calling back to FFVI; Zidane's Trance is similar to Terra's, being a transformation that turns him pink, more feral-looking, and increases his power.
Notably, this isn't just a color scheme. Zidane's clothing appears to have changed. His shirt and trousers have been replaced by fur, and his gloves are gone, with the cuffs replaced by tufts of fur around his wrist. It's an appearance that emphasizes the monkey-like parts of his design, like he's tapping into some latent heritage that's normally limited to his tail.
What I mean is that…
It's Super Saiyan 4, guys.
Steiner: "Could it really be Trance…!? I've heard of it before! Trance is induced by a surge of emotion." Zidane: "Alright, let's take him!"
Hehe, a "surge of emotion." It looks like Zidane's interest in Garnet is more than just a front - that, or he just reacts that way to every woman being threatened in front of him. Notably, the use of present tense in "Somehow, it raises my power" as well as the relative lack of surprise from Zidane seems to suggest that he's undergone Trance before. Even if he doesn't know its nature, he already understands its effects.
And what are those effects, you ask? Well, in previous games, Limit Breaks were singular effects. In VII, you filled up a gauge, then spent the effect firing off one super attack. In VIII, you rolled for Limit Break access every turn if you were on Crisis, either getting it or not. Trance is somewhat different: It puts Zidane into a special state where his stats appear to be increased, and his ability menu is changed.
Instead of his previous Command "Skill," Zidane now has a Command called "Dyne." It contains Free Energy, a move which causes a bunch of kanji to explode on the enemy with dramatic particle effects, dealing 272 damage, massively in excess of what our other moves can do. Zidane can still Steal in this state, but it'd be kind of a waste; the Trance gauge goes down as we act, so we only have a limited time in Trance to take the most advantage of it.
Of course, this interacts with ATB in all the predictable ways - you can miss out chances of using Trance commands because the menus aren't fast enough, the turn order interaction is weird, all that. The system remains shackled to ATB but, by this point, we've grown familiar with it. It's mostly only annoying for the fact that this game's ATB is very slow when you only have one or two characters in the party, because its speed is tuned for a four-man party, so the wait times when doing sequences like Zidane alone in the forest are agonizing.
Zidane's Free Energy quickly dispatches the Prison Cage enemy, but unfortunately it extends its tentacles and vanishes into the trees, leaving our three stooges to stand around wondering how to find her, and Vivi to feel terrible about himself.
Don't cry, you poor child!
Steiner: "How could I let this happen!?" Zidane: "Don't worry. She's not dead yet. That monster was only a minion. He's probably gonna take her to his master." Steiner: "That means the princess might still be - come! We must go find her at once!"
This is a patented "character pulls information out of his ass moment," how does Zidane even know this? Doesn't really matter. The Prison Cage - or another Prison Cage, for that matter, swoops down when the party isn't expecting it, capturing Vivi!
This is unforgivable.
So, Vivi has been captured. This is actually not as bad as it might look, because it causes him to have a panic attack.
No, wait, wait, I'll explain! You see, when Vivi is captured he freaks out, shouting "Let me go!" (could be just the normal reaction of a child being suddenly seized by a monster; could also be reflecting some past trauma), and he acts out that panic… By casting Fire on the Prison Cage.
The Cage is a plant, so fire magic is especially effective against it, dealing 80+ damage. Unfortunately, the Cage is still using Absorb on its poor victim, and Vivi's HP is even lower than Garnet's - he can only take two Absorbs, the third one will kill him.
So of course we take that time to Steal everything the Cage has to offer.
It's fine, we have potions!
Healing Vivi, attacking with Steiner, and stealing with Zidane, we grab a Broadsword and a Leather Wrist off the monster, and eventually kill it; it goes down like a deflating balloon, its petals opening with a burst of gas. It's a really characterful animation, in the vein of VIII's death animations.
Vivi's fine! He thanks us for saving him, and Zidane asks him if he's alright. But just as Vivi says he thinks so, a last surge of life animates the plant monster; it stands up and unleashes a burst of green gas on the party. Zidane, with his Thief reflexes, manages to backflip out of the way, but the gas hits Vivi and Steiner and knocks them out. Steiner goes down, reaching out with a hand and muttering "P-Prin…ces…"
With very little delay, however, we immediately transition to Vivi waking up in bed aboard the wrecked ship (presumably they did manage to put out the fires).
III. Challenging The Boss (No, The Other Kind Of Boss, Well, But Also That Kind)
Blank is standing over Vivi's bed, and explains to him that some of the monsters in this forest reproduce by planting seeds inside your body that sprout and kill you. Jesus Christ. Thankfully he has brewed a purgative that'll remove the seeds from Vivi's body. It doesn't taste great, but Vivi drinks it down dutifully.
Meanwhile, Steiner is still in a haze, stumbling around and muttering about the princess, whom he is clearly in no state to save. The two aardvark-looking crewmen with pincers for hands stop him from going out and getting himself killed. Steiner protests that the princess is in danger, but they tell him the boss'll take care of it and shove him inside a storage room, telling him to drink his medicine and locking the door behind him.
Notably, Benero and Zenero (that's their names) are much more rough with Steiner than Blank was with Vivi, but they do still help him. It's interesting, because Steiner is their enemy, a knight of Queen Brahne who got stuck on the ship trying to rescue Garnet from them, so it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't treat him with kid's gloves… But they do give him the medicine before locking him in a room, which is of course to keep him from causing trouble but also so he can't get himself hurt. Is this out of a sense of obligation towards someone stuck in the same predicament as them?
Either way, Steiner doesn't really see it that way. He's just at the nadir of despair.
Steiner: "Dammit… I can't just stand here… The princess's life rests in my hands. What can their boss possibly accomplish!? This medicine… It smells terrible. And the color… This is obviously poison!" Steiner: "<Huff-huff-heave-heave.>" Steiner: "Ugh… I can't take it anymore… God help me!"
Oh my god. When Steiner started ranting that the medicine was obviously poison, I expected that dumbass to toss it out the window so that later on we'd have to deal with "Steiner didn't drink the purgative, the plants are taking over!" I wasn't expecting a player character suicide attempt within the first two hours of the game. That's the implication here! Steiner looks at the medicine, decides it's obviously poison, realizes he's locked in the room with no way to escape or help Garnet, so he just drinks the 'poison' willingly.
You big, beautiful idiot. At least now you won't get turned into a Last of Us clicker.
Back on the bridge, though, trouble's a-brewing. It turns out… Baku isn't keen on this whole 'saving the princess' deal.
Baku: "Forget it. Monsters born out of the Mist are crawlin' everywhere." Zidane: "So what? There's nothing out there we can't handle." Baku: "Yeah, but what are we gonna do about the wounded?" Zidane: "We can take 'em with us." Baku: "How are we gonna carry all of them? Trust me. We go out now, and we'll all get wasted."
[Baku turns around.] Zidane: [He stomps his foot angrily.] "!!!" Baku: "My boys come before the princess, you know. It's too bad… We're gonna stay put 'til everyone recovers. You better not set one foot outside this ship. You got that!?" Zidane: "I can't believe you're abandoning her! You're nothing but a big coward!"
[Dialogue ends.] Baku: [If we talk with him immediately after:] "I got nothin' else to say. If you don't agree with me, you're free to leave the band anytime."
Well!
I like a good conflict between an established party where everyone is holding a reasonable stance. Baku is right: The Prima Vista is full of wounded and non-combattants (I skipped over it, but the members of the band that played during the play are also part of the troupe), taking them for a trek in a monster-haunted forest is a surefire way to get everyone killed. At the same time, Zidane is also right: They abducted Garnet (even if it was with her approval) and got her into this mess, if they just leave her to die then they basically just killed her.
