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  • Locked thread
Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.

FeyerbrandX posted:

where do the bowl of petunias factor in?

It's highly improbable that you'll encounter either. Nearly infinitely improbable, in fact.

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Senior Woodchuck
Aug 29, 2006

When you're lost out there and you're all alone, a light is waiting to carry you home
Oh, no, not again.

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.
So I guess Zidane should probably stay away from any nightclubs, maybe?

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.






We've got our potions. Let's turn Cid back and get our airship already.



I mixed the 3 potions in this bottle, like you told me to.
Excellent. Let's test it right away.



...Oh, what the hell. Go ahead.
This better work.
Alright. Here we go.





...Ribbit?
......



Good gracious!



So taking an old recipe from a joke book...apparently turned Cid into a frog. I guess it's an improvement? Maybe?





We're gonna go find Hilda! Gather everyone in the conference room! <Ribbit!>

I mean, maybe Cid could still fix the airship in this form. He never actually tries to, I guess because he's so drat fed up with being such a freak of nature.



-----



The regent has an important announcement.



Everyone's reactions are the best. I like to think Dagger's trying to stifle a laugh there, which she desperately needs these days. Meanwhile, that's the first time I've ever seen Vivi laugh. I think my favorite reaction is Freya's, though. This poo poo is getting too ridiculous even for her.



Going from bug to amphibian is a step up, at least.



We must find him at any cost!
But we don't have an airship.
We can use that <ribbit> ship we stole in Alexandria. Artania, order Zebolt to service that ship immediately.
Yes, sire.
So, where exactly are we going?
<Ribbit>... I'm still working on that.



So if we go to the Black Mage Village, maybe we can learn something.
Hmmm...
...I still can't believe it. Why were they on Kuja's ship!? WHY!?



Yes. Brilliant idea, Master Vivi.



......
Of course she will!
I don't know if that's a good idea.



Don't worry. I'll take care of her.
Alright then! <Ribbit!> Let's go to the Black Mage Village!



So now we have a destination, and a means to get there.









What all this construction?



Yeah. These pickles taste great.
What!? That is food!?
You've never seen a pickle before?
No. First time. I still need eat many different food and get much learning. My master tell me so.
In that case, you should try one. I think you'll like it.
Okay! I eat!



This will end well.

-----





We can just go to the ship, but I think the game will railroad us into recruiting Quina anyway so let's go ahead and go by our own volition because I hate it when video games tell me how to live my life.





Zidane!!! I so happy to see you! This person very scary! I need help!



Do you know him?
Yeah, sort of...
Well, he's got some nerve. He ate one of my pickles without paying and tried to run off.
...I'm not surprised.
She say I should try one, so I try one. I do nothing wrong.
Are you crazy!? I'd be out of business if I gave out free food!
Okay, take it easy. ...So how much does he owe you?



Quick, someone do a Gil-to-USD conversion rate based on pickle prices.

Tch... Fine.



I do believe there is an interesting scene that pops up if you don't actually have the cash, but I'm too lazy to look up what it is. That's what the thread is for!



Come on, Quina!





And with that, we now have all eight of our party members. We're finally running a full crew!



My pickles are the best!

I've already gotten my shopping done and nobody has anything new to say probably, so let's get on to the ship.





Here's our huge going-away party.

You're leaving? Have a safe trip.

Don't worry. The ship's all ready to go.

The regent is waiting onboard. Please use the ladder to board the ship.

I was hoping for Baku or Erin or even Moonte to bid us farewell, but I guess we're not worthy enough.



Our ship is the Blue Narciss.

OCEAN SOUNDS





?



Yeah, I was asked to.
By whom?
The boss, of course. But it wasn't his idea.



We need at least one person to look after the ship when we reach our destination.



...You don't owe us anything.



Hey. Quina loves frogs, so you'd better watch out.



Oh, by the way, if you ever want to change your party members, talk to me.
Okay, where are we off to?





