Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy IX]

[Zap Rowsdower]

Uh...that's what sealions look like in this universe?

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Of course. Its not like there's a real world equivalent. The real world animals are sea lions, this is a sealion. Totally different.

edit: more seriously it appears to be a reference to a creature from heraldry rather than to the actual critter

 

[NotYourParents]

I never knew that participating too much in dishonest debate tactics could turn you into a monster in FFIX's world!

 

[Pidl]

I think this is the first time in FF history that we've been cussed out by our save point. That sort of mechanics-have-personality is a pretty standard 4-wall breaking trope now, but in-character save points is interesting.

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You should see what happens if you piss it off even further.

 

[Egleris]

I mean thats fair enough, but just a day ago Steiner was asking Zidane wtf was that trance thing, implying is the first time he saw it, and then the next day he can do it too with no fanfare or explanation. It feels weird!

One would think there should be at least a line of Steiner saying he can feel how to tap that power now somehow.

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This is a fair point, and probably it's an artifact of having to explain what Trance is for the player - in that Steiner is the only one who can ask the question at that time.

Still, it would have flown better if Steiner had said something more along the line of "why does a scoundrel like you is capable of achieving Trance! That's a rare ability that only awakens into one in a thousand", and maybe a mention earlier, during Steiner's section in Alexandria castle, that the fact he could achieve Trance was why he was given command of the Pluto Knight, as a tease.

FFIX is not perfect, but when the sort of fixes you want to make is "the gameplay & plot integration of Trance isn't as smooth as the integration of Vivi's magic", I think we're operating on a pretty high level anyway.

 

[illhousen]

Sealion is a much more threatening foe; its Wing attack hits with physical damage and it can cast Blizzard, both for twice as much damage as its master.

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Of course, its most annoying feature as a boss is to just ask questions and express reasonable concerns.

 

[Grandalt]

I mean thats fair enough, but just a day ago Steiner was asking Zidane wtf was that trance thing, implying is the first time he saw it, and then the next day he can do it too with no fanfare or explanation. It feels weird!

One would think there should be at least a line of Steiner saying he can feel how to tap that power now somehow.

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That's not right, it's Steiner that says the light is Trace, Zidane just says that sometimes he lights up and gets more powerful. So while Zidane has done it more often, its Steiner that knows more about it.

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!"

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[Nachtprophet]

Uh...that's what sealions look like in this universe?

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Of course. Its not like there's a real world equivalent. The real world animals are sea lions, this is a sealion. Totally different.

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Well, kinda? The name is actually misspelled in the Japanese version.

This boss is called Shirion, rather than the more correct Shīraion. The latter was actually a random encounter in FFIII.

Due to the spelling the boss was translated as Cillion in German and Zillion in Spanish.

 

[Ace of Scarabs]

Vanish actually makes a comeback from FFVI, minus the hilarious Immunity-piercing bug that was originally tied to it.

(In FFIII-US, the original SNES release of FFVI in the US, Vanish also pierced the immunity to Death and X-Zone magic, so you could make Doom and X-Zone perfectly accurate by using Vanish on the target first. Granted, Doom would still instantly full-heal any Undeads targeted by it, and X-Zone would stop enemy death scripts from triggering, which could screw you out of the Bahamut Magicite if you Vanish-X-Zoned Deathgaze and stopped the script from playing its unique death cutscene trigger).

 

[somewhatLazy]

There's no way Zidane is actually too chill to care whether the others know that he saved everybody in an epic battle with a monster wizard and its pet giant ice serpent. I can see basically three reasons why he would hide this:

1. He feels like there's something weird going on and he wants to keep his cards close to his chest until he has more information regarding who is pursuing them, how and why.
2. He is worried there's a connection between Black Waltz and Vivi, and he's worried about making the notably anxious black mage kid freak out by talking about it too early.
3. He has no evidence that anything happened, and is worried that he will not be believed, especially with Steiner in the party who is immediately going to call him a liar no matter what.

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Adding into this, I think Zidane is worried about a possible connection between Black Waltz and Steiner. He knows that it was there to "reclaim the princess" and he knows that Steiner is an incredibly loyal knight of Alexandria who strongly dislikes him as a bad influence on the princess. He's probably assuming that to there's good odds that Steiner would choose betray them to the Black Waltzes if he became aware of them.

 

[Guile]

Well, if you don't mind minor mechanical spoilers about the effects of Steiner's Trance, since I doubt it's ever directly explained in game:

Spoiler

Cared to Zidane who gets new abilities in place of his normal thief ones that do big damage and such, Ss super simple: he just triples his physical attack power. That's it, no frills, no fancy tricks, he just goes m hitting like a truck to hitting several freight trains, basic but powerful.

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Steiner: Simple, the way a sword is simple.