The solution would, perhaps, be to send out a small party, one that the rest of the troupe can spare, to go looking for Garnet, while others remain to protect the ship. Of course, that would be removing some of the crew able to protect the ship, but…
Well, let's just say that the way Baku emphasizes immediately "you better not set one foot outside this ship!" gives me the idea that he might have some ideas how the next beat is going to unfold.
I touched on the item system briefly last update, but here's a visual example. Zidane's basic dagger teaches the Flee ability; he's gained 4 AP since the game started. When I unequip his old dagger, he keeps the 4/40 AP towards Flee, but he loses access to Flee until I have that command again. Instead, his new Mage Masher comes equip with Detect, which identifies which stealables an enemy possesses. I'm reasonably certain we'll get more use out of this than Flee. Mage Masher is also a better weapon in terms of attack rating, and has Silence as a status rider, which is pretty good for such an early weapon!
Now, Zidane equips daggers, that's his thing, like Steiner equips swords. But what about other items? Let's look at the Leather Wrist:
As you can see, some items carry multiple abilities, and some abilities are cross-character. So for instance, the Leather Wrist could teach Vivi Blizzard, or it could teach Zidane or Steiner Beast Killer. If I had infinite Leather Wrists I'd just slap one on everyone, but as it stands I have to make decisions - who do I want to be learning this ability?
The items are, of course, also pure stat increases. So, depending on the leveling curve of the game, we could easily find ourselves in a painful situation of dragging around outdated items just to get that little bit of AP over the line. Whether that'll actually happen, we'll see.
One of the Muppet Band Members, the cymbalist, is lying there wounded or despondent.
When we leave, we get another ATE - or rather, two of them, followed by a third one if we pick both. They are "Time to Escape," "Girl Who Was Left Behind," and "My Little Baby."
They're short and very simple, although Girl Who Was Left Behind reveals something amusing that we would otherwise have inferred from that character's absence:
They left Ruby behind in Alexandria.
Poor girl. I honestly have no idea when she'd have found the time to get down from the ship in the brief scuffle at the end, but now she's stuck in the city. Hopefully she doesn't get arrested or anything! Granted, she never got to the point of making her stage entrance, so it's likely nobody knows who she is.
Time to Escape, meanwhile, has Steiner finding himself in much better condition after drinking the purgative. He's now studying the room he's in, which is in poor condition, and wondering the viability of ramming through the wall. What a himbo. I love him. He decides against it, instead tries yelling "FIRE, FIRE!" but nothing works. So he just goes to sit down, and for the first time notices the doll on the table.
Steiner: "What's this? What an ugly doll… 'Princess Garnet, age 15'!? H-How dare they write the princess's name on such a ragged doll!? Besides, the princess is not 15! She's 16!" Steiner: "...Princess…"
God, Steiner. His genuine devotion to the princess is kind of heartwarming. This man has one calling in life, and it's 'henchman.' Never has a man be more of a minion than this poor knight.
My Little Baby, meanwhile, concerns Cinna, who is searching for… His doll. The doll that Steiner is currently crying over. 'How am I supposed to sleep now…?'
It's basically just a cutaway gag - a lot of these ATEs are.
Blank tells us he gave Vivi medicine and we should check on him, so we head to his room.
We're still rummaging through the mattress for every lootable item we can find, of course.
Vivi: "Oh… Th-thank you for helping me."
[Vivi sits up.] Zidane: "Ah, don't mention it. Besides, it was your black magic that saved the day. You know, you've got some major power for such a little guy." Vivi: "...." Zidane: "What's wrong…? Are you peeved at me because I called you little? Hey, you're a great mage with great powers, alright? To hell with looks, it's what's inside that counts." Vivi: "I'm sorry. When that monster caught her, I couldn't do anything…" Zidane: "Hey, don't worry about the princess. I'll get her back. I promise." Vivi: "Thank you, Mr. Zidane." Zidane: "Whoa, that's the first time anyone's called me "Mr." Just call me Zidane, alright?" Vivi: "Okay… Zidane."
I like that Zidane is, in contrast to our previous two characters, pretty socially perceptive and quick to try and raise the spirits of someone who's feeling down, including by guessing at his own mistakes and correcting like trying to tell Vivi he's not a 'little' anything. Of course, Vivi's trouble seems to run deeper, and he's still looking pretty depressed by the time Zidane leaves again, which Zidane himself notices.
Zidane: "Geez… He was pretty down… Maybe I shouldn't have made that promise. I don't even know if I'll be able to find her…"
[Cut to white; we play the meet-cute in the castle again, with 'voice-over' instead of the dialogue we had at the time.]
Zidane: Man… Zidane: I never felt so strange… Zidane: Maybe fate brought us together… Zidane: I can't explain it…
[Back to the present.] Zidane: "Man, I can't stop thinking about her… What am I gonna do…?"
[Dialogue options: "Go look for her" // "Forget it"] Zidane: "Yeah! What's there to think about!? She's cute… and she's in trouble. That's all that matters."
Oh boy, you've got it bad.
It looks like IX is going to follow in the tradition of its predecessors and feature a central romance between two of the playable characters as a core part of its story. Which is fine, it's a good plot beat to hang a story on.
You know, I wonder. Most of the modern RPGs I've played tend to have optional romances with several potential partners. Whether they're BioWare, Obsidian, Larian, or CPRed - they're descended all from a particular mold and… Well, the "make your own story" angle obviously has a lot of appeal. But that means these romances have to be only partially integrated into the core plot. They're not completely extraneous, don't get me wrong; these games integrate their romance paths at various points of the main story and have them feed back into it to some degree.
But you can't write a main plot around a romance if that romance can just… not happen. You can't write your story to be about Squall and Rinoa's burgeoning romance, and how she slowly opens Squall to his own feelings until, at the end, they find one another across time and space, if there is an option for that to not happen. It can't be the emotional core of your story. And we know this, because they tried that… In Final Fantasy VIII, where you can miss 90% of the Squall/Rinoa romance buildup!
That's mostly a joke. The game is still about that romance, it's just that you as the player can fuck up your decisions and get an objectively wrong version of the story where it's written badly.
But like - I'm thinking about the first Mass Effect's decision at Virmire, and Final Fantasy VII, and imagining a version of the game in which you can choose to have either Tifa or Aerith die at the end of Disc 1, and then Cloud ends up in a final romantic scene at the airship with the one who survived, and like.
That's a worse game.
Blank: "...There you are. Why do you look so serious? Uh-oh… What are you up to this time?" Zidane: "I'm gonna take that knight and the black mage to find the princess." Blank: "You're crazy! Man, you don't even know what's out there. Besides, there's no way the boss'll allow that." Zidane: "I know…" Blank: "Sheez… Why do you always gotta play hero? The boss is gonna kill you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go talk to the boss."
We don't know a lot about Blank, but it seems clear that he and Zidane are closer than any of the other crew members; they seem to be around the same age and build, they know each other's personality well, they're in synch enough that they were picked to play the two friends turned enemies who had one of the showpiece duels of the play, and they were the duo tasked with the abduction. We don't know how their connection started, but the game needs very little to strongly convey its existence. Blank knows and trusts Zidane well enough to not even try to convince him not to do it, rather he almost encourages him to take his courage in hand and go challenge Baku.
As far as I can tell, the entire Tantalus crew is made up of: Zenero and Benero, the pincer-hand aardvarks; Marcus, Cinna, Blank and Zidane, the lead actors and thieves; Baku, the leader; and the Muppet Band Members, who don't get names but are identified by their instrument of choice. Plus Ruby, who was left behind in Alexandria. It's not a very large crew.
We find Baku not on the bridge, but in the same room where we had the presentation on our plan and which we used to evade Steiner; when we find him, he's sitting in a corner snoring, but it's clear he's been waiting for Zidane this whole time, because Zidane doesn't even need to say anything for Baku to know why he's here.