Yeah, we're not going there any time soon.



We could change our party at the tail end of Disc 2, even though it barely mattered at all. At any rate, this is where we really can finally choose our party. The only restriction is Zidane must be involved.





The controls. It's kind of a bit awkward to control at first, but it's no big deal. The biggest pain is trying to go to the menu will send you to the ship's deck first.



Cid and Blank are coming along for the ride. Cid changes party members, Blank goes back to controlling the ship.

We can talk to our current party members, so here is everyone's dialogue right now.

Why we not fish? Lots of yummy fish swim out there.

I'm not lookin' forward to seeing that sick narcissist again.

Traveling by ship is uncomfortable, but it cannot be helped. We must find him by any means necessary.

Don't worry about me. I'm okay...

We're going back to my home on the Outer Continent, right?

Maybe this trip will be good for the princess...

......



This is my initial team. Amarant needs AP, Freya needs AP and levels, and Quina needs Blue Magic, since a few more spells are now open to us.



This is where the sidequests really open up. We can access a few new areas in addition to all the old places we visited. Most importantly, a massive chunk of the Chocobo Hot & Cold quest is available to us.



That said, my first destination is actually to pick up a spell I forgot to get the first time I was in Burmecia.





Magic Vices teach Magic Hammer, which will reduce MP by a random amount up to the target's current MP. They're a pain to learn from since they will run away pretty early on. Luckily they're vulnerable to sleep so that helps matters.



There's a chain of islands to the west of the southwest continent. A couple things of note here.



First is another staple FF enemy, the Adamantoise.



This guy hurts. It has 3.5k HP and can do massive damage with attacks like Thundara.







Its signature attack is Earth Shake, which does huge damage to the party.



Fortunately, Quina can also learn it. The power is slightly higher than the -aga spells that we won't get for awhile, so pretty useful for this stage of the game.



Also on this island is a Qu Marsh, our third one so far.



This acid trip of an enemy is an Anemone.



I love it.

This attack deals damage and inflcits Berserk.



It teaches Quina how to have bad breath. This is the Marlboro's signature move in the series, inflicting a variety of nasty status effects on a target, with later games having it as a Blue Mage spell. This version has a 40% chance of inflicting Confusion, Darkness, Poison, Slow, and Mini. Yikes.



The frogs here are much easier to get than the marshes around Lindblum and Conde Petie.



Reach another threshold, got a more powerful fork.



Next up, we're going to visit the northwestern continent. There's a few things of note here.



This isn't one of them, though.



This is a Whale Zombie. Whales can be zombies. They can also fly.

This motherfucker can cast Death.



poo poo doesn't get any radder than this.



A Phoenix Down knocks it to single-digit HP, enough to make eating it trivial. L5 Death isn't as exploitable as in, say, FF5, but it's still a valuable spell for certain circumstances. There's one dungeon in particular it's great for, and it's also great for grinding both EXP and Freya's ultimate move.



Seriously, what the gently caress is with all these weird-rear end enemies here.



I didn't go to this continent just to look at dead whales. We could've stayed at Alexandria for that.

No, there's a city here to check out.





Welcome to Esto Gaza, a spiritual sanctuary of sorts. We're not supposed to come here for awhile plot-wise, but might as well make a detour now.

One neat thing is these NPCs move around a lot between screens, saying the same thing so that you'll actually recognize them. Also, all of them wear white.



I've never seen you, either.



No poo poo.





This city is built as a shrine to the Shimmering Island, a holy place of sorts.



The stars are the source of all life. We receive life from the stars and live our lives with them. This is the one place holy enough to worship the Path of Souls: the way of the Shimmering Island.



This holy place of religious enlightenment is also a great place to rent a hotel room.





More on this Shimmering Island later, of course. We're only sightseeing for now.



So do I!



This couple is fun to talk to.





If we say by chance...