Baku: "Took you long enough… I fell asleep, darn it. So, you're leaving, eh?" Zidane: "Yeah… I promised Garnet I'd kidnap her." Baku: "Gwahaha! I didn't ask you why! I can't blame you, though. She's damn beautiful. I guess that's reason enough! Well, I hope you're ready! 'Cause I'm gonna bust you up for breaking the rules." Zidane: "...Alright."
[Baku advances and pauses.] Baku: "Okay, get your butt over to the cargo room. We got more room there."
[He leaves.]
I wish people would stop commenting on the incredible beauty of the 16-year old girl but I feel like that won't stop any time soon.
Ah, there it is. That beat I can't help but love every time it shows up.
Let's just get right into it in the next room. The Drummer and Violinist who were using the room to rest are apprehensive (Violinist: "Hey, what's going on here?"/Drummer: "I don't think you guys should be fighting.") And when we approach Baku, he asks us if we're ready. If we say yes, he warns… He will not hold back.
IV. Call Him Walmart The Way He's Selling This Fight
Boss battle. Zidane fights against the troupe leader. Mentor vs pupil, adult vs teenager. A classic beat.
But of course, this is FF9, and our main character is a thief. So before we actually get to the fight…
Let's check out that new Detect command.
…Zidane summons a floating magitek eyeball that scans Baku and tells us his equipment.
I was not expecting that aesthetic for this ability, I gotta admit. But sure. It is now my headcanon that Zidane keeps the eyeball robot as a pet and polishes it during campfire rests. It's basically ED-E.
Anyway, Baku carries an Iron Sword and a Hi-Potion, so we'll be wanting that. Of course, while we're prepping, he delivers his first, fierce attack, and…
…he pratfalls.
"Ain't holding back" my ass, old man.
Now, this isn't to say that Baku is going to completely job this fight. He actually does use real attacks (shouting "Rrrrargh!" every time), and he could defeat us if we were careless. (He deals up to ~40 damage per attack and Zidane has 131 HP, so it'd take, like, five turns to lose if we didn't have Potions). The thing is…
Okay, so we have a few fights under our belt at this point.
Let's talk about stealing odds.
They're bad. The first battle lured us into a false sense of complacency. Most steal attempts end in failure. If I just tried to play it normally, Zidane would die before getting both items from Baku. Or I could just chug Potions until it works.
It's agonizing, and frankly it's just incredibly annoying design. The incentives it creates for the gameplay… It's not that it's impossible to deal with. It's that this kind of design creates a perverse incentive where the best way to steal is to just turtle up with buffs, debuff the enemy if possible, and then just spam Steal until it works while healing damage. Which isn't, like… Fun.
But this is an emulated game. So while we don't have the "perfect steal rate" cheat we might have with a mod on the Steam version, we have save states. I can quicksave before every steal attempt, and retry until it works. Which I will.
Once we're done with the theft, we can deal with the battle.
His attacks are so full of character.
We can see the Trance gauge fill up below Zidane's ATB, but it's too slow to matter in this fight. This is just a straightforward exchange of blows and some Potion use, with Baku dramatically shouting with every attack or yelling "Bring it on!" "That tickles!" and "You gotta fight better than that!" every time we hit him, until finally…
Baku approaches Zidane… And punches him in the chest. You know, one of those friendly, 'atta guy!' kinda male bonding gestures, but it's enough to nearly knock Zidane over. "Bravo!" he says. "Go find your princess!" And, laughing out loud, he turns around and leaves the room.
Zidane: "Damn, that hurt! He pulled his punches 'til that last one."
See, the thing about Baku is that he is playing straight the role that I initially assumed Gaffgarion would play. Now, he's much less of a rude and violent asshole, but he's still, you know, a criminal, and he's an older, more experienced guy who has taken a young protagonist under his wing, but who is giving him orders to not do heroic things out of a mix of pragmatism and "sticking by your own people" that the young hothead then rebels against, and he turns and fights him…
But in Baku's case the "fight" is clearly him holding back because he's not seriously trying to beat up Zidane; he's trying to test him, to make him prove he has what it takes to head out and risk the forest's danger. He definitely planned to do this from the start, knew that Zidane wouldn't agree to stand by and played up the part of the bad guy to get the young thief's blood up.
He's an actor, after all.
The band members express surprise at Zidane beating Baku and disbelief at him being crazy enough to go into the forest, but Blank congratulates him. So now… It's time to form our party.
[Zidane enters.] Zidane: "Come on. You're too old to be playing with a doll." Steiner: [He stands up, the doll held in his hand. He starts gesticulating wildly, waving the doll about.] "Silence! A scoundrel like you could never understand! I'm just overwhelmed with concern for the princess! If only you rogues hadn't kidnapped her… This is all your fault! If anything should happen to the princess, I will have your head!" Zidane: "Take it easy. Geez… I'm gonna go look for her now. I'll let you come with me if you promise to be good. What do you say, Rusty?" Steiner: "RR… RUSTY!!!? I am Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto, and I will never work with you conniving thieves!" Zidane: "Captain? I figured you were a private, what with that cheap, rusty armor… Look, this has nothing to do with Tantalus. It's something I decided to do on my own. I just wanna save Garnet." Steiner: "Hmph…! You had better not be lying! Because if you are, I won't hesitate to kill you!" Zidane: "Yeah, yeah. I'm counting on you, Rusty." Steiner: "Make no mistake. I'm only going with you to rescue the princess! I will deal with you personally when this is over!" Zidane: "...Whatever."
He he he. He said "...Whatever."
That exchange is mostly just funny - Steiner does a lot of jumping on his feet to show his anger (going CLANK-CLANK-CLANK), his distrust of Zidane and pride as a knight are displayed so angrily they become comical, it's a fun character beat.
But then, Steiner surprises us with some new character depths.
Steiner: "It may be difficult with just the two of us. We should seek Master Vivi's help as well." Zidane: "Why are you calling him 'Master'?" Steiner: "You fool. That black mage has unimaginable powers… I don't want to get him involved, but alas, it can't be helped. We need Master Vivi's powers to rescue the princess." Zidane: "Alright, let's go talk to Vivi."
It would have been really easy to make the stubborn, hard-headed knight in heavy armor who swings a sword immediately distrustful of magic and mages. Instead, Steiner is the only character so far to talk about Vivi with respect. Oh, Zidane is very nice to him, of course, he's caring, in the way you should be towards a literal child, however great his powers; but Steiner is the only one who, instead of "Vivi the kid with perpetually bruised knees," sees "Vivi the mighty wizard," and instead of being scared, he is awestruck and calls him "Master Vivi."
It's a really neat way of of showing there's more to Steiner than just a curmudgeony obstructionist who has to loosen up eventually.
The Iron Sword we stole would allow Steiner to learn the command ability Minus Strike, but it would mean losing progress towards Beast Killer, so we'll keep that one equipped for now.
So, the Mist.
It hasn't been an explicit focus of the story so far, mostly just lurking in the background - but it's clearly a major worldbuilding element. It's always capitalized as "Mist." Earlier, I skipped over a mention by one of the characters that the Prima Vista is Mist-powered. So what we know of the Mist is that it appears permanent - nobody talks about just waiting until it clears up - that monsters come out of it, that ships use it to fly, and that a ship needs to fly above the Mist because it's dangerous.
It looks like the land around Alexandria is cast in a shroud of nefarious mist that creates monsters and which cannot be traveled safely, requiring airships that use that very same mist as fuel while flying above it. Very interesting.
So let's see Vivi.
Zidane: "Well, Vivi, we're ready to go look for the princess." Vivi: "Really!? That's great! Be careful, okay!" Zidane: "Actually, we want you to come with us, too." Vivi: "Huh!?" [His head falls.] "B-But I can't do anything." Steiner: "Hardly, Master Vivi. Your magic was highly effective against that monster. In all honesty, I hold your power in greater esteem than this scoundrel's." Vivi: "B-But… I'm scared. I couldn't even move last time." Steiner: "Please, Master Vivi. For the sake of Princess Garnet and all of Alexandria, I humbly request your assistance!" Zidane: "Come on! You're a black mage, for crying out loud! Show us what you've got!" Zidane: "Alright, let's get going." Vivi: "...Okay. I'll… try my best." Steiner: "Thank you, Master Vivi."
I love this beat where Steiner the Knight raises Vivi's confidence by talking up how awesome he is. It clearly comes from the heart. I'll note that everyone talks about "black mages" as a known quantity, and magic as powerful and fearsome but not as if it were wholly unfamiliar. It looks like magic in this setting is not potentially available to anyone with the right Materia or Junctions, but the province of specific mages, who are respected or feared for it. It could be a matter of training, or it could be inborn - or Vivi could be some kind of strange creature not quite human. It's hard to know without seeing under his hat.
Zidane leaves, and Steiner stops Vivi before he does the same. He tells him that he would like to try an experiment, and whispers something to him…
Equipping a Silk Shirt on Vivi allows him to start learning Thunder, and then we're off to the races. Unlike in VIII, the group folds into the main character while on the move, which I am kind of sad about. As we leave, we run into Blank again, once again leaning against the wall like a cool guy.
Blank: "Sheez… You really dig her, huh?" Zidane: "I can't sit around knowing a girl's in trouble. Goes against my nature." Blank: "Whatever. You're full of crap." Zidane: [He leans forward.] "Ohhh… I get it. You're jealous that I'm gonna get me a sweetie pie." Blank: "Pshhh… She's not even my type." [He produces a purple bottle.] "I came down here to give you this." Zidane: "You're always thinking about me… but I won't need a love potion to reel this one in." Blank: "Why don't you get your mind off girls for a second? This is the medicine that I gave to that black mage and the knight. It's sort of like a seed remover." Zidane: "Cool. This'll really come in handy." [He takes the bottle.] Blank: "Why am I always helping you…?"
This is followed by a tutorial on how to equip abilities, courtesy of a letter from Baku that tells Zidane leaving the band is his business, but he better keep training!
Outside, Zenero and Benero are standing watch, and they tell us that we're always welcome to come back and we can always rest here. Cinna, however, says that now that we're no longer part of Tantalus, he needs to charge us for items.
It's a fun touch to justify why he functions as a shop. We buy some potions, then ask Mosco the Moogle to save and ask if he has mail.
Shockingly, he does:
From Ruby to Zidane: "Zidane? Are you alright? I'm doin' good! I met an interesting stranger in Alexandria today! I'll tell you more soon. PS: Tell the boys in Tantalus I said "Hi!"" Mosco: "Ruby sounds like a nice girl! Kupo!"
…
It's been less than 24 hours. How has she already sent a letter. How - how does she know we're in the Forest!? How did the Moogle find us and get in? So many questions! No answers.
And now, it's time to head back into the forest. I'd show you more pictures - we ran into a Goblin, they have a fun design - but the camera insists on taking pretty poor angles from which we can't really see much.
So instead let's look at the next ATE, Orchestra In The Forest.
The music band appears to have found its spirits again, and they play a lively fanfare. Baku tells them to stay on their toes, and they all cheerfully echo "Okay, boss!"
It's nice that they're feeling better, but… Maybe this orchestra in the middle of the literal Evil Forest is a bad idea…? Ah well.
VI. How About 'Mirkwood'? No? Look, I'm Just Trying To Spruce This Up
Now that we have Vivi, Steiner, and Zidane, the ATB goes much faster with a regular flow of actions. We're on pretty familiar ground here: Vivi has a limited store of MP and Fire and Thunder cost some but deal more damage than base attack. But there's a twist in that Vivi can use Focus to increase his magical attack power - I don't know how much help that will be overall, but it seems like a neat way of spending less MP by charging up to make spells stronger. As for Steiner, he's got a pretty strong basic attack, and we have yet to unlock his Sword Art abilities, but…
Oh, right. Sword Magic. This is a new ability he did not have during the Prison Cage fights.
Fire Sword actually causes Vivi to cast Fire on Steiner's sword, resulting in an elemental boosted attack. That attack deals much more damage than Steiner's base attack, and it costs MP - Steiner's MP, not Vivi's; it also doesn't consume Vivi's turn in the order.
But it does need Vivi to cast it. When Vivi goes down to an enemy attack, the Sword Magic command becomes grayed out. So we need Vivi in the party to unlock Steiner's full power.
That's… Kind of incredible. A risky move, too; it seems like it would naturally lead to never taking Steiner on if we're not also taking Vivi (while the rest isn't true), but it's a really interesting way to show that these two have a particular relationship.
Evil Forest is pretty in a "spooky enchanted forest" way. It's clearly a very old place, everything completely overgrown, the trees themselves drowning in moss and fungi. This screen has a clear fountain standing in a circle of moonlight, and a Moogle who hides as soon as we arrive; we can drink from the spring to restore all HP and MP.
We also get another ATE as we enter: Do as I say, not as I do.
Blank: "Are you sure about this?" Baku: "Yeah, don't worry. We'll be outta here soon, too. Here, take this map. It's gonna be a long trip back to Lindblum…" Blank: "Alright. I'll see you later."
[They both salute.] Baku: "I'm countin' on you!"
Yeah, okay, Baku sending Blank out on a personal mission right after Zidane had to fight for the right to leave definitely strengthens the feeling that this whole sequence was basically a performance (har har) put on by Baku as part of a scheme for his flighty young pupil to take his wings and fly off on the adventure that mattered most to him. Or rather…
No, I read that wrong. I'll explain more in a moment.
The moogle hiding in the tree trunk turns out to be Monty, the one to whom Kupo's letter was addressed! It's cute. Everyone definitely seems to be thinking Brahne is up to something spooky, though it's cute that Kupo "suspected" Garnet of planning to leave. I guess her unhappiness was obvious to everyone around her who wasn't Queen Brahne.
Monty himself actually has received a letter of his own, from Stiltzkin, that adventurous-looking Moogle we saw in Alexandria:
From Stiltzkin to Monty: "I'm in a very cold place right now. It's really strange. It wasn't like this last time I came here… But I guess this is why I travel: to encounter the unexpected. Anyway, I'm gonna get outta here before I get trapped in ice!" Monty: "A cold place… Oh, I know where he is! Kupo! There must be something strange going on."
A place turned cold that wasn't before? Maybe the seasons are out of whack? We saw that kind of elemental disorder in the world as far back as the first Final Fantasy, but it really could mean anything.
We fight a giant floating flower, which is kinda cool. This is where I first notice that Vivi being down disable access to Sword Magic.
Overall those enemies are very easy, as befits a first dungeon; the main issue I run into is that Vivi has very low HP and that spending turns on Steal can lead to much higher damage than I might otherwise suffer. They are also, to their credit, able to inflict status effects; that flower can Blind, for instance. It's not completely a sleepwalk.
And it's about to get worse. Because as we head deeper into the forest, the game cuts smoothly fades into an FMV (using the pre-rendered background against which we just saw our character moves to pan into the cinematic, it's really clever and quite well-done):
If there's one thing I know about Evil Forests, it's that you absolutely love to see a giant flower, pulsing with malevolent red light like a vile heartbeat, its petals opening and closing rhythmically like fangs as it hisses like a predator, while legions of thorny vines writhe around the trees that surround it.
There's one more screen of normal forest terrain and random encounters, then we stand in front of The Cave.