But the fun is saying we're here to see Lisa.



Hey, Lisa. How about you and me go see the Shimmering Island?





They're gonna last forever. I can feel it.





Which makes sense, since this is the only civilization on this continent.



There's a shop here.



It sells exclusively Mythril items. Most of the stuff is outdated, but there are a couple upgrades here. The Mythril Claws teach Amarant Counter (as all claws do) and Curse, which inflicts a random elemental weakness upon the enemy. It's the Debilitator from FF6, and just as pointless here. Maybe it's more useful in a challenge run, maybe?

The other new item is the Mythril Racket for Dagger and Eiko, though the spells it teaches (Reflect, Protect, Shell) are all old news at this point. We also want Mythril Swords for synth purposes apparently.







As you may expect, we'll go through this door eventually, but not for now.

We're done here, so let's go back to the Outer Continent.



This place is constantly shaking. Interesting, huh?



Going back to the Iifa Tree to get one more blue magic spell. Actually, the Dracozombies also teach L5 Death, so I don't know why the FAQ I'm using told me to get it from those Whale Zombies and then get my next spell here, but whatever.

I switched out Freya and Amarant after they got some battle time in favor of Dagger and Steiner.



So, Dagger's sudden muteness isn't simply story bullshit, oh no. It extends to gameplay as well in a most wonderful way. You see, now every time it's Dagger's turn, she has a 50% chance of simply being too depressed to do anything. This is why just using an Echo Screen on her won't magically make her talk, she's too distracted to talk or whatever.

So Dagger's kinda useless for this next chunk of gameplay.



Anyway, I go out of the way to the Iifa Tree to get the stupid Roulette spell. This spell inflicts instant death to any random target, friend or foe, on the battlefield. Maybe if you had something like FF5's Bone Mail this would be nice, but mehhhh.





With that, Quina is only missing three Blue Magic spells. We've gotten all we can for now, though, so Quina gets a rest.

On the way back, I bust out one of Dagger's new summons. Here is Shiva.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dL7Ax6JYx4







Shiva is one of the most prevalent summons in the series, appearing in every FF game from 3 on, even if her appearance is sometime unorthodox (hello, motorcycle Shiva twins). She's the ice-elemental counterpart to the thunder-elemental Ramuh and fire-elemental Ifrit.



Her signature attack is Diamond Dust, which entraps enemies in an icy mist that eventually freezes them for large damage.



Substitute "large" for "kinda alright" here. More Opals will help boost this, though.



While we're in the area, let's check up on Madain Sari.





Amarant must've busted up Lani pretty bad, since the moogles had to revive her. She's too shy to talk to us, though. But yeah, Lani's hanging out with the moogles now and keeping them company now that Eiko's gone, so at least that's nice for them.



Next up, Kupo Nuts. The first one here gets another Extension add-on.

This means I can start delivering letters so I can get more crap fodder items in trade-in.





That wasn't a very happy letter... Kupo. I wonder what's going to happen now?



I won't believe it until I see it!

I also forgot to talk to this man before so here he is.

Finally, let's end the update with one last summon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apQkUQje1iU





This is Ifrit. Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh are pretty much the three base elemental summons, usually lower-tier ones to make summoners an area-of-effect counterpart to black mages. Though usually Ramuh gets the short end on the stick in games like FF8 and FF10.





Ifrit's signature attack is Hellfire, which is fire from apparently Hell scorching the enemies with burning hellfire.



And that's all I had recorded from that session.

Next time, we're gonna jump back into Chocobo Hot & Cold. There's a lot more stuff waiting for us, eager to break the game in half already, and it's about drat time we got all of it.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012
didn't the pickle woman give Steiner a free sample? I smell anti-Qu racism

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!
See, it's stuff like this that makes me suspect it wasn't Quina at the very beginning of the game in Alexandria castle being the chef. Quina is supposed to be ignorant of a lot of food because he hadn't really left the marshes before. I don't know how he'd end up being the royal chef if he hadn't heard of a pickle...