I love how the vines are drawn in such a way as to suggest that this vegetation is different from the vegetation that surrounds us on all sides, that it's creeping, reaching out, like tendrils or feelers from some great distant body.
And it could very well be accurate: The pulsing red flower could be the "heart of the forest," or it could be a malevolent parasite. Vines are a common feature of the kind of parasitic plants that grow on other plants, strangling them. This plant colony could be killing the forest, rather than ruling it.
Let's enter into the lion's den.
VII. Titus, Forget The Cross, Grab The Flamethrower
Vivi: "There she is!" Zidane: "So, this is the master." Steiner: "Princess!!!" [To Zidane:] "You stay out of this! Alexandria would be disgraced if a mere bandit should rescue the princess." Zidane: "You think you can handle him on your own?" Steiner: "....."
[The giant plant hisses and writhes its tentacles.] Zidane: "Let's get him, Vivi!"
Alright! Looks like we are getting our first proper boss fight, the Plant Brain. It carries an Iron Helm and Eye Drops, the former of which we want - but it's growing pretty obvious that there's a specific order in which drops tend to work, with much better odds of getting the "common" drop rather than the "rare" drop. We steal the Eye Drops immediately, while the Iron Helm will take save scumming.
Still, even with Zidane on relatively passive steal duty, we have some tremendous attack power against a boss that is vulnerable to Fire.
Steiner, you beast.
Steiner's Fire Sword hits the Plant Brain for a whopping 273 damage. Meanwhile, I decide to have Vivi Focus for now, I want to see how high I can get Fire to hit.
The plant has magic of its own, such as Thunder; it can use Pollen to Blind the party, and it otherwise attacks with its tentacles.
While I do manage to pull off the Iron Helm theft, in the process of Focusing and using Fire Sword, I didn't pay enough attention to Zidane's HP, and the Plant Brain's next Thunder takes him out.
Down one party member. Could this be the beginning of the end? But then…
Oh my fucking god, no wonder 10 Year Old Me thought this dude was the coolest ever.
I was wrong earlier - Blank didn't get assigned a special mission. Clearly, Baku got worried that Zidane wouldn't be able to make it on his own, and since Blank and Zidane are clearly BFFs, he decided to either allow or 'order' Blank to go help him. Blank then ran through the forest to arrive just as Zidane went down to shore up our party. Fuck. I can't say my childhood self was entirely wrong about him being cool???
Blank is mechanically relatively simple, he has solid stats and he can Attack, Steal and use Items, he mostly matter in giving us another body with which to take action. I immediately have him raise Zidane with a Phoenix Down, and then it's time tear the Plant Brain to shred with overwhelming action economy and powerful fire attacks.
Plant Brain down, 5 AP to everyone. Vivi unlocks Fire permanently, which is nice, but at this rhythm abilities will take forever. Ah, well.
More importantly, we can now cut Garnet down from the vines. Blank reminds Zidane to administer the potion to Garnet, which he does; the poor taste is enough to make Garnet stir and cough, and Steiner dotes on her, asking her to "please try to drink all of it" - he basically turned into a nanny the moment she was in his arms, it's kind of adorable. Vivi worries about Garnet's health, but before anyone can answer, the cave starts to tremble - and the mound from which the Plant Brain stood collapses into a pit.
Uh-oh. What the hell are those? Zidane and Blank yell at everyone to get out of here, and Steiner runs off carrying the princess, with Blank and Zidane covering the rear (literally, turning around to make sure the monsters don't strike them in the back).
Then we draw from the Dollet Raid (though much shorter) with a brief escape sequence with the monsters running after us, and able to catch us if we're not fast enough.
VIII. But I've Got A Blank Space, Baby, And I'll Write Your Name
The monsters do manage to corner us in a stream. Their name reveals them to be "Plant Spiders," being insect-like beings with roses for abdomens? These could be plants mimicking insects, or it could be a kind of very large orchid mantis. Either way, they're not happy we killed the Plant Brain. It's the first time we fight four opponents at once, and they have magic like Thunder, but thankfully their HP is very low and so we dispatch them relatively easily. Then we keep running!
[Zidane stops and faces back towards the monsters.] Blank: "What are you doin'!?" Zidane: "Something's wrong…" Blank: "What?" Zidane: "The entire forest is coming after us."
[He turns to Blank.] Zidane: "Blank… Take care of everyone."
[Zidane turns around and begins to run after the party.] Blank: "(What did he mean by that?)"
[He runs after Zidane.]
Oh, Zidane, you big romantic idiot, don't preemptively plan to make a big dramatic sacrifice. That's the way you lock yourself into not seeing outcomes that involve not sacrificing yourself!! The martyr complex is deeply unhealthy!!!
And then, oh fuck. I remember this cinematic. It has been burned into my head since I was ten years old.
Our party races through the forest, a teeming horde of Plant Spiders at their heels. Then, shockingly, inexplicably, the forest begins to petrify. It happens in wave, from the heart outwards, and everything caught in that wave is turned to stone - the trees, the ground itself, the plant spiders running through it. Like some kind of… Instinctive immune reaction from a wounded organism, perhaps, killing everything within it, both the intruding toxins and the antibodies it just deployed.
Steiner carrying Garnet overtakes Zidane, then so does Vivi. We know that Zidane is faster and more agile - it could be he's just tired; or…
There's a joke/metaphor about how when you're out hiking with your friend and a hungry bear sees you and starts running after you both, you don't need to be faster than the bear; you just need to be faster than your friend. But what about the opposite? What about deliberately slowing down, so that your friend overtakes you and it's you that the bear catches?
Maybe that way, your friend won't even have to know that you did this for him, he can just think it was bad luck, and live without guilt.
I can't know for sure that this is the intended takeaway from this scene, that Zidane was deliberately slowing down so that if the beasts caught up with someone it would be him, and they might either be happy with their prey or else he might be able to hold them back a little and give everyone some time. His dialogue with Blank certainly makes it sound that way, but it could be coincidence. If true, though, that would be the second character with latent suicidal tendencies we're seeing in this update.
But in any case… Zidane doesn't get to be the one making that sacrifice.
You know, in this higher quality model, it sure looks like Blank isn't wearing these patches of darker skin - but rather than they've been sewn onto him, like in some depictions of Frankenstein's monster.
Blank slams into him, elbowing him out of the way, and it's him that the plant spider seizes in its claw - just in time for the petrification wave to reach them and stop them all dead.
Zidane watches, powerless, as Blank uses his last moments to toss a scroll at Zidane, who catches out of the air. It is, of course, the map that Baku gave Blank to give to the others. The petrification wave is still advancing, and so all that Zidane has time for is to quickly wave gratitude to Blank as he runs away.
The thorny vines of the Plant Brain surge across the trees, nearly catching Zidane; he throws himself out of the woods, rolling to the ground, and everyone watches in shock as the vines curl around the trees, forming an impassable wall - and then that wall petrifies.
And inside the petrified forest…
It was all a matter of seconds. If Blank hadn't saved his life, Zidane would be the one stuck inside, and Blank might be free. But that's not how it panned out - that romantic sacrifice he might have been envisioning never came to pass. Instead, it's his friend who is now trapped in the forest.
…
At first this scene bothered me because of the petrification.
Here we have a perfectly sensible and thematically coherent chain of events: Plant Brain controls the forest, we kill it, this makes the plant spider colony and the whole forest go crazy, so we have to deal with a bunch of monsters chasing after us and angry thorn vines lashing about. But why petrification? Why is the forest petrifying its own monsters?
But the metaphor of the body that I outlined above answers it satisfactorily for me. A body is a complex thing, its defense mechanisms sometimes at cross purpose. We wounded something terrible, and it reacted first by unleashing antibodies - the plant spiders, who are trying to kill us. But the injury is so deep that the body fears for its very life, and so it goes into a shut-down state. Because it's petrified, it's in stasis; it can't bleed out, it can't die. The infection or hemorrhage is temporarily stabilized.
It's a coma, basically. The plant spiders might or might not have been able to kill us all, but that wasn't the priority of the central nervous system.
It's also interesting that… We've already seen Vivi use magic in a cutscene. And now, we're seeing an entire forest be petrified. And petrification is a classic Final Fantasy status effect! We know how it works, we know how to cure it!
Except… We can't exactly bring a Gold Needle to Blank, because the entire forest is locked down. It is a giant stone wall, and trying to unpetrify any part of it is going to trigger the antibodies again. This is… More elegant than Palom and Porom's "oh huh they can't be unpetrified because Reasons except actually they can just off-screen".
Maybe we can help Blank, later. But for now…
…all Zidane can do is beat uselessly against the petrified gates of the Evil Forest. He falls to his knees, and all he can do is just cry, "Blank…"
(Reference here, again: Recall Barret uselessly banging against the doors to Sector 7 after its collapse, calling after its comrade. Blank and the Tantalus Troupe served the same narrative role as Avalanche.)
Implicitly, Blank isn't the only one who fell; if the entire forest was petrified, then it would likely have caught the rest of Tantalus. With that said, the timeline and geography is ambiguous enough that they could have successfully escaped while Blank was running to lend us his aid. If we reach Lindblum and find Baku and the others safe and sound, I won't be overly surprised. If not, I suspect that "go back into the forest and release everyone from their stony prisons" will be a mid- or late-game quest.
For now, however… There's nothing to do but set up camp and watch over Princess Garnet as the potion does its work and she recovers her strength.
Vivi: "I hope she gets well soon…" Steiner: "This is all his fault! Have you nothing to say, you filth!?"
[Zidane stretches and scratches his behind without looking at him, affecting nonchalance.] Garnet: "...Oh…"
[She begins to sit up.] Steiner: [He goes down on one knee.] "P-Princess!!!" Garnet: "...Steiner? …How did I survive…? You brought me here?"
[Zidane approaches.] Steiner: "It is my sworn duty to protect you at any cost." Zidane: "What are you talking about? It was Vivi's magic and my dagger that got you out of there, Princess." Garnet: "I thank you both." Steiner: [Standing up] "That monkey deserves no praise! None of this would have happened if you and your band hadn't abducted the princess! And now you dare to claim that you have rescued her!? When we get back to Alexandria, I will-" Garnet: [Interrupting him] "Steiner…" [She lowers her head.] "I left the castle of my own will." Zidane: "What a coincidence, eh? We went to snatch her, and she wanted to be snatched." Steiner: "Impossible!" Garnet: "It's true." Zidane: "So what do you say, Rusty? Friends? Come on, let's just enjoy this camping trip while it lasts." Steiner: "Camping - you imbecile! Surely even you must know something about the Mist. The vicious monsters it spawns! The abnormalities it stirs in the mind and body! Princess, we must leave this dangerous place at once." Zidane: "You've gotta be kidding. She hasn't even fully recovered yet." Steiner: SIlence! Who asked for your opinion!?" Zidane: "Alright, tell me… How do you plan to get out of here? We're standing in a valley surrounded by tall cliffs. And last I heard, North Gate and South Gate were sealed off." Steiner: "....." Zidane: "Yeah. That's what I thought."
Steiner: "Grrrr…" Zidane: [Interrupting him] "The princess can barely walk right now. You went through this. You should know." Steiner: "I will never follow your-" Zidane: "Steiner!!! State your sworn duty!" Steiner: "What else!? To protect Princess Garnet Til Alexandros!" Steiner: "...Very well. Until the princess recovers, I will guard this place with my life." Zidane: "Sounds good to me. Vivi, let's get some rest."
I wanted to transcribe this long conversation in full because I feel like it does a good job of showcasing the strengths of IX's writing, and to a lesser extent of its translation. It's not a very "in-your-face" translation the way Tactics was, but compared to VII and VIII it reads very smoothly. Colloquial and formal language register distinctly, the characters sound different, the exchange feels naturalistic. The only bit that's awkward is "last I heard, North Gate and South Gate were sealed off," which feels clunky in a typically expository way.
The way that speech bubbles overlap to show who is talking over whom and controlling the flow of conversation is also very well done. And of course, there's the characterization itself: The opening is a good reminder that Steiner, for all his devotion to Garnet and respect for Vivi, still has serious rough edges; he doesn't care in the least that Zidane just saw his best friend (who, lest we forget, saved Steiner and Garnet's lives!) be petrified in front of him, and that he presumably lost the entire Tantalus troupe as well. To Steiner, they're all rogues undeserving of compassion who brought this upon themselves (and the princess!).
Meanwhile, interestingly, Zidane acts very nonchalant after his initial breakdown in front of the forest. Him literally responding to Steiner's fury by turning his back on him and scratching his butt is completely affected.
For all that he is a much more open and socially adroit character than Squall and Cloud, Zidane still reacts to grief by hiding how much it affects him and taking the opportunity to respond to Steiner's insults by throwing petty barbs at Steiner and playing down his contribution to Garnet's rescue. But then, Zidane shows in what way he differs from these previous characters by leveraging what he knows of Steiner and adroitly maneuvring him in a situation where he has no choice but to agree to staying put and protecting the princess until she's recovered, as is his sworn duty.
It's really good, though it's entirely a Zidane/Steiner scene, where Vivi says nothing and Garnet only chimes in briefly - for understandable reason, being still exhausted.
And that's where we will end today: On Steiner standing guard, and everyone else sitting by the fire, and sharing a moment of silent warmth and fragile togetherness.
It's not much. None of these characters could yet said to be friends.
But they're in this together, and have no one else; and for now, that must be enough.
And with this, our four-man party is complete. Black Mage Vivi, White Mage Garnet, Thief Zidane, Knight Steiner. We'll take a look at Garnet's ability next time, as we move on towards the world map. For now…
Damn that was pretty good, wasn't it?
I'll never get over the name "Evil Forest" - that's leaning too far on the childish side of child-friendly fantasy. With that said, as a first, narrative-heavy dungeon, this was a banger. The aesthetics of the spooky, dark forest is immaculate; the central setpiece of the wrecked airship that we come back to and cut away to several times, with the Tantalus crew scrambling to make the best of a terrible situation, are a great mood piece. The way Zidane and Blank's relationship gets brief focus, and the whole dynamic with Baku playing games to test Zidane's skill and resolve to make sure he'll be safe, then going back like "on second thought they'll probably get themselves killed, Blank, go save these idiots" and Blank indeed saving these idiots, though at the cost of his own life (for now, at least), are a very strong beat. The entire climax running from the horde of plant bugs very effectively sold that the threat had escalated far beyond "it's just a boss fight, relax." Leading to a very dramatic finish.
It wasn't referencing the Dollet Raid but like… The DNA is still clearly there. It's a subtle homage. Same "running away from a force you can't defeat with the game pulling its best cutscene game to sell the drama."
Yeah, no wonder that one cutscene stuck in my mind all these years. And no longer I remembered my childhood self thinking Blank was so cool.
So long, soldier o7
We'll unpetrify you someday, just wait until like Disc 3 or something.
I also like how, despite being a bunch of dorks who keep joking around and messing with one another, when in the thick of it it's clear these people are all used to working together swiftly and efficiently - they have a particular salute joining their hands that speaks to a kind of military routine. They're rogues, but they're trained and organized to work together. They're competent.
This is when the game introduces one of its more… Interesting and weird innovations:
Active Time Events.