I think I'm thinking about video games too hard.

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.

Mega64 posted:



Everyone's reactions are the best. I like to think Dagger's trying to stifle a laugh there, which she desperately needs these days. Meanwhile, that's the first time I've ever seen Vivi laugh. I think my favorite reaction is Freya's, though. This poo poo is getting too ridiculous even for her.

Also Amarant continuing to be completely out of fucks to give.

quote:

I do believe there is an interesting scene that pops up if you don't actually have the cash, but I'm too lazy to look up what it is. That's what the thread is for!

I tried to find a video of just the ATE, but I could only find it as part of a larger video, so here ya go. The whole scene starts at 10:30 in the video (which I linked directly to), but the differences from Mega's run start at 11:15.

quote:



This is clearly the best screenshot in the thread. :allears:

Chillgamesh
Jul 29, 2014

Esto Gaza has such a drat good theme song.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
There is, in fact, a way to talk to Lani, but you need the right party to do it.

ZarathustraFollower
Mar 14, 2009



The only reason Cid is willing to look for Hilda now is he finally has a backbone :downsrim:

ZarathustraFollower fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Sep 17, 2016

Southhouse-
Oct 15, 2012
Neat, that's the first time I've seen that Quina scene. I just run straight to the boat every time I play this game and Quina manages to catch up to you by themselves.

Schwartzcough posted:

See, it's stuff like this that makes me suspect it wasn't Quina at the very beginning of the game in Alexandria castle being the chef. Quina is supposed to be ignorant of a lot of food because he hadn't really left the marshes before. I don't know how he'd end up being the royal chef if he hadn't heard of a pickle...

I think I'm thinking about video games too hard.
I like to think that it actually is Quina in the kitchen. Not as the royal chef or anything, just ending up there from wandering around like usual.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

Southhouse- posted:

Neat, that's the first time I've seen that Quina scene. I just run straight to the boat every time I play this game and Quina manages to catch up to you by themselves.

I like to think that it actually is Quina in the kitchen. Not as the royal chef or anything, just ending up there from wandering around like usual.

Nah, the game specifically calls him/her "Head Chef":

Mega64 posted:



This is the head chef of Alexandria. This creature is also a main character because why not.

YggiDee
Sep 12, 2007

WASP CREW
Quina wasn't appointed Head Chef, they just ate whoever had the job last and got the position by default.

Iretep
Nov 10, 2009

Schwartzcough posted:

See, it's stuff like this that makes me suspect it wasn't Quina at the very beginning of the game in Alexandria castle being the chef. Quina is supposed to be ignorant of a lot of food because he hadn't really left the marshes before. I don't know how he'd end up being the royal chef if he hadn't heard of a pickle...

I think I'm thinking about video games too hard.

if i remember right steiner hadnt eaten pickles either. it seems to be a local food. quina is probably more familiar with alexandrian foods.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

Schwartzcough posted:

See, it's stuff like this that makes me suspect it wasn't Quina at the very beginning of the game in Alexandria castle being the chef. Quina is supposed to be ignorant of a lot of food because he hadn't really left the marshes before. I don't know how he'd end up being the royal chef if he hadn't heard of a pickle...

I think I'm thinking about video games too hard.

luckily, this, as all things, can be solved by consulting the FF Wiki page for Quina (WARNING: some definite spoilers in the link because it's a wiki for the game), which confirms that s/he does work at the castle as the head chef

morallyobjected fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Sep 17, 2016

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


Some spoilers in that link. Also, the head chef seems to speak much better English than Quina, so I'm thinking that this is just a case of sprite reuse and nothing deeper.

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

morallyobjected posted:

luckily, this, as all things, can be solved by consulting the FF Wiki page for Quina, which confirms that s/he does work at the castle as the head chef
And also has some spoilers.

Anyway, I don't think there's any dialogue saying so, but I got the impression that Quina was the person tasting the royals' food for poison, not the chef.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

morallyobjected posted:

luckily, this, as all things, can be solved by consulting the FF Wiki page for Quina, which confirms that s/he does work at the castle as the head chef

Yeaaah, again, it could be, but the FF Wiki isn't exactly an official source. Who knows.

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012
thanks for the reminder, all. I wasn't thinking about spoilers, but I went back and added a warning

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene
Esto Gaza has one of the best town themes in any FF, but is also probably the least fleshed-out of any city in the game in terms of content. Probably my favorite snow/ice-themed village in the series, though.

bewilderment
Nov 22, 2007
man what



Fun fact about Esto Gaza - when you need to go there for the plot, the weapon shop sells different items!

If you don't realise this then you will be very sad.

e: Apparently there's another place to get the weapon I'm thinking of that I didn't realise? Weird. Still, it's probably the earliest place to get it.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
If you don't pick up Quina from the pickle shop, they'll just magically end up on the Blue Narciss somehow and Blank will tease Zidane and ask if Quina is his girlfriend.

Mega64 posted:

I do believe there is an interesting scene that pops up if you don't actually have the cash, but I'm too lazy to look up what it is. That's what the thread is for!

Zidane is Broke posted:

Tch... Fine. This is all I've got.

(Paid (1 - 99) Gil.)

Sorry. Can you collect the rest from Baku?
Oh... alright!



Come on, Quina!





Give Me My Money (ATE) posted:

[Baku walks by Grandma Pickle's Business District stand.]

AAH...ACHOOO!!!
Well, if it isn't Baku.
Grandma, good to see you're still alive.
Hey, I stand in front of these smelly pickles everyday. It'll take a lot more than that to end my life.
Gwahaha! You'll live to be a hundred.
Oh yeah. I've been meaning to talk to you.
What is it?
One of your boys, Zidane, told me to collect the money he owes me from you. His friend ate one of my pickles without paying.
WHAT!? Why do I gotta pay!?
He said you'd take care of it. That'll be (remaining amount) Gil.
I'm gonna wring his neck!

Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Sep 17, 2016

DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
I keep seeing scenes I never knew where there
I love this game

Kheldarn
Feb 17, 2011



Bufuman posted:

quote:


This is clearly the best screenshot in the thread. :allears:

Mega64 should get the thread title changed to "Final Fantasy IX: I hope you get kicked by a horse.".

Bad Seafood
Dec 10, 2010


If you must blink, do it now.
My favorite thing about this scene is that there's pretty much no chance of you not actually having 100 gil in your inventory, since encounters are so generous, so this little sequence exists solely for the sake of people who replayed the game and thought "But what if I didn't have 100 gil" and deliberately shortchanged themselves in order to see what would happen. I like games that reward that brand of stubborn "But what if I did X" thinking.

Also, a quick google search tells me you can buy a jar of pickles for around $2-3, so without digging too much deeper I think you can conclude gil functions about the same as the yen.

Star Platinum
May 5, 2010

Bad Seafood posted:

My favorite thing about this scene is that there's pretty much no chance of you not actually having 100 gil in your inventory, since encounters are so generous, so this little sequence exists solely for the sake of people who replayed the game and thought "But what if I didn't have 100 gil" and deliberately shortchanged themselves in order to see what would happen. I like games that reward that brand of stubborn "But what if I did X" thinking.

I compulsively overstock on status healing items and stuff in FF games, so between that and equipment upgrades I've actually run low enough to get the scene "naturally" on a couple of playthroughs.