ATEs are signaled by the words "ACTIVE TIME EVENT" flashing at the bottom of the screen. For this first one, the local Moogle, Mosco, flies down from his perch to explain them to us. Basically, when the ATE is flashing, we can press Select. If we do, a window opens up listing one or more named scene - here, it's called "The Forest Keeper." If we click it, we flash to a separate cutscene unfolding somewhere else.
Like, there's no reason to do this. I have never heard of ATEs being used anywhere else in the series save in IX, and that's because… Why would you? If you want to have cutaways to small cutscenes unfolding with characters you don't control, you can just do that. We could have that cutscene with Garnet and Vivi when Zidane leaves this screen, for instance. The only thing that giving these scenes a flashing prompt and menu does is make them possible to ignore, but that's not something you'd ever want to do on a first playthrough.
Essentially the only purpose I see to the ATE system is to allow for players on their second or later playthrough to skip other bits of the story, or… For speedrunners. Like that insane "twelve hour to endgame" requirement for a specific weapon that's been mentioned upthread. You'd want to have ATEs so you can ignore as much of the plot as possible for that.
But mostly? It seems like a solution in search of a problem. ATEs aren't bad, they're just… They don't need to exist. They do not bring anything to the table.
I do think there's merit in making some cutscenes optional that way so they disturb the flow of the game less, I guess? But some of these feel like they could have easily been slotted in as standard cutaways as you transition between areas.
There is, however, one interesting complication thrown into the mix…
II. Not Beating The Goku Allegations
Trance.
This game's version of Limit Breaks: Trance. This one is clearly calling back to FFVI; Zidane's Trance is similar to Terra's, being a transformation that turns him pink, more feral-looking, and increases his power.
Notably, this isn't just a color scheme. Zidane's clothing appears to have changed. His shirt and trousers have been replaced by fur, and his gloves are gone, with the cuffs replaced by tufts of fur around his wrist. It's an appearance that emphasizes the monkey-like parts of his design, like he's tapping into some latent heritage that's normally limited to his tail.
Of course, this interacts with ATB in all the predictable ways - you can miss out chances of using Trance commands because the menus aren't fast enough, the turn order interaction is weird, all that. The system remains shackled to ATB but, by this point, we've grown familiar with it. It's mostly only annoying for the fact that this game's ATB is very slow when you only have one or two characters in the party, because its speed is tuned for a four-man party, so the wait times when doing sequences like Zidane alone in the forest are agonizing.
There's probably an option in the menu to adjust the ATB times, but I do seem to recall FFIX having an abysmally slow ATB in general compared to some of the other FF games. Fortunately, you have a fast forward button.
Notably, Benero and Zenero (that's their names) are much more rough with Steiner than Blank was with Vivi, but they do still help him. It's interesting, because Steiner is their enemy, a knight of Queen Brahne who got stuck on the ship trying to rescue Garnet from them, so it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't treat him with kid's gloves… But they do give him the medicine before locking him in a room, which is of course to keep him from causing trouble but also so he can't get himself hurt. Is this out of a sense of obligation towards someone stuck in the same predicament as them?
I just tally it up as one more mark for "Thieves with hearts of gold" tropes, they don't necessarily hate Steiner since he's just doing his job, even if they'd rather not be dealing with him.
I touched on the item system briefly last update, but here's a visual example. Zidane's basic dagger teaches the Flee ability; he's gained 4 AP since the game started. When I unequip his old dagger, he keeps the 4/40 AP towards Flee, but he loses access to Flee until I have that command again. Instead, his new Mage Masher comes equip with Detect, which identifies which stealables an enemy possesses. I'm reasonably certain we'll get more use out of this than Flee. Mage Masher is also a better weapon in terms of attack rating, and has Silence as a status rider, which is pretty good for such an early weapon!
In my experience, Flee is one of those thief abilities in JRPGs that gets its best use in the mid to late game rather than this early, either because it lets you run through an area and go "I don't feel like dealing with random encounters so I'll just run from them all with 100% success rate", or just for those occasional "that is a fucking triple Malboro I am not playing with that shit". Detect probably more vital to grab ASAP considering Zidane's skillset partially revolves around stealing things on the regular.
Steiner: "What's this? What an ugly doll… 'Princess Garnet, age 15'!? H-How dare they write the princess's name on such a ragged doll!? Besides, the princess is not 15! She's 16!" Steiner: "...Princess…"
God, Steiner. His genuine devotion to the princess is kind of heartwarming. This man has one calling in life, and it's 'henchman.' Never has a man be more of a minion than this poor knight.
My Little Baby, meanwhile, concerns Cinna, who is searching for… His doll. The doll that Steiner is currently crying over. 'How am I supposed to sleep now…?'
It's basically just a cutaway gag - a lot of these ATEs are.
Well hey, that already answers a question of "why have the ATE system", it allows for the player to ignore less important side-cutscenes that are just comedy or whatever if they aren't interested!
Granted, that also depends on said cutscenes being marked for how important they may or may not be, which feeds right back into the question of "why have major story beats be the equivalent of QTEs".
It looks like IX is going to follow in the tradition of its predecessors and feature a central romance between two of the playable characters as a core part of its story. Which is fine, it's a good plot beat to hang a story on.
You know, I wonder. Most of the modern RPGs I've played tend to have optional romances with several potential partners. Whether they're BioWare, Obsidian, Larian, or CPRed - they're descended all from a particular mold and… Well, the "make your own story" angle obviously has a lot of appeal. But that means these romances have to be only partially integrated into the core plot. They're not completely extraneous, don't get me wrong; these games integrate their romance paths at various points of the main story and have them feed back into it to some degree.
But you can't write a main plot around a romance if that romance can just… not happen. You can't write your story to be about Squall and Rinoa's burgeoning romance, and how she slowly opens Squall to his own feelings until, at the end, they find one another across time and space, if there is an option for that to not happen. It can't be the emotional core of your story. And we know this, because they tried that… In Final Fantasy VIII, where you can miss 90% of the Squall/Rinoa romance buildup!
That's mostly a joke. The game is still about that romance, it's just that you as the player can fuck up your decisions and get an objectively wrong version of the story where it's written badly.
But like - I'm thinking about the first Mass Effect's decision at Virmire, and Final Fantasy VII, and imagining a version of the game in which you can choose to have either Tifa or Aerith die at the end of Disc 1, and then Cloud ends up in a final romantic scene at the airship with the one who survived, and like.
There's absolutely a place for games with a more blank slate character, or even an only somewhat defined character the player can guide like Commander Shepard... but also not having to juggle a dozen different possibilities for character relationships and player choices and whatnot certainly does let you write one solid, central narrative. It's easily one of the strong points of the average JRPG compared to how many Western RPGs prefer a more customizable main character.
Okay, so we have a few fights under our belt at this point.
Let's talk about stealing odds.
They're bad. The first battle lured us into a false sense of complacency. Most steal attempts end in failure. If I just tried to play it normally, Zidane would die before getting both items from Baku. Or I could just chug Potions until it works.
It's agonizing, and frankly it's just incredibly annoying design. The incentives it creates for the gameplay… It's not that it's impossible to deal with. It's that this kind of design creates a perverse incentive where the best way to steal is to just turtle up with buffs, debuff the enemy if possible, and then just spam Steal until it works while healing damage. Which isn't, like… Fun.
But this is an emulated game. So while we don't have the "perfect steal rate" cheat we might have with a mod on the Steam version, we have save states. I can quicksave before every steal attempt, and retry until it works. Which I will.
Yeaaah, if there's one flaw about the stealing overhaul in FFIX, it's that for whatever reason some of the stealing rates are absolutely abysmal. I have less than fond memories of playing the game on original hardware and stalling out on several bosses trying to take their rare drops for 20-30 minutes of mindlessly spamming the steal command and balancing party health, so I doubt anyone's going to give you shit for just abusing quicksaves. Heck, if I get around to playing alongside this part of the LP I'll probably be downloading a mod to adjust steal rates.