Squarely Circle
Jul 28, 2010

things worsen and worsen
I always just went straight to the boat, I had no idea either of those scenes existed :psyduck:
RE: Quina chef chat, I find it pretty unlikely that a game that does characterization and worldbuilding so well would lazily reuse a main character's model for a nameless NPC, but I also find it pretty unlikely that Quina would be appointed head chef for Alexandria Goddamn Castle, s/he's pretty clueless at the start. When Quina takes charge in Eiko's kitchen I always figured it was thanks to the experience they'd gotten from travelling with the party; remember that Quina can't even catch a single frog at first and is totally amazed that there might be other kinds of food(!!) in the world.

Yeah, Esto Gaza's theme is great, and it's a shame that you barely do anything there even when the plot eventually forces you to. I've had this height chart saved on my computer for a long time but couldn't figure out who the heck that one NPC was supposed to be. You never get a good look at the bishop in-game.

Squarely Circle fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Sep 17, 2016

morallyobjected
Nov 3, 2012

Bad Seafood posted:

My favorite thing about this scene is that there's pretty much no chance of you not actually having 100 gil in your inventory, since encounters are so generous, so this little sequence exists solely for the sake of people who replayed the game and thought "But what if I didn't have 100 gil" and deliberately shortchanged themselves in order to see what would happen. I like games that reward that brand of stubborn "But what if I did X" thinking.

if you really wanted to know, chances are you'd probably have a save not too far back and you could just go buy a bunch of things and see the scene play out

Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

Mega64 posted:



This holy place of religious enlightenment is also a great place to rent a hotel room.

And for just the price of a pickle!

Bad Seafood
Dec 10, 2010


If you must blink, do it now.

Star Platinum posted:

I compulsively overstock on status healing items and stuff in FF games, so between that and equipment upgrades I've actually run low enough to get the scene "naturally" on a couple of playthroughs.
That's kinda crazy. I'm the same way, typically, but I've still somehow always managed to have way more than 100 gil by this point.

morallyobjected posted:

if you really wanted to know, chances are you'd probably have a save not too far back and you could just go buy a bunch of things and see the scene play out
I would count that as "Replaying" for the purpose of my post. You're resetting the game and doing something differently just to see if there's a different outcome. The devs thought you might try something like this, and included the scene - rather than just having her ask for some immaterial amount of cash Zidane just silently pays without dipping into the player's wallet.

Dastardly
Jun 14, 2011

Fresh outta hecks.
Repeating that Esto Gaza's theme is fantastic. For me it's to winter what Conde Petie's theme is to summer.

Squarely Circle
Jul 28, 2010

things worsen and worsen
I think there's an even better "winter" song but to mention it now would be a major spoiler.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
Oh you guys.

Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

Please don't spoil the surprise Christmas party they throw for Kuja.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
Yeah guys, I wanna see people's reactions when Kuja restores Daggers' voice by kissing her under the mistletoe

Squarely Circle
Jul 28, 2010

things worsen and worsen
Your gift is under the Iifa Tree. Can you guess what it is?

Squarely Circle fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Sep 18, 2016

Marmaduke!
May 19, 2009

Why would it do that!?
Maybe Qu have a multi-body ability, like how you see Quina's master at any swamp in the world. Perhaps there are many Quinas roaming the world, explaining how easily yu run into him/her whenever it's convenient...

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
I like Quina's momentary existential meltdown at the idea of a talking frog.

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.

Glazius posted:

I like Quina's momentary existential meltdown at the idea of a talking frog.

Someone should probably put a warning sign on Cid. "Please do not eat the Regent."

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Tashilicious
Jul 17, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

bewilderment posted:

Fun fact about Esto Gaza - when you need to go there for the plot, the weapon shop sells different items!

If you don't realise this then you will be very sad.

e: Apparently there's another place to get the weapon I'm thinking of that I didn't realise? Weird. Still, it's probably the earliest place to get it.

I learned this the second time through the game.

My first time, I didn't get to Esto Gaza until the plot said so. I got said weapon and was like "gently caress yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"

Second time through, I went to Esto Gaza ASAP. It wasn't there and I had a very large sad.

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