But then, Steiner surprises us with some new character depths.
Steiner: "It may be difficult with just the two of us. We should seek Master Vivi's help as well." Zidane: "Why are you calling him 'Master'?" Steiner: "You fool. That black mage has unimaginable powers… I don't want to get him involved, but alas, it can't be helped. We need Master Vivi's powers to rescue the princess." Zidane: "Alright, let's go talk to Vivi."
It would have been really easy to make the stubborn, hard-headed knight in heavy armor who swings a sword immediately distrustful of magic and mages. Instead, Steiner is the only character so far to talk about Vivi with respect. Oh, Zidane is very nice to him, of course, he's caring, in the way you should be towards a literal child, however great his powers; but Steiner is the only one who, instead of "Vivi the kid with perpetually bruised knees," sees "Vivi the mighty wizard," and instead of being scared, he is awestruck and calls him "Master Vivi."
It's a really neat way of of showing there's more to Steiner than just a curmudgeony obstructionist who has to loosen up eventually.
It's been less than 24 hours. How has she already sent a letter. How - how does she know we're in the Forest!? How did the Moogle find us and get in? So many questions! No answers.
Fire Sword actually causes Vivi to cast Fire on Steiner's sword, resulting in an elemental boosted attack. That attack deals much more damage than Steiner's base attack, and it costs MP - Steiner's MP, not Vivi's; it also doesn't consume Vivi's turn in the order.
But it does need Vivi to cast it. When Vivi goes down to an enemy attack, the Sword Magic command becomes grayed out. So we need Vivi in the party to unlock Steiner's full power.
That's… Kind of incredible. A risky move, too; it seems like it would naturally lead to never taking Steiner on if we're not also taking Vivi (while the rest isn't true), but it's a really interesting way to show that these two have a particular relationship.
Yup, Vivi + Steiner in FFIX gives you access to Spellblade commands and it's great!
That said, I think both characters are perfectly viable on their own without each other; Vivi is still a classic Black Mage meaning he's access to powerful elemental damage on the fly, and Steiner is a big beefy knight with HP and Defense for days, and the Sword Skills for messing with enemy stats are probably a lot more useful in FFIX then they were in FFT, considering bosses take less than 3 Gigahits to kill in an escalating game of Glass Cannon Hot Potato.
From what I recall, other than AP gain from random battles probably going up over time as the game progresses, there's also other factors to help mitigate this. For example, you mentioned the Leather Wrist teaching Beast Killer, but so does Steiner's default sword? While looking it up Steiner can't equip the Leather Wrist, if he could then he would get twice as much AP gain for that ability each fight since he has two items teaching it. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some weapons that teach multiple abilities at once (genuinely don't remember if it does exist but absolutely expecting a Vivi Staff at some point that just teaches all three elemental spells of the same tier at the same time).
FFIX really sells the two locations so far. (maybe 2.5, considering the ship and castle maybe) Exploring Alexanderia and Evil Forest just gives you such vibes of the location.
A lot of this is Music, FFIX has great music (like most FF games), but also uses repeating melodies as leitmotifs to draw connections between different places that might not otherwise seem connected, in the same way fantasy games might use a style of architecture to imply that these ruins are fucking allagans why can't I go anywhere on this star without tripping over your fucking horrors without explicitly pointing it out.
Nothing to add to the characters who got screentime, but the little bits of Characterization Garnet gets is still interesting to puzzle out at this point. 'Willful independent princess' is a very old cliche, even if the only fiction you ever consumed is final fantasy games.
Here while as typical we have a male older character expressing concern over the safety of a princess, Rusty has an idea (get out of the monster area) 'should' be doing, but the moment Garnet implies a preference, he snaps-to and shuts up.
I'm used to MARDEK's AP system and it might be a bit different- am I understanding correctly that FFIX gives you X AP per battle (with most fights being 1 and bosses giving more) for every equipped skill, regardless of how often you use the skill in the battle?
I'm used to MARDEK's AP system and it might be a bit different- am I understanding correctly that FFIX gives you X AP per battle (with most fights being 1 and bosses giving more) for every equipped skill, regardless of how often you use the skill in the battle?
Yep, actions don't matter (outside some stuff with status conditions, KO characters don't get AP I believe). You do level a skill twice as fast if you have two items currently 'teaching' it to someone.
One thing that I'm thinking from the first update, is this the fourth game in a row to have acting, or stage plays, or movies being a part of the story?
Different levels of influence of course, FF6 had the Opera, but FF7 had the date-play in the gold saucer, FF8 had the Languna movie, and now we've opened with a Stage play.
Did someone at squaresoft just always suggest the characters putting on a show/play in this era, or is just something characters typically do in JRPGs? Most of the non-FF games I've played putting on a show doesn't come up nearly as often as it does in Final Fantasy, even other Squaresoft games.
No single picture or description can really illustrate just how beautiful the animation on this scene is - the Prima Vista hits the clouds and it actually surges forward and regains some height, and if you remember that it's powered by Mist, you might think oh! They hit the clouds! They're going to make it! But then it tilts and the music turns and the burst of speed bleeds off and it really does sink, like a ship succumbing to a hull breach beneath the waterline.
Steiner: My god. Steiner: It's like he's breaking the limit of what he should be capable of. Steiner: I'd only heard rumors of a person who could break their limitations like that. Steiner: Amazing to see how the human limit can be broken when emotions surge- Zidane: I think they got it. Steiner: OK good.
I think the idea they wanted to convey here is something similar to Barret asking Cloud how materia works - of the three Zidane seems to be by far the most worldly despite his youth. If that's the intent though, it's not as well handled.
Oh my god. When Steiner started ranting that the medicine was obviously poison, I expected that dumbass to toss it out the window so that later on we'd have to deal with "Steiner didn't drink the purgative, the plants are taking over!" I wasn't expecting a player character suicide attempt within the first two hours of the game. That's the implication here! Steiner looks at the medicine, decides it's obviously poison, realizes he's locked in the room with no way to escape or help Garnet, so he just drinks the 'poison' willingly.
Steiner gives a little shrug before he downs the vial which I think is supposed to convey an "Eh, fuckit" probably because he's in enough pain that drinking the vial couldn't make things any worse, even if it kills him.
Fire Sword actually causes Vivi to cast Fire on Steiner's sword, resulting in an elemental boosted attack. That attack deals much more damage than Steiner's base attack, and it costs MP - Steiner's MP, not Vivi's; it also doesn't consume Vivi's turn in the order.
But it does need Vivi to cast it. When Vivi goes down to an enemy attack, the Sword Magic command becomes grayed out. So we need Vivi in the party to unlock Steiner's full power.
That's… Kind of incredible. A risky move, too; it seems like it would naturally lead to never taking Steiner on if we're not also taking Vivi (while the rest isn't true), but it's a really interesting way to show that these two have a particular relationship.
THE WOMBO COMBO
God I love these two so much. There's never enough of this in RPGs where characters can bounce off each other for greater effect; even though in this case it's just Steiner getting a bonus option when Vivi's in the party.
I think the images are showing you're already doing this, but in case they're misleading: there's a front row and a back row. Vivi should obviously be in the back row.
Limit break [transformation]s powered by a form of magic nobody understands but which happens when you feel strong emotions.
And here we see where FFXIV gets its dynamis plot point from and why the same XIV installment that introduced dynamis implied that it was responsible for the XIV limit breaks.
Honestly, it's more shocking that FF hasn't done more of 'emotion powered superpowers', considering how damn fucking useful it is for narrative beats. The closest thing is... Tellah? Going full-murder on whats-his-name.
Granted, there's often a sense of 'energy' or 'lifeforce' being used to help another, but a lot less 'I am so angry/in love/focused I am now hitting for extra damage'.
